Is this really a Game?!

"Yeah, this thing is quite responsive, being fast and freaking durable doesn't help much either," Shadow said as he stared at the giant guardian whose massive arm swept through the space he was in, the swing causing a gale as the chains rattled and passed through the air right after the arm.

"Do we use our marks?" Shadow asked Reign who clicked his tongue.

"Not yet, I doubt this is all this trial will throw at us, using our marks right now will make it more difficult to get through what awaits, and even though this thing is strong, I think we can take it down without using the marks, we just need to be careful when battling it." Reign stated as he walked forward.

"Alright guys, hold nothing back, we attack it with full power, just don't use the marks or any transformations yet."

The team quickly moved, again surrounding the guardian, forming a circle around it as Tank and Greenie moved toward the guardian, ready to take his focus and absorb the brunt of its retaliation while the others prepared to strike.

They were all still in their peak forms, and now, it was time to attack as one.

Tank and Greenie charged, their large bodies far smaller than the guardian who seemingly scoffed as it moved, striking down with his massive arm in an attempt to crush the two.

Tank was ready, however, as he had been channeling his mana for a while now. He placed his shield forward and used his powers, causing 5 shields to appear in front of it while his skin changed as he used his ability to its fullest.

The fist struck, breaking through the first 3 shields with ease, but slowing down at the others, and then colliding with Tank, who was not pushed back this time.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Gotcha!" Greenie shouted excitedly as he swung his hammer down, aiming at the monster's arm. He struck the hand, and a deafening sound of metal clashing against metal resounded around the area.

The guardian roared in anger and pain as Greenie's strike managed to deal damage, actually cracking a couple of the bones present in his hand.

The wound would heal quickly, but the others were not going to wait.

Mia quickly moved forward with her sword, frosty air present around her as she appeared right in front of the guardian, and his wounded hand.

She stabbed forward, her sword managing to pierce through the wounded skin and exit through the palm of the guardian's hand before ice formed around the wound.

"I want to see just how you will be able to deal with this!" Mia said as she poured more mana into her sword, causing most of the hand to be inflicted with her frost before quickly jumping away as one of the chains attacked her.

At the same time, Laura struck two chains with her demonic blasts, causing them to recoil back and be unable to attack Mia while Beast finally used his arrows. With how thick the creature's hide was, he knew he couldn't damage it with regular arrows and attacks, thus he had already poured his mana into his bow and created several magical arrows that he was now launching at the creature.

Each of the arrows was dark green in color and zoomed through the air, striking the monster and stabbing through its tough hide, but not getting in too deep.

"Support Mia, I want to try something!" Laura shouted at Beast as she moved, running around the guardian, nobody knowing what she was going to do exactly.

Reign also moved, appearing behind the guardian, his lightning coiling around him as he struck the monster's feet, hitting him right at the hell, attempting to cut the tendons and make it immobile, but that was much more difficult than he predicted.

His swords were wrapped in black lightning as he used the destructive properties of his darkness to empower the lightning and the swords even further, which allowed him to cut through the hide, but the tendons proved to be incredibly resilient, causing him to fail at first.

Jin also acted, his hands placed on the floor as he channeled his mana to go right beneath the monster in order to create a powerful explosion later which would strike from below, hopefully taking the monster by surprise.

Wolf and Shadow attacked, fire and darkness appearing on each of the guardian's sides. Shadow was now changing tactics, instead of attacking with his daggers, he controlled the darkness, causing large tentacles of pure darkness and shadows to come up, coiling around the monster in an attempt to immobilize him for a moment while Wolf went all out.

His flames turned red as he used the chaos energy to its fullest, transforming his flames into chaos flames that yearned for destruction. He struck the monster from the side, hitting its shoulder as the chains quickly moved to try and intercept him and block him from striking the head.

His sword, which turned red from the flames, passed through the hide and stabbed deep inside, tearing the flesh and muscles apart and only stopping once it had struck the bone. The guardian roared from pain, the roar empowered by mana, making them all a bit dizzy, but none of them stopped for even an instant.

They continued attacking, Wolf's flames continued burning, melting the tough hide and muscles before he was forced to retreat as two chains moved to strike him.

Greenie threw his hammer with full force, aiming to hit the frozen hand of the monster, attempting to damage it further, perhaps even making it useless.

The hammer was about to strike it when it was intercepted by a chain of the monster, its path derailed as it struck the abdomen of the monster before a powerful sucking force appeared around it, attempting to pull in the hide, muscle, and bones of the monster, but it was unsuccessful at doing so.

Shadow tried to do the same, using an opportunity right after the guardian managed to break free of the tentacles, ripping them apart.

He appeared behind the heel that Reign had cut and used his [ Darkness Implosion ], which he had not used for quite some time.

The small black hole materialized, and it was much more effective compared to Greenie's attack. The skin was ripped apart, whether it was because of the pure destructive power of the black hole or because Reign had already wounded it, was not known, but it ripped.

The flesh squirmed and started ripping itself, the tendons started slowly breaking, and even the bone moved. Discover exclusive tales on empire

But, it was not enough.

The hole dissipated before it was able to truly do serious damage to the monster, and Shadow was forced to move, to dodge out of the way as the guardian attacked him with anger.

Its aura flared up as it had truly gotten angry this time, it was the first time he had been so seriously injured during this battle, and it was not going to stand for it.

It was, however, a bit too late.

Reign appeared right behind it again, and struck the heel, a black lance appearing in his hand as he stabbed forward with full force, not holding anything back as he pierced the hell, destroyed the tendons, and even caused the bone to crack.

The guardian fell down to one knee, and then, Laura moved.

She had run three times around the monster, and when it fell to one knee, she suddenly passed below it, her demonic energy turning her legs demonic as she gained an incredible boost in speed, all of her strength focused on that in order to be as fast as possible.

In mere moments, she had repeated the process multiple times before stopping and panting as she had used a lot of demonic energy.

"Done, let us see how well it works," Laura said before placing her hand on the ground, causing a huge pentagram that she had drawn using nothing but demonic energy and some of her blood to show itself.

She did not run around the monster for nothing, she was drawing, and she needed it to stop moving for an instant in order to go below it and finish the huge pentagram.

"Detonate," Laura said as the center of the pentagram suddenly glowed ominously, making even the monster apprehensive as it tried to get up, but it was too late.

A powerful beam of purple energy rose from the pentagram, encasing the entire monster that was now roaring in pain.

The beam was present for 5 seconds, and when it passed, even Reign and the others were shocked at the state the monster was in. The tough hide was not broken through, but it was scorched, many places that were damaged were now purple, infested by demonic energy and some new wounds appeared as well.

Laura's attack had done almost as much damage as all of theirs had previously.

"My turn now," Jin said as he smiled, and then an earth-shattering explosion took place right beneath the monster.