Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo

by John Nest

  Smoke, who was busy firing his power chainsaw bow, immediately ordered his Maneators to take care of the Gargantuan Goblins.

  The Maneators dismounted from their war elephants and had them help the main attack force finish off the bandits, while they went to face the monstrous goblins.

  Adelige, Rasant, Stark and Weise met with the goblins head on. The four Maneators made sure to stay close to one another in order to utilize the Asterian Aura, unique only to them.

  Adelige paired off with Rasant to face one of the goblins while Stark and Weise joined together to challenge the other monster.

  Right at the start, Rasant launched an all out attack. He fully extended his whip sword and it snaked its way around the goblins left arm.

  However, the monster's right fist came flying out. It was about to smash the orange Maneator's head to the ground, but Adelige's golden axe parried the Gargantuan Goblin's attack to the side.

  This allowed Rasant to freely dish out an all out attack as he left all the defensive tasks to the golden Maneator. Adelige did her best to portray the role of his shield, and parried all of the goblin’s attacks with her double-headed axe.

  Weise and Stark ran towards opposite sides of their goblin and launched their attacks one after the other. Stark's war hammer went crashing down on the monster.

  The goblin managed to dodge it, but still got damaged as the red Maneator's warhammer made a deep impact on the ground, sending numerous shards of rocks towards the goblin and stunned it.

  As soon as it got stunned, Weise launched his own attack. His spear created eight afterimages of itself and inflicted the monster with poison

  Yet, this favorable encounter was only seen in the Maneators' battle against the Gargantuan Goblins. As soon as Horrabelle's personal army emerged, the power balance tipped towards the Witch’s favor.

  This time, the dead bodies of Arcus, Ranseurs and Iron Knights were scattered on the battlefield. War chariots, swords, shields, tridents and bows alike were left behind as they were being slaughtered by the monstrous army.

  Despite the horrendous terror that Horrabelle’s Therianthrope army had spread, the Vigilantez persevered and made sure that none of the Acolytes and Shamans were killed. It was an arduous undertaking, but none of them ran off. Everyone stood their ground and battled to the death.

  Smoke watched the horrifying warfare with a determined look. He made a promise to himself to make each of their death count. Horrabelle’s head was going to roll today. His attention was diverted when he heard the most irritable laughter.

  "Nyak nyak nyak!" Horrabelle let out her horrible cackling as she watched from on top her Nightmare, and reveled in the Vigilantez's struggling badly against her monstrous army.

  "You were fools to follow this stupid Dark—" the Witch stopped talking as a poison bolt flew through the battlefield and struck her squarely on the chest. Her life bar displayed (1,199,150/1,200,000 HP).

  Then, one more poison bolt knocked her off her mount and fell on the ground. Six fire arrows shortly followed and made contact with her flesh.

  Meanwhile, Smoke fired eight arrows at her Nightmare and drove it away. He didn’t want to give the Witch an opportunity to escape.

  Horrabelle searched for the source of the bolts and arrows and found that the leaders of the Vigilantez's main force was now in front of her and had joined in on the fight against her army. They arrived as soon as they finished off the last of the Brandal bandits.

  Igniz flew directly above the Witch and fired numerous fireballs at her, as fast as he could, but his damage did not even reach 200 points.

  With most of their war chariots destroyed, the severely injured Arcus tried to attack Horrabelle on foot, but their arrows could not reach her. Only the arrows of Smoke's core ranged members made contact with the black Witch, but they could only inflict less than a thousand damage points.

  Then, eleven falcons dove in from above and started clawing her with their talons. Horrabelle responded by firing her lightning bolts at the flying enemies above her. The falcons safely retreated back to their owners.

  However, Igniz remained flying above her and focused on dodging the lightning bolts while countering with a fireball after dodging.

  Their accumulated damage was insignificant and barely made any dent on her life bar, but it greatly irritated Horrabelle nonetheless. Only the spiraling bolts from Sharur and Jinggu made her flinch, as it knocked her back a bit. Little by little their bolts were chipping away her high defense.

  Two minutes passed and she finally got fed up with their cheap attacks. She took out ten electro stones from the pockets inside her robe and placed them on her palm.

  She pointed her silver ring on them and activated its ability. The ten electro stones flew up in the air and scattered around the battlefield. The moment it made contact on the ground, the electro stones started pulling in the black and silver metallic rocks surrounding the area.

  Ten metallic golems, the same ones they fought on Mount Foudre with 200,000 HP, were instantly created on the battlefield. Laernea's and Gandiva's mounts bucked uncontrollably. Bilis and Tulin remembered the monsters who broke their antlers. The scattered golems went after the ranged core members, but their falcons, Ranseurs and Arcus blocked their path.

  However, a straightforward attack was not Horrabelle's true intention. Her Therianthrope army scrambled away from the metallic golems and faced the Vigilantez that were far from them.

  Horrabelle then hastily created a blue casting circle in front of her. Several sparks of lightning menacingly emitted from it.

