Is this really a Game?!

Beast was laying on a huge branch of one of the many trees in the jungle. Blood trickled from his fingertips as he had been fighting for far too long with his bow. Even though he had fought in many battles with Reign and the others he wasn’t used to fighting non-stop for such a long period of time.

He had found the outpost in the jungle, albeit accidentally. He was traversing through the jungle as usual and he suddenly heard a couple of arrows being launched his way. He managed to dodge them but before he could have a breather another salvo was launched his way. And then another, and another. There were in total 4 salvos of 6 arrows launched at him in a short period of time. ｏｖ𝚕．ｃｏ𝚖

He did his best to dodge, but he was still hit a couple of times. His right shoulder was the worst injury as an arrow pierced right through his deltoid muscle, between the acromion and the rotator cuff ( AN: I’m pretty sure this is correct, do comment if my anatomy is a bit off. )

The arrow made moving his shoulder incredibly hard and Beast needed to find a spot to hide for a brief period of time to remove it. Luckily the arrow pierced through and the tip was poking out, he simply needed to break it off before pulling it out.

But that was impossible as more arrows were coming his way. Beast slowly made his retreat while dodging the arrows and hiding behind trees. He took that time to quickly break the arrow before removing it. The pain made him grit his teeth but he knew it must be done quickly, otherwise, the enemies would arrive and he would need to passively run away again.

He pulled the arrow out in the nick of time as the tribesmen arrived right afterward. Beast expected it and had already notched an arrow on his bow. The moment he heard the flexing of the bow was the moment he released the arrow in the direction of the sound.

Thud

A hit. Beast managed to hit and kill an opponent before moving again as arrows were launched at him yet again. As the situation was dire he had already summoned his wolves to help him. The two wind wolves would probably not be very useful and would simply be a distraction, but his Blackie was different as his stealth skills allowed him to be deadly in certain situations.

Beast summoned them when he was behind another tree. Certain that the enemies had no sights on him he summoned the three wolves and ordered them to go up and hide briefly. The element of surprise would allow them to take on a couple of enemies.

The following couple of hours were the longest Beast had ever experienced. He had no rest as he was jumping and running around while simultaneously attacking his pursuers. At one point he didn’t even realize that he had made a semi-circle and arrived back at the place he was previously attacked. Going further ahead he was able to see the outpost. It was built on a huge tree and was fully made of wood. The architecture was bad, to say the least as Beast wasn’t sure the building could allow for many people to stand on it. But it was sturdy and a couple of tribesmen were still in it.

In the end, Beast managed to win. His two wind wolves died an hour after being summoned as multiple arrows pierced them. Blackie however managed to survive, but he was critically injured as multiple arrows decorated his frame. He was next to Beast and was breathing weakly. Beast was heartbroken after seeing his wolves in such a state, but he knew that they would survive as there was no death in the trial. He looked down on the flashing mark that he was given by the goddess, compared to Reign and Wolf’s marks it didn’t give him any flashy powers, but it allowed him to understand archery deeper for some time.

Even the laws of wind were laid bare for him as he was able to respond to the arrows the moment they were launched as he could feel the breaking of the wind. His enemies’ position was obvious to him as he was able to feel the slightest movement and the shallowest breath they took. His gloves also helped out, but because of the low amount of souls he got in it, it was severely limited.

A couple of seconds later there was a bright flash as he was teleported out of the jungle.

Tank grunted as he was pushed back by the leader of the monsters. He had managed to arrive at the end of the cave with his soldiers with none of them dying. What awaited them was over a hundred monsters that frantically ran at them with no regard to their own safety.

Tank was a bit ruffed up and bleeding as he took it upon himself to fight the boss. Other monsters also attacked him while he was focused on the big guy and injured him multiple times. His bronze skin shined as he panted heavily.

A huge, 6-meter tall monster was standing in front of him while shouting loudly at him. His soldiers were in a precarious situation as the monsters were relentlessly attacking them. They mostly cowered behind their shields while occasionally attacking. The only ones doing anything were the 4 elite soldiers Tank had previously noticed and put as lieutenants.

The girl that previously approached him attacked the monsters with her sword with grace. Every swing of her sword would draw painful cries from the monsters as big wounds would appear on their bodies. She didn’t use a shield and preferred simply dodging blows as a shield would simply slow her down and didn’t work well with her fighting style.

Another soldier was a big guy similar to Tank. He used his huge shield to block multiple monsters before pushing them back and attacking with a halberd. It was a weird combination as a shield was mostly used together with a sword, mace, or spear. Tank of course said nothing as he was even weirder, he was using a freaking scythe together with a shield for god sake.

The third soldier was a bit peculiar as he used a staff for fighting. His fighting style resembled ancient Shaolin battle monks as he used many acrobatic moves together with the staff. Kicks from him were incredibly powerful as he used his staff to prompt himself up for the attacks. The metal ends of the staff crushed the bones of the monsters as they wailed in pain.

The last soldier was not as exciting as the previous two. He used a shield and sword and was very composed during the fight. Block, stab or slash, rinse and repeat. That was his fighting style and it looked normal, but the surprising thing is that he was the one that killed the most enemies so far. His breathing was composed as well as he never used more energy than needed while attacking or defending. It was obvious that he was trained rigorously before coming to this squad, something you couldn’t say for the other three as their fighting styles were a bit wasteful energy-wise.

The four of them were the only reason the formation was still standing and that they were at zero casualties so far. That and Tank who was currently fighting against the strongest enemy plus a couple of monsters that would attack from time to time.

Tank was looking at the huge monster as it attacked him again. He knew he had to do something as the monster’s strength was above his own. He was contemplating using the scythe’s skill but he wanted to fight a bit more without it as his troops still had no casualties.

Suddenly

“Ahhh, help me!” A soldier was hit by one of the bigger monsters and fell down on the ground. Multiple monsters entered the formation and immediately attacked him and the nearby soldiers. The four elites made their way towards them but they knew it was impossible to save all of them.

Tank’s eyes widened and he immediately used the skill while cursing at himself. His own stupidity was the reason they were going to die and that he wouldn’t get the best possible score in the trial. The scythe flashes with a ghostly green light as Tank could feel his body gaining immense power. His mark also shines as he suddenly grows larger. His armor was stretching and even ripping apart at some places as he was now 3 meters tall. His bronze skin turned slightly red while ghostly flames covered his feet and arms.

With a shout, he blocks an attack from the monster and pushes the giant back. With fury, he starts slashing with his scythe as the hairy monster cries out in pain. The strong and durable skin was like paper to the scythe as it cut deeply every time. It was thanks to Tank’s low proficiency that it was still alive.

Tank started his rampage without stopping for a moment. In a couple of seconds, the boss was dead and Tank made his way back to the troops. He used his bull charge to power through the other monsters before jumping in the air and landing at the place where the monsters were pouring in.

A couple of minutes later there were barely any monsters left in the cave. Tank was down on the ground, panting heavily as the skill he used took a huge toll on his body. Out of the 24 soldiers, 20 were alive, 4 of them were heavily injured while 10 were lightly injured. He laughed while looking at the cave’s ceiling and looked left towards where 5 more monsters were locked in a fight with the elites and other soldiers. In a couple of seconds, the monsters were dead and his trial was finished.