Zectas Volume V: The Sequestered Seminary of Sawtorn

by John Nest

  "Stop, Jack! Just give me back my bag, and that will be the end of it," yelled out Smoke, as he cornered him.

  "Oh, you think you got me?" goaded Jack.

  Smoke quickly looked around the alley. There were tall buildings which had high windows, Smoke knew there was no way for the boy to reach that height. He saw no places for Jack to crawl into or anywhere he could climb.

  However, Smoke knew better than to belittle an opponent. He did not want to harm the boy, but he needed to get his bag of gems back. Unsure of what Jack's next move was, he thought of intimidating the boy instead.

  "Through my time in Zectas, I have acquired several abilities," he said in a deep menacing voice. "Abilities that will make your life a living hel—" Smoke was abruptly cut-off, as a rope was suddenly lowered from one of the high windows, and landed directly in front of Jack.

  "Sorry, but I won't be sticking around to hear your empty threats," jeered Jack, and grabbed a hold of the rope.

  "Catch me if you can, slowpoke," chided the boy, while being pulled up at great speed.

  Smoke had been trying to use his Earth Manipulation since he began chasing Jack, but only failure notifications kept popping up repeatedly.

  - Cannot control this Earth with your current level of Earth Manipulation.

  - Cannot control this Earth with your current level of Earth Affinity.

  'I can't jump or glide after him, but I think I could justify scaling the walls by controlling it,' he reasoned to himself, as he began climbing after the boy.

  Smoke sneered when he saw Jack's eye instantly panicked when he almost grabbed hold of his right leg.

  "Faster, pull me up!" yelled Jack.

  However, Smoke's firm grip was solidly locked in on the boy's ankle. With a single burst of energy, he pushed his upper-body upward, and was now nearer the window than Jack.

  'Weird, my Cunning of the Dire Fox does not sense anybody inside the room where the rope was being pulled from,' observed Smoke. He tried to enter the window, but was immediately met with a volley of projectiles instead.

  SCHHWAFF SCHHWAFF SCHHWAFF

  Bolts came flying at him everywhere from inside the room. Smoke dodged as best he could, but two of them pierced his shoulder, knocking him off the windowsill.

  Falling fast, Smoke quickly latched his Claws of Chiroptera onto the wall, and stopped his rapid descent.

  "Pull Jack up, hurry."

  Smoke heard an unknown voice from above.

  'These guys must be special Thieves, to have abilities that can bypass my Cunning of the Dire Fox,' surmised Smoke.

  He hurriedly scaled back up to the window, and took a cautionary peek before jumping in.

  "Huh?" said Smoke out loud.

  Smoke entered an empty room. The only thing that remained was a residual image of a casting circle on the floor.

  'They could teleport?' wondered Smoke.

  He walked over to the door, to investigate, and found that it was locked from the inside.

  Smoke let out a sigh, and opened Igniz's chamber.

  "Well, Igniz, looks like they got me good," bitterly said Smoke, and shook his head in disbelief.

  Staring out the window, Smoke decided to climb up to the rooftop to get a better view of the city.

  "And I was planning on using half of those gems to pay off the debts of our Avendre Mercenaries," Smoke said to Igniz while shaking his head in dismay.

  He decided to inspect his Earth Manipulation ability, wondering how much he still had to go in order to manipulate the earth within the city.

  "Inspect ability, Earth Manipulation," said Smoke, and an information window popped up.

  Ability: Earth Manipulation

  Active

  Level: Advance Level 9

  Experience: (8,787,698/9,000,000)

  The Advance form of Earth Manipulation.

  Earth forms may retain the shape if the user continues to supply their mana into it.

  Strength and Durability depends on the user's Earth Affinity,

  knowledge of the created object, and the current level of this ability.

  Can only manipulate Earth up to the Archean era.

  Earth Affinity: 80%

  Mana Consumption: 190 mp/sec

  'Maybe, if I reach Master level I could start manipulating the grounds within the city. I tried the grounds in the arena, and it worked fine there,' he surmised, basing on the things he knew.

  From the silent rooftop, he studied the expansive landscape of Vona City. The bustling crowd in the market was as busy as ever.

  'What a city! Thieves running rampant,' sourly thought Smoke. 'What do you expect from having so little patrolling Knights?'

  Suddenly, he noticed a commotion on a nearby street. With the aid of his Telefax Vision, Smoke saw a younger boy dressed in similar clothes, as Jack being chased Sonstwelter Magicians.

  'Looks like this operation is on a larger scale than I expected,' thought Smoke to himself.

  However, unlike Smoke, the younger boy's pursuers did not hesitate to attack him. The young Thief's life bar displayed (18,000/30,000 HP).

  Disregarding his concern of being discovered as Smoke, he glided from the rooftop to the next building where he could get a lead on the unknown boy and his pursuers.

  Diving down to another blind alley, Smoke waited for them from behind the cover of a tall building. Fortunately, he could sense the boy and his chasers with his Cunning of the Dire Fox.

