Feeding his blood to a guy he barely knew? More than a little awkward.

Watching said guy drink it as if it were the finest of wines? Well, Isaac honestly had no idea how to feel about that. For the sake of his sanity, he decided to just avert his eyes and forget the face Harry made when he first tasted the blood.

Really, it was the best choice if he wanted to continue working with the insane Brit.

At the end of the day, they still needed each other to make this invasion a bit easier. And if one ignored the insanity, Harry wasn't that bad of a company. Though at times, Isaac wondered just what the man had done before the apocalypse. Not that he dared to ask. Something told him he really didn't want to know.

All right, that's enough, he thought, pulling his arm away. The cut he used to feed the man had already healed anyway. "Feeling better?"

Harry offered him a weak smile. "Just slightly, my friend. Thank you for this gift of healing. Maybe if I could get a bit more, I—"

Isaac cut him off with a raised hand. "No. My blood becomes toxic if you drink too much." He summoned another potion and shoved it toward him. "For now, take this."

He ignored the disappointed look Harry shot him. There was no way in hell he would let the guy get addicted to his blood. There were limits to what his mind could handle, and he was drawing the line here.

Thankfully, the other man took the potion and drank it in one go, his arm no longer trembling as much. Satisfied, Isaac nodded and turned away, summoning the Interface to him.

The timers arrived first.

He grimaced.

Only ten minutes… he noted, chancing another glance at Harry. He looked better but was still pretty much half-dead. No way he can recover this quick.

Isaac's own regeneration had already dealt with all the injuries he had received during the fight. Now, only the ever-present exhaustion and empty Viron reserves remained. Not ideal, but also not something that could stop him from flying away from here.

Harry, on the other hand? It would be a miracle if he could even transform.

Might have to carry him… First, though, let's deal with this mess. Hit me with it, Interface.

At once, lines of text appeared before him. Like always, he pushed past the kill notifications and stopped at the first important one.

You have leveled up! You are now level 31. Distribution of Ascension Power has failed to advance any of your attributes. No further changes detected.

No surprise there. Next.

The following skills have advanced tiers: Cursed Draw (VIII->IX) Basic Filtering (VIII->IX)

Always something, Isaac thought just before his gaze fell onto another message. Huh…

You have obtained a new skill: Mana Surge.

[Mana Surge | Grade: Mystic | Tier I] A special ability that allows you, on demand, to draw on a bit of Immortal Mana through your Legacy Spark. This energy may be used to enhance certain skills or attributes. Beware, Immortal Mana is poisonous to your base form and will damage both your body and Virus Integrity if used in excess.

A bit late with that, don't you think? Isaac wondered. I have been combining Mana with skills outside my Legacy form for a while now.

Though, to be fair, aside from the last fight, he always needed to hold onto Mana while transforming, then use it in his human form. This skill should apparently eliminate that limitation. A useful trick to have for sure.

Okay, what else do we have?

Just like that, more notifications spilled into his vision. Those, however, were unlike any other.

Your current bounty has increased to 30000 points. Warning! <Redacted> has placed a bounty on you (25000 points). Warning! <Redacted> has placed a bounty on you (500 points). Warning! <Redacted> has placed a bounty on you (1200 points).

And on and on it went. Some bounties were hilariously small, like twenty or even five points. But there were also plenty that reached into the thousands. Isaac's eyes only grew wider as he read some of those.

Then he reached the end, where the Interface again displayed the total number.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Current bounty: 136642

What the hell is going on?

Not wasting a moment, he spun back to Harry. "Did you get those, too? The bounties?"

"Aye, a few," the man said with a bloody smile. "Exciting, isn't it?"

"That's one way to call it," Isaac muttered. "But who's even placing them?"

"Does it really matter, my dear friend? This is but a tool we shall use to win this war! Even marked for death, we will prevail."

Isaac silently agreed. Even his Invader Points didn't come close to his total bounty. That said, they had just been ambushed, almost beaten, and were in no condition to fight another squad of Zerians right now. And if the aliens were aware of the bounties, the hunt was just beginning.

Gotta hurry.

He broke into a sprint toward the corpses scattered across the snow. As he did that, he also summoned one of his two Viron regeneration potions. He planned to save those for a rainy day, but now was as good a time as any.

He swallowed the mixture just as he reached the first body.

