by John Nest
The common Mercenary was below the level of their Ranseurs, while the Commanders were slightly stronger than them. However, Jeter was almost on the same level as Espion. There were even a few moments that made Smoke think that the Avendre Commander was almost on the same level as Adder.
Smoke swiftly moved to Jeter's left and struck him with the lightning rods, but he was instantly blocked by the Mercenary’s shield.
Yet, Smoke wasn't finished with his attack as he fluidly circled around Jeter and delivered a swift blow to his back.
SHIIIING
Without turning around, Jeter's saber blocked Smoke's lightning rod.
“That's quite impressive,” said Smoke approvingly.
“Thank you,” replied Jeter as he turned around to face him. “I know that you have been holding back, but hearing a compliment from you is still something to be proud of.”
Jeter then got into an offensive stance. “Now, if you don't mind. I'd like you to take this seriously. You wanted to know our true abilities, right?”
“Alright, if you insist,” said Smoke and readied himself as well.
Smoke used his Hyper Jump ability and almost instantaneously appeared in front of the Avendre Mercenary. He struck with his left rod's Lightning Shock ability on Jeter's body and aimed his right rod squarely on the Mercenary's chin.
Jeter was sent flying backward and tumbled on the ground. Smoke made sure to keep the damage within a safe parameter, and the Mercenary Commander's life bar displayed (102,500/205,000 HP).
Smoke walked over to the fallen Avendre and offered him his hand.
“Thanks for taking me seriously,” said Jeter gratefully as he was being helped up.
“Even if you hadn't asked for it, I would have had to,” replied Smoke and shook Jeter's hand. “That was very impressive. Where did you learn to fight like that?”
"I have been with the Avendre ever since I was young," began Jeter. "My family was in a great amount of debt and the only way they could think of getting out of it was by pawning me off to the Avendre Mercenaries. Luckily for me, Solliciter, the Avendre's Leader, took pity on me and trained me well."
“Wait, what? Your family sold you off to be a slave?” asked Smoke incredulously.
"I guess you can say that, but Solliciter never treated me as one. He even told me that I'm free to go wherever I want to," said Jeter fondly. "I even told him about how I was interested in joining your army. The stories of how you freed several villages from oppression has reached the Avendre Headquarters in mount Alouer. You have inspired me to help others, but I won't be able to do that until I pay off my family's debt."
Despite Jeter's excited voice, Smoke clearly saw the Mercenary's sullen expression.
“I see, and how much is it?” asked Smoke.
“Fifty million zecs,” replied Jeter shamefully. He turned and saw Smoke smiling at him.
“It's funny, right?” said Jeter as he forced himself to smile. “How in the world can a family be in debt for fifty million zecs.”
Jeter forcibly stretched his body and shrugged off any sore feelings.
“On the bright side, at least Solliciter allowed me to serve under you,” said Jeter gratefully. “This way, it feels like I'm really in your private army and fighting for a just cause. Thank you again for the spar.”
Jeter bowed down his head and started walking away towards his men.
“Jeter,” called out Smoke.
The Avendre Commander turned around immediately.
"Don't worry. I have a feeling that you will finally be free from your family's debt in this battle," said Smoke reassuringly.
Jeter smiled and slightly bowed his head and left.
Suddenly, a notification window popped up.
+ Intimacy with Jeter Pion has risen to 'Trusted Friend'
You have gained Jeter's trust by sparring with him and asking him about his past and his dreams of the future.
You can expect that Jeter will put his life on the line for you, and obey your orders within reason.
Smoke smiled after he read the window. He unequipped his twin lightning rods and looked around their camp.
The Avendre Mercenaries were still busy unloading the emergency rations that they brought for the starving people of Centzo into Laernea's and Gandiva's carriages.
Smoke walked over to inspect the rations. He saw that they were packed to the brim with wheat bread and preserved meat, but he knew that it was far from enough to feed all of the hungry residents.
He walked away from them to get some fresh air. It had been some time since he dwelt on this issue, but he still had not come up with a solution.
Looking around the crowded forest patch, he saw that everyone was busy with their preparations for battle. They were still waiting for Thyrsus and Vijaya's return on their reconnaissance mission.
Without finding a place to hear his thoughts, he equipped his Claws of Chiropterra and scaled one of the sycamore trees nearby. He found a strong branch to sit on, and watched the busy people below him.
Amidst the crowd, he easily spotted a red-haired beauty among them. Sharur was standing next to her, assisting her with the ingredients.
Smoke was blankly staring at her, completely mesmerized by her HighElf form. With her curly hair, she looked exactly like her real self except for the long pointed ears.
From the ingredients she had prepared, it looked like Sierra was busy cooking various Zectian dishes. He knew that it was an aspect of the game that eluded her for a while, and he understood why she loved serving everyone her meals.
