"In my native language, we call that 'fire.'" I smirk, realize what I'm doing, and shape myself up. "In all seriousness, though, thanks. Don't use a tactic that involves a ground pursuit of him; that's good to realize now instead of on the fly. Any recommendation regarding an engagement? A tendency he has, some kind of quirk he has? Anything that seems minor might be a scale tipper."

Intimidating. I can see why the pilot likes these things. I wonder if I can't capture one, instead of blowing it up. The crossbow, however, is an odd choice. That's a weapon that's intimidating to vampires, not humans. Combined with the fire, and I wonder if this Mangrave might be useful to me.

"He enjoys the hunt above everything. That's why he wanted to come out here to hunt us humans. Otherwise I can't think of anything else."

Enjoys the hunt. He is going to love me, then. "Thanks for the warnings. I'll be up there soon enough."

When I am away from him, heading towards this Mangrove, I give my team in the sky a call. "Sorry I've been a while. What's the word from above on the region I am heading towards?"

Reiuji answers.
"The region your heading to is forested. Although I do detect a castle 10.2 miles north east of your position. I detect major concentrations of undead within the area."

"Sweet Christmas." I mutter that to myself. I call her back. "Anything that can be done about them, that you know of? I'm getting seriously tempted to request an orbital strike on that section and call it a day. There should be a mansion in that section, or a residence of some kind. Any info you can give me about the geography, or any tech you can locate would be nice to hear.""

"I'm detecting most of the undead between the Mansion and the town. If you swing wide and double back you can avoid most of them. As for the geography I'll transfer the map to your RPA. I'm not detecting any major energy readings though."

A local map shows up on your RPA

"Team." I turn to my guards. "Call for an extraction. I'm staying a bit longer. I need to scout ahead, and I can't bring you with me. Give a full field report: anything helps."

If they are ported out, I'm going to mark a tree with a hollow in it, put anything in it that requires hands or a human biology, and shift into a wolf form. I need a low profile, and if I am lucky, there are wolves on this world, and I'll be ignored. If that isn't the case, at least I'll be quick and low to the ground. I'm going on a bit of a scouting run, to see this area for myself, and hopefully see what the present enemy is like when they are not in combat.

Who knows? Maybe right now, I'm on the wrong side.

Your team calls in a teleport and goes up to your ship.

You put a mark in a hollow tree and put your things in it.
You start heading into enemy territory stealthily.
The first undead you encounter are patrolling an area. They don't notice you.
You move on and find a fairly wide path.

Always on duty, these undead. Let's see if I cannot go farther. I am in no particular rush, so I'm simply going to go off the path, and keep foraging deeper towards this mansion. I need to see them relaxing, or someone in a command position doing so.

You Spot a few more undead on patrol. they don't seem to relax as far as you have seen.
You find the Mansion. The architecture is Gothic in style and it is fairly big

There should be some movement here, or at the very least, something that is not a slave. Even a master who is misanthropic will do something outlandish out of boredom. I need to see a sentient being, or find some evidence there is one.

I patrol the perimeter. Should I find nothing, I will draw the conclusion there is only one being here who will perish should I destroy this site.

About a minute in you start hearing the sounds of fighting from the center of the mansion.

I rush in. Not attacking, mind you, but I'm sticking to darkness and shadows. I want to see what is causing the first real sign of activity among this folk.

You rush in though his forcourt going faster than the undead can react to you. You enter the mansion and head directly towards the sound of battle. You jump over a broken stairway and continue to rush into the central courtyard. where you see a battle taking place between the guy in the centaur armor you saw before and a woman with a strange staff-like weapon. She is kneeling before him looking like she is on her last leg.

He speaks
"Already had enough? The Guild's vaunted Solar Guns are all but
powerless against my Casket Armor. Tremble before the power of the flame
terrennial housed within this armor! The environmental alterations caused by
the paraSOL are almost complete. The reign of the vampires will soon be
unstoppable! Bwah ha ha ha ha!"

She says to herself
"If nothing else... We've got to at least get the jail key away from him...
Solar Gun, don't let me down! I'm counting on you, Witch! Please... Just this
once, show me your true power!"

He replies with "You waste you time girl!"

She fires her staff and something like a missile comes out and apparently misses. He laughs at her but the missile arcs and hits him in the back. She rushes him and takes something from his.
The guy is unharmed from the attack.
"Heh, Playtime is over."
He is taking aim at the woman.

I silently curse my ill fortune at this scene playing out in front of me. Still, she might have given me a chance. I try to follow the movement of the thing she took from him, because I intend to take it from her.

I rush from my position, knock her down, and snatch whatever it was from her, hopefully in one motion. I'm hoping to be gone before anyone realizes what's going on.

This will probably go rather badly, but as they say, YOLO.

You mug the woman and take a set of keys off her. He fires but misses both of you
They are both looking at you dumbfounded.

Welp. Looks like I got their attention at least. I leap into the air once or twice tauntingly, with the keys hanging out of my mouth, and then I run back the way I came, and don't stop until I pass the treeline. I have a feeling this guy is going to be a little chapped with me. Hopefully, that buys her time to run.

Good thing, too. When I did that, I had rather written her off as dead. I was just taking the keys off her so 1.) a living being has them, and 2.) I can bargain them back later, should I take a diplomatic option. Gives me an edge in the field of negotiation.

You run and the Centaur Armor decides to follow you. You both leave the woman in the dust. You make it outside, He is still following you and firing bolts at you.

Nice. Hopefully I also got her scent. Probably have his scent more strongly, though.

PRIORITIES! I am being shot at.

While he is fast, he'll probably just barrel through most obstacles. Most forest doesn't have a whole lot to slow him down, not until undergrowth generally. Since that didn't bother him at all...

I have a really stupid idea.

I return back to the square he fought from, or rather, to just outside it. I'm curious: if I keep this guy focused on me, will she shoot him to death? I yip at him a few times with the keys in my fangs.

Seriously, this is coming way more naturally to me than is healthy...

You circle back and note the woman taking up an ambush position. You lead him into the trap an she launches a few missiles into his back. The hurt him but not that much.

Crud. That didn't work at all like I hoped.

Well, there is more than one way to solve a problem. I rush between his legs, and if he has a tail, I'm biting it. I'm going to try and ride his backside. Hopefully he will be so angry and humiliated, he will forget his effective weapons, and try to chase me off with his hands.

There is a decrative tail back there. You bite onto it and he starts bucking like a horse to get you off. He hasn'e hit you yet but it's only a matter of time.

Well, this isn't working at all. New tactic.

I let go and hopefully use the momentum to sail away from him safely. Then I'm giving him something to chase.

I'm going to look for a rabbit hole or something like it, and then I will attempt to shift into the spirit world if I can break line of sight with him for even a moment.

You manage to dart into an hole and shift into the spirit world as the centaur makes it to your position. The spirit world is anemic and sickly in this area.

I leave the hole, and move quickly between the mech's legs to do it. He has depopulated this area from overhunting, if I had to guess. Probably the bugs are getting out of control on the trees, due to nothing killing them anymore.

This will be a good way to find out if he can sense spirit or not at least. Maybe I'll take that knowledge into the next world at the worst.