Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley (10 page)

Smoke paid little attention to the message notification because he worried more about the time. They only had thirty minutes of daylight left. Using his Telefax Vision, Smoke detected six black armored monsters running away from something.
The monsters had a body length ranging from one-and-half-meters to three-meters. Aside from their hard exoskeleton, the monsters also had black steel horns on top of their heads with a length of half a meter.
He recognized these black monsters to be durcules beetles. Two mature durcules beetles at a length of two-and-half-meters led the way as the four smaller durcules beetles followed them.
Smoke watched the family of durcules beetles as they ran from a six meter long monster with sharp spikes that stuck out from its back. The unknown monster had a golden brown color and ran on all fours.
He quickly grabbed this chance and immediately ordered his men to run after the monsters.
The DarkElf curiously observed the situation. One of the mature durcules beetle separated from its family while the rest of them kept on running in a straight line.
The durcules beetles picked up their pace and gave the spiky monster a challenging chase, while the other durcules beetle suddenly appeared behind their pursuer.
The durcules beetle had its long black horn aimed at the war echidna. The spiky monster remained focused on the durcules beetles in front of it that it didn't noticed the mature durcules beetle's back attack.
The spiky monster's life bar and name appeared. war echidna (168,010/180,000 HP).
'The durcules beetle has pretty decent damage considering it isn't at its full strength.' Smoke thought, and his men remained some distance from the monsters as they ran after them.
The war echidna came to a full stop. With unbelievable flexibility, it twisted its body and came face to face with the durcules beetle that attacked it.
The spiky monster lifted its left paw, and revealed sharp claws, which sank right through the durcules bettle's exoskeleton. Four more attacks and the durcules beetle's head came right off.
As the head of the durcules beetle rolled on the ground, fire arrows struck through the war echidna's back. The fire arrows were added to its already spiky back.
The war echidna cried out in pain as it received a total damage of 75,000 points. It turned around, but Smoke had already anticipated this.
Before Smoke, Ichaival, and Laernea even released their arrows, Smoke ordered Adder and Espion to run straight for the war echidna.
Adder struck the war echidna with his emerald tower shield. It damaged and stunned the monster for 10,000 points and five seconds respectively.
Espion ran past the war echidna and drove his green dual knives into the monster's back. Rudel came down from the sky with his bastard sword, and plunged it deep into the monster's skull.
Another round of fire arrows powered by Igniz came from Smoke, Ichaival, and Laernea. Their combined attack instantly finished the monster off.

Smoke reminded himself. 'We may have defeated this monster instantly, but it took all six of us to kill the beast.' He made sure to always be grounded. He did not want instant kills get to his head.
Smoke turned around as Rudel tapped him on his shoulder. The Volataur spoke in a hushed voice.
"That was impressive. I usually bring at least thirty Centaurs with me whenever I go into Mount Yunggo. I thought we were only gonna stay outside."
With his Cunning of the Dire Fox Smoke sensed the presence of twenty monsters within a 600 meter radius. Being always vigilant, he took precautions.
"Alright!. Guys, let's collect the loot and we'll head out while we still have sunlight."
He ordered his team to retreat, but stopped when they spotted the family of durcules beetles returning to site of their fallen family member. The five monsters laid down beside the dead durcules beetle.
Smoke couldn't let this opportunity pass him by. He instantly changed his orders. Instead of searching for safer grounds, he switched it to defend the area around Laernea while she used her Pathfinder ability called Beast Tamer to control the five remaining durcules beetles.
He kept turning his head as he checked for monsters and watched as Laernea went straight for the mature durcules beetle. With her two hands stretched out, he heard Laernea utter out taming chants which made the large durcules beetle docile.
As Laernea's hand touched the mature durcules beetle she called out. "Oh! She's the mother of these small durcules beetles." She touched the four smaller monsters and tamed them with her ability as well.
After Smoke saw Laernea's "Go" signal, they resumed their retreat out of the mountains. As they went down, Smoke sensed that the monsters from earlier were slowly closing in on them.
The family of durcules beetles dutifully followed Laernea's commands as she led them down while she rode on Bilis' bare back.
Smoke's fears came true. Night time came and made the mountain dark. They were still inside Mount Yunggo's territory. To make matters worst, the monsters that Smoke sensed earlier appeared.
The sparsely scattered dark green Eucalyptus Regnan trees gave the monsters enough cover to hide but ample space to hunt down its prey.
Four war echidnas surrounded them. Both the groups of Adder and Ichaival, Espion and Rudel faced one war echidna, while Smoke had Laernea and the five durcules beetles against two of the spiky monsters.
The DarkElf switched weapons to his weighted chain and sickle, and dashed in front of the durcules beetles. He didn't want their newly tamed monsters to be killed off right after he obtained them.
