Paul didn't even have time to reply to Quinn's message. Nevertheless, he had received his orders, so he would make sure to follow them. He knew what he had to do, so he immediately sprung into action, preparing the whole castle for the worst outcome.
'Something big is about to happen, and we have to be prepared for it. Leo, Nate, I hope you have a very good reason for not answering right now. Without you, we might just be screwed…'
Quinn was faring well against the leaders, since he wasn't holding back on using some of the strongest skills he had available. He didn't even shy away from using the Blood bullet because he understood the need to hurt them as much as possible while they still underestimated him.
Now that they knew how much his attacks hurt, and what effect his gauntlets had, the leaders would be more cautious.
The one giving him the biggest headache at the moment was none other than Jin.
'I'm sorry Quinn, but the quicker I subdue you here, the higher your chance of surviving the aftermath until we manage to get to the truth of the matter!' Jin thought, as he took out his blood weapon, the special shield. He threw it out and the small blades from the outside opened, making it spin.
Quinn had already fought against this once before, and it had completely destroyed his Shadow dome ridding him of MC points, but he had made some preparations in case he had to fight against it once more.
Quinn opened his hand up, ready to use the Shadow lock skill. However, before he could close it, it had been stopped by Prima's hand.
It was very strange, since he had stabbed his fellow leader with his rapier weapon, David, only moments ago, yet Prima's speed had somehow skyrocketed though these actions, allowing him to reach Quinn before he could react.
"You think this is the first time I have fought against a punisher?" Prima whispered. "I'm not letting you get away!" The next moment he kicked Quinn in his stomach towards the shield, while the others got out of the strike zone.
The blood from the spinning shield was closing in, leaving Quinn no choice but to surround his whole body in shadows. Explosions went off one after the over, continuing for a brief period of time. Quinn could see his MC points plummeting, until the explosions finally stopped.
He came out with a blood crescent kick aiming straight for Prima who had dashed to the front again, but the twelfth leader's speed allowed him to dodge.
'Damn, he's faster than Bryce and I don't have my shadow to slow him down! It seems that taking on more than one leader at a time, really is impossible!'
No longer having any shadow and unable to hit the leader in front of him with his blood, Quinn was at a loss of what to do, as he fell to the floor, he punched the ground as hard as he could to lift the rocks up in the air, causing debris to fly everywhere.
He gambled on the off chance that it might allow him to fight them one on one, or at least create a gap in their awareness so he could run away this time. He was even contemplating escaping with the shadow as his life was on the line, but he was worried the leaders would try to follow him.
Time was running out, so Quinn was getting ready to leave the scene, be it via Nate's shadow or one of the others.
Before leaving the area, he felt a stinging pain in his leg and the skill he was trying to use got canceled. No matter how hard he tried to summon the shadow it was unsuccessful.
'Is it something to do with the needle from that girl leader?' Quinn wondered.
One of Suzan's needles had hit him. The leader had been far away in the back, yet that didn't mean she had been just waiting around. She had waited for the perfect moment to strike and soon enough Quinn felt Jin's blood coming towards his face, and a large explosion set off.
His body was chucked like a rag doll and his health was dangerously low.
[5/100 HP]
[Blood bank activated]
Alas, it was useless, even with his second life. It might have been different if Quinn had been at full strength, but complaining about that wouldn't help him. Now, he couldn't even use his shadow ability.
In the middle of recovering, David had come over and slammed him to the ground, Quinn's health dropping to what little he had before the Blood bank healed. He remained lying on the floor, lacking the energy to resist any longer.
With his last bit of strength he looked up, and saw that even the last bit of hope had vanished with the arrival of the missing leaders.
At least most of them.
"It looks like what Cindy said was true, Quinn really was planning to kill Dwight and judging by your fight, it seems he has already succeeded." Jill stated as she entered the scene.
The eighth t leader Jill was accompanied by, the fifth leader Sunny, and the thirteenth leader Lee.
'Quinn you have put me in a very difficult situation.' Lee lamented. 'We still don't know where Fex is, and now it looks like you've been framed for someone else's wrongdoing.' He regretted not being able to do anything for the tenth leader, but until they found out who the actual culprit was, going against the other leaders would just put him in the same situation as Quinn.
Kyle, was still grabbing his wound on his shoulder he had received form Quinn and the others could now see him sweating.
"What's wrong with him?" Sunny asked.
"It happened after the tenth attacked him with his gauntlets!" Suzan replied. "He looks almost poisoned."
"Kyle, you are poisoned with Fairy blood! Use your blood control to remove it!" Suzan ordered.
Hearing this, while still barely conscious, Quinn wondered how Jill even knew it was Fairy blood. As an old vampire it made sense for Bryce to know about it, yet even he had been mostly guessing, yet Jill somehow sounded convinced as she called it out.
"When you remove the blood we need to keep it for evidence!" Jill continued. "It looks like the information we got was correct after all!"
'Information, what information?!' Quinn tried his best to listen, but his remaining strength was barely enough to keep him from losing consciousness.
While Quinn was on the floor, Suzan quickly threw the red needles all over his body. Strangely, they didn't damage him, nor did they sap his strength, making him wonder what exactly they were doing to him.
David, then covering his foot in the blood hardening around it, was ready to stomp on Quinn's head for good measure. Jin wanted to rush over to stop him, but was too far away.
"Stop!" Muka shouted coming from the castle. "He can no longer fight! He is the most likely suspect, but that hasn't been confirmed yet! The correct thing to do is to bring him in. Even with Dwight gone we will do things the proper way, especially in a time without a King!"
Hearing these words, and not wanting to scuffle with Muka, David pulled his foot away, albeit openly reluctantly.
Muka then knelt down next to Quinn, and looked him in the eyes. Quinn looked like he still had some fight in him, he wasn't ready to go just yet. He wanted to beat all of these people and Muka could see it.
"Please don't be angry at us. I promise you that we shall be on your side, and I will get to the bottom of this! I will make sure we find the right culprit and save you! All I'm asking you is to trust us. And… sorry, Quinn."
Hitting Quinn hard on the back of the head, Muka had knocked him out.
[Quest failed]
*******
