by John Nest
Despite the fact that the mountainside was secured, his attention was solely on Ichaival and Sharanga as he felt an ominous feeling from their direction.
The Brandal Captains split up ,and ten of them went after each Hunter. He looked at the distance between the two of them and realized that he could only reach one of them in time. His troubled eyes darted between Ichaival and Sharanga, confused on who to rescue first.
'What did those two do to be specifically target by the Captains?' wondered Smoke worriedly.
Smoke saw Sharanga's falcon throw one of her traps at the bandit leader and disabled him from joining their assault towards her.
Whereas, Smoke watched Ichaival use his Phantom Arrows on the leading Brandal Captain and knocked him off his black ctenosaur. Ichaival then immediately proceeded to the bandit directly behind them.
Without any time left, he gambled on saving Sharanga. He hoped that Ichaival would survive the Brandal Captains' attacks, enabling him to come to his aid afterward.
Smokes body was engulfed in dark purple flames as his symbiote orbited around him rapidly.
CRASH
The DarkElf came crashing down on the Brandal Captains near Sharanga as he used his Comet Crush ability. He temporarily stunned them before they reached her, and hurriedly switched to his weighted chain and sickle.
Right at the start, he used his weapon's deadliest ability, Cyclone of Slaughter. Smoke and the nine Brandal Captains appeared to be engulfed in a tornado as several afterimages of the sharp sickle and iron-ball surrounded them.
The ability lasted ten seconds. Three mangled bodies of the Brandal Captains with zero life bars were revealed after the tornado of sickles ended, while six of the bandit leaders were blown away backwards by the weighted iron-ball.
Smoke quickly switched his attention to Ichaival. His grit his teeth when he saw that there were still eight Brandal Captains heading towards the Hunter.
"Igniz, stay here and help Sharanga," blurted out Smoke and went straight to Ichaival.
Using his Hyper Jump ability, he desperately moved towards Ichaival. Yet, it only instantly propelled him ten meters forward. His friend was still out of his reach.
The Brandal Captains then took out their whips and aimed it at him. A sudden flashback entered Smoke's mind as he remembered how König Mitleid died in the hands of these bastards.
He kept on running and patiently waited for the Hyper Jump ability to finish its cooldown, but a sinking feeling inside him said that he could not make it in time.
WHIPISH WHIPISH
Eight whips cracked simultaneously, all aimed at Ichaival. A teary eyed Smoke did not avert his gaze at his friend and kept on running towards him.
Before the Brandals' whips could hit Ichaival, a female Aqua Knight pushed him off of his mount and was caught by the bandit's whips instead.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
Mamelon screamed in pain as her armor was forcibly pulled off and from her body. Four of the Brandal Captains released their whips and swiftly charged forward on top of their black ctenosaurs, while four more kept her tied up with their whips. The charging bandits mercilessly plunged their swords at her exposed flesh.
Her life bar, which was already at 35%, was instantly reduced to zero. Her lifeless body slumped down to the ground and slowly faded out of sight as she was forcibly logged out of Zectas.
BZZZT BZZZT
Smoke smashed the black lightning rods into two of the bandits' skulls and temporarily paralyzed them. He proceeded to disarming the remaining Brandal Captains of their swords and whips as he used Eskrima techniques he learned in the real world.
Ichaival quickly recovered from the fall and fired his arrows rapidly at the bandit leaders surrounding Smoke. The rest of Mamelon's Elemental forces arrived and helped Smoke and Ichaival finish off the remaining leaders.
"Raaaaaaaaah!" screamed the throng of bandits charging at them. Smoke noticed that only a few of their Witch Doctors were left, along with the last five Brandal Captains.
Greatly outnumbered, Smoke followed Ledur's technique and created several random earth walls to slow them down.
Fortunately, the tables instantly turned when Smoke saw Thyrsus, Vijaya, Phen, Rear, Ardu and Vrai coming towards them. He surmised that they must have been alarmed to see the red flares as well.
Smoke briefly thought about Mamelon's valiant sacrifice. He deeply appreciated her selflessness, but there was no time to brood on her death at the moment.
Uncertain of how they stood against the Brandals, he knew he needed to reassess the battle situation fast.
"Elemental Knights under Mamelon, please join with Ichaival's forces. I swear that we will wipe out all of the bandits here and avenge her death!" boldly declared Smoke, and quickly leapt to the skies.
"Igniz, let's go!" he shouted and his dark ember sprite immediately joined him in the air.
With a rough estimate, he guessed that roughly a third of the Brandals were left. He assumed that there were less than nine-thousand bandits all.
Although, the Vigilantez's forces were scattered, they now had the upper hand. They slightly outnumbered the bandits as they still had thirteen-thousand members left.
Yet, the Brandals' misfortune did not end there. One after another, flaming boulders came hurtling down from the sky.
