All of Quinn's strongest attacks, the Blood Swipe, Blood Spray, Flash Step, Hammer Strike, and even his new Blood Hammer Skill were completely inaccessible to him while Peter and Erin were around.
This essentially meant that Quinn had no way to break through Gobkiko's thick exoskeleton.
It was essentially like she possessed her own, natural Beast Armor.
Quinn glanced over towards the podium of the Assembly Hall, where Artoria, Kujaku, and Demona were just standing around, watching the others fight.
'Maybe I should have picked a different Beast to fight,' he thought.
***
Back in the meeting room in Military Base 1, everyone looked at Head General Paul with wide eyes.
To them, it was as if Paul had just spoken in an alien language.
Oscar's face hardened.
"The idea of a Glathrium alloy exists in just that," he replied. "An idea. We have tried to make it a reality. Countless times. And all we ever had to show for it was wasted time and resources."
Paul's face remained unchanged.
"Using conventional methods, you are correct," he replied as he clasped his hands together on the table.
He remained silent for a moment.
"However," he replied, before looking Oscar in the eyes. "It seems that student Hikiko's Ability begs to differ."
Paul reached into his pocket and withdrew a small, metal cube the size of an apple.
As he placed it on the table, a noticeable "clack" was heard.
***
Back in the Assembly Hall in Military Base 2, Quinn and Gobkiko continued their sparring match.
But, no matter how hard Quinn punched, it had no effect on the Hobgoblin.
She would merely block his hits with the black exoskeleton covering her arms.
For Quinn, it was like fighting Riley all over again.
Only this time, Quinn couldn't trick his opponent into hardening the wrong part of his body.
Gobkiko's exoskeleton armor was part of her, and she didn't have to maintain a conscious effort to keep it active.
Quinn ducked his head, as Gobkiko's scorpion tail swung across her front in a horizontal arc.
'And dealing with that blasted tail isn't making this any easier, either!' Quinn thought in annoyance. 'She seems to be able to control that thing like the prehensile tail of a monkey!'
Quinn grit his teeth.
'Damn it, I don't have any choice!'
He shot one last look back at Sergeant Faye, who was still watching him like a hawk.
Quinn wrenched his right arm back, and raised his right leg up in the air.
Then, he slammed it down in a stomp.
Quinn felt energy course up his body from the soles of his feet.
The energy traveled upwards, going up his legs, then his torso, before finally traveling down his right shoulder into his right arm.
Quinn thrust his hand forward.
Seeing the incoming attack, Gobkiko crossed her two arms in front of her, intending to once again, use the exoskeleton covering her forearms to block the hit.
However, this time, when Quinn's fist collided with Gobkiko's arms, something different happened.
The sound of a gunshot resounded through the room, causing everyone to turn their head in Quinn's direction.
***
Raten and Rakshara, who both had an arm wound back, ready to plow their respective fist into the face of the other, froze in place, and turned towards Quinn.
Layla, who was collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily, and Sylvia, who was looking down at her a short distance away, both turned their heads towards the sound.
Erin and Starrk, who were currently clashing swords, turned their heads to look at Quinn.
Artoria, Kujaku, and Demona, still standing near the back of the room, turned towards the source of the noise.
Even Tsukuru, who was still working at his table, the table covered with piles of stick grenades, flash grenades, speed loaders full on Intermediate-Tier Paleneedle Bullets, Intermediate-Tier Fire Bomb Arrows and Intermediate-Tier Frost Net Arrows, and Galina, who was standing next to the table and watching Tsukuru work like a child watching a parent due paperwork, turned towards Quinn's section of the room.
***
Back with Quinn and Gobkiko, the black exoskeleton covering Gobkiko exploded off of her like a shell, breaking along hair-line fractures, and exposing the green skin underneath.
The skin underneath the broken parts of the exoskeleton was also heavily bruised.
While the exoskeleton had taken a significant portion of the attack, it hadn't been able to absorb all of it.
