'Is this what the parasites were planning on doing? This was their way of getting revenge for making them lose their little game?'
It seemed so small in the grand scheme of things, factions such as this one. If they were putting such emphasis on things like this, they would never be something that Quinn needed to worry about.
Usually, kill stealing wasn't something people had to worry about too much. In the first place, all of the crystals would be going back to the faction. Unless one desperately needed money or was hoping to rank up. However, this was a joint outing session.
Honestly, Quinn couldn't even get upset about the kill stealing. It wasn't even annoying. There was the reason why he didn't bother to participate in the first place. If he were to kill these beasts, they would grant him so little exp it wasn't worth the effort. To level up, he would probably have to kill a million of these beasts.
Besides, how could he complain when he had done one of the biggest kill steals himself, and that was to the Crow's who were currently under him.
'It's a valid tactic.' Quinn thought, nodding to himself.
It wasn't personal, but it was the principal that was making him act. He couldn't just allow people to steal in front of him and his group. In a way, it felt like an insult.
'I guess I can show you guys a thing or two about kill stealing,' Quinn thought.
"Fex! Nate," Quinn shouted, and letting go of a beast he had held with his string, Fex went over to Quinn side, and so did Nate. Both Sil and Dennis were faring well; they hadn't even been hurt due to the strong wings created from Dennis's ability.
"Arghh!" Dennis shouted in frustration, seeing another one of his kills get taken. If one more kill was stolen from him by those Parasites, he was going to knock them into the ground. He had to remind himself this is probably what they wanted, and he would just be falling into their hands.
"What's up Quinn? are you going to join us?" Fex asked.
"No, but I am going to help you guys," Quinn replied. "Attack when I say so, and to which one, trust me, it will be quite easy."
Fex didn't understand but trusted Quinn; he had this air of confidence around him. The two of them waited. Quinn pointed towards one of the beasts. It was one that had just been whacked away by Sil's wing.
"That one," Quinn said.
Moving fast, Fex went over, and with a single strike with just his hands, the beast was dead. One could tell when a beast died because the beast's skin colour would slightly change as the crystal power no longer powered through it.
If Fex wasn't ready, then he would call Nate to help as well.
"I didn't notice that one," Wevil said, waiting and watching carefully.
Every single time, Wevil was ready to move, being a step ahead of them, the two would get there beforehand, and defeat the beast in a single hit. Wevil was starting to wonder if Fex and Nate were just naturally strong.
It was hard to sometimes gauge when the last hit would be that would kill the beast. Sometimes even Wevil would have to give it a few more hits, but Fex somehow knew the exact time to attack each one of them.
Looking at Quinn, he understood the reason why.
"There faction leader is just full of mysteries,"
The reason why Quinn was able to determine when to give the last hit, was due to his system. With the upgraded inspect skill, he could tell which beast was in a weak or critical condition. With Fex's and Nate's strength, they were able to kill the beast in the weak condition with a single hit.
Eventually, they had cleared the beasts in the area, and Dennis couldn't be more pleased. As the groups collected the crystals, only seeing a few in the Parasite's hands put a great smile on his face.
"Good one, kid!' Dennis said, slapping Fex on the back, but Fex knew he had nothing to do with it; it was all Quinn.
'Could any of the vampire leaders do what he just did?' Fex started to think. Although it was hard for him to even answer that question. He had never seen the vampire leaders even fight at full strength. There had never been a need for them too.
"And you." Dennis said, "What's your name?"
"Erh, Sil sir," Sil replied, twiddling his fingers.
"Your wings are great; they're nearly as good as mine!' Dennis spoke loudly, unaware it was because they were the same as his.
"It's good to see them all get along," Quinn said, heading back into the van.
'Yeah, I wonder if everyone knew what happened to me, if they would still get along that well.' Linda thought.
Travelling in the van, they continued onward to their destination. Hana was surprised that the van hadn't turned around. She thought that they had already arrived at the hunting grounds and were done for the day.
"Aren't we heading back?" She asked.
'Why would we?" Linda replied. "We haven't started to hunt yet."
Not sure what she meant by that, she decided to just sit back down and wait. After all, if they were going to show them more hunting grounds, then the better for them in the end.
Eventually, they had reached the large mountain they had before. It brought back some tough memories for a lot of them.
"Haha, finally, I guess I can see how much I improved from the last fight," Nate said.
The van was parked at the foot of the mountain. From here, they would be travelling on foot. They knew the area was cleared from last time and based on the information their scouts would give them.