Apparently, Sierra secured more catapults, while Sharur and Jinggu coordinated with their Avendre Mercenaries and sent a total of twenty of these boulders at the clustered bandits.
From his aerial view, Smoke saw the remaining Brandals rattled by the onslaught of the heavy boulders. The scattered Vigilantez turned into a favorable position, as they unknowingly trapped the bandits from within their formation.
As the rain of boulders continued, the Brandals became suicidal. It was as if they have lost all hope, and were fighting to take as many of the Vigilantez with them to the grave.
The Iron Knights, Ranseurs and Arcus had no trouble with the deranged methods of the Brandals, but the bandits were slaughtering the Avendre Mercenaries by stabbing them without any regard for their own safety.
Smoke quickly realized this, and called all of the core members on their battle channel.
"Everyone, open a path for the bandits," he said, and was instantly answered with dispute.
"Are you insane?" asked Sharur incredulously. "We have them right where we want them!"
"Yeah, Smoke. Why should we show them mercy?" asked Ichaival. "Mamelon even had to sacrifice herself just to save me."
"We are not letting them go. We just need to line them up and have Sharur and Jinggu pick them off one by one," hurriedly explained Smoke.
Everyone fell silent and waited for his next orders.
"Adder, Thyrsus and Vijaya, open your ranks and form a wall of Mercenaries towards the south," ordered Smoke. "Also, tell Ardu and Vrai to ready their Therianthrope and Tikbalang forces at the end of your formation."
"Sharur and Jinggu, change your targets to coincide with their lined up formations. Make sure not to hit our allies!" stressed Smoke strongly. "As for everyone else, make sure that they follow along these lines."
Before Smoke ended the voice conference, Vijaya got one more question in. "But how will we make the Brandals move as you wanted?"
"I will handle that," said Smoke as he dove down towards the throng of bandits.
Igniz started orbiting swiftly around him, but Smoke told him to stop. "No, Igniz, we are not trying to stun them."
He switched to his white metallic staff and landed softly in the middle of the Brandals. It took a few seconds for the bandits to react, but before they could hit him. Smoke had already created a concave Manatl as he crouched down.
While the bandits were attacking, stabbing and pounding on his purple barrier, Smoke suddenly screamed. "Everyone, the Captains have broken through the Vigilantez's formations! Escape to the south! Run for your lives."
Smoke repeated the same words loudly. Slowly, he noticed the bandits around him were thinning o
ut. Some of the Brandals tried to yell that it was all a lie, but the spark of hope had already been ignited in the hearts of the bandits. The Brandals charged at the Vigilantez opening, and did not bother to attack anyone else.
Farther down the line, the bandits were struck down by more boulders as Sharur and Jinggu re-calibrated all of the remaining catapults.
As for the Brandals who escaped the flaming boulders, they were met with hundreds of Therianthropes and Tikbalangs.
A red-haired HighElf and four Maneators came to where a DarkElf was still crouched under his Manatl. In less than a few minutes, Smoke, Sierra and the Maneators wiped out all of the bandits in the area.
"That was good thinking," said Sierra as she restored his life bar to 100%. "Did you learn that from Darius?"
"No, it was Guro. She taught me some new battle tactics that pertained to large-scale armies," answered Smoke humbly. He looked towards the city and saw black smoke everywhere.
"I think we've got the northern part secured, but we have to check on the other two gates," he said abruptly. "Can I ask you to finish up here?"
"Of course, go right ahead. Just be sure to inform me of your next move," said Sierra as she gently squeezed his shoulders.
Smoke nodded, and without a word he jumped off and glided away. Together with Igniz, he flew towards Incitant's gate as that was where the smoke and screams were coming from.
* * * * * *
Smoke zoomed in on the city streets where Incitant was supposedly defending. There, he found teams of Brandals destroying buildings, houses and other properties of Centzo's residents.
More flaming boulders came crashing down on the capital's walls as Incitant never managed to get one catapult. He looked around some more, and found a few dead bodies scattered on the streets. He caught a glimpse of some of them before they faded into oblivion.
Smoke was relieved to see that most of the corpses were bandits and only a few Sonstwelters. He surmised that they must have been from Incitant's alliance.
"Guard the blockades! They must not pass beyond our defenses!" shouted an Archbishop loudly. Smoke was taken by surprise to have heard the man from far away, he zoomed in on him and recognized him as Incitant.
'He must have some special item or ability to enhance his voice,' assumed Smoke, as his own voice never carried that far.
Smoke admired Incitant's battle-cassock and would have liked to get Sierra one as a gift. From above, he could tell that Centzo's Sonstwelter alliance gave up on defending the wall entirely.
Instead, they moved their defenses to the inner city. Incitant and his alliance built wooden-blockades and had Archers, Wizards and other Priests set up on top of them.
He then heard the source of the screams. They were from the residents of Centzo. Some of them had evacuated to the nearby tall buildings behind Incitant's blockade, and could see the constant attacks of the Brandals' catapults and their steady advance of bandits on foot.
