Blood Magic

Smith had moved forward to the side of the convict who had his fingers stretched outwards. He was hovering a few inches above the ground and his hands and legs felt like they were being pulled out of him as he yelled out and his eyes became teary.

"Nine." Kyle said out loud. "He's one of the people who escaped from the world penitentiary. Everyone calls him Nine."

"But he's not fvcking supposed to be here." a convict said from their midst. "No world penitentiary convict should be here." The convict was different from the one who had spoken before because Kevin was possessing someone new when he wanted to speak.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that one of the convicts had been possessed since he was actively fighting other convicts and if Kevin stayed in the body of one convict while speaking continuously the convicts could catch him although he could still move to another body nonetheless.

"Let him go." Jake said to Nine.

"I know you're fast." Nine replied. "I've seen you run. Should we find out how fast you actually are? Are you fast enough to save your little friend here? Are you willing to bet his life on you taking me down before I explode his head right off his neck?"

Smith's head began twisting and turning in an awkward direction as the veins and muscles in his neck became strained and he struggled to yell in pain. The veins on his arms were also visible now and it looked like his flesh was somewhat shrinking slowly, making his bones more visible.

"Alright stop!" Jake shouted. "No one move." he said to Rheya, Kyle, and Sasha. "What do you want?" he asked Nine.

"That armour of yours looks like it would suffice." Nine said greedily yet in a strangely calm and collected way. "Take it off and drop it on the ground."

Jake shifted his hair and from the corner of his eye he saw Rheya's lips slightly moving. He knew the only thing she had to be doing was chanting a spell. Hopefully one that got them out of their situation.

"Menedras rissiparen athrach bháis imne aevum."

Rheya kept chanting silently and made sure she couldn't be heard. She quickly tapped the bottom of her staff on the ground twice and a kind of rectangular box appeared around Jake and Nine only.

Smith fell to the ground and was breathing heavily, trying to catch his breath. Kyle ran forward to meet him and help him to his feet while Jake was now locked in a box with Nine.

The box seemed to have the appearance of a crystal and was just as sturdy too. Nine looked at the box and tried hitting it but he could not break it. He could not even put a dent in it but when he did hit it, the sphere of light which hovered above the staff dimmed for a second before becoming bright again.

"I think you know by now that what you're doing is pointless." Jake said to Nine. "It's just you and me in here."

"Why would she put you in here with me?" Nine asked.

"Who?"

"You think I did not notice your lady friend with the staff over there muttering something." Nine replied. "She's lucky I didn't notice her early enough. If not I would have broken her neck right where she stood."

Nine tried using his magic to control someone outside the box but his attempts were futile.

"He has blood magic." Rheya said to Jake. "But I trust you will figure out a way to stop him."

"What?" Jake replied. "How am I supposed to stop someone with blood magic? He can literally control my blood."

Jake had not mimicked any new magical abilities while fighting the convicts so he still had the vanishing magic and the elongating magic he had mimicked before returning to Veda.

He had also gotten a few stat points from fighting the convicts. Although they weren't a lot, he could still use them but Jake didn't think they were particularly useful in his situation right now.

"I am not going to waste any time with you." Nine said to Jake. "That armour is mine."

He lifted his hand to his shoulder level and started moving his fingers and as Jake was about to vanish with his magic, he suddenly felt an intense force overpower his body from the inside and he had lost control of his own body.

"You are an interesting one." Nine said with an expression of confusion on his face as he twirled his fingers continuously. "What is this?" he asked. He seemed to be looking at something but it wasn't something the others could see and he was not quite sure what it was either.

Jake felt his insides being probed and proded and he groaned in pain as his forearms began to twist from the elbows at an exact three hundred and sixty degrees angle.

He had suffered a whole lot worse than broken elbows so he wasn't really screaming from the pain but he still groaned and the fact that Nine was able to dislodge his forearms so easily from his elbows showed that Jake's high endurance stat was useless against an inside attack from someone like Nine.

Jake could feel his energy being forcefully activated and was trying to heal his broken bones. If he had to guess, he would probably say that Nine was referring to his energy when he said 'What is this?'

Jake controlled his energy and stopped it from doing anything before he made it go away. Nine had now dislocated his knees as well but Jake wasn't worried because he knew the system would have started healing him already. He just needed to figure out how to break Nine's hold on him.

'No one said I couldn't use brute strength to get out of this.' Jake thought. 'I'm definitely way stronger than him so in theory I should be able to overwhelm his magic strength with just my normal strength.'

Jake regained feeling in his right forearm after it was healed by the system and he used as much strength as he could muster to push back against whatever force was preventing him from moving.

He struggled to do it at first as he groaned again and finally broke free then moved his right hand.

"What?!" Nine exclaimed as he saw Jake move his right hand and smile at him.

"Don't worry." Jake said, smiling. "It gets more interesting than this."