  Smoke quickly grabbed the boy and covered his mouth. He then used his Hyper Jump ability to take the two of them to the darker part of the alley.

  "Shh. Be quiet," Smoke whispered to the boy.

  His Cunning of the Dire Fox picked up the other Sonstwelters about to come out from the corner. He felt the boy shake with fear, as they passed them by.

  "Thanks, Mister. I don't know why those men were chasing me," said the boy gratefully between deep breaths. "But thank you so much for helping me out. You see, I lost my steward from the arena when I—"

  The boy stopped talking, as Smoke suddenly placed iron handcuffs on him.

  "Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea why they were after you," replied Smoke with a disapproving look.

  * * * * * *

  From within the pomegranate forest outside of the city, Smoke and the handcuffed kid were headed towards Geparden Plains. He had the boy covered under a long robe and stuffed his mouth with a gag, stopping him from making any noise.

  Smoke modified his earth-mask, while he was chewing an ancient bison jerky. He intentionally munched on it loudly, to entice the boy. Catching a glance at his captive, Smoke knew it was working, as the young Thief was already salivating over his gag.

  Thinking it was the perfect time, Smoke removed the gag on the boy's mouth.

  "I might have not caught Jack," Smoke said to the boy with his mouthful of jerky. "But at least I got you."

  "Oh, so it was Jack who tricked to you," spat out the boy with a self-satisfied face.

  Smoke could only irritably shake his head in disapproval. He pulled the boy's handcuff, dragging him forward.

  "So, Jack is his real name, huh?" Smoke asked the boy. "What about you? What's your name, Kid?"

  "What's it to you? Are you going to let me go if I tell you?" challenge the boy.

  "Nope, but maybe I would give you a piece of this jerky," replied Smoke.

  "Daniel, Daniel Dickinson," quickly answered the handcuffed boy. "And Jack Dawkins is his real name. Now, give me a piece of that!"

  Daniel forcibly dove for the jerky and began pulling it away from Smoke.

  Smoke smirked, and gave him the remaining jerky.

  "See, that wasn't so hard, Daniel," said Smoke. "My name is Faux, and I'd like you to tell me where I can find Jack."

  "Just because you fed me, doesn't mean I'm going to rat out on my friend," sneered Daniel.

  "Hm. If I can't convince you to tell me, then perhaps there's no use for you at all," stated Smoke plainly.

  Just th
en, they reached the end of the pomegranate forest.

  "You think you can threaten me?" challenged Daniel. "Even if you feed me to the lions, I still won't talk."

  "Well, that's a relief, because those monsters are what's coming," said Smoke and pointed to a coalition of twenty sand cheetahs, rushing towards them.

  "Hey, Faux, let's get back to the forest," worriedly said Daniel. Smoke watched the boy try to run back, but he placed earth shackles on the boy's feet and planted him were he stood.

  "Faux, you can't do this, I'm just a kid," begged Daniel. Smoke saw the hand-cuffed Thief helplessly stare at the careening monsters.

  "Come on, you're going to get killed to!" said Daniel.

  "Well, I am a Sonstwelter, so, I'll be back in four days, but you however... You'll be taking a one-way ride to Mictlan," said Smoke menacingly.

  Daniel squirmed his foot around, but could not break free at all. "Fine! I'll talk! I'll talk! Just get me out of here!"

  Smoke raised the ground the boy was standing on, and created a tall pillar to keep him safe.

  Only fifty-meters of space left between them, Smoke sprouted several earth lances from the ground. Eight of the beasts were impaled, and out of those skewered, four were struck on their necks.

  The life bars of the critically injured sand cheetahs quickly drained out of them, whereas the rest were only incapacitated but received the Bleeding status.

  After seeing Smoke's attack, the remaining sand cheetahs began escaping towards the opposite direction. However, Smoke's spikes created a limited opening.

  Replicating Ledur's technique, Smoke created a smaller earth-dome, and captured all of the sand cheetahs inside it.

  Wanting to practice on his Earth Manipulation, he manipulated the dome to strike the caught beasts with earth-knives.

  The trapped sand cheetahs were pelted with earth-knives, Smoke proceeded to finish off the impaled monsters with a single strike to their necks.

  After two minutes, his Cunning of the Dire Fox confirmed the elimination of all the sand cheetahs inside the dome as well.

  Smoke then lowered the pillar Daniel was on, and removed the earth-shackles on his feet.

  "I didn't know you were this powerful. How in the world did you do that?" asked an astonished boy, walking closer toward him. "And sand cheetahs are fast as hell too. Not even members of the CO can catch them, but you killed twenty in one go."

  "Well, I didn't really catch them. They were all headed towards me, and what does CO stand—" Smoke was cut off as Daniel suddenly knelt down in front of him.

  The boy pleadingly clutched Smoke's legs. "Faux, please help us escape from Cynar. He's got kids like me doing his dirty jobs for him, and if we don't listen, who knows what he'll do to my younger sister."

  Suddenly a Quest window popped up.

