Is this really a Game?!

“What’s that?!” A couple of elves ask in confusion as multiple explosions go off behind the ranks of the monsters. Lightning and fire take over at two locations as many monsters scream in fear as the powerful elements attack them.

“Haaa, those guys are here.” Cameron suddenly sits down on the ground, his sweat dripping from his forehead and hair down on the ground. Most of the players had similar reactions, some started jumping in joy whilst others even taunted the monsters.

“Let’s see how cocky you’re gonna be now you ugly bastards!” One of the players even comes right in front of the protective dome and starts cursing the monsters. The change in behavior was of course noticed by the elves who looked at them with a weird gaze, the situation they were in was dire, their protective dome even had some small cracks on it, and if the situation continues it was certain that the monsters would enter.

“Don’t worry, the boss and the others are here, we just need to support them with some firepower from afar, this battle is as good as finished.” Ronny suddenly says as all the players get up and start fighting again, only that this time they were noticeably more excited and full of vigor.

“So it’s them.” The commander whispered as he looked at the chaos that was happening at the back of the monsters.

…

10 minutes ago

Ding! ．

[ Sudden quest initiated. ]

[ One of your allies, the elves has been attacked by a beast horde, it is advised that you give it your best and help them out. ]

“So it was like that.” Says Wolf as he looks down at the corpse of a Tainted he had just slain, not only him, Reign, and the others were all standing in the forest with him as a dozen of Tainted corpses were littered around them. The party had spotted the tainted using a weird item while they were running towards the elven territory, seeing Tainted here was a surprise as they usually never came this close to the elves.

The item they had was also giving them weird vibes, it emitted a purple smoke that was shrouding a big part of the area they were in, it was seemingly harmless to them but they still decided to take care of them. Since the system had just notified them about the attack on the elven territory it was easy for them to piece things together and come to a simple conclusion, the Tainted were probably using this item in order to somehow control or drive the monsters towards the territory, they didn’t know how it worked but it would be a good idea to take it with them.

The tainted they fought against were not some weaklings either, each one was level 40 at a minimum, and if not for the element of surprise they would have had a tough battle. Of course, nobody forced the Tainted to be as vulnerable as they were during the usage of the item, to simply sit on the forest grounds while having 4 people guarding you and being alert to the surroundings was simply not a smart idea.

The Tainted that were using the item was all in a trance-like state, in order to maximize their surprise attack they decided to attack them first. The attack was a major success, not only did they manage to kill half of the Tainted, but the others were also injured from the powerful attacks that were thrown their way.

The rest of the battle only took a bit more than a minute, even though the Tainted in front of them seemed like the cream of the crop amongst their troops, to Reign and the others they were not a real threat and were killed without any large difficulties. The item however was still in perfect shape even after taking a couple of attacks from them, they pocketed it and quickly ran towards the elves.

Upon arriving they decided to wait for a bit and watch the situation. A large horde of more than 500 monsters was in front of them, even for them this was not something they could easily deal with, especially after noticing tens of elites amongst the ranks of the monsters. The elites however were positioned at the front and middle of the horde and wouldn’t be a threat immediately.

If they wished to they could certainly plow through the monsters and force their way inside the protective dome, but that was still too risky as they didn’t know the exact strength and powers of the elite monsters. Looking ahead they were able to see more than a hundred players helping the elves out, this battle would serve as a reminder that even though they were close to taking full control of the town, there were always more powerful monsters that could be found in the world. It was important to Reign and the others that the players don’t grow conceited and arrogant, which would lead to many of them not taking things seriously and not striving to become more powerful.

They already had full faith in Reign and the others, it was almost to the point of some people almost worshiping them, even though they didn’t want the players to grow too reliant on them, it was seemingly already too late. It seemed that no matter how bleak the situation was, the players would rejoice after seeing that Reign and the others were there, to them it was seemingly impossible to lose once the party joined them.

After taking a couple of minutes in order to check the power of the many monsters the party finally moved, they decided on the most basic approach, attack them from behind and create a situation where the monsters couldn’t retreat, at their back were Reign and the others who were mercilessly slaughtering them, while at the front was the seemingly impenetrable dome that blocked their way.

Being attacked from both places would put a huge strain on the monsters, not only would blocking attacks become almost impossible, but the added confusion of suddenly having enemies behind you would help them out as well. Since Reign and the others had taken care of the Tainted, there shouldn’t be any more monsters arriving, if they did then either the Tainted had more teams that were doing the same, or the monsters had arrived in order to check what was happening.

No matter what, Reign and the others knew that they had to act fast, the dome had already formed small cracks on it, and even though it would still take a while before the monsters would be able to destroy it, there was no need to let them do that as it would lead to a lot of bloodshed for not only the elves, but the players that had arrived to help them out.

Reign summoned ten lightning spears and aimed them at the monster horde, he would first attack them from afar before charging at them, thanks to his incredible speed he would be able to start cutting the monsters apart while they were still confused at what was happening.

Tank prepared his shield and summoned his soldiers while Shadow was simply twirling his daggers around. Beast was going to bombard the monsters first before unleashing his beasts at them while Greenie’s only thoughts were about smashing the monsters apart with his hammer.

Laura was simply going to use her demonic energy and whip to attack from a safe distance while Wolf was already smiling at the notion of starting a massacre. His flames had already covered his hands as he was waiting to start. Five smaller flame spears were in front of him, compared to Reign he didn’t have as much mana reserve nor was his mana control at his level, of course, what he lacked in that area he made up with his incredible strength and way of fighting.

Suddenly both of them send their spears forward as they charge at the monster horde, Beast had launched multiple explosive arrows while Shadow was already using his ability in order to immobilize the monsters and hurt them with his spikes while slowly walking towards them.

The spears and arrows arrive at their targets and explode in a brilliant fashion. The monster horde immediately had disarray and the party used it to their advantage. Reign had arrived behind the monsters a mere moment after his spears had struck, holding his two swords he unleashed a barrage of attacks at the unsuspecting monsters who were still confused after being attacked from behind.

Giant crocodiles that were similar to the one’s Reign and the others had previously exterminated could be seen in the horde, monkeys, stone golems, lizards, there was a great variety of monsters that had attacked the elves, but now it was their turn to be hunted.

Upon noticing the cheerfulness of the players inside the dome Reign shook his head disapprovingly before moving a step to the side and turning his body around, a huge claw had passed next to his body and left a big claw mark on the ground.

“Don’t be so eager to die man.”