Blood, followed by whitish, mucous-like liquids, spewed from Skyler’s sides while two more appendages grew out. The appendages turned from a pinkish-white color to a black, glossy texture, while turning into powerful claws. Her normal hands were also transformed, only slightly larger than the new ones. Her legs, more specifically her knees, broke and bent backward. Her feet became beast legs, and her facial features changed slightly, making her resemble the beast whose DNA she absorbed. "You can transform easily, that’s good," Huntress spoke with her tail swaying from left to right, "Can’t you do it any faster?" "It takes time getting used to," Skyler responded, although her speech was slightly muffled due to her increased teeth size. "The groundhog’s the one I can transform into more easily." "Why not use it then?" Huntress asked. "I’m trying to get comfortable in all of them and..." Without warning, Skyler got the jump on Huntress, quickly covering the distance between herself and the female Granian. With her upper right and lower left arms folded, the young woman went for a punch while her upper left and lower right went to scratch the softer sides. However... Although her moves were fast, they were not coordinated well enough to execute an effective attack on Huntress. This, in return, caused Skyler to take a tail whack on her head, slamming her face first into the hard surface of the simulation chamber. "That was almost impressive, Skyler," Huntress squatted next to the girl with her fingers running up and down her face. "Although, you must learn that stupidly charging in without planning will get you hurt. I mean, you just said that you are cautious about a person. Why did you just attack me so suddenly? That was very brave yet so reckless. Get up now." As soon as she got back up on her feet, Skyler was met by a foot to her stomach, which she barely stopped with her hands. Pushing back the Granian’s foot turned into a struggle for Skyler, while Huntress grinned cheekily. As soon as Skyler increased her grip on Huntress’ leg, the Granian jumped using her other one, spun in midair, and kneed Skyler immediately. "You hesitated," Huntress explained while helping Skyler up. "You could have dragged or slammed me down, but you hesitated. Listen, Skyler. Your comrades have long-range attacks. They can wipe out hordes of creatures with their own blood; you cannot. You have to focus on your close-quarters combat skills. If you can make certain parts of your body tougher while others are faster, you can be a great offensive and defensive opponent. Now, let’s try that again. I’m sure you’ll nail it this time... If not, I’ll knock you down again." Standing on her legs again, Skyler and Huntress faced each other, waiting for the other to attack. Having suffered a few beatings, Skyler’s body became sore, although it healed slowly. "I’m going to kick your leg and punch your head," Huntress explained. "You can either dodge or you can harden your body and counter. Your choice..." Like Skyler, Huntress got the jump on the girl and hit her at the exact points she mentioned. Skyler, unfortunately, wasn’t able to dodge fast enough and ended up getting knocked to the ground... again. Nonetheless, she still got back up on her feet, dusted herself off, and took a defensive position this time around. "Let’s try it again," she said to Huntress. After realizing what the Granian had said, Skyler began to evaluate herself and understood what Huntress meant. Ace, Cherry, Jim, and now Anya were able to perform incredible attacks simultaneously without even getting close to their opponent. Unless she obtained DNA of a creature that could do that, she needed to create her own moves, use her own power, and grow stronger in her own unique way. "I have a good feeling about this one." Canceling the first transformation, Skyler focused her energy on her body and combined the hardening ability of the cow-like beast with her groundhog arms. The end result was a thick layer of armored skin with square-shaped scales on her forearms. The base of her jaw grew larger, allowing small tusks to protrude. "There you go!" Huntress cheered. "That’s more like it. Do you think we can make some progress with that form?" "I guess so," Skyler answered and then laughed at how altered her voice was. "I’m ready this time. Hit me with your best shot, but don’t make it too hard." "Alright then." Leaping high into the air, Huntress fell back down with her heel ready to smash Skyler’s head. However, as she got closer, Skyler also leaped into the air with her hands stretched outward at Huntress. Using her now larger paws, Skyler latched onto Huntress’ leg and fell back down onto the ground. Sadly for Skyler, Huntress used her tail and wrapped it around her neck while shifting her body weight. This caused Huntress’ body to be on top of Skyler once they hit the ground. "That wasn’t half as bad, but you can do better." "I said don’t make it too hard," Skyler winced in pain as her body reverted to its normal form. The impact of the fall caused her body to ache. Her back went stiff for a moment as she struggled to get back up on her feet. "That was some dirty trick you played on me, Huntress." "Hah! I’m surprised you’re finding this difficult. Lord Grim would have you put through much more painful training just for the fun of it. You should be grateful that you’re training with me." "I wish I was," Skyler mumbled, helping herself up again. "Can’t we just do something against a clone? I’d rather face those than you. Let me do that instead, please." Huntress remained quiet with her hands folded while glaring at Skyler. The awkward silence silenced Skyler for a moment and led her to transform again. "Fine. Let us just continue with what we were doing." "That’s the spirit," Huntress laughed as she took hold of her ring blade. "But since you wanted clones, you’re going to battle them and me at the same time. Don’t hold back as much as I am." Just as Skyler heard those words, the ceiling above them dropped three black pods with the clones Skyler had asked for. Not specifying what type of clones she wished to go up against, the body-altered gifted was completely clueless about just what type of creatures the female Granian had called for. As soon as they landed, loud, painful screams echoed as the metallic surface of the pods burst open. "You wanted this, didn’t you? Now, don’t hold anything back, Skyler." Skyler wasn’t the only one preparing herself to fight unknown creatures thrown at them. Jim, Cherry, and Ace were surrounded on all sides by the most compact, weirdest-looking living creatures they had ever seen. The tiny creatures had heads larger than their bodies with the widest and blackest eyes you’d ever seen. Their mouths were curved in a crescent shape, giving them the appearance of a smile. Their bodies, which were no larger than a stuffed bear, were surprisingly muscular. If they were put on the same scale as Ace’s blood mutant form, he’d look skinnier compared to them. The tiny creatures also had little tails that were no longer than Ace’s middle finger. "A little tribe?" Cherry laughed as she kicked one as hard as she could. "Is this some sort of joke? I can knock these things out with just a kick. This is hilarious." "I challenge you to try," One Horn laughed as he stood at a safe distance with a weapon held in his hand. As Cherry laughed, Ace and Jim started to realize something strange about One Horn’s character toward the teddy bear-sized creatures. His composure changed from the overconfident instructor to the cautious observer anxiously waiting to see the performance of his students. "If he’s acting ," Ace whispered to Jim, "Then it means these things are a lot tougher than they look." "Oh come on, Ace!" Cherry slapped Ace’s back as she laughed with one of the creatures gripped in her hands. "Do you think this little thing can possibly do anything that’ll hurt me? I mean, look at it. Look at this small thing." "Today’s lesson will teach the importance of underestimating your opponent." As soon as One Horn announced that, Ace slapped the creature away from his sister’s arms while Jim transformed into his blood-mutant form and protected both siblings. "I knew something was off with these things," Ace said to himself as he too transformed. Clueless, Cherry transformed as well just for the sake of it. "Why are you guys transforming?" Cherry asked. "I can ask you the same thing." "I’m transforming because you two are doing the same thing. What’s going on?" Adjusting her vision to the creatures, Cherry noticed how their adorable little faces became disfigured as they broke and regrew into monstrous features. "Oh shoot..." Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on 𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅✦𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾✦𝗇𝖾𝗍