Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo (9 page)

SLASH
Adder moved his shield out of the way as he pulled BlitzSturm out in one fluid motion. He sliced through Schrecklich's left arm and it dropped down as blood gushed out of its body. He still held his double-bladed sword over his head, as he couldn't believe the power of the attack he performed. He was smiling, when he suddenly noticed the monster's head coming straight at him with its mouth wide opened.
Schrecklich sunk its teeth deep into Adder's neck. With his left arm still pulsating from the newfound strength, Adder brought back his sword and severed the monster’s head. As it rolled across the floor, its life bar displayed zero.
Adder dropped to one knee, and a notification window popped up.

Smoke dismissed the window and ran to where Adder was. Along the way, he swiftly picked up the items dropped by Schrecklich.

Smoke didn't pay much more attention to the items, as he was more concerned about Adder. His friend was Bleeding and only had 5% of his life bar left. Despite Adder’s increased health regeneration granted by his Self-Heal ability, he was still losing HP.
He always reminds his private army members of the importance of their lives, but Adder has a tendency to fight to the brink of death. "I told you not to overdo it,” said Smoke while supporting Adder’s back and helping him lie down. “I'm not letting you die on me, Abaven."
With his open palm pointed at Adder, Smoke used Life Share. A small ball of white light formed in front of his hand and launched itself towards the injured Condortlian, hitting him in the chest and healing him for 3,640 HP. At the same time, Smoke’s life bar went down and displayed (149,765/181,997 HP).
Thirty seconds and fifteen balls of light later, Adder was out of critical condition. However, he was still Bleeding. “Hold still, this will hurt,” said Smoke. He took out a fire arrow out of his backpack window and pressed the arrowhead against the wound on Adder’s neck. His friend cried out in pain as the arrowhead inflicted a small amount of Fire damage upon contact with his flesh, but understood that it served to cauterize the wound and remove the Bleeding status.
Seeing Adder’s life bar slowly starting to fill up on its own, Smoke heaved a sigh of relief. Turning his attention to the other side of the room, he saw that the Centaur Rangers had 25% of their life bars remaining, while the Condortlian Warriors who hid behind them had less than 10% left. They were cornered by thirteen green monsters that still had 39% of their life bars..
Fortunately, none of his men had died yet, but he needed to act fast to ensure it stayed that way. He equipped his white metallic staff and dashed towards his team.
With the aid of his Lunar boots, he leapt over the green monsters and stood between them and his men. He then created a flat vertical Manatl as wide as he could manage, leaving only his head and feet exposed. He ducked immediately afterwards, as the Varanus Indicus wasted no time in reaching for his head.
Due to the numerous Life Shares he gave Adder, Smoke was left with (95,165/181,997 HP) on his life bar. With most of the mutated Lizardites now going after his feet, he had to constantly jump around to avoid their attacks.
"Centaurs, use your arrows!" ordered Smoke while desperately dodging.
The Centaurs immediately followed his command and fired their arrows, while the Warriors took out pieces of grilled ancient bison meat to recover some of their HP.
Only two minutes passed, but Smoke felt exhausted from evading most of the Varanus Indicus' attacks. His life bar had already whittled down to 33%, but most of the green monsters still had 25%. Meanwhile, most of the Warriors had recovered 10% of theirs.
Smoke waited for the right opportunity to order them to attack. He knew that the Centaurs' arrows alone could not kill them all, as well as that his Manatl wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.
Suddenly, Adder's BlitzSturm came crashing down on one of the Varanus Indicus and sliced its torso in half.
"Warriors, now!" shouted Smoke.
Simultaneously, ten Condortlian Warriors climbed onto their Centaur comrades' backs and jumped over Smoke's Manatl. All of them delivered swift strikes across the backs of the Varanus Indicus behind them.
At the same time, Smoke canceled his Manatl and drove his charged white metallic staff into the chest of the nearest Varanus Indicus, instantly depleting the monster’s remaining HP.
Smoke was about to attack the next closest mutated Lizardite, but Adder's BlitzSturm beat him to it and sliced through its body. Meeting Adder’s gaze, he acknowledged his desire to keep fighting despite his weakened state, but still stayed close to him to ensure his safety. As the battle continued, Smoke’s team overpowered their enemies.
After almost an hour since they entered, Smoke and his men finally cleared the third room of the black mansion. They all dropped to the floor from exhaustion and took out their emergency rations to replenish their HP and MP.
While eating a piece of jerky, Smoke stood up and gathered the remaining pieces of paper on the desk. He then turned to his men and said half teasingly, "Alright, we have one more room. Remember to stay alive."
Adder and the rest of his team groaned loudly, but knew he was being serious. After all, they all swore to wipe this black mansion clean of Horrabelle's wickedness.
CREEEEEEEAK
Slowly, the door of the room they were in opened.
Smoke’s men tightly gripped their weapons and prepared themselves for the worst. Most of their life bars were still below 50%.
A sigh of relief escaped from them as Sierra and her team entered through the door. Smoke walked over to Sierra and Ledur in order to greet them.
"Glad you finally made it inside," he said.
"It was all thanks to Ledur. He was all over the place, impaling golems left and right with his earth spikes. The rest of us were mostly just cleaning up after him," chuckled Sierra.
Ledur then went over to Adder. "Thank you, brother. I saw the Centaur children that were rescued earlier."
"We should have gotten here sooner," replied Adder somberly. "I can't even imagine what they must have been through."
Smoke placed his hand on Adder's shoulder. "They are safe now. In time, the new memories they make in Verbrannt will help them lead normal lives again."
Quickly, he scanned all the Vagrant Vigilantez present and found that all of them had over 50% on their life bars. He then looked at his gathered friends and said, "There's still one room left.”
Sierra, Adder and Ledur nodded in agreement.
They soon arrived in front of the door of the last room in the black mansion. Smoke could sense at least two hundred monsters on the other side of it. He told Ledur to get ready to seal the door, in case the monsters look too tough for them to handle.
CREEEEEEEAK
He opened the door slightly and took a peek inside. The room was as spacious as the other three, but instead of casting circles with monsters or children strapped inside them, there was a massive cage with one-meter tall green monsters inside it. The cage was filled with Gobble Goblins.
The goblins instantly looked at the DarkElf. Most of them backed away from the cage door as he slowly walked over to them. Only a handful of elderly goblins were prepared to confront him.
"Greet you me. I Smoke. I friend you," said Smoke in crude Gobberish.
One of the goblins answered him, "You must be one of Crucibelle’s underlings. She also used our lovely tongue and deceived us with her words."
Smoke energetically shook his head and waved his hands. "No, no, no. I kill Crucibelle. I friend you."
He then showed them the Berserker's Ring of Flames.
The elderly goblins looked at each other and nodded curiously. Then, one of them spoke in Lacerta, the most common language in Zectas. "Please stop talking in Gobberish. My ears bleed from your poor attempt to speak in our intricate language."
Smoke was taken aback, as he didn't know that Gobble Goblins could speak normally. "I'm sorry if my poor Gobberish has offended you, but what I'm saying is true: I am not your enemy. I’d even be willing to release you from this cage if it would help convince you of that."
"Release us? Or will you just put us in a different cage?" asked the same elderly goblin skeptically.
"No, you'd be free to go. However, it'd be dangerous for you to leave on your own, with Horrabelle still out there and all," Smoke answered sincerely. "If you would come with us to our village, we'll be able to protect you."
He then remembered the other Gobble Goblins left in Verbrannt, the ones that still didn't trust him. "You could also help me convince the goblins we freed from Crucibelle’s clutches that we mean no harm."
The elderly goblin spoke in Gobberish to the other goblins before he turned to face Smoke again. "There are others of our kind in your village?"
"Yes, and it would be a great help if you could make them understand that I'm just trying to protect them," said Smoke in an imploring voice.
"That remains to be seen, but I suppose leaving this horrible place would be better than staying," replied the elderly goblin. He then spoke with the other goblins once more. After a few minutes, he faced Smoke and nodded in agreement.
After giving a nod in return, Smoke told the Tikbalangs to free the goblins. While they were waiting to be released, the goblins were spreading the word to the rest of them who were hiding in the back portion of the cage.
While waiting for the goblins to be liberated, Sierra spotted a desk filled with papers. "Smoke, over here."
Smoke walked over to her and found that the stack of papers was similar to the one in Schrecklich's chamber.
"Thanks, this could be helpful," said Smoke and gave her a smile.
He grabbed one of the sheets of paper and found an expected notification window.

