Return of the Woodcutter

Chapter 22 - The First Step (part 1)

THE FIRST DAY OF THE SECOND WEEK, A FEW HOURS A BIT BEFORE DAWN.

BAM!

Aito brought down his double-handed battle-ax on the last remaining bigfoot, spraying its brain matter on the ground before dislodging his weapon.

"Fuck… ah…" He said, out of breath. "How… could there… be so many of them?"

Exhausted, he sat down amidst dozens of corpses to take a well-deserved rest. Multiple wounds covered his body where the armor set couldn't defend him. Wounds could heal at night. But his armor, however, couldn't.

And that worried him since his newly acquired equipment already started to turn into useless scraps of metal and leather because of today's numerous fights.

Groups of two or three evol monkeys had attacked at regular brief intervals, leaving him barely any room to breathe. Some bigfoots were now equipped with shields and, to his greatest displeasure, could parry or deflect Aito's ordinary attacks.

Fighting all day had forced him to call off his experiment. It wasn't an enormous loss since it only stemmed from Aito's curiosity and hobby—a hobby he gained on this island—of trying out new things.

He wasn't even certain of obtaining useful knowledge out of it, so he resolved himself to put it away in the back of his mind like the rest of the other failures. Because for now, he had a much more troublesome issue to deal with.

'Just what am I supposed to do now?'

He could deal with strong enemies, weapons, and group tactics by using his head. However, the constant attacks were a whole other challenge in itself that involved stamina. Aito could probably survive as he did today, but he had to think about the following week, which would certainly be worse.

'Traps? Normal ones don't work anymore. I don't have time during the day to build an efficient one and at night it would be smarter to "rest." Not cost-friendly at all. More defensive structure? There is no point. Maybe...' He thought, sighing. 'As I see it…, the only way for me to get out of this is to get stronger somehow, or…. I'm only thinking nonsense right now and just need rest.'

Jack laid next to him, apparently just as tired. Aito smiled, thinking that at least one of his experiments has been an overwhelming success so far. The small monkey had eased his burden more times than he could count.

Today, if it wasn't for Jack buying some time for him to rest, he would have already fallen prey to the enemy's incessant stream of assault.

Although he couldn't really call Jack a part of his own strength, it was an undeniable fact that the monkey wouldn't have been by his side if he hadn't tried to coexist with it in the first place. Therefore, in a sense, Jack was part of his achievement on that island.

"Fuck it. I'll sleep on that issue. Night's the best advisor after all... if it weren't for that dream..."

THE SECOND DAY.

Aito had less trouble sleeping. The dream wasn't as terrible as it used to be. In fact, he started to see the more enjoyable parts of his memories rather than the painful ones that appeared blurrier than before. A good sign? Maybe yes, maybe no. For now, he had more pressing matters to attend to and didn't want to ponder on seemingly unnecessary things.

He started the day with a hearty breakfast composed of essentially roasted meat and a few bamboo shoots, for fear of not being able to eat before nightfall.

Then he stood in front of his gate, patiently awaiting his fateful reunion with evol monkeys, feeling a bit bloated and dumb from eating too much since it might affect his fighting capabilities.

Hours passed, bigfoots' blood covered the earth, and Aito's stamina reserves emptied. Taking a few breaks in between fights and taking turns with Jack, he managed to pull it through.

But today, another variable added to the ever-accumulating list: some apes threw spears. It wasn't something particularly new since he's seen it before but it was still annoying.

Aito had barely escaped death by using his Viking shield to protect himself, but after a few blocks, it was showing signs of wear.

THE FIFTH DAY.

Evol monkeys now tried to use aerial sneak attacks, as Jack did. They weren't proficient because of their sizes, but it was still a pain in the ass for Aito to have to watch out for those.

This week's theme seemed to be "all-out copycat." First the shields, then the throwing spears, and now the sneak attacks. Concerned about poison being the next addition in the bigfoots' arsenal, Aito stopped using it in battle, hoping that would impact their evolution.

However, how could he know they would not develop something on their own? After all, the double-handed battle ax didn't come from him.

With the increased frequency of attacks, Aito did not know if he would be able to hold his camp until the very end of the third month. So, after remembering all those escaped paths from his short but intense venture into the Red trial, he decided to plan ahead and build one such emergency escape means by sacrificing a bit of sleep.

LAST DAY OF THE WEEK.

On top of throwing spears and having shields, some evol monkeys wore leather armors. It made it more difficult for Aito to pierce through their defenses.