Faced with the two war echidnas, he held the sickle's end by the chains and threw it at the war echidna on his left. Right after he threw the sickle the war echidna on his right slashed him with its long black claws.
Simultaneously, Igniz shot out his fireballs at Smoke's target and kept the war echidna on the left momentarily at bay.
The monster on Smoke's right clawed him four times, and he managed to dodge three of the monster's attacks. Smoke's life bar appeared (143,920/165,850 HP), after he took the war echidna's claws to his chest.
He feared that the war echidna on his left would recover from Igniz's attacks and gang up on him, so he used his lunar boots and leapt upwards. He pulled the chains from his weapon, and while in midair, he sent it crashing down on the war echidna's temple.
Igniz's fireballs never ceased, not until the untouched war echidna went after the dark ember sprite. Igniz dodged the monster's claws by flying out of its reach. Smoke sensed that Igniz was in trouble, and his attention shifted towards his symbiote.
The war echidna clawed its way up on a Eucalyptus Rengan tree and was about to jump at Igniz when two of the smaller durcules beetles came and tackled the war echidna in mid jump.
Even in the dimmed light, Smoke clearly noticed the changes in the durcules beetles. The armored monsters' grew wings which allowed them to fly. Their black exoskeletons now had sharp steel like spikes which made puncture wounds on the war echidna.
Then, the two durcules beetles plunged their sword like horns into the war echidna's stomach. As the beast plummeted down, the two durcules beetles repeatedly stabbed the war echidna until they killed it.
Everything happened in a flash. Smoke still gliding in midair dove down and stunned the war echidna as he landed. Before he could attack, two durcules beetles flew past him and stabbed their black horns into the war echidna's belly.
'These little guys must be pissed about their father's death.'
Smoke leapt high up, over the war echidna. He expertly landed on the monster's shoulders. With his weighted chain and sickle, he repeatedly hacked the back of the monster's neck.
"Laernea, tell the durcules beetles to cut right through the monster's neck." Smoke yelled.
The lioness Lioumerean repeated the orders to the durcules beetles, and the monsters immediately followed it. The durcules beetles unhinged their black steel horns from the war echidna's stomach and sliced right through the beast's throat.
The war echidna's head slowly separated from its body and rolled on the ground. Although it was a different war echidna, but Smoke still felt the satisfaction from the durcules beetles.
With the defeat of the two war echidnas, Smoke checked on his other teammates. He saw that the other durcules beetles helped out and performed similar actions.
All four war echidnas died. They hastily collected the war echidna's spiky carcass and claws. Afterwards, they speedily exited Mount Yunggo.
At the foot of the mountain, Smoke asked his men to relax and prepare some medicinal meal for their entire party. Now, that he had his targeted monsters tamed, it signaled for the next phase of his plan.
As his men rested, Smoke used his Earth Manipulation and began collecting the soil at the foot of Mount Yunggo. While he worked, he noticed Rudel walking towards him.
"Need some help?" The Volataur asked.
"Sure, I added in extensions on Bilis' carriage, increasing its maximum capacity."
Smoke pointed at the partially filled wooden carriage that looked similar to a big dump truck. Rudel used his own Earth Manipulation ability and silently filled the carriage.
In less than an hour, Smoke and Rudel collected six tons worth of dirt. Laernea's stag moose, Bilis, made complaining noises after they closed up the modified carriage.
Laernea asked Bilis to try and move the filled carriage. Somehow, the stag moose managed to move the six ton load, but at a significantly slower speed.
'At this rate it'll probably take us a week to get back to Pferde.'
Smoke gradually unloaded the soil from Bilis' carriage. He searched for the optimal weight to speed ratio. At the reduced weight of two tons, Bilis managed to run at a speed of 60 kph.
'Two tons won't be enough to cover the entire village.'
He weighed his options. He could either have Laernea drive back and forth or settle with two tons. As he toyed with his choices, he shifted the two tons of the controllable soil back and forth.
Then it came to him. 'I'll just shift this soil all the way back to Pferde.'
Smoke used his Earth Manipulation ability and collected the two ton soil. He pictured how the waves moved to the beach and made the soil follow that motion.
His soil wave moved at a speed of 40 kph. He did some rough calculation in his head, and he concluded that he could keep shifting the soil forward for the next thirty minutes before taking a break.
He loaded one more ton of soil back to Bilis' modified carriage. This gave the stag moose a restricted speed of 40 kph.
After Smoke's experimentation on his Earth Manipulation ability ended, he called the rest of his party. He had them and the durcules beetles stand on the controllable soil.
Igniz flew around Smoke's party. He tried to warn them about what was going to happen next. Smoke watched their confused faces before he suddenly shifted the soil forward. Except for Adder, all of them fell down on the soil as it jolted forward.
Rudel flew on ahead while Smoke and his men prepared for a two day journey back to Pferde on his soil wave.
