Is this really a Game?!

The tens of monsters running at Reign and the others stumble and fall constantly from Reign's lightning attacks. Even though he barely used any mana for the lightning zaps they were enough to shock the monsters for a brief moment, in such a big crowd a moment was enough to bring chaos.

The danger had still not passed, as Reign and the others ran they were being attacked by the long-range attacks of the monsters that followed after them. Some of the monsters were lurking in the back and attacked them upon seeing them charge out. Whilst fighting the monsters that appeared at their front and side the party was still confused, why had all of these monsters showed up so suddenly, and why were they so hell-bent on attacking them?

One should know that amongst the monsters were even those that were usually meek and would only attack weaker enemies as they were easy prey, but even those monsters were relentlessly charging at them. The killing intent that the monsters had made it clear to Reign and the others that they harbored great hatred towards them.

Suddenly Wolf was able to spot something on the ground. There were traces of blood and bits of flesh amongst the battered ground and some of the rocks that had flown off during the battle with the Dullahan. Wolf made a mental note to himself about that as they continued to fight the monsters while still running.

As more time passed more monsters showed up to pursue them. Tank was using his mana shield to block the long-range attacks that were being launched at them from behind. The party was reminded of the time they had to run away from the hundreds of wood folk in the black forest, during that time they also ran with all their might while Tank was using the same skill to protect everyone.

Everyone made sure not to use any strong attacks, their mana was low and they needed to preserve it in case stronger monsters appeared while they were running towards the forest. The monsters usually weren't able to cross from one area to another one and they were hoping the same still functioned for the guys behind them, after all, the monsters that were in areas around the town were able to get inside, of course, that rarely happened as the monsters deep inside the town were all incredibly powerful compared to them.

Wolf was still looking around as their retreated, he was able to spot more blood splatters and pieces of flesh on the ground, he wasn't completely certain, but he had a hunch that he would be able to find the same things all over the area they fought the boss in. He already had a hunch as to why the monsters were pursuing them so relentlessly.

There was of course nothing that he could do about that, but at least he would be able to find the reason why the monsters behaved the way they did. If he was correct then the way they looked at the monsters had to change a bit as there was a lot more going on. This so-called game was after all not a game at all.

Reign had stopped using his lightning, even though he wouldn't spend a lot of mana each time he used his lightning, after a while, it would still drain it, he even used his [ Lightning Arc ] a couple of times, the skill had no rank and its power depended entirely on how high his ability's level was and how much mana he poured into it.

Even though he spent more mana with the skill since he was able to hit more enemies with it with a longer shock duration he used it as it was worth it.

Over 2 hundred monsters were now behind them, it was an incredible sight as such a large crowd of monsters wasn't something that could be seen on the grassland often, there were monsters here that moved in packs, but even the large packs would usually number anywhere from 20 to 40 monsters, more would actually be dangerous as the stronger monsters would target them.

To see over 200 monsters at once, not to mention night monsters that usually never got close to one another as they were quite confrontational was a sight to behold. Many monsters in the surroundings fled as the mana fluctuations from the huge crowd made them restless and fearful for their lives. Even the stronger monsters did the same as the sheer number of the crowd was enough to overwhelm them, only monsters like the behemoths and bosses like the Dullahan would be fearless against the crowd as their power was enough to kill them all.

Reign and the others also belonged to that category, of course, in their best shape they would probably grin after seeing the crowd as that was a bunch of exp points, but now after they had gone through such an intense fight where they had to go all out, they were wounded and weakened and had to run away.

Luckily for them it seemed that there were no more monsters that decided to join the pursuit, they even came across some more monsters such as the moles and Nyxes, but they all decided to flee after seeing them and the crowd behind them.

Wolf was even more certain of his theory after seeing the sight, they were now able to see the forest and soon they would be entering it. With a bit of luck, the monsters will stay back and not enter it, of course, there was always the possibility of that not happening, in that case, they would try to use the forest to try and escape from the monsters as they were not used to moving through such an area. If that also failed then they would simply use the weapon skill to deal with them all.

That was of course the last resort and they were hoping that they wouldn't need to do any of those things. Soon they reach the forest and enter it with haste, their legs not stopping even after entering as they didn't know if there would be monsters coming after them, some would even just attack them from the border of the forest with their long-range attacks.

The noise from the numerous monsters was becoming quieter, looking back they were able to see that the monsters stopped at the border, well most of the monsters did so, there were about 20 monsters that actually dared enter the forest.

Reign and the others decided to create some more space between them and the monster crowd that had stopped before killing the ones that decided to follow after them. The monsters looked different upon further inspection as well, all of the monsters that decided to follow them into the forest looked weird and sickly, their faces becoming pale while their movement was becoming slower.

It seemed that there was a good reason why monsters shouldn't enter other areas, well, higher-leveled monsters shouldn't enter low-leveled areas. As soon as they did so their powers would decrease, Reign and the others had no idea if this was something permanent or if they would regain their powers after going back to their own area, but it was enough, the 20 monsters had become much weaker now and Reign and the others quickly dispatched them, the rewards they got were low as the monsters were lowered to level 25, as that was more than 10 levels below them, they got no exp.

"For the love of God, what the hell was wrong with those bastards?!" Shadow shouts as he lies down on the ground of the forest.

"I don't know, but the way they were pursuing us, the way they looked at us, it was pure hatred, what the hell happened for them to harbor such feelings toward us?" Reign asks himself as he sits down near Shadow.

"Kids."

"Huh??" Everyone suddenly looks at Wolf with a confused look on their faces.

"I said kids, there were a couple of corpses I managed to spot while we were running away, I'm quite certain that there would be a lot more if we searched the whole area where we fought the Dullahan."

"Wait, do you mean-"

"Yes Reign, our battle with the boss didn't just destroy the surroundings, we killed some baby monsters as well, our the Dullahan did, since we didn't get any notification for it?" Wolf asks Reign as he turns around.

"The monsters can reproduce, I mean I guess that we knew that something like this could happen, but I never really thought about it." Beast suddenly adds from the side, monsters being able to have babies and such was not going to change anything, but it was something that nobody thought of previously, their violent fight killed the children of the monsters and they decided to take revenge.

"Yeah, but there was one thing that I found weird," Wolf nods at Beast before continuing, "The bodies were not really the same, I mean the way they died, even though they were all crushed, there were some that really looked out of place, like someone planted them."

"Someone planted them?" Shadow looks at Wolf with a weird gaze as he asks.

'Yes," Wolf nods at Shadow, "Someone or something tried to set us up and use the monsters to kill us, or to check how strong we are."

Wolf reveals an evil smile as he thinks about it, if there really was someone that did something like that, then there was going to be trouble in the future.

…

Outside of the forest, the crowd of monsters was still roaring, they dared not take a single step inside the forest as they knew what had happened to the others before them. After a while, the monsters slowly start leaving as there was no way to get to Reign and the others anymore.

On a small hill nearby a black-robed figure was looking at the scene before turning around and leaving.