Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley (33 page)

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Minutes after Smoke left to help Ichaival, Banal's main gate was forced open by twenty transformed goblins. The ten injured Tikbalangs that guarded the gate had been ordered to retreat to the third wall.
As Vijaya was carried by six falcons, she issued the same order to the twenty-two Condortlian Warriors who were with her.
With all the corpses consumed, the thin green monsters joined their transformed brothers and entered the area between the first and second wall.
"AYIII AYIII YIIII YIII YIIII!"
Dozens of goblins rampaged through the houses located on the outskirts of the village. Despite Smoke's efforts to lay out a straight path towards the second wall, these monsters tore down the boarded-up windows and doors and went through the houses in search of Banalites.
The goblins' attention was drawn towards the second wall when a wide opening appeared in it. Behind the opening stood one man, holding a gigantic double-bladed sword, seemingly taunting them to come and challenge him.
They shouted their battle cries at the top of their lungs as they ran towards the opening. The transformed dark-green goblins led the charge while hundreds of their shorter kin followed.
About ten meters after they passed the second wall, the transformed goblins threw their hands in the air as they desperately tried to grab hold of something.
The monsters fell down the deep trench as they ran into the second layer of Smoke's trap. As they were charging through the opening in huge numbers, they had a hard time stopping. Dozens of goblins fell while others were pushed into the trench by the goblins behind them.
The transformed goblins had bigger life bars and harder skin, which allowed them to survive the sharp wooden spikes planted on the bottom of the trench. However, the smaller goblins that followed had no such protection and were impaled on the spikes.
The life bars of ones that somehow managed to survive the fall were slowly depleted as they tried to remove themselves from the spikes. The goblins received Bleeding status and suffered from blood loss
The trench had smooth walls, making it almost impossible to climb out of. In order for them to escape, some of the transformed goblins started making a Gobble Goblin tower.
The other goblins that remained above ground, in front of the trench, waited for the results of the tower.
"Ayii. Ayyy ayayayyay."
Some of the smaller goblins seemed to discuss something among themselves and moved towards the long end of the trench. They started carefully tapping the ground next to it with their feet.
Ecstatic to discover that the trench didn't continue on, the goblins signaled for others to join them and rushed towards Adder with vengeful eyes. However, their advance was short-lived, as they fell into a different trench after taking a couple of steps.
Seven goblins were impaled on the wooden spikes and near death. Discouraged, the goblins that were following behind them returned to the first trench and checked on the progress of the Gobble Goblin tower.
Adder watched as the goblins across the trench started to shout and jump up and down. He interpreted it as a sign that the goblins were about to cross it.
As the Condortlian sprinted towards the edge of the trench, a transformed goblin leapt out and reached out for his head.
Adder expertly blocked the attack with the top blade of his BlitzSturm and countered it instantly with the bottom blade, severing the transformed goblin's hands.
The Gobble Goblin cried out in pain, but was quickly silenced as Adder decapitated it with two swings of his double-bladed sword.
Two more Gobble Goblins emerged from the trench to attack Adder, but they proved to be no match for Smoke's second-in-command.
As the transformed goblins fought, the goblins on the other side of the trench began willingly leaping into it and tried their best to avoid the wooden spikes.
Many were only gashed by the spikes, while a few were still impaled despite their efforts. The thin monsters that landed without being impaled immediately feasted on the corpses of the less fortunate ones.
After Adder defeated eight transformed goblins, he was left with 82% of his life bar. He only got hit a few times when four of them jumped at him at the same time.
Adder took out a chunk of smoked lemurcat meat and ate it snappily. As he chewed, he watched more than thirty transformed goblins emerge out of the trench.
"Attack!" Adder yelled out, spewing chewed pieces of his meal.
Espion and twenty-two Condortlian Warriors immediately came out of the third wall's gate. He firmly held his green dual knives, while the Warriors were equipped with bastard swords and round shields.
Six falcons swooped down from the sky and distracted the Gobble Goblins. Vijaya was running behind the Warriors with her bow in hand. As soon as she got in range, she took her stance and started shooting fire arrows into the bodies of dark-green monsters.
