When Linda had seen her chest piece crack, she knew straight away the mistake they had made. It was impossible for a king tier beast to damage emperor tier armour. The only thing that could, would be emperor tier and above.
This was what had tipped her off in an instant.
'The scout team, they must have made a mistake, when they had only engaged the red beast. Because they look so similar, they had just assumed.' Linda thought. 'I swear, when I get back there will be some heads rolling due to this screw up!'
After informing everyone of what was now in front of them, the group listened and left immediately, including those that were over at area two. Every time one would face a new tier of beast, there would be a significant increase in power.
This wasn't something C and D ranks could handle. They had seen the strength of a king tier and without Linda, even that would have been too much for them. So obediently, they had left the cave as ordered.
However, there were a few that had chosen to stay behind. Specifically, all of Quinn's group were still there. Fex looked at the beast with excitement, but he couldn't stop his body from shaking. He was getting the same feeling from this beast as he had done the king tier in the past. If Quinn wasn't going, then he wasn't either.
Paul knew the strength of an emperor tier beast, he had faced them before when he had the power. In a way, it showed how far he had fallen. But he also knew that Linda alone wouldn't be able to finish this beast off on her own.
If Paul was staying, then Kazz would be too. Wherever he went, she would go. As for Sam, he didn't know why he had chosen to stay behind. Was it because his team was here? Or did he really think he could do something to help?
Unlike Fex, he felt like his legs would buckle any second now, falling to the ground.
On top of all this, one member of the Crows was still there, Kong, who was still passed out after being knocked out by the black ball from Quinn.
Due to the reward of an instant level up, Quinn knew this would be a tough battle. Whenever this was the case, it meant the system had declared that either one of them could be the winner. Which meant Quinn would have to use everything he had, including his shadow.
However, he wasn't alone, and the system didn't seem to factor that in.
Having recovered, Linda flew up in the air using her wings, her chest was still in pain, so she wasn't as fast as before. Still, as long as she was at a height, then she would be able to avoid confronting the beast.
"What are you guys still doing here, run!" Linda shouted at the ones below, but they weren't listening.
She gritted her teeth and immediately went on her transmitter. "Blip, Blip, answered me, we have an emergency situation. One of the King tier beasts, it's actually an emperor tier beast! Hello, hello?"
"I can hear you, sis!" Blip shouted back, but he was huffing and panting. "We're in a tough spot ourselves. Just get out of there."
Right now, she could leave, but the members of her faction were down below. Even if they weren't with them for long, even if Kong wasn't a life worth saving, she couldn't just leave them.
However, she soon realised that even if she wanted to leave, the beast wouldn't let her. The spikes on the beast's back started to vibrate, and then a few moments later, they shot out in all directions with the speed of bullets.
There were many, and after avoiding the first few, the spikes eventually went through one of Linda's wings. It was painful, and she was doing everything she could to stay airborne, but then another few spikes had pierced through, and she could no longer remain in the air, falling to the ground.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtShe was high up and in pain. Seeing the ground coming towards her face, all she could do was brace herself.
She closed her eyes.
'Huh, what's happening.' When she opened them again, all she could see was a dark shadow, that her body was slowly sinking through.'
"Get out!" Quinn said.
She rolled her body off the shadow to find she only fell a few inches from the ground. Quinn had used the shadow to cushion her fall.
Once she had rolled off, the shadow had slivered back to where Quinn was and had raised behind his back. Finally, she had put everything together.
"Quinn." She said.
"I wonder what gave it away?" Quinn replied.
She didn't understand how or why, but right now, she was just thankful.
Quinn knew against a beast with this much power, using his shadow as a shield would be a waste. Blocking a blow would take up too many MC points, and then he couldn't use the shadow as a defence. He needed to attack with everything he had from the start.
And it looked like the others felt the same way. No longer was Fex, nor Kazz holding back as they all started to perform blood swipes on the creature. It was working and hurting the beast, but it wasn't enough to do any significant damage.
Paul had yet to learn a blood swipe and had tried going in for an attack, but after being hit by its tail and knocked away, he wouldn't try again.
As for Sam, he remained frozen at the back of the cave. Everyone was attacking the beast, and eventually, Sam had plucked up the courage to throw a wind strike of his own. It looked similar to the red strikes that the others were throwing.
Although the others were hitting the beast and causing small scratches, Sam's was doing absolutely nothing. His ability in this situation was useless.
'Why did I even stay behind?' Sam thought.
