[The Second Bastion Planet] At a distant solar system, the former Lord Grim, with his fleet of Granians, Cyclitharans, and the two Humans Ace and Skyler, chose to quietly approach the planet the same way Lord Gravax did with his fleet. The goal was to keep the element of surprise on their side for as long as they could. That way, they could catch their enemy off guard and finish them off quickly and swiftly without allowing them to get a chance to fight back. One problem, however, was imminent for Grim and his fleet. This Bastion Planet was exceptionally large, so large that they weren’t able to locate the Bastion from the vacuum of space. If they chose to enter the planet as an entire fleet, they risked giving out their enemy to the Ethisians who could retaliate accordingly. "That still doesn’t help our current situation," Grim remained in thought while he communicated with the pilots piloting the other two Behemoths. "It would be better for us to find them out from where we are so that we attack immediately." "We understand, Lord Grim," the head pilot Granian replied, "but our scanners have limits. We can’t push them any further than what they can handle. The only possible way I can see this happening is if we push deeper into the atmosphere." "That risks our element of surprise being thrown out the window." another Granian stated the obvious which led them back to square one. After pondering in thought for a while, Grim came to a conclusion whereby he was going to send a fleet of smaller ships to fly throughout the planet in search of the enemy Bastion. Once found, a signal was to be sent out for the Behemoths to approach quickly. "I’ll lead a fleet of five attack ships," Grim announced, "the Humans and I, along with our strongest Cyclitharan ally and Granian soldiers, will scout the planet as quickly as we can and then send out a signal for the rest of you to follow. "Remain in this position and keep your cloaking mechanisms on in case a rogue ship makes its way into the planet." Once Grim’s orders were given, five attack ships departed from the first Bastion and speedily approached the planet with cloaking mechanisms hiding their physical appearances. On board the first ship was Grim, Skyler, Ace, and the Cyclitharan equivalent to Grim, Cion. Cion was the largest of the four "High Grade-like" Cyclitharans. His girth and experience in Eneraflux set him apart as the strongest Cyclitharan warrior and since he was the strongest, he chose to accompany the alleged strongest Blood Mutant to see whether it lived up to its hype. "It’s weird how they look like us." Skyler and Ace, who sat next to each other, sat opposite Cion who kept his eye fixated on the two. "Their physique’s too similar to ours that its..." "Uncanny," Ace whispered as he observed the Cyclitharan’s unique features. "If you cover his face, he’ll look like a professional bodybuilder." "Grim gave me a translator, so I’m capable of hearing and understanding what you’re saying about me." Cion mumbled but the depth, volume, and magnitude of his voice was so great that the two humans felt it reverberating in their bodies. "My apologies," Skyler nervously apologized since she was the one who started the conversation. "We didn’t mean to insult you. You just look..." "I’m aware and stunned by the similarities our races share," Cion interrupted again while pretending to wear what looked like a smile. "Are there humans who have monocular vision like I do?" "Yes," Ace answered, "but that usually happens when they’re blind in one eye or have one eye gouged out." "On a few rare occasions," Skyler continued, "babies with genetic mutations come out with one small eye at the center of their faces. Yours are much larger since they nearly take over fifty percent of your upper face." "Fascinating," Cion "smiled" again and then went silent. In silent awkwardness, the Cyclitharan looked at Skyler, then Ace, then Skyler again before finally staring at Ace for too long. The Blood Bishop, who wasn’t bothered by Cion at all, smirked at how amusing his character was. For the "alleged" strongest Cyclitharan, he certainly was the most unreadable of them all. "How strong is your Eneraflux?" Cion mumbled again as he gestured at Ace. "You’re the strongest Human so you must use Eneraflux, yes?" Ace, while sighing, thought for a while about how he’d respond to the question. He wasn’t an Eneraflux user but at the same time, he emitted an energy closely similar to it. "I’m a Blood Mutant," he answered, "not an Eneraflux user. Th..." "If you don’t use Eneraflux," Cion frowned a little and began asking questions, "How are you the strongest? Grim’s the strongest Granian and his Eneraflux levels are exceptionally high. The Granian ruler, Grania, is also an exceptionally experienced Eneraflux user. "The one seated next to you also has a decent Eneraflux level because her body’s emitting quite a lot of it but I don’t sense it from you. So how come you’re the strongest user yet you show no signs of Eneraflux?" "Leave your questions for later," Lord Grim screamed as red lights began flashing and beeping in the ship. They were under attack from what looked like "rockets" fired to destroy their ships. Already, one of the five ships was blown up, killing everyone onboard. The remaining four were damaged to the point where they couldn’t function anymore so all four of them crash-landed in different locations. Grim’s ship, the last to go down, crash-landed in a marsh, swamp-like environment with thick blankets of fog, mud, and water stretching for miles. The fog was so thick that neither he nor those on his ship could see where the other four ships crash-landed so they were stranded and on their own. To make matters worse, the Ethisians knew they had arrived so their element of surprise was thrown out the window. "We’re trapped," Grim announced as the Humans and Cion pulled themselves out of the wreckage while salvaging what could be useful for them, "whatever hit our ship took out our electronic systems. I cannot get a signal sent to the rest of our fleet." "That’s not all," Cion whispered, loudly, as he drew his weapon, "something’s heading towards us and there are many of them." "I sense them too," Skyler spoke while her hands grew larger in size with thick scales growing all over, "they’re very many." [Ding] The source of thɪs content is 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⚫𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢⚫𝔫𝔢𝔱 [You are being ambushed. Survive] ’Damn it. Barely ten minutes have passed and we’re already facing death.’ Ace grumbled after reading the system notification. Whenever the system used the words [Survive], [Last...], or [See how long you can...], it always meant that his opponent/opponents were either exceptionally strong or dangerous.