Running past her, one by one, the ten Tikbalangs were returning to the front lines after receiving quick treatment.
Adder, Espion, the Condortlian Warriors and the Tikbalangs were winning one-on-one fights against the transformed goblins, but many more were still coming out of the trench.
A large intimidating shadow flew over the Gobble Goblins. Two of the dark-green monsters looked up, only to be knocked back into the trench and skewered by the wooden spikes.
As Ledur flew directly above the trench, he noticed the Gobble Goblin tower the monsters were using to climb out of it. He used Earth Manipulation and abruptly tilted the bottom of the trench, knocking the stacked-up goblins off-balance.
Ledur then flew towards Adder and pushed away a Gobble Goblin that was about to attack him from behind. The two leaders gave each other a quick nod and went their separate ways.
In a matter of minutes, the transformed goblins were wiped out. Adder moved closer to the trench. There were still more than a hundred and fifty goblins left on the other side, while around eighty of the green monsters were stuck in the trench.
"Any more goblins outside the wall, Vijaya?" Adder asked the brunette Huntress.
"Kekekk keekkek." Vijaya asked her falcons and all of them gave out the same shrill in reply. "No, all of the goblins are here." she answered back with her bow at the ready.
Adder looked at Ledur and gave him the signal. The winged Tikbalang closed off the opening in the second wall and created a bridge over the trench.
The monsters were divided, as some of them panicked and tried to climb over the second wall, but they were easy targets for Vijaya's arrows and Condortlians' throwing spears.
The main gate's defending forces gathered in front of the bridge and waited for the Gobble Goblins to attack. The goblins snarled and growled at them, but held their ground.
"Maybe they're afraid you'll destroy the bridge once they try to cross it?" Espion thought out loud.
"Then let's give them a reason to cross it." said Ledur.
Ledur flew closely to the restless goblins in front of the bridge. He proceeded to zoom over them several times, tauntingly tapping their heads with his hoof every time he did and evaded their claws all the while.
Cornered, the Gobble Goblins gave in to their rage and two of them rushed towards Ledur. This started a chain reaction and soon enough, most of the goblins were charging across  the bridge.
The bridge was only wide enough to allow up to eight goblins to cross it next to one another, preventing the monsters from using their overwhelming numbers to their advantage. The goblins tried to force their way through the line of Condortlian Warriors waiting for them on the other side, only to be slashed and sliced by their bastard swords.
Vijaya kept shooting her fire arrows while her six falcons took turns diving in and attacking from the sides of the bridge. Espion stayed in the safe zone behind the Warriors' shields and would only come out to deal the killing blow on damaged goblins.
If one of the Warriors got injured, he would push back the monsters directly in front of him with his shield and quickly swap places with a Warrior from the second row. Meanwhile, the Tikbalangs took care of any goblins that managed to slip towards the side and tried to attack the Condortlians' flank.
The goblins couldn't break through the defensive formation of Smoke's private army and died trying to. Once the last of the charging goblins were on the bridge, Ledur calmly cancelled his Earth Manipulation and watched them fall into the trench.
The small number of goblins that was too scared to attack remained on the other side of the trench and huddled together as they waited for their imminent death. Ledur took pity on these monsters and created a sturdy earth prison, locking them inside it.
Swiftly, they started to kill off the trapped goblins. Ledur raised small portions of the trenches, which enabled Adder, Espion and the Tikbalangs to deal with the goblins on it.
Vijaya led the Condortlian Warriors and positioned them along the full length of the trench. They targeted goblins that were eating fresh corpses, preventing as many as possible from transforming.
Soon enough, all of the Gobble Goblins at the main gate were defeated.
A purple flare was launched from the direction of the back gate. Adder and others smiled, as it indicated that Smoke had successfully defended the back gate as well.
Moments later, they saw their leader gliding through the air as he descended towards them. 
"Great job! I knew you guys could do it. Were there any casualties?" asked Smoke.
"None. We were fortunate enough, but many have broken limbs and are in need of serious treatment." answered Adder.
"Well, at least you are all alive." said Smoke with worried face. He was extremely impressed by his private army members.
"What about the back gate?" asked Adder. "I hope there were no casualties there as well."
