[Mission: Travel twenty kilometres north and regain the Etil Mine. Be cautious for the planet is filled with hostile and wild life forms.] Ace, Cherry, Jim, and Anya, the four humans turned into Blood Mutants, were currently on a colonized planet that acted as a mine for the Granians. The planet, one of the three sister planets, had large metallic pillars that stretched as far as they could into the cold, red skies, with smoke coming out of them. If one listened carefully, they would hear the sound of machinery moving and distinct chatter coming from the intelligent life forms that inhabited the planet. At the moment, the three blood mutants had their own panels that gave them their mission objectives. At first, Ace thought that the Granians had implanted systems like his into his colleagues but came to find out that they were nothing more than simple mission objective systems that would provide them with the information needed to complete their mission. Looking around them, the blood mutants studied their planet and noticed how similar it was to the one that was once created in the simulation chamber. The red skies, red ground, cold and thin air, and weak sun were all so familiar that the three blood mutants – Ace, Cherry, and Jim – adapted to it easily. Anya, on the other hand, was still finding it hard to cope with the sudden change in environment as she did not go through the simple training the others went through. Thankfully, she had the mission objective system, or MOS, to help her get through. If that did not work, the others were there to help and give her the guidance she needed, that is, if she would not get too angry to listen. "Are the rest of you seeing this?" Jim asked as he tried scrolling the panel. The piece of technology was rather fascinating to him. "This thing is fascinating." "Is this what your system’s like?" Cherry asked as she too tried to scroll, only to end up disappointed once she learned that her physical fingers could not make contact with it. "Sort of," Ace answered as he activated his own system to check his stats. Having remembered his own system mentioning something about his increased stats, the young blood mutant was eager to find out just how much he had improved in terms of strength. [Name: Ace Underwood] [Strength: 48 >>> 53] [Blood Strength: 55/10 Blood Points to Upgrade to the Next Class] [Your blood bank’s full.] [Your blood inventory’s empty.] [You have indirectly turned 2/5 blood mutants.] ’Five points for each stat! Interesting,’ Ace thought to himself while observing the rest of the achievements he had earned so far. However, the blood mutant couldn’t fully enjoy them ever since Grim had told him that he and the others were not as strong compared to regular blood mutants. ’I wonder how much damage I can inflict at this level.’ While still lost in his thoughts, Anya wondered if she was heading in the direction her MOS was indicating. Without saying a word or batting an eye at the others, Anya moved calmly while increasing her speed with each step. Following her lead, the others started moving forward, mentally preparing themselves as they didn’t know what to expect. "Anyone got a plan for how we’re gonna do this?" Anya finally spoke, her voice sounding distant and cold. "You three have had your training. What creatures do you expect to find here?" "We’re not sure," Cherry answered, recalling the different creatures she had battled back on the ship. "If what Grim said was true, they must be extremely low tiered, so there’s nothing for us to fear." "We still need a plan," Anya insisted. "We cannot just barge in without purpose. It’ll be a waste of energy and time." "You’re right," Jim agreed. "For now, we should all stick together because we do not know what we are going up against." "Whatever you’re deciding," Ace spoke up while using his system scan skill and noticed multiple lifeforms heading their way, "You better make it quick. We’ve got a lot of company about to converge on us." "Hundreds... maybe even close to thousands." The ground rumbled violently as a thick dust cloud approached the four blood mutants steadily. Looking ahead, they noticed an unsettling number of creatures running over each other just to get to them. The creatures were the same horrendous devil-looking life forms Jim had fought on his own back on the ship. Their long legs, long bony arms, skinny bodies, tight skin, and lifeless eyes momentarily frightened Anya as the others prepared to battle them. Since Jim was the one who had experience with them before, he was told to lead the way while Cherry and Ace provided support. "You can stay behind us and observe if you like," Ace said to Anya, but she ignored him and instead ran after the creatures. Feeling no fear anymore, the female blood mutant charged headfirst as her body transformed. ’But....I just thought we agreed to stick together.’ Anya’s veins bulged and popped, with her own blood covering her. Her height increased by three extra feet while her body became slightly slimmer but more muscular at the same time. Her hair wrapped around the base of her neck while blood completely covered every inch of her. With her hands folded in, her back bent forward, and her legs evenly spread, Anya opened her mouth as wide as she could and let out an incredibly loud and terrifying scream. Her scream was so powerful that the ground beneath her shattered into pieces. The force produced by her scream was so great that the other blood mutants were able to see shifts and ripples forming in the air. "Such power!!" Jim and Cherry marveled as they witnessed the wave created by Anya’s scream heading towards the creatures. Blood, guts, and body parts splattered in every direction with Anya’s scream being the root cause. Some of the creatures that survived did so only having lost a limb or a large chunk of flesh. "That’s our cue, guys," Jim said as he too transformed into his golden blood mutant form. Ace starred at the man with his hands held in a defeated position, for he was the same person that said they should stick together. Letting out a roar of his own, he quickly darted towards the creatures with his hands stretched out. Thanks to Anya’s scream, he was able to gather a great deal of blood and turn it into individual blood tendrils. He then wasted no time and quickly slashed and sliced bodies repeatedly, making sure not to leave any creature standing. However, even though he killed many, most would just regenerate and come back even stronger. This was a strong reminder to the golden blood mutant that these creatures were not mere clones. Meaning that they were more vicious, much stronger, faster, and healed quicker than what he fought. "We can’t let them have all the fun, right?" Cherry grinned at her brother as she started to transform as well. "Are you coming?" "Yeah, I-I’m coming..." Ace answered, still mesmerized by Anya’s terribly awesome and powerful scream. "How did she get that powerful that quickly? Do certain people become different blood mutant types?" Unknown to Ace, the reason behind Anya’s strength was because of him. Since he already had a powerful symbiote, gained a certain level of energy, and exercised his blood gene, his own blood, mixed with an already powerful catalyst, boosted the woman’s transformation and gave her immense power in the process. Anya also had a symbiote of her own, even though it wasn’t at the same level as the others. [Quest Available: EXP Hunting.] [Use this opportunity to put your training to good use. Kill as many creatures as possible. Remember, you can now earn stat points for every new type of blood you consume.] [Creatures Killed: 0] ’Let’s approach this smartly, Ace,’ he thought to himself as the others jumped straight into the storm of creatures. ’We can either turn into a blood mutant, or you can use your blood powers. Either way, you’ll have to kill these damned bastards.’ With his mind made up, Ace chose to remain in his human form to not be as dependent on his blood mutant form as he used to be. This would come in handy if the next enemies he’d fight possessed blood mutant blockers. This also meant that he was more vulnerable to attacks since his body did not have as much protection as possible. Either way, his goal at the end was to finish off the creatures and collect as much experience points as possible. [Partial Transformation: Activated.] [Blood Sprint Skill: Activated.] [Blood Weapon Skill: Activated.] Ace chose these three skills for a reason. Partial transformation on specific parts of his body offered protection as well as buffed up his attacks. Blood Sprint would allow him to move around at great speeds, enabling him to attack and dodge quickly. Lastly, the blood weapon skill would allow him to create whatever sort of weapon he wanted with the given amount of blood he had. With that set, Ace was now ready to engage in battle alongside the others. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs 𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅•𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾•𝗇𝖾𝗍