Is this really a Game?!

Wolf was battered up and bleeding. The huge statues weren\'t stopping with their advance as more of them slowly approached him. Two of them were in his vicinity as they attack him. Wolf had previously thought whether he should simply run away and just focus on surviving as long as possible but he quickly got rid of those thoughts.

Eldar had previously mentioned that they should give it their best at each trial, even though his trial was about surviving he had a feeling that his score would be quite bad if he simply ran away from the enemy. He picked up his sword again as his flames dance violently around him. Slowly his mark starts shinning as the ghostly-green flames change color. A purple glint could be seen deep inside them as it slowly spread. In a couple of seconds, his flames were now a pale purple color, even his armor\'s flames changed into it.

Feeling incredible strength he charges towards the statues again. His power was stronger compared to before and his flames were hotter. The metal giants attack as always as he dodges with the best of his abilities. With fury, he slashes at the arm of one of them, and the purple flames together with his heated sword actually melt through it. The arm of the giant heavily falls on the ground as it continues attacking Wolf, forcing the latter to dodge while looking at the arm in disbelief.

"It actually melted," Wolf mutters as he slashes and dodges the attacks of the two statues. His flames could previously melt the metal of the giants as well, but only after a long period of time, for the purple flames to melt them immediately and allow his sword to cut through was incredible.

Wolf looks at the distance from which more enemies could be seen. More metal statues were coming, and not only the ones he was fighting right now. There were two other types with them, Wolf had previously faced against them and they were much harder to deal with compared to these guys.

Two of the statues that were incoming were smaller in stature and had less power and defensive capabilities compared to the normal ones. That was however evened out by their greater speed and flexibility that allowed them to attack their opponents with great ferocity and precision. Their claws were also slightly longer and sharper compared to the others which gave Wolf a headache previously as a good part of his injuries were caused by them.

Another type of enemy was a bigger statue. Its defense and attack power was stronger compared to the other statues while its speed remained the same. The huge arms and legs made it harder to dodge the attacks while making it near impossible to block as Wolf would be sent flying in the air after a hit.

With his new power however he had the confidence of beating them with far less trouble than before. With great vigor, he continues attacking the two statues before the others arrive.

Swish

Thud

Another archer falls down from the high trees of the jungle as Beast rests on a big branch. With his back against the tree, he pants heavily as he observes his surroundings, vigilant of any new enemies that might show up.

"How many have I killed already, 60, 70, a hundred?" Beast asks himself while resting. He already defeated all of his pursuers and was now hunting for more of them, the only problem now was finding where they were coming from. In order to complete his trial, he had to kill all of the enemies and destroy their outpost, the outpost being the place he was trying to find now.

He rips a part of his shirt as he uses it to bandage his bleeding left arm. He managed to defeat his enemies, but that did not come easily as he was injured multiple times during his battles. An ambush from an archer, while he was fighting another one, was the first injury he suffered from as an arrow managed to graze his leg. The wound wasn\'t deep or serious but it still managed to slow him down and have a negative effect on his mobility.

As he finishes bandaging his leg, Beast gets up and climbs the tree to the highest point he could. He was planning on using the height advantage to try and follow the archers. He was unable to do so previously as he was constantly being attacked and such an attempt would simply prompt the archers to shoot arrows at him. Not to mention that they would be wary of him being above them, lowering the possibility of tracking them.

Tank hits a hairy monster with his shield before cutting apart his neck with the scythe. He was still quite clumsy with using it and needed to constantly switch between his axe and the scythe to maximize his effectiveness. Slowly but surely however he was becoming more proficient with it.

The soldiers behind him were attacking the nearby monsters in groups of 3. The monsters were stronger individually but after listening to Tank and using the basic tactics they were able to minimize injuries and defeat them monsters swiftly. Of course, that only worked when the number of monsters was lower compared to them. When the odds were against them Tank would jump in, using his skills and overwhelming power to save the soldiers and defeat the monsters.

Of course, that didn\'t come without any disadvantages. His mana was slowly running out and his stamina was also being drained rather quickly.

"Damn, I need to start doing more cardio." Tank said as he panted above the corpse of the monster he had just killed. He had no idea how much more his squad needed to traverse before clearing the dungeon. But that wasn\'t even the worst of it as Tank already anticipated what would happen in the end.

"I might have to fight a boss by myself." Tank had a serious expression on his face as he looked at the soldiers behind him. They clearly didn\'t have experience in fighting as even though they were the same level as him they were much weaker. They barely had any skills and their physical stats were incredibly low. There were exceptions, of course, 4 out of the 24 soldiers were stronger compared to the rest. Stats, skills, and fighting experience, they had it all.

"Captain." One of the soldiers comes to him. Being 175cm tall the soldier was quite tall compared to most, especially since it was a woman. Medium-length black hair that was neatly picked up in a small ponytail greatly accentuated her dark blue eyes. She was tall but she wasn\'t too thin and had muscles in all the right places which made her curves pop out even more than normal. Her name was Julie and she was one of the four soldiers.

"Julie, any injuries?" Tank asks her while resting on the cold floor of the dungeon. Julie looks at him while shaking her head.

"Good, let\'s rest a bit before continuing." Julie simply nods her head before bowing slightly and going back to the others. Tank looks away as she was leaving and he didn\'t want her or anyone else to think he was a pervert.

Slash

Shadow jumps back as a dagger passes right in front of his nose. In front of him were 3 assassins while 2 were laying motionlessly on the floor next to them. He was ambushed earlier by them while trying to attract one. His miscalculation made him a target for the five that came at him almost simultaneously. He managed to defeat 2 so far but picked up some injuries. Looking at the three in front of him he knew that he had to take care of them fast, otherwise more would come, attracted by the sound of battle.

"Well, let\'s see how strong you are." Shadow looks down at his necklace as he whispers slowly. Darkness spreads around him as five figures rise from it. They were all 175cm tall with well-proportioned bodies. The proportions were useless however as they had no features whatsoever. Their whole bodies were made out of shadow, only their eyes had a pale blue light.

The shadows immediately attack the assassins. They were not bothered by the darkness around them as they were born from shadows, such an area suited them best.

Compared to the assassins the shadows were a bit weaker and even when two of them were fighting against one they were still unable to defeat them as the assassins would always block any fatal attacks. After Shadow joined however that slowly changed and they managed to quickly kill the assassins. They move right away, changing locations and looking for more enemies. Shadow was unaware however that his mark was shining a bit as he moved with his new minions.

At another place, in a void devoid of anything.

Laura was standing in the emptiness as tears were falling down her face.