Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo (5 page)

A drop of blood trickled down Adder’s chin and fell onto his body armor. Before him stood an opponent he never imagined he would have to face.
"You have to believe me. Smoke and I did everything we could to try and save you," said Adder sincerely as he slowly lowered his BlitzSturm. "We fell down a pit and couldn't get out in time to—"
"Enough!" yelled Tracas. "Do you think I'd believe anything you say? You even managed to get your arm back after abandoning me, and now you have the audacity to slice mine off!" The brown werebear waved his left arm.
"I didn't know it was you. If I'd have known, I wouldn't have..." stammered Adder apologetically.
Out of each other's reach, the two of them stood still. Guilt-ridden, Adder's strength began to wane as his mind was overtaken with contrition. Slowly, he loosened the grip on his sword and shield. This scent of shame was easily picked up by the brown werebear.
"Oh, what is this? Does this mean you'll stop fighting me?" Tracas let out a forced laugh. "Do you perhaps intend to save me from this cursed life I now live?!"
Disheartened, Adder didn't answer. He remained stoic as he stared at Tracas with remorseful eyes.
"Stop acting all innocent!" screamed the brown werebear and made a sudden dash towards the frozen Adder. He gashed Adder's chest with his claws. More blood spilled out of the Condortlian's body as multiple claw marks covered his torso. The brown werebear then grabbed a hold of Adder's shoulder and pushed him down.
Adder couldn't believe that he was speaking to the same young Condortlian they failed to rescue. Tracas spoke as if the last three months of his life were only filled with baleful experiences.
"You think this act of yours can cleanse my sins?" said the werebear with a quivering voice. "Do you think it can erase the memories of all the atrocities I had to commit?"
Adder shook his head and a tear trickled down his cheek. His weapons were lowered as he allowed himself to be attacked by the brown werebear. "We couldn't find any more clues as to where you were taken to. All we found in Pferde was Terrabelle transforming the mutated Centaurs into Tikbalangs."
Tracas sunk his claws deeper into Adder's flesh. "And now you have them as allies! Do you know what Terrabelle did? She feasted on some of the children. She sipped out their souls and left them as nothing but empty shells. Then, she sent the rest of us to lady Horrabelle, who performed experiments on us."
Involuntarily, Tracas shuddered as he remembered the torture he endured. "Most were turned into werewolves, while the special ones transformed into werebears. All of us now serve lady Horrabelle."
"But we could help you! Sierra, one of our leaders, is a werebear and she isn't under Horrabelle's control. In fact, she's brought some of the other werewolves to our fold. I'm sure we can figure out—"
ROOOAAARR
"Shut up!" yelled Tracas. His voice sounded unnatural, as if two persons were speaking in unison. He opened his mouth wide and took a bite out of Adder's shoulder.
Adder bit his lip as he muffled his pain. Tracas' bite reduced his life bar to 50% and inflicted him with Bleeding status.
"Werebears are special! As a Sonstwelter, that rogue werebear is even more so," he said in a confused voice, mostly composed of a child's, after spitting out a chunk of Adder's flesh. "She was never meant to be one of Lady Horrabelle's creations."
Tracas suddenly released his hold on Adder and turned away from him. Bewildered, he paced in front of him and began talking to himself in a hushed voice. "Snap out of it. Snap out of it." Tracas slapped himself and said in a child-like voice, "But he could save us. We don't have to be a monster anymore."
ROOOAARRRR
Tracas scratched himself across the chest as he spoke to himself in his regular voice. "Be quiet! The Tracas who lives now is the one who lives for lady Horrabelle."
A confused Adder stared blankly at the brown werebear as he kept scratching and biting himself. Tracas finally stopped and calmed down. With a trembling face, he turned to Adder and said, "I beg of you...kill me. Free me from this body. End my curse!"
"No! We can still save you," Adder replied hurriedly.
