Is this really a Game?!

The zone wasn\'t far away, it was situated near the borders of the town, making it easier for the inhabitants to travel to the forest and level up. Passing through the run-down town was a bit depressing, the streets were empty, and abandoned cars could be seen everywhere, most of them destroyed though, probably the work of monsters when they first attacked the town. Bloodstains could be seen everywhere as well, together with bones that littered the streets and many buildings, it was a horrifying sight, but after so many battles Reign and the others were different and felt no disgust nor any fear here.

They were almost spotted a couple of times by some goblins or hobgoblins, the monsters were dealt with swiftly by either Beasts arrow or Reigns lightning bullet as such low-level enemies were incapable of defending themselves from such attacks. Most of the trip was uneventful, Jackie and his teammates were knew the area very well and it was very rare for surprises to happen, the monsters all stayed in their own small areas most of the time and didn\'t interact often as most would fight against each other the second they met.

Of course, things would not always go as planned, the quick trip back to the zone was interrupted by a big patrol group of hobgoblins. The group consisted of 10 hobgoblins and 13 goblins, each looked different from the other and this was the first time Reign and the others got to see different variants of hobgoblins other than the captains and brawler.

The hobgoblins were the ones that had the biggest diversity however, the goblins were divided into 4 groups, the biggest was the normal goblin grunts, wielding small, spiked clubs and daggers, following them was a new variant, a goblin warrior that was physically a bit bigger and had a shield and sword as his weapons. The other two groups consisted of goblin sling shooters that had a pouch filled with sharp rocks that they could launch towards the enemy with their primitive slingshots. Finally, the smallest group consisted of 2 goblin shamans, the same that Reign and the others had faced while battling the first hidden dungeon boss, Groll.

The hobgoblins couldn\'t truly be put into separate groups, each one was different, even though some looked like they were definitely the same variant species. Even their color was different, as there were some that had light blue and red skin amongst the normally green-skinned ones. Amongst the 10 hobgoblins were 5 that wielded swords, each had a different one though, there were katanas, normal broadsword, and even one goblin that wielded a greatsword.

Two hobgoblins had crude bows in their hands while a ragged quiver could be seen on their backs, one of the archers used a short bow while the other had a longbow. Of the final three hobgoblins, two were equipped with a shield and mace and were physically the largest out of all of them, those could be classified as the tanks of the group.

Finally, the last hobgoblin was a special case as he only had a staff and was the most feeble looking out of all. The strange thing was that all of the hobgoblins looked very respectful towards him, even the physically superior tank types were very humble. That one was a hobgoblin shaman and his magic was unknown currently, whether he was the same as the goblin shaman they previously killed and only used curses and blessings was a question nobody had an answer to and they debated shortly whether they should take some risks to find out or not. That however was quickly scrapped as a prolonged battle would be too dangerous in case any more monsters got drawn over.

The battle was inevitable as the group was currently standing right in front of a small alley that would lead them towards the safe zone, it wasn\'t the only path, but, the others were quite far away and nobody wanted to go all the way around and risk getting spotted by stronger monsters. Reign and the others were already in a battle-ready state and were planning their battle strategy.

Beast waved his hand and his three wolves showed up next to the party which shocked Jackie and the others who quickly got into a defensive position, however after they saw the wolves obediently sitting down next to them they relaxed a bit, certain that they were friendlies.

"Tch, that skill really is convenient." Shadow clicks his tongue as he looks over at Beast and the wolves that were summoned by his new skill. Beast had previously gained the skill but never used it, as the areas they went to were not dangerous enough for the wolves when they were together, however, the Ironbark Woods was a different story and Beast didn\'t want to risk anything, so he used his Beast Summoning to make them go into an alternate dimension reserved for the beasts of tamers. From his teacher, he heard that some other abilities and classes have the same skill, only that they work a bit differently from his as he needs to first tame the beasts before forming a bond.

[ Beast Summoning ]

Description: As someone who has started down the path of a tamer or summoner the player can access a special alternate dimension and store his beasts there. The beasts stored will not feel hunger nor thirst and can be summoned at any time. Warning, if the player stores his summoned beasts again he will need to wait for 1 minute before summoning them again.

It was an incredibly useful skill that he used right before they entered the Vamps territory a few days ago. He only summoned the wolves back when they were nearing the beginner\'s forest as Greenie and them could defeat almost any enemy there. He allowed them to hunt with Greenie nearby while they were slowly traveling, it was only after they had found other players that he had made them go back, not wanting to frighten anyone.

Jackie and the others exchange glances but say nothing, they knew this had to be an ability of one of them, and it was of course not polite to ask details about it. After a couple of minutes, everyone got up and was ready to attack.

"Alright, let\'s go." Tank says with a wide grin on his face, the hobgoblins were level 16 on the average, with some being higher and some lower, the goblins, however, ranged from level 11 to level 13 and were of course much weaker compared to other monsters of the same level.

"You guys can stay here, it might be a bit too much for you to participate in this." Reign turns around and tells Jackie and the other three who simply gulp and nod in acknowledgment, they never planned on joining anyways as any one of the hobgoblins would be enough to kill all of them, hell even the weakest goblin would still pose a threat to them.

Reign and the others crouched down and slowly get closer to the enemies who were still oblivious of the danger that was about to befall them. They use the numerous cars and broken brick walls for cover and got as near as they could, after all an ambush would be most effective if they could attack before their enemy could prepare themselves.

Everyone gets their long-range attacks ready, planning on attacking the hobgoblin shaman first as he was probably the enemy with the highest danger to them. Reign\'s hand glows blue as his lightning forms in a ball, ready to be launched at any moment while Shadow playfully spins his daggers around. Wolf\'s ring shines as he was prepared to use its skill while Beast had his bow fully drawn with a fully charged new arrow that looked a bit bigger than usual, it was thanks to his bow\'s skill that he was using for the first time.

The wolves were sent to the opposite side and their job was to jump out the very moment their skills connect. That should make the enemies a bit confused and unable to defend against the ambush as effectively, of course, the timing was everything here and they had to charge right after they launch their skills.

Everyone regulates their breathing and gets ready, Shadow was peeping from the side of the wall, making sure everyone knew where the hobgoblin shaman was, they only had a split second to attack him after revealing themselves. They knew full well that there was a possibility of the shaman having a weapon or a skill that could create a barrier around him, similar to the previous one they fought.

"He\'s turning around, his back will be turned to us in 3, 2, 1 … now!" Shadow shouts and gets up together with everyone, they immediately aim at the shaman and launch everything they had at him. The battle had started.