Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley (7 page)

* * * * * * 

Caid's casting circle of truth was similar to a lie detector. With this in mind, Sierra had hoped that she was able to protect herself from any treacherous Sonstwelters and only recruit the loyal ones.
The red werebear stood on a stage with a black and purple curtain behind her. She was in front of the entire one-thousand-one-hundred-eighty militia, six-hundred-ninety-two Knights, and the two-hundred-sixty-seven members from various guilds who wished to merge with them.
Mamelon, convinced the other guilds to disband and to merge with Smoke and Sierra's guild instead. The red werebear began her speech, after all of those present finished their pledge of loyalty to their guildium and Smoke.
"Everyone! I'd like to officially welcome you all to our new guild, Vagrant Vigilantez!"
The entire guild cheered and clapped loudly as their guild name was called out.
"We're called Vagrant Vigilantez because we're here to fight injustice wherever it may be. Vagrants have no permanent home and like them we'll roam all of Zectas and liberate the oppressed!"
Everybody cheered once more, but the Zectians in the crowd were most especially louder.
"We won't stop here in Verbrannt, and we won't stop even after we've freed Coatl. We will be the driving force that protects the weak and punishes the wicked."
The crowd roared with excitement.
"Now, I don't like long speeches. So, how about we enjoy our welcome feast and get to know each other better. Sharur, if you please?"
The muscular OrkElf opened the curtain and revealed an adequate feast, fit to fill the mouths of everyone present. A loud buzz of chatter was heard as guild members talked and got to know each other.
Sierra approached Mamelon to thank her again.
"Hey, I'm really glad you convinced the other guilds to join us. I'm thinking you have quite a talent there."
"Well, I don't know about that. It took some time convincing them, but in the end they eagerly wanted to join as soon as they heard that Smoke leading the guild. Also, I was just thinking that maybe Ilad could show his face more and thank me as well. I mean I haven't seen the guy for awhile now."
The wheel's in Sierra's mind were turning as she schemed.
"He's still pretty busy with screening the potential guild members at the moment, but I think you'd be a great help if you join his cause."
"Really? I guess when we've gathered enough people, Ilad and I could do some other stuff together as well?"
"Great! I'd like you to talk to Thyrsus after you're done eating. He'll set you up with the details."
Sierra proceeded to get to know more people in her guild, especially the Sonstwelters. A few minutes later, Thyrsus came to her and asked her a question.
"You told Mamelon that I could set her up with Ilad? But Smoke's out on a mission. How am I suppose to get her and Ilad together on a recruitment assignment?"
The red werebear chuckled as she heard Thyrsus' dilemma.
"Just tell her that Ilad's already left and she should catch up with him on one of the recruitment routes."
She wanted more members in the guild, but she wasn't going to allow Mamelon and Smoke on a special recruitment quest by themselves.
After a few more minutes, Sierra's conscience got to her, and she went to look for Thyrsus.
"Thyrsus, hey. I'll talk to her about Ilad. I'll tell her that he's unavailable at the moment."
"No problem with me. It's your call."
Sierra explained to Mamelon that Ilad had already left ahead of her. She also asked the Aqua Knight if she was still interested in being a part of the recruitment team.
Luckily, Mamelon still wanted to join. If it meant a remote chance of seeing Ilad then she was most definitely interested.
After their guild acquaintance party was over. Sierra had the members divide into their special division. She had Gandiva, Weise, Rassant, and Stark join her on another trip to the mausoleum.
She wanted to test out the militia members who learned how to use the composite bows. There were currently three battalions who had already learned the ability.
With their attack power greatly increased, the ranged militia members wiped out the skeleton warriors with ease. Their damage was not as high as any of their battalion commanders, but their numbers and coordination made up for it.
After the wave of skeleton warriors were finished. The skeleton archers and mages popped up. Only to be met with a torrent of arrows.
A squad of ten militia members focused fire on the skeleton archers and took the monster down with one shot. Weise, Rassant, and Stark did their best to block any of the attacks that were coming towards the militia members.
The Maneators were more than happy to be meat shields for the militia members. In the past few weeks of continuous hunting, the three of them have bonded with the refugees.