A sizable hole had been blown in the center of Gobkiko's top, revealing her skin beneath. Just like with her forearms, large bruises could be seen on her lower chest.
Gobiko's whole body froze from the impact, her looking like a still statue.
On her face, her eyes were wide from shock.
After a few moments, Gobkiko coughed up a bit of Beast blood, the black liquid dripping down her mouth.
Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the floor.
Quinn was unsure of exactly how much damage the Hammer Strike had done, but given the fact that Gobkiko hadn't exploded into pixels, like with Erin's fight with Artoria weeks ago, he assumed that he hadn't killed her.
Though, by the way she was acting, it had probably been a pretty substantial blow.
However, it was then that Quinn noticed how deathly quiet the Assembly Hall had gotten.
As he looked around, he saw that none of the others were still fighting.
Rather, they were all staring at him.
Quinn's eyes darted from one person to the next.
Layla and Vorden, despite knowing full well that Quinn was a Vampire, had looks of shock on their faces, likely due to the fact that they had never seen him use the Hammer Strike before.
Meanwhile, Erin looked at him with a look of suspicion.
Seeing what he had just done, on top of him beating Tsukuru in the Beast Weapons Class, she was finding herself doubting this "weak, Level 1" facade that Quinn was trying to project.
And…as Quinn looked back at Sergeant Faye, she had a hardened look on her face, her eyes narrowed.
While she was deeply convinced that whatever Quinn had just done had to be some kind of Vampire power, it wasn't something that Muka had shown her before she had left the Settlement.
She knew that it wasn't a Blood Skill, as there was a noticeable lack of the red aura.
So, in the end, she decided that she was going to just have to let it slide.
After all, if she, an actual Vampire, was unsure of just what that attack had been, it was unlikely that those in the room who didn't know about Vampires would jump to that conclusion.
The tense silence in the room was broken when Gobkiko let out a groan of pain.
The others all turned to her.
Her upper body fell forward like a stone, causing Quinn to instinctively jump backwards as she did so.
Her body collided with the floor, causing an audible "thud".
"Ugh," she groaned, her voice muffled, as she was face-first on the floor. "Did anybody catch the number of that bus?"
The others in the room all just stared at her, unsure of how to respond to that.
It was then that Starrk began to approach Gobkiko from behind.
"Gobkiko," he replied, looking down at her. "Are you…alright?"
Gobkiko twisted her body around so she was laying on her back.
Doing so allowed the others to see the hole in her shirt, and the large bruise on her stomach.
"I think…I think I'm just going to lay here for a bit," she replied, looking up at the ceiling.
Starrk looked at her for a second, before letting out a loud sigh.
He walked over so he was standing over Gobkiko's left side.
The others watched in shock, as Starrk lifted his right arm above his head, holding his sword in a reverse-grip with the blade pointed downwards, before driving it downwards into Gobkiko's heart.
The eyes of everyone, including Gobkiko, widened, as they saw his actions.
Immediately, Gobkiko's body exploded into pixels.
"Holy shit," Raten muttered. "He just killed one of his comrades."
Starrk glanced back at him, hearing Raten's words.
"You can't really 'kill' us," he replied. "I just helped her get back on her feet in a shorter amount of time."
Raten gave him a confused look.
***
Back with Tsukuru, a System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[Your Infantry-Rank Elite-Pawn Grade Gobkiko has been killed. Would you like to revive her?
Costs 8 Energy
[Yes] [No] ]
Tsukuru glanced at the System message for a moment, before then thinking "yes".
The first option on the screen lit up, and an electronic "beep" could be heard in Tsukuru's head.
The sound of electronic interference filled the air around the table that Tsukuru was sitting at,
The sudden presence of the noise caused the others to turn to it.
When they did, they saw pixels beginning to appear in the air next to the table.
The pixels clustered together into a Humanoid shape.
There was a bright flash of light, and Gobkiko reappeared.
Another System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[Your Infantry-Rank Elite Pawn-Grade Gobkiko has respawned.
-8 Energy. Energy: 62/180]