Tracas continued talking in a child's voice, "There is no cure for a werebear Zect—" Without finishing his sentence, he suddenly roared and charged straight for Adder with his remaining paw arched over his shoulder, about to perform a strong attack.
SLASH
Adder's BlitzSturm was propelled backwards. If it weren't for his Death Grip ability, his weapon would have been knocked out of his hand.
Tracas' claws swiftly came around for one more attack and left another set of claw marks across Adder's chest. The brown werebear followed up with a kick to the stomach, which knocked Adder three meters back and made him lie flat on the ground. The therianthrope then stepped on Adder's chest and kept him pressed down.
"Our last massacre wasn't enough to erase you, huh?" sneered Tracas as he spoke to himself. "We are stronger. I’ll show him the animal we’ve become because of him!"
The Condortlian Warriors around them were oblivious to their conversation; all they saw was Adder getting intentionally hit. One of the Warriors who was fighting a werewolf near them yelled out, "What in Cuezaltzin's name are you doing? You can't die here, Adder!"
"Stay out of this, you loudmouth!" Tracas yelled at the Warrior and charged straight for him. The Warrior reflexively tried to block the werebear’s attack, which gave the werewolf he was fighting an opportunity to grab hold of his arms. Tracas' claws went straight for the Condortilian's heart and yanked it out. The Warrior's life bar instantly dropped to zero.
With a bloody heart in his paw, Tracas raised it above his head and yelled to the Condortlians nearby, "This is what I'll do to all of you!" He opened his mouth wide and wolfed down the heart in a savage manner.
SCHIK
The moment he gulped it down, Adder's BlitzSturm appeared out of nowhere and went straight through his stomach.
Adder's body moved on its own. His double-bladed sword sliced sideways and exited out of Tracas' body.
"Forgive me…." Adder spoke with sorrow as he stared at the blood dripping from his sword, unable to force himself to meet Tracas’ gaze.
The brown therianthrope dropped to his knees, clutching his cut side. "Liar...I told you he was a liar," he spoke to himself as blood gushed out of his mouth. "Just like when he promised he’d keep Condortl safe."
The brown werebear's life bar dropped to 5% and was steadily going down at a fast rate due to Bleeding status. "You're a hypocrite, Adder. You pretend to be a hero out to save the world, but you can't even protect your own people."
Adder fell silent and stood motionless. He couldn't find it in himself to finish off Tracas. Then, the anger in the brown werebear’s eyes started to fade and his body collapsed to the ground.
"Thank you, lord Adder....Horrabelle still holds some children captive...in the crater on Mount Foudre. Please...save...." Tracas spoke his final words in a soft, child’s voice before his life bar displayed zero.
Slowly, Adder knelt down next to Tracas' body and let go of his sword. With a heavy heart, he wiped the blood on the sides of Tracas’ mouth.
"You may be right. The promises I made might have been just wishful words born out of confidence or hope,” he said quietly while closing Tracas’ eyelids. “But I ask of you, believe my words one last time. Because I promise you, I will save the ones on Mount Foudre."
With Tracas' body starting to disappear, Adder stood up, tightly gripping his sword and shield.
“And that damned Witch who made you suffer
will
be brought to justice.”
 

* * * * * * 

The two towering figures of a red Maneator and black Werebear overshadowed the werewolves and members of Vagrant Vigilantez surrounding them.
It had already been several minutes, but none of Stark's attacks dealt significant damage to Vexant. However, the same thing could’ve been said for her, as she couldn't get pass Stark's defenses. Their life bars were almost on par, with Stark at (342,298/389,000 HP) and Vexant at (376,190/392,000 HP).
Looking to gain the upper hand, Stark gambled with a wide strike with his glaive.
SLASH
Stark's glaive gashed a long wound on Vexant's shoulder, but his successful attack came at a price. The black werebear swiftly took a step forward and sunk her claws deep into his stomach.
While trying to pry open the red Maneator's abdomen, she felt a strange, draining sensation. Her Strength was greatly decreased.