After they blocked the skeleton's ranged attacks, Rassant swiftly moved to the Archers and cracked their bones to pieces as he attacked them with his whip.
On the other hand, Weise went after the skeleton mages as the Bowed Fishermen gave him cover with their arrows. The gray Maneator stunned the mages with his shield while the ranged militia members finished them off.
The two Maneators eliminated the ranged skeleton monsters, whereas Stark remained close to the battalion. It was to protect them from the appearance of the mausoleum's boss, the skeleton knight.
Normally, Stark was the one in charge to tank the skeleton knight, but this time it was Sierra who leapt at the monster as soon as the mausoleum's boss appeared.
She only had 1% left on her experience bar until she became level 100, and she wanted to claim that missing experience today.
The red werebear went directly for the skeleton knight's neck as she slashed it off with her enormous sharp claws. She knew that one slash wasn't going to cut it. So, she forced down the skeleton knight on the floor and mounted it.
Her massive experience with fighting the mausoleum's boss gave her the clear advantage and vanquished the monster in a matter of seconds.

Sierra beamed as she saw the notification message. A sense of accomplishment filled her body as soon as she achieved level 100.
Grinding inside the mausoleum really paid off. She was in cloud nine. She finally had a guild with more than decent members in it.
The red werebear was ecstatic. Suddenly another game notification popped up.

An Aqua Knight equipped with full aquamarine mithril armor, rode on her bronze jackal. Mamelon, the Aqua Knight of Charnel. Her mount who grew significantly from the Mounted Race event, became large enough that it equaled the Cavalry Knight's dirus wolves.
She led a regiment of three-hundred-twenty-five assorted warriors, comprised of Elemental Knights, Shamans, Militia, and an elderly Light Wizard. They headed towards her origin city, the northern city of Centza.
She was accompanied by an Electro Knight and a Flame Knight mounted on bronze jackals. Each of them carried a banner of a flaming monster with orange flames for hair and two bent horns which pointed upward. Most of the guild's members thought that the image belonged to one of the Maneators, but Sierra assured her that this image belonged to another monster.
Apparently, Smoke called the red werebear and told her about this mysterious monster. Right below the mysterious fiery figure was their guild name, Vagrant Vigilantez.
Traveling with over three hundred men challenged Mamelon's logistics prowess. She made sure to stay clear from the roads near Coatl as she ventured onwards to the northernmost city of the Wysteria continent.
Mamelon promised Sierra that she would bring back honorable recruits for their guild. In return, Sierra gave her only two requirements. Potential recruits needed Light Wizard Baldaquin's approval and must be at least level 80.
Sadly, no one matched the Aqua Knight's strict checklist on their journey towards Centza. They met a few high level players, intrigued by Mamelon's massive regiment, but with just one look she could tell that those persons wouldn't pass Baldaquin's circle of truth. Those players wanted something else and she knew better than to give it to them.
At the time for their scheduled break came, Mamelon's regiment broke ground and made camp. As her men rested, she took her bronze jackal and went for a quick ride by herself.
Ten minutes away from her regiment, she spotted a distressed Halfling Scout being chased by three medium sized striped monsters.
She had met these aardwolves monsters before, but not this gigantic. The four foot Halfling's green leather armor was torn apart, and his life bar displayed (10,291/60,000 HP).
Mamelon reflexively galloped for the desert monsters. She equipped her Charnel lance, a lengthy aquamarine lance which glistened with water.
Still ten-meters away from the monsters, Mamelon performed three jabs with her watery lance. Each attack released an Aqueous Spike out from her lance.
Mamelon's Aqueous Spikes blasted the aardwolves away from the injured Scout and stunned them. Her bronze jackal pounced over the nearest aardwolf as she thrust her Charnel lance into the beast and killed it.
The two other aardwolves regained consciousness and ran for their lives.
"Jackol, don't let them escape."
Her bronze jackal mount responded and ran at top speed. She released another set of Aqueous Spikes and caught one of them.
As Jackol ran after the last monster who escaped, Mamelon leapt off from her mount and stabbed the stunned aardwolf with her Charnel lance.
