"Looks like she won’t be getting up anytime soon. What exactly happened to her?" Ace, Cherry, and Jim were in a separate room that had four regular human beds with soft blankets, sheets, and mattresses. In the center was a square table with five seats made for Ace, Cherry, Jim, Anya, and Skyler, who currently wasn’t in the room. In front of the table were five cylindrical tubes filled to the brim with the same green fluids they were almost always put in. The fifth tube was currently housing Anya who was unconscious at the moment. "Grim says she moved up a rank. The same thing that happened to you," Jim answered as he shared a meal with the blood-mutant siblings. After Ace informed them that blood mutants could also eat meat from freshly slaughtered animals, their palettes now consisted of blood and different-tasting meats from different species captured by the Granians. "Although Grim said hers had something to do with your blood in her. I’m not one hundred percent sure about everything else he said but it was along those lines." Official source ıs 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩•𝗳𝗂𝗋𝖾•𝕟𝕖𝕥 "Wait, so the same thing’s going to happen to us?" Cherry asked while munching on a large piece of raw bloody meat. "You already went through it, Ace and Anya followed. So, either me or Jim’s next, right?" "I guess so. Depends on certain things that I am yet to understand." Ace answered as he tried to figure out more about increasing ranks. "On Earth, I had this blood mutant form for about a month or two and when we battled against the Granians, my body sort of took over and ranked up on its own. I guess it happened because I was under immense pressure to win. Maybe that’s the same thing that happened to Anya. The creatures coming after her and her pent-up anger towards the Granians must have caused her great pressure which in turn caused her body, or blood gene, to upgrade." "So for me and Jim to upgrade or ’rank up’, we’ll have to be put in intense situations, right?" "I’m not so sure about that, Cherry. This is just a theory I have, alright? I’m yet to prove it but you could be right. Intense pressure could be a catalyst strong enough to push your body or blood gene into ranking up." In the midst of their discussion, Skyler walked into the room with bruises, bumps, and scars all over her body. Her red hair was a mess and reached past her backside, her hands had dirty bandages wrapped all the way to her elbows, and her legs had some minor cuts that, thankfully, were treated. Without even looking at the others, she slowly walked to her bed and sat on the edge while intertwining her fingers together. "Hey, Sky. Looks like you’ve been busy." Cherry greeted while chowing down on another large chunk of bloody meat. "Have you been training with that female Granian again?" "Yes and no," she answered, her voice being so low and lifeless that it bothered the blood mutants a little. "Those Granians are terribly strong. I have three beast forms that I can now freely and easily turn into, but no matter how hard I practice and practice and practice, I still can’t land a hit on them...Huntress is who I’m talking about by the way." "Who else are you training with?" Ace asked. "When asked, you said yes and no." "The Granians created a clone of myself to train with..." Skyler sighed while lying on her bed. "...it’s a mechanical clone that can turn into what I turn into but they tweaked out its settings. God I’m so exhausted." "There’s the other option...." Jim smirked while eyeing Ace and Skyler. The two stared at him with questionable expressions, wondering what he was going on about. "...You could turn her into a blood mutant." "No thank you." They both answered and then stared at each other for a moment before looking away. "I don’t want to drink blood for the rest of my life in these miserable conditions." "And I am not in the blood bishop rank yet. Who knows what type of blood mutant she’ll turn into? I don’t want to create something that I’ll have to put down later. Besides, Anya was bound to die if we didn’t do what we did. I know the Granians put her in that situation to make us formulate a way in which we’ll turn Anya." "If you get to the blood bishop rank, will you turn her into one of us?" Cherry asked, having finally finished eating. "That’s if you’re okay with it." "I’ll think about it." By the time the conversation ended, the blood mutants and Skyler decided to rest for the next eight hours until the Granians came to call them. As for the Granians, they were all busy preparing for the next mission the blood mutants were going to undertake. However, the difference with this conquest was the fact that Huntress, One Horn, and Grim were getting involved. The reason for this was simple. The planet they were heading into was once one of their trading colonies that housed billions of different life forms. The area acted as a galactical trading center where different life forms would travel to buy and sell whatever they wished. The items they’d trade included slave species, beasts of burden, precious gems, energy cores, precious stones, and amongst others. However, the Granians lost the planet to the Ethisians who, after conquering it, left to steal more planets from others. As the blood mutants and Skyler rested in their room, unaware of the upcoming mission led by Grim, Huntress, and One Horn, tension filled the air. The anticipation of what lay ahead weighed heavily on their minds. Meanwhile, aboard the Granian fleet, Grim, Huntress, and One Horn were preparing for the mission to reclaim their lost trading colony. One of the lead pilots in charge of controlling the Granian fleets had just informed them of their arrival, and they were making their final preparations. Grim, dressed in his signature black armor adorned with black scales with his sword sheathed to his left thigh, looked every bit the formidable warrior of the Granians. He turned to Huntress and One Horn, his voice cold and commanding. "In a few hours, please wake the humans up so that we can leave immediately," Grim ordered. He knew the importance of this mission and the need for swift action. Huntress, the fierce and relentless Granian warrior, also the only female warrior, couldn’t help but smirk at the thought of bringing Skyler along. She had been working on a secret project with the young Earthling, and she believed this mission might push Skyler to her limits. "I want my project to come along," Huntress declared, her sharp, seductive eyes locking onto Grim’s. "I feel like she’s making no progress, and this experience might put her in her place." One Horn, the usually silent and cautious Granian, raised an eyebrow in skepticism. He had reservations about bringing Skyler along, doubting whether she could keep up with the seasoned blood mutants. His primary concern, however, was the potential backlash that would come from Ace if anything happened to her. "Is she necessary to the mission?" One Horn questioned, his tone measured. "I doubt if she will be able to keep up with any of us or the others." Huntress, determined to see her project succeed, defended her stance and began to pout in front of Grim. " Please, my Lord, allow me to bring her along. I have a little faith in her. I’m still working on something with her and I’m hopeful that this experience will blossom her power so can I bring her along?" Grim relented, albeit reluctantly. "Fine, but she is your full responsibility. See to it that nothing wrong happens to her, otherwise, the boy will react violently to us all." With their roles and responsibilities clear, Grim, Huntress, and One Horn prepared to depart. The fate of the trading colony, and perhaps the fate of the entire mission, hung in the balance. The hours went by as if they were seconds. The blood mutants and Skyler were awakened and briefed about their next mission concerning the Granians and their trading colonies. After that, Skyler was given an armor set to protect her body from any harm that would befall her. The armor was actually a full-on body suit that hugged her body tight and showed all her features. The suit was flexible and free, allowing her to stretch as much as she wanted. It also had two slits under her armpits for her extra limbs to peer out of, in case she was to transform. Once she had put it on, the Granians gave her breathing fluid to allow her the ability to take in the area’s air that would be naturally intoxicating air. "We shall separate ourselves into groups of three." Grim declared authoritatively. "Huntress, you will go with Skyler and Cherry and come from the North. One Horn, you shall go with Jim and come from the west. I shall go with Anya and Ace and slowly make our way into the center of the colony’s metropolis. For the time being, we must be as stealthy as possible in order to keep the element of surprise. Do I make myself clear?"