"A Banalite did fall down when Ichaival ordered them to retreat to the third wall." said Smoke and heard Vijaya gasp, "Don't worry, he's alive. Ichaival managed to pull him back up using a rope."
Smoke's voice became serious as he continued to recount the events at the back gate.
"Weise and Stark's life bars went down to less than 30%, but Rasant was the bravest on that battlefield. He only had 10% left on his life bar when he was retreating towards the third wall while being chased by two transformed Gobble Goblins."
Smoke could feel everyone hold their breath.
"Luckily for us, Jinggu's bolts finished off the goblins before they could catch up with Rasant."
"Praised be Cuezaltzin! I knew he would shine his light of protection upon us." Adder said out loud as he formed a fist and raised it to the heavens.
"Don't count your blessings just yet, we still haven't seen Crucibelle." added Espion. "Still, Smoke is as impressive as ever."
Espion patted Smoke's shoulders. "You've got a full life bar... and how in the world did you manage to deal with six hundred goblins?" asked Espion in an astonished voice.
"I had to eat a lot of...huh? What do you mean, 'six hundred goblins'?" said Smoke, confused by the question.
Ledur explained, "We fought about four hundred goblins. So we figured that the larger force went to the back gate."
"No, we only encountered three hundred at most. That's why I immediately came here." Smoke replied as he frowned and clenched his fists.
"Damn it! I thought we only had Crucibelle left. I'll scout the area from the top of the command center. Espion, I need you to go out and search for the missing goblins."
Without a word, Espion nodded and left the village.
"As for everyone else, gather the arrows and spears and return to the emergency shelter." instructed Smoke as he was about to fly off, but a black hoof firmly held back his shoulder.
"Smoke, I need to tell you something." Ledur said as he pointed to the earth prison he had created.
"What's that?" Smoke asked the winged Tikbalang.
"I captured a small group of goblins. They were frozen with fear and I couldn't find it in my heart to kill them since they didn't put up any kind of resistance."
Smoke promptly processed what Ledur told him. "Alright, just lock them up in one of the houses for now, but make sure there's no way for them to escape."
Ledur nodded and immediately went to transport the captives.
"I'll send an update to everyone if there are any developments. For now, focus on recovering your health." After Smoke gave his orders, he leapt up and glided towards the command center.

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Smoke glided fast. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of something burning. Igniz moved out of the way as he turned around to look. He was surprised to see smoke coming from the direction of one of the forest clearings, some six kilometers away from the main gate.
With the aid of his Telefax Vision, Smoke zoomed in on the site and saw that the missing goblins were all inside a large ring of fire.
From what he had observed in the past, Gobble Goblins normally did not harm one another.
However, the goblins inside this ring of fire were mercilessly killing each other. Some of them had rusted swords and axes while others only fought with their bare claws.
A figure dressed in a bright red robe, similar to what Terrabelle wore, stood in front of the flaming circle. Smoke focused on the mysterious person and saw a woman with long curly red hair and dark-red skin. She had her left hand clenched into a fist and pointing towards the flames.
'Is that Crucibelle?' Smoke wondered to himself.
As he watched the scene before him, he realized that this woman is the reason behind the goblins' killing frenzy.
Posthaste, Smoke glided towards the ring of fire carefully. He made sure to stay out of Crucibelle's line of sight. Igniz instinctively lowered his luminance. Smoke landed softly on the ground, behind where the Witch was.
He stealthily climbed a tree and hid in its thick leaves. He thought this was a perfect opportunity to use his newly-acquired symbiote ability.
He signaled for Igniz to fly higher above the tree. Once he did so, Smoke activated the Symbiote Vision ability. It allowed him to see what Igniz sees.
'This must be how Thyrsus feels when he uses his Falcon Vision.' mused Smoke.
Through Igniz's eyes, he silently watched the goblins kill each other. Igniz focused on one particular goblin that carried a double-headed axe. As it cannibalized other goblins, Smoke couldn't believe how fast it could gobble up an entire corpse.
In less than twenty seconds, the goblin had eaten four of its fallen comrades. Its belly looked like it was about to burst open.
