Blood spikes the size and length of electric poles. Clones moving quicker than most could perceive and keep up with visually. Sounds so loud, strong, and powerful that they could be seen and felt violently scraping against the body. Those were the three attacks ravaging the Ethisian simultaneously and in quick succession. The first were the blood spikes, each crashing down with great speed and a violent force. The High Grade narrowly evaded the first few, only to get held back by the clones that rammed their awkward selves into his legs, causing him to stumble and sway. With this mental struggle for attention between the falling spikes and ramming blood clones, the High Grade lost concentration, leaving him defenseless from a few of the spikes which ravaged him. The spikes weren’t sharp enough to pierce through his skin, but they were all that was needed to make him lose his footing. As the last spikes fell, the female Blood Acolyte unleashed her own attack. With her jaws wide open, she took in a deep breath and released the loudest scream she had ever screamed. At the same time, drops of blood the size of marbles with the texture of broken glass were picked up by the sound waves and sped in the High Grade’s direction and vigorously scraped his scaly body. The sound waves pushed Commander’s body back a couple of feet while reverberating through his entire body. The High Grade tried covering his ears and shutting his eyes as hard as he could while the rest of his body took the attack head-on. At first glance, it looked like the attack did next to no damage. But then, it started to change once scales were slowly disintegrating from the Ethisian’s body. Like a coconut ravaged by a sand blaster, the scales on Commander’s body were brutally abraded off his body, down to their roots. "He’s bleeding." Jimnotted and immediately, Anya retracted all the tiny, hardened blood drops. She then formed them into long, thin blood strings and wrapped them around Commander’s body. At that same time, the eight clones latched themselves onto Commander’s upper body and legs while parts of them enlarged in size and weight. The strings wrapped around the High Grade’s body thickened and hardened, and the clones loosened into a thick, viscous consistency. As the strings continued to wrap around the bulky High Grade, what was left of the clones lunged deep into the ground, holding Commander in place. Soon, more than half of his body was wrapped in string, the only open part being his head and the one wound on his body. "Hold those strings," Jim commanded, and then quickly rushed to the High Grade’s side. He observed Commander’s state and took pride in his and Anya’s work. The once "invincible" Ethisian that beat them to a pulp wasn’t so high, mighty, and powerful now. But that wasn’t something for him to be proud of. If anything, it was something worth being afraid of. ’All of this, just for a small drop of blood.’ he thought to himself briefly and then proceeded with the next step. Holding out his hand high, Jim morphed his finger tips into one long stiletto and slid it into Commander’s wound, forcing it to widen into a gaping gash. Warm blood dripped from the wound, and the Blood Acolyte continued to pierce deeper. However, Jim’s hand suddenly stopped, and his stiletto fingers snapped under the excessive force he applied. While piercing, he felt himself hitting a tough, impenetrable barrier within the High Grade’s body. He pushed and pushed until eventually, his fused fingers snapped, leaving the tip of the blade in the High Grade’s wound. "This is a much better result than your first debut," Commander spoke, wearing a frightening grin on his face. He was pleased with the mutants’ showcase of strength, a great improvement compared to the first one. "Who knew Blood Mutants were so capable of performing dangerous feats when they worked together?" "JIM, GET AWAY FROM HIM, NOW!!!!!" Anya screamed, showing visible struggle in her attempts to keep Commander contained. She struggled to keep the blood strings wrapped around the High Grade’s body, but her strength was soon overpowered. Jim knew better than to hesitate, but he also knew better than to let their efforts go to waste. Using what he had, the Blood Acolyte started to drain Commander’s blood, drawing out as much as he could as quickly as he could. But there wasn’t anything else to drain. Dıscover more novels at 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵※𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮※𝓷𝓮𝓽 Jim kept on drawing out, but nothing left the clearly visible, open gash on the Ethisian’s body. The wound dried up instantly and then healed, pushing out the remained bits of Jim’s broken stiletto fingers. "You’ve impressed me, you two. This was certainly an enjoyable fight." Commander flexed his muscles and began to rip the blood strings apart. The viscous remains of the eight blood clones stretched and tore apart like weak strands of mucous, and eventually, the last of the strings snapped too fast for Anya to keep up with. Knowing better than to stick around, Anya and Jim threw their last efforts into slowing Commander down while they ran for their dear lives. Jim retracted all the viscous blood and threw it back in the form of heavy, sturdy blood blocks. Some lunged at Commander’s head, and others at his feet. Anya stopped stabilizing the rest of the blood strings and instead turned her attention to the ones that were ripped. Quickly, she built a thick wall of blood around the Ethisian while Jim started to run. The wall wasn’t going to do any damage to Commander, but hopefully it was going to slow him down long enough. Jim and Anya were already half a mile away from the campsite. As soon as the wall went up, the two Blood Acolytes sprinted at breakneck speeds, neither daring to look back. While sprinting, the Blood Acolytes sprang multiple blood spikes in their trail, hoping that Commander would slow down to dodge each one. To their dismay, the High Grade ran through each spike like a speeding, immovable freight train; even the ones with tips aimed at his body. Using his sword that he retrieved, he smashed through each spike easily while slowly catching up with the mutants. Jim randomly shot lightning surges at the Ethisian, desperately hoping that at least one of them would hit and slow him down. Anya made clones from the shattered blood spikes, which pursued the High Grade and latched onto his body. Even though blood clones weighed down the Ethisian, he still kept moving with the same agility he started with, dragging all the clones along with him. Anya changed tactics once more, forcing some of the clones to hold Commander in his tracks...and it slowly but surely worked. "Let’s split up and hide in there," Anya spoke to Jim as the two entered the Rayan settlement, "whoever gets a ship first should send a signal for the other to follow. That’s the only way we’ll get out of here."