Return of the Woodcutter

"Sheyla! Can you do it?" 

Even if Aito's question was vague and without context because it was said in a hurry, she understood what he meant. "Maybe! Buy me some time!" 

She needed concentration for that particular shot.

As a response, he deployed his shield ainium side and switched his ax back to short mode. True, this setup wasn't as effective with that many enemies however, it provided more overall protections. 

Also, Aito had something in mind that was more adapted to this setup, just in case Sheyla failed to kill the ninja.

Moreover, he couldn't see nor read the ninja's movement correctly, and having a shield might just help him avoid death. By now, his mail covering his throat had weakened. Soon the ninja would be able to pierce it. 

Aito used the shock waves produced by his shield coated with Durability to fend off attackers and create more space. 

However, the ninja didn't attack as he expected. In fact, it didn't attack at all. The change in setup seemed to have made it rethink its approach. 

'Fuck…, then I'll give it a more enticing bait.' 

Although risky, Aito went against his good sense and rapidly removed his helmet, then threw it aside. It was a huge bet, but taking risks was part of the job. 

As expected, his Intuition flared up when he felt a tingling sensation in between his eyes. The hob ninja charged at him. 

Having been warned by his gift, and already in position, Aito shielded himself while slashing hobs and empty air, hoping for a lucky strike.

Sheyla saw the blurry figure coming and shot two bolts.

However, the ninja agilely dodged, jumped on Aito's shield, grabbing the edge to maintain balance, planning on plunging a dagger in between Aito's eyes. 

But the moment it touched the shield, its concealment wore off as it was propelled backward, making a dumb expression. 

Before it could get too far, two bolts flew straight at it, aiming for the head and heart. However, the hob managed to twirl in midair, avoiding one bolt. The other was surprisingly stopped by the cloak that appeared to be more resistant than it looked. 

But Aito wasn't done with it yet. In a split second, bright patterns shone on his ring as he activated the illusion spell. 

Originally, he had saved the last spell for escaping, but he couldn't let go of this opportunity. 

A coffin the exact same size as the ninja materialized around the creature, trapping it inside an illusionary prison. The coffin fell amidst the hobs, a few meters away from Aito. 

Such a small item had the benefit of being simple to imagine but also less costly to cast. By now, Aito had realized that the bigger the illusion, the more aura was required.

For example, casting a huge defensive structure to cover the challengers would have probably sapped three fourth of his mana or even his entire mana reserve. 

Thinking it was trapped, the ninja thought of itself unable to move freely, and roared madly, banging on the coffin from the inside to try to free itself by force. 

Unwilling to miss this chance, Aito lessened the Belmand statue's weight, lifted it, and created a path for himself by swinging his improvised club. 

His target in reach, he used the last of his aura to coat the upper part of the Belmand-club with Durability and smashed it against the coffin. 

BOOM! 

The marble floor shattered on impact. Inside, the hob ninja assisted to its own funeral with dozens of its peers as witnesses. 

Although the coffin appeared intact from the outside, Aito knew the hob was dead. However, to ascertain his kill, he kept smashing the ground in-between two swings that fended off hobs.

Since he knew now that the cloak was quite resilient, he did not hesitate to put his back into it.

At some point, the hobs around him shook their heads, as if they awakened from a dream and no longer appeared to be interested in only killing Aito. 

The Suicidal Horn's effect had worn off. 

Once again, the hobs started to attack challengers with a renewed aggressivity. Thankfully, challengers had been able to rest a bit because the hobs had targeted only one person. 

However, after more than an hour of fighting, most of them neared their limits. Those who were too tired to fight were already resting in a small safe zone inside the challengers' defensive formation. 

Now that the hobs' attention wasn't only on him, Aito could finally examine more his surroundings.

Realizing the challengers were nearing their limits, he cursed internally. If challengers were to fall, there was no guarantee he'd survive the horde now that he had used his last spell. 

Checking his options, he thought about something. If hobs were similar to the goblins, then maybe showing their supposed leader's corpse would influence their will to fight. 

Aito deactivated his spell with a thought. The coffin disappeared, revealing a bloody mashed hob ninja. Fortunately, the soul core and the cloak were intact, dusty and bloody, but intact. 

'Shit,' Aito thought. There was nothing to show the hobgoblins but black, grey paste with a few golden strays.

Challengers died every minute. Hobgoblins kept pouring out the windows. And with the Ninja's apparent rampage, multiple chandeliers had crushed more than twenty, possibly thirty challengers. On top of that, it had dug breaches in some barricades; challengers were trying as best as they could to plug them. 

'Double shit, I need time to think.' 

He gestured for Sheyla to follow him, picked up the ninja's soul core and cloak, then paved a way to the safe zone using the Belmand-club. 

"Let me through!" He ordered to the challengers guarding the barricade now made more of hobs' corpses than benches.

In the safe zone, he found multiple people with gaping wounds, missing arms, and legs. Some were paralyzed, in the process of getting antidote. Others had died where they rested. 

Amidst the wounded, he found Ogoro in his full plated armor, using his skill Healing String to ease peoples' pain. With his knowledge of the human anatomy, Ogoro had no problem doing so. It appeared that he had switched from soldier to doctor during the fight. 

However, he looked pale and tired. Aito walked next to him and patted his shoulder. "Take a break and rest. You can't help them properly in your current state." 

"I'm fine," Ogoro said, barely able to remain standing. "Those people are in a worst shape than I am. What kind of battle surgeon would I be if I rested now when I can still help them. Anyway, let me see your wounds." 

Aito shook his head and smiled when he saw a hint of worry in Ogoro's eyes. "I see you've embraced your new class, but don't worry about me. Two recovery beads and a bit of rest will do. Then I'll go back out."

Dissuading him from continuing what he was doing was useless. That guy was truly stubborn. Both siblings actually were. 

Ogoro nodded and limped to another patient. Aito sat next to a dead woman, who still had her eyes wide open, fear-stricken. 

With a delicate movement, he removed his gauntlet, placed his hand on top of her eyes, and, sighing, closed them forever.