Return of the Woodcutter

Ogoro kicked aside one of the goblin corpses they had just killed, crouched to examine a paralyzed woman, and frowned. He then took a quick look at the others. 

All the five female challengers had deep cut marks, bruises, and huge swellings indicating broken bones. Some cuts were caused by daggers, others by goblins' fingernails. Apparently, goblins tortured their victims while taking advantage of their bodies. 

There had been rumors of female challengers disappearing on the fourth floor from time to time. Ogoro had never thought that kind of situation would be their fate. 

One thing was certain, those green pests weren't doing this out of necessity to reproduce as Ogoro had seen in some animes. No, it seemed to be purely for pleasure since all the deads would respawn eventually every twenty-four hours after death anyway. 

"This is bad. Their wills are broken. With their injuries and in their current state, they'll be dead in twenty minutes tops. That's only because they are challengers. Normal humans would have died already," He said, his face turning grim. "I don't think there is anything we can do with our current means but relieve them of their suffering." 

If Sleon, the moderator of the fourth floor had been here, he could have probably saved them. He was known for healing wounded challengers after all. 

But going inside a labyrinth of tunnels wasn't pleasant, even to a moderator. Also, he usually stayed outside since most challengers wouldn't venture into the mountain's depths. 

Aito looked at the victim next to him that was coughing blood. Her empty eyes seemed to be pleading him to grant her peace. 

He kneeled next to her, gripped his ax's handle tight, and gave her what she wanted. 

A quick, painless death.

The siblings and he did the same with the others, then continued their journey silently with a renewed motivation. Unfortunately, they did not have time to bury them and only placed a piece of cloth on their faces, without taking their soul cores.

It wasn't that they felt a kinship for these tortured humans, nor was it pity. 

It was plain disgust towards the way goblins' handled their trespassers. 

And that was only the beginning. The further in they went, the more horrors were shown to them. Old and new blood painted the surrounding walls. A few human bones were scattered around the place. Weapons, armors, rotting body members, goblin feces.

Aito had to close his visor to bear the stench, even then he breathed through his mouth to avoid vomiting. 'Fucking disgusting.' 

They continued through the tunnels, cautiously checking the surrounding walls for illusions when suddenly, cries of distress resounded. 

"AH!!!! STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!" 

Aito halted his steps, looking warily in the voice's direction.

"What are you doing? Someone needs help!" Ogoro said, pressing Aito. 

"Wait a moment," Aito replied. "Let's not throw caution to the wind. Also, the voice seems to be coming our way. Prepare yourself. Ogoro, don't forget to watch our backs just in case." 

"Understood," Ogoro said, forcing himself to stay put. 

"Sheyla, light the path," Aito ordered. 

She took out a handful of tiny light crystals she had taken from Ainar's shop, then threw them on both sides to increase their overall vision of the surroundings. 

There, dozens of meters in front of Aito, a woman dressed in a tattered mage robe was running towards them, followed by goblins. A lot of goblins. 

With no time to curse, Aito rapidly gauged his options while multiple bolts flew past him, their pointy metallic tips digging deep inside small green heads. 

Throwing a boom ball in a covered space, especially underground, was a terrifyingly bad idea. In the worst-case scenario, they would be buried with the goblins. 

Fleeing was out of the question too. 

And so, he started running, rushing as fast as he could towards his targets, increasing the weight of his armor set, swapping to his ainium shield that shone with a bright yellow glow. 

"Humans!?" The stranger said, sprinting desperately towards them. "Please! Help me!" 

"Get out of the way!" Aito exclaimed. 

Confused, in a state of shock, and blinded by fear, the woman remained oblivious to his order. 

'No other choice,' he thought, arriving in front of the stranger. Aito pushed her aside, obviously not in a gentlemanly way, then collided shield first with the nearest goblin. 

BOOM! 

A powerful shock wave blasted five goblins at the same time, hurling them towards their peers, briefly stopping their advance. 

Aito took advantage of this small window of opportunity to ask the woman to retreat. Seeing as she was out of cold because he had pushed her away with too much strength, he grabbed her with one hand then threw the woman like she was some dirty socket. 