Yet, no matter how many of the flaming boulders came crashing down from the sky, none of them made contact with their temporary wall.
The Brandals who rushed in were slaughtered by the dozens as they were sniped by their long range attackers.
From the way the battle progressed, Smoke guessed that Incitant had no intention of going out of their self-made barricade.
Smoke quickly called Sierra.
"Can you send the Therianthropes, Tikbalangs and the surviving war-chariots over to the western gate or are you still fighting with the bandits?" he asked bluntly after she accepted his call.
"We are about almost done here. I can send them off ahead and the rest of us we will just catch up afterwards," replied Sierra briskly.
"By the way, how bad is it?" asked Smoke out of the blue. "How many of our men died?"
"We lost about five-thousand Mercenaries and two-hundred-twenty of our Vigilantez," replied Sierra somberly.
"But I'm positive that the next time we will fight we won't have as these many losses," she added quickly as if trying hard to convince herself.
"What makes you say that?" asked Smoke.
"Well, all of the survivors have greatly risen their levels, and not to mention their gained battle experience from fighting the bandits. Especially Jeter, he gained more than ten levels." said Sierra proudly.
"That's really good to know. That Avendre really has some potential..." said Smoke as his voiced trailed off.
"Let's hope for the best," he said with an inspirited voice, but deep down he was doubtful. "I will coordinate with Incitant and see how we can help. Please send over the troops as soon as you can."
"Copy that, Smoke, just be sure to stay safe," she said worriedly.
"Don't worry. I'll play nice," he replied and ended their call.
Smoke dove down swiftly and went to where Incitant was taking command of the Sonstwelter Alliance.
He landed discreetly from behind their barricade and walked up to the Archbishop.
"Hey, Incitant. My group and I have just finished up with the northern area, and I was wondering what we can do to help," said Smoke cordially.
"Get out of here!" shouted Incitant rudely. "I told you that I don't mind working with you, but I don't need you stealing the spotlight from us. This is our time now!"
Smoke was taken aback. He thought Incitant would have welcomed his help, and wanted to end this war with the Brandals as quickly as possible.
"I'm sorry, Smoke, but please. We have this handled," spoke Incitant in a forcibly calmer manner. "If you want to help someone, then go over to Prosjak's side. I'm sure he will welcome your help, but here, we don't need it."
"Alright then. I will go over to the southern gate," replied Smoke flatly and walked away.
He then called Sierra as he got out of earshot from the Archbishop.
"Change of plans. Please send our army over to the southern gate instead," said Smoke angrily.
"Huh? But that's in the opposite direction of where we are," stated a confused Sierra.
"It's a long story," said Smoke while shaking his head. "Incitant just wants more accomplishments under his belt, and finish off the Brandals by themselves. He says he doesn't need our help."
"That doesn't sound like a long story to me," replied Sierra sarcastically. "So, are we going to go around the capital and for the eastern side of the city?"
"No that would take too long. Just have all of our men climb the mountainside. We are going to pass through the city directly," said Smoke.
"Alright. I'll tell our men, but I'm sure the war elephants won't like it," replied Sierra. "You know how they hate climbing steep places... Oh, or I could just have Ledur carry them on a platform or something."
"I'll leave all of that up to you," said Smoke with a grin. "I'm going to Prosjak's side, and ask what we can do to help."
"Okay, but it will take us a lot longer to get there," said Sierra and ended their call.
After he saw the damage dealt by the catapults on Incitant's western wall, Smoke worried about the eerie silence from Prosjak's side.
'I hope Macher hasn't done too much damage on the southern district,' thought a perturbed Smoke, but he prepared himself for the worst possible scenario….
Chapter Eight:
The Salubrious Centzo City
Smoke was once again gliding above Centzo's capital. He expected to see a decimated wall on the southern gate and wrecked buildings. Yet, he was pleasantly surprised to see that there was not a single scratch on Centzo's main entrance.
'How in the world did they managed that?' he asked himself in astonishment.
He zoomed in, and saw several people casually standing on top of the wall. He saw Espion talking to a middle-aged man, wearing worn-out royal clothes.
Closing his cape, he dove down towards them and swiftly opened it only moments before hitting the ground. Smoke landed softly in front of them.
"Welcome, Smoke, we have been expecting you," greeted Prosjak and extended his hand.
Smoke shook
the royal adviser's hand with a bewildered expression. "You were? But you sent us to defend the northern gate."
Remembering his query earlier, he looked in front to see how they stopped the Brandals' siege weapons and was amazed by what he saw.
In front of him was a massive iron-curtain that was draped before the city walls.
Suddenly, four massive boulders, three times the size of the ones loaded on catapults came at them. Smoke instinctively blocked his arms in front of him.
CLINK CLINK CLINK CLINK