Chapter 201: Isabella Ashford [1]

The smoke hadn’t fully cleared when Luna landed beside Isabella.

"Looks like we made it in tim—"

She stopped talking.

Her eyes had landed on the woman wrapped in Isabella’s vines and the blood drained from her face so fast it was visible.

Nivara.

’Why is she here. And why of all people does it have to be Isabella standing right in front of her.’

Nivara stood completely relaxed despite the vines coiling around her legs and steadily climbing higher. She heard Isabella’s earlier words and her smirk didn’t shift at all.

"Don’t talk as though we know each other," Isabella said.

"Oh please." Nivara’s amusement was easy and warm like she was catching up with someone she hadn’t seen at a party in a while. "Don’t be so rude to someone you know Isabella. I’m actually rather surprised to see you again after our last meeting."

Isabella’s expression stayed firm.

The vines tightened. The thorns dug into fabric.

Nivara didn’t even look at them.

"Come on. Think carefully before you decide to fight me." Her crimson eyes glinted. "You wouldn’t want to die like that again, would you?"

A bead of sweat moved down Isabella’s temple.

Her face held. But Nivara’s words had already reached somewhere deeper than the surface and pulled a memory out of the dark that she had spent years not thinking about.

Five years ago.

At the border where human territory ended and something much colder began.

The vampires had been feeding. Moving through the borderlands and taking people from settlements that didn’t have the walls or the defenders to stop them. Until they ran into her.

Isabella.

At that point in her life she wielded water magic. Her guardian spirit moved behind her like a living current and every attack came out precise and controlled and absolutely devastating. The vampires had never planned to fight a Spire at the border. They had planned on an easy night.

They got neither.

A massive wave crashed into a cluster of vampires and threw them into the tree line. Another surge swept across the open ground and three more went tumbling.

"She’s too strong! RETREAT! EVERYONE FALL BACK!"

Isabella watched them scatter with a confident smile. "That’s right. Keep running."

She raised her hand to pursue if they decided to regroup.

Then a voice came from behind the retreating line.

"Oh? I heard there was a troublesome woman blocking our path to our next meal."

The vampires parted like water around a stone.

A silver-haired woman walked through the gap and her crimson eyes moved across the battlefield with interest. It was none other than Nivara herself.

When her gaze settled on Isabella her expression brightened.

"Was it you, young girl?"

Her eyes moved over Isabella from head to toe. Then a slow smile spread across her face.

"You look rich in blood."

Isabella’s smile didn’t move. Her Water Guardian Spirit churned behind her with enough force that the air near it felt wet.

"Why don’t you try me, bloodsucking vampire?" Water surged up around her on both sides. "I’ll make sure you and every last one of your people disappear from this land."

Nivara stared at her for a moment.

Then she laughed.

"Oh I like your confidence!"

She vanished.

Isabella’s eyes blew wide. ’What—’

She barely got a barrier up before Nivara’s fist slammed into it.

BOOOOOOM.

The barrier shattered. Isabella was thrown backward with her feet grinding across the ground as she fought to stay upright.

’She’s fast.’

She counterattacked immediately. Water erupted from the ground in enormous spiraling columns and drove toward Nivara from multiple directions at once.

The vampire weaved through them like they were standing still.

Every attack missed. Every attempt to restrain her failed. And with each exchange the gap between them became more obvious and harder to ignore.

Isabella fought with everything she had. She pushed her spirit harder. She pulled more water. She switched angles and tried combinations she had never used in a real fight before.

Nivara overwhelmed her anyway.

A blow caught Isabella’s side and stole her breath. Another slammed into her shoulder and spun her halfway around. Her Water Guardian Spirit flickered as she stumbled and blood came from the corner of her mouth.

She didn’t fall.

’This can’t be happening.’ Her legs were shaking under her.

’I can’t lose here. Get up.’

She raised both hands again.

Nivara looked at her with mild disappointment. "That’s it? I expected more." A small sigh. "Unfortunately I think I have to end this here."

She disappeared again.

Isabella saw the crimson aura on the incoming fist and had no time to do anything about it.

BOOM.

The punch hit her directly in the stomach.

Her eyes went wide.

Then something inside her broke. Not a bone but something deeper. The Core. The source of everything. It fractured under the force of the impact and the power it had been sustaining simply stopped existing.

Isabella’s knees hit the ground. Then the rest of her followed.

Her vision turned gray at the edges.

Nivara straightened and dusted her hands off. "Eh? That’s it?" She looked down at the motionless figure. "Can’t you dance a little longer? I suppose I shouldn’t expect too much from humans."

She turned away. She had considered keeping Isabella as a meal but the fight had left her badly depleted and blood was far less appealing when its owner had burned through most of what made it worth having.

’What a waste.’

She walked away without looking back.

’So this is it for me.’

Isabella lay on the ground and the thought arrived without drama. Just a quiet acknowledgment.

Her Core had been the center of everything. The magic. The body’s sustained function. All of it drew from that source. With it broken she could feel herself coming apart from the inside in ways she couldn’t describe and couldn’t stop.

Her fingers twitched against the dirt.

The gray at the edges of her vision closed in.

’I’m sorry.’

Then it was all black. For a while there was nothing.

No pain, No sound. No sense of anything at alll.

Until something warm reached her.

Isabella’s eyelids trembled. She opened her eyes slowly.

An unfamiliar ceiling looked back at her.

’Is this the afterlife?’

"Ah. You’re finally awake, Isabel."

She knew that voice, she turned her head to find his face.

Ulvakor was sitting nearby watching her with a relaxed expression.

"T-Trainer Ulvakor?"