Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley

by John Nest

  Before another Warrior could blindly charge at the monster again, he turned to his men and spread his arms.

  "Stop! Four of our brothers have already died! Can't you see that this is what the enemy wants?"

  The infuriated Warriors stopped and looked around them. Realizing that almost all of them were injured, the rage in their eyes began to fade away. "Form a solid circle!" shouted Adder. Ashamed by their actions, they obediently listened to their commander's order.

  Adder watched as arrows and spears struck the Gargantuan Goblin's body, delaying its advance. A few seconds later, the Condortlians reformed their circular formation.

  The monster tried to use the same trick as before and charged towards the wall, but this time the circle did not move. Instead, it opened up and revealed their commander, charging at the monster himself. The goblin planted its foot in the ground and tried to grab a hold of Adder, but before it could, he used the goblin's knee as leverage and leapt over the monster's shoulder whilst slashing its face with his double-bladed sword.

  SLICE

  With one smooth swing, Adder's BlitzSturm cleanly severed off the goblin's nose.

  Ichaival fired his last fire arrow at the goblin and had to switch to using poison arrows. He was surprised to see that they inflicted more damage to the monster and immediately called his fellow ranged attackers to share his discovery with them. With more confidence than before, he aimed for the goblin's head.

  The Gargantuan Goblin looked like a target dummy as six of Ichaival's arrows protruded out of where its nose used to be. The Warriors followed their commander's lead. They went after the monster's limbs.

  Only up to four Condortlians would attack at the same time and they waited for the Banalites' arrows to strike before doing so. The goblin managed to catch one of the Warriors, but Adder's double-bladed sword quickly came crashing down on the monster's hand. The goblin unwillingly released its grip on the Condortlian as the tendons in its right hand were severed. The monster briefly held its hand in pain before blindly attacking the nearby Warriors.

  It kicked and punched anyone who came within range. Adder hurriedly gave the order to back away and allowed their ranged companions to do their jobs. Soon enough, the monster slumped to the ground as its life bar displayed (19,195/450,000 HP). Four Warriors leapt from different directions and plunged their swords into the monster's body.

  Finally, Adder came down from above and drove his BlitzSturm through the Gargantuan Goblin's skull, ending the battle.

  Breathing heavily, he quickly checked his remaining Warriors and faced a tragic reality. Most of them had life bars below 15%, himself included. What made matters even worse was that there were more than just four casualties.

  While taking massive damage from the Gargantuan Goblin, five of the Warriors received Bleeding status. They did not retreat to the emergency shelter for medical treatment and died fighting.

  This was the end result of Adder's decision as a leader. Looking back on it, he had hoped they would face the Gargantuan Goblins as one whole army, but the monsters split themselves up. He was afraid not only of their two-pronged attack, but also of the possibility that one of the monsters could easily scale the third wall, leaving the Balanites inside the emergency shelter to be mercilessly slaughtered.

  His only way of preventing such a thing from happening was to split up his forces and engage each of the Gargantuan Goblins separately. He knew that their advantage in numbers would be lost, but did not expect that it would cause this much damage.

  Leaning on his double-bladed sword, Adder looked over to the Maneators and the Tikbalangs. Both groups were still dealing with their foes.

  * * * * * *

  On top of the third wall, an OrkElf was hurriedly carrying parts of his repeating ballista on his back. This was his second trip from the second wall, where the weapon was previously assembled. Different from the ordinary ballista he used on the field, this upgraded weapon's repeating mechanism didn't allow for it to be carried as a whole due to the increased weight.

  It took Jinggu some time to move the parts to the platform near the Maneators. He and the Maneators had bonded while solidifying Verbrannt's defenses, which was why they were often placed in the same division.

  The OrkElf helplessly watched as all three Maneators were thrown onto one another near the platform he was on. He couldn't believe how the Gargantuan Goblin had overpowered Stark, but it was Rasant's life bar that caught his attention. It was down to 45% and their battle against the monster had only just begun.

  Swiftly, Jinggu set up his repeating ballista. He noticed that the goblin was moving towards the Maneators. He loaded ten of his poison bolts and rapidly fired them at it.

  TUROK

  One of the bolts pierced the goblin's forehead, knocking back the monster. It looked around, confused as to where the attack came from. The OrkElf fired off another barrage, but more than half of the bolts missed since he was aiming for the monster's head again.

  He switched his aim towards the Gargantuan Goblin's body. Each of the bolts that managed to connect dealt up to 21,000 points of damage as they pierced the goblin's tough black skin.

  The three Maneators scrambled to their feet while Jinggu was providing suppressive fire. Ready for another round, they ran towards the goblin.

  Weise stopped running once he reached the monster's side. At the same time, Rasant got behind its back and readied his barbed whips, while Stark made a dash for his glaive.

  This time, Rasant had learned his lesson. The orange Maneator rapidly lashed the goblin, making shallow cuts in its flesh.

