Return of the Woodcutter

"You again…" Aito replied, his expression somber as every neuron in his brain worked at full speed to find a way out of this situation. For now, he wanted to use Sam's weakness, the one that gave him the nickname Talkative Baldy. 

"Yes! Me, ahahaha! You thought we'd be done after our first encounter, black challenger?" Sam asked, peering into Aito's eyes barely visible behind the visor. "Thanks to you, the sect master told me something he had never said to me before! He said that he was 'disappointed' you hear me!? Fucking 'disappointed'! And that was all your fault!" 

Sam lifted his heavy double-handed sword and prepared another powerful strike. 

"After that, I swore on sect master's name and myself to fucking kill you!" Sam said, bringing down his weapon in a downward slash, purposely aiming at Aito's shield. 

BAM! 

"Do you know what I had to endure because of you!? I had to clear the fourth and fifth floor alone in order to train! And even then, it wasn't enough!" 

BAM! 

"I ventured into the sixth floor where no one else had been before me! Just so that I could find stronger opponents! You know what? I found out that orcs were strong but they still couldn't compare to your brute force and barbaric ways of fighting." 

BAM! 

"You who know nothing of honor! You who don't let your opponent talk before fighting him are even lesser than a human!" 

BAM! 

"So there, on the fifth floor, I finally realized what you are. If you're not a human, you're just a monster." 

'What the fuck is he on about?' Aito thought, protecting himself behind his shield. Feeling Sam's every powerful strike shaking his shield, the vibration reaching his bones.

Thankfully, his gear was protected by Durability Lv2, but he supposed it wouldn't last long under such ridiculously powerful blows. It felt akin to him hitting at full strength with his weapon's weight increased by 2.5 times. 'How the fuck is that even possible? Did that fucker become stronger?' 

Indeed, Sam had been through Hell and back. The talkative baldy's thirst for vengeance was such that he had fought waves of monsters alone, fought to his limits and beyond. 

Unless he was sleeping, Sam would train every hour of the day. Even when he had been imprisoned, he trained alone, in a dark cell. 

The results of this training were two skills that had level up, Power Slash and Durability. Both reached level 2. Also, after overcoming many deadly opponents alone, his body reached level 3. 

Sam was deadlier than before. It would require some effort but the current Aito felt he could take him on no problem. The issue was the yellow binding around his right arm that even went as far as restraining his hand's movement. 

So even if he wanted to swap his grip and use the ainium hammer to break free, it'd be near impossible to do so. Moreover, the one behind this sneaky binding was pulling with all his might, restraining Aito's movements. 

He could of course just follow through with the pull. However, what good would it do him to rush into a barrage of enemies without being able to wield his weapon? 

The surrounding henchmen gathered around him started to gain confidence, their fear of Aito lowering with small dents appearing with each sword strike smashing a shield that had quickly become a symbol of absolute defense amongst the sect member's ranks. 

"Don't you dare come any closer!" Sam ordered, shouting to make himself heard. "Do not interfere! He is mine! I will not share the glory of capturing him with anyone else!" 

Despite his precarious situation, Aito couldn't help but laugh internally at the baldy's stupidity. He could clearly surround him and thus capture him quicker by using henchmen. Also, Sam always aimed his strikes at the shield for some weird reasons. Maybe because he wanted to prove something? Whatever, it turned out to play in his favor. 

Just when he was mocking Sam internally, the whistling sound of a fast-approaching arrow resounded to his right. He barely had the time to say shit it rammed into his leg, rebounding but also weakening Aito's footing. 

There wasn't any dent since it hit him where only the weaved mail pants covered him. However, the shock had been able to cause a large bruise to form where it hit just right above the knee. 

'Damn it, that fucking hurts!' Aito cursed internally, 'More of these, and I won't be able to move my leg.' 

Just as he thought that his leg shook when another devastating arrow hit him around the same spot as the previous one. Aito gritted his teeth through the pain and forced himself to remain calm.

Having his gift Fury activate in such a dangerous situation might not bring out the best outcome. 