                        

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An uneventful two days went by. Smoke and his party successfully arrived in Pferde. The moment they came into view, the Centaurs banged their pots and pans and welcomed them loudly as heroes. Half of the villagers waited for their arrival.
Rudel, who arrived two days earlier, sang praises of their battle on Mount Yunggo. The Centaurs couldn't believe that Smoke entered the mountain with only a six man team.
The villagers' admiration of Smoke grew as they watched him control his moving soil wave. He stood at the center of the moving sands with his hands stretched out while his men sat closely beside him.
Smoke tried his best not to mind Laernea's gaze as she kept on staring over in his direction. As they got closer, Smoke and his party felt they had gone deaf because of the Centaurs' welcome commotion. The villagers became silent when Smoke and his men stood in front of the village chief.
Deropa spoke to the residents. "Everyone, Smoke has come to cleanse our village of this sickness that has plagued our village."
The DarkElf stood beside Deropa and waved at the crowd.
"I promised to help improve Pferde, but this won't be done instantly. We need to have some major changes in order for my plan to work. I look forward to working with all of you."
The villagers of Pferde instantly changed their demeanor. They became silent and indifferent. Smoke was stunned by their reaction. He hoped for a more energetic response than this.
Deropa took over and addressed the crowd. "That's it for now, people. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me or Rudel."
Smoke watched the uncomfortable faces of the residents as they dispersed silently. Deropa spoke with him in a low tone. "If you haven't already guessed? Change is a difficult thing for us Centaurs. I hope you understand?"
He nodded and immediately went to work. He decided to start at a small portion of the village. He asked Laernea to send her durcules beetles out to feed on the garbage and wastes littered in the street.
As Laernea left, a young eleven year old Volataur boy came to Smoke. The young Volataur's horse half had the same brown color as Deropa's.
"Hi, my name's Neffe."
"Oh, hi, Neffe. Nice to meet you." Smoke stretched out his hand for a handshake. "Can I help you with something?"
"Actually, I'm here to ask you that same question."
"Hmm... Why don't you help out that female Lioumerean with the durcules beetles? I'm sure she'd welcome your help."
Neffe nodded and went on his way. Smoke gave out a satisfied smile. Even if there were residents of Pferde who couldn't handle the change, he still built high intimacies with the three Volataurs of Pferde.
Afterwards, Smoke asked Rudel to make preparations for a feast for the residents of the village. He told him that he would have a small banquet prepared for them after they finished their project.
He then asked Ichaival and Espion to prepare the detoxification meal that could feed 4,000 people. He taught them the meal on their soil wave ride to Pferde. He learned this recipe from one of the books he got inside the labyrinth.
As his men worked, Smoke began to manipulate the controllable soil. He turned the soil into a thin, hard hexagonal shape and assembled them into pavements.
He stretched the usage of the controllable soil as much as he could. The road now looked like a honey bee's screen board because of its hexagonal shape.
Smoke then made gardens beside the public roads and asked Adder to plant toxin neutralizing trees in them. With those two tasks finished, he started on the closed canals.
He used his Digger's Wand's Trenching ability and created a small canal. He connected it to the various animal pens in his targeted area and had them exit to the various gardens beside the roads.
They tirelessly worked for the next three days. During this time, he observed everyone's progress. Laernea and Neffe's work with the durcules beetles became an instant success with the residents.
Smoke saw how Ichaival and Espion already gained friends as they traveled around the area gathering the ingredients for detoxification meal that could feed the entire population of Pferde.
At the same time, the two of them also talked about the dangerous health risks that the filth and the garbage caused the residents.
With the help of monsters' Coprohagus ability, both Laernea and Neffe cleared out all the waste and garbage in the targeted area within the span of three days.
Smoke watched their progress with satisfaction, but he was especially happy for his first private army member, Adder. He smiled as he watched Adder plant the trees and the flowers in the garden by the road. Adder clearly enjoyed working with both his hands as he designed the road side gardens.
Currently, one fourth of Pferde looked like a an eco friendly village. As the third day came to a close, Smoke asked the residents of the village to join them for a feast.
When Smoke heard that Rudel couldn't bring enough tables to hold the residents in the area, Smoke made it into a standing feast.
In this manner Deropa, Rudel, and the residents of the area got to mingle with each other. They also witnessed the early changes in their village.
As they ate the detoxification meal that Adder, Ichaival, and Espion prepared, the residents of Pferde slowly felt better and stronger. Smoke and his men also explained to the residents the reason why they got sick and what they should do to prevent it.
Smoke asked them for volunteers who would want to help maintain the health of Pferde by collecting the trash or walking the durcules beetles. He also taught them about proper waste disposal for their animal's excrement.
The Centaurs' immediate recovery from their plagued status inspired a small group of Centaurs to raise their hands.
Suddenly, a notification window popped up.