Chapter 1203 Climb
The organisation of the Shelter during this state of emergency and the gathering of the twelve who had been honoured with receiving the blood weapons had taken some time, but at most it was an hour or so. At the same time, the pods had stopped dropping from the large mothers.h.i.+p and the group had yet to experience any such attack, which was why the sudden message as he was about to leave was so troubling to Quinn.
"What could have happened for one of the planets to have already been taken over so fast? Did they send out an advance party before we found out about the Dalki? Even so, it should be impossible for n.o.body to report anything about it!" Quinn thought.
On top of that, he was sure the system would have informed him with a quest like it did so before if it was the case. Quinn was with the twelve others ready to leave at any moment and was at the north gate.
"Helen, has any of the planets reported anything about being on the brink of being overrun?" Quinn asked, speaking through a receiver in the mask he was wearing. Helen was currently inside the base trying to formulate plans. Despite the calls and information that was coming in, she answered immediately when it was him.
"I"m not sure, but we are unable to contact any of the members or faction leaders stationed on Demakera. According to some outside s.h.i.+ps observing the situation, the Shelter looks to have been destroyed." Helen reported.
Hearing this, Quinn thought back to the information that he had seen about the planets the Cursed faction owned. Demakera had a B ranked Shelter. It shouldn"t have fallen this quickly, unless a strong number of Dalki were there or perhaps a strong spiked Dalki was present.
"Sam suggested that we concentrate our forces on a few of the more important planets. Otherwise it looks like the Dalki will be able to slowly lower our numbers." Helen reported.
It was a good plan, but there was a major issue with it.
"If they do that, what about my Quest? If the Cursed faction retreats to the other planets then it will make it easier for them to take over. I"ll fail the Quest once we lose possession of ten planets! No, I can"t tell Helen not to go through with the order. I can"t risk peoples" lives just because I could receive a penalty from this d.a.m.ned system!"
It was another race against time for Quinn. The evacuation of those in the Shelter would take a while anyway, but there was one thing the Cursed faction leader could do to complete the task. Destroy ten mothers.h.i.+ps before they were able to take over the planets.
"Quinn, I"m afraid I have some more bad information for you. I have sent over a video that you need to look over. Whatever you decide to do I"ll understand." Helen said.
Knowing that it would be important if she wanted him to watch it, he immediately started. It was a recording of livestream but not just any livestream, one that Void and Bonny had taken about how the Cursed faction"s s.h.i.+p was under attack.
"Human"s…. Not Dalki and they don"t look like V either."
After listening to the video for a little while, he understood just who exactly had attacked the Cursed faction s.h.i.+p and it was none other than the Blade family.
"Hilston!" Quinn stepped on the ground so hard, that his foot sank several inches into it.
"Quinn, your people need you here right now." Vincent acted as his voice of reason. "One planet has already been taken over. There is a good chance that more will follow. Who knows how dire the consequences will be for failing the Quest, in any case it will leave you weaker!"
"I would hate to be in your shoes right now, but know this, during the time I have been with you, you weren"t the only one who has grown stronger. Trust in your friends, who treasure the Cursed faction s.h.i.+p as much as you do. You can always use your ability to arrive there as support, but once you leave here is n.o.body you could use to quickly get back."
Vincent was right, if those that had a close bond with Quinn were in serious trouble and close to death, he would be able to feel it, and although he could tell members of his family were fighting hard, it didn"t seem like any of them had been injured to such a degree.
On top of that, with each planet the Dalki took over, it spelt death to the ones living on them.
———
On Planet Demakera, smoke was rising from the destroyed Shelter. The walls had fallen to pieces and blood was everywhere. There didn"t seem to be a single human survivor, and even the secret underground Shelter had been torn and taken apart.
Standing, in the middle of what was now a large pile of rubble was an odd looking Dalki wearing a nice b.u.t.toned up s.h.i.+rt.
