A/N: This Bonus chapter was brought to you by Owlz!
[Blood Diary Entry]
Now there were only the seven alghouls, Rebekah, and me.
The smallest of the seven looked around and shivered.
Apparently, the scene of its lesser succumbing into madness and killing themselves while laughing wasn't too kind on its mind.
It whimpered and scurried off, running towards the shadowy walls, trying to claw its way through. But no matter how much effort it put in, how desperate it grew, there was no escaping.
The other six watched the pathetic display.
Some seemed to want to aid it in its efforts to escape, while the others just wanted to rip me apart.
Rebekah made her way through carnage and gore, carefully avoiding the pools of bile and minced organs.
A monumental effort, as all of the ground was a shallow crimson pool.
As a vampire, I would think that the scent all around me would be enough almost to drive me mad. But predictably, their blood smells absolutely disgusting.
"What was that?" Rebekah asked as she finally reached my side.
"What was what?" I asked back in an innocent manner.
"Don't play dumb with me, Darian. What was the power you used to make the ghouls kill themselves?" She gave me a dry stare.
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "That was Dementation."
She nodded and looked at me with a grave and serious look on her face. "Don't use it again."
"Huh?!" I asked, dumbfounded.
"You heard me." She said with a tone that implied the finality of her decision
"You mean you don't want me to use my own power?" I asked as my eyes narrowed.
"I want you to understand that it was dangerous. I get a bad feeling from it. I-" Her voice broke, not in the commanding tone she was using before, but in a softer and more worried one. "I'm worried…"
I nodded. "There is something to that discipline, so I understand where you're coming from. But the answer isn't in fearing the power itself, that would probably only make things worse." Rebekah shifted uncomfortably. "But if it puts your mind at ease, I promise I'll only use it when I absolutely need it."
Rebekah sighed in relief and gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze.
"Rebekah…" I called.
"Yes?"
"Just- Just don't tell my mother about it, okay?"
She giggled and ruffled my hair.
I exhaled and looked back at the alghouls.
Two of the seemingly braver ones were circling Rebekah and me as if they were the predators and not the prey.
One was the biggest alghouls, a veritable walking mountain of muscles. Its pale skin seemed on the verge of ripping apart every time it moved due to the power its muscles exuded.
And the other was the meanest-looking one. Riddled with scars. Face eternally locked in a vicious snarl. It wasn't the biggest, not by a long shot—I would even dare say it is the second smallest of the group.
The two circled, seeking openings.
Gifted with patience, I hadn't seen in the other ghouls.
Rebekah seemed to want to speak up, teach me about what she knew of these creatures. But ultimately, she decided to stay silent and probably let me learn on my own.
The bigger one growled and roared back to the others, especially to the one who was still desperately trying to escape.
That seemed to have done the trick, as all of the alghouls started to circle us alongside the previous two.
They dragged themselves close to the ground, trying to appear as threatening as possible. They were all hunched forward, partially walking on all fours. Their vitreous eyes never focused on a single spot, as they studied every inch of our bodies.
Had these things been a bit more rational, I might've taken offense in this situation…
Four of the alghouls spun around us clockwise, while the other three spun counterclockwise.
I twitched a few times, clinked my claws against one another, just to play with their nerves.
And it worked beautifully.
Even the faintest of movements from me would make the alghouls tense up, their breathing hitch, and their heartbeat to skip a single beat.
Can't say I'm not enjoying the sense of power I have over them… but enough is enough.
I had tested all of the disciplines that needed to be tested in combat—the others required more finesse, so I didn't think this was the time to experiment with them.
I had turned hundreds of monsters into nothing but steaming piles of butchered flesh.
I know how ridiculous my speed, defense, and strength can be if I go full throttle with the disciplines.
Now I needed to achieve an initial and more precise control over them.
I looked towards Rebekah, and she understood what I wanted to convey with a single glance.
Lightning crackled around her once more.
I smirked and assumed a more feral stance. I dragged my claws against one another, and because of that, sparks burst from the brutal gesture and danced around me.
I roared and rushed forward.
Straight towards the mean alghouls.
It noticed my movement—since I was holding myself back quite a lot—and swung in an arc towards me.
I dove through the swipe and elbowed its ribs.
Bones cracked, and muscles tore, I swear I could also hear the faint pop of its internal organs exploding inside of it—but it could also be my imagination.
Soon, the damage was healed, a testament to the amazing regeneration the alghouls had, which was said to be even greater than the one from the ghouls.
Though I came to learn that if you brutalize them with too much strength and give them too grievous wounds, their regeneration means absolutely nothing.
The alghouls winced in pain and swiped again.
I dodged its attacks with ease, but tried to use the least amount of movement possible to achieve the desired result. So, suffice to say, a couple of strikes did manage to graze me, but they didn't do any damage.
Three more alghouls joined the fight, trying to overwhelm me with numbers.
Not that it did them any good before.
I noticed that the big guy wasn't amongst my new attackers, which meant he went for Rebekah, probably thinking of her as an easier target.
Poor bastard…
I shrugged and proceeded to use the four alghouls at my disposal as training dummies.
They all had the same attack pattern, which made them quite boring. They would swipe in an arc, they would try to bite, and they would try to pounce. Not much more to it…
Even if they are smarter, they are still beasts at the end of it, huh?
In turn, I kicked them, I elbowed them, I punched, I clawed, and I headbutted them a couple of times.
For roughly ten or twenty minutes, I toyed with these four. I was both grateful for their tenacity and annoyed by how weak they truly were.
Rebekah had long since disposed of her own problems, and now she watched me from the sidelines. Studying my movements and giving me a few tips here and there.
We kept on with this until the alghouls were huffing and puffing for air. Their stamina reservoirs completely dried up.
I sighed in disappointment.
The mean-looking one was glaring at me, furious that even after all of its efforts, there wasn't a single scratch on me. The others whimpered in dejection.
If they were any less ugly, I would've pitied them…
The blood seeping from the other ghouls moved and impaled the four, killing them instantly.
There was no great and impactful ending for them; they simply died, quiet and meaningless deaths.
Because I am that much stronger than them, and as such, it is entirely up to me how and when they die.
I looked at Rebekah and smiled. Not a hint of exhaustion on either of us.
"Let's go back." She said while smiling at me.