Is this really a Game?!

The moment Reign's aura resonated through the fortress, the atmosphere around him changed. The air itself seemed to stop momentarily as the monsters around him stopped, frozen in their tracks.

And then, tens of monsters moved, or to be more exact, their bodies, which were suddenly cut into tens of pieces, moved, falling down to the ground.

Reign then glanced around and moved, his body turning into a blur.

The monsters that had been attacking him moments before were now nothing but fodder, their previously dangerous presence diminished by the sheer magnitude of Reign's new strength. The monsters that dared to approach him were cut down with a single strike, their bodies falling apart before they even realized what had happened.

Reign's sword moved like a blur, leaving trails of light and darkness in its wake as it effortlessly sliced through the horde. His strikes were no longer just powerful, they were fluid, inescapable, and came from what looked like impossible angles.

"He's done it," Jared said, his voice beaming with pride as Aethion nodded his head.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"It was about time, who knew that he only had to suffer defeat from a person much better at him to improve so much."

"I had believed that the best thing he could do was practice with Jack, but the divide between them is much wider than it is between Reign and Radagan, even he was barely able to delve deeper into the essence of Jack's swordsmanship."

"An opponent that is too much stronger is not one you can learn from easily. "

The creatures, sensing the overwhelming danger that Reign now represented, hesitated for the briefest of moments, but it was too late. Reign's sword flashed through the air, cutting down the abominations with a deadly precision that left no room for error.

The others, sensing the surge in Reign's power, were inspired to push even harder. Their spirits were lifted by his breakthrough, fully aware that the side of the fortress he was on would definitely not fall, even if he didn't use his transformation.

Still, even though things seemed to be going great, they were not.

From the start of the countdown till now, only 4 minutes had passed.

Everybody was holding their ground, they had slaughtered hundreds of monsters each, and yet, they had only slaughtered the weakest monsters of the army, the front liners who had charged wildly.

Now, the more powerful monsters were arriving, and the gigantic creatures who were killing tens of their own army members were nearing the fortress as well.

Mia's frost field that froze all the monsters that dared come close was intruded upon, multiple monsters walking toward her, the frost slowing them down, but not managing to freeze them as the ice that formed on their bodies broke as they walked forward, their menacing auras causing her to narrow her eyes and stare apprehensively.

Wolf's platform, which had turned slightly orange from the inferno that was raging on top of it, was now being walked on by tall monsters with spiked armor that were seemingly unbothered by the high heat. One even managed to block Wolf's strike, it was cut in half right after, but no monster had managed to block the burning sword till now.

Aelrinder, who had been in the air, using the wind to propel himself up in order to bombard the monsters below with wind blades, suddenly came crashing down on the platform as 7 monsters suddenly appeared in the air, surrounding him and attacking right away.

He was able to evade one, block the attacks of two of them, and kill 2 with his spear, but was hit by the remaining two, the force of the blows causing him to plummet down below before using his wind to soften the impact and get up from the ground with a grim expression.

Tank, who had been blocking attacks with ease and bashing the enemies away with his shields while also cutting them apart with the axe, suddenly found himself being pushed back by a single step after being suddenly attacked from the side.

He had hastily blocked the blow, and even though he wasn't able to fully reinforce the shield with mana, it should have been enough to completely absorb the impact, which it didn't.

"Tough ones arriving now, huh?" Tank asked with a chuckle as he stared at the group that had arrived. Five large monsters with oversized arms were standing on the platform, with more arriving as they charged at him.

Greenie's force fields were walked through for the first time since the start of the battle. The tough spiked armor of the monsters creaked as they walked, but it did not break.

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He struck with the hammer, and for the first time, two monsters struck back, blocking the blow and allowing the third to strike him in the face with a punch, causing a small bruise to appear as Greenie grinned, a dangerous light present in his eyes.

Beast was forced to move from the middle of the platform for the first time as the more powerful monsters arrived, a couple of them charging at Blackie as the beast started ripping them apart, his powerful body crashing on top of one before biting down on its head, the spikes present there breaking with ease as his sharp fangs and tough jaw crushed the head, but that allowed the other monsters to attack Blackie, grabbing his body in an attempt to throw him down while the rest charged at Beast who, upon making sure Blackie wouldn't be injured by the creatures who were grabbing him, moved.

He jumped high in the air and stared down at the monsters who had charged at him. Two of them jumped up, following him and aiming to hit him while he was in the air, but both were soon crashing down to the ground, two powerful green arrows stabbed deep into their chests before a powerful blast of wind pierced through them, killing them as they fell.

Laura, on the other hand, was still standing in the middle of the platform.

Her demonic tentacles were trashing about, hitting, grabbing, and absorbing the life force of any creature that came close to her.

Even the ones that had just arrived, the more powerful ones, could do nothing as she took their life force by force, but compared to the weaker monsters, their life force was larger, and thus, they were able to last much longer and struggle against the tentacles while walking toward her.

She was not standing still, however. As she stood in the middle of the platform, she was constantly drawing pentagrams and other symbols with her hand, using the stolen life force to not only empower her demonic tentacles but to also heal her, replenishing the blood she was losing as she drew the symbols that could be activated with a thought in order to attack the monsters.

Jin, who had not moved previously and was simply punching and creating explosions, had to jump back in order to dodge an attack that came after three monsters attacked him. He was able to blast one away, block another, and strike the third with an axe kick that was empowered by his explosion, having so much force that it smashed through the head of the monster, killing it instantly.

That, however, made him vulnerable for a moment, and that was when a fourth monster attacked. Since it was impossible for him to block the attack or strike the monster before it hit him, Jin had to dodge, punching multiple times as he did so, blasting the monsters away as more arrived on the platform.

And lastly, Shadow.

He stopped using the tentacles he had created using his darkness. They were very effective against weaker enemies, but against stronger ones, like the ones attacking him now, they could do little but slow them down.

He was not as good as Laura when it came to using them, and he couldn't steal the life force of the monsters to boost them either, thus, he returned to doing what he did best, disappearing and appearing on the platform as darkness shrouded the platform, causing the monsters to be unable to see a thing.

Well, at least that was what Shadow hoped would happen, but it didn't.

The monsters had no problems with the darkness, it was as if they didn't even need to use their eyes to see, they were still able to walk normally, and even respond to some of his attacks, managing to almost evade some.

'Tch, and there's a ton of these guys in their army.' Shadow thought as he stared at the monster before taking a deep breath.

It was still not time to use the marks. Only 5 minutes had passed, which was less than half of the time, and they were still not even facing the strongest of the monsters, while the giant ones were now incredibly close.

Their huge size, coupled with the powerful auras coming from them made it clear to Reign and the others that they had to take them down, otherwise they might damage or perhaps even destroy the fortress.