Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley (31 page)

Jubilant sounds came from the great hall of Banal's emergency shelter. Igniz illuminated the otherwise bleak room. Smoke and his men cheerfully chatted away as they sat at a long table made up of several smaller wooden tables joined together.
Big chunks of roasted war elephant meat were placed all over table and served as the main dish.
"Wow! You really pulled out all the stops on this one, Smoke." exclaimed Ichaival as he took a big bite out of one of the slices.
"No, no, this is all Ledur's work. I just made the side dishes." Smoke replied as he pointed to the mashed potatoes and fried crickets.
The winged Tikbalang shook his head. "It wasn't much. We were just fortunate enough to come across a stray war elephant on our way to Banal. The rampaging beast made such a ruckus that it practically called out to us."
Twenty Tikbalangs banged their hooves on the table as they laughed. Rasant and Stark matched the Tikbalangs laughter as loud as they could.
The orange Maneator rapidly tapped his hoof on the floor while the red one banged it loudly with all his strength.
Smoke could tell that the two Maneators didn't have a clue as to why the Tikbalangs were laughing and were just playfully copying them.
Weise, however, remained quiet. The gray Maneator merely observed the conversation that everyone was having.
"Well, I'm sure the great god Cuezaltzin guided this war elephant to you." added Adder as he joined in on their conversation.
"Pfft. I doubt Cuezaltzin still cares for us. Look at us, we're monsters now." said Ledur bitterly.
With the intention to console Ledur, Adder shared his past experience. "I used to feel the same way, but you just have to believe. The right time will come for you and your brothers."
"Stop preaching some hypocritical nonsense. You're only saying that because you've already been freed from the Lizardites' enslavement." said Ledur aggressively.
Smoke sensed that the joyful meal had quickly turned sour. He was about to intervene when his second-in-command spoke again.
"You're absolutely right, Ledur. I'm sorry, I was out of place." said Adder sincerely.
Before anyone else could talk, Ichaival suddenly spoke loud for the whole table to hear, "So, did you guys hear how Thyrsus and Vijaya's little love adventure began?"
The occupants of the long table replied with dead silence. Only Gandiva and Laernea's fast-paced chewing and swallowing could be heard.
"Everything was set in motion with their attempt to save Mitleid. Sierra had just assigned them to be our battalion's Wing Commanders." started Ichaival.
Still, the long awkward silence remained.
"Vijaya blamed herself for Mitleid's death, saying that they didn't act fast enough because she wasn't used to her new role. So she turned to Thyrsus for some advice. Of course, our friendly Thyrsus gave her his undivided attention. Then, she invited him to her room and..."
Before Ichaival could finish his sentence, six falcons came out of nowhere and pulled on his black hair with their talons.
"Okay, okay, I give up. Call them off already, Vijaya!" Ichaival pleaded as everyone smiled at him and the blushing Huntress.
Immediately afterwards, the mood at the table returned to its pleasant nature. Smoke stood up, walked over to Ichaival and patted the Hunter's shoulder. He gave him a knowing nod, which Ichaival returned in kind.
Smoke moved from one seat to another to hear how all of his close friends had been. He couldn't have been prouder of leading such an amazing assembly of Zectians.
His only regret was that most of them had seen better days, but this only fueled his resolve to help them. In a way, he understood both Adder and Ledur's feelings.
'I'll make sure to remove the curses afflicting the Centaurs and Sierra.'
Smoke's train of thought was derailed when he heard Espion call out to the Lioumereans. "Hey, Gandiva and Laernea, you two are leisurely feasting here at the table while your stag moose outside haven't eaten yet. I bet you haven't even unloaded all the stuff in your carriages. Which reminds me, didn't Smoke ask you to bring..."
Espion couldn't finish his sentence as the two Lioumereans grabbed a coil of rope lying on a barrel behind them and tied him up neatly. They gagged him with their napkins after they were done.
"That should keep you from bothering us during our meal." said Laernea.
"He's turning out to be even worse than Ichaival." Gandiva scoffed as both Lioumereans returned to their seats and resumed stuffing their mouths with food.
                         

* * * * * * 

KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG!
Before the break of dawn, loud noises of pounding metal filled the air of Banal village. Jinggu, the muscular OrkElf, stood beside Adder and ten other Condortlians in a makeshift blacksmith area that Smoke created.
Without a furnace to be used to melt the iron ingots, Smoke asked his dark purple symbiote to help Adder and his men.
Since Banal had no Blacksmiths, Smoke had to make anvils himself. He ordered Igniz to melt the iron ingots and some of the low-quality weapons they had gathered around Banal and pour the metal into casts he created with Earth Manipulation.
Adder lifted a hammer with his regrown left arm and swung it down hard at a rough-looking anvil, masterfully shaping some of the iron ingots into horseshoes.
Smoke had thought about this for a while. Horseshoes would be weapons to Tikbalangs, similar to an iron knuckle, and should increase their attack.
KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG!
Jinggu and the Condortlians were busy forging spearheads. Smoke gave them the near-impossible task of producing at least nine hundred spearheads.
Adder, Jinggu and the Condortlians' exceptional strength allowed them to wield basic hammers, usable by all Jobs. They used them in a manner similar to how a Blacksmith would use a Blacksmith's hammer.
Only the sound of clashing iron and hammers could be heard until  Adder spoke out.
"How many left?" Adder asked Jinggu.
"Still have six hundred more to do." he answered without looking up.
"Don't worry, Jinggu, I'll help out with the spearheads as soon as I finish fitting all twenty-one Tikbalangs."
The OrkElf gave a quick courteous nod and remained silent as he kept on reshaping the iron ingots on the anvil in front of him.

