What started as a simple fight to gauge each other’s strength escalated into something slightly unrelated to that. Ace and Lord Grim jumped at each other’s necks intending to knock the other out. Knowing the limits of the Human body, Lord Grim decided to hold back, only using eighty percent of his strength but even that still caused enough damage to the Blood Mutants. As for the Blood Mutant, the blocker wrapped around his neck acted as a hindrance to his abilities since he was at his strongest with his Blood Abilities. Now that he was limited to using his physical capabilities, Ace had no choice but to push his body to new heights while making sure to leave a mark on Lord Grim at least. "It’s a shame you blocked my Blood Abilities," the Blood Bishop taunted, still choosing to run circles around the Granian. "Maybe you’re still scarred by what Skyler did to your eye." "That was a lucky attack on her side," Grim grunted but he knew what the human was trying to do. "Trying to play with my emotions will not do you any favors, Human. Unlike you humans, most of us extraterrestrials feed off of rage which makes us stronger." "Like animals!" he replied and then landed four attacks at the same time on four random locations. "This is getting annoying," Grim hissed and knelt on the ground. As soon as Ace saw that, he quickly took a few leaps away from his opponent for he expected some long-ranged attack to occur. "What’s the matter, Human? Have you run out of ENERGY YET!!" Just as he had suspected, Grim unleashed a wide ranged attack involving his scales which flew in every direction. The Blood Bishop, using his quick senses and speed, dodged all of them but lost his sights on Grim who seemed to have vanished. ’A decoy!’ he mumbled to himself while scanning his surroundings. There was nothing but dust, sand, and mirages surrounding him. "Behind you!!" Grim’s voice crept into Ace’s ears, followed by a heavy kick to his back. The young man’s body was flung forward at full force with a burning sensation engulfing his muscles. The sudden jerking movement nearly knocked him out since his brain was slightly moved from its normal resting place. Nonetheless, the Blood Bishop was still in the fight, even though his body was under a violent force that moved him forward. Once again, Grim attacked the Blood Bishop with yet another kick to his abdominals. Using his shins, he spared the Human the trouble of having Granian scales dislodged within his body, a situation that would inevitably render him useless for a moment. Thinking it was over, Ace was hit with two fists to his back, forcefully digging his body into the ground. [Blood Step: Activated] Just as Grim was about to land his foot on Ace’s head, he found his body in midair, surrounded by a web of swirling blood sticking itself on his limbs. ’He broke the Blood Mutant Blocker?’ Grim’s heart began to pound in his chest as genuine fear engulfed his body. His green eyes glared at the Mutant’s red glowing eyes but that wasn’t the most frightening bit. ’He’s glowing. His body’s glowing!! When did he...learn Eneraflux.’ The look of fear on the Granian’s face brought immense joy to Ace’s heart. Right now, the ball was in his court. He had the power to determine whether Grim could continue to live or not...that was if he had the strength to end Grim’s life there and then. [Blood Control Skill: Canceled] Canceling his Blood Control Skill, Ace let Grim back on the ground but he wasn’t ending the fight just yet. In his hands, he held his Coagulant Daggers which came with their additional stats. Standing still, Ace affirmed an offensive and defensive position and waited patiently for Grim to attack. The Granian, on the other hand, was beyond frightened at how easily the human broke the Blood Mutant blocker. Those items were the only things ensuring the safety of him and his kind so seeing the human break it easily changed his dynamic. ’It’ll take them a while before they’re strong enough to kill us,’ he tried speaking words of reassurance to himself, but it made things worse instead. ’but if he’s at this level and managed to break through the blocker, will we be able to control him and the others when they’re stronger?’ "I admire the strength you have acquired, Human," he shrugged off his insecurities and approached Ace with boldness. "Your growth shows us that we can win this war and you along with your comrades will return to your planet afterwards...." "I know very well that you do not plan on taking us back to Earth," Ace interrupted, having already known beforehand about the Granians and their goals. "I’m more than certain that you said the same thing to the first Blood Mutants you had, correct?" "We did make that promise, but they refused to accept our deal and, in the process, our enemies stole them from us." He replied, mixing the truth with lies to create a somewhat sympathetic story. "You have my word, Ace. When we are done with you, we shall return you to your Planet." "Enough talk," he shrugged after feeling uncomfortable for a while. "Shall we finish what we started?" "No," Grim sternly responded, disappointing Ace and Cherry who looked forward to a more climactic ending. "That will be all for now...." "Don’t you think that’s unfair on my end?" he questioned bitterly, angered by how the Granian opted out of the fight simply because the Blood Mutant broke the thing that limited his full abilities. "Wouldn’t it be better for me to use all my strength on you? An alleged elite warrior that even the Ethisians fear?" "I know when to fight and stand down," Grim admitted before walking away from Ace. "I know you are strong, especially when you get into that Blood Mutant form but I am standing down not for my sake, but for yours. I do not know how I well I’ll be able to control myself from killing you." For more chapters visıt 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⟡𝕗𝗂𝗋𝖾⟡𝕟𝕖𝕥 Grim’s words made sense and at the same time didn’t. on one hand, there was the disturbing request he made to challenge the Blood Mutant, despite him having heard of his accomplishments on the battlefield. However, on the other hand, there was the underlying truth concerning his ability to not kill the Blood Mutant. His words continued to affect Ace, making him question whether the Granian was scared of his Blood Abilities or scared that he would kill the Mutant. "I hope that one day we will have a real fight that will satisfy you and I," Grim finalized. "Until then, I expect greater things from you, same for your sister. If only the same determination that rests upon you befell your comrades Jim and Anya. It would be easier on our side and yours." "Wait, since you’re backing out of this, does it mean she’s not going to fight me as well?" Cherry asked and hoped for a satisfactory answer. The time she wasted watching Grim and Ace exchange blows would have been used to perfect her Blood Cloning skills. "You better give me something that’ll be equivalent to what you two went through because this has been a HUGE WASTE OF TIME!!!" "You could face each other." Huntress chimed, sitting next to the Mutant with her eyes closed. "Brother versus sister. A test of pure and raw strength. You two could go against each other to learn from each other, help each other improve, and gauge where you both stand when paired against each other." "Don’t be foolish," Cherry glared and sneered and decided to walk away. "We all know that Ace is stronger than all of us so me fighting him will be as useless as a regular human fighting a young Granian." In the end, the two Blood Mutants had wasted their time interacting with the Granians. In the end, Cherry was left to handle training on her own for a while as Ace took a little bit of time to rest and rethink what had happened. While doing so, he went back to when he broke the limits of the Blood Mutant blocker. At that moment, Ace didn’t know what came over him. One moment, he was holding his ground against a charging Granian and in the next, he found himself manipulating Grim in a spiraled blood trap. "How did you do it?" Cherry asked while creating, destroying, and then recreating her Blood Clones repeatedly. "You broke through the Blood Mutant Blocker and used your Blood Abilities. Why didn’t you kill him there and then? It’s one of your goals, right?" "I don’t know how but...I think I’m slowly breaking its limits," he formulated a hypothetical answer. "could be caused by the new strength I’ve achieved or maybe it broke off during the fight. Also, I’d rather fight and kill Grim when he’s giving it his all. He was in a vulnerable position and if I killed him, it would mean hell for all of us." "Until then," Cherry sighed, "let’s push each other to become stronger than these damned Granians so that killing them will become a breeze."