The battle, which not too long ago was in favor of the Crimson Knight, had taken a sudden, twisted turn when the beast delivered a powerfully destructive and effective counterattack; a tail strike to the Knight’s body.
Cherry’s body was smacked into the closest wall of the Colosseum with such great force that she stopped moving. The young woman was motionless and still like a dried-up bone. Not even her upper chest area moved up and down to show she was breathing.
Lord Gravax and Grim, along with Lilly and the Grand Duke held their breath in anticipation and anxiety while they desperately hoped and prayed that the Blood Mutant would get up and get back in the fight. Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵•𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮•𝓷𝓮𝓽
Alas, Cherry did not move nor did she show any signs of responsiveness. The three present Granians feared that this was going to be the first loss of their new Blood Mutants, a loss that would be too great for them to recover from easily.
"We have to get in there!!" Grim announced while preparing to jump into the field. Just as he was about to, the Grand Duke’s soldiers stepped in front of him while the Grand Duke said;
"You shall do no such thing."
Grim, Gravax, and Lilly stared at the alien, each one wondering where this audacity came from.
"It is against Cyclitharan custom to interrupt a fight simply because you know the contestant. No one is allowed to interrupt."
"Do you understand how..."
"Disrespecting our customs is one of the most disrespectful things you could do to us. Especially since you’ve come asking for my armies and colonies."
Grim snapped, his anger kindled greatly against the Cyclitharan. He slammed his fist on the seat, which buried it into the floor.
The soldiers took this as a threat and immediately aimed their weapons at Grim. Seeing this, the black-scaled Granian activated his Eneraflux and readied himself to kill the soldiers on the spot.
"Grand Duke," Lord Gravax, not wanting to spark a war between his newly acquired allies, "we do not wish to mean you any disrespect but our Blood Mutant is an incredibly important asset to us. We cannot and will not allow ourselves to see her die while we can do something about it.
"We don’t mean to disrespect you, all we want to do is...."
*ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRR*
The beast puffed its chest, raised the flaps on its neck, and released a mighty and loud roar.
The strength, speed, and sheer destructive force of the roar blew everything from where it was placed, sending loads of debris, bones, armor, dust, and sand flying everywhere. Those who were too close to the beast lost their hearing permanently accompanied by severe brain damage and internal organ displacement.
The boom and strength of the roar left the rest of those present with painful, ringing ears, and headaches but that was nothing compared to what the Blood Mutant was feeling. The strength of the roar knocked Cherry back to the wall and into consciousness. Immediately, her eyes shot open while blood escaped her nose, mouth, and ears.
As the force of the roar continued to ravage the Crimson Knight, her form started to fail her with volumes of blood escaping and peeling off her body. Before she knew it, her right arm, shoulder, and chest were scarred.
Her pink flesh was exposed and her insides were wounded slightly.
’So much strength in its roar’
Still slightly shaken from the tail whack and roar, the Crimson Knight stumbled back on her feet while keeping her eyes fixated on the beast.
The creature lifted its head and shook it while clawing the field. Then, it lowered it while bearing its ugly, long teeth at the Crimson Knight, a bellowing growl escaping from its breath. Cherry and the beast looked at each other with bloodlust and malicious intent. They both wanted to see each other bleed, one more hellbent on making the other bleed out dry.
Even though the creature was still standing, it was still severely injured from losing its jewels. Thanks to the Crimson Knight, the creature’s undercarriage was incredibly sore and tender...
’A perfect place to hit.’
Now instead of running toward the beast headfirst, Cherry strategized her next moves while planning on controlling her new speed. Instead of running blindly to only lose control later on, she decided to master her speed by using it discretely and effectively.
Like a bullet, Cherry shot from where she was and bounced off the inner walls of the Colosseum. As she did so, she strategically planted blood spikes on the sides while circling the creature.
The beast knew better than to take the fight to Cherry, given that it lost its jewels the first time it did so. Instead, the beast stood still, waiting for the perfect moment to strike the Crimson Knight once again only this time, it intended to kill her.
"She’s...she’s awake!!" Grim, Gravax, Lilly, and the Grand Duke, who were knocked down by the beast’s roar temporarily, got up to the sight of Cherry running around the field.
The young woman’s speed increased with each step and the more it increased, the more stability she gained. She was starting to get used to her speed which slowly became another trump card for her.
Again, Cherry darted for the beast, this time making sure to hit it from its right side. The creature, however, was prepared. It saw the Crimson Knight approaching it so it raised its tail and prepared to strike.
JUST at the last moment, Cherry split into two then three then five then ten. Blood Clones, all in the same image as Cherry, separated and ran around the beast.
They didn’t attack but instead rammed their bodies into the beast and distracted it just long enough for Cherry to attack.