CHAPTER 54: Andrea's Decision [(Part-4) out of 4]

Kasim tried to head towards me, but within the split second that he looked back at me, the Lv.12 Greater Shadow Leopard bit his hand and broke the earth armour covering his hands.

With how experienced Sergei was, he didn't make such a mistake and used his senses to understand the situation.

Without turning his back, Sergei distanced himself from the Tier-2 monster and threw a dagger that was imbued with black gas like substance at the head of the Tier-1 Shadow Leopard that closed near me.

But what Sergei and I didn't expect was that the Lv.22 Greater Shadow Leopard would use a strange attack to suck the flying dagger into the dagger's shadow itself.

Just when I thought it was over for me by looking at the Lv.10 Lesser Shadow Leopard that was 2 meters away in mid-air as it lunged onto me, a fiery red staff appeared out of nowhere and hit that Tier-1 monster, causing it to blast apart from the impact

4 meters around that Tier-1 monster's position was then drenched in its blood, intestines and other body parts.

I stumbled to the ground from the impact of the blast and got covered in the monster's blood.

Then, every monster halted their attacks and looked towards the North-East direction.

In the next instant, every Tier-1 Monster, in my view, fell to the ground as if an invisible pressure dawned on them.

Kasim was on his knees, and he continued to shake as he used his hands to stop himself from completely falling to the ground.

The only ones standing were the Lv.22 Greater Shadow Leopard and Sergei.

But their expressions gave away their fear of the unknown entity that caused the phenomenon.

I followed their gazes to find a monster that resembled a goblin. But its skin had a darker shade of green, and it was 6 foot tall.

Other than that, its face was not as ugly as a goblin. But the most discernible point about it was the carefree expression on its face.

It then looked at Sergei with interest before turning its attention on me, causing my heart to skip a beat.

Then, it walked towards me as if it was taking a stroll in the park and none of the monsters even dared to attack it.

On its way, it took out the fiery red staff that was stuck in the ground and stood in front of me by leaning by placing its elbow on the top of it.

Even though it was a monster, it's actions resembled a human.

But, I was dumbstruck when it started to speak to me in fluent Filipino, "Andrea Gonzales, as long as you agree on using your to help my Master with a situation, I will save you from your crisis. If not, I would remove the Tier Suppression and standby as the Shadow Leopards take care of you. Choose, my next course of action will depend on your decision."

Upon hearing the words of the goblin-like monster, my thoughts became chaotic.

It was mostly because of the reason as to how the monster was intelligent enough to communicate, and moreover, it was even able to speak my native language.

Other than that, there was even a mysterious master for a monster, which was enough to strike fear just by its presence.

If the goblin-like monster had a similar skill like , it could explain how it knows my name and Innate Talent.

After taking a deep breath, I calmed myself and accessed the situation.

I didn't have any Spirit energy left, and Kasim wasn't in a position to last out much longer.

Once his Stamina runs out, Sergei would have to face 3 High-Phase Tier-1 monsters and a Low-Phase Tier-2 monster along with the High-Phase Tier-2 monster that he was barely holding his ground against.

If that happens, all of us will die before Olvia could complete her Tier-2 Evolution.

Since I placed most of my Undistributed Stats in Spirit, my critical thinking increased, which improved my decision making speed.

I used on the goblin-like monster, but all I could see was the name of his race, 'Hobgoblin'. Other than that, all I could see were question marks.

After thinking it through, I asked the monster as I subconsciously stuttered by looking at it up close, "Co...Could I know ab..about Mr Hobgoblin's master?"

Then, a proud smile crawled onto his face as he replied while looking at the sky, "My master is a moon in the darkness, warmth in the coldness, a faraway star that can be only seen but can not be reached."

Even though it was a bit too poetic, I could see the sincerity in its words.

Still, that didn't answer my query, and when I was about to ask it once again, the carefree Hobgoblin suddenly gave off an expression that a child would give when he was wronged as if someone was scolding him.

