The Four Blood Mutants found themselves surrounded by creatures hiding within the rocks in the second layer of the mountain. Given that they refused to rest, the Blood Mutants did not recognize that they had been walking very quickly for very long and miraculously found themselves at the second layer of the mountain. As soon as they got there, Ace noticed an unsettling presence surrounding them and scanned the area using his system scan skill. After noticing that there were signs of life, he quickly alerted the others while preparing himself to attack. Jim and Anya decided to use weapons made from blood, while Cherry and Ace used their claws to practice their blood skills. After all, the whole point of the training phase was to help the Mutants strengthen their blood skills. "I see one." Cherry pointed at a creature shaped like a dog just as Ace had said. However, the creature’s skin was as dark and rough as the rocks surrounding it, and various parts of its body were covered with them. Its stubby legs were reinforced with pebbles which the beasts curved and sharpened into long claws. {Species Name: Drof.} {Strength: Tough, thick layer of skin. Almost little to no blood within.} Official source ıs 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⁂𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⁂𝔫𝔢𝔱 {Weaknesses: Stubby legs which impair their movement and slow down their agility.} "Be careful, these things don’t have any blood in them." Ace warned before going in to attack. Cherry dashed before her brother, stretching her claws onto the beast’s chest. Since Ace warned that they had no blood within, she decided to inject them with her blood to blow them up from the inside. "We’ve got more coming." Jim said and quickly got to work. He and Anya handled the beasts from the front while the siblings handled those from the back. The creatures weren’t much of a fight, but they certainly were great in numbers. The corpses racked up from a mere ten to almost fifty with more still heading their way. "How many of these things are there?" Cherry asked while ripping the head off of a beast. "No matter how many we kill, they just keep showing up." The Mutants killed more of the beasts for over ten minutes and realized how their numbers started to reduce. This allowed them to slowly move forward until they were sure that there were no more beasts would appear. "I think that’s all of them." Ace said. "These creatures were naturally suited for this environment. Having rocks on their bodies allows them to hide in plain sight. "Yeah, thanks for pointing out the obvious, Einstein." Cherry teased. "Shame they didn’t have blood though, I wanted to try out that explosive blood technique on them." "We’ll find more up ahead." Ace said. "There’s still more ahead of us." The Mutants slowly and carefully moved ahead, their focus heightened for they expected creatures to jump out at them. As they moved, they’d find the same Drof beasts which, at this point, were easy to kill like stepping on a cockroach. After a few more minutes of walking, Ace stopped in his tracks and scanned the area once more, and that was when his system decided to act up again. [System Scan Skill Unavailable.] "Great." He sighed heavily. "We’re completely in the dark now. I can’t scan the area anymore." "Then we should call it a night." Jim brought back the idea of resting, and this time, his comrades admitted to feeling quite exhausted. "I’m sure we’re all tired after killing those beasts." "They weren’t much of a fight really." "Yeah, but their numbers were exhausting," Cherry grumbled. "I’m with Jim. We should call it a night. My body’s starting to get tired." Jim grinned and led the mutants to a small cave made from three large boulders that leaned against each other. Anya, Cherry, and Ace rested for a couple of hours while Jim decided to take the first watch of the night. ’Have no idea how long this planet’s nights are but I’ll take the first watch." He said while sitting on top of the boulders with his staff gripped tightly in his hand. A moment passed, and Ace, who had failed to fall asleep, joined Jim on top of the boulder. The two stared at each other in awkward silence before Jim decided to start a conversation. "It must be nice having your sister with you." He said while staring into the night sky. Close to no stars were visible, so him staring was as good as looking into a black, empty hole hoping to see something interesting. "You two seem to relate with each other." "We have to," Ace answered, "She’s the only family member I have." "Yup." Ace sighed as he ran his fingers through his curly hair. "Did your parents die young or...." "They disappeared." Ace quickly answered with no emotion in his voice. "One day when I was six, they were called for work and never returned. The company they worked for was shut down because they failed to explain what happened to them. Turns out, my parents were not the only ones who went ’missing’. Ever since then, my sister and I were transferred from foster home to foster home until we found a nice family that took us in." "Oh, well that’s sort of...interesting." "What about you, Jim? Do you have a family back on Earth?" "My old man sent me to the military as soon as I turned eighteen. When I came home one day, I found out they moved somewhere else and didn’t feel it was important to let me know so I guess they just didn’t want me around. After that, I decided to dedicate my life to ArkVille’s Military until the day I died. Now look where I am. A monstrous creature," he transformed his hand into a golden blood claw. "With the ability to drain blood out of any creature with it. Isn’t that neat?" Once again, the awkward silence returned until Jim decided to break it, again. "After the Granians have used us for their war, how do you plan on escaping?" He sincerely questioned for this was a recurring thought that for some reason refused to leave his mind. "Escape and go where?" Ace answered the question with a question of his own. "Earth?" "Don’t you think they’ll come looking for us? Besides, even if we find out where exactly we are and how to get back home, the Granians won’t make it easy for us to make it back. Let’s say for some miraculous miracle we get back, what’s stopping them from coming to get us back? They already know where we come from so..." "I see your point." Jim answered. "But are you seriously going to stick around to find out what will happen to us after the Granians have no use for us?" "I don’t plan on doing that." Ace stared at Jim with a distinct look in his eye. "After they have put us through all of this intense training, I plan on killing every last one of them. After all, they killed lots of humans just so they could come back with four of us, so why not return the favor?" "Impossible." "Oh, but on the contrary, it is." Ace smiled and went on to share his viewpoint. "Notice what we’re wearing on our necks, correct? These Granians are scared of us. Since they cannot have this power for their own, they decided to weaponize us, but what happens when the weapon you created to fight for you is no longer in your control?" "You decide to destroy it." "Good answer. Also tell me, why do you think the Granians want us?" "It’s because they’re scared of the other Blood Mutants." Anya joined in the conversation, although realistically speaking, she had overheard almost everything the two had said. "The Ethisians ruined the Granian’s plan for conquering this galaxy by stealing their Blood Mutants. Now, their original weapons have become too strong for them to control so they’re using us instead." "The interesting thing is, they use these blockers on us whenever we’re close to them. They’re still scared of us, terrified that one day we will become too strong for them to control." Ace continued to explain. "But there’s a loophole in this." "In order for us to be able to win this war for them, we must become stronger than the Blood Mutants they cannot control anymore." Anya answered, having pieced the dots together. "Once that fear sets in for them, it’ll be too late." Ace ended. "Unless if they have a plan on ’taming’ us. But I doubt if any of us are going to allow that to happen." "I never thought of it that way." Jim answered and remained in silence, clearly impressed by Ace’s reasoning. Having been a military combatant himself, Jim used that aspect and pieced the dots for himself too, seeing the error in the Granian’s plan. However, all of this seemed too oddly easy and uncomfortable to Jim, leading him to end with one final statement. "The Granians must have already taken this into consideration which means they already have a plan for it." He said, bursting Ace and Anya’s bubble. "Don’t you think they already have a backup plan for when that happens?"