Bats and birds

The same evening, the military base under Gaude's control.

A werewolf on guard duty walked up to Irma who was giving hands-on instruction to one of the slow-witted trainees and reported: "Commander Smith, the perimeter wards were just tripped by unauthorized personnel. All signs indicate we're dealing with vampires."

"Gear up! It's time to show some leeches their place!", Irma shouted, getting the attention of everyone present, meaning around eight hundred people if those with insufficient training and Dorne's subordinates were counted.

"What are the rules of engagement?", the leader of the human knights asked, loud enough to be heard clearly by everyone since they had stopped sparring.

Irma replied with a dejected tone: "Unfortunately, it's similar to the previous battle with the vampires, yet different at the same time. This time, our orders are to kill the family heads and take the rest prisoner. The good news is that once this is over, you'll all get a few days off, depending on your performance."

Her words were greeted with enthusiastic roars. The veterans as well as the new recruits had been in a non-stop hellish training, kept alert, awake and alive only thanks to potions.

Irma saw a flash of green light from the corner of her eye and saw Gaude stepping out of the fireplace.

He walked up to Irma and said with an evil smirk: "Hey sis, I hear you've got some guests of your own, mind if I join the party?"

Irma's face didn't show much of a reaction when she replied: "Fine, but if you get yourself hurt, you better clench your butt, because you'll be in for a month of punishment!"

Gaude was still a bit fatigued from the social event, but at the same time felt like venting. He said: "You should worry about our guests. I may not be able to execute those Death Eater bastards, but I sure as hell will butcher anyone else that gets in my way!"

By the time their conversation ended, the troops were already lined up in full battle gear, the hundred and fifty veterans had a steely gaze in their eyes and a faint bloodlust emanating from their being while the rookies seemed a lot more timid.

They were just in time as well, since an announcement sounded over the intercom: "All personnel, be advised: secondary perimeter has been breached."

Gaude jogged into the security room to get a more exact overview of the matter and discovered that nearly all of the vampires had entered the territory between the outer and inner perimeter.

He moved a few levers and saw the view on the displays get a fair bit of static in them, a sign that the wards had gone up as intended.

He gave the elves a mental command to take the troops and himself topside – the wards were rather stringent on who could pass through without special means.

A moment later, he finally got a good look at the enemy. Somehow, it seemed that there were a lot more than just seven hundred, or even a thousand. The sight gave Gaude some flashbacks to the war against Greyback, but this time, it was happening on his turf, on his terms.

As soon as he had confirmed that the vampires were confined within the wards, Gaude sent a small pulse of magic into a runic matrix that encompassed almost the entire ground beneath them. Immediately, pillars of bright sunlight shot up, causing the vampires to back away.

"Attack!", Irma shouted, already rushing at one of the vampires that was spewing red mist from scratches on his neck. This time, the vampires were all wearing armor, properly prepared for the battle to come.

However, as the werewolves and knights rushed in, something strange happened – the sunlight produced by the charms seemed to become constricted and even avoided the vampires completely, as if the twilight zone that had been present at the clan head's castle had somehow been brought with them.

"It's the Allino clan! They've formed an alliance with Lucien!", Brigitte shouted. It was a clue for anyone in the know, and it just so happened that Gaude had informed all of his troops about the abilities of the various vampire clans that he had found out through Brigitte.

The red mist from the vampires started accumulating, however, just as that happened, strong air currents blew it away immediately, courtesy of a weather-related charm.

"Seal your wounds!", someone from the enemy's side shouted. There was no reason to spill their own blood meaninglessly.

Brigitte had already gone into the fray, shooting the shadow spikes straight into the gaps of the enemy's armor, incapacitating them quickly.

Meanwhile, Dorne was fighting a lot more conservatively, keeping to the ranks to not give the enemy a chance of incapacitating him, even if he was wearing the equivalent of tank armor on him in regard to defensive capabilities, courtesy of Gaude's artificers. There were only a few gaps to allow the use of their abilities.

However, Irma and the werewolves had pretty much let loose, except for the fact that they were using batons with weight and durability enchantments on them as weapons and aiming at the enemy's heads. Each time the batons struck, the satisfying sound of metal being struck and dented could be heard, transmitting the force from the deformed helmet straight through the enemy's skull, rendering them unconscious.

