Cold, icy winds blew on the planet’s unforgiving surface. Bitter slaps of tiny ice particles rested on the Granians, Ethisians, and Humans’ flesh with temperatures starting to drop as each minute passed. The sun, shining dimly, did not offer any warmth at any degree, only doing the job of keeping the area well-lit. The winds picked up in pace and speed, blowing specks of dust clouds of snow and ice. It’s like the environment of the planet sensed the incoming tension that was about to spawn between the two races about to go to war. It was amusing and surprisingly coincidental. On the Ethisian’s side, two powerful beings led the others to war, and on the Granian’s side, three powerful beings were led to war by the others. Both sides had interesting battle demographics and different line-ups in terms of battle tactics. For the Granians, war weapons, vehicles, and machines were at the front with air support hovering above them. At the back of the weapons were slightly smaller machines built and designed to protect the larger ones. And then behind those smaller machines were the Granian soldiers ready to assist in case anything backfired. Unlike the Ethisians who relied on their superior strengths, body size, and power, the Granians used artificial weapons like blasters, plasma cannons, and more to inflict damage on their enemies but that didn’t warrant them not to carry backup tools to use in battle. It was often that their weapons wouldn’t be as effective as they envisioned so they would still have to rely on the old school weapons. If only humans did the same. Meanwhile, the Ethisian battle lineup was quite interesting. Their pride and confidence in their abilities and strengths blinded them, making them only use their bodies and tools instead of having machines fight by their side. Knowing that the Granians were slightly ahead of them in terms of technology, the Ethisians dedicated their time, life, and energy to increasing the durability of their bodies. This update ıs available on 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵·𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮·𝓷𝓮𝓽 However, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t go into battle with extra precautions. The Ethisians were certainly strong but their bodies were not indestructible. They could still get hurt so they’d move with shields in the form of plasma coatings that would provide some form of defense to a certain extent. Such defensive measures were brought out during fights with enemies that relied on technology instead of raw strength. "Ready the weapons," Chris gave way to the more experienced Granian commanders, allowing them to lead the others in battle as he focused more on the Blood Mutants and Skyler. Upon giving orders, the first line row of heavy weapons buzzed, hissed, vibrated, and echoed, their mechanic components charging up and readying themselves to fire. "FIRE!!" The first shot was fired at the charging Ethisians and upon landing, a small number of them were killed in an instant. Shots were fired repeatedly, and the War began with the Ethisian numbers slowly reducing but quickly advancing. With each line of Ethisians had double the number behind them so if one row was wiped out, two more would step up to take their place. This tactic, matched with their speed, allowed them to arrive in the middle of the battlefield until they were close enough to lash their weapons at the Granian war machines. Ace, Cherry, and Skyler stood at a different angle, allowing them to witness the two sides clashing into each other. Not focused on the regular fighters in the meantime, the Humans were more interested in the stronger entities whose presence was sensed by Skyler and Ace. It was so intense and nerve-racking that they couldn’t afford to waste time and energy on the other Ethisians, unless if they felt the need to. ’That presence was intense...I almost felt it choking me from my chest upwards,’ Ace grimaced, feeling a little threatened by it but at the same time slightly excited. Actually, excited was the wrong word for it. He was thrilled, bursting with much anticipation for the incoming fight. For a moment, the Blood Bishop had forgotten that this was war and not some form of game. If he died, there was no second chance, no respawn, no reversal of time to bring him back. He needed to be careful but that wasn’t on his list at the moment. "Let’s move in, help assist the others," Skyler suggested and the Mutants agreed. The Gifted Human slowly shifted, her body turning into a new beast neither of the siblings had seen before. ’Oh, that reminds me,’ going into his Blood Inventory, Ace handed Skyler a chunk of the Emberwyrm’s flesh before her transformation was complete, hoping that it would do her any good. "This was from the beast we encountered on the Hunting trip," he said, placing the large chunk of flesh in her palm. "It’s quite a strong creature so it might be able to give you a strong form." The red-haired woman consumed the flesh and