118 3.30 The Clubs - Part 1

I took a hold of myself and ran forward, while Zagan dealt with the demons coming towards me. With Zagan here, it looked somewhat easy, but I couldn't shake off the bad vibes I was getting as we moved forward.

"Stop, kid."

I stopped when I heard Zagan say that. It looked like he was able to sense something that I wasn't able to.

"It smells like bloodsuckers are up ahead. We need to be careful."

When I heard bloodsuckers, only one thing came into my mind.

"You mean Vampires?"

"Oh, you know about them?"

Of course, I knew about them. They were so popular back in the earth that almost everyone knew about them. But here, the reality could be different from my imagination. So, instead of going with what I knew, it was a good idea to learn from him.

"Not much except for the fact that they drink human blood."

"Man, then I guess you don't know much. They don't just drink blood; they take the prey's soul as well. And the more they live, the more powerful they become… Though I thought the dragonkin completely wiped them out back then. Seems like there were few survivors."

"So, is there anything that I should know before charging in? Or are we just stopping for no reason?"

The wait here was both good and bad. If we wait for a little longer, I would be able to gain back my strength. But they would also get more time to summon whatever they were trying to summon.

"Well, the vampires are also experts at putting blood traps and curses. So, if you charge in without thinking, you might get cursed or even worse."

"Even worse?"

"Yeah, there are some blood curses that can transfer to your offspring. You don't want one of those, do you?"

We were at a tight spot, and he still had time to crack jokes. And somehow that joke didn't even sound funny.

"Yeah, but we are running out of time here. I can look for a cure of that curse all my life once this situation is resolved."

"Man, you don't get it, do you?" Zagan sighed. "You can look for a cure all your life, but for that, you need to be alive. If you charge in now and get cursed, do you think they will just sit back and watch?"

That made sense. If I get trapped in one of their curses, I won't be able to defend myself against their attack.

"Are they really that strong?" I asked since I was curious.

"Yeah, but I am able to take around four or five of them even in this form. The problem is, I can smell over ten of them up ahead."

"Dammit!"

I noticed that there was something strange about them. When I tried sensing the area using my mana sense, I couldn't sense any of them.

"I can't sense them, are you sure they are up ahead?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't have said so otherwise. They usually use some kind of weird cloak to hide their presence."

Even though I was trying to rest, I couldn't because of everything that was going on in my head. So, I just closed my eyes and tried to meditate.

After around twenty minutes, it felt like I was ready to move again. I hadn't recovered completely yet, but in this state, I would at least be able to protect myself.

"Zagan, I think I am ready now."

"Okay then. But when we fight, don't let their claws or fangs touch you. Also, going through the sky is dangerous, so stay close to ground as much as possible. And whenever you need to defend yourself, use earth or fire magic."

"Alright, I will try."

After this conversation, I covered the rod that I was holding in the Darkness flames again. Zagan too created a long sword using the Darkness magic. The two of us then charged forward.

Zagan attacked the demons on the left using his Darkness slash, while I froze the ones on the right using my dark flames. But as we moved closer, the bad vibe that I was feeling got worse and worse.

"They are here," Zagan said when we were almost about to reach the place.

When I looked around, there were 12 masked men wearing black cloaks around us. They all looked so similar that it was hard to notice a single difference between them.

"Who are you guys, and what do you want?"

"Oh, us? We are nobodies. We were just passing by when we noticed that the city looked so quiet. So, we decided to make it a little lively. Keh-Keh-Keh!"

I looked up towards to source of the voice just to find a short fat clown floating in the sky using his umbrella.

"A clown?!"

I was surprised to see a clown in a place like this, not to mention the fact that it was somewhat creepy to see one floating in the air like that.

"Oh my, you know who I am. Then I insist you call me Joker."

The way he was talking was annoying, so instead of just listening to his nonsense, I just attacked him with a Dark-flame slash.

I was surprised when he just stood there and took the attack. But the surprise changed into a shock when he disappeared from there with a pop, and appeared in the sky right behind me.

"You see, I am a clown. I disappear from here and appear there, and disappear from there and appear here. Keh-Keh-Keh."

"Zagan, do you know who or what that thing is?" I looked towards Zagan and asked.

It was clear that he was toying with us, and it was also clear that he was doing this to buy time. But with this clown and these vampires here, moving forward without dealing with them was impossible.

"No clue, never seen or heard about him before," Zagan replied.

I closed my eyes and tried sensing the mana in him. Surprisingly, instead of mana, he was completely made up of miasma. It was as if an evil spirit was possessing him.

"Well, let's not fight, shall we? We have already accomplished our main target, and now, we are only working on our side goal. So, if you guys just stay here for a while, we will leave on our own. And for your patience, we will also hand you the foo— I mean, master Goro."