As each enemy was defeated, a small disc was placed onto their body and once it was twisted, they disappeared from the spot. It was one of Gaude's arrangements, since he had known Lucien would be coming for him eventually. He had decided to get rid of the leadership and give the rest for Dorne and Brigitte to manage.

Gaude was mostly just overlooking the battlefield, and soon noticed something unpleasant – there was no second red sphere inside the wards, indicating that Lucien and Mary had both stayed at a safe distance.

There was something else that Gaude noticed, or to be more precise, heard – it was footsteps coming from nearby while there didn't seem to be nobody present. He could also smell a faint scent of blood, but so far, he had just figured it had been blown to him by the 'ventilation system', however, he had begun doubting it.

Gaude quickly cast a 'Fumos', causing fog to pour out of his wand. At the same time, he sent another pulse of magic into the ground below him, turning off the ventilation system. The fog soon settled and he could see voids in the fog.

'Looks like Brigitte was right; it really is the Allino clan.' He knew that the common members had the ability to bend light, making them one of the few clans capable of moving about in daylight and the only one able to become completely invisible.

Just as Gaude thought that, he was suddenly struck in the chest by a bright beam of light, causing his armor to start glowing red hot. Fortunately, it was insulated by a few layers of shock absorbent cloth which ended up giving him enough time to cast a freezing charm to offset the high temperature.

'Seriously? Why wasn't I informed that they could shoot laser beams? I need that ability!' Gaude wasn't serious about the last part, his plan to add multiple beast bloodlines to himself would already be stretching his soul thin, throwing a vampire one into the mix would probably shatter it.

Unfortunately for the vampire that had attacked him, their attempt at Gaude's life had given away their position among the ones that were nearby.

Gaude rushed forward while unsheathing his sword, and an instant later, he had already sliced through the area where two leg-shaped hollows were in the fog.

There was the sound of metal screeching in agony as the vampire's legs were cut together with the armor covering them, and a moment later, there was a yell of pain from his target – the opponent had apparently been momentarily stunned by both the fact that the sneak attack hadn't worked and that the boy had somehow managed to pin down his exact location. It was either that or the enemy had been overconfident in their concealment, completely disregarding the fog as the boy's failed attempt to hide himself.

As soon as the vampire had been cut, he lost control of the light around him due to the pain he was experiencing possibly for the first time in his life and Gaude capitalized on it quickly, by slamming his scabbard at the man's head like a baton.

It seemed that the vampire was incapacitated immediately. Gaude dripped a few drops of the 'glassing' potion near the vampire's leg stumps, causing the mist to rise and solidify an instant later, encasing the wounds and stopping the bleeding as well as any regeneration attempts. He then placed one of the single-use portkeys onto the vampire's chest and sent him on his way, into a holding cell.

While he was busy, he kept his ears open, and when he heard footsteps just a few yards away from him, Gaude cast invisibility on himself and ran towards the werewolf veterans – they weren't all that reliant on their sight after the training they'd been through.

As Gaude approached one of the werewolves, his ears twitched and he turned around suddenly, striking the air right above Gaude's head. Realizing his mistake, Gaude immediately dispelled the invisibility and shouted: "What the hell was that for? Don't tell me you hide is itching for another beating!"

The werewolf's ears immediately flopped down as if they had lost all their energy as he said: "Sorry boss, I thought it was one of those invisible vampires."

"Oh, you want invisible vampires, do you? They're hot on my tail, so go deal with them. They're way too annoying for me alone."

A few werewolves quickly turned to look behind Gaude, their ears perked. An instant later, they had already rushed at the enemies they had perceived.

In the distance, Gaude could see Amanda wielding her blade and decapitating yet another one of the identified elders.

The weapon she was using was a curved heavy broadsword almost as long as she was tall, but the strength and stamina she had accumulated from the training, she had no issues with using it to perform fast movements. She had even adapted her combat style around it, using the momentum of the heavy blade in a sort of a dance that was as graceful as it was deadly, effortlessly cutting through flesh, bones and armor alike. To make her choice of a weapon even more overbearing, it was enchanted with weight reduction and weight increase charms that could be toggled with a touch.

Twenty minutes later, the last of the vampires inside the barrier had been collected and put into a holding cell.

