Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo (26 page)

Simultaneously, the Witch raised both her hands and unleashed her Dark Chain Lightning. The two of them delivered their attacks and both were blown backward from each other.
Smoke rolled on the ground and was left with 15% on his life bar. In a crouched position, he created a smaller Manatl. He took deep breaths as he was beginning to feel dizzy.
The low glow from his purple Manatl somewhat illuminated the dark earth-dome, and he could see Horrabelle's silhouette coming steadily towards him.
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK
Smoke then heard the sound of the Cavalry Knights almost breaking through the dome. He then heard Horrabelle's voice.
"It appears that the time has come," she said slowly and drew closer.
When Horrabelle was only a meter away, he could see a clearer image of her in the dim purple light. She only had less than 3% left on her life bar. Percentage-wise, Smoke's life bar appeared to be higher, but Horrabelle's actual HP was still more than what he had.
With both her hands raised, Horrabelle shouted. "Maledict!"
A black lightning erupted out of her fingers and transformed into a crow. It flew straight into his chest and exposed his X-shaped scar.
"Argh!" cried out Smoke in agony.
A notification window then popped up.
 

At once, a black aura appeared below his feet, and his life bar was steadily being drained. He quickly grabbed his necklace, and used the Heart of Reente's regeneration. He gambled that it would work despite the curse being in effect.
Luckily, it activated without a problem and began to restore his life at 2% HP per second, but it came at a cost of his mana. Even though he still had enough MP to sustain the necklace's ability to 26% HP, he wondered if he could last that long.
The Witch only needed one more attack, and he was sure to be a goner. He cursed under his breath as he had almost killed her.
"Nyak nyak nyak," laughed Horrabelle as she poised to cast her Dark Chain Lightning.
"With this, my sisters will finally smile in Mictlan as I have avenged their—" Horrabelle stopped talking as blood dripped out from the side of her mouth.
From his crouched position, Smoke could see Sierra's claws pierce through the Witch's chest. She drained Horrabelle's life bar to zero.
The last Witch of Wysteria's dead body slumped down on the floor. An exhausted Sierra dropped down beside her.
A notification window popped up shortly after.
 

As the corpse of the black Witch of Malady faded into oblivion, it left behind several items.
 

Smoke quickly gathered Horrabelle's dropped loot. He then switched out his white metallic staff with his Digger's Wand and pointed it directly under the collapsed red Werebear.
Sierra fell down the tunnel he created and he jumped in immediately after her. Smoke then closed the tunnel's entrance before the Cavalry Knights could break through the dome.
 

* * * * * * 

Ten minutes passed inside the moist underground cave that Smoke built. It was barely big enough for Smoke and Sierra to sit comfortably together. It was also sealed off from the surface, except for the several small air holes he created. With a flowing air supply, Sierra was able to breathe normally again.
Smoke also allowed Igniz out of his metallic container and had his symbiote illuminate the small chamber. He thought about creating a larger hole and sending Igniz out to inspect what Macher and his Cavalry Knights were doing, but decided to delay it a bit longer.
He was concerned for the Decay Aura curse, but decided it was not the time to tell Sierra about it.
Instead, he took out the items he looted from the Witches of Wysteria and showed them to her.
"Here, take them," he said proudly. He smiled at her as he gave her three blood vials. "We finally did it, and you delivered the finishing blow."
With her shaking paws, Sierra took the three vials and stared at them with disbelief. "What do I do, now?" she asked out loud and saw a notification window pop up.
 

Sierra looked at him with teary eyes. "Smoke, we have to gather all the Werewolves and Werebears," she said excitedly. "I think there's hope for them yet."
"And what about Ledur and his brothers?" he asked hopefully.
"Oh, of course. Them too," she replied guiltily and lightly slap herself in the forehead for forgetting about them. "We should head over to them now."
"Alright, let me just send Igniz out and check on what Macher and his Cavalry Knights are doing above," he said quickly and created an entrance to a shaft that his symbiote could squeeze into.
While Igniz was flying out of their cave, Smoke took out the other items he got from Horrabelle. He had set them aside as he focused on taking care of Sierra as she recover her HP.
"Hey, let's checkout Horrabelle's other items," said Smoke in high spirit. "Maybe we'll know something about this High General she was working for?"
Sierra shrugged. She was only paying half attention to Horrabelle's other loot as all that mattered to her were the blood vials.
Smoke first took out the Electromagnetic Golem Offering and inspected it.
 