  The Gargantuan Goblin turned around and faced him. Its huge hands made clutching motions as it tried to grab hold of Rasant's whips.

  A poison bolt to the monster's nape made it turn towards the wall again. Weise used this opportunity and stabbed the monster's side. He quickly pulled his flamdius out, but the irritated monster's fist was already coming his way.

  Fortunately, before the goblin could deliver a serious blow to Weise, a charging Stark drove his glaive straight into the monster's belly. The Gargantuan Goblin's attack failed to connect as the monster was pushed three meters backwards and fell over.

  Stark smirked at the goblin, but his smug look disappeared as it slowly stood up. He expected to see a big hole in its belly, but discovered that his attack only made a puncture wound.

  As Weise approached from the monster's left side, he saw more poison bolts fly over Stark's head. He decided to keep pressuring the goblin and force it to only defend.

  Immediately after the bolts made contact, Weise went for the wound Stark inflicted. He stuck his flamdius in it and started pulling his sword in all directions.

  Weise quickly widened the puncture wound to a gaping hole over twenty centimeters in diameter. The monster's life bar dropped to 40%. It grabbed hold of the gray Maneator's sword hand and started crushing it.

  "Aaaaaaahhhh!" cried out Weise as the bones in his wrist were being broken. The pain forced him to let go of his flamdius. In agony, he was lifted up by his right hand

  Rasant kept rapidly cracking his whips on the goblin's back, but his measly damage of 300 points did not distract the monster.

  Stark came rushing in and slashed the goblin's elbow joint from below. His glaive cut into the bone, but the monster still held a firm grip on Weise's hand.

  The red Maneator used the technique Smoke taught him and followed up with an attack using the opposite end of his glaive.

  CRACK

  The elbow joint broke from the force of the attack. The Gargantuan Goblin roared in pain and swung its fist towards Stark. Dodging it, Stark then leapt and slashed the same spot, this time from above, delivering the severing blow.

  Weise dropped to the ground along with the goblin's sliced-off limb. Tossing away the Gora shield he was holding in his left hand, he pulled out the flamdius stuck in the monster's stomach. He backed off and tried to get accustomed to wielding the sword with his non-dominant hand.


  With Weise out of reach, the goblin focused on Stark instead and punched him in the stomach with its remaining fist. The Maneator was caught off guard and bent over, clutching his abdomen. The monster then swung its fist downwards for an overhead chop, knocking him to the ground. It proceeded to inflict more pain as it kicked the fallen Maneator.

  From behind the Gargantuan Goblin, Rasant tried to grab the monster's attention by wrapping one of the barbed whips around its remaining hand. The goblin tried to pull Rasant again, but this time wasn't able to.

  Rasant saw the monster turn around to check why it could no longer overpower him. He smiled as he had planted his hooves firmly into the ground and anchored the entire weight of his body, creating larger resistance. He kept pulling the whip in the opposite direction in hopes of luring the monster towards him, away from Stark.

  With only one hand left, the Gargantuan Goblin pulled several times on the barbed whip with all its might. Even crippled, it still demonstrated astounding strength and Rasant's hooves were digging into the ground more and more, before he was finally pulled out of his defensive stance and towards the monster. It grabbed him by one of his horns and sent him flying into the earth wall. Rasant's life bar dropped to mere 15%.

  Three poison bolts then pierced the goblin's back, forcing it to turn towards Jinggu once again. It used its one arm to deflect some of the incoming bolts while stumbling around to avoid as many as it could.

  Yet, this only left the monster open to Stark's attack. He plunged his glaive into the wound Weise widened. As it went in, Stark started twisting the glaive around in a continuous forward motion.

  Stark's glaive finally went through the Gargantuan Goblin's body. Before the goblin could slam its fist down into Stark's head, two of Jinggu's bolts lodged themselves into the side of its neck, interrupting it and giving Stark the opportunity he needed.

  With his glaive inside the goblin, Stark used all of his strength and pushed it upwards, slicing the Gargantuan Goblin's torso into two equal halves.

  * * * * * *

  Eighteen Tikbalangs stood in shock near the trench. After seeing two of their brothers fall to their death, their sane judgement started fading.

  Noticing a grin on the Gargantuan Goblin's face, they went mad. Six Tikbalangs charged at the same time and the goblin easily knocked two of them into the trench with a swing of his arm.

  It grabbed two more with its hands as the Tikbalangs flocked towards the Gargantuan Goblin in a blind rage.

  Six falcons suddenly swooped down and scratched the monster's head with their razor-sharp talons. The goblin dropped the Tikbalangs it caught and tried to swat the falcons.

  The birds flew higher and made the goblin raise its arms over its head. Vijaya aimed her poison arrows at the goblin's exposed ribs and made the monster lower his hand as it scratched the injured areas.

  The falcons immediately dove in and ran their sharp talons across the goblin's face once more. Four falcons successfully finished their attacks, but when the last two falcons came in for their turn, the monster ignored the poison arrows and caught the two birds of prey easily.

