Is this really a Game?!

"Shadow?!" Reign shouted in disbelief as he barely managed to block the thin blade from piercing his throat. Yes, there was no mistaking it, the medium-length blonde hair, the slim yet muscular body, and the azure blue eyes made it impossible for Reign to mistake his best friend for anyone else.

Shadow simply smiled in response to Reign as he continued attacking, each thrust of the rapier in his hand was aimed at Reign's vital spots, eyes, throat, heart, and groin, all of them were aimed as the incredibly fast attacks showed no sign of stopping. Yufan had also moved, his bloody blade drawing an arc as it fell down on Reign from behind.

Reign quickly used his lightning to its fullest in order to boost himself and move out of the way, the powerful discharge of lightning managed to also force Shadow back and stop his relentless attacks for a moment before he charged at Reign again.

"Shadow, why are you here, what the hell is happening?!" Reign shouted once again as he defended against his friend's fierce attacks.

"What the hell is up with this weapon as well?!" Reign used his broken sword to parry Shadow before throwing a punch at his friend. The punch however was clearly not one that was thrown with full power as Shadow was able to easily move his head in order to avoid it before drawing closer to Reign, with his left hand he took out a dagger from his waist before stabbing it toward Reign's chest.

Yufan on the other hand had launched himself at Reign as the blood covering his scimitar formed a spear around it, the intense killing intent made Reign feel a bit sluggish even before the spear had arrived. He quickly used his [ Lightning Charge ] in order to create some space between himself and Shadow before sending a couple of lightning bullets his way.

He immediately used his [ Lightning Stab ] and met the powerful spear of blood, the lance and spear connected as an intense shockwave swept through the surrounding area, the two were even and the attacks quickly dissipated to reveal the two men standing some 3 meters apart.

Thanks to the boost Yufan had gained from the skill of his scimitar he was able to stand toe-to-toe against Reign once again. Even though he needed to pay dearly in order to acquire such power, his low-tier Rank A weapon was still able to give him a great boost.

Not only did the blood blade exude killing intent that would weaken every enemy in a 1km radius around him, but it would also give him a boost to his physical prowess. Of course, Yufan could also make the scope of his killing intent smaller which would in turn make the effect more powerful, that was what he was doing right now, the killing intent was focused about 50 meters around him and even someone as powerful as Reign was getting affected by it.

Shadow appeared behind Reign again and used his rapier to deliver a swift but deadly blow to Reign, before it could connect however Reign turned around and grabbed it with his hand, his gloves were able to protect his hands relatively well thanks to the rapier being a weapon that didn't specialize in cutting, of course when needed it could still cut through an enemy.

As Shadow tried stabbing Reign with his dagger he was surprised to see Reign open his mouth before spitting at him, of course, what came out of his mouth wasn't spit but lightning bullets that managed to hit him in the chest. Shadow quickly withdrew his rapier before jumping back a couple of meters.

"You're not Shadow." Reign calmly said, he felt it was weird previously when he fought against the man, even though he looked exactly like Shadow, equipment and all, his fighting style and weapons of choice were very different compared to his friend. Not only that, but he was clearly not familiar with Reign's fighting style or ability, which was also shown when Reign opened his mouth.

He didn't need to do that in order to use his [ Lightning roar ( prototype ) ], he only did it because he wanted to see Shadow's reaction. He had his doubts before but this cemented them, not only did the man not show any reaction toward the skill he was about to use but looked at him in a confused manner before being shocked by the lightning bullets that were launched at him. If it truly was Shadow then he would have been able to immediately figure out what Reign was doing and dodge the attack with relative ease.

"Kekeke, I guess I've been found out." Shadow suddenly speaks out, his voice was of course completely different from the real one. Slowly his figure started blurring before the real person showed himself. He was of the same race as Yufan but compared to the others he was slimmer and shorter. Standing at about 1.75 meters the person had gray rocky skin, a big difference compared to the other soldiers that had blue skin.

The mana that Reign could feel from the person however clearly told him that he was powerful, only second to Yufan who was standing behind him. It was clear that the army came prepared, previously they thought that there was only one person that could fight against Reign equally, but Reign know knew that that was a trap devised to ambush him.

Not only did Reign have to deal with the powered-up Yufan who was his match now, but he also needed to watch out for the swift and deadly opponent that had joined the battle. Contrary to what one might think Reign didn't show any apprehension, his mouth simply curved upwards as he looked at the two of them with great excitement.

"It seems like I'll be able to cut down 2 out of the 5 needed today."

"Huh?" Yufan and the other man look at him surprisingly before Yufan gave a sharp stare at the other person.

"I am called Sios, pleasure meeting you." The man smiled at Reign before releasing a great deal of mana, the air around him started vibrating as he suddenly became almost invisible, other than that he also joined the dagger and the sword as they shone a menacing gray light.

The rapier suddenly became a sickle, of course, that was not what was the biggest change as there were chains that went around the right arm of Sios that connected the sickle and his shoulder guard. His aura changed as Reign could feel that he was obviously stronger than before, it seemed that the invisibility was thanks to his ability while the sickle was the skill of his weapon.

Contrary to what might think, rank A weapons and armors were actually not really easy to find, especially in such a low-level place where Reign was brought to. Even the mercenary army that the coalition had summoned seemed to only have two rank A items, one was the scimitar and the other the sickle that Sios wielded.

The reason for that was simple, powerful items were gained when one managed to defeat powerful monsters, in such a world where monsters had already been beaten back a long time ago it was simply hard to get to fight those kinds of monsters, adventurers would risk their lives in order to go deep inside forbidden areas in order to fight the more powerful monster and get items, but the majority was now created by blacksmiths of the many kingdoms and empires.

This world was not the only one where this kind of situation could be found as most stronger worlds were the same, that was the reason why so many people would become mercenaries and travel to different worlds and fight, not only would they get paid by S Coins and resources, but they could get exp and new items from the foes they had defeated.

Even back on Earth, it was a rare sight to see a team like Reign's who had so many rank A items, rank S items were almost non-existent as well as the players were simply not strong enough to get them right now.

Reign channeled all of his mana before lunging toward Sios, even though the man was now almost invisible Reign could still see a little of him, dealing with such an enemy was the priority as he didn't want to lose sight of him. An enemy in the open was always better than an enemy hidden in the dark.

As soon as Reign lunged at Sios, the man had thrown his sickle at him, Reign quickly moved his head to the side and dodged it, only to quickly jump to the side as Sios used the chain in order to get the sickle back and try hitting Reign from behind.

Yufan had also appeared next to Reign as his bloody scimitar glowed fiercely as he swung it at Reign with full power. Reign quickly blocked the attack, only to be sent flying back thanks to the fierce strength that Yufan now possessed.