Things may have gotten a little better, but it was soon revealed that it was far from being enough.
The lead that had been gained through the actions of Tiffany and Gasser did create an opening to keep running further ahead, but that was only a temporary measure.
Those left behind had slowly begun to recover as they climbed to their feet.
Those who were further behind gradually caught up to those who had been left lying there.
It was not long before the pursuit continued in full force.
All that could be done by those running away was try to run faster.
With them already being quite tired and having used up their Quirk past their limits, they were already beginning to slow down.
Tiffany had already noticed everything that had been happening, so there was some time that she had spent formulating plans in her mind.
She needed to find a way out for all of them.
All of the others were already in a poor enough state that they could not do anything else besides running as much as their body would allow.
They had little room for thinking as they were purely running on adrenaline and were reacting to every little thing that was happening to them.
She was the only one among them to have the freedom to think ahead in that moment.
Her puppet scanned the surroundings with the many eyes that were on its body.
All of that information was fed back to her as each of the eyes that were facing in different directions around her.
There was a mild mental strain from taking on so much all at once, but she quickly processed it the best that she could.
Her gaze hardened slightly as she thought to herself. 'I guess I have no choice.'
She began to control her other puppet and temporarily jumped over to its body.
She then spoke up a little louder so that Gasser could hear her. "Keep running no matter what happens next."
Gasser turned his head to the side to look toward the multiple-armed puppet in confusion. "Ha... wha..."
Tiffany spoke up again in a stern tone. "Just do it. I will find my own way out."
Just as the crowd of thugs were closing in on them from behind, the multiple armed puppet turned back and began running in the opposite direction.
It charged right into the crowd like a bull charging recklessly forward with nothing held back.
The force was enough to send several of the thugs crashing toward the ground.
A fight broke out instantly as the puppet began to hold many of them up.
Tiffany maintained her control over her other puppet that she sent further away with Gasser.
She could feel it getting further out of her range of control the more that she kept fighting.
The body of her puppet began to sustain damage from the thugs that were attacking her from all angles.
Despite it being quite well-made, it was unable to continue to endure the onslaught that it was taking.
It was still not at the level where it could be considered a puppet that could be as durable as the robots that were used in hero schools of a much higher calibre.
A lot of the thugs may not have had the power to be able to deal the kind of damage that students of such prestigious hero academies would be able to achieve during such entry-level qualification exams, but there were a smaller number among them that did.
Once those thugs with higher destructive power were able to join in, it was much more difficult for her to continue putting up a fight against them.
One arm was raised to block an attack to better protect her body, while she used the other to hit another person on the other side of her body.
One arm ended up cracking as a result of the damage, as it was barely able to be used anymore.
Another attack was blocked, resulting in that arm being smashed, leaving only the elbow joint intact and the above part.
The same process continued as each of her arms protecting the main body was dismantled one after another.
Protecting herself became the priority as she tried her best to continue holding on for a little while longer.
She could feel her other puppet getting much further away, so she kept fighting using what was left of the body of her puppet.
The voices of the thugs started to sound confused and angered. "Huh?!"
"What the hell is this?"
"This thing just keeps fighting!"
"This is not normal."
"I do not think this is human."
"I was thinking the same."
"I just thought that it was a weird Quirk."
"I cannot believe that we were tricked like this."
"To think that this thing was able to hold us off like this."
"What should we do now?"
"Keep pursuing!"
"We can come back for it later."
"Get moving!"
All of them gave up destroying the puppet the moment that it was no longer a threat to them.
It could no longer interfere with any of their actions as it could no longer move away from its present location.
Even attempting to grab hold of one of them was no longer possible for it.