A group of Hunters, consisting mainly of Granians, a few other non-Granians, and only two Humans, found themselves in a very uncomfortable and unfortunate situation involving beasts.
Hoping to make a good living from killing beasts, these Hunters took to the tunnels and then Caverns with different beasts ranked according to their strength levels. These levels consisted of High-tiered beasts, Mid-tiered beasts, and Low-tiered beasts. The Low-tiered beasts consisted of creatures that would be easily killed by anyone provided they had the right set of skills. Since they were so weak and easy to kill, these beasts didn’t amount to anything and it would take at least one hundred kills to make a quarter of what killing a Mid-tier beast would earn.
In the second rank were the Mid-tiered beasts which were slightly more of a challenge to kill. These beasts could only be hunted by experienced hunters who possessed the right skillsets and equipment needed to do so. In as much as they were Mid-tiered beasts, they still had enough strength and vicious character needed to kill a Hunter if they were reckless, careless, and stupid enough to go in without enough experience.
The third and highest rank belonged to the High-tiered beasts, creatures so large, wild, and powerful that only those brave, wealthy, and strong enough, would qualify to kill them. The High-tiered beasts were named so given that most of them possessed enough intelligence to outsmart the Hunters and at the moment, a scenario similar to that had happened.
The said group of Hunters were currently hiding in cracks, holes, and crevices since they were now the primary targets of an angered reptilian-like creature that resembled a wingless Western Dragon. Earlier, the creature sealed off their only exit, trapping the Hunters in its Cavern. Now that its prey wasn’t ’hunting’ it anymore, the beast decided to go on the attack and picked off the Hunters one at a time.
Meanwhile, among those Hunters was an ambitious Blood Bishop looking to kill the beast. Not to avenge anyone, nor to get out of the Caverns, but simply to turn it into a beast of his own.
Already having three Blood Beasts which were reinforced with the Iron Manipulation Aspect, Ace chose to add the Emberwyrm to his list for he already anticipated how useful and powerful it would be in battle.
Of course, with every crazy and ambitious plan comes the debby downer individual who’ll always intentionally only look at the downside. In Ace’s group, the debby downers were Lily, the ’human impersonator’, and his sister Cherry.
Unexpectedly, he was let down by his sister whom he thought would be on board with his wild and crazy idea. However, since she wasn’t as psyched about it as he had hoped, he opted to do it on his own. After all, his system set a condition that only allowed him to conjure Blood Beasts/Beings if he killed them himself or with the help of his Blood Beasts or Warriors.
"Well if you won’t help me," he grinned, smiled, and waved the two women goodbye before stepping out. "I’ll go and do it myself. Wish me luck, sis."
While the beast was distracted by the other Hunters, Ace reinforced the tip of a large dangling Blackstone deposit with blood which he later on reinforced with the Iron Manipulation aspect. The tip was now larger and sharper, making it a perfect spearhead. Now all that was left was a decoy.
His plan went . He was going to cause a decoy which would draw the beast’s attention to himself. Then, he’d make his way to the top of the Blackstone deposit, break its tip, and let it pierce through the creature’s skull, hopefully killing it in an instant.
With his plan set, the Blood Bishop took a deep breath and shouted as loud as he could saying, "HEY!!! OVER HERE YOU OVERSIZED LIZARD!!!"
The beast, upon hearing the Blood Bishop’s scream for attention slowly faced him and raised its head high. It looked at Ace who had multiple Blood Tendrils formed on his back. Aside from that, three large Blood Warriors stood beside the Blood Bishop, and each one of them yielded a large weapon.
"E-Ethisians?" Lily, closest to the action, mumbled and shuddered in fear with her eyes on the Blood Bishop’s Blood Warriors. Her heart started to race. Fear took hold of her senses with the realization of Ace’s power hitting hard. "Are...are those Blood Ethisians?"
"In the flesh!!" Cherry grinned, amused by Lily’s fear. "If you’re not careful, you can become one of his Blood Soldiers."
