Moving at great strides, Cherry ran towards the four black pods, expectant of earning an easy kill. Having little excess blood left in her body, the girl made sure to use it to make blood weapons and use blood skills instead of wasting what she had left for a few seconds of her blood mutant form. As Cherry got closer to the pods, she felt the ground vibrating beneath her while loud banging noises came from the pods. As the noises grew louder, Cherry stopped in the middle of her tracks and scanned the pods. Noticing red, tentacle-like objects peering from the cracks made the girl’s heart skip a beat as she started to walk backward. ’No freaking way. They’ve got other blood mutants?’ Four massive blood mutants tore through the pods and roared so loud that even Jim and Ace heard. Cherry looked at the horrifying creatures and began to understand what the creatures she killed felt like once they laid eyes on her terrifying form. As Cherry stared at the four ’blood mutants’ before her, she started to notice interesting features she had never seen before. For starters, these blood mutants walked on all four limbs. Their front legs had backward jointed knees which were above their heads. They had long, thick tails shaking over their heads while pointing at Cherry. Their heads, just like her and the other two blood mutants, had white, crescent-shaped eyes and mouthfuls of deadly long teeth. "What the hell are these?" Cherry asked, clearly confused by how much they looked liked her form but were not. "Are these original blood mutants?" While still in her thoughts, one of the four blood mutants, or blood beasts, screeched so loud at Cherry that a sonic sound wave tore through the dirt ground and headed straight for her. The young woman steadily dodged the attack, only to be met by another that wave that collided violently with her body. Upon impact, Cherry was sent rolling across the ground with a little bounce, causing her skin to graze on the small, sharp stones on the ground. Remaining on the ground for a few minutes, Cherry groaned angrily while gripping the dirt, as if it was the one responsible for the attack. Meanwhile, the beasts slowly crawled towards her with a series of clicks and clucks, a form they used to communicate with each other. Cherry slowly lifted her dusty head and glared angrily at the blood beasts. As her wounds healed, she slowly picked herself up and started to walk towards them with a blood spear in her hands. With her anger fixed on the beast that managed to attack her, she slowly walked towards it while waiting for it to do the same thing again. With its mouth wide open, the blood beast prepared another sonic sound wave attack. Cherry happily crouched with the blood spear held close to her face. Once she got the perfect aim, she quickly threw the spear as fast as she could and managed to hit its throat but that wasn’t all. As the beast choked on the blood spear, Cherry manipulated and forced it to burrow through its body, causing the creature to bleed out. The others growled at the young woman and began to run. With roaring, they aimed their tails at her and fired blood spikes that were as thick as her own body. Thankfully, the rate at which they were firing was too slow, allowing Cherry to effortlessly dodge them. The attacks kept coming at her faster and faster without ceasing, and Cherry was finding it harder to keep up. Seizing the opportunity, Cherry liquified all the blood spikes and consumed most of them while using the excess to create a blood armor suit for herself. However..... "AAHHH!! WHAT IS THIS? MY BODY....IT FEELS LIKE ITS BURNING!!" The blood Cherry had consumed had an acidic feature and her consuming it caused her insides to feel like they were burning. Looking ahead, the blood beasts charged at Cherry all at once, including the one that still had her blood spear dislodged in its mouth. Quickly extracting the consumed blood, Cherry refocused her efforts and turned them into blood weapons. Fortunately for her, she had gathered enough to create a blood clone of herself with a hardened body. Now that there were two of them, the blood beasts split in two, each focused on bringing both Cherries down. "Let’s see how you !!" Creating a long blood-staff in her hands with a massive blade at the end, Cherry run for one blood beast which pounced on her. With no hesitation, the blood beast swiped its claw at Cherry’s head, only for it to get its claw sliced off by Cherry’s staff’s blade. The creature shrieked in pain as it growled heavily at Cherry. On the other hand, the young woman separated her staff into smaller staffs with thick blood blades before running for the beast again. The creature stood on its two hind legs while it regenerated its cut-off hand. Cherry got close enough, and the second beast swung its tail towards her head. The young woman slid at the last second while slicing a small portion of the creature’s tail off. With it now hurt, she focused on the other one which backed up a little for it hadn’t healed yet. "RAAAAAAAAAHHH!!" Both beasts, Cherry and the literal blood beast, roared at each other with the intent of killing one another. The blood beast used its other claw and tail as attack weapons while Cherry gripped her two staffs. Both swinging as fast as they could, the creatures met each other in the middle and collided, turning the fight into a test of strength. Having size on its side, the blood beast was able to push Cherry back. However, the young woman was resilient, not willing to back down. Shifting all her weight to one side, she fell over to the blood beast’s slide while extending her blood spear toward its neck. The weapon connected but it wasn’t deep enough to cause any life-ending injuries. Just as Cherry was about to go for the kill, the second blood beast came in with a claw swipe to Cherry’s right side, sending her rolling at great speed. "Damn it...." Cherry winced in pain. Her body ached so terribly that she couldn’t get up just in time to dodge the next attack. "Ah shi...." The second blood beast quickly picked Cherry up with its jaws and threw her violently and sent her body slamming onto the dry, red, dusty ground. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵·𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮·𝓷𝓮𝓽 "I’m not...going to...win this...." Like Jim and Cherry, Ace was also faced with four beasts of his own. However, the boy’s beasts were still in their pods with no signs of them coming out any time soon. Ace thought it was a trap at first but after waiting for a very long while, he slowly walked towards the pods with his hands transformed, just in case anything happened. ’What sort of creatures has this freaking alien sent this time?’ Ace wondered while generating a blood spear to thrust into the pods if whatever was still inside didn’t come out. As he got closer, he noticed that three of the four pods were opened with nothing inside. Ace quickly jumped back and got on his guard. He then quickly turned his current blood spear into a scythe and made another just in case he was attacked. It wasn’t the most ideal weapon, but it was something he was willing to give a chance. [System Scan Skill: Activated.] Scanning the last pod, Ace noticed a feminine figure trapped inside as it clawed away at the pod’s exit shaft. Looking closer, Ace couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Whatever was inside looked disturbingly familiar, as if he had seen the ’person’ before. He thought it was a person due to it having a figure that was more human than what he had come across ever since he was abducted. ’Did they bring another human with them? Or are these the clones Grim was talking about?’ "Help!!" the person in the pod cried out, having given up on itself. Hearing the voice made Ace’s heart beat faster, almost recognizing the voice. "Anyone there? Hello!! Please, let me go." Having heard the voice the second time, Ace quickly approached the pod and looked through the small glass window that showed what was inside. As soon as he saw who the voice belonged to, he remained frozen for a moment while he and the person inside locked eyes for a moment. As Ace and his former school nurse looked at each other, the creatures that were in the other pods attacked him so fast that he had no time to dodge or even see them coming. His body was hit so hard and so fast. The attack felt like he was shot with a tank’s bullet shell which left a large wound on his left, upper thigh. "You dropped your guard down." Grim said as he stood over Ace. "I’m going to make sure you don’t do that again." "Wait....I thought you were....on that platform with....Sky...." Ace was confused as he looked at Grim whom he swore was still on the raised platform. "Those pods were a diversion, Ace. Get up, and let’s go again. Me versus you."