Return of the Woodcutter

Chapter 136 - The Black Challenger Rises

Six meters in the air, Aito was slowly heading towards the ground, the blue light receding. His status window automatically opened.

___

[Aito Walker]

[I. General Info]

Death: March 20th, 2030

[Evolved!] Species: High Human

Sex: Male

Age: 25

[Evolved!] Height: 183cm (Slightly taller due to a change in the bone structure)

[Evolved!] Weight: 140kg (Denser muscles due to the evolution to accommodate the body for current and future growth. Muscle size doesn't change.)

Emotional state: Furious / Satisfied / Excited

Class: #ERROR 101 [No matching data. Recalculation in process]

Titles: Black Challenger, Father killer, Training addict, Masochist, Goblin Slayer.

[II. Attributes]

1. Gifts:

- [Sharpened!] Instinct (Potential to sense danger slightly before it happens. The main ability's activation is still random. However, even when hidden, the host would now always be able to sense the danger level of living beings as long as they are within range of his Domain and the Domain is activated.)

- Strength blessed (Boost strength by 1 level)

- Fury (Boost strength by 1 level when furious)

2. Skills:

Passive:

- Ax Mastery Lv3 

- Shield Mastery Lv3

- Marksmanship Lv2

- Poison Resistance Lv1

- **One Against Many Lv1** (Unique Skill) 

Active:

- [New!] Domain Lv3 (Send soul waves to sense the surrounding souls' wavelengths. Range: 100 meters.)

- [Lv Up!] Impact Lv2 (Produces a shockwave that enlarges the area of impact of a strike upon contact.)

- [2 Lv Up!] Durability Lv4 (Denser Coating)

- [Lv Up!] Fearless Aura Lv2 (Shields the host from the lesser Fear.)

- Whirlwind Lv2

- [Lv Up!] Illusion Lv2 (Now can project moving illusions. A maximum of three illusions at the same time.) 

- [Lv Up!] Weight Control Lv3 (The host can now increase or decrease the original weight of any nonliving target by 8 times.)

- [Lv Up! Updated!] Pneuma Lv3 (Due to ??? influencing this skill, the host can now draw from the surrounding life force to very slightly heal himself as well as recover slightly more stamina than before.)

- [New!] ??? Lv? (No Data Found. Calculating.)

[III. Basic stats]

- [Lv Up!] Strength: Lv5 (4+1. Temporarily boosted by Fury)

- [Lv Up!] Body: Lv4

- Stamina: Lv3

- Agility: Lv3

- [2 Lv Up!] Mana: Lv4

- [2 Lv Up!] Destiny: Lv4 (cannot level up with Glory Points)

___

Still five meters in the air, Aito closed his status window. He already knew instinctively what it contained. Also, it wasn't time to read, but time to kill. 

Feeling he already had more than his fill, Aito ordered his soul to stop absorbing and release the surplus of energies. 

Suddenly, most of the blue light around him rapidly dispersed in a powerful shockwave, repelling jumping hobs attempting to kill him midair. 

As he hastily fell, his previous position in the air forced him to drop knee and fist first. 

Now devoid of corpses because of the previous dome, the bloody marble cracked under the pressure of his hero landing, fissuring the ground in an earth-shattering sound. 

BOOM!

Crimson eyes previously filled with viciousness were now replaced by fear, cursing his fall.

Radiating of a still receding blue light, Aito lifted his head, his piercing gaze sending murderous signals to the hobs on top of Sheyla and Ogoro.

His feet pressured the already damaged marble, supporting him as he stood up. Unaccustomed to his new strength, he damaged the floor further. 

The remaining challengers' eyes stared at him, gleaming with incomprehensible hope, welcoming his rise. 

Aito clenched his fists, realizing something important was missing, he rapidly looked around to find a trembling hob, seven meters away from him, holding his morpho ax like it was carrying a toy. 

He took out the Suicidal Horn with one hand, coated the other with Durability, instantly overlapping it with Impact, and took one small step toward the hob to anchor himself properly. 

Including his target, hobs all around him took a step back, their instinct screaming danger, ordering them to flee. 

There was one thing that was a generally misunderstood concept between challengers. Agility stat allowed to move limbs faster, thus increasing the general movement speed. But when it came to pure propelling speed, it wasn't agility that counted, but brute strength.

Aito dashed, covering seven meters in a single step. The hob did not have time to react when his fist struck its chest. 

BAM!

An undulating shockwave instantly spread to the hob's entire upper body with such power it reduced it to bloody mush and shattered bones. With no more support, the ax it had held tumbled down.

Hobs all around knew fear, however, they rapidly regained confidence due to their overwhelming numbers. After all, no matter how strong a challenger, he'd never be able to handle them all by himself. 

The initial shock passed as some hobs judged they had better things to do than staring stupidly at a human, like raping or eating humans.

Aito caught his morpho ax midair, pulled on an inventory bag to unstrap it from his belt, then threw it towards Sheyla and Ogoro. 