The Gobble Goblin's transformation process then began. Its oversized belly started to make a pumping motion. With each pump, the limbs of the goblin grew longer.
After four pumps, the goblin's skin turned dark green and its transformation process was complete. This was the first time Smoke had seen the entirety of the goblins' transformation, since he was more focused on fighting them rather than observing them in the previous battles.
Still hidden in the tree, Smoke called Espion and gave him the gist of the situation. He ordered the young Spy to return to the village and prepare his private army for another round of bloodshed.
Since he only had Igniz with him, Smoke thought it best to stay hidden and just observe the goblins for now. He noticed that all of them had gone completely berserk.
After five minutes, none of the small green monsters were left; only fifty transformed Gobble Goblins stood inside the ring of fire.
'Fifty? We can easily handle that much.' Smoke smirked.
All of a sudden, the flames died out, leaving burn marks on the ground. The transformed goblins sluggishly moved around. Smoke thought that they look confused about what they had just done.
Despite using Symbiote Vision, Smoke instinctively ducked when he saw Crucibelle move. It took him a second to realize that she couldn't see him. As he focused on Crucibelle, Smoke found her curly red hair to be disturbingly attractive.
"Now, let's really heat things up!" she yelled.
She raised her left hand once more and a burgundy casting circle appeared around the burn marks on the ground.
A red progress bar whizzed right through as Crucibelle finished casting her spell in less than a second. The flames were ignited once again.
The confused Gobble Goblins instantly went berserk. The unarmed goblins scrambled for weapons while the ones wielding them swung them with great force.
Smoke saw several severed arms fly up in the air as the axe-wielding goblin they observed earlier chopped through its own kind.
Unlike before, it made sure to only disable the goblins that came within its range.
After seeing that no other Gobble Goblin was near it, the axe-wielding goblin stopped chopping off arms and legs. It dropped the axe to its side, got down on its knees and sunk its teeth into the flesh of its victim.
It ate the other goblins alive! Smoke could hear their screams as the monster gobbled them up. Smoke canceled his ability, as he couldn't watch such a horrendous scene any longer.
While trying to breathe in some air, a question struck him. 'Wait. If they're still eating, does that mean...?' He forced himself to activate Symbiote Vision again and watched the Gobble Goblin cannibalize its kin.
It looked like the transformed goblins could eat more corpses than before. The axe-wielding monster's stomach started to bulge only after it consumed eight bodies.
It went after one more victim.
Swinging the axe over its head, the monster made a clean cut in a screaming goblin's chest, jammed its claws through the wound and took a still-beating heart out of the goblin's chest before hungrily stuffing it in its mouth.
Within ten seconds, the helpless goblin's body was devoured. The axe-wielding goblin's bulging stomach then forced it to lay down.
Instead of just four, the bursting stomach made ten pumping motions. The Gobble Goblin's entire physiology changed with each pump. Its head became enormous, its limbs grew longer and its muscles doubled in size.
This transformation took longer to finish than the previous one. Slowly, a three-meter-tall Gobble Goblin with rough black skin stood up. It discarded its crude weapon as its bare hands could cause more damage.
Igniz looked around the area inside the ring of fire and found the same thing happening in several other places.
Without warning, the fire suddenly died out. Just then, Smoke and Igniz clearly saw five goblins in their new transformed state. These monsters were no longer Gobble Gobins; they were now called Gargantuan Goblins.
Smoke gulped when he saw them. 'They're as big as Maneators, but even bulkier.' he thought.
The goblins staggered as they huddled together. Crucibelle called out to them.
"Ayiii yiii yiii yaaa yii yiii..." said Crucibelle in Gobberish and went on to give a lengthy speech. Smoke grabbed this opportunity to call Adder. He cancelled his Symbiote Vision and warned his second-in-command of the incoming disaster.
He helplessly watched as five Gargantuan Goblins charged in the direction of Banal's main gate. A dreadful thought entered the his mind, 'If they had 150,000 HP after the first transformation, I can't imagine what their life bars are now.'
Smoke was confused about what to do next. He needed more information on the monsters, but there was no way for him to find out without the risk of giving off his position.
