Return of the Woodcutter

Two suns basked on the arena's sandy ground.

One part of it was covered in daylight, white sand reflecting sunlight. The other half was protected from the heat thanks to the canyon's shade.

Nevertheless, thousands of orcs were sitting on rows of seats all around the natural coliseum that was so large it probably housed ten thousand of them.

In the arena, around eight hundred young orcs in full plated armors were armed with crossbows, clubs, or axes. Lightly sparing against each other, they were warming up, eager to taste glory.

Shade side, nineteen challengers entered the arena. Their retina, too accustomed to the darkness due to three days of confinement, ached due to the light, forcing them to close their eyelids for a minute.

The first to recover his sight, Aito saw the numerous young orcs with bulging muscles all comparable to George's.

'I thought there were supposed to be four hundred of them…, don't tell me,' he thought, thinking back on his display of strength yesterday. 'Did that orc bastard reassess my strength? Shit.'

When the other teams recovered, as previously agreed, they spread, planning on fighting their battle separately.

Sam's team went left, Lucius team went right and Aito's team remained behind, their back against the closing steel gate to the waiting room.

Despite the overwhelming numbers of enemies in front of them, most felt no fear. Only those from Sam's team, on the left side of the arena covered by the shade, still unaccustomed to death, slightly trembled, but even so they held their grounds.

"What the… this is ridiculous…," Sam mumbled.

Roisin, the redhead woman next to him, said, "It'll be fine as long as we don't allow them to surround us. You still got the spell beads master gave us, right?"

"Yeah," Sam replied, taking out ten little beads containing the spell Earth Wall.

"More preys than anticipated matters little," Zephyr said. He looked more determined to get stronger now, after getting his ass kicked by Aito.

On the right side, Lucius eyed the orcs wearily, pondering about an effective plan.

"Interesting, a great opportunity to gain more cores. Elizabeth, surround us with wooden walls. Leave an entrance wide enough for two orcs to pass through but small enough to contain their numbers. Add a second layer just in case."

"Understood," said a woman with short brown hair next to him. She lifted her staff, summoning rows of wooden walls in a square shape, leaving a small entrance, then repeated the same process to create a second layer of protective walls. It took her only ten seconds to create fortifications for her team.

'Oh, they have a wood elementalist. Not bad,' Aito thought.

On top of her VIP seat crafted from bones, a tall female orc waved her hand. Standing on a platform nearby, an orc blew into a horn bigger than a car, creating a resounding noise that echoed through the entire arena, announcing the start of the event.

"Wohoho, that's a lot of orcs heading our way boss," George said, watching the enemies running in unorganized mess, going left, right and straight.

"Any plan?" Ogoro asked, injecting mana into his gauntlet.

"You haven't been listening to the briefing, Goro… again," Sheyla said, preparing her repeater.

"I was just kidding, little sis," Ogoro replied, half-serious.

"We'll proceed as planned," Aito said, using his ring to summon a realistic illusion, creating fortification walls akin to the shape of a halved wine glass seemingly crafted from metal. Acting like a funnel, it would break down the orc's numbers.

Using the gate to protect their backs, he lessened the aura toll of the illusion. However, he could feel that alone zapped a tenth of his aura. It spoke volumes of how costly such illusions were.

Aito then walked in front of his allies, drew his repeater, and handed it to Sheyla.

"Remember, get yourselves as many kills as possible. Once you've got a notification from the system your quest has cleared, try to avoid killing more orcs until all use has reached our quota."

His teammates nodded.

Fifty meters away from them, orcs had already reached the other challengers' teams who had all adopted a fortification tactic.

Shields on the front, Aito and Ogoro took place at the entrance of the small illusionary corridor. A hundred orcs were running their way.

Sheyla sent two bolts. Thirty meters away, two young orcs fell head first, two others followed. Soon, over one hundred orcs trampled on their corpses.

"KRAAA!" They shouted their war cry in a messy way.

George sent five high pressured water bullets, killing four orcs, wounding one. It did little to slow down their ruthless charge.

Orcs rammed into Aito and Ogoro's shields with the support of dozens of their comrades behind. Both men had no choice but to wait until all the orcs behind stopped charging.

Aito had no problem keeping up with them, but Ogoro looked troubled. Aito matched his comrade's struggle to prevent a breach from appearing in their formation.

Pushed back, their feet dug into the sand, creating four lines that progressively lengthened in the illusionary corridor measuring around five meters.

Meanwhile, their team's archer and mage killed orcs by the dozens, reaching half of their quest quota at a rapid pace.

Finally, Aito and Ogoro managed to stop the charge one meter before they arrived at the semi-circle shape fortification behind them.

There, they unleashed hell on their enemies.

Aito shifted his shield ainium side, coated it with durability, and sent a powerful shockwave, creating some breathing space.

Ogoro morphed his short sword into a long one, striking ferociously at his opponents. George temporarily closed the corridor's entrance with a high pressured water wall, sending orcs flying in the air, preventing any orc archers to target them from the outside.

Around fifty orcs packed as they would be in a can, were trapped inside the corridor.

George then cast another water wall, controlling the pressure, elevating Sheyla three meters in the air, giving her a vantage point. The illusionary walls were five meters tall, so they still hid her presence from orc archers.

From up there, she had a clear vision of her targets. A tinge of madness gleaming in her eyes. She activated Hawk Eye, increasing her accuracy. Pulling the two repeaters' triggers, aiming for the gaps in orcs' armors, she granted death to her enemies.

29 orcs.

35 orcs.

40 orcs!

"I'm done, George!" She shouted loud enough for her teammate to hear it.

"Watch out for the fall!" George said, dispelling Water Wall.

Water disappeared from underneath Sheyla's feet. She fell nimbly, rolling to break her fall—more by habits than necessity.