"Aaah~!" Aaron stretched as he just woke up. It had been a long time since I had slept on a mattress.

"Argh... You bet, it was horrible." Lance complained. "I want to get back to the Fortrex soon and lay on a real bed with the massage equipment. It's much better than here."

The green knight laughed, "Mister isn't used to little things."

"Hey! Stop laughing!" He said, making the other laugh.

"I guess Axl is already at the Fortrex stuffing his face."

"When isn't he?" Lance said in a mocking tone.

Aaron laughed and stood up, "Well, let's join the others. I think Clayman and Macy are already at the Fortrex too." He grabbed his flying shield and jumped on it. "Whoo!!! Come on Lance! You'll be the last!!!" He said as he sped out of the room into the air.

"That's cheating!" He stood up quickly and grabbed his stuff. He ran to get to the Fortrex.

~

"Lance is the last one!!!" Aaron laughed as he acted like a child, circling the white knight to annoy him.

"This isn't funny!"

"Of course it is!"

"Now the day of rest is over." Said Clay seriously. "We're going to join the training in the hologram room." Everyone sighed. "Ruina and the monsters should be here any minute. We need to be ready."

"Ruina?!" Axl, Aaron and Lance shouted at the same time. They hadn't been told this news. Clay had told Macy, and then Merlok and the other two when he had returned to the Fortrex with the princess the night before. Yes, they had not slept at the inn.

"Yes, I sensed her presence not far away, and that is why we must be ready to receive her."

The knights looked at each other and nodded.

"All right, Clayman." Said Aaron. "So what do you want us to do?"

"We're going to go straight into battle against an army of lava and rock monsters."

"What? Both at once?"

"That will be a start." He said, then walked out. He also had to go practice his magic himself.

"Does anyone want to strike?" Lance sighed as he asked. He heard a door close. "Wait what? You all left already?" He looked around and there was only the two kids left, while Merlok was still sleeping. He lowered his head in boredom and also went to the training room, even though he doesn't plan to do much.

Not long after, maybe 30 minutes, Ava and Robin sounded the alarm. "Knights! The village of Dnullib is under attack!"

"What?!" They all went to the central room where Merlok was.

"We have spotted an evil and suspicious presence in the area of this village." Said Ava as she typed on her keyboard.

"Clay, this is your-"

"Let's go quickly." He said firmly.

The Fortrex went as fast as he could. Once they arrived, and the knights came out, they were surprised not to see the usual monsters. They were monsters that looked like vampires with their sharp teeth. Their color was no longer in the red or blue/purple tones. It was green now. Monsters feeding on technological energy. How far Monstrox could imagine monsters...

"Knights, attack!" Clay shouted as he took the first step towards the monsters, and ran directly to fight them. He was the leader so he was the one to engage the fight first and show the others the way.

Everyone rushed towards the monsters, shouting a kind of war cry, and easily drawing the attention of the opposing enemy.

Come on, they were going to make it. They had to beat them all. These monsters are a threat and... They had to find the leaders too.

"Axl, behind you!" Said Macy as she attacked another monster.

"I saw!" Said the knight as he swung an axe at a monster, and had a piece of chicken drumstick in his hand. "Hey, folks. I think these monsters are tougher than before." He said as he saw the monster stand up and took his power source from a central tower. The monsters were making energy so if the tower was still glowing, that means it still had electricity to sell.

"Second problem..." Aaron began, as his shield had just delivered a blow to another green monster. "Clayman is missing."

"What?!" Macy heard this and was directly worried. "How-?!" She turned every which way, doing the 360 degrees and tried to find any trace of Clay. "Oh no...!" She directly ran in a random direction, to quickly find the knight before it was too late.

"Hey, princess! Don't trip while running!" Lance yelled at her as a joke because he had this feeling that Clay was fine and Macy was still exaggerating. 

"Leave it, Lance." Aaron sighed. But it wasn't really from annoyance. He too thought it was funny that Macy freaked out every time she worried about Clay, but he was also understanding. Macy and Clay were still close and sometimes looked like a couple. So it was normal for the heir to the throne to be in this state. "She'll calm down once she finds Clay."

Lance nodded, in agreement. With these two companions, they continued to neutralize some monsters. Even though they had noticed that they would need their large armor and equipped vehicles to really be able to fend off the monsters. But one thing they shouldn't forget is that the monsters might be feeding on the vehicles' batteries. This information will be revealed to them once they have experienced it.

On Macy's side, she was running behind the houses in hopes of finding Clay.

"Clay!" She shouted. "Clay!!!" She shouted even louder.

"Where can he be?" She thought.

