Return of the Woodcutter

Barely a minute ago. 

Aito watched the carnage from behind the cover of his shield with astonishment. He never thought that the grenades would spread small diameter particles of ainium the size of specks of dust. 

If he had to take a guess, these were small chips made from shaving off ainium with some kind of medieval grinding wheel. Probably….

No matter how it had been made, it did a marvelous job "shaving off" the sect's defenses that seemed to have replenished a little. At least that's what he thought, seeing their current numbers. 

Aito went back inside his room and left the portal open to see if they would dare to come in. He prayed they'd be foolish enough to do so. He prayed, but no, there was no answer to his prayers as no one passed the portal. 

"As predicted, we are surrounded. Fireballs and Arrows. Warriors are on standby. We'll proceed according to plan." 

Behind him, Ogoro, wearing a full set of medieval armor, nodded. 

His new armor set—which was also Aito's previous one he had furrowed in an inventory bag to carry his brand new one—was too small for him. The giant of a man readjusted the pauldrons that felt a bit uncomfortable. 

Some parts of his body were exposed to potential strikes, but it was much better than his old set. In hand, he had Sheyla's long sword. Fortunately, the previous owner had been able to afford a steel one—almost every challenger preferred to purchase a weapon before armor parts. 

Sheyla still had her previous gears. She had a small crossbow instead of a steel sword. It wasn't much at first sight, but in an expert's hands, Aito knew his repeater would be deadly. He trusted her with it. Well… kind of. He had told her the weapon's name before lending it to her. 

Like his every other property, it was called GIB, short for "Give it back" which, in turn, was short for "Do not dare forget to give my property back to me." 

Aito took out his second metallic ball, which he decided to call an A-Frag for now, used Durability on it, and tried to push its destructive power even further by overloading the amount of aura infused into it.

The a-frag shone brighter than the previous one, trembling, vibrating. Fearing it might explode in his hand, he aimed left towards the staircase and hurled it with as much strength as he could. The a-frag passed through the portal and… nothing. 

Aito turned towards the siblings, then said, "Ready?" 

Silence attested to their approval as Aito turned back to face the portal. His visor closed with a *click* as he rushed outside, ainium shield and short mode morpho ax in hands. 

"Let's go." 

Aito exited the room, closely followed by the siblings, then dashed towards the opened gap in his enemy's defenses, brushing by corpses, shattered armor pieces, shredded clothes, and broken weapons. 

Their rear was exposed to fireballs, but too far to hit them within a short amount of time and not as numerous as before, since at least one-third of the elementalists had died with the a-frags, they weren't as effective. 

Sheyla nimbly dodged those coming for her. With his medieval armor, Ogoro tanked a few of them but mostly picked up corpses to shield his back with. 

They were halfway through to the entrance when they were met with groups of warriors clumsily standing shoulders to shoulders, showing how inexperienced they still were with these kinds of fights. 

Aito quickly swapped his shield's side from ainium to steel, activated Durability on it, increased the weight of his own armor set by 3.5 times, and collided with the row of shields. Using every iota of strength at his disposal, like an unstoppable bull, he bashed two henchmen, hurling them back towards their comrades as he continued breaking the line. 

Beside him, Ogoro wreaked havoc like a tempest of steel. He didn't dare experiment with his new skills in this all-out melee. If he messed up even slightly, he could be in for a world of pain. 

Sheyla, with a sword in her right hand she had picked up on the way, kept the breach open, continuously shooting bolts. One henchman fell after the other, a steel tip lodged in the head. Either because they weren't equipped with helmets or because their killer had been good enough to hit them in an unprotected spot, usually in-between the eyes. 

As it didn't look as hindering as testing a so-called binding string probably akin to a certain friendly neighbor's web, Sheyla activated Hawk-Eye, increasing her accuracy. 

Weirdly enough, it felt like someone guided her hand. Every time she aimed, she'd have this vague feeling that an area would be more or less okay to target. Also, her hand stability seemed to improve in this state. 

"Keep moving forward!" Aito ordered, shouting to make himself heard above the loud battle noises. "Forward!"

Enemies were quickly approaching their rear, threatening to close the gap they had created and encircle them. Before they could inevitably do so, Aito wanted to get as close to the staircase as possible. If they could reach it in time, they'd be in a more advantageous position. 

