Return of the Woodcutter

Challengers returned to the waiting room, all bloody. Most of the vital fluid on them wasn't theirs though.

Sam's team had lost two members, bringing his team down to six challengers. Lucius and Aito's team had lost none.

'No wonder he made it this far,' Aito thought, looking at Lucius. 'He and his team probably already cleared the sixth floor's quest but were waiting for the right moment to go up. I wonder how the orcs captured them.'

At that moment, dozens of heavily armed adult orcs entered the room, followed by a limping Krugan.

The huge orc looked at the challengers, then said. "Congratulations on your victory humans."

None apart Aito understood the content. That didn't seem to bother the orc one bit.

Like all challengers in the room, Lucius eyed the orc wearily. Suddenly, Zephyr shot an arrow in direction of the orc leader. Orc soldiers instantly reacted, activating durability, blocking the projectile with their tower shields.

"Strong warrior, could you tell that human I mean no harms?" Krugan asked Aito who simply ignored it.

Kurgan sighed and flicked its bulgy fingers. Orc servants entered the room. Challenger, at the ready for any potential threats, drew their weapons but relaxed a bit when they saw tables filled with food.

The servants left promptly, followed by the guards. Krugan looked back at Aito before leaving. Its eyes had a complex mix of feelings.

Left alone, the challengers started nursing their wounds, each team occupying a corner in silence.

Sam's teammates proposed an escape plan, but the baldie refused for some reason they could not comprehend. After all, if they continued like this, they might all die.

On his side, Aito divided the number of soul cores collected in the arena equally, then started absorbing his share.

Surprisingly, his theory about the orc souls willingly accepting their fate proved to be right when his own soul easily sucked them in. Almost as soon as he emptied one soul core, it would get digested, appropriated, transforming into his own energy.

With now two cores to feed, Aito had a more voracious appetite, sucking one orc soul after another without restraint. Since none of the orc's souls opposed his will, he didn't even have to stop.

However, he stumbled upon two rebelling orc souls, probably some of the ones that had fled from him in the arena. They had their wills broken, privileging living over glory. But that did little to stop him from consuming them.

After digesting around fifty soul cores, all level 1, he felt his power had grown slightly, not by much though.

The siblings saw a considerable improvement in their mana capacity, consolidating their feeble level 2 foundations.

Having been a level 2 for a longer period of time, George saw a lesser increase in his capabilities but it was still much better than normal.

Aito and his teammates spent the rest of their time training. No challengers touched the food on the tables, tapping into their own stashes to feed themselves.

After his training, since he knew what might happen tomorrow, Aito tried to negotiate a temporary alliance with Lucius's team—he couldn't care less about what happened to the baldie.

However, the latter refused, saying they would not need his help. Aito shook his head, leaving him with those last words.

"Alright, don't come crying when you'll be left with no soul cores or dead teammates. I warn you, if you dare steal my team's cores, be ready to face the consequences."

***

The Next Morning.

Challengers set foot yet again in the sandy arena. Clamors of orc spectators welcomed their entrance.

Last night had been a silent one. Seeing no reason to cooperate since they had repelled the orcs on their the previous day, the challengers adopted the same tactic. Surrounding themselves with fortifications, they waited for their enemies to advance.

"They sure look different from the orcs we faced yesterday," Ogoro said.

Sheyla zoomed in on the orcs located hundreds of meters away to have a better look at them. "Heavily armored. Tower shields. One handed axes or hammers. Crossbows. Forming groups estimated at fifty orcs each. Measuring 2.3 meters tall on average. They look organized and a real threat compared to those we've seen yesterday." She said.

George frowned. "This isn't good. How many do you see exactly, pretty lady?"

"I'd say around 900, no, 1000," Sheyla said.

"Hey boss, didn't you say they would be 300? What happened?" George asked, confused.

Aito grunted, his mind processing the options available to him at high speed. Those were undoubtedly an organized army, certainly more than the evol monkeys during his time on that forsaken island.

If they were that organized, there was a high chance they wouldn't act like those young orcs yesterday and privilege one tar—

Suddenly, the horn announcing the start of the sacred event rang, reverberating loudly. A thousand orcs immediately banged their shields in unison, activating durability.

Perfectly synchronized, they advanced as one towards Sam's team, forgoing the two other groups of challengers.

'I knew it. They've been observing our tactics yesterday and planned an attack accordingly. Axes are probably to cut through wooden walls and hammers earth walls. They might think we won't dare go out of our fortifications to attack them for fear of being surrounded. Logical but naive.'

The sand seemed to tremble with each of their harmonized steps. Sounds of metal against metal closing on the challengers, hammering at their courage.

"Aren't they in trouble?" George said, observing the orcs surrounding the earth fortifications, destroying them little by little with their hammers. They weren't even trying to attack through the entrance. Purposely aiming at crumbling Sam's defenses first to take full advantage of their numbers. "Should we help them?"

"Who cares what happens to those despicable bastards?" Sheyla said.

"I sense bad blood in the air," George replied. "Still, I think this is an opportunity for us, right boss?"

Aito silently nodded, watching Sam's team struggling to keep their walls safe from harm. They had exited their improvised fortress to defend their walls. Unfortunately for them, they had not built elevations inside to allow their archers to shoot at the orcs from a safe spot.

One earth wall crumbled under the orcs' hammers, challengers immediately filled the gap. A few minutes later, another wall was brought down, pushing the humans into a tight spot.

Certain most orcs' attention was fixated on Sam's team, Aito drew his ax. "Alright, guys, time to move out."