to the other’s surprise, she didn’t fall to the ground in pain as her body registered the DNA information. Instead, her skin partially shifted to the Emberwyrm’s scales before reverting to normal again. With a grateful smile, Skyler looked at Ace and thanked him saying, "I’m grateful for this. Though I might not use it now. All of my forms took me lots of training time to get used to so this might come as a last resort." Now that that bit was settled, Skyler continued with her transformation, taking the form of an almost Eastern-like dragon with four legs at the front, two at the back, and a long tail nearly half the length of half her body, which was quite long. Her skin had an oceanic blue texture with the scales glittering under the ice planet’s dim sunlight. Her head was shaped like a mixture of a crocodile and monitor lizard but not in a horrifying way, more graciously and stunningly. On the sides of her legs, arms, and body were light, thin, and transparent flaps which acted as her ’wings’, allowing her to perform the next thing she was about to do. Taking flight, Skyler roared mightily and powerfully, stunning some of the Ethisians with a fearful scowl on her face. Immediately, her mouth began to light up with a bright blue glow, releasing a mighty gush of energy at her enemies down below. "Well damn," Cherry cheered, surprised at how strong Skyler had become. "I got to hand it to One Horn. He surely knows how to turn a weakling into an energy breathing...dragon, I guess?" "Yeah..." Ace marveled, remaining impressed at Skyler’s newfound strength. "I wonder what kind of beast she had to kill to get that form. It looks powerful." "Meh, the dragon you killed looked more terrifying," the Blood Knight mumbled and then proceeded to join the Granians in battle, leaving her brother who was admiring Skyler’s beast form. Snapping out of it, the Blood Bishop consumed some more blood to restore his lost energy and prepared to join the others as well. With all of his stats restored, the Blood Bishop and the Blood Knight had finally prepared themselves for battle. Cherry, using the Coagulant Daggers her brother gave her, created about thirty clones that mimicked her to the point where they had daggers of their own. Blood was plenty on the battlefield so she didn’t have to worry about losing energy or clones at all. As for Ace, he wore his Blood Harvest Gauntlets and looked straight ahead at the incoming Ethisians. He had lots of options on the table on how he’d handle the battle. Either he’d fight them fist-on-fist or he could use his army of Blood Warriors to do so, although it would be revealing his trump card too quickly. ’Maybe the Warriors will be used in an emergency.’ It was also of no point involving his Blood Mutant form since he was confident in his new strength, and only needed it in case the situation intensified. With those options out of the table, he chose to do to these Ethisians what he did to the last. Beat them one at a time with his Blood Manipulation abilities. [Blood Weapon Skill: Activated] [Weapon Type: Sword.] [Blood Type: Molten Emberwyrm blood.] "I knew this blood would be of use," he smiled while beholding the beauty of his new iron sword. The weapon, forged by himself with the blood of the Emberwyrm, glistened and twinkled under the icy planet’s sun, having a shiny luster to it. It was light enough to be wielded swiftly and meticulously, sharp enough to cut through bone, and durable enough to withstand attacks. If it were any larger, the Mutant would have used it to create an armor set, a possibility for him since he had more than enough blood for that. After admiring his latest weapon’s collecting, he joined the others and began to perform his duty. With superior speed and agility on his side, Ace took out the Ethisians quickly and swiftly with attacks like slicing their legs and draining their blood, stabbing their chests and draining their lungs with their own blood, and his favorite, using his Gauntlets to increase the blood pressure to the point where the bodies imploded painfully. As he did so, he’d extract all of their Blood Essence, collect Blood Mana, and increase the strength of his Blood Army. He was now at three hundred-plus warriors but it still wasn’t enough. If he wanted to deploy all of them at once, he needed to increase the amount of his Blood Mana. [Blood Mana Lv4: 17,476/32,000>>>>19,324/32,000] [+18 Blood Warriors.] [Total Blood Warriors: 299>>>>317] [All of your stats have increased by eight points] [Strength: 233>>>>238] [Endurance: 182>>>>187] [Brutalitly:157>>>>162 [Blood Strength:405>>>>410] [A New Rank of Ethisian’s approaches.] [Quest: For each one killed, you will be leveled up instantly.] ’A quest with high conditions!’ Ace stuttered mentally, knowing the intensity behind such quests. If it had high conditions with even higher rewards, it would mean that the fight would be intense, next to nearly, almost, probably death-defying. ’but the reward will be worth it...fine, let’s begin.’