In the middle of the fight, for the first time in a while there was a large amount of hesitation going through his mind. Because there were a number of things he could do, but didn't know what was the best option. 'Do I go back and try to head out of the affected area. I'll be at full strength and it will give me time to think. Or do I use Nitro Accelerate and try to reach the Phoenix as fast as I can, but I still don't know an effective way to hurt it yet.' In the middle of his thoughts, the Phoenix was ready to swing its wing. Quinn needed to react faster than the last time, and noticed the slight movement in its muscles. Already he was starting to cast the shadow. Thankfully, although his stats were affected by the Phoenix's power, his shadow speed wasn't. However, to use his shadow slightly faster Quinn would at times swing his hands as he covered them with shadow, it would allow it to move slightly faster. The attack from the beast was fast, which is why he needed to focus and be ahead of the game. As he got closer, the line of fire that originated from the Phoenix's wing would reach him quicker. This time, Quinn lifted his hand, and threw up a shadow wall, but rather than using both hands, he only used one. The fire hit the shadow wall and it was stopped with the flames still burning like they did before. When Quinn's foot hit the ground, he jumped to the side, away from the shadow, and he had a large blood spear ready in his hand. 'With one hand I'll block, and with the other, I'll attack!' Quinn gathered it with as much of the second stage of Qi as he hurled it through the air. The spear started spinning as Quinn used his blood control to give it a boost of power and to rip through any possible flames that would come toward it. 'Let's see how it will react, will it attack the spear, block... or what?' In the end, the Phoenix did neither, its wings were still spread open and the spear was going right toward its chest, and when it touched, just like with the bullets it went right through the flames, and continued onward until it hit the ground, far off in the distance. 'Does this thing have a physical body?' Quinn thought. 'If it doesn't, how am I meant to even defeat this thing? Wait... the only thing that has been able to stop the flames, and physically touch them, is the shadow. Can I do something with that?' Quinn would have to try and see if his idea would work, but there was a worry, the Phoenix didn't seem to like the spear being thrown at it, even if it didn't hurt, because for the first time it had opened its mouth and a large amount of flares from the sky, and all around were gathering around its mouth, it looked like a big attack was taking place. 'Quinn use the guns! Even if you have slowed down, the bullet's speed is unaffected and there is a way to quickly move yourself out of the way!' Alex suggested. Thinking of these words, he listened to the advice and brought out the guns again. The fire left from the phoenix's mouth and it spread out wide. It didn't come out in a direct line, it was going all across the floor, in the air everywhere. 'Even if I blocked this with the shadow, the fire would get to me from the sides, everywhere. I could defend myself for a while, but then it would be a match of which one lasts longer, its fire or my shadow, and I don't want to risk that.' Using the gun, Quinn fired a shadow bullet that managed to cut through the fire, but he didn't aim it at the phoenix but purposely missed it, then with the other gun he fired again, and his whole body sank down. The next moment, Quinn appeared out of the other shadow portal that had been created, which was directly behind the phoenix. 'This is what Alex meant, with the two shadow guns I can use them similar to portals, entering from one and exiting from another, and I can keep firing out the bullets. The only problem is, now I'm right next to the phoenix.' The heat this close to the phoenix was unimaginable, it felt heavy on his skin, suffocating and was hard for him to even breathe. When he did, his whole throat and body felt like it was burning up. If it wasn't for the fact that he had strong levels of Qi supporting his body inside, he imagined a vampire, or others if they got this close, would simply burn. [All stats have been lowered by fifty percent] 'This is what I was worried about, but now that I'm this close, I have to do whatever I can!' [Soul weapon has been activated] [Shadow mist has been used] Out from Quinn's body the whole area was covered in particles, and it seemed to help with the heat somewhat. His stats were still incredibly affected but he did have somewhat a counter for that as well. [Nitro Accelerate has been activated] 'Now the only thing I know that affects you is the shadow, so let's get a good hit in!' The shadow mixed in with the Qi was covering Quinn's gauntlets and soon they had grown making his entire arms four times as big. They looked like the hands of giants. From above the top of its head, he swung both of his fists down, and they smashed on the phoenix's head. The hit had landed perfectly, and the phoenix for the first time looked as if it had a physical form as it stumbled, but it caught itself shifting its legs, and turned its head to look at Quinn. Out from its body, small fire balls came shooting toward Quinn. Since he knew he wouldn't be fast enough to block them, he switched to the guns again and started to fire at each of the balls. Every time the bullet hit the balls of fire, shadow would cover them completely stopping them in their tracks mid-air. After blocking most of the fireballs, Quinn fired two shadow bullet portals moving himself to a different position and now was by the beast's side. Immediately he started to fire the shadow bullets towards its head, hitting it on the side. It stayed on for a few moments and as the bullets built up, the shadow seemed to linger on the face of the phoenix a bit more. 'This is a problem, the shadow has never really been an offensive power. It's always been something that supports my other powers. Even with the Qi, really it's only giving the shadow a physical form and my Qi is doing all of the work. 'Even as a bullet, it's doing next to no damage to the thing, but my shadow is the only thing that's working on it. How do I damage this phoenix enough to get rid of it!' Still watching from the sides, Mundus thought things were getting interesting as it looked like there was now a battle of god slayer powers, to see which one was stronger. ---- Meanwhile, back on the Mermerial planet, things were going well. Stark had managed to set up a virtual meeting between the two leaders, and they both had agreed to support each other to fight against the enemy. The meeting had come to an end, and Layla along with the others were inside the room as well. She rushed over to Ceril as she had a question to ask. "What are you going to do now?" Layla asked. "Quinn has been gone longer than we originally expected and Jack and Jim could be getting closer." "What do you want to do?" Ceril asked, knowing that Layla had come to her for a reason. "Quinn was originally going to go to the Amra planet, correct? To ask them for their help. I can't just do nothing. Let's go there and ask for their help, and let Quinn focus on whatever it is he needs to do." Layla suggested. ***** For updates for MVS and future works please remember to follow me on my social media below. Instagram: Jksmanga P.a.t.r.e.o.n jksmanga When news of MVS, MWS or any other series comes out, you will be able to see it there first, and you can reach out to me. If I'm not too busy, I tend to reply back.