"Okay," she said, looking a little confused, and without wasting a second, she dashed from our hiding spot in the trees.
’Hmm... Should I help? Since we’re not killing them, then there is no EXP. I think she can handle it. Plus, I think this will be an important milestone for her.’
Isabella was trained by the Veymont clan to kill. That was the only thing she was taught; her hands were good for, and she had lived with that mentality for all her life.
Something special happens when someone like that saves a life instead of taking one. Their view of the world begins to widen, and this leads to a change in them. Part of the reason why Isabella’s emotions were out of control was because it had been suppressed most of her life.
So not only were her emotions heightened, most of them she had never felt before. She was like a newborn. Anger, fear, sadness, arousal, jealousy, happiness, and many more were all new to her, which was why I was being so patient with her. Everything I had done had been an effort for her to experience new emotions, and only then could she control herself better.
The moment Isabella revealed herself, the two vampires who were doing the deed reacted. It was the female vampire who reacted first. Her legs were wrapped around the male’s hip, and lost in the passion of the moment, she threw back her head, which was how she noticed Isabella running towards her.
The female vampire reacted instantly when she saw Isabella’s claws coming towards her. She used the male to block the attack. Isabella’s claws ripped through the male’s back, and when she removed her hand, she was holding his spine.
The female vampire didn’t waste a second before throwing herself at Isabella, aiming to tear out an artery with her sharp fangs, but before she could get to Isabella’s neck, her knee reached the female vampire’s ribs, shattering it in one blow.
The female vampire coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed to her knees, and the moment her head was down, Isabella broke her neck. She didn’t even bat an eye at the vampires she had just taken out before she entered the lodge.
I followed behind her, wanting to see how she would handle herself further. It was blatantly obvious that hybrids were far superior to regular vampires. And I was fairly certain they could hold their own against noble vampires who were less than a hundred years old.
Isabella moved through the lodge with brutal efficiency. Even though she knew she was stronger, she didn’t leave an opening to exploit. Two more vampires attacked her all at once. She dodged their feeble attempts and broke their necks with just one strike each.
"You did say I would be fighting them all on my own. You can at least help," she frowned.
"Why? I enjoy watching you fight. Besides, you don’t need my help to win against them."
"Yes, but..."
’Come on, Isabella, don’t regress now, speak your mind.’
"I just think it will be better if we fought together."
"More romantic, you mean?"
She averted her eyes and blushed slightly.
"...Yes."
That’s progress, at least. I guess.
"Very well then, let’s take out the last two remaining vampires together," I said, taking a position beside her.
She looked at me, surprised, and a small smile tugged on her lips.
"Try and keep up," she teased playfully.
Together, the two of us made our way through the lodge. We passed a few humans on our way. They were in bad shape, lying almost lifeless on the ground.
Soon we arrived at where the last two remaining vampires were. It was a young man and a woman. The man immediately set his sights on me as the woman took one of the humans hostage. It was a young girl about twenty years old with bite marks all over her body. It looked as if the two vampires were taking their time feasting on her.
"Please help," the girl cried.
The female vampire’s grip tightened around her neck.
"Both of you stay where you are. You came to save the humans, correct?"
"Let’s see who can take them down the fastest," I said to Isabella, and a cheeky smile appeared on her face.
"No fair. Mine has a hostage."
"Already making excuses. Let’s attack when the next cricket chirps," I suggested, and both of us immediately honed into our sense of hearing, waiting for the next cricket to make a sound, and the moment it did, we attacked.
I appeared in front of the male vampire in a blink of an eye, and before he could even react, my hand was covering his face. Using my heat manipulation skill, I melted his face in an instant, while Isabella had just broken the female vampire’s arm before she could kill the hostage.
Once the hostage was safe, she broke the vampire’s neck.
"Not bad," I commented. "Even though I won flawlessly, you are still impressive."
"Whatever. What do we do now—"
Before Isabella could finish speaking, the hostage she saved lunged at her and hugged her tightly. Isabella’s eyes flashed with killing intent just for a second, but once she realized the girl meant no harm to her, a different emotion crossed her face.
For the first time, she was experiencing what it felt like to save a life rather than take one. With a warmth that I had never seen from her before, Isabella embraced the girl and began comforting her.
...
After that, we gathered all the vampires we had incapacitated. We had also gathered the humans who were still alive. Most of them looked at us in fear, wondering what kind of monsters could’ve defeated the ones that left them. While others looked at us with hope that we might just be the heroes they were praying for.
One thing was for sure: Isabella seemed to have taken a liking to the group.
"So, what is this plan of yours?" Isabella asked. "What do you plan to do with these vampires?"
A small smile came on my face as I answered her question.