Zectas Volume V: The Sequestered Seminary of Sawtorn

by John Nest

  "Really? I don't think I'd be—" began Smoke, but was cut off.

  "But I think that you'll be greater than all of them," declared Edel. "If you ever decide to create a guild, please tell me. I assure you that all of the members of Sunrise Kingdom will sign up under you."

  "That's really not going to—" said Smoke, but was cut off again.

  As Chrysopelea suddenly dove down from above. "Faux! The Orks are leaving!"

  "I know, they must be retreating!" cheerfully replied Smoke.

  "No! They're headed towards the northern district!" yelled Chrys. "Trottel's gate has been busted open!"

  "Damn it, Trottel!" shouted Smoke.

  * * * * * *

  Riding Freifahrt at top speed, Smoke led 14,000 Automaton Knights towards Trottel's side of the Votl City. He left 10,000 mechanical Iron Knights with Edel and the other defenders near the base of the funnel.

  Moving in the same direction as the Orks, Smoke and his special unit were ignored by the green giants.

  'Looks like their one track mind works in my favor too,' he thought, thankful.

  However, the fast-pace marching of the Orks gradually decreased, until it came to a sudden hault.

  KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG

  Smoke was able to stop Freifahrt at once, but the rest of the chasing Automaton Knights bashed their armors into the Orks.

  The loud commotion made the green giants turn around.

  SHING SHING SHING SHING

  Sharp clashing sound of steel against steel, echoed on the grounds of the northern gates. Claymores and great two-handed weapons collided with brute force.

  As Smoke and his special unit defended against the Orks in the back, more and more MoriHai turned around to fight them.

  The outnumbered Smoke and his Automaton Knights were steadily being overwhelmed. So, before they would be completely surrounded, he let out his Digger's Wand and dug a deep trench in front of him.

  Hundreds of MoriHai instantly fell in Smoke's trench. This, gave him a better view of the northern city gates. Thousands of Orks flooded to rush inside, creating a choke point.

  Elemental attacks came from above. Smoke saw powerful Lightning strikes aimed at the invaders who got inside.

  'That must be Trottel,' surmised Smoke, shaking his head.

  Yet, the Lioumerean's hopeless attacks did nothing to stop the Orks' advance into the Votl City.

  'Good thing all the residents have been evacuated behind the Castle Walls,' thought Smoke, as he watched Sonstwelter stalls in the market district being broken into pieces.

  Although, he was more than two-hundred meters away, Smoke was confident of his Earth Manipulation. Seeing the gates were destroyed, he pointed both his hands at the gate and constructed a thick earth-wall. Yet, its initial height was only three-meters.

  The Orks on top of the rising earth-wall fell down from both its sides. The green giants who were left outside, scrambled to grab hold of the rising top ledge of the wall.

  Smoke had no intention of stopping. Not until he had completely sealed the gate that was ten-meters tall.

  However, a massive dirus wolf came charging towards him, from the other side of his trench.

  Freifahrt shook Smoke off its back, and lunged at the incoming dirus wolf. Both gigantic mounts dropped into his freshly dug trench, but not before the Ork rider leapt off and landed in front of Smoke.

  "Boangi or brave? Which one are you?" asked an Ork that was almost twice the size of Niemand. He did not have a two-handed weapon like most Orks. Instead, he had two ornate gauntlets with knife-like finger points.

  "Guess I try," said Smoke in Orkish. "You are UrukHai Colonel?"

  "A DarkElf who speaks the most beautiful language," replied the UrukHai, who stood up straight. "You are right. I am Colonel Vergewaltiger."

  Smoke took a quick glance at his earth blockade. He grinned from behind his Paradox Mask, as it had grown to at least eight-meters, before he was interrupted.

  "What are you looking at?" asked Vergewaltiger. He turned around and spotted his earth-wall. "Oh! You must be proud."

  "Gukgukguk!" Vergewaltiger chuckled. "You are Boangi! You locked yourself outside with all of us?"

  Then, the MoriHai Orks who fell into his trench climbed back up, and stood behind their UrukHai Colonel.

  Unconsciously, Smoke took a step back. He scrambled his brain for what to do next.

  WOOOHSHHIIIIWOOOHHH

  A powerful tornado instantaneously appeared in front of the blocked city gates. Ouragan flew inside it, and pulled in all of the MoriHai Orks. Their massive green arms and legs flailed in the turbulent winds.

  THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD

  Ouragan threw the Orks against Votl's walls.

  However, Vergewaltiger remained where he stood.

  "Prime Wizard Ouragan! Always a pain in the ass!" said the UrukHai Colonel. "Guess that means the fight in the southern side is already finished."

  "Smo— Faux! Are you alright?" yelled Ouragan from above.

  "Yeah! I'm fine!" replied Smoke.

  "Think you can handle him?" asked the old HighElf.

  Smoke did not reply, but only stared at the monstrous UrukHai Colonel before him.

  "Right! I'll deal with the small fries," said Ouragan. "And you handle him!"

  Ouragan then flew towards the recovering Orks, and created his amplifying casting circle in the air. Fire Mages immediately took advantage of this, and directed their spells to pass through it. Several of the Orks below were pummeled into the ground by fireballs.