Noticing a change in the hobs' behavior, he blew his horn to prevent any of them from harming the remaining challengers. 

One kilometer around the cathedral, all hobs heard the call, shifting their attention towards a single target. 

The Black Challenger closed his visor, coated his armor with Durability, his morpho ax lengthened, its blade glowing a dense "golden" yellow vibrating strongly, as if eager to taste hobgoblin blood. 

CLING!

"Come!" He voiced out his fury resonating throughout the entire silent hall, "Come and have a taste of death."

Inexplicably attracted to him, hobs responded with ferocious roars.

"GLU GLAAA!" 

"GLU GLAAA!" 

"GLU GLAAA!" 

Pouring out windows, the belltower stairs, and main entrance, grey monstrosities once again flooded the cathedral. 

To prevent any harm from coming to challengers, Aito darted towards the double doors at incredible speed, swinging his murderous blade, killing dozens of hobs in but a few strikes. 

A sea of hobs awaited him in the spacious plaza surrounding the cathedral, staring at him with crimson eyes, flooding towards Aito. 

Being able to perceive the immaterial world brought many benefits, one of them was a better comprehension of how aura worked, pushing aura-skills to level up at least once.

Aito smirked under his helmet, deployed his shield ainium side, overloaded it with Durability and Impact to maximize the power, then jumped high above the grey crowd. 

Reaching around six meters up in the air, he overloaded Weight Control, increasing the weight of his entire equipment by ten times, forcing the momentum to a stop, inviting gravity to pull him down as he applied Impact to his feet.

Dropping like a falling meteor, he smashed against the ground feet and shield first, creating ripples of shockwaves in the surroundings. A bigger shockwave propelled out his shield swatting every hob in front of him like mere flies. 

'That fucking hurts!' He thought, feeling his level 4 body absorb the mighty fall, 'Damn movies and their overly dramatic heroic landings!' 

Shield in short mode, his feet dug deep into the cobblestone, thrusting him forward as he whirled like a brushcutter. 

—Active Skill: Whirlwind—

Hobs fell by the dozens like trimmed grass, unable to cope with his strength as he sped up towards a main street, drawing them all towards him, far away from the cathedral. 

Freed from hobs, Sheyla rose and dressed herself up with a slight cheerful smile on her face as she gazed upon the black challenger outside with a rekindled hope but also worry. No matter how strong he was now, facing so many enemies alone couldn't be easy. 

The hall was already empty of filthy creatures, allowing challengers gawking at the main entrance to take a breather and nurse their wounds. 

Ogoro stumbled to his feet, drawing his sword, ready to rush outside. His sister placed a bloody hand on his shoulder. 

"Why are you stopping me?" Ogoro said, brushing her hand aside. "We've gotta help him!" 

George who limped towards them wanted to agree but stayed silent as he took a rapid look at the remaining exhausted and wounded challengers, numbering less than ninety. 

More than two-third of their original numbers had fallen. 

Sheyla shook her head, "No, we cannot help him as we are now. Just look at us, Goro. We'll only be slowing him down." 

"But we can't just stand here doing nothing as he fights thousands of them on his own! I won't stand to the side again, Sheyla. He needs us. How can you be so calm as to watch our friend rush to his doom alone!" Ogoro said, his emotions in turmoil as he was unwilling to relive his powerlessness. 

"He had a plan before everything went to shit. Also," Sheyla stared at him with fiery eyes, then showed the inventory bag filled with recovery and mana beads Aito had previously thrown at them. "We might not be able to help him now. But that doesn't mean we won't be able to later." 

"That is true. We need to rest and recover," George said, already breaking four recovery beads from his personal stash. 

Logically speaking, they were right, however…

"How can you say that when it is practically certain he'll die on his own!" Ogoro said. 

"Because I…" Sheyla pause, looking for a reply. By all means, Ogoro was right. No normal challengers could contend against such an army on his own. Looking towards the receding swarm of hobs, she said, "Because he is as resilient as a cockroach." 

Outside, sounds of explosions, collapsing buildings mixed with the painful death of hobs were heard. 

"Haha, that guy sure sounds like he can handle himself for a while," George chuckled, then clapped his hands, turning towards the remaining challengers. "Challengers! The black challenger has given us the opportunity to recover while he is out there, fighting a losing battle alone!"

Challengers all around the hall turned towards him. All veterans and survivors. They were the strongest the fifth floor had to offer. 

"Do not take victory for granted! There are at least a thousand of those filthy little grey shit! Sooner or later, they will come back!" 

Challengers' gazes were serious. With the hope one man had rekindled in them, they rose from where they stood. 

"While the black challenger occupies their nasty grey asses, rest! Recover! Most of us had their equipment broken, shattered! It matters not! Weapons are all around the place! Arm yourselves! Replenish your mana well, heal your wounds, and when we are ready…" George said, his furious gaze laying on Fritz and Jean Paul's corpses, "let's show them hell."