'Fuck my life!' Alex inwardly cursed, still fighting the seemingly never-ending horde of puppets.

HikariYami had just suddenly disappeared from her spot while he was too occupied fighting them and he had no doubt in his mind that she had somehow spotted Jayden headed their way and left to intercept her.

And now, at the worst time possible, by some unknown, seemingly inexplicable reason, he was no longer able to contact Jayden.

He really wanted to leave to go assist and find her but with all the puppets surrounding both him and Abby, it seemed to be completely impossible, no matter how he looked at it, there was no escape...

Then, as he was trying to rack his brain around how the hell he was going to break free from the puppet's encirclement inorder to go and help out Jayden who he no doubt knew was in great danger, his thought process was both suddenly and abruptly interrupted.

'I'll go help Jayden! You stay here and fight!' Abby's voice echoed in his head with great passion and urgency.

'Huh!? What the fuck!? Are you crazy!? I can't take them all on by myself! Plus, we are completely surrounded! How could you even escape? There may be less than when we started but they keep getting stronger and stronger the more we fight!' Alex responded, his eyes growing wide as he could not understand the intention and plan behind her words, but, he knew that there had to be something that they could do to save everyone but he was not yet sure what that something was.

'Don't worry! Now that She's not here, I'm free to do this!' She responded with a wide, confident smile on her face.

Not even a second later, a large portal-like dimensional gate around 8 feet tall emerged from behind Abby. Small beings armoured in black, their faces covered with all sorts of weapons in hand, ran out of the portal like a crazy yet organized horde and began attacking everything in sight.

1 by 1, the creatures kept running out of the portal, the sound of their metal armour clanking through the air. Alex estimated that there was around 30 or so creatures before the portal stood still and nothing seemed to be coming in or out.

Yet, only when he thought it was over, another small creature walked out, but instead of the usual black armour of his peers, that one had far stronger more expensive-looking red armour instead. He had a metal spear in hand and did not look as crazy as the rest of the horde, giving off a feeling of calmness and maturity.

Then, from behind him walked out another creature… No, calling it a creature would have been a lie… It was more like a towering monster…

Ducking under the 8-foot portal so as to not hit his head, walked out a monster wearing black armour surrounded by bones and red accents, the ground shaking with every step he took from his sheer size. The bones on his armour seemed all to be from completely different species, some that Alex recognized and some that seemed to be completely unknown to him, he thought he was imagining things, but he could have sworn that some of the bones even belonged to humans. Behind his back was a large, slightly cracked, bulky broad sword that was well over half his body in length that looked like it had survived going from hell and back.

Although their faces were completely covered, Alex was still able to recognize them. They were Abby's undead goblin troops that she had amassed during the exam. She had already shown them all to him prior yet he was still in awe every time she did.

Even though they were much weaker than the puppets, they were still able to use basic abilities like water, wind, earth, and even fire, however, they were undoubtedly weakened compared to a normal ability of the same element.

Yet, despite all that, they were still able to stand a fighting chance against their seemingly far superior enemies.

As an organized force, the goblins that now outnumbered the puppets teamed up on them with perfect synergy, mixing and matching their attacks and abilities to catch them off guard.

They were only slightly being pushed back by the puppets whose teamwork and adaptability now looked like complete garbage compared to that of the weaker undead.

Abby could not help but smile as she saw her army of undead causing such trouble to the puppets that she was struggling so hard against just a few seconds prior.

She lifted her scythe in the air, giving it a fiery red glow that shined brightly in the night sky.

"Kill them all!" She yelled, reaffirming her orders, red energy flowing around the body of every undead that could not help but growl due to the feeling of their powers being boosted by Abby's demon energy undead buffing spells.

'Okay! I'll leave my army with you. With their help, you should be able to take out all of the puppets! She should not have gotten that far! I'm going after them! Let me know and follow me when you're done taking these toys out!' Abby yelled in his head once more, her face turning much more serious than before.

'Nice thinking! I completely forgot about that option! I'll be sure to take these guys out as soon as possible and come and help you!' Alex yelled back to Abby in their mind-link.

She smiled and nodded back to Alex's words and boosted herself through the forest using her fire ability to even further accelerate her already impressive speed.

As Abby left the area, Alex focused his attention back on the puppets in front of him. After that light show that Abby performed, it seemed like the goblins were doing even better than before.

They used their abilities in intricate combinations to trap and attack their enemies in ways that he never expected them to be even capable of. Especially one of the special goblins that seemed to know how to use the magma element to a small yet impressive extent.

However, what was truly impressive was the goblin armoured in red and the goblin giant who seemed to be even stronger than the puppets, being barely, yet still strong enough to defeat a puppet 1 on 1.

And, unlike the red goblin using a fire ability that produced orange flames, the giant only used his brute strength and nothing more, not even showing a hint of his ability due to the fact that his powers required blood, something that the puppets and undead surrounding him lacked.

Now, all he needed to do was join the fight and get things over with as soon as he possibly could. Time was not a luxury he had, every second he wasted could have been the difference between life and death for his friends.

And, in order to accomplish that, he of course required the use of his knight powers. Yet, sadly, they seemed to have just worn out for the 3rd time. He felt like he was reaching the limit of his current, pitiful and inefficient demon energy mastery. His body had been injured several times from the puppets' onslaught of attacks and the penalty of using his powers.

Alex knew that with the assistance of the undead, he could easily defeat all of the puppets with minimal effort, but in order to defeat them as fast as he could, he needed to use his demon powers at least 1 more time.

He tightly gripped his spear and steeled his resolve, closing his eyes to activate his powers. Before long, immense pain worst than he had ever felt before in his life ravaged his entire body, making his wide eyes bleed profusely which made almost half his vision go red. His brain started to throb and expand like it was ready to explode right out of his skull, causing him a nearly unbearable headache. He tightly gripped his pumping heart that was beating faster than he could ever remember, throwing up multiple mouthfuls of blood at the grass underneath, dying it crimson red.

Then, several lights of different colours appeared and flowed all around his body, each one showing the increase of power he had received which made him inwardly smile.

To save the people he cared about, he was ready to make any sacrifice. He had already promised himself that he would not let what happened to him before happen again and he was not yet ready to break that promise now.

He wiped the blood from his mouth and eyes with a crazy smile on his face, cloaking his body that was on the verge of collapse with his lightning aura before he rushed straight into battle, shredding absolutely everything in his path as fast as possible, zooming around the battlefield like a blur.

With the enemies distracted with the goblins, he was easily able to sneak up on them and catch them off guard, delivering the decisive finishing blow, destroying all the armour to make sure they would not stand up ever again.

Before long, every last puppet had been swiftly eliminated. And, without even a single hint of hesitation, as soon as he defeated the last enemy, he shifted his focus and ran straight into the forest with all his might in order to catch up to Abby.

He only took a few seconds to one minute to dispose of the trash but in that time, many things could have happened and he had no time to waste. He would never be able to forgive himself if he was the reason that any of his friends were injured.

'Abby! Can you hear me!? They're all dead and I'm on my way to help!'

'Abby!? ABBY!? Answer me!'

Alex screamed with a clear sense of urgency, the unease in his heart growing with every word he spoke.