Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo

by John Nest

Four boulders simply rolled down from the curtain and rolled back down the mountainside, straight towards Macher and his invading army.

  "What in the world is that?" asked Smoke in disbelief.

  Espion patted Smoke's back and gave him a knowing smile. "That's exactly what I said when I first saw it too."

  Prosjak shouted and ordered their Bards, Minstrels and Dancers to enchant the iron-curtain with more defensive and protective aura around it.

  "This was a joint project by our Blacksmiths, Tailors and Seamstress. They've been building this iron-curtain for the past month," explained Prosjak proudly. "Sadly, they only managed to make one big enough to support a single gate."

  Then, five bandit groups started climbing up the mountainside. They were widely spread out. When they reached about a fourth of the climb, Prosjak suddenly shouted. "Archers, fire!"

  "Damn it! They changed their strategy when you arrived," said Prosjak while looking at Smoke.

  Three of the Bandit Groups were stopped by the arrows, while two of them reached the walls. They placed numerous exploding gems, magical stones imbued with compact explosion spells, on the city walls.

  "Damn it! I'm getting too old for this," said Prosjak and threw two massive chests down the wall.

  THUD THUD

  From the loud impact they made when the hit the ground, Smoke could tell that something heavy was inside the chests. They were also large enough to fit an entire body, but the middle-aged man lifted them like they were empty boxes. He landed gracefully on the ground, as if he were temporarily suspended in mid-air before touching the earth.

  Smoke couldn't see clearly what Prosjak was doing. Also he saw was that the royal adviser flicked his fingers at the numerous exploding gems, and all of the gems were removed from the wall. He then threw them back to the bandits.

  BTOOM BTOOM BTOOM BTOOM BTOOM

  Several bandits flew up in the air as they were blown away by their own exploding gems.

  After the explosions ended, the Brandals circled around the lone middle-aged man.

  "Why isn't anyone else jumping in after him?" Smoke asked Espion.

  "Apparently, he likes to fight alone," replied Espion quickly. "It's best just to watch from afar."

  Prosjak then bowed down before the Brandals. "Gentlemen, allow me to tell you the story of Prince Dosadno and Prince Neizvestan. Brother princes who protected their city in different manners."

  After Prosjak ended his sentence, the lid on the two chests opened simultaneously. Two human-sized puppets with the heads of jack-o-lanterns came out simultaneously. One of them had on a silver royal armor with two silver zweihänders. Whereas, the other puppet wore a golden royal armor and had a golden shield with a matching golden claymore.

  Neizvestan, Prosjak's puppet in silver armor, blindly charged at the bandits as the puppeteer moved him with his right hand.

  Meanwhile, Dosadno, his golden puppet, remained by his side. Rightfully so, as numerous bandits got out of the silver puppet's way and went after Prosjak directly.

  Dosadno blocked most of their attacks and got stabbed by the bandits' knives which the puppet could not stop. Yet, the puppet remained unfazed as it did not have a life bar and continued on fighting the Brandals.

  The silver puppet moved farther away from Prosjak as it slaughtered more and more bandits. One of them managed to hit the silver puppet's jack-o-lantern head, but the pumpkin head fixed itself right after the bandit's knife was taken out.

  'So, his puppets don't get damage at all. With that golden puppet sticking to him like an overprotective parent, there's no way Prosjak is going to get hit by the bandits,' thought Smoke with admiration and envy. He had just received new subordinates himself, but they were not immune like Prosjak's puppets.

  Despite Prosjak's fighting prowess, Smoke felt that it was still better to aid the middle-aged man than just to watch idly by.

  "Archers, aim for the bandits out of the puppets' reach!" yelled Smoke. Unsure whether they would listen to him or not.

  Luckily, the Archers followed his command and began firing their arrows. Smoke also equipped his power chainsaw bow and began attacking from on top of the castle wall.

  In the midst of the constant rain of boulders, Prosjak held the ground battle by himself, against more than a thousand bandits.

  Smoke and the Centzo Archers greatly reduced the life bars of the bandits on the ground, but Dosadno and Neizvestan fought like machines of death.

  Twenty minutes after the battle, the bandits near the southern wall were finally wiped out. Smoke used his enhanced-eyesight ability to see how many were left on the foot of the mountain. He found several pitched tents with only five-thousand bandits left guarding the catapults and trebuchets. He quickly jumped down the wall and landed right next to Prosjak.

  "Where are Macher and his Knights?" Smoke asked worriedly.

  "He should be down there inside his tent," replied Prosjak confidently. "I haven't seen any major movements coming out of there since the start of the battle."

  "I don't think he's there," blurted out Smoke and leapt off the mountainside, gliding straight for Macher's tent.

  "Igniz, light me up," he ordered his symbiote, and the dark ember sprite instantly obeyed.

  CRASH

  Torn pieces of the burnt tent floated in the air as Smoke landed squarely on it. He was left uninjured as the bandits near the siege weapons were taken by surprise of his sudden aerial attack.