Jackol caught the aardwolf's back side and dragged the monster down to the ground. The bronze jackal gnashed on the aardwolf's neck and ripped its throat off.
After the bloodied Jackol killed the aardwolf, it dragged the lifeless corpse of the monster back to its master. The bronze jackal laid down the aardwolf as its body disappeared.

Mamelon gathered the loot from the three beasts and went back to the injured Scout. She dismounted from her bronze jackal when she reached the Scout.
She went near the Halfling and asked him. "Are you alright?"
"Aardwolves everywhere... We thought we could do it... Louche said that it was a piece of cake..." Rambled the Halfing.
Mamelon slapped the hysterical Scout with her aquamarine glove. "Hey, snap out of it. You're safe now."
She stared into the Halfling's terrified eyes. It took him five seconds until he could speak.
"Thank you... I would have died if you weren't here..." he spoke with great difficulty, "But my friends... I don't think they made out alive."
The Aqua Knight smiled as the Scout slowly regained his senses, but a second later her eyebrows crossed as she worried about his companions.
"Friends? Where are they?" Mamelon asked.
Mamelon held a secret known only to her friends in real life. Her sound judgment eludes her whenever the situation involved allies and comrades.
"Umm... I'm not sure. Ten of us took on a Level C Quest, to defend Ennui village two days ago."
Mamelon took out her canteen of water and gave it to the Halfling. He finished the whole canteen in three gulps before he went on.
"We successfully defended the village, but it turned out to be a series quest." Earat lamented.
"The next part of the quest was to find a way to stop the aardwolves from returning. So, Louche proposed to go and hunt beasts in their den. Now, I don't know how my friends are doing..."
When she heard about his friends, she instantly wanted to rescue them without any consideration that this could be a trap.
"Why don't you give them a call, and check if they're still alive?"
"Right, right. I'll do that now. By the way, my name is Earat."
The Aqua Knight shook his hands and said. "I'm Mamelon."
As the Scout called his companions, so did the Aqua Knight. She called her two second in commands, the Elemental Knights, Virer and Courant.
"Virer, Courant, I need you to bring the regiment to my location."
"Why? Courant, check where she's at?" Virer asked.
"Not far, but she's way off the path to Centza. Mamelon, if we go there and do this wild crusade, we'll be delayed by at least a couple of hours."
Mamelon liked her two friends in real life, but they always gave her a hard time.
"Come on, this is important. I need your help now. I'll expect you to be here in less than ten minutes, okay?"
She dropped the call before they could give any more excuses. She turned to face Earat as he finished his call as well.
"So? Are they alive?" Mamelon asked.
"They are! I couldn't believe it myself." Earat beamed as he spoke.
"They've given me their location, but I don't think we could do anything for them. They said that at least a five hundred aardwolves had cornered them."
Mamelon smiled. "A five hundred, huh? Sounds like they'll give us some challenge. This could be fun."
When she finished talking, she snickered after she perceived Earat's muddled expression.
As they waited, Mamelon removed her helmet and revealed a petite freckled face. She explained that her companions would arrive soon, but Earat remained mesmerized by her innocent beauty.
The Aqua Knight interviewed the Scout about how they were placed into such a predicament, but Earat answered her with a blank expression.
She felt self-conscious as his eyes scrutinized her face and body. Suddenly, Earat asked her. "Do you really look like that in real life?"
Mamelon looked confused and said. "Huh? Look like what?"
"Umm, nothing. So, as I was saying. Louche said that they've currently barricaded themselves a cave with a bunch of rocks."
She nodded as she listened.
"So, Mamelon, just how many are your companions? From the way you handled those aardwolves, I know that you must be at least Level 100, but if there's only five of you then I don't think that would be enough to save my friends."
Before Mamelon could answer his question, a cloud of dust appeared over the horizon.
"I didn't know sandstorms were rampant in this area?" asked a troubled Earat.
There were two reasons why Mamelon considered helping Earat. First, because his aura gave her a positive vibe. Second, because whether Earat prepared a trap or not, she had a regiment of over three hundred men at her disposal.
"That's not a sandstorm. Those are my companions."