Eventually, the beast seemed to grow tired of this. Then, it started to run around the cave on all fours at great speed. Once it had picked up enough speed, it curled up into a ball shape, with its razor-sharp spikes acting as armour. Like a tire, it ploughed across the ground and up the cave walls. Everywhere it went, it destroyed and crushed everything in its path.
Finally, it began to roll towards the group. Paul had grabbed both Sam and Linda, pushing them out of the way. Then using all their strength to make an enormous blood swipe, both Kazz and Fex through one out together. It had hit and slowed down the beast, but still wasn't enough.
They too had eventually dived out of the way. Fex, in this instance, knew even his red string would be useless. Then there was the last stand, Quinn.
Gathering up the energy in his fist, he started to activate his gauntlets, causing a stream of blue electricity. He had already started the motion for a hammer strike, but he needed to time everything perfectly.
He slammed his foot into the ground, and he had hit it so hard it had sunken a few inches into the dirt.
"The hammer strike, this is what he used to kill the vampire knight." Kazz said. "But will it be strong enough to deal with this thing?"
"No, his movements, they're different," Fex said.
Instead of pulling his hand back, he twisted his body to the side, and he had bent down slightly, now his right hand was towards his back foot, nearly touching the floor.
Then when the moment was right, he swung his right hand at the rolling beast as hard as he could. His fist had smashed into the right side of the beast's body, causing it to break out of it's rolling position. A loud bang was heard as it impacted and nearly deafened everyone who was there.
Infusing his Qi and blood, he had created a hammer hook!
The beast was sent flying off to the left side, while Quinn was sent flying back from the impact as well.
[-80 HP]
[20/100 HP]
[Chest piece has broken]
[Defence has been lowered]
[Durability of gauntlets is under sixty percent ]
[Gauntlets will now provide only 30 percent of stats given]
Multiple messages had come up, but the pain was too great to read them. From one blow alone, Quinn had nearly been killed.
[Blood bank!]
Restoring his HP and using the shadow, he was able to slow himself down. Then he had a chance to look at the messages, the one he was looking for hadn't come up. The beast was still alive.
But, his teammates knew this as well, as they all fought the beast with everything they had, not holding back. The beast seemed to be significantly dazed by the blow. It was struggling to stand up on its fours and was tumbling.
Blood swipes, fists, and even Linda had come in using her daggers. She fought through the pain as they did everything they could to kill this beast.
It started to curl up once again, the same thing it had done when Linda was in the sky. It was as if it was about to self-destruct.
[Inspect]
[beast is going into berserk mode]
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmBut it wasn't that at all, the beast was going into another form. Its final stand. It would rather die using the crystal inside its body than allowing everyone else to live. If this happened, the crystal would disappear as well. Quinn wasn't going to let that happen.
Running as fast as he could and throwing out his shadow, Quinn used the rest of his remaining energy to create two of his blood scythes. Then using the last bit of his Qi, he activated the blue shock.
"Move!" Quinn shouted.
They got out of the way, and right on its head Quinn came hurling the two Scythes. He swung from over the top of his head, downward as hard as he could.
"ARGHH!"
Like a grim reaper, he sliced the beast's head clean off.
Quinn had used so much energy he was exhausted, and it seemed like the rest of the group was as well. Everyone had sat down on the floor for a well-deserved rest.
It was a moment of peace and silence. Not one of them spoke to each other and just breathed in and out. The only one that felt like they were able to move was Sam, and this was because he really hadn't helped much.
'You guys, how strong are you…' Sam thought, then another thought crossed his mind. 'What are you?'
Seeing the others resting, Sam decided to go over to where Kong was on the wall. He still hadn't moved, and he wanted to see if he was okay. Yes, he had treated him badly, but he was still another human. Someone else who was fighting this war with him at the end of the day.
"Hey, you alive?" Sam asked, but when he got closer, he could see it. His armour, from the head downward, was covered in blood.
"Guy's Kong…Kong.." Sam shouted. "He's dead…"
Hearing this, Quinn at first thought it was his fault, did he use too much strength?
"Someone killed him!" Sam shouted. "There's a cut on his neck."
That's when Quinn realised what Sam was trying to say. A cut on the neck?
When Quinn had fought back, there was another time he had seen a slit on the neck before.
"Kazz," He looked and looked, but couldn't see her. The others were standing now, having made a partial recovery, but he still couldn't spot her.
"Kek!" A sound came out.
The sound had come from Linda, she instinctively pressed both her hands on the wound around her neck, and fell to the floor. Standing behind her was Kazz.
"No one is allowed to know of our existence." Kazz said, and then her head turned to her next target. Sam.
******
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