  "Automaton Knights!" blurted out Smoke. "Go and finish off those Orks!"

  At once, the 14,000 Iron Knights behind him marched around his trench to hunt down the green giant stragglers.

  "Gukgukguk!" Vergewaltiger chuckled once more. "Ouragan left you to deal with me? Elves are really boangi! Gukgukguk!"

  Suddenly, Vergewaltiger vanished.

  SLASH SLASH

  Smoke's Cunning of the Dire Fox sensed an attack coming from behind. So, he leapt forward with his Hyper Jump ability. Yet, even then, he still received a damage of 20,000 points from the light scratches on his back.

  He leapt further away, but Vergewaltiger instantly caught up with him.

  The UrukHai Colonel did another double strike attack with his tiger-like gauntlets, but Smoke deflected it with his flame-shield.

  'How could he move so fast?' wondered Smoke, seeing as the UrukHai Colonel was the largest Ork he had seen.

  He then counter-attacked with eight flame-arrows, at point blank range.

  Vergewaltiger was forcibly pushed back by Smoke's rush of flames. The Ork's life bar displayed (1,492,000/1,500,000 HP).

  Pestered by the Ork's fast movement, Smoke launched eight earth-pillars which interlocked. A stunned Vergewaltiger was caught within it.

  Smoke then Hyper Jumped behind the Ork, and unleashed a torrent of flame-arrows.

  Eight flame-arrows, sixteen, thirty-two, then sixty-four. The damage of Smoke's flame attacks piled on. Coupled with his passive Fire damage enhancing abilities, he dealt a total damage of 240,000.

  "Aurgh!" screamed Vergewaltiger, as the flame-arrows left a myriad of blisters on his back. He turned his around to give Smoke a stare of death. A mixed look of anger and disbelief was clearly seen on his face.

  However, Smoke was the one who was more surprised. He had only attacked him with flame-arrows and it dealt this much damage.

  'The Fire Blister can't have this much of an effect?' he thought, wondering. Then, it hit him. 'Of course! Serval's Glow, Paradox Pyro Face, and Xantico's Inheritance.'

  All of these abilities turned him into a Fire specialist. The passive bonus he got from them, increased on an exponential scale when his flame attacks were stacked up.

  Amused at his newly discovered power, Smoke neglected to notice Vergewaltiger escape from his earth-pillars.

  With an elastic twist of his wrists, the UrukHai Colonel used his tiger-like gauntlets to free himself.

 
; "Raaaagh!" roared Vergewaltiger, and his sharp gauntlets dug into Smoke's shoulder. He then pinned Smoke to the ground. With his free hand, the Ork began to claw his armor off.

  Smoke's life bar quickly drained. Each strike dealt 10% on his HP.

  Desperate to escape, he used his Hyper Jump ability to propel himself diagonally on the ground.

  "Aaaah!" yelped Smoke, as a large chunk of his flesh got torn off from Vergewaltiger's death grip.

  Smoke quickly propped himself up, but saw the UrukHai charging straight for him.

  'I need to get away from him,' thought a distraught Smoke. 'Guess there's no helping it!'

  He propelled himself upward with a sudden launch of an earth-pillar, and opened his Wings of Cologus in the air.

  "Coward! Come back here!" yelled an angry Vergewaltiger. "Are all Elves just good at running away?"

  Smoke did not mind the Ork's taunts. He was more worried of the people on the northern wall, who had seen him fly.

  "Maybe they didn't see me?" he said to himself, unconvinced.

  "Fine!" blurted out Vergewaltiger from below. "I'm going after the flightless boangi people in the city!"

  The UrukHai Colonel then sprinted towards the walls.

  Checking his life bar, Smoke had only 28% left. Although his mana bar had a higher maximum capacity, it displayed 10%.

  He quickly got out a pompom juice, and drank the entire clay-jar in one gulp. Yet, it only increased his MP to 30%

  'I can't stay up here any longer,' he thought, as he saw that Vergewaltiger had almost reached the city. He knew that the UrukHai could easily scale those walls.

  Gliding at top speed, Smoke headed in front of Vergewaltiger to cut him off.

  'My Fire can pierce him, but I need to use my Earth to hold him down,' he reviewed his game plan on his mind. 'But after stunning him, my mana will only have one more attack.'

  In his synergized form, Smoke let out dark flames from his body. Moving in closer, he tucked his head inward and dove.

  THUD

  The ground where he landed on scattered upward, and molten rocks flew everywhere. He used his Comet Crush attack to stun the UrukHai Colonel.

  'Should I attack or hold him down?' he asked himself, given this second of a fully stunned Ork.

  Confused on what to do, Smoke melded both his Fire and Earth Manipulation abilities. Eight pillars struck out from below Vergewaltiger, but these were not the same ones as before. They had red hot lava swirling around its shaft and on its sharp tips.

  Magma-pillars pierced through Vergewaltiger's green skin. Only to melt when it went through his body. The UrukHai Colonel was raised off the ground, suspended by Smoke's melded ability in mid-air.

  The Ork was immobilized and his life bar quickly drained to 70%.