  A partially recovered Smoke then saw a powerful lightning strike, even stronger than the one he saw from Aral, hit one of the metallic golems. The lightning scattered into several directions, damaging the Vigilantez in the area.

  Several of the ones caught in the scattered lightning attack were left with 30% on their life bars while a few of the unlucky ones were instantly killed.

  Yet, the attack did not stop there. The thickest of the lightning bolts bounced off towards the next golem and repeated the same pattern. The Vigilantez screamed in pain as they were hit by unceasing scattered lightning attacks.

  Then, Horrabelle released another lightning strike of the same calibre and bounced it off on the metallic golem in the opposite side of the battle ground.

  Before she could fire a third lightning strike, Smoke's sickle, laced with poison, scratched her back. It tore through her black robe and exposed her lustrous white skin. His sudden back attack successfully addled her with poison.

  This time, it was Horrabelle's turn to scream in agony. Smoke guessed that just like her sister, Crucibelle, she was only used to giving out pain and not receiving them.

  Yet, unlike the Witch of Immolation, Horrabelle’s defense against physical attacks was somewhat lacking.

  Stealthily, Sierra accompanied by Phen and Rear crept up from behind her. Yet, before their claws could do their damage, Horrabelle sent several lightning bolts their way and knocked them back.

  Thankfully, their cursed form gave them high life bars and a resistance to the elements, which allowed them to survive the Witch's lightning attack.

  The Witch created another blue casting circle aimed at the metallic golems while distracting Smoke's attention with several lightning bolts. It took everything in him to dodge her attacks as they were almost as many as Crucibelle's Meteor Strikes.

  Horrabelle completed the casting circle and was about to aim for one of her metallic golems, but could not find any of them. Ledur had ordered his Tikbalangs to crush all of the metallic golems. They responded quickly as they already knew about their weakness from their encounter before.

  The Witch vented out her frustration on the winged Tikbalang and aimed the Lightning Strike at him. Fortunately, Ledur saw the flash of light coming at his direction and created a thick earth pillar before the attack hit him.

  As Smoke was lying on the ground, he saw how the Vigilantez were badly struggling against the Wer
ewolves and Werebears.

  “Everyone, it’s alright. I’ll keep her occupied. Just make sure no one else gets killed,” said Smoke to his core members as he pushed himself off the ground.

  The winged Tikbalang concurred and went to join the rest of his Tikbalang brothers who were fending off the Therianthropes.

  Mamelon’s, Adder’s, Ledur’s and Guro’s special teams did their best to protect the main strike force.

  With his Symbiote Vision, Smoke saw how Mamelon took command of the battlefield. She only had thirty Elemental Knights left riding behind her as they took the brunt of most of the attacks.

  He quickly realized that even her closest friends, Virer and Courant, died after battling with Horrabelle’s Therianthropes.

  Although, Smoke knew they would return to Verbrannt after twenty-four hours he still pitied them. Their levels were now at 104, and he personally knows how painstakingly difficult it is to raise one level when you reach that point.

  Yet, he could see it from Mamelon and her Knight’s expression how serious they were on putting their lives on the line. These Zectians from Verbrannt had already grown close to them and if losing a level meant they could save their lives, then it was more than worth it.

  Due to Mamelon and her Sonstwelter regiment’s sacrifice, Adder’s and Ledur’s teams did not incur any losses. Smoke realized that aside from Sierra, there were other Sonstwelters out there that he could rely on. There may be few of them, but they still existed.

  Despite the fact that the Vigilantez suffered many casualties, they were slowly gaining the upper hand against Horrabelle's army.

  The bolts and arrows of his ranged core members gave cover-fire to their dying comrades. The dispersed Acolytes were having a difficult time healing everyone as almost all of the Vigilantez had less than 30% on their life bars. Yet despite this, the Vigilantez survivors braved on and continued to fight even with one foot in the grave.

  A frustrated Horrabelle couldn’t believe that her monstrous army was losing. She screamed out loud and focused her numerous lightning bolts on Smoke.

  Steadily, Smoke learned the timing of her lightning bolt attacks and was now able to launch a counterstrike with his weighted chain and sickle in between dodging her bolts.

  He made sure to keep her attention on him as he saw Sierra, Phen and Rear patiently waiting in the sidelines. They postponed their attack for the perfect opportunity to strike.

  The moment Horrabelle was out balanced after she dodged Smoke’s iron ball, Sierra and her Werewolves sprinted towards her. They cleared the distance between them in no time at all. Sharp claws pierced through her flesh. Then, Phen and Rear each took a bite out of both her arms.

  BZZZT BZZZT BOOSH

  Electrical sparks erupted out from Horrabelle’s entire body. All three Therianthropes were knocked back.

  Despite seeing Sierra and her Werewolves blown away, Smoke could sense that Horrabelle's defeat was drawing close.

  Their damage on her was minimal, but their persevering attacks reduced her life bar to 82%. Horrabelle’s Therianthrope army numbered less than a thousand. Whereas, the Vigilantez still had over three thousand members left.

  'Don’t worry, Sierra, you'll finally be cured,’ thought a concerned Smoke as he gazed upon the red Werebear on the ground.

