"It’s fine, Captain. You go ahead, we know what to do!" Mallin took a deep breath, and Wade nodded firmly. "We can take care of ourselves, you don’t need to worry!"

They joked that if they couldn’t protect themselves while Waldo was holding off the main force of the bloody puppets, they deserved whatever came their way. Weakness wouldn’t get them far. If they didn’t die now, they would likely perish in the upcoming battles with other trial participants. In the arena fights, with the system’s nature, there wouldn’t be any rules to protect their lives.

...

After speaking, Waldo no longer paid attention to them. He focused all his attention on the nine headless bloody puppets charging towards him. These nine statues felt much stronger than the one outside. Even Waldo had to treat the joint attack of these nine bloody puppets with seriousness.

Boom! Boom! Boom! ...

The overall weight of the bloody puppets was very heavy. Standing over three meters tall, they each weighed at least several hundred kilograms. Their running was like that of steel beasts charging furiously. What’s more, their movements were uniform, as if they were a single entity. Each step they took on the ground caused it to vibrate, making one’s heart tremble as if these steps were stomping directly on it. A crimson aura pervaded the air, condensing into a layer of scarlet blood mist in the midair. It spread rapidly, enveloping every corner of the palace.

With a thunderous roar, as they were about to close in, Waldo no longer hesitated. Like an incredibly agile leopard, he exploded with power from his feet, leaping more than ten meters high. Fortunately, the palace had a vast space, with the ceiling more than twenty meters above the ground. Otherwise, Waldo’s leap would have shattered the ceiling!

In mid-air, Waldo’s eyes shone with an incredibly bright light, coldly observing the bloody puppets below. The upgraded axe in his hand, forged by merging twenty or thirty pseudo-axes, radiated a heavy and terrifying power.

With a fierce swing, Waldo unleashed a black and violent force, sweeping through everything like a mountain-splitting, chasm-forming power. "Boom!" A terrifying explosion echoed as if countless thunders detonated within this confined space, dust billowing everywhere.

Amidst the swirling winds, nine figures were violently thrown back. Waldo, upon landing, also staggered backwards. Step by step, his feet dug small pits in the extremely hard ground, retreating more than ten steps to barely offset the huge recoil.

"What? These nine puppets are so strong that Waldo had to take so many steps back to stabilize?" one of the siblings exclaimed.

"Yeah, and the captain didn’t even come into direct contact with the puppets, just clashed in the air. It seems like the captain was at a slight disadvantage. These nine mindless beings are this terrifying?" they murmured to each other.

At that moment, the WadeMallin siblings couldn’t help but exchange glances. They realized Waldo had been slightly overpowered in his initial clash with the bloody puppets, which was alarming. Were these puppets really that powerful? If it were them, wouldn’t they have been obliterated by that strike?

"Interesting, these nine bloody puppets are quite different from the one outside," Waldo mused, his eyes suddenly turning dark and mysterious, a faint light flickering within. What he was contemplating at that moment was unknown. To be honest, at first, Waldo hadn’t taken these nine puppets seriously, considering them merely as slightly stronger, but mindless, automatons.

No matter how powerful an individual puppet is, it would ultimately be defeated one by one by me. However, the development of the situation had exceeded Waldo’s expectations. The combat power of these nine puppets was not only stronger than the bloody puppet outside but also far exceeded his imagination.

Although they lacked intelligence, strangely, the strength of these nine puppets seemed to be unified. It was as if the nine puppets were a single entity. This kind of power amplification was terrifying. They not only resisted his initial axe strike but also counterattacked, causing his blood to churn. Fortunately, he suppressed it in time, or else he might have spewed blood.

"Individually, these nine puppets might not amount to much," Waldo thought, staring intently at the nine bloody puppets, his spirit highly strained and his blood energy swirling around him. During his time in the chessboard world, his blood energy had increased significantly, his strength abundant. This indicated that he had activated his full strength, ready for the impending battle.

Most of his attention was focused on the nine puppets, analyzing the situation in his mind. "These nine bloody puppets, acting as one entity, must be the result of some technique. Their combined strength is extremely terrifying, and even with all my might, I can’t oppose them!"

Waldo looked at the nine puppets, their aura fused into one, like a tumultuous ocean, giving off a profound and majestic impression. For other trial participants, this level of strength would mean almost no chance of resistance. Only Waldo had the capacity to confront them head-on, but that was all he could do. As for the outcome, it was hard to say. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Indeed! Obtaining the treasure left by the supreme rulers is not a simple matter! Even with my total combat power exceeding five hundred, a sure victory is not guaranteed."

Waldo sighed in his heart. If even he couldn’t defeat the bloody puppets, others stood even less of a chance. But soon, a fierce will to fight reignited in his eyes. Temporary defeat did not mean perpetual failure. Only by maintaining an unquenchable spirit of combat could he possibly reach the end. Otherwise, even if he possessed the Hand of God, enabling him to control his destiny to some extent, how could he reach the end without the courage to face difficulties? The answer was obviously no.

"Come on, let’s go again!" Waldo snorted coldly, his invisible blood energy coalescing and boiling around him. At this moment, Waldo resembled a massive furnace, the force of his blood energy terrifying, like a blazing fire!

Waldo’s aura surged quietly and rapidly. "Attack!" he bellowed, and countless thunders rolled, filling the entire palace. His body was like a huge thunderbolt rushing out, with dark lightning flashing throughout the palace. Like a wild and swift sword, he plunged towards the formation of the nine bloody puppets.

Boom! A piercing, loud noise erupted. The entire palace seemed to shake violently several times under the impact of the collision. It turned out to be the fierce contact between Waldo and the nine bloody puppets, resulting in a massive explosion!