[Location: The top of a cold, mountainous plateau] Ace, Cherry, Skyler, Chris, and a few other Granians approached the first settlement on the planet. Just as the description noted, it was taken over by Ethisians who had commanded its inhabitants to place every important mineral, material, and set of goods into their ships. It was more like a robbery than a hostile takeover since the Ethisians did not set up any of their command posts signifying their control over the planet. "They’re stealing our resources," Chris and the other Granians complained, not knowing that they sounded ridiculous to the Humans who failed to see what the Granians saw. "Don’t you people do the same to this planet’s inhabitants?" Skyler asked and together with the others waited for a rhetorical response. "We only take what we need and also trade with them, provide supplies for them, and protection too," the Granian replied, somehow managing to justify what the Granians did. "The enemy’s just taking everything from them." Giving the signal, the Granians surrounded the Ethisians, each having their weapons drawn at the enemy and their spaceships making sure they wouldn’t succeed at any attempts to escape. "Ethisians," Chris spoke in a commanding tone, hoping to come to a mutual agreement rather than shedding blood and losing lives from both sides. "Cease your actions at this moment and we will spare your lives. If you do not, we will have no choice but to...." A blast was fired at Chris, who quickly dodged it at the last moment. Since the Ethisians fired the first shot, it was a direct declaration of war, forcing the others to open fire as well. The Blood Mutants and Skyler remained behind, seeing no need to take part at the moment since the Ethisians were outnumbered on a ratio of 6:2. With their superiority in terms of numbers, the Granians managed to ground the Ethisians first before attacking them head-on. Surprisingly the war began to escalate, the Ethisians using their superior size and durability to withstand most of the Granian attacks. For the sake of the inhabitants, the Granians pushed the Ethisians away from the settlements and onto the empty surfaces of the plateau. Once there, the war waged on at a full scale, both sides fighting at full capacity. Before the Granians knew it, the Ethisians quickly reduced their numbers, bringing the ratio closer to 4:2. "Please, will you get involved?" Chris asked the Mutants and Skyler, hoping that they would pitch in and help ensure Granian victory. "I’ll let you guys take this one," Skyler announced, choosing to sit back and focus more on her Eneraflux. Knees crossed and fists together, she engulfed her body in Eneraflux energy, a form of meditation training aimed at increasing her input and output of the energy. "I’ll take half, you’ll take half?" Cherry suggested and Ace agreed. Neither transformed, but instead let their Blood Clones do the fighting for them. Cherry created thirty-five Clones from her own blood and the blood of the deceased Granians and Ethisians. As for Ace, he opted to attack with his own hands. No weapons or tools. Just him, his strength, and his Blood Skills. [Blood Sprint: Activated] Starting with speed, Ace chose to gradually climb up the scale of abilities and power, depending on how much he’d be overwhelmed. If he were faced against ten Ethisians all at once, he’d then use weapons to aid, but if it was only five, he would only use his raw strength and a few skills. Approaching the first Ethisian, the Blood Bishop used his hand and pushed away the weapon, sliding at the last moment with a blow to its leg. With his high strength stat came devastating blows strong enough to shatter bone which was exhibited. The Ethisian stumbled down, placing its head in an easier-to-reach position for the Mutant. Quickly, the Blood Bishop spun and kicked its head out of place, killing it instantly. [Mana Extraction: Activated] [Mana: 15,416/16,000>>>>15,436/16,000] "Blood Essence, Manifest." [+1 Conjured Blood Warrior.] [Blood Warriors: 287>>289] Opting not to acquire the help of his Blood Warriors yet, Ace chose to attack by himself instead and increase his numbers. Unfortunately, their numbers were too few for him to waste the Emberwyrm on but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to use the chance to grow stronger. Meanwhile, Cherry had already transformed, using her Blood Clones to cause distractions as she delivered the fatal blows. The more she killed, the more clones she created, and the more clones she created, the more she killed. A cycle that repeated itself. To add to her strength were the Coagulant Daggers gifted to her by her brother. The weapons were more useful to her than Ace and the more she used them, the quicker she grew accustomed to them and her Blood Abilities. [+20 Mana Extracted] x13 [Mana: 15,436/16,000>>>>15,696/16,000] [+13 Blood Warriors.] "Fall Back!!" the Granians gathered and moved back, having accepted their early defeat. Just as the Granians were about to pursue them, Ace stopped