Is this really a Game?!

Bzzzzz

A powerful ray of lightning was launched from Reign's mouth as it hit the hole that his [ Lightning Stab ] had created, the ray quickly hits the hole before continuing inside the head of the centipede.

Before Reign could finish the monster, however, it quickly thrashed around and managed to make him fall down as he wasn't holding on with his katana anymore. The lightning stab took a lot of energy from Reign who had absent-mindedly loosened his foothold as he was certain of victory, only for that to make the victory go away.

Still, thanks to his combination of skills and Shadow's powerful attacks that were sent below the monster's head, it was now severely injured and death was certain. Even if they did nothing, the hole that was left from Shadow plus the fact that the [ Lightning Roar ] from Reign had fried a part of its head made survival almost impossible for the monster.

[ Warning, the monster has entered a berserk state. ]

"Dammit!" Cursed Reign as he landed on the ground, his two swords being firmly held in his hands.

"Don't underestimate this thing because it's close to dying now!" Wolf shouted as his flames completely enveloped his sword before a 3meter long sword of flames was in his hands.

"Damn monster, just fall down already." Tank said while holding his axe firmly with his right hand, he slowly started pouring mana into the axe as he stared at the monster with an intense expression on his face.

Most of Tank's skills were focused on his shield, be it defending or attacking ones. The one thing he tried to change during the challenge was exactly that, instead of simply using his weapon to hit enemies, he wanted to be able to deliver fierce attacks that would annihilate them.

The axe started vibrating as Tank flashed a savage smile on his face before running at the centipede while a phantom of a great red bull appeared around him.

[ Bull's Charge ]

It was one of the first skills that Tank had gotten and it had become stronger together with him, from the barely noticeable and small illusion of the bull that he could summon in the beginning, it grew to be a huge, 4-meter tall and 9-meter long bull who was clearly visible to all.

The skill grew stronger as Tank grew stronger, making it incredibly powerful right now.

Bang!

The bull and the centipede clashed and immediately entered a stalemate, the centipede, although not a monster that focused on sheer power and durability, was more than a match to the bull even when heavily injured. The fact that it was almost 20 levels above Tank and that it had entered a berserk state was of course the main reasons for that.

The centipede's mandibles and the bull's horns push against each other, but it was obvious that the mandibles were slowly winning as they cut into the horns.

"Got you." Said Tank with a fierce smile as he suddenly de-summoned his shield and grabbed his axe with both hands. His chest expanded as Tank took a deep breath as he lifted the axe high in the air.

Tank was lucky during the challenge, he had thought for months about why the emperor's spirit did nothing while he held the axe, only to finally be contacted during the challenge.

It turned out that the only reason he was not contacted was that he was too weak, hell, he was still far too weak to get everything from the emperor and unlock the full power of the axe.

One thing that did happen however was the fact that he went through the first trial and managed to unlock a part of the axe's power, whilst also gaining a skill from the emperor's spirit. The description that the system gave was actually a much more simplified version of the tale of the emperor and what exactly the essence of the powerful man would do.

The emperor was once a Tier VIII combatant, one that could fight evenly with weaker Transcendents. Right before he managed to ascend, however, he was betrayed and his body and soul were destroyed, leaving only the axe in which he hid the final pieces of his soul.

The axe itself was not only a weapon but a means for the emperor to bestow his skills to a person and hopefully have his revenge on those that betrayed him. Tank took an oath that he will find those that betrayed the emperor and help him get his revenge one day.

The only skill Tank was able to get was the first one, the weakest out of all. The centipede was able to sense grave danger coming from Tank and quickly moved in hopes of dodging the attack, unfortunately for it, it was too late to try and completely dodge it.

[ Glaring Paragon Slash ]

It was as if time itself stopped around Tank, the axe was brought down in front of Tank with a simple swing while the air around him was gone. A dark-red beam suddenly appeared in an instant as a 1meter long part of the centipede's body was severed completely.

There was no blood that came out of the body part or the centipede while a deep cut could be seen on the walls and ground of the cave. After a second had passed, however, blood spewed out from both the centipede and the body part while Tank kneeled down on the ground, the attack was immensely powerful, but it drained him a lot and he could use it a maximum of 2 times consecutively.

The centipede screamed in agony as this was the most it had been damaged so far in the battle, the agony and anger it felt were great and it quickly charged at Tank.

"Oh no, you don't!" Suddenly said Wolf who was right above the giant centipede, with an explosion he zoomed down and slashed with his giant flaming sword.

[ Fire Style, Falling Star ]

Wolf's whole body suddenly disappeared as a ball of flames appeared in the air. The centipede shrieked and tried to meet the attack with its mandibles, only for them to be melted down and cut off by Wolf's incredible attack.

The ball of flames exploded upon impact as the upper part of the centipede's body was pushed back immediately, of course, Wolf himself was also pushed back from the attack, but he did what he planned on doing, he damaged the monster and pushed it back so that it couldn't attack Tank.

[ Severing, Second Sword ]

Reign suddenly took out the rank S sword from its sheath as an incredibly thin sword light was launched at the centipede, even though Reign still hadn't managed to completely master the second sword, he was almost there as his sword light was about 1cm in size.

The centipede shrieked once again as Reign's attack cut deep inside, managing to cut through about 60% of its body with one attack. The incredible cutting force of the second sword showed itself here as this was not even its full strength.

"Shadow, hold it down for a second!" Beast suddenly shouted as multiple arrows inside the cave started shining a bright green light. An array suddenly appeared below and above the centipede as the monster felt incredible danger suddenly.

Before it could move, however, Shadow's vines appeared and wrapped around its body, it only took the centipede a couple of seconds to deal with them, but that was enough.

A giant spear suddenly appeared from the array above the centipede, the monster tried to escape as it felt the shadow of death on itself.

"Shadow!" Beast shouted as the latter summoned more vines in order to hold the monster down, only to fail as the monster fought back with everything it had.

"STOP MOVING!" A shout suddenly reverberated through the cave as a large hammer was sent flying to the centipede. A formless ball of energy was wrapped around the head of the hammer and upon impact, it heavily shook the centipede and cracked a part of its head.

Greenie had thrown his hammer at the monster whilst simultaneously using his [ Gravity Strike ] skill and wrapping it around the hammer. It was the first time Greenie had tried doing something like that and luckily it worked, not only did it work but it was incredibly effective.

Since it was the first time Greenie had done this and thanks to the fact he did it in a hurry, the ball of energy quickly broke after dealing some damage to the centipede and didn't do as much damage as it did when Greenie attacked previously, but it didn't need to as the spear suddenly came down.

Swish!

Before the centipede could even try to move after being struck by Greenie's hammer, the 6-meter-long spear came down and impaled it. The centipede thrashed its body but it was for naught as the spear suddenly shone brightly before exploding and creating a small tornado around the centipede.

The powerful wind left cuts on the walls and ground of the cave while destroying the centipede from the outside, but also from the inside.

When the wind settled everyone was able to see the giant monster lying dead on the floor of the cave as its body was riddled with hundreds of wounds.