Chapter 1296 - A Shadow Raven For a while now, Quinn had remained on the same spot, fighting against hundreds and hundreds of Masked. However, he had yet to feel himself running out of energy. Using the power he had obtained from the dragon, he had managed to defeat each enemy with a single hit. It wasn't that the Masked had just stood there, waiting to take a beating, but their red aura powers had proven completely useless. If the Cursed faction had really wanted to, he could have taken them all out far quicker, however the reason why he hadn't done so was because he was being careful. In fact, he was careful to limit his damage to a point where he could use the Shadow eater skill, since this never ending mass of enemies proved to be a boon in disguise. Each one allowed him to gain 10 MC cells, which was great for his shadow ability and he had long since earned back the amount he had lost during his fight with the Dragon. 'Just getting more MC cells isn't going to make me stronger, but it will allow me to use the shadow ability in more ways. I also won't have to worry so much about using the Shadow Overload. I can feel that there are still more ways for me to use the Shadow Overload skill, but because of the drawback I couldn't really afford to play around with it for too long.'' 'If I continue getting rid of all these, I can learn how to fight better and this in turn will improve my strength and it won't just be a temporary boost like the Dragon's energy I have in my body right now!' Quinn thought, as he quickly grabbed the head of two Masked and slammed them to the ground… He used his Shadow eater skill on one, forming a strange blob like shadow consuming its body, and then did the same to the next one. [1360 MC cells in total] [Congratulations] [Shadow eater skill is now at level 2] 'Huh, so even the Shadow eater skill managed to evolve!' Quinn was surprised by this revelation, then again, he had never gone against this many vampires before, so he had been able to confirm if it was a skill he could even evolve from repetitive use. [The Shadow eater skill can now consume more shadow from each vampire it is used on. The Shadow eater skill's success chance has now increased. The Shadow eater skill is now able to form different shapes based on the user's will.] Reading through the changes, for a brief moment Quinn was happy. He had known that the Shadow eater skill's chance of success seemed to work based on how injured the vampires were that he used it against, yet there had still been cases when it had failed against a vampire who had been close to death. Quinn's happiness was short lived though, as he looked around and the number of Masked that were near the open area still hadn't decreased. 'Are they trying to get past me, and head to where the Dragon landed from earlier!' Quinn wondered. Once the island had shook, the vampires had suddenly stopped defeating Quinn and instead had attempted to run right past him. Rather than going after the Masked, Quinn decided to throw out his Shadow eater skill. Thinking back, Quinn remembered the strange shadow that had appeared when he saw Arthur use his skill. He wondered if this was a shape Arthur chose. Due to how far away the person was who he wanted to use the skill on, in Quinn's mind a certain bird formed. Now, leaving from his hand, the shadow eater's skill looked slightly different from before, going out in the shade of a small black raven. It also looked to be moving faster in this new form, and when it nearly reached the Masked, it opened its mouth wide, the shadow expanding far larger than the Masked person itself. A few seconds later and the Masked fell to the floor screaming in pain as it felt the suffering of being in the sun. [12 MC cells consumed] 'That mask wasn't even injured and the shadow eater skill still worked, but it's still a little slower than hitting them myself.' Quinn felt a mask coming directly towards him, and this time, instead of wounding it, he had acted on instinct, using his full strength to pound it away. He threw an overhead punch, and his first landed straight in the mask cracking it. The mask broke off, and the vampire was no longer alive. 'Why, why even though I feel like I'm getting stronger, why do I not feel any better?' Quinn thought. He had hoped that fighting would keep his mind off things,, but in his current condition the Masked proved to be too easy an opponent. This left Quinn free to think about other things, mostly the fact that he didn't even know which one of his friends had died, and that once again he had failed to protect them. Not to mention, he felt responsible for bringing them all here… 'Quinn wait, I think I saw something when you broke off that man's mask just now. Could you take the mask off of another one?' Vincent asked. Of course with the way Quinn was now, and even before it wasn't too much trouble, he easily grabbed the face of one of the Masked who was too weak to resist, and quickly ripped the mask off his face. 