Moreover, Gwen had warned him of how dangerous such a skill was to his current body. It'd pop up his blood vessels one after the other, tear his muscles apart and even boil his insides should it be allowed to be used for too long. 

If he had to use it again—not that he could control the activation—it'd be after reaching level 3. 

Surrounded on all sides, bound by an aura string, struck by arrows that may soon break his leg, and literally slammed by a madman's sword that thirsted for his blood, Aito's chances to escape were slim. 

Despite the pain, he tried to calm himself. Breathing slowly but deeply. Forgoing the physical suffering like he had done many times before. Analyzing all the options available to him. 

He was outnumbered, had good allies, but they weren't used to their new powers yet, so counting on them to break him out of this situation wouldn't do. Three capable sect members were restraining his movement, trying to break or tire him out in order to capture him for an unknown purpose. 

Aito had used everything in his arsenal until now. The new armor set, his grenades, improved skills and…

'Weapons…, of course, why didn't I think about it before.' 

Aito waited for the right time, just in between two of Sam's murderous strikes, to switch his shield's side. 

The item emitted clicking sounds as he infused his mana into it, turning on the mechanism. However, a large area in the middle of the shield where Sam has continuously hit until now was bent to the point it damaged the wheelwork. 

Only the edges switched to ainium, leaving at least two-third of steel. 

'Oh for fuck sake…' 

Aito tried to make Sam strike the ainium scales but, somehow, the seemingly stupid man seemed to have smelled the trap. 

"You think I'll fall for that?" Sam asked, "After seeing you repel so many attacks, even a dumbass would find this fishy!" 

"Ah… makes sense… even you figured it out," Aito said, unable to contain the mockery in between an arrow and sword strike. Then one of Sam's words struck him. "Repel… thanks." 

That made him think back to one of Ainar's long and enthusiastic explanations about one of the shield's perks. He hadn't been willing to test it because of how dangerous it sounded… until now.

"Ha! Finally, willing to have a small talk!" Sam said. 

Aito's face drew a bloody smirked under his helm as he activated Durability targeting the ainium on his shield. Weirdly enough, it didn't go "boom" as he expected. Thinking it'd require maybe more, he overloaded his aura as much as he could. The shield started to vibrate but nothing else happened. 

'Weird…, is it possible this isn't pure ain­—' 

Sam slammed his sword on Aito's shield for the umpteenth time interrupting his thoughts, creating a powerful physical shock that made the entire shield tremble. 

Suddenly a powerful shock wave burst out of the ainium already bloating with aura, sending the baldy with a "what the fuck just happened" face flying at least eight meters away. 

Awestruck but still aware of his precarious situation, Aito used the ainium edge of his shield to block an arrow, then freed himself from the binding, and rush towards the siblings that needed help while cursing the minerian for not telling him about such a detail. 

Thinking that it was plausible Ainar had used him for some kind of experiment or was it that the inventor himself hadn't known about it? Didn't matter for now. Whatever it was, he'd deal with that later. 

Activating Durability on his shield Aito rammed into the enemy ranks, sending them flying upon impact like human fireworks, albeit non-exploding ones. 

Aito used his newfound technique to open a way to Sheyla, finding her in a pickle, or was she? The blue-eyed woman was making good use of the short crossbow's repetitive shots, killing enemies on all sides, shooting bolts with incredible accuracy and speed as if… time had slowed down for her. 

At some point, however, out of ammo, the repeater stopped working, such was the drawback of range weapons. 

Aito arrived by her side, rapidly made some breathing rooms, took out a new magazine, and threw it towards her.

Quickly glancing at each other, they came to a tacit understanding and headed for Ogoro who was just a few meters away, swarmed by henchmen. 

They rapidly cleared a way through the masses and reached him, only to see the giant man literally using a man as a weapon.

The poor bastard was linked to Ogoro's arm by a yellow string. Ogoro swung his improvised human morning star around, keeping henchmen at bay. 

Seeing his sister accompanied by Aito, he released his Binding String on the man, hurling him far into the distance, then joined them to rush towards the exit that was only dozens of meters away.