By night, exhausted and solely driven by pure will, he worked an hour or two on the construction of a raft on which he planned to embark with Jack in case of emergency. By no means was it a boat, but it should suffice to at least quickly escape. Swimming could also be an option, albeit a slower one.

And with the dreams getting smoother and more enjoyable every night, he was getting enough sleep to entirely heal his wounds.

However, Aito was progressively losing his memories. An issue he remained oblivious to for now because of the constant external threat. And, honestly, it didn't bother him to lose something that pained him. Even more with a deadly menace roaming the island.

But, unknown to him, another powerful threat that had awakened from its slumber a few weeks ago, hidden deep in the cave during daytime, prowled the island's shadows by night in search of preys to feed upon. Preys it would bring back to its lair in order to appreciate their suffering before consuming them.

With the passing days, it was growing impatient, wondering when the most delicious treat would come to it. The creature could kill it whenever it pleased it but where was the fun in it? Whatsmore, the prey tasted better if it willingly gave it his pain. It had already feasted upon bits of it but it wasn't enough. It needed more. All of it.

Everything Aito Walker's suffering had to offer will be its!

THE THIRD WEEK.

Each bigfoot was now equipped with leather armors. Greaves, boots, breastplates, gauntlets, harden leather helmets, etc.

Their number within a group increased to seven, and each of them had an assigned role. Two spear-throwers had a big leather bag filled with iron-tipped spears strapped to their backs.

Two shield-wielders armed with one-handed axes and wooden shields similar to Aito's, were charged to keep the spear-throwers safe from Aito's attacks. Two bigfoots armed with two-handed battle axes. And one stealth-attacker tried to take advantage of the confusion during battles to surprise Aito.

He barely escaped with his life at the end of each day, but his armor did not. Leather armors from fallen enemies being his only option for replacement, he had no choice but to wear them.

However, they did not offer the same protection and were, in fact, very lacking in comparison to his tattered Viking armor that he still kept in his inventory.

By the end of the week, Aito finally completed his raft and even had the time to work on a side project. He also slept better than ever before. Albeit the drop in temperature and cauterized wounds he was now used to, it had been restful nights.

***

THE FIRST DAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK.

Aito stood outside his camp's entrance as per usual, ready for the first fight of the day, but bigfoots were unusually late. The sun had almost reached its zenith and not a single evol monkey showed its tail.

'I don't like this,' he thought, before turning towards Jack, who was perched on a tree branch.

"Jac—"

Approaching battering ram-like steps interrupted his sentence. His gaze traveled towards the forest to see evol monkeys marching in perfect unison, coming out of the woods.

Numbering around a hundred, they looked well organized, as if they had been working together for years. Leading this small army was a large three meters tall red fur bigfoot who distinguished itself by its size but also the full plated armor covering it from head to toe. It lifted its huge doubled edge ax and aimed the pointy tip at its enemy.

Aito gawked at the absurd evolution those monkeys went through in a single week, wondering if he was the one who really triggered that before weighing his options that were few in numbers compared to the monkeys in front of him.

Then a sense of dread traveled throughout his entire body, his every cell screaming one single word in agreement.

"Run! Jack, run!" Aito said, attempting to kill a few enemies with spear throws. "To the raft! Now!"

"Kyaak!"

"KOUAH!"

The huge leader roared with such strength that it seemed to encompass the entire island. Following the powerful sound, the army's previously organized lines broke up, triggering an all-out charge.

Aito tried his best to slow them down with his spears, but soon had to take cover behind the walls from the enemy's projectiles.

He then risked a look at the fast-approaching monkeys, grabbed a rope next to him, and waited for the opportune moment.

'Not yet.'

Madly dashing towards him, the monkey looked blinded by rage.

'Not yet.'

Spear-throwers kept raining iron tip spears at the walls, trying to keep Aito from counter-attacking.

'Now!'

Aito pulled the rope, removing his trap's cover at the entrance. Evol monkeys fell to their doom, impaling themselves on the wooden spikes inside a five meters deep trap—those who weren't lucky enough to have their armors protect them in the right places died immediately.

Wanting to get away as soon as possible, Aito didn't wait to see the results of the trap he had built last week and fled to the raft now floating on the river with Jack on board.

His previous preparation bought enough time for Aito to board the raft where he used a long bamboo pole to quickly move away from the riverbank as he tried to follow the current, which unnaturally flowed… uphill, towards the mountain.

'Just.... what the fuck?'