Weaker beasts didn't try to get close to the new lands, apart from the king tier and demon tier they had already dealt with. Climbing up the mountain, they had no encounters, and finally, when they were halfway up, they stepped onto the new land that stretched as far as their eyes could see.
It was a mixture of many sights in just one view. They could see sandy areas that looked like a desert and abandoned wasteland, like what they currently stood on, forest and jungle areas to the other sides and large fields and mountains.
"This place is beautiful," Hana said, with her mouth wide open.
[Shadow equip]
Shadows started to surround Quinn's body, including his face and his equipment appeared. It was the first time the Parasites were seeing Quinn's gear and him use part of his ability.
'Impressive.' Thought Wevil. 'But a leader has to have good gear at least.'
The group decided that they would head to the more closer open areas and went for the sandy terrain. It was quite clear for them to see how to get out of the sand and move to a new area if they wished. They had also decided that they wouldn't travel too far out. They needed to still see the wasteland that they had just left. Moving sideways along, rather than deeper in.
"I'm ready, come on out. I'm ready to fight you all again!' Nate shouted, hoping to attract some attention.
"Do you have to be that loud, or do you want to attract a horde of beast our way!" Hana complained.
"Don't worry," Nate replied, rubbing his head, now that he had a second look at Hana. Although she complained a lot, she seemed a little cute. "Strong beasts don't group up in large groups."
'Again, with the lies.' Hana thought. They kept talking about Emperor tier beast this whole time, that she was getting tired of them keeping up their little game.
The group had entered deep in the sand, where to their left and to their right, large mountains of sand could be seen.
"This is the perfect place for us to get attacked," Wevil said. It had been some time since they had seen any beasts, and he was getting a little nervous.
At that moment, from one of the large hills of sand, they could see it starting to move. Slowly from the sand, a large shape started to come out from the hill, and sand started to crumble and fall off; soon, they could see that they had their eyes on a giant beast.
It was as large as a three-story building; it seemed to have no lower body and had a large upper body of a human. Its skin was a similar colour to the sand, and it had large claws coming out of its hands. In several places of its body, there were white large bones sticking out. Its neck was long like a worm, and at the end, it had one large oval mouth.
[Inspect]
[Emperor tier beast - Sand ruler]
Just based on its sheer size, the Parasite group was scared. With its large hand raised, it swiped at them, aiming to sweep up the whole group.
"Gumpa! Defend!' Wevil shouted.
Bringing out his shield, Gumpa ran to the side. He used his ability to suddenly grow the shield, and now it was as large as the hand itself.
"Just because a beast is big, doesn't mean it's a high level." Said Hana.
However, when the claws of the beast reached the shield, it had sliced through them, and sliced through Gumpa.
"Impossible, that must mean, it's really an Emperor tier beast!" Wevil shouted. He was too frozen with fear he couldn't move. With such a small team they stood no chance of killing such a thing.
The hand continued to move forward, aiming towards them, when a loud clanging sound was heard. Small drops of blood were dripping into the sand, but the large hand had been stopped.
"This is what I was waiting for!' Said Nate, and the others were soon tacking the beast as well.
"There's no way they can kill that thing; we have to leave them and get out of here!" Hana suggested, and they started to make a bolt for it in the other direction.
A few steps were made, and the giant hill of sand on the opposite side started to move as well, when another Sand Ruler came out and stood in their way. It's shadow towering over them.
"We're all going to die!" Hana cried, falling to her knees.
"Move!" Quinn said, pushing past all of them. "This one is mine."
While the others were fighting against the other Sand Ruler, Quinn would take on the other all by himself.
Jumping in and landing by the beast's body, a large shadow dome was activated, encasing the two of them. They were unable to see anything that was going on inside.
"Is he dead?" Hana said.
"Not yet, but that person's crazy. Of course, he'll die fighting them on his own." Wevil said, turning his head to check on the ones behind him. All of them seemed to be faring well. He couldn't believe it. Not one of them was badly hurt.
He watched them for a while, seeing their skills.
"Wevil, look!" Hana said, tapping him on the shoulder.
When Wevil turned his head around, the shadow dome was no longer there. Instead, Quinn was seen walking back towards them with a crystal in his hand.
'He killed that thing all on his own, an Emperor tier beast, and so fast! I have to warn Mantis, if he does what he's planning to do, then we're all going to die!' Wevil thought.
*****
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