'Alright…one more please.' Vincent asked. His tone seemed strange but Quinn knew Vincent would ask him to do that without any reason, which was why he didn't mind doing this one and continued to remove it from the next one as well. 'This… confirms it. They all look like Jim, they must be his clones.' Vincent clones. 'Jim? As in your old Vampire knight Jim? As in your uncle Jim who we suspect to be behind this whole mess? I knew that Eno could create clones, but how is it possible for Jim create this many?' Quinn asked, now also checking the faces of those he had defeated. 'Our ability is a strong one Quinn, and honestly sometimes it is not just how great the mind can be as for the person with the ability, but also how far the person is willing to go. Look at your system. We have thought for a while now that it is able to do incredible things thanks to my ability, and even know it continues to grow. As for Jim, this is proof he has gone beyond. 'Jim…why did he need to go to such lengths? Quinn, if it's at all possible, please allow me to talk to him.' Vincent requested. —— Brock's severed arm had healed, blood was no longer falling down its side, however he now only had one good arm he could attack with, and seeing this, Jim was unable to hold in his laughter. '"You are finished." Jim declared, and the next second the other six spiked Dalki who was on his side, had rushed over to where Brock was. Seeing this with his one good hand, Brock opened up the palm, and a large red ball of aura could be seen gathering. As the Dalki was running straight forward, Brock knew for sure that the attack would hit. Releasing the attack, Brock's arm lifted in the air, as the recoil was strong. What he had just successfully used was the attack known as the Blood cannon. A large red beam of aura had come out of Brock's hand and hit Dalki directly in the chest. The energy continued to hit the Dalki, until its whole body was absorbed by the red light. Eventually, the red aura ended. The Dalki could be seen standing there, having skidded across the ground a few feet back. "For you to have managed to push a six spike Dalki all the way back here, the power of a former Royal Knight is indeed strong. Unfortunately for you, it still isn't enough to actually injure him!" Jim taunted. Watching the whole thing from the side, was Richard, who was still using the power of the red aura blood armour to block the Dalki's attack. Since the first punch had failed, the Dalki tried again with another punch. No matter how often he repeated it, each time it would just hit the invisible wall of red aura, creating new ripples. 'These Dalki, are too much for Brock to handle, and that Shield… we need to know what else it can do before we go against it.' Lifting up one hand, a portal appeared above where Eno was, and an object was seen dropping from the sky, now in his hand, he held a giant lance that was spinning as he held it. Even now as he did nothing it continued to give off a strange red glow. "There are different ways for us to use our ability. For me, I used them to create the strongest item I could possible." Eno said, as he thrusted the lance forward, and the spire on his head was no longer glowing. The lance went straight for the Dalki that saw its chance to attack him. The Dalki, with its new found power decided to try grab the lance, but as soon as it did, it felt its skin ripping from its hard scales on its hands. Feeling its power, for the first time the Dalki stepped back, looked at the green blood on its hands and noticed that the person responsible hadn't moved forward. "You are weaker than I thought." The Dalki growled, having gained more energy from its injury. The look on Eno's face spoke volumes. With that attack, he had expected to kill the Dalki or at the very least heavily injure it, yet it had done little more than give it surface wounds. Although Eno was safe due to his blood armour, Brock was not, and it looked like there was nothing he could do. The six spiked dalki that was facing Brock, charged in again. When it was a few meters away from him, it saw something flash in front of It, and lifted up its arms. A clang was heard as the object hit the Dalki's arms, and to its surprise, now it's forearms had been cut, making it bleed. "How? What could cause a six spiked Dalki to end up like that. Fair enough Eno's weapon but there should be no one else strong enough." Jim said. It was then that they could see a pair of legs and a tail in front of Brock, with a headless man behind him. "So this was where all the action was going on." Peter said, appearing by Brock's side.