"FALL BACK!! THIS ISN’T OUR BLOODY WAR TO FIGHT!!"
The raiders were outmatched and even now, outnumbered. Their forces, once slightly larger than those of the Granians on the Citadel, were severely halved to the point that even they couldn’t believe nor accept it. Nonetheless, the war wasn’t for them to fight, and it was high time they left. Most of them were fighting for money. Not for honor, not for the extinction of the Granian race, but for money. Hiring beings like that to fight for them is a hopeless and poor investment. A fighter’s love for money will never be quenched by anything else.
These stubby creatures rose on their stubby feet and ran back to their remaining ships. They planned to disappear as quickly as they came in hopes of living to raid another day.
Meanwhile, their targets, the Granians, began early celebrations by breaking their wall and running after the raiders at full force. Their weapons continuously shot at them, killing them off one by one.
Eventually, the surviving raiders, about five hundred or less, arrived at their ships and prepared to escape. Upon arrival, they were welcomed by a scene of blood covering their engines with large strands sticking to their ships, keeping them in place. Their hearts began to ache as they thought,
"What could have possibly done this?" With their ships grounded and enemy forces following behind, they were left stranded on the planet with nowhere else to go.
"What the hell caused this?"
"Is this...blood?" one of the raiders placed their hands in the strands of blood and got their body stuck in it. "HELP ME!!" it cried, "I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!"
"That’ll teach you not to place your hands in every hole you find."
The survivors climbed their ships and, even though they couldn’t fly them, ignited their weapons to begin shooting at the Granians who were running after them. As soon as they did this, the Granians fell back as well, making the raiders celebrate once more.
"DIE, YOU PIECES OF LIZARD SCUM!!" They all chanted and shouted, each one pleased with what they had done. However....
Loud, blood-curdling screams echoed all across the ships, making the raiders instantly go quiet. Those closest to the doors sealed them shut while the rest that manned the weapons remained vigilant, ready to shoot whatever beast it was that made said roars.
*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH*
Another loud noise was heard, this one sounding much louder and more painful than the first. Immediately, the raiders grouped in their ships with their backs pressed on each other’s. Holding their weapons tightly, they waited for the beasts to attack.
"What could that be?"
"I don’t know. It sounded so ominous." ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝※𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖※𝕟𝕖𝕥
"Whatever it was must have been the ones that covered our ships with blood."
"I think I hear something on the rooftop."
Footsteps were heard on one of the ships, followed by silence. Those within said ships looked up, their weapons aimed at the rooftop, ready to be fired at anything that broke through.
Amidst the silence, the raiders remained vigilant and calm but at the same time terrified. Sure, they were determined to survive, but they didn’t know what they were supposed to survive. If only they had known who they were attacking, they may have had the chance to choose whether to live and not fight or to die fighting.
"It’s gone quiet. I don’t hear anythi..." The loud sounds of glass breaking erupted, followed by long, thick veins of white and golden-ish blood grabbing the raiders one by one. Careless shooting erupted, followed by the raiders losing their calm. Instead of sticking together and staying on their ships, they scattered everywhere like roaches in the night.
One turned back and, behold, two monsters thrice their size stood on top of their ships with their comrades trapped in their veins. The monsters squeezed the raiders in their veins to the point where their heads popped.
Afterward, they’d lift their bleeding bodies above their mouths and suck out all of the blood from them before tossing empty, shriveled bodies to the side.
"BLOOD MUTANTS!!" the raiders cried, the realization of who their enemy was kicking in. "BLOOD MUTANTS!! RUN. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES. RUUUNNN!!!"
In one second, the Mutants were on the ships, and in the next, they were not. This confusion caused the few remaining raiders to band together again with their weapons firing in every direction. Soon, the Mutants appeared again with what looked like humanoid versions of blood following them.
One at a time, the Mutants and their blood clones picked off the raiders like wolves picking sheep. Their tendrils would pierce through their bodies and come out with volumes of blood, killing them painfully in an instant. This blood massacre ensued for minutes with the Mutants draining and bathing themselves in the sweet-smelling raider blood, making sure not to waste too much of it.
"So that’s...that’s why...the galaxy...fears the...Granians..." one raider, surrounded by the bodies of its fallen comrades, looked at the Mutants walking towards its frozen body in shock and pure terror. Lo and behold, the towering walls of muscles covered with blood, their crescent-shaped eyes and clusters of teeth with claws strong enough to cut through steel. The true forms of the Blood Mutants in their glory, towering over a lowly raider.
"I won’t give you the satisfaction of killing me."
The last of the raiders shot itself three times in the head and died in an instant. Rather than letting the Mutants drain it, it chose its own death and parted with life immediately, sparing itself from the immeasurable pain that would have been inflicted on it.
"Shame. I wanted the last for myself," Anya snarled while gathering the rest of the blood that was spilled. After consuming it, she and Jim reverted to their human forms and walked back to the Citadel while ordering the Granians to clean up their bodies.
"I wonder where these things came from," Jim thought to himself, his thoughts still dazed with a bit of bloodlust, "maybe we could go to their home planet and send a message to whoever tries buying others to fight for them."
"I don’t give a damn about messages or this war," Anya replied, "as long as I can get strong enough to kill these damned Granians after, that’ll be more than enough for me."
"You sound just like Ace," Jim looked at the woman, his face showing his concern for her, "don’t let that rage turn you into him."
Anya stared at Jim and then began to laugh in a mocking tone. Her face then wrinkled to show her disgust as she said, "That man’s the only one who understands what they did to us. Seems you’ve gotten too friendly with the Granians that you’ve forgotten."