  However, his reverie was interrupted when he heard a disturbing sound.

  TOOT TOTOTOOT TOOT TOOT TOOOOT TOTOTOOT

  Loud intimidating sounds of Cavalry Knight trumpets came from the northern clearing of the village. Its ominous resonance covered the battlegrounds. The Vigilantez did not need to see them because they could clearly hear the reverberations of the galloping dirus wolves charging straight for them.

  Without hesitation, Smoke yelled out from the top of his lungs. “Everyone retreat!”

  At once, all of his guild members scrambled towards their planned escape route. They desperately hurtled away from stampeding Cavalry Knights chasing after them.

  Smoke used his Telefax Vision and saw Macher leading the charge. He was followed by a thousand Sonstwelters and ten thousand Zectians. He also noticed that out of the Zectian Knights, almost a thousand of them carried the emblem of Macher's personal army.

  Smoke’s core members speedily followed their contingency plan and led their team members towards safety. They still had a long way to go before they could reach the forest patch where Baldaquin was waiting for them.

  However, not everyone could escape right away as some of their Arcus and Ranseurs were caught by Therianthropes’ claws. They desperately tried to break free but their captors wouldn’t allow them to escape the incoming cavalry. The Tikbalangs tried to free them, but there were too many of them to rescue by themselves.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll help them out,” said Adder as he ordered his Warriors and Rangers to turn back and engage the enemy Werewolves and Werebears.

  Meanwhile, the core members in charge of the main strike force continued on with their orders and made a hasty retreat.

  "Nyak nyak nyak nyak! Serves you right! Just who do you think you people are!" exclaimed Horrabelle haughtily and laughed at her fleeing enemies. “Did you really think you stood a chance against me? Nyak nyak nya —”

  She stopped laughing when she caught a glimpse of a bright fireball overhead. She looked up and saw a flaming DarkElf diving straight towards her.

  CRASH

  Molten rocks flew everywhere. Smoke landed right on top of the Witch, stunning and damaging her with his Comet Crush ability.

  Sierra then threw Phen and Rear out of the immediate vicinity and made a mad dash for the immobilized Witch.

  Simultaneously, Ledur flew overhead and encased Smoke, Sierra and Horrabelle inside a large, thick earth-dome.

  Chapter Six:

  Arrogance Leads to Downfall

  From above the battlefield, a winged Tikbalang surveyed his created earth-dome. It was fifty meters in diameter and three meters thick. Ledur wasn't keen on this idea, but Smoke convinced him that this was their only option in order for them to kill her.

  Ledur suggested to simply trap the Witch from the start, but Smoke countered that Horrabelle could easily escape if left alone. Someone had to be inside with her and finish her off there.

  As Ledur scrutinized his dome, he would have liked it to be thicker. However, with the Cavalry Knights closing in on them, this was the best he could do. He estimated that Smoke and Sierra had at least twenty minutes before the Cavalry Knights could destroy his dome.

  Yet, Macher did not move as expected. Instead, he and his army ignored the earth-dome altogether. The Cavalry Knights went after the scrambling Vigilantez who were running for their lives.

  Along with the Tikbalangs, Adder and his special team stayed behind as many of Horrabelle's Therianthropes viciously held on to one or two of their comrades.

  Mamelon who was about to leave saw this and ordered her Elemental Knights to join Adder's team. Together, they bravely fought off the Therianthropes who had detained some of their Zectian friends.

  Ardu and Vrai who were already halfway out of the plains looked back. They growled and ordered the Werewolves under them to help out as well.

  Meanwhile, Ledur was busy thinking of a way to stop the Cavalry Knights. He thought about creating a wall or a trench, but realized that he could not cover the entire plain in time. Ledur then remembered a conversation he had with Smoke.

  'Even if you can't stop them, then slowing them down will be enough,' thought Ledur to himself as he repeated what Smoke told him.

  Posthaste, Ledur created multiple random walls in the vast plain between the Vigilantez and the Cavalry Knights. The earth walls were only three meters tall and six meters wide. However, Ledur created so many of them that the land in the middle of the Cavalry Knights and the Vigilantez now looked like a small maze.

  The mounted Macher was forced to stop in front of Ledur's sudden earth creation. From on top his dirus wolf, he stood up and allowed him to see through t
he maze. He tried his mount to climb over it, but immediately found that it could not find any footing, as the wall itself was smooth. He and his men either had to travel inside it or around it.

  Macher ordered two groups to head around the opposite sides of the maze, and a one group to turn back and destroy the earth-dome. As for him, he led a group straight into it. He shouted out directions while standing on the back of his dirus wolf. Due to this, they quickly zigzagged their way through the earth walls.

  Yet, the dirus wolves had a difficult time traversing the maze as they kept running into each other whenever they tried to make the sharp turns.

  Adder was left with 30% on his life bar while the rest of his teammates were below 20%. He then heard Ledur yell from above.

  "It's time. We have to leave, now!" cried out Ledur somberly from the skies.