  + Quest: Destroy Cynar's Orphanage

  Liberation Quest

  Level: B

  Daniel Dickinson has begged you to help him free the other children captured by a man named Cynar.

  Accept the Quest? [YES/NO]

  Smoke paused for a moment.

  'What if this is another one of the Thieves' ploys?' he asked himself. 'But I doubt that the game would create false quests.'

  "Before I answer, why don't you tell me about this Cynar character?" queried Smoke, intrigued and bewildered. "And what exactly is your situation with him?"

  "I'll tell you all about him, but can we return to the pomegranate forest first?" asked Daniel. "I know you can handle the sand cheetahs, but I'm just terrified of them."

  "Alright, but I'm not taking the handcuffs off," said Smoke flatly. "And we're not heading back to the forest. I have another place in mind."

  * * * * * *

  Nighttime crept around Souer Settlement, and four individuals sat in front of a small campfire behind the earth-walls of a doughnut-like enclosure.

  Smoke had forcibly dragged a handcuffed Daniel across Geparden Plains, and now both of them were seated next to Esper and Colere, the OrkElf leaders of this settlement.

  Free from Smoke's handcuffs, Daniel started to talk.

  "I did not expect that you would also have OrkElf underlings, like Cynar," said the boy.

  "No, they aren't my—" Smoke was about to correct Daniel, but Esper strongly set him to place.

  "We aren't Faux's underlings!" she interjected. "He is a friend who gave us a chance at life."

  "Well, it is not much of a life to live," retorted Daniel, looking at the surroundings inside the Souer Settlement dwelling.

  "But even this, is still better than our lives under Cynar," added the boy. "My sister and I are actually from Vlahui City. We were watching the 996th Magi Gagnant Tournament," he explained. "I was still probably nine then, and my sister maybe seven?"

  "Wait, what?" said Smoke incredulously. "If you were nine, three years ago, then you're twelve years old now?"

  "Yeah, I know I don't look my age," replied Daniel sourly. "I haven't even grown out of my royal clothes from before. In fact, Jack is already fifteen years old."

  "Really?" said Smoke. He shook his head in utter disbelief.

  "I don't know if it is something Cynar puts in our food or drink, but the children under his care haven't grown at all," expounded Daniel. "I tried refusing to eat or drink anything once. Cynar dangled me over a pit of sand cheetahs trapped inside it. Slowly lowering me down. I have the scars to prove it," the boy lifted his shirt and showed his back filled with disfigured skin caused by several traumatic injuries.

  "And how many children does Cynar have altogether?" asked Smoke.

  "Well, including Jack, my sister, and myself, Cynar has six royalties all in all," answered Daniel. "But counting the other children, he probably has sixty?"

  This time it was the OrkElves who questioned Daniel's story.

  "Wait? You mean you're really royals?" asked Esper. "That sounds hard to believe."

  Colere nodded. "Exactly. If you were, then why didn't anyone come looking for you?"

  "Wait," said Smoke. "Daniel, what is your ranking for the throne of Vitzytl?"

  "Well, I am 30th in line," replied the boy.

  "And what about Jack?" continued Smoke.

  "Hm. I think 25th or 26th?" answered Daniel with a shrug.

  'Maybe the lower ranked royals paid Cynar to kidnap them?' wondered Smoke to himself.

  "What is it that you want Faux to do exactly?" asked Esper. Her body leaned closer towards the boy and stared into his eyes.

  Daniel stared right back. "I want him to free my sister, and if he can, free the other children under Cynar."

  Esper sat up straight and turned to Smoke. "I think he is telling the truth, but I don't think you should do it."

  "And what about that other kid? Jack was at?" she asked. "How dare he steal all of your gems! He should have returned it when you caught up with him," Esper said to Smoke.

  "Well, I guess there was no—" began Smoke, but was interjected by Colere.

  "I agree. I mean this Cynar character has abducted royalties, and the authorities are doing nothing about it," added the burly OrkElf. "In fact, we have never even heard about him before, and that means he has to have some powerful connections to pull that off."

  Smoke looked at his two new friends. He agreed with Colere's theory and nodded. He then turned to face Daniel. The boy's eyes looked defeated. Daniel weakly shook his head.

  "I understand if you don't want to go against Cynar," said the boy. "I mean, why would you want to help out a stranger? But in Jack's defense, he needed to give whatever he stole from Faux, otherwise the other children would be punished in his place."

  Daniel ruffled his hair and covered his face with his hands. "Jack isn't like me. I'm only looking out for my sister and myself, but he.... Well, he looks out for everybody, even me."

  "Hm. I guess I don't know Jack," quietly said Smoke to himself.

  However, someone else took offense over Daniel's remark.

  "Hey! Faux, isn't like that," E
sper suddenly yelled. "Do you see this place? Faux built this by himself. And he did that only after a day of knowing us."

  "So, you're telling me that Faux, just knows when to help the right people?" countered Daniel. "And a group of abducted children just does not fit that category?"

  Esper fell silent, and so did Colere.