Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo (21 page)

Smoke ordered the Maneators to remain on the side of the pool while he tested the waters out. He didn't know if there would be any negative side-effects to the emergence ritual. He unequipped his gloves, body armor and boots, leaving only his accessories and pants on.
He lowered himself into the deep pool and went under the cold water. Rising above the water’s surface moments later, he grabbed onto the side of the pool and ran his hand through his long, white hair. A notification window popped up.
 

While getting used to the temperature of the water, Smoke called for his Maneators to form a line. He ordered them to enter the pool one by one.
After his fourth Maneator finished the emergence ritual, Smoke checked his Asterian Aura bonus and was amazed to see a 50% increase in his attack power.
As they gathered outside the chamber, Weise turned to him. "What do we do next, King Smoke?"
Smoke checked his map. They still had two places left to explore: the Labyrinth Arena and the Surface Entrance.
"Time to go hunting. It's Krampus season," he answered with a devilish grin.
 

A full week passed since Smoke and Sierra left Verbrannt. During their absence, Smoke's private army members were tasked to lead specific efforts towards their village's growth.
Guro drilled the ways of the Gladiator into one thousand Farmers of Verbrannt. Some of them already had battle experience, while others only recently joined. They were inspired by Smoke and his private army's action to fight for their home and for the freedom of anyone who were oppressed like they were.
She had the Blacksmiths of Verbrannt manufacture heavy iron castings for their three-pronged spears. Before the sun rose, she had them jog around the village for four straight hours.
After which, they would fight each other in mock combat for three hours. After lunch, she would lecture them on the methods and techniques to efficiently use the spear.
In the afternoon they would toil the farmlands with a heavy plow and pull it by hand. As soon as the sun would set they would all line up and repeat the Ranseurs' forms for another two hours.
At night they were told to rest as they would repeat the same exact day, but only with a weight of five kilos added to their armors.
Meanwhile, the Bowed Fishermen, who had also increased in numbers, now reached seven-hundred-twenty members. Guro also turned her attention to them. She asked Thyrsus, Vijaya, Sharanga and Ichaival to assemble war chariots for them to ride on. Smoke's core members delegated the task to the craftsman of Verbrannt, and provided them with three hundred. The chariots were pulled by one aardwolf and it was big enough so that three people could easily fit inside while still having enough space to attack with their bows.
In the morning, she had them undergo training that involved using their bows while riding on the war chariots. Their targets were a column of poles lined up in a straight line. Whenever a Bowed Fishermen missed the target, they were ordered to jump off the war chariot and fire at the same target on foot until they could catch up to the war chariot.
In the afternoon, Guro asked the trained Ranseurs from Tatlong, Lugar and Pinagsama to help train them. The Ranseurs would charge at their war chariots and tried to attack their vehicle. While the trainees had colored-powder arrowheads and were instructed to stop as many as they could while maneuvering around them. The Ranseurs who got powdered would retire from the chase and were considered dead.
The Bowed Fishermen stopped most of their  pursuers, but eventually, they would always be caught. Similar to the Armored Farmers’ training, the Bowed Fishermen repeated the same tedious exercises.
This was the life of the Armored Farmers and the Bowed Fishermen for the past few days. Until, the Armored Farmers fought well in formations with their heavy encased tridents and the Bowed Fishermen finally reached a point where they could powder all their chasers without being captured at all.
After their training was completed, Guro turned Verbrannt's Armored Farmers into Ranseurs and the Bowed Fishermen into Arcus, the mounted archers of the Gladiator variants.
As the population of their village was increasing at a rapid pace and was still growing, Smoke's core members from Nanahuatl Thyrsus, Vijaya, Ichaival, Sharanga, Jinggu and Sharur led a mission for land expansion. Only Laernea and Gandiva were not present as Sierra had taken them with her. They brought with them the Banalite Archers, Acolytes and Iron Knights out to the largest forest near their village.
This forest was located in the outskirts of their southern wall and was called Anbau. Tasked to provide more land posthaste, Smoke's ranged core members expeditiously entered the forest.
However, Anbau was home to an army of mandrills. These monsters were old primates that closely resembled that of a baboon, only larger. Their levels ranged from 80 up to 110 and their life bars were well beyond 120,000 HP.
They spent the entire week subjugating the ten square kilometer forest. It was difficult, but their accumulated battle experience allowed them to face the mandrills without suffering any casualties. The only trouble they encountered in this endeavor was when Thyrsus and Vijaya had a lovers' quarrel on which section to go next, and when Ichaival teased Sharanga and he was caught in one of her five trap systems and a group of mandrills attacked them.
Meanwhile, Adder and fifteen of his Condortlian brethren spent the week sharpening their skills on the slopes of mount Engrais. They practiced sword swings, shield blocks and several strategic formations that would ensure their safety. Adder will not allow any of them to go to Mictlan before their time.
Aside from that, they also needed this training in order for them to get to know their new equipment. Adder had asked the Blacksmiths to forge his brothers better weapons.
A Claymore was forged into their bastard swords and made stronger. As a result, they were now thicker, but their weight did not increase by much. As for their shields, they were fashioned into square edges that would interlocked when joined with the same square-edged shield. With this, they could huddle into one solid cube, and could avoid any ranged attacks.
Finally, Ledur and his Tikbalangs used this period to replicate the architectural wonder that was the Gitna Dam, but the dam he created was only less than half of the original one. He used his Earth Manipulation to construct the dam and raised it to a height of forty meters and a span of one kilometer.
Simultaneously, ninety-six Tikbalangs were digging out canals for the irrigation system that would cover the entire farmlands of where the former residents of Tatlong, Lugar and Pinagsama now lived.
As Ledur and his Tikbalang brethren finished earlier than expected, they dug another irrigation system headed in the direction of Anbau forest. He anticipated that Thyrsus and his companions would finish their task soon, and the expanded land could benefit from a clean flowing water supply.