To no surprise, he failed to find anything of use there or at the next few corpses. The Zerians clearly hadn't brought anything valuable into a high-threat fight. All they really had on them were some Virality Gems, weapons, pieces of destroyed armor, and an Inferior-grade potion or two.

Isaac took what he could and moved on to the final body. The Zerian he had fought.

Her clothes didn't show as anything he would want to loot. Her primitive accessories were just as useless. The twin blades, however? Now those he couldn't leave.

[Crystal Stingers | Grade: Arcane] High-quality twin shortswords crafted from enriched crystals and a blend of various metals. Ideal for a Host with a crystal-based Origin. While not on the level of half-sentient weapons, Crystal Stingers still amplify their wielder's abilities.

The blades had lost some of their luster after the Zerian's death, but hopefully that didn't mean they were damaged. He could probably trade them for something useful once he returned to the Battleworld. Or maybe he could somehow sell them for Virality Gems?

Either way, he wasn't leaving them. He still had some space left in his Storage Brand.

Not much time left on it, though, he noted, looking down at the dark tattoo. Extraction would become a necessity soon. It was that or risk losing all the stuff he wanted to take back to Silent Oasis.

Worry about it once we recover. Now let's move.

After consuming the fallen female Zerian, Isaac ran back to Harry, who looked half-asleep by now. At the very least, some color returned to his skin, which should be a good sign.

Hopefully…

"Think you can transform?" Isaac asked, crouching as the man forced his eyes open.

Instead of answering him, Harry took a deep breath and began to shift. The injuries slowed the process, but a few seconds later, a familiar ray-fish replaced the human. The wounds, unfortunately, carried over like always.

Isaac ignored the pained whine and also transformed. Afterward, he lay down in front of the creature.

Harry got the message immediately and climbed onto his back. With how small his Legacy was, he only managed to block Isaac's second pair of wings after wrapping around his body.

"Hold on tight," Isaac said, ignoring how strange this felt.

He spread his main wings and leapt into the air. In seconds, he was high in the skies and flying toward the tallest mountains he could see on the horizon. Recovery first. Searching for the nearby Safe Zone later.

No landing until we can fight.

Isaac did as he promised.

For hours, he flew under the night's sky, always high enough to stay out of sight but not so high that the cold could freeze his feathers. Harry never left his back. Somehow, the man even managed to sleep without slipping off, all while keeping the invisibility illusion active.

That one saved Isaac a lot of trouble, and maybe even their lives.

Zerians soon became a common sight. They were everywhere, be it on the ground, scouring the lands in large groups, or in the skies, flying in swarms. They hardly killed any monsters, though, and just kept going where Isaac's and Harry's location reveals led them.

It felt like they had a literal army looking for them, and to be honest, maybe that was indeed the case. Their Infamy ranks, bounties, kill counts… if those didn't deserve a nationwide manhunt, nothing did.

And it would only get worse.

Extraction is now ready. Do you wish to leave, or stay and advance your Infamy rank?

Any sane person wouldn't think twice before choosing to extract. But not Isaac. Even if he wanted to leave—which he didn't—there was still Harry he had to think of. His ally's extraction still had to be a few hours away, and in his current condition, he wouldn't survive that long alone.

Not even hours of rest had healed him fully. His regeneration seemed the polar opposite of Isaac's.

And so, unwilling to leave his ally and still needing to reach rank S to claim his own bounties, Isaac gave the Interface the obvious answer.

Acknowledged. Current Infamy rank: A (Multiplier: 3x)

He didn't even notice the new multiplier. No, his gaze was glued to the timers that just appeared before him.

Extraction in: <12h:00m:00s> | Location reveal in: <5m:00s>

The pings were now six times more frequent. That meant only one thing.

He had to be faster, and…

Sorry for this.

High in the skies, Isaac transformed, and the ray fish instantly slipped off his back. Before it could plummet to the ground, though, he shifted again and caught it with his talons as gently as possible.

The whine that followed told him that Harry was now awake. The confused message that popped up a moment later confirmed it.

Isaac didn't bother using the Interface to reply. With the skies around them clear for now, he quickly explained their new situation out loud. As expected, Harry didn't complain and just clung tighter to his legs as Isaac spread his smaller wings and picked up speed.

Twelve hours… we can do it.

Invader Points: 15021 (Bounty: 136642) Infamy Rank: A (Multiplier: 3x) Extraction in: <11h:58m:03s> | Location reveal in: <3m:03s>

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