It was a little bit tricky to tell, but Michael figured that Quinn's Dragon Marks had nothing to do with his ability to jump through space.
The Dragon Marks and the ability to jump through space complemented each other well, but they were not the same. The two powers were completely different Soultraits.
Dragon Mark was a Soultrait that enhanced the user's Agility, Perception, and energy control drastically. It also purified the origin energy inside the body while altering and annexing the origin energy in the immediate surroundings, resulting in the creation of energy that repelled harmful substances, and forces to a certain degree.
The combination of all effects turned the Dragon Mark into an extremely powerful Soultrait with, at least, 6-Stars. Michael even wondered if the Dragon Marks were a 7-Star Soultrait given that Quinn's strength continued to increase as the fight progressed.
Meanwhile, his other Soultrait was rather simple. It allowed him to jump through space, similar to mages in games blinking through space to change their position.
The Soultrait was most definitely not of a high star-rating, but that didn't affect Quinn much because his Dragon Mark's energy purification strengthened the 'Blink' Soultrait's power drastically. As the fight progressed and the purity of Quinn's origin energy increased, it grew much easier to blink through space with shorter delays. It was also much easier to blink more often in succession.
That was something Michael realized quite quickly.
'Why is nobody noticing that he has two Soultraits? Isn't it obvious…or does nobody bother?' Michael wondered, but he figured it quite easily.
It didn't really matter whether Quinn had one or two Soultraits since everyone knew what he was capable of. Everyone knew the effects of his Soultraits, whether they thought it was just one overpowered, versatile Soultrait, or two complementary Soultraits.
With that in mind, Michael's attention pulled back to the battle that was about to reach the climax.
Quinn's jumps were getting faster while the intensity of his attacks increased as well. He was in front of William initiating a slash one moment, only to blink behind William to continue the slash with the same momentum as before. A wall of darkness shot out of the ground, intending to block the slash just a moment before it was about to connect to William's flesh. But Quinn had already blinked away a third time.
He reappeared next to the wall of darkness, his silver dagger only centimeters away from William's neck.
The ability to slash while blinking through space, and the fact that Quinn could turn his simple attacks into incomprehensible attacks was exceptional. He didn't even use much of his own energy since he was mostly using the annexed energy in the surrounding to support his blinks through space.
'These Soultraits would be quite useful for Tiara,' Michael thought, the golden sheen in his eyes intensifying as Eagle Eyes was utilized at its peak.
William was startled by Quinn's agility. He expected Quinn to be powerful but the lethality of his opponent was beyond comprehension. Quinn's combat style was simple, yet deadly. It had been honed in thousands of battles, turning Quinn's Soultrait and exceptional combat awareness into bloodthirsty weapons that sought the blood of their enemies.
William could barely turn his head away from Quinn while simultaneously releasing a blast of darkness from his left hand. The blast of darkness wasn't deadly but it was strong enough to push Quinn away. His silver dagger missed William by a hair's breadth, which gave William enough time to change his tactic.
William stored his dagger inside the War Rune, replacing it with a dark orb that seemed to melt into William's palm the moment it manifested.
The orb turned liquid and coated William's hand as he channeled energy into it. Following the energy that entered the melting orb, William's presence changed. His pores opened and darkness began to ooze from them. The darkness was denser than before, shrouding William's entire body within seconds.
A fearsome armor of darkness manifested over William's body, protecting every inch of him.
The vast majority of William's darkness gathered around his left hand where the Dark Orb Artifact had molten. The darkness grew thicker and morphed into short sword blades that began to circulate around William to protect him from all directions.
No matter which angle Quinn chose, sword blades were waiting for him.
After the dark orb had enhanced William's Darkness Manifestation Soultrait, his energy consumption increased ever so slightly. But that was worth it. After all, William's Soultrait grew stronger and his control increased exponentially as well.
Unfortunately, Quinn didn't remain idle. His Dragon Marks' sheen intensified. The glowing golden marks shone brighter with every second that passed. Michael could sense a drastic change in Quinn's presence. Quinn used most of the origin energy inside him to channel them straight into the Dragon Marks, which reacted instantly.
The Dragon Marks expanded in size and dug into Quinn's flesh, causing blood to spill out from the edges of the marks. In response to this drastic measure, Quinn's power doubled, and his being began to radiate the Dragon Mark's repelling force. The repelling force expanded and reached Quinn's daggers in no time.
Once Quinn's daggers were coated in the repelling force of the Dragon Marks, it wasn't too difficult for Quinn to blink behind William and cut through the darkness sword blades that revolved around him. I was only a matter of time before the silver daggers collided with the sword blades, and lost some of their power. They were split apart with brute force, providing Quinn leeway to shoot forward and thrust the silver daggers into William's darkness armor.
