[Blood Acolytes Jim and Anya have begun their evolution] The two Blood Knights suddenly froze in their tracks, standing still like lifeless statues. Their bodies remained still, with their eyes being the only mobile features. Those watching them were marvelled, uncertain whether this was a part of their transformation or not. That all changed, however, when the two Blood Knights reverted to their human forms and fell to the ground. Jim and Anya broke out in convulsions, their bodies jerking violently with blood escaping from their headholes. Their eyes rolled back with blood pouring out, their mouths frothed with blood, saliva, and mucus mixing. Their white skin turned beet-red as a few tendrils morphed in and out of them constantly. It was a truly horrifying sight to behold, but also a dangerous one for them. A few of the mercenary clones caught sight of the two humans’ unfortunate condition and took advantage immediately. Changing their focus, they charged at the defenseless humans. All the Granian and Cyclitharan soldiers were already occupied, leaving Jim and Anya completely open to attack. "I need...to help them..." Helda squirmed while grabbing the closest weapon at her disposal. Not waiting for anyone to stop her, which they tried to do, the heavy Granian ran onto the battlefield with nothing but a robe covering her body. In her hands were two weapons: a blaster and a spear with a dagger for a spearhead. Running as fast as she could, the Granian got to the Blood Knights. Quickly, she deflected a blast aimed at Anya’s head and then retaliated with shots of her own. Fresh chapters posted on 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⚑𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖⚑𝕟𝕖𝕥 The mercenary clones dodged most of the attacks and chose to confront the Granian in hand-to-hand combat. Helda fired some more until she had no choice but to engage in hand-to-hand combat as well. While her mate was still dealing with a dying creature’s energy surge, Helda confronted the clones head-on. Using her spear, the Granian struck one clone down, and then another, and another. She skilfully swung, pierced, and jabbed the clones, but eventually, they started to increase in number. Despite how many she fended off, their numbers increased by the minute, pushing her to fight beyond her body’s capabilities before she felt overwhelmed. To make matters more frightening.... "HELDA, WATCH OUT!!!!" The pilot screamed as he ran from the ship with a blaster, firing shots around the Granian. Helda looked at the bodies she had slain earlier, only to notice the wounds on their bodies heal quickly. They then stood on their feet, ready to fight yet again. Helda grimaced, scoffing at the horrific sight of the clones rising back from the dead. She killed them quickly again before they could strike, but there was only so much she could do given her situation. "Take these two in," she commanded as the clones pushed her and the pilot back. As he dragged the two human bodies, Helda turned her attention to her mate, who was... "Where’s Grim?" she asked, but no one replied. Everyone around her was either dead or fighting to stay alive. Failing to see Grim, Helda tried sensing her mate’s energy output but failed. Either he wasn’t using it anymore or was... "Where’s Grim? Have you seen him?" "No, Helda," the pilot answered, "I’ve been here with you. Don’t worry, reinforcements are..." "I don’t care about reinforcements. Where’s Grim?" Helda angrily dealt with the clones standing in her way before turning her attention to where she last saw her mate. After ensuring that the humans were taken to safety, she ventured deeper into the battlefield. Unprotected, poorly armed, and limited by her condition, Helda was left vulnerable to all sorts of attacks from the enemy. All they needed to do was aim for her belly, which would kill her and her unborn child. But she didn’t care, not as much as she did for her mate who just vanished. "Grim. GRIM!!" she screamed, standing next to the deceased body of the creature. The crystal in its chest, which once glowed and pulsated with wild energy, was shattered and void of its substance. It looked more like broken glass than a crystal at that point. His sword was no longer in the crystal, so he must have moved elsewhere with it. But where could he be? "LOOK OUT!!!" from a distance, a Granian soldier cried as a military vehicle was thrown in their direction. The vehicle hit one of the Granian ships, blowing it up almost instantly. Another was thrown again, and then another. Soon, several were thrown at the Granian ships, rendering them immobile and useless. At the same time, more soldiers yelled out warnings of sighting more soldiers, soldiers they didn’t expect to see at that moment, but at the same time did. "Ethisians!!" Helda, shocked by the presence of Ethisians, started moving back to the ship she was on. But then.... A vehicle was thrown at the ship’s right wing, and then its left wing. It then erupted in a giant ball of flames, engulfing everything in it. Just as she was about to scream in horror, the pilot appeared elsewhere with the convulsing humans by his side. He was safe, but the same couldn’t be said for the rest of the Granian and Cyclitharan soldiers. ’I thought...I thought Grim said there weren’t Ethisians. What’re they doing here?’ The Granian looked around, struggling to make sense of what was happening. How did the Ethisians get there that quickly? Were they hiding all along and waiting to attack until now? Or did they somehow... ’Ethisian ships!!’ She looked up and gasped, her eyes catching sight of a large fleet of Ethisian ships suddenly appearing, a fleet nearly as large as Grim’s. The War happening in space stopped all of a sudden, and then, it started to rain. The remains of damaged Granian ships came crashing down like meteors, catching fire as they fell into the planet’s atmosphere. Following not too far behind were Ethisian ships flying down by the dozens. As the remains of Granian ships fell, Ethisian ships peppered the skies with soldiers ziplining to the ground, providing aid to their allies, the Rayans. ’How!!’ Helda’s eyes widened in disbelief and despair. It didn’t make sense how the Ethisians got there that quickly. She thought only they had the mechanisms that enabled them to cover great distances in mere seconds, so how was it that their enemies did the same? "Grim’s mate, in the flesh." A deep, burly voice bellowed, followed by a sturdy palm grabbing the female Granian by her head before raising her upward. "Huntress, the most fierce female Granian warrior. I am surprised you’re in the batt...oh, and look..." Lifting her off the ground was none other than the now High Grade Ethisian known as Commander, Enoris’s former college. The bulky Ethisian poked Helda’s belly enthusiastically and chuckled, saying; "...ah, so it was true? Grim decided to procreate with you? Of all females? I thought Granian races were forbidden from interbreeding. Doesn’t matter." The Ethisian put Helda in chains so heavy that she couldn’t stand for too long. A few seconds passed, and the pilot, along with the humans, was brought along by other Ethisians who bound them as well in chains. The Ethisian growled; the sight of humans troubled him with painful memories of his encounter with the one who killed Enoris. "Is that the orange-haired one?" he wondered, but to his disappointment, it wasn’t. "No fret. Put the Granian in solitary confinement, and put the humans in pods lest they wake up and use some form of blood magic to escape." Just like that, Grim’s fleet was close to being completely decimated, and his mate and the humans assigned to him were captured.