Is this really a Game?!

The hooded leader crashed against a nearby tree, his body slamming against the trunk with a sickening thud. He struggled to rise, his movements slow and unsteady as he grappled with the pain coursing through his body.

Wolf, sensing his advantage, pressed the attack, his flames blazing with renewed intensity. He advanced on the leader, his sword held aloft, ready to deliver another attack.

But the hooded leader, despite his injuries, refused to give up. With a defiant roar, he launched himself at Wolf, his spiked gloves gleaming in the dim light as his distortion appeared in front of him, ready to go against Wolf's flames.

Upon seeing that, Wolf, however, just smirked and slashed down, sending forth a powerful wave of flames that were a bit redder than usual, and if one was to look deep inside them, they would find streaks of red lightning flickering from time to time.

The aura of the flames was different, it now felt more … primal, ancient, and incredibly deadly.

The chaos energy inside of it increased the destructive power of the flames tremendously, but there was a drawback, and that was that Wolf couldn't control them freely like usual. The chaos flame was much more difficult to control, it was a wild flame that yearned for destruction and didn't care about anything else.

The distortion that the hooded leader had used suddenly started shaking heavily as the flames did not dissipate, not in the slightest, shocking the leader to his core as that shouldn't have been possible.

His distortion was a powerful ability, one that was very effective against abilities such as Wolf's, and that had proven true during their previous clashes.

Since that was true, how was it possible that his distortion was now not working?

Upon staring at the flames, he was able to notice the red lightning, but unfortunately for him, he simply didn't have enough time to realize what it was and how the flames had changed.

Had he not been injured and did not have full faith in his distortion ability, he might have been able to evade the attack or perhaps even block it by using the ability to its fullest, but that was no longer possible.

The distortion was conquered, broken through, and for the first time since the battle started, the leader showed fear in his eyes as the flames came upon him, ready to devour him and leave nothing.

The flames enveloped the leader while continuing on their way, annihilating the trees, the bushes, and even the rocks that were present were not spared.

Everything was destroyed, leaving nothing but melted rocks and burned soil. The flames would have continued existing, burning even more had it not been for Wolf who controlled them, willing them back, and extinguishing them.

"Tch, I was hoping to kill or at least heavily injure that guy, you know?" Wolf said with a frown as he glanced to the right, where a person had appeared.

"Apologies for that, but he is one of us, an important member as well, I couldn't let that happen." A tall man who was wearing the same robe as the hooded leader said as Wolf glanced at the hooded leader who was being carried by the tall man.

The tall, hooded man had grabbed his waist and was easily holding him before letting him stand back up, his face finally being revealed to Wolf as his flames had managed to burn the hood, and a bit of his hair and face.

The man was staring at Wolf with both anger and apprehension. It was clear that the flames that Wolf had summoned had frightened him, after all, his distortion did not work on them, and their power was immense.

He had medium-length blonde hair that had curled up from the sweat on the man's face and head. He had a short beard and his eyes were black. His facial features were … unfamiliar, and nothing out of the ordinary.

In fact, his face was very plain, nothing on it would make a person look twice at him, but that didn't mean he was bad-looking or anything, just average.

"In the end, more of you did arrive, this will be troublesome, but oh well, what can you do?" Wolf said as he shrugged his shoulders and stared at the two men before glancing to the side, observing what was going on with Shadow.

Three of the four opponents that Shadow had been fighting against were down on the ground, incapacitated, but not dead, at least not yet.

In their stead, six more such opponents had appeared, as well as another person who had a more powerful aura.

Shadow could continue fighting, but even he wouldn't be able to defeat seven fake Tier VI opponents and one true Tier VI that was quite powerful if he was as strong as the one Wolf fought against, which would seem to be the case, and more since the aura the person staring at Shadow had was actually more dangerous.

The tall man in front of Wolf was also more dangerous, his aura was sharp, akin to a blade that was ready to be drawn and used to cut the enemy down.

"This guy, he's probably one of the weakest Tier VI members you have, would that be correct?" Wolf asked the tall man as the other person's eyebrow twitched and his eyes narrowed.

He didn't deny the claim, however.

"I see, I could sense that you and that other person are more dangerous."

"So, let's get this over with, if you think you can overwhelm us with numbers, I will show you just how wrong you are," Wolf said as his aura rose higher than it was before, which made the blonde man widen his eyes in shock.

He realized that Wolf had not truly gone all out before, not even when he used the weird flames that could overwhelm his distortion.

"I don't think that is necessary, even though we have full confidence in winning against you, the price we will have to pay for it is not a light one." The tall man spoke before glancing at where Shadow was.

"You can leave this place, we will not follow you, we will not attack you from the back, we will simply take our people and leave, I swear upon the system that my words are true."

Wolf's eyes slightly widened at the man's words.

He had sworn to the system right away, and they all knew that there was no way for one to go against what they swore, otherwise the price they would pay was astronomical.

And yet, Wolf still didn't say anything and his aura continued rising.

"All of them will make the same oath, that should suffice in keeping our intentions clear to you, after all, we all know just how high of a price one has to pay after breaking an oath."

"Yeah, we know."

"But here's the issue, we don't want to retreat," Wolf said with a dangerous smile on his face.

"We spent quite some time and effort into coming here and taking down those guys, do you really think we will just hand them back to you?"

"Hell no!" Shadow suddenly shouted as his aura spiked, his hair, which turned black upon activating the mark, dancing in the wind that was being created by his aura.

"Three Tier VI opponents and seven fake Tier VIs, as if that would be enough to make US retreat!" Shadow said once again with conviction in his words as he smiled as dangerously as Wolf had.

As for Laura, she smirked as her arms turned demonic. Just like the two of them, she was ready to go all out and hold nothing back.

Even if they were outnumbered, so what?

Just back down and retreat with their tails wagged between their legs?

That would never happen.

"It is your choice." The tall man said before his aura changed.

"Let me show you just how wrong you were to make that choice."

Suddenly, all of them felt a sharp pain assault them. Their heads felt like they were being broken, splitting in half from the immense pain.

"A soul-based attack?!" Wolf shouted as he held his head and controlled his breathing. The pain was gone, but he was able to sense that the tall man was not done yet.

"Correct, let me show you just how powerful a soul-based attack can be, and why those like me are feared by all." The tall man said before spreading his arms wide, his aura becoming even more dangerous while tens of missiles that were invisible to Wolf and the others were launched at them.

All of those missiles, however, were blocked and destroyed before they could hit them, which made the tall man widen his eyes. Discover more magic on m-vl-em-pyr

"Yeah, soul-based attacks are quite dangerous to those that can't control soul power." A voice said from behind Wolf and the others.

"But who the hell do you think you are to use such attacks on them, you tall bastard?"