The leaders of the factions and Amanda had gathered – she wasn't actually in charge of more than just those few vampires that had sworn fealty to her.

"Looks like we'll have to process more people over the weekend than I had expected. Now that other clans are getting involved in this, there's something I need to ask you, Brigitte. How would the Dracula family react to this?"

"The Royals? Are you sure you want to involve them in this? The last time they made a stand, an entire clan disappeared!"

"From what I understand, they like upholding their own set of rules, and I'm pretty sure what Lucien did goes against those rules. Besides, we'll have the majority of the Sanguini clan on our side this time, so we should be fine when it comes to voting on the matter. The Royals do voting, right?"

"Yes, but only the voices of the family heads count, and due to Amanda's actions, we're a few heads short."

"Well, they were probably scum anyway, so that's not a big loss. Just have the families hold elections or something. We should be up to around six hundred Sanguini clan members on our territory, let's just take a look at what we've caught."

Gaude then looked at Amanda and said in a softer tone: "Amanda, that was a beautiful display of skill you did out there. You've really worked hard."

To Irma, he said: "Could you tone down on the violence a little, you might've accidentally killed a few of them!"

"Hey, it's not my fault that they're so squishy. It's you who made me that way."

Gaude muttered in his mind: 'Ah, right. I guess I messed up on that one.', no matter how quietly he would've said it outwardly, he was sure Irma would pick it up from thirty feet away, not to mention four.

"Fine, let's just get to processing them. Dorne, Mandy, Brigitte, can you take care of the vampire side of the business? Oh, right, there's a few from the Allino clan in the mix, so make sure you're talking to a Sanguini before you try to convince them. There's one that has leg stumps that have been glassed, that should be someone from the Allino clan's higher ups, leave him to me."

---

Gaude was a bit conflicted on whether to thank or curse Lucien – on one hand, the guy had attacked his precious training facility while on the other hand, he had provided him with another vampire clan's bloodline to experiment with.

He had drawn a few units from the vampire and headed to the Potions' lab to hand it over to Snape for processing – chances were the man was burning the midnight oil again, it seemed to be a habit of his.

After turning a few corners, Gaude came face to face with the man himself.

"Master Vywin, I didn't expect to see you here. I've only managed to purify around ten drops of Thunderbird blood so far."

"That should be enough, but I'm not here for that. Here, it's for the vampire project. Take your time with it, it's just something I'm curious about. And get some sleep, you're going to die from exhaustion at that rate, no matter how good the supplementary potions you take."

"Yes, sir."

Once Gaude was done discussing a few more matters with Snape, he finally went into the ritual room that had been just sitting there for a long time, waiting for him. For the time being, he had no intention to take Re'em or Unicorn bloodlines, due to in part what had happened to Irma.

Gaude stepped into the center of the ritual circle, this time not bothering with using the body parts of the beasts – it wasn't that he felt bad to sacrifice the birds that were raised from eggs, he just didn't want to sacrifice his only flock.

Finally, he mixed the potion and drank it in a single gulp. He was bracing himself for an intense pain, but this time turned out to be different. At first, there was nothing, then he felt as if his entire body was being electrocuted at once, waves of pain and seizures spreading from his extremities towards his heart.

The process lasted for what felt like hours before with a powerful jolt, Gaude lost consciousness. When he came to again, he felt a dread in his mind, as if he was knowingly walking into an enemy ambush, a feeling he was quite familiar with from his previous life.

'Is that the danger sense? Doesn't feel very specific. Is somebody going to attack my home, or me?'

Gaude decided to put his theory to the test, letting an elf apparate him around Britain, yet he never got rid of that looming bit of existential dread. He figured that it was just some sort of a baseline for that specific ability, saying that he was a mortal and he'd end up dead one day.

Next, Gaude tried to control lightning. He closed his eyes and imagined electricity crackling and arcing around his body to the point that he could almost hear it, then channeled it all down his right hand and out of his index finger, causing a loud thunderclap to resound.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a scorched mark on the wall, much bigger than he could've produced with any lightning spells.

"Heh, I guess I now have lightning elemental affinity!"

Gaude had already tried to control the weather on his trip around Britain but hadn't managed to produce any noticeable results apart from increasing or reducing the wind speed by a bit. He hadn't even managed to change the shape of clouds, not to mention conjuring forth precipitation.