As her regiment of three-hundred-twenty-five men arrived, Mamelon grinned once more as she watched Earat's astonished face.
 

* * * * * * 

Mamelon and her men arrived one kilometer away from Earat's given coordinates. She asked Baldaquin whether he could create a Scoped Vision of their intended location.
The Light Wizard took out a marble tablet. He inscribed a magic circle on it and chanted the words "Teletrone Visione". Then, the tablet's screen displayed the five-hundred aardwolves camped outside of the blocked cave.
Mamelon saw the shaded grass patches, the hollowed tree trunks, and the small stream that ran across the entire place. After careful observation she concluded that this place was the aardwolves open den.
She looked at her men and Earat, and said. "I think the aardwolves must have lured them here. These monsters are smarter than the ones we've previously encountered."
"So, what's the plan? Attack from two sides? Or do we just ram straight at 'em?" Virer asked.
"I vote for the simultaneous attacks. I like its symmetrical advantage. We disorient them and divide their attention." Courant added.
Mamelon looked at Earat, and asked his opinion.
"What about you? What do you think?"
"Don't look at me. I've never been in a battle of this magnitude. The largest skirmish I've been in, involved only twenty people, and that was fifteen of us versus five of them."
"Alright, why don't we go for broke. I also want to see the Bowed Fishermen's attack power."
She looked to her two second-in-commands and said.
"Courant, gather your division of a hundred men and take the left side. Virer, you do the same on the right. I'll take the center."
"For our battle formations. It'll be Knights then Shamans then Bowed Fishermen, I presume?" Courant asked.
"Yes, and make sure that we don't have any casualties. I promised Sierra that I'd increase our guild." stated Mamelon.
"Are you sure it's Sierra that you're worried about, and not a certain Flame Knight?" jived Virer.
"Hmmp. Why would I care about what you think?" Mamelon answered back and briskly walked towards her bronze jackal.
"I'm not talking about me, you ninny. I'm talking about Ilad. Argh! Come on, Courant. Let's just finish this already." said an annoyed Virer.
"You know you deserved that, right?" Courant said to Virer as they walked towards their own mounts.
Each attack division comprised of eighty Bowed Fishermen, twenty Iron Knights, five Shamans, and three Elemental Knights. They gathered in their designated locations and waited for further instructions.
With all three attack divisions in place, Mamelon signaled the start of the aardwolves slaughter. Virer and Courant's sides attacked together.
The resting aardwolves were taken by surprise. The beasts howled as they warned their kin for invaders. A series of howls echoed throughout the monsters' open den.
Virer and Courant performed their roles admirably. The Iron Knights banged their weapons against their shields and created an irritating noise which taunted the aardwolves into a frenzy.
The monsters' attention were solely focused on the Knights, and allowed the Bowed Fishermen to release their arrows at their own leisure.
It took twenty arrows for a sole aardwolf to die, and the Bowed Fishermen coordinated their attacks well. Shamans diligently healed the tanking Iron Knights with Shallow Heal while they blessed the Bowed Fishermen's arrows with Lesser Fire Enchantment. The specialized Fishermen's Bow Fishing ability gradually gained experience as they continued on with their attacks.
As Virer and Courant's attack division fought against the aardwolves, Mamelon's men laid dormant and camouflaged. She waited for the right moment to strike.
Five minutes into the battle, and the two Elemental Knights' divisions killed a total of sixty aardwolves. Yet, after their successful attack, the two divisions slowly retreated by twenty-meters.
The Aqua Knight snickered as the aardwolves took advantage of their gained footing and pushed her army back even further apart. Little did the beasts know that this was her intention from the start.
Mamelon's lieutenants created a gap as they retreated from the divided pack of aardwolves. When the distance between the monsters became fifty-meters, she raised her Charnel lance into the air and yelled. "Charge!"
Her division of 125 men and women ran out from their hiding places, straight into the gap between the two divided aardwolves pack.
Mamelon's Bowed Fishermen used their advantageous position and attacked the exposed backsides of the aardwolves. They dealt twice their normal damage and even got in some critical hits.
The third division's sudden attack confused the rampaging aardwolves. Mamelon's Iron Knights not only defended their division but played a more offensive role.