* * * * * * 

High noon on the seventh day, Ledur and the Anbau Subjugation Force met outside the walls of Verbrannt.
Smoke's ranged core private members walked over to Ledur.
Thyrsus shook Ledur's hand. "That was very proactive of you to prepare a water source here."
Ledur gave him a small bow in acknowledgement. "It's a basic necessity." He then pointed to Anbau Forest. "It's rather big. It must have been a challenge?"
"It is big, and it becomes even bigger when you have to clear the pesky mandrills inside it," joked Ichaival.
"Oh, stop complaining. I didn't hear you whining when you daringly took on the northern side of the forest with only the Banalite Archers," stated an irritated Sharanga. She pushed Ichaival out of her way as she walked passed them. She headed straight for the village, without looking back.
Ichaival scratched his head. "What did I do this time? We cleared the forest didn't we?" he asked around his fellow core members. "I really don't get that girl."
The twin OrkElves walked past him and shook their heads while chuckling loudly.
"Maybe that's why you'll never
get
that girl," said Sharur subtly.
"But even if you do understand her, it's not a guarantee that you'll still get her," added Jinggu and winked at his twin.
Sharur instantly stopped laughing and slapped his brother's back. "Was that really necessary? My situation is different from—" he stopped talking and stormed ahead.
Vijaya, who stood beside Thyrsus, joined in. "As you can see, Ledur, our subjugation of the forest opened up a lot of… emotions."
Thyrsus looked like he was about to react to what she said, but then saw three war elephants appear out of the clearing instead. "Smoke's here!" he shouted as he pointed to the thunderous noise the massive mounts were making. Sharanga and Sharur stopped walking into the village to welcome their respected leader.
Smoke and his Maneators got down from the war elephants. Igniz happily orbited around the core private army members and expressed how he had missed them.
However, the core members couldn't give the flying dark ember sprite the proper attention, as they stared in awe at the golden Maneator.
"I'm sure all of you would like to know who she is," said Smoke proudly. "Allow me to introduce, Adelige Mitleid, scion of König Mitleid."
Adelige made a dainty bow before them. "I am pleased to meet all of you," she said shyly. "King Smoke and my brothers have told me of your adventures and of your kindness."
Immediately, all of the present core members went to Adelige and welcomed her with either a hug or a handshake. Rasant, Stark and Weise started bragging on about their sister's prowess inside the Labyrinth. About how she never got damaged despite of being mobbed inside one of its great halls.
While his core members were exchanging war stories, Smoke spoke with Ledur.
"So, what have you been up to while I was away?" he asked innocently.
Ledur passively pointed to the forty-meter tall dam protruding above Verbrannt's wall.
   
