Upon receiving the order, Skyler hid behind the same spot Lord Grania was previously on as the Granian Lord moved towards the approaching ships. Three Ethisian ships, belonging to High Grades, quickly landed on the moon’s surface. The hatches on the three ships opened and out came nine Ethisians; one was a High Grade, two were of the Upper Legendary Rank, and the rest were of the Legendary Rank. The Granian Lord remained calm and composed while the Ethisians surrounded him. At first, they suspected the Granian to be one of the regular ones that managed to somehow get past their fleet, only to get stranded on a distant moon. "Granian," the High Grade cursed and then spat at Lord Grania’s foot, "you’re trespassing on Ethisian territory. Do you..." "Oh," Grania interrupted while putting on a false act of innocence, "I didn’t realize this was your territory. But...I don’t see your name or demarcation showing it’s your territory." The smart-mouthed Granian grinned, only to find himself at gunpoint. All nine Ethisians inched closer with their fingers steadily hovering over the triggers. At any second, they were going to fire heavy rounds that could kill any regular, normal Granian. What they didn’t know was that the Granian they were pointing at was the Granian Lord and even more, he wasn’t regular or normal. "You know the rules," the High Grade gritted, "trespassing into our territory is taken as an act of terrorism and we have the right to kill you on sight..." "..then go ahead." Grania interrupted, making sure to speak loudly for them all to hear. The next words he spoke, however, instilled a strong sense of fear in the Ethisians. "Make sure you don’t miss. And make sure you kill me..." Taking the Granian’s words as threats, the Ethisians fired immediately. For a full minute, heavy blasts of energy from their handheld weapons flew in the Granian’s direction. A dust cloud rose and covered the Granian until the High Grade ceased fire. In silence, they patiently waited for the cloud to clear out, expecting to see pounds of decimated flesh lying on the ground. "That was quick," one Ethisian muttered, "how did that Granian make it this far into our territory undetected..." The sound of scales and bones shattering rung in the Ethisians’ ears. They turned to where the sound came from and laid eyes on the same Granian standing above the Ethisian with its arms pushing down on their comrade’s head. Lord Grania, using his large frame, muscular build, and intense strength, caved the Ethisian’s head into its chest and then grabbed its weapon from its hands. In quick succession, the Granian Lord snapped the weapon in half and flung either end at two more Ethisians’ heads. Their heads, upon impact, splattered from the sheer force Grania used when he flung the shards. Just like that, three of the nine Ethisians were killed in the blink of an eye and the fourth was about to join. With a monstrous body backed up by unnatural speed, the Granian Lord crept up on another Ethisian and shoved his fingers through its eye holes like a bowling ball. Then he ripped its head from its neck and threw it at another Ethisian’s chest, killing it instantly. Four Ethisians were left and unlike the others, they weren’t going to let Grania get close enough on them. Instead of confronting him, the four retreated to their ships; not to run away but to instead use bigger guns on him. "USING LARGER WEAPONS WON’T DO YOU ANY GOOD EITHER!!" He yelled, his voice shaking the dirt beneath his feet as he shot from where he stood. Before the Ethisians could even fire, the Granian Lord already slammed his body through the front side of the ship, slightly tilting it to the right. Afterward, Grania ripped into the ship’s cockpit and dealt with the Ethisians one at a time. His first victim had its head smashed into the metal walls of the ship; another had its back kicked so hard that its lower body was rendered paralyzed as it slowly died of internal injuries and bleeding; the third, who tried shooting Grania’s eyes out, instead got its gun shoved and fired in its mouth, killing it immediately. Now the only one left was the High Grade and Lord Grania. "You failed," Grania, stained with Ethisian blood, spoke to the High Grade with a murderous lust resonating in his voice, "I warned you to make sure those weapons killed me." "What the hell are you?" the fear-stricken Ethisian questioned, its mind doubtfully questioning its enemy’s strength. "What kind of Granian moves this quickly?" "Seriously?" Lord Grania, dumbstruck by the Ethisian’s cluelessness as to who it was standing before, gave the High Grade a questionable look and asked, "You seriously do not know who I am?" Too spooked to speak, the High Grade remained where it stood and did the unthinkable. Instead of running, fleeing from the moon, or even fighting Grania, it knelt and bowed its head, already accepting its fate. Lord Grania smiled with his already swollen ego gaining another boost. The sight of an opponent who knew their place, strength, and power was one he enjoyed so very much. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢•𝕟𝕖𝕥 "Do what you lured us to do," the High Grade mumbled, "but mark my words, we’re not the only ones you’ll deal with. That energy I sensed wasn’t only sensed by me. They will notice that my colleagues and I are not responding and that will only bring you more enemies. Even though you have this strength, you will not..." "You bore me." Grania jeered and then kicked the High Grade’s neck deep into its mid-section, killing it immediately. With all the Ethisians out of the picture, the Granian Lord searched the bodies, looking for something that could reveal his target’s location. "You may come out now," he signaled to Skyler and then asked, "Did you, by any chance, catch the scent of the High Grade who crippled the male Blood Mutant?" "No," she answered, "and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to find her. My tracking-through-scent abilities aren’t that good." Disgusted, the Granian Lord stared at Skyler and then sneered while declaring, "You and One Horn will give me a detailed explanation for your lousiness. How can you have the power to turn into beasts and not know how to utilize it well?" "Quiet," he interrupted and then pointed at the bodies, "eat these bodies and absorb their DNA. See whether they can be useful for you." The young woman looked at the corpses with disgust. Her stomach turned and churned at the sight of caved-in heads, shuttered skulls, and impaled corpses even though she had seen way worse. The reason she felt that way was because of Grania’s command. Eating animals was one thing but eating sentient beings capable of reasoning and understanding was something she wasn’t so adamant about doing. "Why should I?" she questioned. "Is it necessary?" "It is," he answered while ripping an appendage from the closest corpse he found and then handed it to Skyler, "now eat. You and I are heading into the Ethisian Planet so I need you to shift your shape into them. Hurry, we don’t have much time."