Stark used this opportunity to release himself from Vexant's clutches and attacked her from the side. The black werebear backed away and saw that the werewolves around her noticed the same effect she did.
All members of a pack of Therianthropes receive a significant stat boost if the pack is led by both a male and a female Alpha. Vexant knew that having her power suddenly reduced could only mean one thing: Tracas died.
"Werewolves, slaughter the man who killed your Alpha! Gardes du Corps, you stay behind," she roared and pointed to where she had last sensed Tracas’ presence. Almost all of the werewolves near her hurriedly left the enemies they were facing and scrambled through the Vigilantez in order to hunt down Adder.
AWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOO
The irrepressible group of werewolves howled menacingly in unison as they moved towards their prey. A bright purple light in the sky then caught their attention as it passed straight through the treetops and came crashing directly at them.
CRASH
Molten rocks flew everywhere. Smoke had landed smack in the middle of the werewolf pack, stunning and damaging ten of them with his Comet Crush ability. Equipped with Digger's Wand, he pointed it directly under his feet and created a wide pit.
Smoke and the stunned werewolves lost their balance as they went free falling down a depth of a hundred meters. As they were falling, the stunned werewolves came to and went after the DarkElf. He used his Claws of Chiropterra to hold onto the side of the pit and stop his rapid descent. The werewolves tried to do the same, but Smoke used his Earth Manipulation ability to make sure that their claws don’t get a proper hold.
Once the werewolves hit the bottom of the pit, he created layers of earth bars above them and locked them up. His Cunning of the Dire Fox sensed that there were no more werewolves waiting for him outside of the pit, so he quickly scaled out of it. With Adder leading them, the Vigilantez had made sure to clear the path for their guild leader to safely come out.
Adder was fighting against three werewolves, while Laernea and Gandiva—on the backs of their stag moose—were each faced against one. Sharur was firing his poison bolts at the lycanthropes as he stood beside Sharanga, who had already immobilized two of the beasts with her five-trap system.
Meanwhile, the Armored Farmers split into groups of four, each group trying to contain one werewolf while the Bowed Fishermen dealt damage to it from afar.
ROOOOOAARR
Vexant cried out as soon as she saw Smoke climb out of the pit.
"Gardes!" she yelled and five werewolves started fighting Stark in her place.
Freed from the red Maneator, she hurriedly plowed through the Vigilantez blocking her way. The black werebear was set on killing the flashy DarkElf who ruined her revenge.
However, before she could reach him, a red werebear blindsided her and tackled her to the ground. Sierra unleashed her feral claws at Vexant's throat, but despite her surprise attack, the black werebear managed to push Sierra off and regain her balance.
"The famous rogue werebear..." Vexant snarled as the two circled around each other. "Lady Horrabelle has a special message for you. But first, I will make you pay for getting in my way."
With her claws at the ready, Sierra replied strongly, "I don't care what—"
Not letting her finish her sentence, Vexant lunged through the air and tackled her down. The black werebear's canines sunk deep into Sierra's left shoulder. She cried out in pain and forced Vexant off of her with a knee strike. The Lady of Verbrannt instantly turned the tables and mounted her opponent.
SLASH SLASH SLASH SLASH
Blood and fur flew everywhere as Sierra's claws scratched Vexant's face. She quickly brought down Vexant's life bar to 70%. Then, she stopped her claws midway into another attack as her Animal Instinct ability detected two werewolves heading towards her.
Sierra looked up and got clawed across the face by Vexant in response. She was forced to release her hold on the black werebear and backed away. She did a quick scan of her surroundings and estimated that there were about fifty enemy werewolves left, ten of which were trapped inside the pit Smoke created. She was already having a hard time against Vexant alone, and now she would also have to face two of her werewolves that were coming to her aid.
She looked at Smoke and found him fighting against three werewolves at the same time. As he was about to kill one of them, she yelled, "Vigilantez! Don't kill the werewolves! We just need to kill this black werebear."