He worriedly glanced over to their own food rations and thought that they would have a little left, but was surprised when he saw that it was practically untouched.
With his Telefax Vision, he zoomed in on the meals that she was serving. From the small bowls that Sierra was giving out, he thought that she was giving them seasoned blood pheasants or ancient bison steaks. Instead, he saw an ordinary looking soup.
He quickly jumped down from the tree and went over to her. He was alarmed by the meal that she was serving them. He knew that their food supply was limited, but this was unacceptable. Soups were great for medicinal meals because it quickly spread throughout the body, but it barely made any impact on the satiety bars. She would have needed four times the serving she was giving out.
'How can she expect the men in top fighting form with an empty stomach?' he thought to himself and stormed towards her.
"Oh, just in time," said Sierra with a smile and offered him a the same small bowl.
After looking at her face, he calmed down a bit. He didn't want to upset her by saying that her cooking was wrong. He already heard about what her uncle did to her when she tried cooking Zectian dishes in the real world.
So, he decided to try the soup first and gauge how much it filled his satiety bar.
An explosion of flavors filled his mouth after the first sip of the soup. He quickly wolfed down the bowl in a matter of seconds. To his amazement the small bowl filled his satiety bar completely.
"What did you put in this thing?" asked Smoke as he tried to decipher the ingredients from the taste.
"Wouldn't you like to know," she happily replied but had no intention of revealing her recipe.
"Sharur, don't tell Smoke what we put in the soup," she said half threateningly and jokingly at the OrkElf beside her.
"Of course, Sierra, this soup will be our little secret," answered Sharur happily. "How about you name this, Mystery Soup Number One?"
"That's not a bad idea," said Sierra while nodding her head at him. "Let's go with that."
Smoke put down the bowl and grabbed her shoulders. "Seriously, you barely even touched our supplies. How did you do this?"
Sierra honestly answered him after she saw how serious he was. "I pureed the main ingredients for a while and added cornstarch. Then had Sharur chop the beef into thin slices."
She than slapped Sharur's chest. "The big guy here didn't even know about this technique, a
nd he says that he's my teacher in cooking. Using this method, I think we could extend our food supply by ten times the normal serving. Why were you asking?"
"I think your cooking talent may have just saved an entire city," replied Smoke proudly.
Before he could say anything else, Thyrsus and Vijaya came bustling in, mounted on their aardwolves.
"We have to go now!" shouted Thyrsus. "Prosjak's estimate on the Brandals attack was wrong. The bandits have already made their move towards the city."
* * * * * *
Accompanied by Ledur, Smoke took to the skies. The two of them flew towards Centzo as fast as the tailwinds carried them. As Smoke looked on the horizon, he found the familiar city with its golden luster. The city's capital sat on top of a low mountain.
He hoped that the plant life had regrown outside the city walls, but the Brandals' wanton trail of devastation remained true. From his vantage point, he could see nothing but barren land on the mountainside surrounding the capital.
"Ledur, look at that," said Smoke to the winged Tikbalang as he pointed to the three groups of Brandals simultaneously marching towards the city.
Their original target of thirty-thousand bandits were coming in from the north, while another thirty-thousand Brandals were coming in from the west, but only ten-thousand bandits accompanied by ten-thousand Zectian Cavalry Knights and two-thousand Sonstwelters were led by Macher towards the main gate on the southern side of the capital.
Each Brandal group brought along thirty catapults, while the one with Macher leading them had four more trebuchets. They hauled along several carts filled with big boulders, he surmised that those were for the siege devices.
Smoke wondered whether they were going to immediately launch an all out attack on the city, but as the three divisions got closer to Centzo, they all stopped when they reached two-hundred meters from the foot of the mountain.
With his Telefax Vision, he saw Incitant on top of the western gate, Smoke estimated that about five-thousand Sonstwelters were with him. Whereas, Espion joined the other Zectians on the main gate as they served under Prosjak's command.
Shortly after, a volley of arrows attacked the western and southern Brandal groups, but none of the bandits were hurt as not a single arrow reached them.
Prosjak and Incitant instantly ceased their ranged attacks and waited for the enemy to be within their sights.
"I have seen enough," said Smoke and motioned for Ledur to head back with him.
Some distance behind the Brandals on the north, Smoke could already see the dust cloud created by his forces heading for the city. He then focused on the Vigilantez running towards the capital, but they were still at least two kilometers away.
"Ledur, wait. On second thought, we better stall the bandits until our friends arrive," said Smoke and pointed to the mountainside outside the capital's small northern gate.
The two flying Vigilantez landed safely. However, they were spotted by the bandits below them. The Brandals proceeded to load all thirty of their catapults with flaming boulders.
