Is this really a Game?!

"Damn, they're endless in numbers." Reign said as lightning struck around him, shocking several monsters that had jumped at him, causing their bodies to convulse in pain as he used his swords to quickly end them.

"I guess so, the longer we take, the harder this will get." Shadow added as he ripped multiple monsters apart with his shadowy tendrils that arose from the shadows of the monsters before piercing through them and then pulling.

"It's been 4 hours, and we're not even halfway there. The monsters have already gotten much more powerful than before. We have to speed up." Beast said as the others nodded, still moving ahead, none of them stopping for an instant, even when they were attacked.

An hour more passed, and they finally got about halfway to the portal, but that was when they all felt a powerful pulse of mana pass through them and the forest.

The monsters around them all suddenly gained a red aura around their bodies, grew more berserk, as well as more powerful.

"Dammit, even pain doesn't make them flinch anymore!" Shadow said as he noticed the monsters his tendrils pierced had not stopped for even an instant, as if he had merely poked them with a needle. Even with their entire bodies destroyed, they showed no pain; they still continued trying to move toward Reign and the others, attempting to attack them.

Still, it was not too difficult; the path forward was manageable for them. If pain wouldn't stop the monsters from moving, then death would. That much was natural, and as long as they were able to kill the monsters in a single strike each time, they would stop moving.

One more hour passed, and things started taking a turn for the worse. The monsters no longer stopped when dead, their bodies would continue moving, at first it was for only an instant, but then it turned into a second.

One second was enough for a couple of strikes to land on the bodies of Reign and the others if they were not careful. Reign moved forward, meeting a group of 3 monsters that lunged at him, their eyes bloodshot, their mouths foaming.

He pivoted on his left foot, grabbed one sword with both of his hands, his right hand grabbing higher, right below the crossguard, while the left went below it. In an instant, he moved, disappearing from sight.

He first slashed the monster closest to him, the one at the very front. He slashed vertically down, splitting the head in half, causing blood and brain matter to leak out, turning pink before even touching the ground.

Right after he had cut the head, Reign stepped to the side, evading the body that still moved, the momentum from the lunge pushing it forward, its claws still swinging wildly, as if the body had not yet noticed that it was dead.

As the body of the large monster passed near Reign, he spun, evading a claw of another monster while swinging his sword during the spin, starting from the bottom and going high. The monster's body was struck from below, cut in half.

Before the two halves of the body had even struck the ground, Reign had kicked off the ground, jumped above the body of the third monster that aimed at him, and stabbed down, lightning buzzing around his sword.

The sword pierced through the spine of the monster before lightning struck it, frying and killing it.

All of this happened in what seemed like an instant. The blood and brain matter of the first monster had barely had time to touch the ground when Reign had killed the third monster.

As for the others, they didn't stay idle either. Shadow used his powers to decimate the monsters from a distance, not stopping for an instant. Wolf merely needed to swing his sword a couple of times to send devastating waves of fire toward the monsters, setting them ablaze. Tank acted as his name, he grabbed two large shields and was simply smacking monsters away, usually bashing their heads in with each strike.

Everybody did as much as they could without using too much mana and stamina, making sure that they could continue fighting until they reached the portal.

It was when they had been running for over 8 hours that things became difficult. They still had about 1.5 hours left until they reached the portal, and the monsters now were vastly different from before. They were stronger, faster, bigger, and very bloodthirsty.

The bodies of the monsters had changed as well, the fur on the ones that had fur was tattered, and one could see missing spots on it. Some blood could be visible as well, trickling down the fine hairs of the fur and falling to the ground.

The monsters with scales had some seemingly ripped off, the scales didn't shine either, as if the vitality of the monsters was being drained, but contrary to what one would expect upon seeing such a thing, the defensive capabilities of such monsters did not diminish, in fact, they had grown more powerful.

What Reign and the others believed was happening was that the 'berserk' mode of the monsters was drawing from their own vitality and life force. The monsters were cutting their very lives short, sacrificing themselves in order to gain a boost in power, to become stronger for a period of time before ultimately dying from it.

There was no logic to it, there was no need for the monsters to do so, but this was a trial, logic was not something truly needed for it.

"On the left!" Reign shouted as he stepped to the side before slashing upwards with his sword, neatly slicing through the neck of a monster before jumping to the side, evading another monster's attack.

On the left came a group of three monsters, but as soon as they had appeared, they were met with a large fireball, spikes coming out of the shadows, as well as a large lance of ice that pierced through one of them before freezing it solid.

Fatigue was already settling in, all of them were starting to tire, their stamina dropping, and their movements no longer as fluid as before. It was not a large decrease; in fact, weaker opponents wouldn't even notice it, but to Reign and the others, it was not good news at all.

They couldn't allow themselves to tire out, not now.

They still had over an hour before reaching the portal, and that was just based on their estimates, which could be wrong by several minutes.

Still, they didn't use their marks or any of their boosts, which had to be saved for the very end, as they knew the monsters expecting them closer to the portal would be even more difficult to deal with than these were.

And they were right, as after more than half an hour, they were now facing monstrosities they had to go all out in order to defeat quickly. Each strike had to be imbued with full force, with killing intent, without backing down if they wished to inflict a serious injury, and defeating a monster in 1 or 2 strikes was no longer possible.

They would either attack together, each of them landing an attack an instant after the previous one to quickly incapacitate a monster, or they would use skills in order to inflict a powerful enough injury to kill one.

The monsters now looked as if they were on their last legs. Their fur was gone, as were the scales or oily skin of others. Their flesh was bare, as red as blood, and all of them were bigger, more muscular than they were supposed to be, as if they had taken illegal drugs that would push their strength to their limits, disfiguring their bodies for a large boost in power that would leave them dead.

"Come on, just a bit more, push forward, then we can truly go all out, not holding back in the slightest!" Reign shouted, fully aware of how dire of a situation they were in. One slip and it could be fatal, one miscalculated attack, one wrong step, and they could be seriously injured by the monsters.

They were all fighting nearly perfectly now, holding nothing back in their usual forms, only nearly being able to push forward without using their marks in this moment.

About 15 minutes later, they could no longer do so.

Nobody made a mistake, nobody took a wrong step or miscalculated an attack, the monsters had just suddenly grown much more powerful, unlike before, where they were slowly getting stronger.

It happened mid-fight, as a monster that had clashed with Greenie suddenly roared, its muscles pulsating as it struck again, this time nearly with double the strength, causing Greenie to kneel while another monster passed him, aiming straight at Laura who clenched her teeth before using her demonic powers, turning her limbs demonic before punching forward, causing an eruption of demonic energy to hit the monster, turning it into dust in an instant.