When the Hobgoblin saw me giving it a rather awkward look, it coughed in embarrassment before replying, "Cough...cough, Alright, my master is Jay, the one that is ranked first in the ."

Hearing him, my mind was blown once more. Back when Sergei finished his evolution, we learned that he was ranked in the top 600 among millions of Alpha Chosen.

That was also when we found that Jay, who was ranked first among the Earth's Alpha Chosen, was also ranked first in the entire Trial World.

From then on, I wanted to know just how powerful 'Jay' would be. But, I was dumbstruck to know that a monster as powerful as the Hobgoblin was treating him as a master, and my view of him escalated to another level.

With that, I agreed to the deal with a condition to save Sergei, Kasim and protect Olivia until she finishes her evolution.

The Hobgoblin began to laugh heartily after hearing me as if it heard a good joke in a long time.

Its laughter continued for a few seconds before saying, "To think that three of you even tried to defend someone who was undergoing an evolution in the Evolution Orb. Here, let me show you something."

Then, the Hobgoblin held the staff with both its hands as its muscles bulged a bit, and swung the staff at Olivia with breakneck speed.

I was terrified by its sudden attack on Olivia. But, other than an ear-splitting bang from the staff's collision, there was not even a scratch on the shiny crystal orb that Olivia was in.

Nor did that hinder her evolution process. Then I heard the Hobgoblin's voice, "The Evolution Orb is the protection from the System itself, and even if I was a Tier-9 being, it's impossible to break it much less those Tier-2 monsters."

Only then did I find out the reason why the Hobgoblin laughed so hard.

After that, it turned towards the monsters and pointed its staff at the three Tier-1 monsters.

I didn't see anything coming out of the staff, but the Lesser Shadow Leopards were engulfed in a fire before incinerating into ashes.

The whole process didn't take more than a second.

Meanwhile, both the Tier-2 Greater Shadow Leopards tried to escape through shadows.

But, when they were halfway through that, the Hobgoblin created numerous fireballs the size of a basketball in an instant.

Those fireballs floated 10 meters above the ground in the shape of a net that spanned 30 meters long and wide.

Then, the light coming from the numerous fireballs foreshadowed the sunlight within the area under the fireball net.

With the light originating from numerous angles, the shadows were not clear, making it difficult for the Tier-2 monsters to conjure the Darkness element, thus making it even harder to manipulate it for escaping.

I was amazed by the level of control the Hobgoblin had on the Fire element.

As a 'Light-Element' user myself, I knew that control over an element doesn't only depend on the respective 'Mastery Level' but also on the user's concentration levels.

But in such cases, the expenditure of Spirit Energy would be high. That made me wonder about just how high the Hobgoblin's Spirit Energy had.

In the next instant, I was blown a few steps back, and the Hobgoblin disappeared. The place where it stood before had foot-shaped dents deep into the ground.

When I looked around for the Hobgoblin, I was greeted with another violent scene where the head of the Low-Phase Tier-2 monster went missing and the other one had a hole in its abdomen.

After growing numb to its overwhelming strength, I recovered pretty quickly from my state of shock.

But unlike me, Kasim had his mouth open and eyes bulged out as he witnessed the Tier-2 monsters die in such a manner.

Even though Sergei's shock was not visible in his expression, I could still see it in his eyes.

But, he soon collected his composure and woke Kasim up from his daze before approaching me.

Sergei asked me about the conversation I had with the Hobgoblin and why such a powerful monster helped us.

As for Kasim, he was too eager to know about the conversation as he nodded his head like a chicken pecking at grains.

With Sergei reaching Tier-2, his senses were even sharper, and he heard the entire conversation between the Hobgoblin and me.

But, since our conversation was entirely in Filipino, he didn't understand it except for the tone of the conversation and the names used in it.

So, I began to explain everything and by the time it ended, the usually calm and collected Sergei was amazed that such a powerful monster's intelligence and that treats Jay as a master.

All three of us turned our heads and looked at the Hobgoblin in unison as it hummed while it continued to rip out some kind of transparent crystal from the monster's carcasses.