"Blood Soldiers?" she wondered and continued to watch the Blood Bishop in action. Lily’s heart grew weary. Never before had she ever seen anything like the Blood Soldiers. Just seeing a small glimpse of what Ace could do made her realize the strength difference between him and her and further solidified the reason why the Higher-ups valued their Blood Mutants.
’So that’s why Lord Grania, Grand Master, and Lord Grim had us go to Earth. Blood Mutants are....truly powerful.’
The beast opened its mouth wide, its ugly eyes slanted in anger with its chest glowing. The creature unleashed a blast of its own energy at the Blood Bishop who immediately leaped and clawed his way to the top of the Blackstone deposit.
[Blood Mana: 8,432/16,000<<<7,990/16,000]
’Wow!! I have to be careful. Can’t lose too much Mana just yet.’
Previously, the Blood Bishop’s System warned him about his Blood Warriors and Blood Mana. According to the system, Blood Warriors, or any other Conjured Blood Being, would only manifest if Ace had enough mana. In the case of the Blood Warriors getting injured, a portion of Blood Mana would be reduced from his total number and used to regenerate them. If his Blood Mana dropped to zero, he wouldn’t be able to manifest any Blood Warriors anymore.
"They’re healing themselves?" Lily screamed, prompting Cherry to silence her with a gentle punch to her lips. "Those things can heal themselves immediately? What kind of..."
"Shut up and be quiet." Cherry pushed Lily down after seeing the beast running in their general direction. "We have to be quiet from now on. Don’t make a sound."
Great thuds caused by the beast’s giant body running at a great speed shook the Cavern, bringing down some of the loose rocks and Blackstone deposits to drop down. Meanwhile, the Blood Bishop patiently latched himself at the top of the Blackstone Deposit while using his Blood Warriors as decoys.
Sending them forward, they started to attack the beast with their large weapons, not to kill it but just to keep it busy and unsuspecting for a moment and it worked. As the beast fought the Blood Warriors, Ace slit his wrists and smeared his blood around the Blackstone. Once finished, he patiently waited for the moment to strike. Too soon, and he could miss his opportunity which could result in his defeat or premature death. Too late and he’ll have to struggle with an even further enraged Emberwyrm. The timing had to be perfect. It needed to, or else he could suffer unforeseen consequences.
[Blood Mana: 7,990/16,000<<<<7,624/16,000]
Surprisingly, even though Ace’s goal for his Blood Warriors wasn’t to kill the beast, he remained shocked when one of them penetrated its large weapon deep into its toe, causing it to bleed. The beast’s blood had a molten orange glow to it and as soon as it spewed out, it burned into the ground momentarily before hardening into a metal-like substance. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⁂𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢⁂𝔫𝔢𝔱
"Oh!! Liquid metal for blood huh!!" Ace exclaimed, using his Blood Gauntlets to draw the Blood towards him. Manipulating it, the beast’s blood felt lighter and smoother to control than the other blood types he had used and in addition to that, it had a shiny metallic luster to it. "With this amount of Blood, I can create or craft metallic objects with it. It’s hard but easy to control and it can’t coagulate. Now I definitely have to kill this thing!!"
The moment arrived and now, it was time to end the beast. The Blood Bishop signaled for his Blood Warriors to push backward past the Blackstone deposit, leading the beast’s head directly underneath the Blackstone.
At the right moment, he leaped off the Blackstone and blew it up using his Explosive Blood Technique while summoning his Blood Warriors back to him.
The beast, at first, was confused at the explosion and reversion of its enemies but as soon as it caught onto what Ace attempted to do, it shifted its head at the last moment, missing the Blackstone’s tip from penetrating its skull. However, even though it dodged a lethal blow to its head, a few shards from the Blackstone flung deep into its neck and underbelly, causing it to bleed out in pain.
"Damn it," Ace cursed, upset that his plan didn’t work. On the other hand, he was excited to finish the wounded beast off...using its own blood against it.
[Blood Sprint: Activated]
[Blood Control: Activated]
[Blood Weapon: Activated]