Is this really a Game?!

Reign's transformation was a last resort, an act of desperation in most cases. As the battle raged on, with the monster adapting to their every move, he knew that they needed to find a way to end it quickly.

They were managing to deal damage to it, especially with their marks activated, but even then, the damage they were dishing out to the monster was still not enough.

The monster was simply too difficult to kill, it was capable of healing its wounds almost as quickly as they were able to inflict them, and it seemed that no matter what they did to the monster, it was not using too much mana or any other weird kind of energy that the corruption used.

They had been fighting for quite a while, and there were no signs that the monster was going to slow down, none at all.

It was going after them without caring for itself at all, without caring about what would happen to it, because it didn't need to care, it would just heal up right away.

What did make the battle simple, however, was the fact that the monster was easy to predict. Its attacks were very simple, it used its large body and great strength to try and flatten any that stood near it down to the ground while also using the tentacles that were present to continuously attack them, other than that, it didn't seem capable of doing anything else.

It couldn't use any energy to give itself a boost in speed, or to strengthen its body to defend more properly, or to perhaps even increase its strength to deal more damage.

It was incapable of doing so, but they didn't know for how long it would stay incapable of doing that.

After all, the way the creature fought was slowly changing as it learned from them, so who could say that the creature would continue attacking the same way, who could say that it wouldn't learn to use its powers better and become an even bigger threat during this battle and not later?

Nobody could say that, none of them.

Reign was slightly conflicted over using his transformation.

With it, he was certain he could deal enough damage to the monster, that he could find its weakness, but the problem was what would happen later.

He would be incapable of transforming for almost an entire week after that, and if the corruption evolved again, if a similar monster appeared one more time, what could he and the others do to stop it?

There was no saying just how many more hidden corrupted areas were in the jungle, after all, it was very large and Reign and the others had only explored a part of it, there were plenty of places they hadn't gone to.

If he simply used his transformation to brute force his way through this, to deal enough damage to the monster and defeat it, then they wouldn't learn a thing about it.

If they could continue attacking it, learn more of its powers and how they worked, learn about the regeneration the monster had and how they could slow it down, and learn how to find the core, then they would have an easier time the next time they fought such a monster, if they ever did fight another one after this.

Choosing to go all out right now would mean that they would have to do so next time, and the stakes would be much higher then as there would be no other way to defeat the creature.

"Wolf, Shadow, continue attacking it and draw its attention away, I need to try something out!" Reign yelled out as Wolf and Shadow nodded at him.

"Tank, just in case, get ready to defend me!"

Tank nodded his head as he moved closer to Reign, making sure that if the monster tried attacking Reign, he could intervene in an instant.

Reign's sword, the [ Sword of Dominance ] that had managed to evolve before and reach Rank SSS, glowed as two clones of Reign's appeared on each of his sides.

With the evolved sword and skill it had, Reign was able to summon two clones that had 70% of his base stats, the stats he gained after using the mark, unfortunately, were not added to the percentage.

Still, the two clones appeared, and they immediately started channeling mana.

For what Reign was about to do, he needed both of them.

It was an idea he had just gotten, one that he hadn't really tried in the past.

Reign stood straight and stared at the monster before suddenly closing his eyes.

The moment he did so, he activated a skill, and the monster stopped attacking the others for a moment before turning its large and ugly head at Reign and then roaring at him.

The monster suddenly felt vulnerable.

It felt slightly violated, as if Reign was seeing something that nobody should be able to see.

It was angry for that, and it wasn't going to let it go.

It charged at Reign, only for both of its front legs to get cleanly severed and the wounds to get cauterized immediately as Wolf appeared from the side.

Even then, the monster moved, two of its tentacles pulling back and transforming into new legs in what seemed to be an instant while the severed two legs turned into goo and moved back toward the monster, only to be frozen by Mia before Shadow appeared above them and hurled two of his black holes at them.

The [ Darkness Implosion ] skill activated, and the monster roared at Shadow as it felt its two parts being ground to dust, both slowly disappearing and no longer being able to come back to it.

It struck with two of its tentacles, forcing Shadow to move as it tried to hit the black holes to destabilize them, or whatever else it was going to do.

It didn't work.

It was only using a physical attack, and such an attack had no effect on them, in fact, it just made it worse as the two tentacles started getting crushed as well, which made the monster pull them back, both getting torn apart at the ends thanks to that.

Shadow smirked at the monster before quickly charging and slashing at it, but the monster had enough, it was sensing danger from Reign, and it had to deal with him immediately, not to mention the two clones which were also making the monster tense.

One of the clones was currently completely black, with darkness wrapping around it as it channeled all the mana it had, while the other one was the opposite, bathed in milky-white light as it channeled mana.

As for Reign, he was still standing still, his eyes were still closed and he was still not moving a muscle.

The monster charged, and the others tried to stop it, to make it stumble, fall, to draw its attention away, they tried everything.

Wolf's chaos flames made the creature flinch, Aelrinder's attacks, which were covered in the power of the stars, caused its body to sizzle, Shadow's darkness was doing some light damage, Mia's ice was slowing it down, Beast's wind was sharp and effective at cutting apart its limbs, but it was simply not enough.

It moved closer and closer, ignoring everything just so it could get to Reign so that it could attack him, eliminate him.

Tank had already moved and was standing between Reign and the creature with his shield ready.

He was not yet using a skill as he didn't know how and from where the monster would attack.

Greenie's hammer was the only weapon capable of pushing the monster around, but even Greenie in his Vajra form was unable to constantly swing his hammer while using the [ Gravity Strike ] skill.

Finally, the monster came close and attacked Reign from the front.

Four shields appeared in front of Reign, each one thick and solid even though they were made out of mana, with the one closest to Reign being the smallest, but the toughest one to break.

It was the [ Abyss Shield ] that Tank had learned a while ago and continued improving.

A barrier was also placed around Reign, with tens of small shields levitating around him and the clones.

The attacks arrived, a barrage of strikes by the tentacles and the huge body of the creature that would not be stopped.

The first shield broke quickly, the second one lasted a bit longer, the third stopped it for a total of 5 seconds, and the last one held on for 10 seconds before cracks started appearing on it, but it was already enough.

The clones moved, both suddenly charging at the monster at the same time.

Mana coiled around them as they stabbed forward, one becoming what looked like a sword of light while the other a sword of pure darkness.

When coming close to one another, they suddenly coiled around each other, transforming into a black-and-white drill of sorts.

The moment the drill touched the creature, Reign opened his eyes and smirked at the creature.

"Found it, you bastard."