While the vote for the next King or Queen had been taking place, Paul had decided that he needed to be best prepared for whatever was to happen next. At that point, there had still been no news about what was going to happen to Quinn, and with Leo's group still missing, he could see that the situation would possibly turn for the worst.
Because of this, Paul wanted to make sure that the people were safe first. Logan had claimed that it might be possible for him to create a teleporter back to the Cursed faction ship. He had noted down the coordinates many times, and the Vampire settlement, including the equipment in the tenth family's lab, had plenty of equipment for him to do so.
Paul had agreed to the creation of the teleporters for two reasons. One of them being the fact that it would allow them to call for reinforcements if needed. However, that was more on the theoretical side. Ultimately how many people would heed his call for help without Quinn?
The second reason was for them to escape, so that they would be able to live to fight another day. Paul was a cautious man and there was something bugging him, so he wanted Logan to create the portal and put it for a test run.
The creation process had gone without a hitch… but that was when the bad news started to come in.
"That's strange, the portal from the lab in the mountains worked fine, so why is one this having a problem? Is something interfering with it?' Logan thought. No matter what he did, the portal just wouldn't turn on.
This was exactly what Paul had feared would happen, for something similar had already happened to him before.
If the teleporters worked, Paul's plan had been to hide Alex on the Cursed faction ship, at least until they searched the whole place, but now they had no other choice.
——
'What do you mean Alex just can't escape?!' Quinn asked, quite shocked as he talked to Vincent.
With the recent allegations of Quinn using fairy blood to kill Dwight. Quinn was concerned for Alex, and was hoping that if they did come after him, then at least his people could teleport back to the Cursed ship, but Vincent had just told him that wasn't possible.
'Remember when I told you vampires created the technology in the first place? Well, it seems that whoever introduced it to humans, only introduced our old technology. Put bluntly, you humans haven't kept up to date.' Vincent explained.
'The vampires are able to create a zone with a special device that stops all of your human teleporters from working. Usually they only do such things when they know they are under attack. I suspect since the problem with Dwight had occurred they already turned it on thinking that some of your people would attempt to escape.'
'But there is more they can do than just that, they can also redirect all the teleporters to a certain point while within a zone, and can redirect the teleporters to a different place altogether. Even into the pit.'
Now Quinn was greatly concerned for those in the castle.
'Let's just hope I left them with enough to protect themselves.' Quinn thought.
———
"Prepare for war? Are you some child?!" Jill shouted. "This wouldn't be a war, just my eighth family slaughtering your tenth! This is not something we want to do!"
Activating her telepathic ability again, she made sure everyone in the inner castle area and in the castle area could hear what she was saying.
"Listen up, we are only here for the Blood fairy! We know they are among you. As long as you bring him or her to us, then no one has to get hurt. However, if you continue being stupid enough to think you can protect them, then we will have to force our way in. Just give us what we want, and save the stupid people who are running the tenth family." Jill shouted.
She waited a while for a type of response or anything, but there was nothing until Sam eventually spoke.
"I can see what you are trying to do, you're trying to turn those in the tenth family against us, so we fight amongst each other! We are more like a real family and won't fall for your tricks." Sam said. "We don't have your stupid Blood fairy so go back from where you came from!"
Jill looked down and clenched both of her fists, and soon started to chuckle to herself. This whole thing just felt so degrading.
"Why doesn't anyone listen to what I have to say?" She mumbled. "If you weren't hiding a Blood fairy, then you would have no problems letting us search the castle!" She screamed while swinging her arm out, and activating her blood swipe.
It shot out towards Sam, and with an attack this strong there was only one thing he could do. He raised the shadow from beneath himself and blocked the attack. However, he couldn't hold it for long, but it gave him enough time to move out of the way of the attack. The strike continued going forward through the ground until it eventually dispersed.
The vampire's eyes opened wide, and even Jill could feel her heart take an extra beat. The reason was, because they had seen someone, other than Quinn and Arthur use the shadow ability.
"Don't tell me… did that arrogant buffoon really teach them how to use the shadow?!" Jill shouted.
The memory of what Arthur had done to the other leaders when he had been here was still quite fresh in their heads. None would forget how easily he had overpowered them, which was why they had frozen a little before making their next move.
Sam, knowing full well that his shadow wouldn't last long after blocking this one attack, thought it was their signal to get out of there, and started to run back towards the gate.
Seeing this, Jill snapped out of her daze, knowing that just because they had the shadow ability, it didn't mean they were as strong as Arthur.
"Get rid of them all, and bring me that Blood fairy!" She shouted, ordering her people to charge forward.
They were fast, but Sam and the others had a head start.
'Come on, tower, do your thing!' Sam prayed as they passed the gates and waited for what was to happen next.
—-
Underground, at this very moment, a screen appeared in front of Quinn.
[Quest received]
[The tenth family is under attack. Eliminate all enemies or make them surrender!]
Seeing this quest message, Quinn knew something was up, but how was he meant to help out while stuck in this cave? It was as if the system was taunting him.
Just then, another screen from the system appeared in his vision. It was a digital map of the tenth area and just outside of it. On the map, Quinn could see his forces in green, while the enemy was displayed as red circles. Around the map, there were certain buildings that were highlighted blue.
'The blue buildings… Those are the towers and the statues I placed!'
From the system screen itself, Quinn was still able to upgrade, repair and do more to the towers, and while in the underground cellar for the last few days his reputation points had increased.
He didn't know why, but Paul's actions had benefited Quinn greatly. Despite the accusations that were going against him. Unlike other leaders of the past, or when they had no leader Quinn was the first that thought about protecting and looking after his people first and foremost.
On the map, he could see the green dots had just made it safely past the gate, and then, the red dots chasing after them. There was a circle around the tower and when the red dot got within that circle, another option appeared.
[Fire]
With no hesitation, Quinn fired, commanding the system, at the same time outside. A shot of orange and white energy lit up from the tower and went out hitting the vampire closest. It was one of the regular vampires from the pooling area, and they were unable to move in time avoiding the strike.
When the energy hit his body, he felt a large mass of energy hit him. Once the dust settled, half his body was completely missing, with his other half falling to the floor.
*****