  Vijaya's falcons Dakhana and Utara were the ones caught by the monster. Despite their steel-feathered bodies, the two birds could not withstand the pressure of the Gargantuan Goblin's grasp.

  Vijaya desperately attacked the goblin's hands with her arrows, but to no avail.

  "Tikbalangs, please help me!" she pleaded.

  Her trembling voice brought the Tikbalangs back to their senses and they became aware of the situation. With hooves aimed at the monster's arms, four Tikbalangs pounded their iron horseshoes into them.

  As the Tikbalangs were now attacking with a clearer purpose, their focused attack forced the goblin to release its death grip over the two birds. Shards of broken steel feathers protruded from the monster's palms.

  Dakhana and Utara fell to the ground. Their lifeless bodies rolled over once and never moved again.

  "Noooooo!" Vijaya cried out. Tears welled up in her eyes as she kept firing her arrows.

  Despite the tears, Vijaya did not fail to notice that the goblin could no longer form a fist and was moving sluggishly. It wasn't clearly visible due to its rough black skin, but a hint of something green could be seen around the cuts on the monster's palms.

  Vijaya instantly realized that it was poison from the pellets she had her falcons ingest so they could use their Poison Beak ability. Direct contact with the poison pellets required moderately high Poison Resistance, otherwise it could lead to paralysis and death.

  "The goblin is weakened; it can't attack you with its fists anymore. Attack!" yelled Vijaya quickly.

  The Tikbalangs immediately piled on the monster. Their actions were still coordinated as they attacked the goblin from three directions.

  Three Tikbalangs bravely faced the Gargantuan Goblin head on. They continuously delivered punches to the monster's abdomen.

  Five Tikbalangs positioned themselves behind the goblin and aimed their attacks at its spinal column, while eight Tikbalangs stood on its sides and frequently leapt in, pounding their iron horseshoes into the goblin's skull.

  The poisoned goblin tried to defend itself by kicking or swinging its arms around, but its slow movements were easy to read. The Tikbalangs avoided all of its attacks and quickly overwhelmed it.

  They assaulted the monster for full two minutes. Coupled with Vijaya's attacks, they managed to reduce its life bar to 10%.

  Their collective attack continued until the Gargantuan Goblin spun its arms in a circle around it. Without warning, it ran straight for the three Tikbalangs in front of it.

  With its hands still paralyzed and hanging down, it raised its arms in a slanted line and rammed through the Tikbalangs. The clothesline attack forced all three Tikbalangs down to the ground. The goblin stopped running, turned around and leapt in for a body slam.

  THRUUD

  The three Tikbalangs were left with only 2% on their life bars. The Gargantuan Goblin stood up and lifted its right leg over them, intending to stomp them to death.

  Vijaya was about to release her arrow towards it when something flew over her. She looked up to see that Ledur had returned and was flying at top speed towards the monster. The winged Tikbalang wrapped his arm around the goblin's neck and used his momentum to force it to the ground.

  The goblin was knocked back and hurtled seven meters away. Before it could recover, Ledur dove down and had both his feet planted straight into the goblin's face.

  SQUIRSHH

  Having pinned the monster to the ground, he created six earth spikes, piercing through critical places of its body from underneath it.

  Ledur's attack drained the Gargantuan Goblin's life bar to zero. He then quickly checked his brethren's condition. Most of them had life bars around 20%.

  He felt guilty, thinking that he could have averted such a situation if only he had not passed out. His face contorted in pain. He came out of the shelter as soon as he regained consciousness, so his satiety and mana bars were still low. As he looked around, he rushed over to the three Tikbalangs in critical condition.

  "Are you alright? None of you are Bleeding?" asked a worried Ledur.

  He proceeded to apply first aid to them. From the corner of his eye, he saw Vijaya slumped down over the bodies of her two dead falcons. The other falcons were sitting on their perch and making sad, shrill cries.

  Ledur quickly scanned the other groups and found that Adder and his men were all in the red. The Maneators were also in bad shape, with Rasant at 15% of his health bar.

  He was still tending to his fellow cursed Centaurs when he noticed that there were only sixteen of them left.

  "Where are Ruckgang, Sturz, Werfen and Zwirnen?" Ledur asked one of his brothers.

  The Tikbalang hung his head low and slowly raised his hoof as he pointed to the trench. Ledur's eyes grew wide as he understood the meaning of the gesture. He wanted to ask more questions, but then he heard a sound coming from the same
direction the Tikbalang had been pointing in.

  SWUG SWUG SWUG SWUG

  Everyone's attention shifted to the trench. Slowly, the heads of two Gargantuan Goblins emerged out of it. The monsters stood close together as they climbed out of the trench. Both of them were holding a wooden spike in each hand.

  * * * * * *

  Adder and Ichaival ran towards the front gate of the third wall, eighty meters away from the Gargantuan Goblins. Adder ordered the Condortlian Warriors to retreat to the emergency shelter, while the Banalite volunteers remained on top of the wall.