  Smoke hurriedly took to the air once more before the Brandals could get to him. As he reached a higher altitude, he saw more smoke coming out from Incitant's side of the city.

  He hurriedly called Sierra.

  "Pick up, pick up," he said out loud to himself as she wasn't answering his call.

  With more buildings being destroyed on the western side of the city, he decided to head to Incitant's forces as quickly possible.

  * * * * * *

  Incitant's inner blockade was destroyed. Thousands of bandits along with hundreds of Cavalry Knights had already swarmed the western part of the city.

  Smoke saw a group of people hiding in one of the tall buildings throwing down pots at six bandits who were trying to break through their locked doors.

  Swiftly, he switched to his power chainsaw bow. Together with Igniz, the two of them targeted the Brandals. It took them less than two minutes to finish them off. He then created earth pillars to reinforce the defenses on the lower floors of the building.

  After saving that building, Smoke looked around and found dozens of buildings in a similar state. Brandals were on their doorsteps, forcibly removing the planks of woods on their doorways.

  'What in the world is Incitant doing?' he wondered to himself as he thought how to save all of them.

  "Igniz, cover the doorways with your firewall, but make sure that they don't hit their wooden planks," he ordered his symbiote. "We just need to make the bandits back off until I can get to them."

  After Smoke's command, Igniz immediately blazed down to the nearest building and started implementing his orders.

  Whereas, Smoke landed to the building next to it. Equipped with his black lightning rods, he bashed the skulls of the marauding bandits.

  He faced Brandals numbering from four to seven of them, who were harassing the tall buildings with Centzo's citizens in them.

  After he finished off five groups, he saw it. A water elemental, a four-meter-tall humanoid water-entity, was viciously attacking Incitant.

  BLOCK BLOCK BLOCK

  The Archbishop's shield was blessed with divine protection, and a small cross appeared over it each time the water elemental struck it with its fists.

  Incitant's life bar was still at 60%, but it only displayed (144,000/240,000 HP). Smoke guessed that he must have placed his stats on Intelligence, as he was not a battle oriented healer like Sierra.

  Smoke crossed the black lightning rods together and aimed at the water elemental. A blue, blinding flash erupted out of his twin weapons. His Lightning
Strike hit the water summon directly on its back, and inflicted 102,900 damage points to it.

  The water elemental instantly disappeared.

  "Thanks, Smoke. It was immune to my physical attacks, and I get separated from my magician members," explained Incitant defensively.

  "Don't worry about it," replied Smoke cordially. "Exactly where are—" he stopped talking as another water elemental sprouted right in front of them.

  Smoke tried to block the water summon's fist with his twin rods but was knocked back to the building behind him. He quickly looked around and searched for the summoner, and found a female Elementalist being protected by a male Archbishop.

  "Macher, over here. We found Smoke!" shouted the Elementalist.

  "Avidite, he can't hear us. Macher is on the other side, remember?" explained the Archbishop.

  'So, they're with Macher,' realized Smoke, and searched for the dastardly Cavalry Knight.

  "Incitant, head over to where your group is. I'll hold them off," said Smoke.

  "No, I'll support you while you fight them. You're a High Wizard, right? I work well with magicians," replied Incitant flatly.

  "Crescere Vita!" Incitant started shouting out blessings on Smoke. "Vitam Reficio! Medeis Reficio!"

  + You're Blessed with Crescere Vita for the next ten minutes: Your Maximum Life has increased by 25%.

  + You're Blessed with Vitam Reficio for the next five minutes: Your HP Recovery has increased by 50%.

  + You're Blessed with Medeis Reficio for the next five minutes: Your MP Recovery has been increased by 50%.

  "Oh, do you have one more of those one-hit K.O. attacks like that lightning one earlier?" asked Incitant curiously.

  "Hm. The cooldown for that one is pretty long, but I guess I have one more attack that could do as much damage," explained Smoke.

  "Good," said Incitant and blessed him with one more spell. "Duis Zamia!"

  + You're Blessed with Duis Zamia. The damage on your next attack is doubled.

  Smoke was amazed to see so many blessings at once, since this was his first time to fight together with an Archbishop.

  'No wonder Amahan and Tristan have such powerful attacks,' he thought to himself and hoped to have an Archbishop in his own private army soon.

  Suddenly, Smoke was forcibly brought back to reality when the gigantic water elemental started attacking the two of them.

  He swiftly switched out his black lightning rods for his white metallic staff, and created a concave Manatl large enough to protect himself and Incitant.

  SCHILD SCHILD SCHILD SCHILD SCHILD

  The sounds of the purple barrier being pummeled by the water elemental rang above him.

  "What kind of barrier is this?" asked Incitant curiously as he hid behind Smoke. " I've never seen anything like it."

  "It's a special kind," said Smoke enigmatically. "Anyway, that last blessing you gave me. It doesn't have a duration does it?"

  "Technically, it doesn't but it disappears when you log out of Zectas," explained Incitant.

