Rose caught Alan's collar, her brows furrowed. "Go to Miss Bella? Why, I could still fight!" she yelled.

  Alan looked at her as he gently grasped her hand and removed it from his collar. "You'll die if you fight in this condition. There might still be several Goblin Kings in the central front, and—" He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes narrowing as he noticed the strayed goblins closing in on them.

  "And what?" Rose yelled again.

  "Give me a moment," Alan said, stepping forward toward the approaching hobgoblins. A normal Fireball should be enough, he thought. A crimson glow pulsed from the tip of his sword down to the hilt in the next instant.

  "Fireball," Alan muttered. A spark flickered at the tip of his sword, followed by a sharp crackle as the Fireball formed. In the next instant, it shot forward with immense speed.

  The goblins who were closing in on him tried to move away from the attack, but their attempt was to no avail. As the Fireball struck the ground, they were all killed in the next moment, their blood painting the ground red.

  Alan placed his sword back in its scabbard, opening and closing his right palm a few times, giving his hand a moment to recover. He turned his gaze back towards Rose and pointed towards the center front with his right hand’s index finger. Multiple orbs of lightning spells detonated in the next moment, turning the battlefield into a spectacular view.

  "Some genius leader seems to have left her team behind," Alan remarked, his tone laced with sarcasm.

  "Miss Ais," Rose mumbled as she looked into the center front.

  Alan crossed his arms and nodded. "That's her, alright," he remarked as he momentarily looked towards the center front. He turned his gaze back to Rose. "If you join her right now, you would just be holding her back," Alan added in a stern tone.

  "So what do I do now?" Rose questioned. Her razed breathing was now normal, and her blazing sword dimmed completely, indicating she had stopped using mana.

  Alan took a moment to think. He looked up at the sky, blurring his vision consciously. What would be the best course of action for her? he mentally spoke. "I think…," Alan spoke up again. "You should go back to Adrian and join the center front with him. Ask Miss Bella to lend you some mana and rejoin the fight with the center front’s B-ranking adventurers and help them kill all the surviving goblins," Alan said with a neutral expression.

  Rose eyes narrowed yet again, not from tiredness this time but instead from disinterest. "Oh, that makes complete sense. I'll be going then…," she said as she began to walk towards the destroyed landscape.

  "You haven't heard the complete plan yet!" Alan shouted.

  Rose turned back to look at Alan, an expression of boredom now clearly visible on her face. "I didn’t want to say this… but I think your plan is really long and boring."

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  "Ungrateful brat," Alan mumbled as he watched Rose go. Turning his gaze back to the center front, Alan looked as Ais cleared chunks of the army on her own with each attack. He watched as each slice of her sword severed several goblins all at once and how each spell she casted midway disintegrated the others. Does she even need my help? Alan questioned himself as he began to walk toward the center front at a moderate pace.

  A chilling breeze swept across the battlefield as the scent of blood filled Alan’s nostrils. That’s when he finally noticed Ais’s expression, her usual serious, cold demeanor, but with something else beneath it. She looks really tired. Alan mentally said.

  And who isn’t tired during a fight? Alan scoffed at himself. Man, I am such an ungrateful piece of shit. This isn’t one of my usual solo missions where I can take a break after doing just twenty percent of the work! he mentally exclaimed, reaching for his sword and unsheathing it in one swift motion.

  Alan closed his black eyes in an attempt to relieve himself from his eye strain. He stretched his neck by bending his head around. And I am as good as new now, Alan thought to himself with a smile as he tried to trick his brain. He looked towards Ais as he tightened his grip around his sword. Wouldn’t want her to cast some nasty spell on me now, would I? He thought to himself as a smile slowly spread across his lips.

  Alan raised his sword, pointing the tip towards the goblin army. What would be the best way to announce my presence? he mused. His brows furrowed, and his eyes closed as he got lost in thought. "Something with a high return too," he mumbled.

  "High return???" Alan repeated as his eyes brightened up. His grip on the sword tightened, and a dark violet hue enveloped his blade. I don’t think I need to use Formless Caster for this, Alan said to himself. “Dark affinity, Thorns of the Abyss!” Alan chanted in a loud voice.

  As Alan uttered the spell’s name, a massive dark violet magic crest spread across the battlefield, covering nearly a quarter of goblins within its ominous boundary. The crest resembled a violet disc, adorned with several golden arcane symbols arranged at irregular intervals.

  “Considering the mana I spent on this spell, that Goblin King surely had a massive reserve in its core,” Alan muttered, his gaze fixed on the battlefield as he observed the spell’s effects.

  The goblins who were within the spell's range froze in shock at the sudden appearance of the magic crest. Ais, noticing the sinister aura of dark magic, turned to her left and spotted Alan standing alone.

  So, the Weeble siblings and Alan managed to clear the left front before I could finish the center? Ais thought to herself, scanning the battlefield.

  Her gaze settled on the spell’s effects, only two goblin commanders remained mobile, while the rest of the hobgoblins stood entranced. Their bodies swayed as they reached toward the glowing golden symbols etched into the dark magic crest. The moment the first goblin’s fingers brushed against one, a thin vine of dark energy erupted from the ground, impaling it in an instant.

  Ais’s eyes widened. “Quick Step,” she murmured, vanishing from her position in a blur and reappearing outside the spell’s range. Turning back, she observed the spell unfold, the moment a goblin touched a golden symbol, another vine emerged, piercing its body in a swift motion.

  The goblins impaled by the vines convulsed violently as their mana was drained, their flesh collapsing inward until only brittle skin and bones remained. With each victim, the spell grew stronger, birthing more tendrils that lashed out at nearby goblins. The goblin commander who resisted the spell’s hypnotic pull slashed at the vines, desperate to sever them before their energy could be consumed. But for those caught in the spell’s grasp, escape was impossible. Their fate was sealed, death was the only release.

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