Is this really a Game?!

Reign glanced at the monster and clicked his tongue in frustration.

It could regenerate, and it could do so very quickly.

That was definitely a problem, but not an unexpected one.

In the past, they had fought against many different monsters and gained enough experience to guess what the capabilities of a monster they were about to face could be just based on how it looked.

The monster in front of them, as unique as it might seem, was one they had already thought could manipulate its body and change its shape thanks to its appearance, the regeneration was something Reign and the others had expected as well, just not like this.

The group's initial attacks had little effect on the creature, which seemed to be able to regenerate any damage inflicted upon it.

"Hey, doesn't this thing remind you of the Abominations we had fought in the forest?" Wolf asked before jumping high and delivering a powerful slash from the side of the creature, causing a deep gash to appear and flames to burn across the body.

Still, the gash closed quickly, and the flames were seemingly swallowed by the creature in mere seconds.

Mia appeared from the other side and attacked, her frost freezing a large part of the creature's body before she struck with her sword, cutting off a large chunk of the frozen body, only for it to quickly thaw before turning into goo and reattaching itself back to the body.

Shadow appeared as well before throwing a ball of darkness which pulled the goo from all sides, crushing and causing the monster to quickly jump away.

"This works though," Shadow said with a dangerous smile as he stared at the creature that was now staring at him.

"Since it can reattach parts of its body, we just need to destroy parts of it completely, not letting it do so anymore," Shadow said as he let go of his daggers before creating two balls of darkness in his hands.

"Let's dance, you ugly bastard."

Shadow disappeared from the spot, his darkness spreading out and making it difficult for the creature to spot him.

It was wary of Shadow.

His [ Darkness Implosion ] skill was one that could actually harm it, to cause it lasting damage that it was incapable of healing like the other wounds it received.

Suddenly, the creature stumbled to the side and roared as a beam of light struck it, burning away a portion of its body.

"You're made out of corruption, and from what I have seen before, the corruption is weak to light, which means you are weak to it as well." Reign said with a smile on his face as his swords glowed, being imbued by his light.

"It's not very polite to be focusing on only one person when so many of us are here, you know?" Reign said with a sigh before charging forward and attacking the monster that quickly jumped back.

"Doesn't this seem … a bit too easy?" Beast asked Laura as the two stared at the battle, doing little to nothing.

Beast's arrows were not really effective, Laura's demonic energy was simply getting swallowed by the monster, and the best course of action for them seemed to be … nothing … just doing nothing but observing.

"Well yeah, but also, it's not a weak enemy, the fact it can take so many attacks without flinching, the fact it can heal itself almost instantly, all of that makes it quite a difficult opponent to deal with, it just unlucky to have gone up against us."

"We're not normal ourselves, remember?" Laura told Beast who nodded.

"Even now, none of our attacks are working, it's only Shadow and Reign who are capable of dealing damage to this thing, so I don't think it's… easy … just that we are lucky enough that they can do this."

"I know, but still, there's just something off here, this thing … it's supposed to be dangerous for even the Behemoth, which can defeat us all, so how come it's only able to take our attacks and nothing else, shouldn't it at least be capable of threatening us, to injure us?" Beast asked with a solemn expression as Laura stared at him.

"So … what are you thinking?"

"Something isn't right, I don't think the battle has really even started yet, I think this thing has not gone all out, not even close."

As Beast and Laura observed the ongoing battle, they couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss. The creature, despite its formidable appearance and abilities, seemed to be holding back. Its attacks were defensive rather than aggressive, and it appeared to be more focused on evading their assault rather than launching its own counterattacks.

Meanwhile, Reign and Shadow continued to press their advantage, dealing significant damage to the creature with each strike. Reign's light-infused attacks burned away portions of the creature's body, while Shadow's miniature black holes destroyed parts of the body, turning them into nothing. The creature roared in frustration and pain, unable to effectively counter their combined assault.

As the battle raged on, Aelrinder, who was standing aside and observing the battle with great focus, began to notice a pattern in the creature's movements. It seemed to be reacting to their attacks in a calculated manner as if it were analyzing their fighting styles and adjusting its own tactics accordingly.

This level of intelligence and adaptability was unsettling, suggesting that the creature was far more than just a mindless monster.

The worst thing was the fact that it seemed to be adapting, not to Reign's movements or the attack patterns he and Shadow had, but to their powers.

It was miniscule, almost not visible, but Aelrinder noticed it, he noticed how after each attack, Reign's and Shadow's attacks were doing less damage to it.

"We need to change our approach," Aelrinder said, addressing Beast and Laura. "This creature is not fighting at its full strength, but it's learning from their attacks, it is adapting to their powers."

"We need to find a way to get rid of it before it completely adapts."

"But how can we do that when the only two guys capable of wounding the monster are Reign and Shadow, and even they have not been able to inflict any serious injury on it," Laura said with a slightly nervous voice as Beast glanced at the monster.

"First, we tell Shadow and Reign what is going on, then we try to find another way to deal with this thing."

"Reign, Shadow, you need to-"

"I know!" Reign shouted from afar as he dodged an attack from the monster with an ugly expression on his face.

"This bastard is just playing around with us, it doesn't feel threatened at all." Reign said in a low voice while staring at the monster with anger.

"It's doing nothing but defending, sometimes attacking us to make us feel as if it's trying, but it's obvious that the only thing it wants is to get hit more and gain resistance against our powers," Shadow said as he appeared near Reign.

"But even then, we can't just not fight it, the only ones that can deal damage to this thing are us, so what else can we even do?"

"I'll try combining my darkness and light, attack it at the same time with both of those, who knows, it might produce a good result." Reign said with a sigh before narrowing his eyes as the creature got hit from the side, its massive body being pushed slightly.

A hammer had struck it, and around the head of the hammer was a ball of energy that was pushing and pulling the monster's body, twisting the goo it had hit, destroying it.

"My attack works too!" Greenie shouted from the side with a giant smile on his face as he stared at Reign and Shadow.

The creature had not yet recovered from the unexpected attack before it was hit once more, this time from the back.

Flames erupted, but unlike before, when the creature was able to just absorb them, turning them useless against it, the flames burned it, causing it some pain.

"Chaos energy seems to work quite well against it," Wolf said as he put his greatsword on his shoulder and stared at the monster with a smile.

"Four different kinds of energies, I don't think it can adapt to them easily, right?" Shadow asked as Reign smirked.

"Well, this might be enough to at least make it serious, look, there's finally a change."

The creature was, just like Reign said, changing.

Its aura suddenly rose, its body started morphing, and for the first time since starting the battle, the party sensed danger from it.

"Reign, I think it is getting serious now." Gabriel's voice could be heard from the communication crystal as Reign nodded his head.

"That's for certain."

"Now, let's see just how dangerous this thing is when it is taking us seriously and fighting back."