Is this really a Game?!

The battlefield had become a canopy of destruction as the battles came to a close. The giants were slowing down, their injuries not allowing them to continue fighting as well as they did before, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Their massive frames meant that they had immense power and vitality, but that also made it very difficult for the giants to actually dodge any attacks, and even blocking was not easy thanks to how much surface area was present.

In most cases, when facing their opponents, the giants would simply use their overwhelming might to squish them, to annihilate them before any serious damage piled up on their bodies.

But this battle was nothing like an average one.

The giants fell, each one causing the ground to shake as it slumped on the ground, a motionless corpse that would no longer cause any issues to Reign and the others.

As the last one fell, Reign and the others panted and glanced at each other before regrouping.

They didn't use their marks.

Even though fighting the giants was an arduous task it took a lot of stamina and mana from them. In fact, had it not been for the training they had gone through previously, improving themselves by not a small margin, they might have been forced to use their marks in this battle.

Not all of them, but some would have been forced to utilize their marks in order to dish out more damage and inflict serious injuries on the giants in order to defeat them. Thanks to their grueling training, they didn't have to resort to such measures.

Even though it was very tiring and grueling, with them having to fight with everything they had and having to concentrate to not be hit as each strike of the giants was incredibly powerful, they managed to defeat them with their power.

Still, they knew that this was not over.

The trial would never be this easy, not a Hell Trial at least.

As the team stood amidst the fallen giants, their corpses creating hills around them, they gathered themselves, regulating their heavy breathing and taking a moment to rest and get back to their peak forms, which was not an easy thing to do.

The battlefield was quiet now, with nothing there, but they knew that there was more to come, the silence permeating the battlefield turning eerie as time progressed.

Shadow wiped the sweat from his brow and glanced around, turning to the others who were resting. "What do you think the trial will send next, a larger giant?"

"Don't jinx us, jinx," Tank said with a scowl as he stared at Shadow who merely scratched the back of his head and chuckled nervously.

"We're still in good shape, which is the most important thing, whatever the trial decides to throw our way, we'll be able to respond." Reign stated as Laura used her demonic energy to heal the small injuries the party had while also alleviating their fatigue a bit.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I'm just worried the system might throw something more difficult than it initially planned after what we just did," Beast stated as Shadow glanced over with shock.

"It can do that?!"

"I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be able to do it, the system is giving us the trials, it could easily decide to change some stuff mid-way. "

And just as Beast finished speaking, the ground beneath them started to rumble, causing them all to show serious expressions on their faces and stand up, looking around with vigilance.

Suddenly, the ground cracked and split open, with massive rock pillars rising from below. Some of the corpses of the giants were in the way, but they were easily pushed aside by the massive pillars, some of them breaking the bones of the massive corpses that got stuck between pillars.

Each pillar glowed a dark brown light that connected to the other pillar, forming a circle around the group, a massive arena with a radius of 1.5 miles.

"What the hell is this?" Shadow asked with confusion and apprehension, clenching his daggers and vigilantly observing the massive arena they found themselves in.

Ding!

[ The second, as well as the final part of the trial commences. ]

[ Wound the Warden of Death ]

[ Any notable wound will be enough for the team to pass the trial, upon wounding the Warden, you will have to survive for 1 minute before the trial is finished ]

From the very center of the arena, which was about 300 meters away from Reign and the others, the ground cracked as a hand broke through it.

The hand then pushed against the ground and a figure started emerging, breaking through the soil and showing itself to Reign and the others.

The moment the hand broke through, Reign and the others had planned on attacking. Since any wound was enough, then it would be enough if they just cut the arm, wounding the monster before it was able to emerge and start the trial.

And yet, they didn't attack. They froze, it was only for a second, but they froze.

It was because of the aura they sensed from the Warden. They felt its aura the moment it pushed against the ground, and it was smothering. It was so immense that none of them could move for that one second, not even Reign.

It was so overwhelming that they immediately understood why the trial asked them to wound the monster, not kill it. It was impossible to kill it, at least it was for them.

The monster in front of them was so overwhelmingly powerful that they knew surviving a battle against it would be nearly impossible.

The only time they sensed an aura that was this overwhelming in the near past was when they faced Radagan, and even his aura was not a match for the monster in front of them.

The Warden got out of the ground and stood up, and the atmosphere in the arena changed immediately. This wasn't a giant like the ones they had just fought—it was something far worse. A massive, humanoid creature, covered in dark, spiked armor, its eyes glowing with malevolent red light.

Its body was draped in black, tattered robes that seemed to flow like smoke, and in its hands, it held a colossal black axe, the blade crackling with dark energy.

The creature let out a bone-chilling roar, its voice reverberating through the air and shaking the pillars. It stood at about 4 meters tall, and yet, looking at the monster made them feel that it was dwarfed even the giants they had just defeated. The very presence of the creature seemed to warp the air around it, bending light and casting long, distorted shadows across the battlefield.

"We're supposed to wound that?" Shadow asked with a nervous chuckle as Reign and the others gulped, all of them clenching their weapons as a powerful pressure was placed on their bodies from the monster that simply stood straight and stared at them.

And then, in an instant, they lost track of the monster.

It simply vanished.

"Dammit!" Tank suddenly roared and swung his axe in front of him as the figure of the Warden appeared in the middle of the group. His axe struck the Warden who didn't even try to dodge or block, and it bounced harmlessly off the armor the monster wore.

The Warden didn't do a thing. It didn't move, it didn't strike back, it didn't speak, it just stood there and glanced at Tank, the glance alone being able to make him feel immense pressure.

Reign and the others moved as well, all of them attacking the monster with full force, and yet, their blows did nothing to the Warden. Its armor seemed impenetrable, and even when Shadow attempted to stab through a gap he saw between the armor plates, his daggers were stopped and he felt as if he had struck some sort of metal underneath the armor.

Ding!

[ The players have 5 minutes to wound the Warden.]

[ During those 5 minutes, the Warden will act neutral, it will not attack the players, it will only take the attacks, sometimes defending itself. ]

[ If the players are unable to wound the Warden after 5 minutes have passed, then the conditions will change, the players will have to survive against the Warden for 4 minutes, which the system deems as a nearly impossible task. ]

[ The best case scenario is that only one or two players will be alive after 4 minutes pass, and the chances of that happening are considered to be below 1% ]

Reign and the others stared at the notification from the system and then at the Warden. The monster was above anything they faced before, and they knew that if 5 minutes truly did pass without them managing to wound it, only death awaited them.

Thus, they all went all out, using their marks right off the bat, their auras rising to an incredibly high degree.