They used their shields to push back the aardwolves who turned to face them and then pierced the striped monsters with their long spears.
The aardwolves who changed position to defend against the Aqua Knight's strike force were targeted by Courant and Virer's Bowed Fishermen. Painful back attacks came for the beasts no matter where the monsters faced. With Mamelon's complete strategy in play, it took them ten minutes to wipe out the 500 striped monsters.
As Mamelon's men collected the aardwolve's loot, she asked Earat to lead them to his friends' barricaded cave. When they got to the entrance of the blocked cave and removed the rocks, they were greeted with an empty cave instead of finding Earat's friends.
"Well, where are they?" Mamelon asked.
"Louche said that they were bored with waiting. So, they logged out for a while. They'll be back soon."
Courant and Virer exchanged suspicious looks. Before they could say anything, Earat called out the Aqua Knight and grabbed Mamelon's attention.
"We could wait for them here or we could go to the village that gave us this subjugation quest."
"Sure, why not? I'd also like to get some supplies for my men."
As they walked out of the cave a Sonstwelter appeared out of thin air. It was a Rogue Halfing equipped with brown leather armor, studded with black metal spikes.
"Earat, you really did it," said the Rogue.
"Louche! Great timing, bud." The Scout turned to Mamelon and her lieutenants.
"Everyone, I'd like you to meet, Louche."
"Thanks for wiping out the aardwolves for us. The name's Louche. Nice to meet you all." The Rogue then gave a dramatic bow.
"Looks like it's just me who's logged back in time. Were you guys headed to Ennui village?" Louche asked.
"Yes, we were." Virer answered sternly.
"Great! Mind if I join you guys? I'll just send my friends a message to come to Ennui village when they're back." stated Louche chummily.
"Actually, I do." The Flame Knight shot back.
Virer pulled Mamelon and Courant to a corner and whispered to them.
"I don't trust these guys. They seem really suspicious."
"I dunno? I'm not getting a bad vibe from them." Courant chimed in.
"Virer, would you feel better if we asked Baldaquin to test them with the Circle of Truth?" Mamelon asked.
The Flame Knight nodded. The Light Wizard, Baldaquin, inscribed a casting circle inside the cave. Virer didn't allow the Halflings to step out without getting tested.
When Baldaquin finished the casting circle, he asked the two men in question to step inside it. The elderly Light Wizard then placed his hands on the casting circle and said.
"Just a reminder, there are consequences if you don't answer a yes or a no. Now, let's begin."
Then, the casting circle of truth was engulfed in a bright white light.
"Do you have any hidden agenda towards Mamelon and her men?"
"No, of course not. We're just happy that she helped people that she didn't know."
As soon as Earat finished his answer the casting circle of truth turned green, but an electric bolt attacked the two men inside. They were electrocuted for 10,000 damage points each.
Virer and Courant laughed hard. They always amused themselves with the people who couldn't follow Baldaquin's instruction. Partly because they were once victims themselves.
The elderly Light Wizard's wrinkles contracted. Mamelon clearly heard his irritation as he reminded Earat and Louche once more.
"Tsk. Like I said, limit your answers to yes or no. Do you understand?"
Both of them answered. "Yes, yes, yes, yes."
This time, the casting circle of truth turned green without the electric shocks.
Baldaquin proceeded to ask more questions about their identities and intentions. All of which they passed with green colors. He nodded at Mamelon which meant that they passed his questions, but Virer had one last question for them.
"Do you know anything about Smoke's guild?"
Both Earat and Louche looked at each other and answered at the same time.
"Smoke? The famous DarkElf? I didn't know he had a guild."
Earat answered which made the casting circle of truth, lit up with green electricity and electrocuted them for one last time.
As both of them passed Baldaquin's questions, Mamelon agreed to go with them to Ennui village.
They only traveled for an hour to get to a barren land with hundreds of excavated holes. She observed that there were pickaxes and carts full of dirt near the holes.
Ten more minutes and they saw a settlement with less than twenty small wooden huts. She wondered why the Halfling had taken them there.
As she was about to ask why Earat, a notification window popped up.