Chapter 969: Scouting

Sam and Sark are currently sitting inside a forest as they looked at a piece of rag. It was covered in mud and Sam is trying to uncover the rag without losing any possible blood or other marks that could be on it.

When he was done, he gave it to Sia who looked at it. There seemed to be some kind of embroidery design on it, but since it was torn they couldn't see what is truly is. But Sia smiled and said.

"It is hit. He really came to this side of the mine, he might have escaped that way." She pointed in the direction they found the rag.

But Sam is not as optimistic about it, he thought for a moment and asked.

"The rag is not that difficult to find, why do you think the soldiers from the Azure Blood Demon family didn't find it?"

When he mentioned it, she also began thinking of other possibilities.

"This mud cleared off all the bodily scent that we could have used. Let us go try to find some other information or we can wait for another event like this to happen."

After that, they began walking away and Sam looked at the possible path in which this guy might have escaped one more time before he left.

They came back to the city and went to a bar.

"So, why are we here?" Sia asked as she looked around.

"Of course, why would we be at a bar? To drink."

"I thought we need to work."

"We do and we did and we are going to do so. I would never let my work impede my time of vanity." Sam answered and took seat at the counter, gesturing Sia to take the one next to him.

He looked at the menu and ordered one drink after another as he sampled them. There are not too many varieties here and they are also not exactly the best wines.

Sam looked around. This is the best bar in the city and everyone is flocking inside drinking like pigs, but the wine here is one of the worst wines he had to the date.

"Seems like I have some business opportunities here."

Sam said as he came out of the bar and Sia hurriedly took out her own wine to wash away that disgusting flavor she just tasted.

"I thought demons would know how to enjoy life. But turns out I was wrong." Sia said as they walked.

After some more roaming and scouting the city, Sam and Sia came back to the residence. Since this is in the mountain region, the terrain is not completely even and there are many paths, Sam could take advantage of.

In fact, the whole city seemed to have been built on along with the uneven mountain terrain without any leveling.

After returning to the residence, soon the rest of the people also came with a bunch of information.

Sam took out a map of the whole city which he bought that day itself and started  marking.

The map only included the city and the surroundings are completely denoted a forests or mountains, there is no mention of the properties of the Azure demon family or any other person for that matter that might have been outside the city range.

But Sam and his team managed to see a few properties of Azure Demon Family out of the city.

Some mines, some fields across the mountain and some factories.

Unlike Sam who went for the latest attack information, they went for the information about the properties instead.

"There are still a bunch of properties we hadn't visited yet. Until now, including your visit, we went to five properties. And out of wife, three have already been attacked. From the looks of it, he is going to attack even more properties. By day after tomorrow, we will finish visited the rest of the properties and find out which are attacked and which are not.

The information from the city has not been accurate. It seems like the family hid all the attacks from outside. Their situation might even be worse than what rumors are saying."

Five elemental King explained.

After the meeting was over everyone went to rest and Sam threw a bunch of shadow mice out and sent them on a secret information hunt. Their targets this time are low-level soldiers. Many soldiers are stationed near the city gates, the family estate and so on. They seemed to be reserved soldiers that are being sent to different places as soon as the attack happened and their camp is also for healing the injured soldiers from previous attacks.

The information on these soldiers might not be detailed and confidential, but it is critical all the same. No matter whom the demon family tried to keep the information from, it would never escape the soldiers as they are the ones who are going to visit the battlefields.

He left the shadow mice to stay in their camps for the next day while he and the team went to check on the properties.

It just so happened that one of the properties was attacked when Saber Monarch and Gran are snooping around it.

Gran who is also familiar with Sark easily identified it was him.

He is attacking a orchard of the Demon family they use to grow the fruits for their winery. When she looked at the large land full of fruit and thought of the disgusting wine experience her sister had, she really wanted to slap some sense into the demons. They don't know anything about wine except for drinking it.

She snuck in the chaos and managed to get a hold of a few fruits before going back and no one ever noticed that she came.

Sark kept them that occupied.

After destroying half of the trees in the orchard, Sark channeled a large amount of energy and created a massive lightning explosion that blinded not just the vision, but also any other senses and disappeared from the spot as if he wasn't there.

Gran and the Saber monarch who are outside the range of this explosion, saw everything and was surprised, they could see Sark leaving in one direction, but for some reason, the soldiers are not going in that direction.

It is as if they eliminated the possibility of going in that direction at all. But they didn't follow him. If they want to catch up to him, they would have to cross these soldiers which is not a good idea and if they tried to take a detour, there would lose him anyway.

So, they went back and continued their secret visits to the properties.

That day everyone came back by evening and they mapped the properties they visited so they might get a pattern.

Gran described the whole situation of the attack properly Sam was surprised by that.

"Nobody thought of checking that route?"

"No, some soldiers looked in that direction and some moved a bit towards that route, but for some reason, nobody followed him. Even Sark didn't use too much energy to escape, he just ran normally after the initial burst until he disappeared into the forest."

Sam thought of this and then thought of the rag they found simply by just just walking around.

"Tomorrow if you come across a previously attacked property, try to get the escape route. Look for any traces that could have been left by him while escaping. See if we can find something. And if you come across another attack, don't interfere. Just observe his escape route."

The next day they went on with the duties and by the end of that day, the managed to map all the properties.

They managed to get three escape routes that day. One fresh because of the attack that happened that day and they witnessed directly. This also ensured that the escape route is hundred percent trustworthy.

But they don't know about the rest. They are mere approximations.

Still, Sam drew all of them on the map. They couldn't discover a general pattern among the attacks.

"From the previous two attacks, he is neither striking the least expected place nor the most expected places, he might even be picking in random. So, the next order of business is finding where he is escaping to or hiding at.

So, for the next two days, spread out and hide near these properties. Don't leave any traces or gather attention and if there is an attack find out his escape route.

There must be a reason that the soldiers are avoiding certain routes and it wouldn't take long for the higher ups to figure out that they should be looking in those routes. Before they do that, we need to do that.

If we find out before the family could, he might be saved and used. But if we do not, our efforts would be wasted. So, be vigilant. There is not even good food or drinks here.

And take these things. These are grenades, they might not create damage to people, but they sure as hell can create chaos in the surroundings. If by any chance Sark was spotted by others and his distraction is not enough, explode a bunch of these and things would be smooth sailing."