Having now lost his momentum, Aito deactivated Weight Control on his armor set to increase his movement speed, parried a blow, used Whirlwind to create some breathing space around him then shortened his shield to switch for a two-handed hold. 

Using his decapitator ax, he further increased his team's advancing speed and his enemies' casualties. Like a murderous tornado of death, he continued to pave their way forward. 

***

From the safety of the crowd, Borat waited for an opportunity to strike. He had run all the way to here just for that opportunity. Although, at first, he had wondered why he had to focus on the black challenger, thinking it wasn't worth it. 

However, his opinion soon changed after he got to see him in action. The black challenger was deadly. A true enemy, worthy of attention. Not like mere goblins.

There was no gap in his defenses, well at least not one he could exploit the bind him at the moment. The black challenger kept spinning around, barely taking some time to reposition himself sometimes. 

Borat needed someone to create an opening for him, but the henchmen were too incompetent to do so. Being one of the four managers, he had seen and heard it all. To his mind, most male or female employees were just freeloaders. 

Yes, they were still willing to give up their lives for the sect. Were their lives worth anything, though? 

'Just look at them dying like moths drawn to a fire. If they could at least deal any real injury to the black challenger and his companions they'd be worth something.' 

It angered him even more since he had to heal those worthless survivors afterward. Well, looking at the brighter side of things, there would be fewer useless idiots after the black challenger's rampage. 

"For the sect master's sake, what are you thinking about?" Sam asked besides him, dressed in a full plated armor, a Zweihander on resting his shoulder. 

"About how to kick his ass," Borat replied, eyeing Aito spitefully while spitting on the ground. "He's a tough motherfucker." 

"That bastard is mine. In the name of our sect, I swear that I'll put him down!" 

"Oh yeah? Who's the one who got his ass handed to himself last time?" Borat replied, "Oh yeah… you! Ahahahaa!" 

"Damn I hate your mouth." 

"Pffft! Look who's talking!" Borat said, smirking then changed the topic, pointing at Aito. "He's fast approaching. You'll be able to take your revenge soon. However, what do you say about some support to increase your chances of success of capturing him alive?" 

"Tsk, don't try to make it sound like it's your idea. It was the sect master's." Sam said, remembering his orders, "Although, I'm sure that with my two skills that leveled up I'd be enough to capture him on my own, but I'll cooperate. It was the sect master's orders after all."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the sect master is great," Borat replied, then eyed a bowman in cloth armor that has been standing by Sam's side for a while. "Zephyr, you didn't forget you're a part of the plan too?" 

"Hum, how could I miss on the fun?" Zephyr replied from under his grey hood, before sending an arrow in Ogoro's direction, only to miss his left knee joint by a small margin. "Black challenger is the prey, right?" 

"The fuck? How long have you been standing here?" Sam asked, surprised. 

"A few moments," Zephyr said. 

"Fucking ninja…," Sam cursed. "Whatever prepare yourselves. He's coming." 

*** 

"Ogoro! Sheyla!" Aito shouted, seeing the siblings, progressively moving away from him, being slowly swarmed. "Stay together!" 

They were faring better than last time, but it looked like the henchmen focused their attention on them for some reason. As if to keep the siblings away from him. 

'I have a bad feeling about this.' 

Suddenly, his gift Intuition flared up. He lifted his shield just in time to block a powerful arrow that rebounded on his shield. 

Aito felt a slight vibration in his hand due to the attack's aftermath and had no doubt that it left a dent despite the metal layer being coated with Durability Lv2.

While hacking his surrounding opponents, he looked in the direction it had come from, only to see another arrow flying towards his head. 

BAM! 

'Damn! Is it the same guy as last time? Why does the attack feel even more powerful?' He cursed, feeling the projectile viciously biting into his shield. 

Such arrows kept coming for him in slow but steady succession. Apparently, it took time to charge one. Thinking that if that were the case, it could be an aura-based skill. He tried to switch the side of his shield but, suddenly, his Intuition warned him of another potential danger. 

He turned towards an incoming warrior just in time to block a powerful downward slash from a Zweihander that, even with his level 3 strength, forced him to slightly bend his knees.

Aito wanted to quickly counterattack, thinking of sliding aside the blade on his shield with a turn of the wrist to create an opening. However, something grabbed his arm that was gripping the morpho ax, immobilizing it. 

Sam put all his weight behind his sword, pushing against Aito's shield, then said, "Remember me?"