  "Alright," said Smoke with a grin. "You better stand back for a while. We need to take a few more hits."

  After five minutes of the water elemental's incessant attacks, Smoke's purple Manatl still showed no signs of degradation.

  'My training with Ledur really paid off,' he thought to himself proudly, but he knew that it was time to finish this. He estimated that he had gathered enough energy for his purpose.

  "Run behind the building and stay there for a while," said Smoke abruptly.

  Incitant nodded and hid far away from him. With the Archbishop in a safe distance, Smoke canceled his Manatl and expertly dodged the water elemental. He used his Hyper Jump ability to glide to the top of the building.

  The female Elementalist, who controlled the water summon, searched for Smoke on the roof tops. Then, she sensed something was behind her, she turned around and was taken by surprise when she saw a white flash of light appear in front of her.

  Enhanced by Incitant's Duis Zamia blessing, Smoke struck his energized white metallic staff on the Elementalist's head and killed her with one hit. Her life bar instantly displayed (0/280,000 HP).

  The water elemental near Incitant lost its ability to hold its form, and turned into a puddle of water.

  Smoke quickly switched to his black twin rods and began attacking the Archbishop with the Elementalist. The Archbishop tried to block his attacks, but Smoke was simply faster.

  The Archbishop could not heal himself as Smoke wouldn't give him the opportunity. Finally, after three minutes, he drained his opponent's life bar to 3%.

  Smoke's opponent fell down on his knees.

  "Poltron, no!" cried out Macher from across the destroyed city block.

  Smoke watched Macher blindly charging towards him on top of his dirus wolf. He remembered how Macher betrayed him on the mounted race and trapped him inside the labyrinth. He glared at the Cavalry Knight and swiftly delivered the finishing blow on the Archbishop.

  "Smoke, you bastard!" shouted Macher and kicked his mount in order for it to run faster.

  Suddenly, a massive war hammer smashed into Macher's side as Stark blindsided him.

  Sierra and the rest of his private army shortly arrived afterwards.

  Smoke and Incitant rushed towards them.

  "Why are you here? I thought I told you to go to the southern gate?" asked a smiling Smoke.

  "Thyrsus' falcon saw you heading here. So, I knew something was up," explained Sierra.

  "Where are the two misfits? They're the ones carrying my magnetic rocks, right?" inquired Smoke as he was excited to see his metallic golems in action.

  "Laernea and Gandiva are still nowhere near us. So, you can't use your new toys. But Sharur and Jinggu should have their catapults set up soon."

  Smoke then looked over to the blown away Macher. His life bar was fully restored as one of his Priests went over to him. They still had more than nine-thousand Cavalry Knights at their disposal. The mounted Knights either had glaives or long-spears on hand.

  "What did I ever do to you!" shouted Macher from far away.

  Smoke was about to scream how he tricked him during the mounted race, but quickly remembered that it was his other persona, Ilad "the Flame Knight," who Macher tricked.

  "I detest how you and your men have dealt with the Zectians of Centzo!" shouted Smoke back.

  "Where's Ilad? I don't see any purple Flame Knight," said Macher as he observed the surviving Elemental Knights of the Vigilantez.

  "He's out on an important mission," answered Smoke. He lied to stall for more time.

  "Tell him that if he ever wants to step foot in Centzo again, then he better join my side," stated Macher boldly. "After all, I'm going to be the Mayor of this city."

  "Duke Macher! Doesn't it sound nice?" taunted the Cavalry Knight.

  Sierra then whispered to Smoke. "Sharur and Jinggu are ready."

  "Macher! Let me show you what I think of you being Duke," said Smoke menacingly.

  Twenty-six flaming boulders flew out from behind Smoke as the twin OrkElves used their captured catapults. The Cavalry Knights in the destroyed city block were targeted. Clouds of dust covered them as the rocks crumbled upon impact.

  Most of the bandits and the lower level Knights were flattened under the debris of rocks, but Macher and his private army of Knights survived.

  Smoke didn't see what ability they used to attack the boulders as his vision was blocked by the dust.

  "You didn't think that this measly attack will do us in, did you?" said Macher sarcastically and pointed his glaive at Smoke.

  The Priests under Macher worked fast on healing their injured party members. They created several white casting circles, and everyone inside it received healing as small white balls went up from below the ground.

  Macher kicked his dirus wolf's belly and rode angrily towards Smoke. However, a red Maneator stepped in front of his path. The Cavalry Knight used his glaive ability, Illusionary Strike, and n
ine afterimages of his weapon appeared.

  Stark tried to block Macher's attack, but was blown away instead. The Maneator's life bar displayed at 65% after receiving the Cavalry Knight's glaive.

  Unopposed by any other Vigilantez, Macher galloped forward to the DarkElf.

  Smoke created a concave Manatl and prepared for impact.

  TWANG

  Sierra suddenly leapt out from the side of the buildings and struck her Armored Armadillo Shield squarely on Macher's face and fell down his dirus wolf.