He whistled loudly after he finished inspecting the item. If he equipped this ring, then he could fulfill the conditions for acquiring the Lightning Manipulation tome.
"Mm, Sierra. You won't mind if I keep Horrabelle's ring for myself, right?" he asked nervously. He had the other two items from the previous Witches, but Sierra deserved Horrabelle's dropped items.
Sierra wasn't paying any real attention to him, and was still smiling from finally completing her racial quest. "Sure. Keep it. I don't mind."
"Thanks, Sierra. I knew you'd say that," he said quickly and equipped the Electromagnetic Golem Offering. He then took out the ability tome entitled "Lightning Manipulation".
 

The ability tome bound in specially leather with silver lining instantly vanished after being consumed.
 

Smoke excitedly stretched out his hand open and tried to fire out a lightning bolt. He imagined lightning coming out of his palm, in a similar way as he created a Manatl. Yet, nothing happened. Not even a spark came out of his hand.
"Strange? Nothing's coming out," he said out loud. He wondered why the Lightning Manipulation didn't immediately work when the Earth Manipulation allowed him to control the earth right from the start.
For several attempts, he repeated the same actions as Horrabelle fired out his lightning bolts but nothing happened.
Finally, Sierra patted him on the shoulders. "Stop. I don't think you'll be able to fire lightning bolts. After all, the ability is Lightning Manipulation not Lightning Creation."
In truth, Smoke came up with the same realization a few minutes ago, but didn't want to admit it to himself. However, after hearing it out loud, he had to accept the reality that the ability could only manipulate lightning.
Smoke let out a deep sigh. "Yeah, I think you're right. I'll just try it out with Aral's Lightning Rods, later. Anyway, there's still a parchment and a book."
He quickly took out both of the items and began to acquire their knowledge at once. The progress bar on the parchment displayed five seconds, while the book displayed fifty.
After a few seconds, an Information window popped up. He read it out loud for Sierra to hear.
 

'Is this letter suppose to be for her High General?' wondered Smoke to himself.
"Do you think this could be for Horrabelle's Boss?" she asked him the same thing that was already in his mind.
"I think so," replied Smoke with a grin. He couldn't help himself, but smile at how similar their thinking was lately.
"What's so funny?" asked Sierra with her eyebrows crossed.
"Nothing. Nothing, I swear," he said defensively. He quickly tried to redirect the topic. "You know, I owe you an apology."
"What? For being mean and laughing?" asked Sierra and punched him in the shoulder.
"Ouch!" he yelped out, as Sierra's attacks packed quite a punch even if she was just messing around.
"No. I wasn't laughing at you," he said, while massaging his bruised shoulder. "For the record, I was just smiling."
Smoke straightened his body and put on a solemn face. "I'd like to say sorry, about being such a jerk with starting the Vigilantez. I know I argued with you about it at first, but the guild really helped us a lot."
Sierra's eyebrow instantly rose as Smoke had a serious problem with trusting other Sonstwelters. "Then, I guess a long overdue 'I told you so' is in order?"
She tried to make him laugh or at least smile, but Smoke was dead serious about regretting his decision on not forming their guild sooner.
Smoke breathed in deep. "Listen, I just want you to know that I'm still not comfortable with other Sonstwelters, but when you took me out of my comfort zone, you showed me that there are Sonstwelters we can trust."
Sierra smiled and looked him straight in the eye. "In the future, you just need to remember one thing. I'll always know what's best for you, especially when you argue about it with me."
Before he could say anything in response, the second book's Information window popped up.