Return of the Woodcutter

Aito grabbed Roan, pulled him to safety, dashed towards his targets, followed by Ogoro. Too late to oppose, he silently accepted his help—not that the stubborn guy would have given him a choice, anyway. 

Aito rapidly lacerated two warriors who hadn't had the time to activate Durability, finishing the third one with a shot from his repeater at point-blank. Impossible to miss. Brain matters splashed on the ground.

Ogoro moved aside while blocking a sword strike with the flat of his blade, thus creating an opening for him to grab his opponent's trachea and crush it. Two arrows from Sheyla flew by his shoulders, lodging themselves in two warrior's heads. 

Another incoming sect member went for Aito, who was already quite busy with four men. Ogoro stood in the sect member's way, deflected the sword strike, kicked the man in the balls. It didn't prove effective. Turned out, it was a woman. Never mind, he decapitated her.

Then aimed with his crossbow at another to his right, but Ogoro had already cut his throat.

Behind the both of them, Sheyla shot an arrow at an archer hiding behind enemy lines. The arrow struck true, lodging itself in a woman's frontal globe. 

Aito dashed to his next targets, three henchmen wearing leather armors. Armed with swords and shields. An arrow rebounded on his armor, another one met his ax mid-air. 

Within range of his targets, Aito took a wide swing. Steel met steel. Durability met Durability. Life met Death. 

This time, since he also had Durability on, the clocks have been reset, thus he could display his actual strength. Thus, they would suffer. Thus, they would know pain.

When facing an opponent's armor coated in Durability, Aito no longer hesitated. He wouldn't exactly slice through it, but pretty close.

It was enough to create a bloodbath. 

On his right, Ogoro moved his swords gracefully, aiming for the weak spots unprotected by armors. His long sword was also coated with Durability, but the yellow color seemed to have only one-third of his opponent's intensity. Nevertheless, he did a good job killing people. 

Worried about getting shot in the rear, Aito turned to see Sheyla grab arrows from an inventory bag attached to her belt.

She shot arrows after arrows, only missing a rarely. Rarely being one time. Suddenly, Aito's Intuition flared up. A swordsman was about to go for Aito's throat when his own throat was pierced by an arrow. 

'Don't look back. Just don't look back.' Aito told himself. If he did, he would have to thank that woman for her assistance. Though, he had to admit, having people helping him felt great. 

Despite having never worked together before, they surprisingly made a good team—forgoing the fact that Ogoro would sometimes kill-steal Aito's kills and also that he glanced back from time to time to check up on Sheyla. Not because he was worried for her, but because he was worried she'd aim for him.

The five sect members who were posing as party members near the staircase ran in their direction, drawn by the commotion. Three of them, warrior classes, entered the fray, while the two others stayed behind.

They both stretched their hands, concentrating. Aito wondered what they were doing, only for his eyes to widen at the sight of two fireballs twice the size of a coconut appearing. It was his first encounter with mage classes. Two elementalists, to be exact.

Ogoro dismembered his opponent, left him to die from blood loss, and quickly took cover behind the invisible barriers covering a stall that had immediately activated to protect the owner, who was watching the fight while eating something akin to popcorn. Or was it actually popcorn?

Those invisible barriers were the reason the shop owners could leave their merchandise in plain sight during CDs.

While avoiding friendly fire, both elementalists launched their fireballs at Aito, who was still candid about magic and ignored how deadly it could be or not. Not that he cared.

Thus, he simply firmed his grip on the ax which was glowing in yellow light as he used the flat side of his ax head to bitch slap both fireballs like he would when playing baseball.

A heatwave momentarily struck Aito as both spells disappeared, only leaving soon to be extinguished flames and burnt marks on his weapon that could be cleaned after a bit of rubbing. He, however, apart from reddened skin from the heat, was still alive and kicking.

The remaining sect members gulped. Who would be mad enough to physically defend against spells without a proper shield?

Little did they know they had overestimated their capabilities. Level 1 spells weren't that powerful after all. It was, however, impressive for humans who had never seen magic before to watch fireballs launched at one's face.

Screams and cries for help echoed in the street, where merchants sipped on tea or ate food while watching a gory show they seemed accustomed to.

Dodging arrows. Shooting arrows. Slashing heads. Bitch slapping fireballs. It didn't take long for Aito, Ogoro, and Sheyla to dispatch the rest, only leaving one of the elementalist alive.

"Hahaha! You bunch of weaklings shouldn't have messed with the black challenger!" Roan said, coming out of his hiding place. Then he eyed Ogoro and Sheyla, before adding, "And them too..." 

Aito sent him a threatening glare translating to "Shut up. I'll deal with you later."

"Please! Spare my life! I'll do anything!" The woman elementalist said, trembling and wetting herself. 

"Where is Sam?" Aito asked, pointing his repeater at the woman's throat.

"Who's that?" 

"The talkative baldy." 

"Ah, the manager? If I tell you where he is, will you let me live?" She said, appearing to realize who Aito was talking about. 

Aito nodded. He wasn't one to lie. 

The elementalist pushed a sigh of relief and said, "He's been imprisoned by the moderators earlier today when he was caught during the beginning of the operation." 

"That's anti-climatic," Ogoro said, cleaning his blade on a dead man's cloak. 

Sheyla stayed silent and pulled an arrow out of a corpse. Though, her facial expression clearly highlighted the same point of view as her brother. 

"Damn it," Aito cursed. He had wanted to deal with the man himself. And there Sam went, getting his shiny head caught. "Then why did you continue the operation?"

"The order came from above. The sect master himself. Not the talkativ— the manager." 

Aito sighed. Visibly, he wasn't done with that sect. Couldn't they just leave him alone? What the heck did they even want? Filona's panties? He didn't have them. 

Then Aito left the woman and proceeded to collect the sweet loot lying around before a moderator came by.

That's when he heard the woman's scream. As he turned around, he saw Ogoro cleaning his blade once again. 

"I gave her my word I'd let her live," Aito said. 

"Yeah, but I didn't," Ogoro replied, a glint of madness and sadness in his eyes. He hadn't killed humans since his revival. Even though he liked killing, he also despised it. A really weird mentality for a killer. Ogoro could feel their souls weighing upon his shoulders. He could have spared that woman, but she deserved her fate in his eyes.. "She did throw fireballs at us after all." 

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