Is this really a Game?!

"ROOAARR!"

The roars of beasts echoed through the forest as the horde of monsters charged at the Tainted base. The over 200 monsters clashed against the array of the base as the camouflage started flickering. The base slowly became visible but Reign and the others were unable to get a good look into it as they were too far away to clearly see it in the moments the array flickered.

Soon however more and more monsters appeared and the Tainted showed up to defend the array. The camouflage was suddenly lifted as the Tainted activated the defensive power of the array to its fullest, blocking the fierce charge of the monsters for now.

The base finally showed itself to Reign and the others. Large dome-shaped houses that were created from mud and clay showed themselves while there were others that were created from wood. The houses were very simple and it was obvious that the Tainted cared little for aesthetics.

There were, however, a couple of buildings that were much larger compared to the normal houses that the Tainted had. The buildings were created with the help of anything the Tainted were able to find, mud, stones, wood, bones, clay…

That gave birth to buildings that were weird and slightly grotesque, one had to wonder just how the Tainted could live in such an environment as

Reign and the others stayed put, the battle that was taking place was going to be a long and arduous one, even though there would be hundreds of monsters that would arrive in order to fight, but a month had passed from when the Tainted used the same tactic in order to bring the elven base down and there was no saying how powerful they had become.

The elves themselves were certain that they would have fared much better now compared to back then. Aelrinder himself had managed to evolve and was a Tier I combatant and he would be able to fight against hundreds of monsters himself.

The first thing that Reign and the others wanted to see was if there were any Tier I combatants in the Tainted base. If there were none, then they wouldn't need to use the item anymore and could bring down the whole base themselves, of course, they were not planning on doing so, the Tainted tried to destroy the elves with the use of the item, it was only fair that they get destroyed by the same thing they created.

The exp that Reign and the others would get from killing the Tainted that were below level 50 was abysmally low as they a further penalty for exp after reaching Tier I. Killing beings that were below level 50 would give them only 40% of the exp, and with the other penalty that lowered the exp when killing beings that were several levels lower than oneself, Reign and the others would barely get anything from killing the Tainted.

As time passed more and more Tainted showed up from the base and soon there were over 300 of them. Compared to the elven base where there were lots of civilians, the Tainted base was different as 90% of them were combatants. The other 10% were smiths, craftsmen, chemists…

There was nobody in the base that was a freeloader like in Reign's territory or the elven one as the Tainted operated under different rules. Those that didn't wish to fight had to contribute in different ways, otherwise, they were worthless and they would get kicked out of the base and were left to survive alone.

The 300 Tainted wasn't the full number of Tainted in the base of course. The Tainted weren't going to go all out in the beginning and tire themselves out, they were surprisingly calm at this moment and would fight whilst the tired ones would swap with new fighters that were fresh and rested.

The situation continued like this for about 1 hour. Hundreds of beasts lay dead in front of the Tainted base while about 100 Tainted had died. From what Reign had seen, there were probably anywhere from 600 to 800 Tainted in the base. Losing 100 men, even though it wasn't a low number, was nothing major for the Tainted yet.

The problem arose after about 10 more minutes of fighting. There were over 500 monsters attacking the base even after the Tainted had killed hundreds of them, more could be seen charging toward the base from afar as well.

The Tainted were becoming tired, some of them were already exhausted and simply couldn't continue fighting any longer. Reign estimates that the Tainted could continue fighting this way for about 1 hour before most of them became too tired to fight.

There were approximately 35 Tainted that had reached or were close to reaching level 50, which was a surprise to Reign and the others since the elves only had about 20 of such combatants. Aelrinder had a solemn expression on his face as such numbers were far beyond what he had expected to see from the Tainted.

"Judging from how they fight, these guys are quite proficient and had gone through many battles, honestly, I would be surprised if there wasn't at least 1 Tier I fighter in the base." Said Reign as Aelrinder nodded in agreement.

"Beast, kill some of them." Said Reign as he yawned. Staying in the same place for over an hour was extremely boring and he didn't want the battle to get prolonged by too much. The item they were using to draw the monsters towards the Tainted base was starting to form cracks as well and it was obvious that it would not last much longer.

The item was after all created to be used once, it was consumable and it was only thanks to the elves that they managed to repair it enough for it to be used for so long. Aelrinder judged that the item could continue working for about 30 more minutes maximum before it completely broke.

Beast simply nodded at Reign before taking out his bow. He notched an arrow that had been nourished by his mana whilst inside the quiver and aimed at one of the more powerful Tainted. The arrow soon became covered by green mana as Beast used his wind ability on it before letting it fly.

A sonic boom could be heard as Beast's arrow had surpassed the speed of sound, everyone's clothes fluttered from the wind that was blown around Beast while his arrow had seemingly disappeared before hitting a Tainted straight in the head.

A gray mana shield appeared around the Tainted for a moment, but the arrow passed through it like it was made of paper. The Tainted's head exploded in a brilliant fashion as the arrow continued forward, piercing two monsters before hitting the array and making it flicker.

Even though the arrow Beast had launched wasn't a skill, the power behind it was enough to instantly kill most enemies below Tier I and even deliver some damage to the array. The Tainted that was close to the one that Beast had killed were shocked as they saw a green line simply move past them and through one of their comrades before his head exploded.

Fear could be seen in their eyes as they quickly moved back to the safety of the array. They were terrified as they now knew that there was an enemy hiding behind the monsters, an enemy that was powerful enough to kill one of their strongest combatants with one attack.

Suddenly five powerful auras exploded from inside the base as Aelrinder's face was covered in shock.

"Five Tier I combatants, how, how is that possible?!" Aelrinder shouted in disbelief as he stared at the Tainted base. He wasn't as shocked to find out that Reign and the others had reached Tier I before him as he knew just how powerful and talented they were.

Even though there were many players in their territory that were powerful and more talented compared to the average human and elf, all of them paled in comparison to them. But finding out that the Tainted had five combatants that were at Tier I was something that shocked him to his core.

'If we hadn't formed an alliance with them, just what would our fate have been?' He thought to himself as he glanced at Reign and the others who also had serious expressions on their faces. Five Tier I combatants at this stage of the game were nothing to scoff at, even though they wouldn't pose a large threat to Reign and the others, they were still powerful fighters that commanded great respect.

Compared to the Tier I fighters that Reign had seen and fought against whilst being a part of the kingdom of Riplas, the Tier I enemies he had faced so far were weaker. Even the weakest amongst the Tier I fighters back there had been at that level for years and had honed their skills and proficiencies to their fullest compared to the ones here.

"Well, I guess we will have some action after all." Reign said as he smirked at the five auras that were approaching the horde of monsters.

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