them in their tracks, seizing the opportunity for him to teach Cherry a new technique. [Blood Harvest Gauntlets: Equipped.] "I want to show you something," he spoke to her, stretching his hands outward with a red glow enveloping his body. "This will be an exhibit for and catalyst to push you to increase your Blood Manipulation, Blood Control, and Blood Strength." "You’ll be able to drain as much blood as you want in just one move." [All Blood Abilities have been increased by Two Levels.] [Your Blood Strength has been increased by Four Hundred Points.] [Blood Strength: Level 3>>>Level 5] [Blood Drain: Level 1>>> Level 4] [Blood Control: Level 1>>> Level 4] Envisioning the ability he wanted to pull off, Ace focused his strength through his body and Blood Harvest Gauntlets and pictured the ability into fruition. Slowly but steadily, his muscles tensed together, sweat dripped from his forehead, and his breathing slowly accelerated. For a whole minute, he only grunted and breathed heavily, the red glow on his body increasing in quantity and brightness. Gradually, every drop of spilled blood on the icy plateau drew closer to his body and then shot at the Ethisians making a retreat. The blood, almost enough to fill a large pool, penetrated through the Ethisian bodies and caused them to bleed, but it wasn’t enough to kill them. Still running, the Ethisians were caught unaware by a strong force that overwhelmed their bodies. All of a sudden, their bleeding wounds grew larger with channels of blood flowing out of them like water flowing from a faucet. The Granians and the planet’s inhabitants watched in horror as one individual singlehandedly drained the blood of their enemies in an instant, doing it as easily as breathing. Even Cherry marveled at the feat, wondering how long it took for the Blood Bishop to learn the ability. However, looking at Ace, she noticed the strain the ability had on his body. His breathing became heavier than normal, his muscles tensed to the point where his bones nearly broke. [Congratulations: You have killed eighty-nine Ethisians in one go, truly putting the Blood Harvest Gauntlets to use as per their description.] [+100 Brutality Points.] [ +20 Mana extracted] x89 [Mana: 15,696/16,000>>>>17,476/16,000] [Blood Mana: Lv3>>>>Blood Mana: Lv4: 17,476/32,000] [+89 Blood Warriors.] [Blood Warriors: 299>>>388] ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✶𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲✶𝗻𝗲𝘁 [Level 96: 617/690]>>>Level 99: 617/720] [All Stats have been increased by three points.] [+50 Blood Strength.] [Blood Strength:355>>>>405] [+100,000 Blood Coins.] [You have exerted your body.] ’How’s this possible?’ Ace wondered, failing to understand why his health points had reduced. It was perfectly understandable that his Energy points were reduced but it didn’t explain why his Health Points did the same. And unfortunately, there was no explanation from his system. [Congratulations: You have moved up a Rank.] [Current Rank: Centurion; Leader of Many.] [New Rank: Senior Centurion; Master of the Triplex.] "Incredible...frightening, but incredible..." Cherry indirectly cheered, even though she was partially frightened by Ace’s display of strength. "...how long did it take you to learn that?" "This is the first time I’ve attempted performing it," he answered while taking a few moments to rest. As he did so, the Granians slowly inched away from him and removed the contents of the Ethisian ships, returning the times that were stolen. In the process, some of the planet’s inhabitants argued and complained, fearing for their lives due to Ace’s presence. Seeing him drain that much blood and end the lives of that many creatures at once did not settle well with them. "It’s best we move on to the next area," Chris approached the Mutants, having sensed the hostility from those around them. "We still have a long day ahead of us and I doubt we’ll be able to complete everything at this pace." And so the Granians and Humans moved onto the next area of the icy planet, trekking along the cold, icy surface while keeping an eye out for any lingering Ethisians...which they managed to find. "We need reinforcements," judging by the size of the Ethisian troops waiting for them, Chris called for more reinforcements to join them in battle for he felt as though these were the majority of the Ethisians on the Planet. As for Ace, he was notified of something much more sinister happening in the background. [You have discovered One New Rank of Ethisian.] ’A new rank?’ he wondered while tracing the Ethisians with his eyes, failing to notice the new ranked one his system notified him of. Skyler, on the other hand, had already sensed its presence with her Eneraflux, quickly warning the two Blood Mutants immediately. "There’s a strong one among them," she warned, pinpointing their exact location. "I’d say one that’s as strong as One Horn...or maybe even Lord Grim." [Quest: Attempt to defeat the Ethisian with your current strength by any means possible.]