686 Brink of war

They knew what they were facing, the enemies that might come after them, and weren't arrogant enough to think that they could succeed without Quinn. The stronger and better he got, the better it was for them.

At the moment, the Cursed family couldn't compete with the other factions just based on sheer size. They had more members, and if a full scale battle was to happen, they were likely to lose. Even if Quinn and the other leaders lived, what was the point?

There would no longer be a faction to run and what was the point of them creating one in the first place, if not to protect the people in it. What they could do was minimise that risk by making Quinn just as strong as the leaders.

They saw the damage his soul weapon could do, and improving their best weapon was a must. This was why no one complained when Quinn asked for the emperor tier crystals.

There was some kick back, about Quinn going off on his own, but in the end, he was free to do as he wished. Also, both Sam and Linda were on Quinn's side, allowing him to go on his own. They knew why, he had powers he couldn't show or use compared to others.

Using the teleporter, Quinn arrived at the shelter, he had everything he needed. After giving Alex his flask to hold his own blood in, there were no more flasks to hand out.

For once, Quinn had asked Kazz for a favour, asking that when she made her report back to the vampire worldm if she could bring back more with her. The simple request was accepted, and she didn't even question why.

For now though, he had borrowed Fex's flask and had two of them on him. He had the blood bank with 200 milliliters of blood and two flasks, each holding another 100 millilitres of blood. In total 400 milliliters of blood.

This was one of the longest solo journeys Quinn would go on, and he would feel hunger. There would be no people to feast on in an emergency on the new land, so he had to come extra prepared.

Looking at the map, Quinn could see how far they had travelled last time. This time he would be going further into the new lands. The reason was because he was looking for fire elemental type beasts to make his new weapon.

Maybe he could find something in the desert, but there was a risk. So he preferred to try and explore the other areas. He had rented a small jeep and was on his way to the new land.

Quinn was saving his MC cells for battle.

What Quinn was unaware of, was that the Parasite members that were in the shelter, were keeping an eye on all of his movements.

"On his own?" Mantis replied. "Are you sure?"

From Wevil's report, they knew Quinn was strong, but going out in the open on his own was still dangerous. Many mistakes could occur; he was surprised that the faction members would have even allowed this.

"Well, I guess this is the perfect opportunity to start our little act then. When he's on his way back, you know what to do. Whatever it takes delay him from getting back."

Reaching the foot of the mountain, he abandoned the jeep, and it was time for him to start his hunt. Other than gathering crystals, Quinn was also here to try to improve his shadow skills as much as possible.

The fight with Vicky and Pai had taught him a lot, and without Vorden he could have possibly died. Turning into the Bloodsucker wasn't a good solution to the problem.

He was hoping he would increase the level of his skills and finally complete his level seven shadow ability to move up to level eight.

It was going well by not rushing things, Quinn was dealing with the emperor beasts as needed, and resting whenever he could.

The same however, could not be said back at the Cursed ship and shelter. A few days had gone past since Quinn's disappearance, and just like before, the Parasites and Cursed members were getting into more and more arguments.

The price hikes continued, and eventually, even Blip was getting sick of it. He didn't like discriminating between faction members as he wanted to treat everyone the same, but it had gotten to him as well.

So they retaliated, only charging members from the Parasites high prices for materials in the marketplace. Still, the Parasites knew that they were actually good business for the Cursed, who were low on funds.

At the moment, they couldn't really trade outside to any factions for fear they might turn on them and attack. They may even just steal the items and runoff. If it was a match of who could last longest, then the Cursed would lose this one.

On top of this, the Parasites started to take the same quests the Cursed were, almost mirroring their actions, and they were doing what they did best - leeching off the hard work of others and stealing the kills at the last second.

This was just making thier situation even more dire. And eventually, a certain someone had snapped. Out on a hunt, Dennis couldn't hold back any longer. It wasn't a kill steal that set him off, but an "accidental" stray attack that hit one of their members.

Whatever damage was done to the Cursed, Dennis had returned it threefold to the Parasite member. Because of this little incident, the two factions were at the brink of war.

It had gotten so bad that they were no longer allowing either faction members to enter their shelters, and the Cursed leaders had decided to stay at the Crow's base on the planet rather than on the ship, leaving Peter behind in charge once again.

Inside the building, they were having a meeting about what to do. Sitting slumped down in his chair with his head held down, Dennis couldn't look any of the others in the eye.

"I'm sorry guys, we tried so hard to avoid this, and now because of me, maybe people will…" Dennis paused as visions of his own planet appeared in his head. How the Eagle faction members and their families were burnt in front of his eyes.

Back then, he couldn't stop them from attacking, and now he felt horrible that he could be the cause of something like that.

"Don't be sorry", Nate said, slamming him hard on the back. "If I was there, I would have done the same thing."

'What's done is done, and now we have to come up with a solution to solve this, and playing a game with them won't work this time." Said Blip.

"We are waiting for them to get back to us with a solution," Sam explained. "It seems like the Parasite members themselves are restless to attack, while our members are more on the cautious side. Just in case, we have already started to move residents temporarily back to the ship until tensions have quietened down again."

"Don't you think it's strange?" Paul said.

At these meetings, Paul often wouldn't say much, He didn't want to get too involved, and he thought that the former Crow members did a good job caring about everyone. Most of the faction members belonged to them anyway.

"I'm just speaking my mind, but Quinn is away, and they want to fight us now. Usually, factions who truly don't want war with each other, will try a number of things before resulting into fighting.

"You attempted multiple times to be reasonable with them, yet instead, each time they retaliated by being even more unreasonable. And although none of us are worried about Quinn, we have been unable to contact him, which is unlike him when he knew he would be away."

The others thought about what Paul said for a while. The Parasites were being difficult; they were making it so hard that the others were wishing they had just tried attacking them when they came here in the first place, rather than all of this passive aggressive nonsense.

The light on Sam's watch started to flicker, and tapping on it once, a projected screen appeared. It was a message from the Parasites.

"What is it?" Nate asked, wondering if they could be fighting any day now.

"They have come up with a suggestion to the problem. One that actually might favour us. They claim that because both sides don't want unnecessary blood shed, and the faction's are a similar size, that the two sides should have a duel instead.

"Pitting their strongest five, against our strongest five. Whoever wins, the faction will serve under them from that day."

Nate and Dennis smiled, thinking that the Parasites were underestimating them. This would be an easy win, but the others weren't too sure.

However, this was clearly better than war.

"So it seems like we are all in agreement to accept the terms?" Sam said, and they all nodded in response. "Then the next question is, with Quinn out of the picture, which five of us will fight?"

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