"Thank you, brave knight!"

The red knight heard the voice of a lady. Probably a peasant woman. She had a feeling that the person stated would be her friend. So she ran towards the place, and to her delight, she had found Clay.

"Tell me why they sent you!" Clay ask for as he held a monster by the collar.

"Clay!" Macy ran toward them. "Let him go, he won't tell you anything."

"Macy, what are you doing here?" Clay turned his gaze to her a little. Shifting from annoyance to a little softness. "You should go back with the others. I'm making it my business with this freak."

"I don't think that's what you should do." She said with a sigh. "You won't get anything out of him. Come on, we should go back to the others and stay in groups. It's safer." She said to encourage him to not be in his corner so much.

The other knight sighed, "I know she's close..."

Clay... Come to me...

"What are you saying Clay?" Macy hadn't heard, and that puzzled her at the same time. What was wrong with him again?

"I... Nothing..." He used light blue magic on his arm and killed the monster, reducing it to dust. "Let's go help the monsters..."

He left, followed by Macy who had a confused face.

~

"Wow! You're finally here!" Aaron shouted into the air, seeing his two colleagues return. "I thought you guys were too busy kissing each other, not to come fight the monsters." He said with a mischievous smile.

"Hey, not a bad idea!" Said Lance, agreeing with the green knight.

"I know! You can see that a mile away!" Aaron said with a laugh.

"I think they just ate. They took a break what." Says Axl with fruit in his arms, still holding his axe. "I understand them, I would do the same." He took a banana from his free hand and ate it in one bite.

"Get a little serious here!" Macy shouted at them. "We weren't doing any of this!"

"Really?" Aaron asked through the air. "But I bet you love doing it, princess." He said mockingly.

Macy gritted her teeth, "Get down from there so we can talk!"

Aaron laughed, "I don't think you can reach me- Wop!" He dodged a metal bar heading in his direction. "That's because the cat has claws." He said with an amused smile and dodging other objects Macy was throwing.

"You idiot! I'm not kidding!"

Clay sighed as he saw the two, "Aaron, apologize."

"Hey! But Clayman! We're just having fun!" Aaron pouted.

"Do what Macy says."

"Okkaaayyy..." He said with disappointment. "I sincerely apologize to you princess..." Macy stopped and sighed accepting the apology. "But you and Clay are truly a wonderful couple!" He added with a chuckle and as he quickly took off in another direction, still in the air.

"Aaron!!!" Macy became annoyed again. She was about to run after him when Clay stopped her by putting his hand on her shoulder.

"He's not worth it." He said somewhat neutrally, even though the green knight's statements had also disturbed him... "Leave him." He withdrew his hand and turned to see what few monsters were left. It wasn't because they had defeated them because no, they didn't. Rather, it was that they had run away. Yes, only magic seemed to have any effect on the monsters and at this point, the knights except Clay had not used anything yet. So the only conclusion is that the monsters have retreated.

They'll probably come back.

"Let's go back to the Fortrex." He said with a silent sigh. "They will come back later and we will be ready." He then left for the Fortrex. 

Macy turned to follow Clay, but stopped for a moment. She turned a little to look at the area where they had just fought and felt a slight wind lingering over her. She didn't know what it was.

Axl, Lance, and Aaron were already at the Fortrex. Clay had also just returned. The only thing missing was her. She sighed lightly and walked back to join Merlok and the others.

ON THE OTHER HAND :

"How was that attack necessary?" Monstrox complained. "I don't see how you wanted to make a first attack. We should have pushed them to the end and wiped them out!"

"It's not that simple." Said Ruina calmly. "Even if we were to enter their fort by force, there's still Merlok, not to mention my son. Our monsters are not yet at the highest power level stage. This first approach was merely a test." She explained.

"A simple test, huh?" Monstrox was septic. "And what's next in your plan? Considering that this fight was just a simple training, what else are you thinking?"

"It's not complicated... My son will be joining us soon." She said with a smile.

"Moorington? You seriously think he's going to join us?"

"Of course not." She laughed. "Not of his own volition but... He will." Monstrox said nothing and thought about this solution of having an ally with them. That would be one more for them, and one less for the Nexo Knights. "And also... " She smiles, "I've already got someone lined up to take care of them when I'm not around."

"Not around?"

"Yes." She looked at Monstrox, who was still in stone. "We're going to go get a few things to upgrade our monsters. So we need someone to watch over him and keep his knight friends out of the way."

"Hahaha!" Monstrox laughed. "I love that you're as smart as me! Even though I'm the best of course."

"Whatever you say..." Ruina shook her head a little.