The room had become a bloody mess and now the only one left standing was the supposed commander, and they didn't even get to introduce themselves mostly because Veronica was impatience and decided to start things off since nobody was moving, but to be fair she had been doing a lot of training and meditation. So, all of that aggression was probably pent-up over a long time and releasing it in this room was probably the best thing for everyone. Hopefully she had some energy left over for the next battle in the adjoining room.

  The commander stood there just after Glade had asked him what he was going to do now. He did have a bit of blood on his clothes not only from the first two men that were killed by Veronica, but also from his second in command. He was surrounded now even through Veronica, Eve, and Valentina had not gotten any closer and Eve was making sure that Aurora was ok.

  He took in a deep breath trying to steel himself even through everybody else in the room had been soundly defeated and all they managed to do was scratch two of them. He wasn't just going to lay down and let this woman kill him. He took in another deep breath and as he exhaled, he looked up at her trying to speak in the most confident tone he could muster. "I am all alone however there has been many times before I was transferred here that I was on a battlefield alone and this is no different. This is an impressive group and if I take you all in myself, I'm sure a promotion to an officer will be in order." He finished speaking shallowing hard a little bit hoping that they didn't notice.

  There was no way he could take all of them out and even if he did the savagery with which the others were taken down, he could not compare to that. They took down his men with not only efficiency but did it in a very bloody manner. He took one final look around the room taking in everything that had transpired so far as he finally grounded his feet and put his blade out in front of him tilting his head up. "Enough talk its time that we settle things if I truly am the last standing then I must either win or die with a bit of honor."

  Glade let out a devious laugh. "Honor? You think you're going to die with honor?" She paused taking in a deep breath and exhaling. "Y'all have kept us here for an extremely long time and even though y'all's group of elites is new or newer you have no idea the amount of suffering that we have endured here. I am not going to do as my comrades have done and kill you quickly, efficiently, or any of that such nonsense. What I'm going to do is kill you with one thousand cuts to the body. This was something from our old world. I cannot remember who came up with it however it basically means that I will slash you one thousand times with my sword, and I would say from my personal understanding the last five to maybe ten slashes will start to become more and more fatal. The last one will not be a killing blow, but you will not move from where you drop and as the blood drains from your body you will get to feel at least even for a fleeting moment just a measure of how much pain and suffering you and your people have given to us throughout the time we have been here." Glade matched his stance pointing her sword forward. She hadn't had much training in sword combat and a longsword was a bit harder to use especially one handed, but she was going to do her best since there was no way she was going to be outdone by the others around her.

  In truth as far as their team went Eclipse and the others, she was the second in command. Eclipse is one of the smartest people in the room. However, Glade's ability to be grounded and think logically along with taking every single angle into consideration made her the more efficient thinker and planner. So, it was the personal guards second in command versus the elite's commander.

  Glade waited for a few moments wondering if the man was going to do anything. It had happened like this throughout all of the fights however there were a few that were reckless. The axe wielder. The sai user and towards the end the shield and electrified stun baton user. However, Glade figured the commander wasn't going to be that reckless and he had not done any moments up until this point. So, she was unsure of how he would attack or defend himself and making a move carelessly might put her in the same position as some of their fallen enemies.

  She let out an exasperated sigh tilting her head looking at the man. "Do you plan to do anything or are you suggesting you're a gentleman who allows the lady to make the first move?" She raised an eyebrow and then winked at him.

  He tightened the grip on his sword wondering if she was trying to bait him in for something. He shook his head trying to think. There was no reason for him to get thrown off balance like this obviously she didn't use a weapon and whatever her ability was it allowed her to make things out of minerals and natural materials. The fact that she just copied his blade probably met she had to see something in order to recreate it, but that was just a guess. "You know what? No, I'm not trying to be a gentleman and allow the lady to go first. We're both standing still here for the same reason. We have not seen how the other fights how they move or any such tactics. All I've seen from you is the ability to manipulate natural matter and scratch my face so you must be pretty fast, but I don't think your sword skill compares. Let's see if I'm correct." He switched his stance holding the handle with two hands as it should be. He brought it up right near the right side of his face turning the blade to Glade for a moment and then spinning it back with the blade facing out. He then brought it above his head and stepped forward with his left foot attempting to slash her from above.

  Glade smirked pushing her left foot back and bending her knee. She brought her right arm up with the blade and bent her elbow to receive the strike. It pushed her back a bit both legs slid a few inches backwards as she felt him push his blade onto hers.

  He was surprised for a moment to feel striking her conjured blade was vastly different from anything else he had ever fought against before. It didn't give or seem to smash, chip, or dent like a normal weapon would. He pushed down a bit harder locking eyes with Glade as he tilted his head to the side and finally showed a cocky grin. "What is that made out of, or the more important question might be what is your ability and why is your blade not taking any damage from strike?"