  "I did it!" shouted Smoke. He raised his right fist in the air in celebration.

  He then checked on the Orks near the wall. Ouragan had frozen the invaders in solid blocks of ice, while the Automaton Knights finished them off with their claymores.

  "Looks end is over," said Smoke in Orkish.

  Turning to face Vergewaltiger, Smoke's eyes widened when he saw the sharp points of the Ork's gauntlets aimed at his eyes.

  Smoke had overestimated the strength and durability of his magma-pillars. He should have known better, and was now going to pay the price for this mistake.

  SLINK SLINK

  The created flame-shield instantly shattered, but the Ork's gauntlets now struck his chest instead.

  Smoke was pinned down to the ground, but this time, Vergewaltiger had a better hold on him.

  "You can't use that same trikasi on me twice," snarled the Ork.

  After using the Comet Crush and the melded magma-pillars, Smoke only had enough mana to do a Hyper Jump ability once.

  He kicked the Ork in the groin, and tried to Hyper Jump diagonally. However, Vergewaltiger remained unfazed and dug his gauntlets deeper into his skin.

  Smoke's life bar quickly drained, and his Decay Aura activated. Aside from receiving the damage from the Ork's attacks, his life bar also went down 100 points per second. The curse aura, however, also inflicted the same damage on Vergewaltiger.

  "Is this your dying will? Your final attack?" questioned the UrukHai. "This is pathetic!"

  Vergewaltiger stopped attacking, and held him down with both hands instead. "Let's see who dies first?" he taunted. "Gukgukgukguk!"

  "You want a final attack?" asked Smoke in the common tongue. "I'll show you my Suicide Attack!" he said, but both his arms were pinned down by the Ork's legs.

  "Don't speak anything but Orkish," said Vergewaltiger. "It will only make your death more batigir."

  Immobilized, Smoke glared his eyes at the Ork. Yet, given this few seconds, he had recovered enough to create one last earth-pillar.

  TUCK

  The sudden launched earth-attack sent Vergewaltiger's feet off his right arm.

  This final attempt only angered the Ork. Vergewaltiger's gauntlet came crashing down on his shoulder.

  Smoke did not want to admit it, but he knew that the Ork's attack would hit first.

  However, before the gauntlet hit him, a notification window popped up.

  + Level UP!

  You have 10 stat points ready for distribution.

  Your HP has increased by 7,800.

  Your mana has increased by 7,800.

  Fame has increased by 1.

  His eyes dilated with adrenaline. Smoke's life bar and mana bar glowed, as they were refilled to its new maximum capacity.

  Vergewaltiger's gauntlets still pierced his shoulder, but sixteen magma-pillars lifted the Ork Colonel off of him.

  As he made the Ork's limbs spread out like an eagle, Smoke added in another sixteen more magma-pillars, four on each limb.

  "You think this can hold me?" cried out the suspended Vergewaltiger. "Just you wait! I'll break out of here in no time!"

  Smoke's magma-pillars gradually thickened, as he reinforced them with more Fire and Earth.

  The Ork's life bar displayed 40%.

  Now, that his mana had been fully replenished, Smoke prepared himself to use the stacked up bonus of his flame attacks.

  Smoke leapt up, and stood on the broad shoulders of the Ork in mid-air. "You shall never touch another Elf again," he said in Orkish, before he sent a rain of flame-swords at Vergewaltiger's back.

  Even with the massive life bar of (600,000/1,500,000 HP), it only took Smoke less than three minutes to finally finish off the incapacitated UrukHai Colonel.

  + You have dealt a fatal blow to Vergewaltiger, Colonel of the UrukHai.

  + You have killed Vergewaltiger.

  + You have gained 2,000,000 XP.

  As the Ork's body disappeared, only his gauntlets remained.

  +Acquired rare item: Gauntlets of Orcinol

  Seeing that Ouragan and the Automaton Knights were still fighting with the Orks, Smoke quickly stowed the freshly lotted item into his bag. He rushed forward to help out.

  When he leapt over his trench, Smoke spotted two massive dirus wolf pelts on the bottom. He had wondered where Freifahrt was. Now, he knew that his mount had bravely fought to the death, and had left him with honor.

  Smoke stopped, and went back down to fetch the two pelts. He picked them up, and clutched one of them dearly. "You will be missed," he said to the fur with the flame markings on its paws.

  "I shall have all these Orks escourt you to the afterlife," he added with conviction.

  He climbed out of his own dug trench, and used his serval shoes to reach the Orks faster.

  * * * * * *

  It took another twenty-minutes of grueling battle at the northern side of Votl City, before they finally saw the last of the Orks there. A few of them had fled off, but there were still who remained to fight with their last hit points.

  When the deed was done, an exhausted Ouragan flew down next to Smoke.

  "We finally did it!" said the old HighElf. He let out a heavy sigh, as he leaned on
Smoke's shoulder.

  Smoke was panting hard, trying to catch his breath. "What about the other sides?"

  "After an hour into the invasion, Magietrois Florissant squashed the Orks on the eastern district," explained Ouragan. "I think, I could have done it in a similar time, if I had better companions with me," he said with a wink.