"The others are more war hungry than I thought." Graham looked to his left, and could see a human had been lifted up by a Dalki, soon squeezing its head, finis.h.i.+ng it off on the spot. "It seems a lot of my brethren are just following their natural instincts, urging them to kill whatever they see. I wonder why some seem to be less affected than others. Well, I hope to find the answer soon. I hate to rely on others but this time I will have to."
"This Shelter was easier than I expected. I guess that means I have run into the weaker of the three groups." Graham thought.
———
Quinn had made his decision. After watching the video a bit more, he had seen that Nate had arrived and with him the tide had turned slightly. Seeing his confident smile on camera, Quinn chose to believe in his friends, and was off.
Using his Shadow travel, the ten women and two men with blood weapons were traveling with him.
They went through the large meadows, filled with flowers and trees, heading directly towards the mothers.h.i.+p. In the shadow the other twelve were quite nervous about the whole thing.
"What is going to happen if we run into a large group? Isn"t it too dangerous with just the few of us?" A young man named Yag questioned nervously. He held a small axe as his blood weapon in his hand, while his beast weapon, another axe, was on his back. All of them had their blood weapons ready, waiting for the signal to pop out of the shadows and fight off the Dalki.
"Don"t say those types of things." Iree lectured him. "Everyone knew this would happen, and at least we have the privilege of having the Cursed faction leader with us, not to mention these new weapons. You"ve seen their power, as long as we use them we stand a chance no matter how big the group of Dalki are!"
Still, despite her encouraging words, it was common knowledge that a strong group of ten or more was needed to take on even a single spiked Dalki. Of course it depended on that group"s strength. Even hundreds of regular ability users might be unable to defeat such a foe, much less a stronger one.
They had no idea what awaited them, they would have to trust in their own stamina with their increased strength as they got closer and closer to a fight to the death.
Even through the Shadow travel Quinn could smell the scent of blood. Travelling to where it led him, they found one of the hunting groups of this area. The twelve griefed at the sight of five people having lost their lives, none of them looked to have died a pleasant death.
Quinn quickly moved on, and although it was clear that some wanted to check if someone might have survived, they didn"t dare say anything as they saw the scary look on Quinn"s face as he continued to move. Eventually, following another scent of blood, he moved to a new area, this one had the sounds of people fighting.
Once they came closer, they could see ten survivors with five others already dead. They must have been three hunting groups that had banded together. Unfortunately, they had encountered five Dalki who they were currently fighting with. The Dalki were injured to different degrees but not a single one of them was dead.
"Everyone out, don"t let them kill anyone else!" Iree shouted, gripping her spear tightly.
The next second, all of them exited the shadow. The twelve of them got into position, intending to protect the injured yet still surviving ten Travelers. Yag swung his axe at one of the Dalki who hit the weapon, which dropped on the ground.
"d.a.m.n it!" He cursed internally while taking a step back and getting out his beast weapon. "How are we meant to defeat these things? These weapons may be strong but they only power up once they absorb Dalki blood, but I can"t even hit the d.a.m.n thing!"
As Yag was shaking, nearly falling over, a Iree came over stabbing the Dalki right in the stomach. Soon, the weapon started to light up with great energy, and pus.h.i.+ng forward again, like a blast of energy, the Dalki was. .h.i.t and blasted away with a type of red aura.
"I can"t believe I called this weapon a piece of c.r.a.p!" Iree thought while looking at it, but the Dalki, now spewing with green blood, had gotten up again, and was moving towards them.
"You"ll pay for this!"
Taking a step forward, for a second it could see an axe. The Dalki had no time to dodge the weapon as it lodged into his skull, piercing through his hard skin and killing it on the spot.
"Yag?" Iree questioned looking over her shoulder, but instead she could see Quinn standing there, his gauntlets covered in green blood and had just gotten out of a throwing position.
"What happened to the…" That"s when she could see, in the moments they were fighting against a single Dalki. Quinn had already dealt with the other four quickly, and had just killed off the fifth one.
"I"m heading off, some of you escort the Travellers back, the rest will come with me." Quinn ordered, as the mothers.h.i.+p was getting closer and closer.
******
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