In this situation, he had no time to be delicate. 

To the back, Ogoro caught her, settled the stranger on the ground before rushing to Aito's help. 

Sheyla continued to support him from the back, shooting as fast as the repeater could keep up. From her position, she could estimate their numbers to be between fifty and sixty, maybe more, considering a goblin could hide another. 

Aito hacked, slashed. Green blood sprayed on the earth walls. Too numerous to handle with his one-handed ax mode, he switched to his executioner ax, half gripped it to prevent the blade from banging on a wall, then spun his way to victory. 

A few goblins tried to attack him while he whirled around, only for their blades, clubs or arrows to be repealed by Aito's armor that didn't even need Durability to protect him from the goblins' weapons. 

Ogoro arrived by his side. Using his tall frame, he scanned the group of goblins then shot a binding string to the furthest he could reach at his level, around 10 meters away. 

The yellow string wrapped around a goblin archer's throat. Ogoro pulled with all his strength, sending it crashing against his peers, compressing their group. He did the same with a few others, then dealt with Aito's leftovers. 

Despite their overwhelming advantage in numbers that dwindled drastically, the goblins started to lose their will to fight. A few ran away, initiating the retreat. 

Aito and Sheyla shot as many bolts as they could. Still, less than ten of them managed to get away. 

Ogoro was ready to chase them but Aito stopped him, "Don't, it's too risky. It could be a trap." 

"But... *sigh* yeah, I suppose you're right." Ogoro replied, "I'll tend to the woman's wounds, then. I suspect you've worsened her injuries with how 'delicate' you were." 

Aito granted, "Whatever, after you've done checking she's alive, try to get some informations from her." 

Ogoro strode away to check on the woman. Meanwhile, helped by Sheyla, Aito gathered the useful items lying around, discarding the few bolts with broken tips. 

"We shouldn't stay put for too long," Sheyla said, "those who fled will spread the news of our presence in the tunnels." 

"Agreed," Aito replied, absorbing a soul core. Something interesting about those cores was that they also contained mana, so absorbing one was akin to replenishing one's mana reserve. However, they didn't contain as much mana as the mana cores sold on the second floor, they weren't as effective. "Let's take a five minutes break then move on. We've almost killed enough goblins to complete the quest. Once we get the shaman's ring, we'll head for the next floor." 

"Why do you even need that ring?" Sheyla asked, absorbing a soul core of her own.

"To increase our chances of success. There might be enemies on the next floors that we won't be able to deal with using normal means." Aito replied, before leaving in Ogoro's direction. 

The giant man was kneeling next to the stranger that seemed to have regained consciousness, sewing back her wounds. As soon as the woman saw Aito, fear appeared in her black eyes, as if she saw a demon. 

Well, considering how violent their meeting had been, it was normal that she'd be scared of him. 

"Please, don't hurt me. I'll do—" 

"I won't hurt you." Aito said, bluntly, "But goblins will if we stay here for too long. Can you walk?" 

"Come on man," Ogoro said, "give Meilin some time. She's had it rough." 

'Meilin?' Aito thought, his gaze scanning the woman. She had short dark hair, white pearly skin, a pretty average build and face.

An Asian woman.

"Hum, we gotta keep going, Ogoro," he said, "the sooner we find the shaman, the sooner we'll be out of this damn maze." 

"No, no, no. We need to escape!" Meilin said, fear-struck. She pointed toward's the darkness, "Down there. There is an entire army led by a golden goblin. We—" 

"A golden goblin, hun?" Aito said, crouching next to her, "Tell me more about it." 

"If I tell you everything, will, will, will you let me follow you?" 

"Yes, but you'll have to look after yourself. Also, we will fight this golden goblin." 

"I…" 

Meilin hesitated for a moment. Was it better to stay on her own in those dark tunnels or follow a group of three challengers capable of dealing with more than fifty goblins on their own? 

The answer was obvious. 

"O, O, Okay. I'll tell you everything."