"You made your own Gitna Dam?!" exclaimed an astonished Smoke. "That must have taken you ages."
"No, just seven days," replied Ledur passively.
"Right," said Smoke with a smirk. "I would love to take a closer look at it, but I'll have to do it later. Sierra said that she's going to arrive soon."
"Sierra's also returning today?" asked a surprised Ledur.
"Yeah. I spoke with her in our world, and agreed to return to Verbrannt at this time today," explained Smoke. "I guess she must be late."
Before their conversation could go any further, a dust cloud appeared from the opposite clearing.
Smoke used his Telefax Vision and whistled loudly when he saw what caused the dust cloud. "And here I thought I'd impress her with Adelige," he said out loud and shook his head in disbelief. "She said she would surprise me, but this is ridiculous."
As she rode in Gandiva's war carriage, Sierra led an army behind her. There were two Werebears he had never seen before riding in Laernea's war carriage. A pack of sixty-two Werewolves followed them on the right and a mounted regiment of over sixty Elemental Knights on the left. Mamelon's aqua armor shone brightly above the rest of the Knights as she rode in front of them.
As impressive as those two divisions already were, they were not the reason why Smoke stood awestruck at Sierra's arrival.
Rather, it was because of over four-thousand Lioumereans who followed after them. All four sub-races of the Lioumereans were present.
From their appearance, he surmised that they were the wandering tribes that Laernea had told him about before. They also brought their livestock, a creature called mouflon, which were similar to sheep, but had red and brown wool and the horns of a ram.
After a few more minutes, Sierra and her group finally arrived in front of Smoke. At the sight of the cuddly red Werebear, he remembered how he searched for her when he returned with Guro and the other refugees.
Suddenly, a strong urge to hug Sierra overcame him. This feeling was so strong that he failed to notice the smug look on her face as she was walking towards him.
"So, what do you think of the wandering Lioumereans?" she gloated. "It was a bit difficult convincing them to join. We had to travel to a lot of places to get to all of them, but we—"
Smoke didn't answer. Instead, he ran to her and pulled her in for a tight hug.
"Welcome home," he said in a whisper as he rested his head against her soft red fur.
Sierra was taken by surprise, but hugged him back with the same intensity. "I missed you too," she bent her head down and spoke softly in his ear.
They ended their embrace and held each other's hand. Sierra then looked at him curiously. "Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"
A smiling Smoke shrugged. "I don't know. Just felt like hugging you, I guess."
Abruptly, Sharur walked over to them and forcibly coughed. "Welcome back, Sierra. I have... I mean we have successfully cleared up Anbau forest and it is now ready for residency."
As the rest of the core members walked over to them, Thyrsus interjected. "I'm sorry, Sharur, but it's not yet finished. We still have to put up new walls, clear up the trees, build their houses—"
"Yeah, yeah, we get it. We still have plenty of work to do before it's usable," grumbled Sharur and stopped Thyrsus from talking any further.
Smoke stepped in between them and shifted the conversation. "Let's talk about that later. For now, let's welcome our new arrivals."
"Right!" quickly added Sierra and faced the Lioumereans. "I'd like you all to meet our newest residents of Verbrannt. The Lioumereans from the wandering tribes of Lenord, Lesud, Levant and Louest."
Smoke and the core members clapped loudly as they smiled at the Lioumereans.
"Due to their large numbers, they were often shunned in villages or cities. So, they had to travel all over Wysteria to allow their mouflons to graze."
Four Lioumereans of each sub-race stepped forward to meet with Smoke.
A panther Lioumerean bowed first. "I am Curieux Rosse. Leader of the Lenord Tribe."
Next, was a cheetah Lioumerean who bowed down before Smoke. "The people of Lesud call me, Larron Rosse."
"Badin Rosse's the name. From the Levant Tribe," said a tiger Lioumerean who followed afterwards.
Finally, it was the turn of the lion Lioumerean. "And I am Imiter Rosse from the Louest Tribe."
"Nice to meet you all," greeted Smoke with a smile and lowered his head before the four leaders of the Lioumerean tribes.
Smoke scratched his head and had to ask the question he had been wondering right after they introduced themselves. "I hope this isn't offensive, but why do all of you have Rosse in your names?"
Imiter answered on behalf of the other Lioumerean tribe heads. "It is a leader's duty to add Rosse to their name. This to remind all the Lioumereans that we are of one kind, even if our appearance may slightly differ."
Smoke smiled after he heard Imiter's answer. "That's very nice, but I think all of us belong to one family. Elves, Maneators, Tikbalangs or Lioumereans, all of us are alive and share the same world."
"Such wise words," said Imiter with admiration. "I think, Sierra, was right. We will be welcomed here in Verbrannt."
Then, all four Lioumerean leaders spoke in unison. "We and our tribesmen offer our fealty to you and Verbrannt."
"Thank you, but I think you should offer it to Sierra," said Smoke and pulled her beside him.
The Lioumereans did not question him, but told him that they already offered her the same respect and loyalty.
"Now, let's all go inside the village and feast!" cried out Smoke for everyone to hear.