Quinn focused the repelling force from all over his body on the tip of the silver daggers, forcefully repelling William's darkness armor as the silver blades cut into the 10th Star of the freshman.
A sirene resounded through the first arena, causing Quinn to blink backward.
He was still holding his daggers, warm blood trickling down the blades.
On the other hand, William remained unmoving. His darkness armor and sword blades dispersed, revealing William's pale face that was filled with disbelief.
He couldn't believe that Quinn had such an easy time defeating him. Even if he was only the 10th Star, how could Quinn win that easily? William didn't want to accept that. He just couldn't accept it!!
"The victory goes to Quinn Karta! May the sun shine brightly on you!" The referee said loudly while sending the medic team of the Colosseum to William Black to tend to his wounds.
Quinn Karta bowed to the referee before turning away. He glanced over to the rows of spectators and nodded faintly when he saw Zeke seated in the first row. After that, he left without saying a word.
"I don't understand why William keeps fighting Quinn. As long as doesn't find a way to stop Quinn's repelling force he won't ever be able to win against him," Lincoln grumbled quietly, clearly dissatisfied with the end of the battle.
Zeke just looked at Lincoln, shaking his head, "Aren't you the same? Even if your Soultrait is disadvantageous against opponents like me, you still try to defeat me every single time. Why? Because you want to grow stronger to survive battles against opponents with similar Soultraits in the Origin Expanse. William might desire to win against Quinn just like you want to win against me, but he uses Quinn as a grinding stone to test out various tactics to counter Soultraits that hold an advantage against his own."
Michael had long since figured that some Soultraits were exceptionally useful against certain enemies. If your enemy had a Soultrait that required lots of focus, Michael could just use Spirit Whip to prevent him from executing his Soultrait. That way, Spirit Whip would even be useful against Awakened with 5-Star Soultraits, or even 6-Star Soultraits – as long as they weren't able to block his mental attack.
Michael had been weak against Soultraits such as Lincoln's Stone Giant, and Zeke's Eye of Illusion. In fact, Michael still had no clue how to block out Eye of Illusion's power. It was simply too difficult to block mental attacks, especially if you couldn't be certain whether you had already been caught in Zeke's Illusion or if the effect of his Soultrait had yet to take hold of your body and senses.
Only Lincoln's Stone Giant was something he should be able to handle now that he possessed Reinforced Sword Qi. Combining his Soultraits, in addition to Extraction, Michael was confident to deal with Lincoln's Soultrait, which was something he wouldn't have been able to do without 6-Star Extraction and 5-Star Reinforced Sword Qi.
Lincoln's Soultrait was quite powerful and focused greatly on Earth Manipulation, Semi-Transformation, and a tank-like defense. The Stone Giant Soultrait was like a combination of three 6-Star Soultraits.
But that was what made it interesting to fight against Lincoln.
"What are you going to do now? I heard that your punishment has been decided and that you have to participate in the Interdimensional Flag War. That means you've come to the Colosseum today to become one of the 12 Stars, aren't you?" Zeke asked Michael, speaking a lot more than usual.
It was almost like the battle between Quinn and William triggered a change in Zeke. However, Lincoln knew better. He knew that Zeke was the most interested in Michael's combat prowess after they witnessed his fight against the Zan Twins and Mr. Klein.
In the first place, Zeke was the reason Lincoln called his family to turn Michael's punishment into an opportunity for Michael to shine during the Interdimensional Flag War.
"I guess, it's a good thing that I have to participate in the Interdimensional Flag War. It gave me a task to strive for, and helped me get back on the path I'm supposed to walk on…I guess… Either way, I'll have to become one of the 12 Stars until tomorrow, otherwise, y'all will leave to meet up with the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs for the Battle Exchange without me." Michael said without feeling any pressure right now.
He might have witnessed the combat prowess of the 10th Star and the Sun of the freshman, but Michael was also aware of the advantage he held over most Awakened.
As long as he didn't challenge Zeke or Quinn, everything should be fine.
He shrugged mentally.
It was a little bit annoying that he had to be present at the Battle Exchange, and win three fights there – to participate in the Interdimensional Flag War, but it was exactly like he said before. Having a goal to achieve kept Michael going forward. It forced him to get back to his senses and look toward the future rather than letting his mind reminisce about the events of the past.
Maybe it was a push he had needed to get back on the track.
Thus, rather than being fueled with annoyance, Michael felt that it was much better to look forward to the battles in the Colosseum, the Battle Exchange, and the Flag War.
At the end of the day, all of those events would allow him to grow stronger.
And strength was what he really needed.