  Glade smiled glad to see that they were going to quote unquote practice a little bit before they both became serious. That move that he just did was not something that she had ever seen in person before however it was hard to read his movements. She rolled her eyes a bit pushing up with one hard versus his two-handed strike that she was defending against. She matched his grin and showed her teeth as she spoke. "This is not a normal forged weapon, so you are not going to be able to dent, bash, chip, or do any such damage to it because it is held together with my ability. Which is as long as it is touching me, I can continue to feed it. I'm a little bit disappointed that your strike was so mediocre."

  His eyes narrowed and the cocky grin disappeared. He slid his blade down hers until it came off of the point sliding on his feet a bit and spinning around as fast as he could bringing his sword back up in front of him to the center keeping both hands on the handle. He had tried for a two-handed strike not just to test her ability but to give her a little bit of his strength and she still deflected it with one hand which meant that despite her appearance she was rather formidable especially in strength. Maybe not as formidable as the Veronica woman behind him, but he was not going to take her lightly anymore.

  He had watched Valentina kill his second in command and the strike that she used one hand above the head with the left hand extended out. He was going to use a similar stance, but since he was two handed with his blade at the moment, he was going to do it that way. He turned his head to the side looking at her bringing the blade up switching from his right hand on top and his left on bottom putting his right hand on the bottom and his left hand on the top bringing the blade above his head and bending both his left and right knees extending his right leg out a bit. He looked at her gritting his teeth a bit as he spoke. "Prepare yourself woman it is time for a real strike." He lowered his stance just a little bit more putting his weight on his back right leg and thrust forward bringing his right foot around and then coming down again this time from the side trying to slash across her chest.

  Glade had moved a bit after the commander had brought his blade across hers to break the first strike as she watched him prepare for the second. She matched his stance quickly but instead of bringing her blade above her head she kept it down and in the middle. As he came towards her, she pushed her right leg back brought her arm up to chin level with the blade extending out and her elbow out she leaned back as the blade came down towards her and allowed it to come close to her. She pushed her blade up a bit to block and then as his body weight pushed down and his blade started to shave against hers again, she jumped backwards a bit. Because he was doing this with both of his hands and putting all his strength into the swing he spun around too far and was jumping on his right leg trying to regain his balance. As he spun, she brought her blade up and slashed at his back for her first strike. She made sure to avoid the spin and not give him a deep cut.

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  The man winced. "Argh!" Able to regain his balance stumbling a bit on his feet reaching the table. He slapped his left hand down on it switching his blade to his right and jamming the point into the table. He breathed heavily leaning against the table trying to catch his breath. He stood up to full height taking his left hand and reaching up to his back to feel the slash. There wasn't much blood. She was indeed going to cut him one thousand times. That one slash if she put enough force into it could've severed his spine or even cut him in half since her blade was a replica of his and he had done that before to an enemy. He knew that what she said before was true. He wasn't going to lose quickly and painlessly. He was going to feel every moment of it. He brought his hand down and while there was a little stain of red on his fingers he couldn't feel any blood dripping down his back at the moment.

  He looked up and saw the rifles. His head turned, but before he could even finish the thought a shot rain out and a bullet whizzed past the front of his face almost touching his nose as it buried itself into a wall in a corner of the room. He heard a cocking sound, and he turned his head to see Alexandria. The rifle was up and aimed in his direction and she was staring down the sight.

  Alexandria didn't want to steal any of Glade's thunder so all she did was extend her hand out from underneath the trigger and put up one finger basically telling him that was your one and only warning.

  Glade let out a playful laugh. "It seems as though my captain doesn't want to interfere with our fight however, I believe she's saying don't try that again unless you want to be shot." Glade took in a deep breath exhaling with a smile. "Now, where were we."

  He started to shake, and he was trying to compose himself but then he heard her bare feet on the floor.

  She stepped forward first with the left again with the right and then when she was stepping with the left foot she came down on him again with another slash aiming for his back shoulder. He tried to move, and he did get out of the way of the full force of the blade, but the tip of the blade hit his shoulder right above the bone and made the second cut. This time though because he had interrupted her move it went deep, and blood gushed out from the wound splashing in his face.

  He coughed a bit. "Argh!" Grabbing at the injury. "Damnit! You would strike me when my back was turned? Argh." He ripped off a piece of his cloak and wrapped it underneath his arm and around trying to make a bandage tying it tight with his left hand still trying to grasp his sword tightly with his right. Just before she had struck him, he had picked up his blade with his right hand from the table. His breathing became heavier as he turned to face her.

  Glade flicked the blade as she had seen others do so far and splashed the blood on the floor beside her. She extended her right arm with the blade almost inches from his face titled her head to the side and giggled. "Who said anything about being fair. I said you would suffer. Did I say you would do it fairly?" She took a step forward and slashed at him again this time quicker. She didn't need to step forward. He was within her range, and he was just about backed up to the table. So, he didn't have anywhere to run.