Shortly after Sierra's order, three poison bolts pierced Vexant's back, followed by four Durcules beetles' horns, forcing their target to the ground.
A torrent of arrows and bolts rained down on Vexant, and her life bar was quickly reduced to 45%. From among the crowd, a charging red Maneator leapt forward, with his glaive aimed at the temporarily-immobilized enemy.
However, before his weapon could pierce the back of the black werebear, Adder's Condortlian Shield blocked it.
"Stop! We can't kill her yet," said Adder as he defended Vexant. He needed her alive in order to get more information on Horrabelle's hidden lair.
As soon as the black werebear saw the murderer of her mate, she swiftly got up into a crouched position and used Double Slash on Adder, knocking him back.
Smoke, who had leapt away from the two werewolves he had been fighting earlier, wondered what Adder was doing. At the sight of the black werebear rampaging once more, he called out their master trapper.
"Sharanga, use your eight-trap system!"
The WoodElf Huntress and her falcon Ranga threw a series of traps onto the black werebear. The individual traps stuck to Vexant's black fur and instantly interlocked with each other, creating a cumbersome weight of one metric ton.
The alpha werebear tried to break free, but found herself unable to move at all. "Werewolves, run for your lives and report to lady Horra..."
KLONG
Adder bashed his shield into Vexant's face and stunned her, but she had already given her last command to the forty werewolves remaining in her pack. All of them scattered and successfully escaped out of the forest.
Sierra was about to call out to her werewolves and order them to group up at her location, but they were still engaged with the remnants of Brandal forces caught in the entrapment.
With the swift escape of the enemy werewolves, the conflict in the southern forest had been resolved. Only the members of Vagrant Vigilantez were left, with the exception of a pinned-down black werebear.
Smoke quickly joined Adder, who was standing beside Vexant.
"Where is Mount Foudre?" angrily asked Adder as he pressed the tip of his blade against Vexant's cheek.
"What makes you think I'll tell you?" smirked the captured Werebear.
Adder clicked his tongue. "If I hurt you just right, then the little girl trapped in that body should come out."
Smoke pulled Adder back as he wanted to understand what was going on.
"Wait a minute, who is this? And why do you need to torture her?" he said while holding back Adder's arm.
The confounded Condortlian wasn’t sure how to respond.
"I killed him..." He paused, as he still couldn't accept what he was forced to do. "There was another werebear that attacked us. It was Tracas, the boy we couldn’t save from the mutated Centaurs."
Smoke instantly remembered the nine-year-old boy he met in Condortl when they were building up its defenses. He recalled how they failed to pursue the mutated Centaurs because they fell inside Mount Aeriloc.
He released Adder as the Condortlian's eyes displayed strong conviction to redeem himself. Although he didn’t get the answer to his question, he let Adder be.
As soon as Smoke released him, Adder's blade cut into Vexant's cheek. "Tell me! Where is Mount Foudre?" he yelled into the black werebear's ear.
Vexant's life bar started to wither to 39%.
"You are not wrong,” she said. “The girl….I can hear her. She is shouting, daring to oppose me."
Adder smirked and slowly deepened the cut on Vexant’s cheek.
Yet despite her captured state, the black werebear grinned back at Adder. "However, lady Horrabelle thought of everything."
She stuck out her tongue and bit it. Multiple lightning sparks erupted from of her body, and her black fur started to glow bright red.
As soon as Smoke saw this, he pulled Adder away from Vexant and shouted to the Vigilantez in the area, "Run!"
BTOOOM
Vexant's body exploded, discharging electricity all around her. Pieces of rock and chunks of Vexant hit the backs of everyone who was caught in the blast radius, sending them tumbling to the ground.
Most of the knocked-down Vigilantez then groggily sat up and looked around in confusion, while others had been knocked unconscious.
After the cloud of dust created by Vexant's suicide attack settled, Smoke turned to Adder.
"Tell me everything."