Centzo's skyline was filled with an auburn glow as multiple flaming boulders simultaneously came at the capital from three directions.
Smoke and Ledur immediately put up tall earth pillars that took most of the damage from the boulders. Despite their efforts, four big cracks appeared on the city walls on the northern side of the capital.
Although, the wall itself was still intact, Smoke wasn't sure how many more flaming boulders it could take before it will finally break.
After seeing the damage that the catapults did to the city walls and their earth pillars, Smoke was concerned about the other two locations.
Yet, he had no time to worry about them. His army was the last line of defense on this side of the capital. All of Centzo's military force was already distributed to the western gate and main gate.
Smoke quickly created more pillars after the ones they made were destroyed, while Ledur began repairing and reinforcing the walls.
Suddenly, they heard a loud battle cry as two-thousand bandits started climbing up the mountainside. They were shortly followed by five-hundred mounted Brandals on black ctenosaurs.
Despite the numerous Brandals headed their way, there were still more of them left guarding the catapults.
While thinking of what to do against the incoming bandits, the Brandals on the foot of the mountain fired another round of flaming boulders at the capital.
Smoke focused his Earth Manipulation on six pillars and reinforced them with thicker earth. The other pillars easily crumbled against the flaming projectiles, but these ones did not. The flaming boulders stopped in mid-air and fell down to the ground. Due to the inclined mountainside, these three boulders then rolled downwards towards the charging enemies.
The climbing bandits were taken by surprise from the attack of their own weapon. Several Brandals were rolled over by the fiery boulders and received the 'Burned Status.'
Smoke smiled at his small victory, but it instantly vanished as he turned around and faced the wall. A small crack, big enough for a person to fit through, appeared.
Ledur hurriedly closed it up with his Earth Manipulation, but several more boulders were coming their way. At the same time, the Brandals climbing up towards the capital were closing in on the two of them.
Smoke caught three more boulders and sent them back down to the bandits, while Ledur created random blockades with his earth manipulation.
The two of them were quickly running out of time. After the fourth volley of flaming boulders came, the northern city walls finally gave way. A wide crack appeared on it, and it was big enough to allow ten black ctenosaurs to pass through side-by-side.
Ledur quickly began to cover it up with his Earth Manipulation, but another round of fiery boulders immediately came crashing down. This time, it destroyed the small northern gate, adjacent to the wall that the winged Tikbalang was fixing.
Smoke knew that many of the residents of Centzo will be slaughtered if the Brandals would get past the two of them.
Fortunately, he saw two stag moose blitzing their way through the bandits up the hill. They were joined by four durcules beetles. As Bilis' and Tulin's antlers had not yet regrown, the large flying insects took the lead and used their sharp black horns to stab the bandits out of the way.
As Laernea and Gandiva broke out of the Brandals' formation, the two Lioumereans scattered black and silver metallic rocks on the ground. Both of their stag moose slightly shuddered at the sight of the magnetic stones and quickly sped away from them.
Smoke grinned and took out two electro stones out of his backpack. He placed them in his left palm and pointed the Electromagnetic Golem Offering at them. He then used the ring's active ability called Golem Creation.
The electro stones flew out of his hands, flying straight in the direction of the black magnetic rocks. The moment it made contact with the ground, it started pulling in the metallic components near it.
A black and silver monster with 200,000 HP were instantly created amidst the charging Brandals. They were an exact copy of Horrabelle's two-meter tall golems.
He would have wanted to create more of them, but his current mana could only allow him to create two, since he was about to use Aral's Lightning Rods.
Smoke used its ultimate ability, Lightning Strike. A flash of blue light emitted out of his twin rods after he connected them together.
The Lightning Strike flew straight towards the Brandals' direction, but none of the bandits were hit as it only struck one of the metallic golems.
After the moment of impact, Smoke then quickly used his newly acquired Lightning Manipulation ability. With his twin lightning rods still equipped, he forked the Lightning Strike into three branches. He redirected the two smaller branches of lightning towards the bandits nearby, while the largest one went straight to the other metallic golem.
Smoke was able to repeat the same process three more times until his Lightning Strike completely dissipated. It
was a weaker version of Horrabelle's attack, but he killed over eighty bandits in that one attack. He then opened the metallic orb on his chest and let out his dark ember sprite, Igniz.
The small purple flame instantly flew out and looked at the Brandals' direction.
"Time to go old school, bud," said Smoke as he switched to his power chainsaw bow. He thought to do as much damage at the approaching bandits while waiting for his mana bar to recover. He needed less than twenty minutes to have it back to 100%.
Igniz immediately enchanted Smoke's, Laernea's and Gandiva's arrows with fire. Smoke then signaled his symbiote to fly over to the Brandals and assault them with a rain of fireballs.