  He backed his stomach and hips up, but the blade still came down on his left side of the shoulder and cut him again. It was another cut that made three. However, Glade wasn't going to stand here and just allow him to keep dressing his wounds. His breathing became heavier. The first and third cuts were not that bad, but that second one that was not helpful that it dug into him as much as it did.

  Glade could see that he was starting to falter. She smiled and pulled back the blade behind her extending her left leg and keeping her right leg grounded. She looked at him and narrowed her eyes but still had a grin on her face as she spoke. "This may take too long, and you don't look so good. So, how about I do you a favor?"

  His eyes went wide. The grip on his sword in his right hand was faltering. The bandage that he had used was stained red. The blood had stopped but he had lost a good bit.

  As she stepped forward with her right foot spinning around and then started slashing at him. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. She spun around on one foot for a moment balancing herself flicking the blood off of the blade with the spin.

  Now she had administered thirteen cuts to him all shallow of course but now his gear, his clothes, and everything else around him was pretty messed up. He didn't even look like he had the strength to defend himself which was odd. He couldn't figure out why he was so tired aside from the loss of blood there was no reason for him to be... He stopped looking down at the floor. His vision was blurring a little bit, and he was having to use his left hand to brace against the table where she had kept him for the onslaught of strikes.

  His breaths became ragged. He bent his left leg trying to stretch it out. His right leg stayed straight as he leaned against the table. He looked up shallowing hard. "What the hell did you do?!"

  Glade let out a devious giggle. "It seems as though you have noticed. My weapon is made out of all sorts of minerals and materials that are seen in nature. Iron that's a big one however there is something else a poisonous plant that I didn't notice was poison until just now. Anything that is threating in nature cannot harm me. I use everything as nutrients that means my body can metabolize poisons. However, all of the components that I've been mixing into that ball to use for fighting well they have concentrated and all of those plants and sticks and other things that she's been given me over the years along with everything that I picked up off the floor and brushing my hands against the walls. You probably have maybe one or two heavy metal poisonings but then I believe there is a plant native to this island that causes dizziness and can make you faint. It's a shame really, we've only gotten a small portion of the way there and you can't even defend yourself. What should I do about that?"

  The room went silent for a moment. Glade needed to think. The man probably had lead poisoning, iron poisoning, nickel poisoning. She wasn't exactly sure how many different minerals and metals were inside that ball. It was mostly iron, but as she had just stated the sticks and other things from the island that were brought in mistakenly by the guards on their gear or shoes or anything like that. That they forgot about or didn't wash off or brought in because they thought it was something useful and it didn't turn out to be. Anything that the researchers tried to dispose of that they knew was bad was probably taken by Aurora and given to Glade. Which meant now she had to be very careful with who touched that ball at least for now because if any of them around her touched it they could get sick expect for maybe Aurora.

  Glade let out a sigh looking over at Alexandria. "Captain, what do you think? Should I give him more cuts? He is owed what eight hundred and eighty-seven more or should I just incapacitate him, and we can leave him here to die. That's a slow death. What do you think?"

  Alexandria raised an eyebrow. She wasn't going to move her firing position not at the moment anyway. It was a good question, and he did look like he was on his last legs. "Hmmm, Glade, I think you should do the latter incapacitate him and we'll put him up on the wall. That way when we come back, we can strip him of any valuable things that he has on his person along with collecting all the weapons and rifles from this room. I will allow you to decide how to incapacitate him but remember do not kill him."

  Glade smiled. She was so glad that Alexandria had made the choice not because she wasn't ready to make it but the way basically one of her first orders from the captain was, she felt exhilaration from it and now she had a great way to take him down. She walked up to him and as she did, she started to reform the blade into something else. It only took her a few steps to get to him and when she got there, she was holding what looked to be a baton similar to the ones used when walled city guards would go out and try to find ability users in settlements.

  She smiled down at him and tilted her head to the side. "Now I'm going to take you off your feet and then we're going to put you up on that wall over there, but you're going to get hit with this. So not only will you know how it feels to be suspended and suffer but you will also know how it feels to be captured just as you captured others. I hope you last a little longer because if you don't, I won't be happy." She raised the baton as he looked up his vision was blurry, and he didn't feel like he was going to die but he felt like he was about to pass out. It didn't matter though.

  Glade came down and smacked him right across the face. She didn't put too much force into it. When she hit him, she knocked two teeth out and he spewed them out of his mouth along with some saliva and blood.

  After the hit his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the ground in a heap. The fight with the elites was over and now after they either suspended him from the ceiling or hung him on the wall like a picture it was time for them to move on to the next room. They needed to gather themselves for a moment because these were the officers. They needed to get their targets attention and then allow Gale to get inside before any fighting started.