In less than a minute, Smoke read all twenty pages and the Information window finally popped up.

Smoke sighed. He thought it would be something he didn't know already. He was familiar with the ritual because he had observed Crucibelle perform it near Banal village a while ago.
Sierra noticed his disappointed expression and asked, "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing. I just thought I'd get some new information," he replied passively.
Unwilling to give up on getting what he wanted, Smoke took out the parchments Schrecklich dropped earlier. He immediately started acquiring the knowledge of the parchment entitled “Ultimo's Request - Three Troublesome Villages.”
After a few seconds, an Information window popped up.

The date on the parchment was from four days ago. After processing the information he read, a worried Smoke turned to Sierra. "They’re targeting three villages this time," he said and quickly shared the contents of the parchment with her.
"This was sent four days ago. We know that Horrabelle’s Therianthropes were still patrolling the area around Braucht Hilfe two days ago, because you encountered a group of them,” explained Smoke while holding his chin. “Since the werewolves that escaped must have notified her of their failure, it’s possible that she has reassembled her army since then and is on her way to the three villages as we speak."
He continued, “We need to hurry and stop her from capturing any more children. We might be able to get to the villages before she does.” Sierra nodded in agreement.
"Do we need to send for the others? Because we better call them now if we do," she asked.
"No, there’s no time. It would take too long for everyone to organise and travel to the villages.” Smoke paused, deep in thought. “Ledur and I are the fastest. The two of us will fly there and try to convince the village residents to evacuate. The rest of you return to Verbrannt with the children.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Sierra gave him a worried look, clearly not fond of his plan.
"It’s the best chance we have,” he replied, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. “Can you please tell Adder and Ledur about this? I still have one more thing to read."
"Sure," answered Sierra and went to them. Smoke then took out the parchment entitled “Horrabelle's Notice on the Red Scamp.”
In a matter of seconds, he acquired the information and a window popped up.