There was something about this planet which was different to the other beast planets that Quinn had been to in the past and the beasts that he had encountered. For one, the strange sludge that he was in was making it difficult for him to use his ears to dictate where the beasts were coming from.
At the same time, when he tried to use his Qi to sense energy it was as if there was a constant energy running through the sludge itself, but it wasn't enough for Quinn to bother using his gauntlet on either. Now of all things, the dangerous beast that they all were afraid of, and that he had been warned about, had suddenly appeared in front of them.
Out from the strange water, its body had formed in seconds, creating an identical copy of Ronsten. What shocked Quinn even more was that it was impossible to tell the difference between the two. It was an identical copy down to the last hair strand, and somehow they were even able to emulate the smell that the vampires emitted.
[Inspect]
[Progressive beast discovered]
[Your system has made a new discovery!]
[10,000 exp points received]
'Progressive beast? I've never heard of such a thing before. What does that even mean?' Quinn wondered. The system was breaking down the knowledge that Quinn had obtained in school, the knowledge they had been taught in their military academy.
At the end of the day, Quinn realised that these beast planets in this solar system aren't exactly the same as the ones in the beast solar system. At the same time, beast planets were a new discovery, and just like the crystals, beasts themselves seemed to be things they were learning more about every day.
The system didn't seem like it was able to answer Quinn's questions, and he had suddenly turned to his gorilla friend, as if he was going to ask it a question like he would do Ray or Vincent, but he knew there would be no such luck as he slapped his forehead.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt'What am I thinking?'
When what was about to occur, Quinn was wondering why the others hadn't stepped forward yet, and had decided to stay a few feet back. For now, he decided to do the same as he watched carefully.
Ronsten decided to strike at the doppelganger, aming for its throat. It was a deathly blow aimed to kill it in one strike, but it was soon blocked, and the doppelganger had done the same in return.
Blocking the sma attack, Ronsten this time grabbed it by the wrist and threw the other over its shoulder only to perfectly land in the water unharmed. The two continued a high speed battle, just mainly using their fists. No blood attacks or abilities seemed to be used, and both of them were even in battle.
'So the beast can match up to the Earl's strength, and speed. Otherwise, it wouldn't be able to stop the attacks, but why isn't he using any abilities?'
Watching carefully, it looked like the two Viscounts were getting ready to make a move, then at the same time they charged in.
"Now!" The Earl shouted as he jumped back and both of them went for the strike. They pierced the doppelganger's chest, and now Ronsten went forward, striking its throat once more and killing it this time.
There was no blood from its wounds, but it looked like a fatal blow would make the doppelganger look like it was melting as it fell into the water. Ronsten looked a bit panicked as he went back to the others.
"From here on out, we have to tread carefully, Your Majesty." Ronsten explained. "We have found no way to tell where the doppelgangers appear from, and we were very lucky that this time there was only a single one. As we move through the swamp, more will appear. As you can see, fighting one of my own was difficult enough if I was to come face to face with two or three of me…"
Now Quinn understood why everyone was a little cautious to move forward. It was in case they had entered the nest area. Logan had explained to Quinn that there was a radius the beasts seemed to operate in, when protecting the nest.
They wouldn't move out from this area, and it looked like they had just crossed the borderline. Stepping in could have summoned more.
"But why didn't you use your ability, is it for the same reason?" Quinn asked.
"Not quite. Unfortunately, using Blood energy or abilities seems to attract those buggers to us." Norvic answered. "Last time, they suddenly surrounded us. They can't copy our abilities, but the second we use them, more and more start to appear.
"We were lucky to have managed to get out alive."
There was another thing that Quinn noticed after the beast had been defeated, it had dropped no crystal. Quinn pondered if those things might actually be something similar to how the Demon tier Tree has used the Marked.
Still, if Quinn could grab onto one of these progressive beasts, then maybe a copy of him would have a large amount of energy he could steal from it. The excitement was growing in Quinn already.
Worst case, he believed his gauntlet might be the perfect weapon against this type of enemy. He could just share his energy with the others to make it, so they could beat their counterparts. As long as the beast's energy didn't increase as well, of course.
"We don't know why, but as long as we don't use our abilities, at most a clone is created for each of us who enters." Nian explained. "When we got close, a clone was created of each of us, and we believe the same thing will occur again. It was only after we used our abilities more arrived. So past this point we should avoid using our abilities and try to work together during our own fights to help each other.
"The Earl is one of the strongest so he might need the most help, but we will try to swap opponents midway before the beast can notice and adapt and kill each other's counterparts."
Looking at the others, Quinn noticed that none of them were wearing beast gear either. Although the beast were able to match their strength and speed for some reason, the Vampire King couldn't imagine that they would be able to copy the abilities of beast gear as well. It only reassured him in his belief that he would be able to beat his own counterpart.
Yet, for some reason, he felt like if he were to use any of these things, he would be cheating himself.
The group walked forward, and now the groups were making a little more sense to Quinn. He imagined that many of them had been practising each other's fighting styles, so they could kill the other clones rather than themselves.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm'That's a problem… if my copy really will be as strong as me, even if it will just be my base stats… I doubt anyone here could beat it.' Quinn thought. At the same time, the Earl was staying close to him because he had a similar yet different thought.
'I don't know how strong His Majesty's clone will be, but if he were to fight mine, he could be in for some trouble. We will have to try to finish him off first and the others later if we are to stand a chance of winning this.'
It wasn't long until the sound of several loud drops was heard again, more than one this time. From the water, more doppelgangers were emerging. Just like what had been explained, a copy of each person had been created, there was even a version of the giant gorilla standing opposite Jesk.
The fighting between all of them had begun, yet a clone hadn't appeared in front of Quinn for some reason. Ronsten, noticing this, had no choice but to abort his plan and try to face him for a while for the time being.
'Huh, I was actually looking forward to fighting myself?' Quinn sighed. 'I wonder what happened? Am I too strong for them to copy?'
While watching the others fight, Quinn was ready to initiate his plan until he noticed something. He hadn't really been paying attention, but due to how close the doppelgangers looked between one another… Quinn had no idea which one was the real or fake one.
[Inspect]
'What…my inspect skill, it's bringing up the same person for both of them now…' Realising this, Quinn also realised using this shadow lock wouldn't help in this situation either, because he didn't know which one was the fake..
Finally, in front of Quinn, he could see himself merging out of the water, and a smile appeared in front of the clone's face. The next second, a fist was thrown out so fast, hitting him right in the stomach.
He was sent through the air and fell back crashing into the water.
"What the hell!" Moe shouted, noticing who had just flown by. "Is he that weak that he can't even beat himself?"
Ironically, it was quite the opposite, the clone was strong… just as strong as their King.
*****
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