From his current location, he couldn't glide back to Banal village because he would be directly in the line of sight of the Gargantuan Goblins and Crucibelle. He needed to take a longer detour to avoid being detected.
After weighing the pros and cons, Smoke steeled his resolve and decided to risk it. With his power chainsaw bow at the ready, he waited for the goblins to pass the tree he was in.
Once the Gargantuan Goblins were at a distance of more than a hundred meters away from him, he took a stance similar to the one he did when he practiced archery in the real world.
On most occasions, whenever he thought about his lakeside experience, it was always the memory of kissing Sierra that would pop into his mind.
However, this was not one of those occasions. Smoke controlled his breathing. Part of his arrow's fletching grazed his right cheek as he pulled the string back as far as he could.
He fluidly released all the tension in the string and his arrow flew straight with intent. It passed through the branches that obscured him from sight. It sailed through the air until it finally hit its mark.
The arrow bounced off of the running monster's shoulder. 'What the...' Smoke couldn't believe it. He hoped it would cause more damage, but at least now the monster's life bar appeared and displayed (449,700/450,000 HP).
The Gargantuan Goblin stopped and scratched the place where it had been hit. After checking the small wound, it quickly hastened its pace and caught up with others.
The second transformation tripled the monsters' life bars and Smoke's arrow inflicted only a fourth of its damage to the Gobble Goblin. He clutched his long white hair in frustration.
Quickly, Smoke called Adder to inform him of the Gargantuan Goblin's massive life and defense, but he mostly wanted to tell him to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
"More bad news: these Gargantuan Goblins have 450,000 HP and high defense. They're running on foot, so you should have about thirty minutes before..."
BTOOOM!
Smoke's call was cut off as a huge fireball blasted him out of the tree and he fell hard on the ground. Surprisingly, he only received a damage of 1,965 points.
He looked at the tree he was hiding in just a moment earlier and found that it had been burned out of existence. He then heard Crucibelle's voice.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" asked Crucibelle out loud, "A DarkElf? Could
you
be..."
Igniz interrupted her by launching his own fireballs at Crucibelle, providing covering fire for Smoke. "What's this? An ember sprite dares attack me with fireballs? Nyahahah nyak nyak nyak!" he heard the Witch laugh as she easily blocked all of his symbiote's attacks.
Smoke reflexively rolled over and attacked the red Witch with his power chainsaw bow.
Each of his eight arrows did zero damage, as they were engulfed in small flames and burned away upon contact with Crucibelle's skin. His arrows did, however, display her life bar: (900,000/900,000 HP).
'What? She has more HP than Calamar!'
"A DarkElf with a dark ember sprite! It
is
you! You're the bastard who killed my sister Terrabelle!"
Two huge fireballs came out of Crucibelle's hands and flew fast towards Smoke. He easily evaded the attack with a sidestep and a jump, but then a third fireball came at him while he was still in mid-air. He twirled his body to avoid the attack, but despite his evasive maneuver, a part of his shoulder was hit.
This time, he was damaged by 1,890 points. Smoke's life bar displayed (172,395/176,250 HP). He looked at Igniz and smiled at his dark ember sprite.
Smoke knew that it was his extremely high Fire resistance that lowered the damage this much. He also realized that he got hit because he wasn't fully focused on the fight. He still worried about his private army members who had to face five Gargantuan Goblins.
Since his arrows and Igniz's fire attacks were useless against Crucibelle, he switched weapons and took out his deadly Chain and sickle of Dasende.
Crucibelle mocked Smoke for taking out his weighted chain and sickle. "Nyak nyak nyak! I'm the Witch of Immolation, dearie. Regular weapons can't harm me."
Smoke started a swirling motion with his sickle and increased the length of the chain in his hand with each rotation. With all his might, Smoke threw his sharp sickle at her.
Crucibelle responded by stretching out her right hand and creating a Fire Shield in front of her.
SLASH!
His sickle went through the Fire Shield and wounded her. He watched her back away as she clasped her bleeding hand.
As soon as he saw Crucibelle's life bar display (899,001/900,000 HP), Smoke let out a deep sigh. His damage was under a thousand points, but at least he now knew he could hurt her