* * * * * * 

Ichaival entertained the Banalite volunteers with his crazy antics as he prepared them for Basic Archery training. Sadly, out of the sixty Banalite volunteers only twenty-seven were willing to participate in the battle.
So, he taught the non-combatants how to make basic bows and arrows. Ichaival made several target dummies and placed them at a convenient distance of only five meters away.
He had the Banalite Archers-in-training take their stance. They took offense at first, but they realized that five meters was not that close right after they tried using the basic bows.
The black-haired Hunter struggled teaching the Banalites, but all of them persevered during the ten hours of intense training and ended up with the target dummies placed thirty meters away from them.
"Whether you can or can't, the answer's up to you. As long as you're determined, I know that you can do it." Ichaival said as he congratulated them.
Aside from Basic Archery, Ichaival also taught them the basics of first aid. Smoke often thought that Ichaival Jackal would have probably been better off as a Bard due to his flair for entertainment.
Smoke had gotten to know Ichaival's true nature and knew that he was serious about Sharanga. He also thought that Sharanga needed someone who could make her laugh, which was why he hoped that the two of them would have paired up already. However, it seems that Sharanga was immune to Ichaival's charms.
Subsequently, Smoke finished checking on the indoor preparations and proceeded to the rooftop of the emergency shelter. He stood in front of an earth tower ten meters high, with a floor area of twenty square meters.
Smoke and Ledur created this towering structure on top of the emergency shelter in order to use it as their command center.
Smoke planned to use three perimeter walls around the emergency shelter. The first wall was Banal's original wall, which surrounded the village.
It had two gates: the main iron gate at the village entrance and a small back gate on the opposite side. Given the limited amount of time before Crucibelle's arrival, he decided to leave Banal's original wall alone.
He envisioned the second wall to serve mainly as a blockade, which was why he used the Digger's Wand to create trenches at specific sections around the emergency shelter. The trenches were a hundred meters long, nine meters wide and ten meters deep.
In order to save his and Ledur's Mana, he ordered the Tikbalangs to use the dug-out dirt and shape it into a circular wall four meters high. Smoke divided the Tikbalangs into four groups and they were each given their assigned sections to work on. Their hooves smoothened out the sides of the wall with ease.
As soon as Adder finished their horseshoes, the Tikbalangs were called back to the emergency shelter one by one. Equipped with their new tools, the Tikbalangs looked pleased.
In order to complete this second line of defense, Smoke gave the three Maneators a demanding task of providing massive amounts of wood from the nearby forest.
Stark chopped down the trees as he wielded two axes given to him by the Banalites, while Rasant and Weise delivered the wood back to the village. The twenty Condortlians who did not help with the smithing carved the wood into sharp spikes that would be placed along the bottom of the trenches.
After the wooden spikes were in place, the Condortlians put tied-up branches and leaves gathered from the trees over the trenches. Then, Smoke and Ledur took turns in covering them with a paper-thin layer of earth, completely concealing their trap.
Once the Condortlians were done with the spikes, they proceeded to make bases of throwing spears and attached the finished spearheads provided by Adder and the smithing unit to them.
Next, Smoke and Ledur focused on the last line of defense...the third wall. They planned to create a hexagonal wall six meters high and two meters thick.
Hours went by in a flash and each of the Earth Manipulators created three sides of the wall. It only dwarfed the surrounded emergency shelter by one floor. They also created platforms extending from the top of each corner of the wall.
Some of the Banalites were tasked with the creation of disposable bridges made of wood and straw, meant for connecting the three perimeter walls. This provided some much-needed mobility to the defending forces and also allowed them to easily destroy a compromised bridge if necessary.
As Smoke continued working on the third wall, he saw Vijaya's silhouette with the tall T-shaped falcon perch protruding on her back.
After helping Espion set up some of the traps earlier, she was tasked with checking the progress on the trenches. She did all of this from afar, while standing on top of the original village wall.
Vijaya started to do practice shots from her position and used a random tree outside the village as her target. Although Smoke selected her for monitoring the trenches precisely because of her falcons' scouting abilities, he still felt that she should personally inspect them from time to time.
So he stopped working on the third wall and glided down to where Vijaya was. He flew a short distance and landed softly beside her.
"Everything alright with the trenches?" asked Smoke.
Vijaya stopped firing her arrows, turned around and answered, "Yeah, everything's on track. I think there's only 20% left to work on."
"Really? That's good." he said with a smile.
"Keke keekekeeeek kekekekekek."
One of Vijaya's falcons flew overhead and shrilled. "Make that 15% left." said Vijaya as she threw a chunk of smoked horned rabbit meat at the passing bird.
"And you don't think you need to verify this yourself?" said Smoke as he crossed his arms. "Didn't I tell you before not to rely on your falcons too much?"
"Of course. I've learned my lesson, I was about to go there now." Vijaya said as she cupped her hands around her mouth and used the Falcon Tongue ability. "Keeeeeekk keeeeeek kekekekekekekek kekek."
Six falcons swooped down and grabbed specific portions of her falcon perch. Then, in one fluid motion, all of the falcons flapped their wings in unison.
Vijaya was lifted up by her falcons and was flying towards the latest finished portion of the trenches. Surprised, Smoke stood still and watched the astonishing sight before him.
The WoodElf's flight speed was slow to say the least, but it still gave her extra mobility.
Smoke then realized that the finished portion of the trenches still needed to be covered by a thin layer of earth. He shouted to the flying Vijaya, "Vijaya, wait up! I'll cover the finished portion."
"It's okay, Vij said that Ledur already covered it." Vijaya shouted back.
Convinced that Vijaya was on top of her task, he leapt up and glided back towards the third wall.
As Smoke descended, he saw a winged Tikbalang standing on top of their command center and landed next to him. "Those horseshoes look good on you, Ledur. Is Adder done fitting your brethren as well?"
Ledur nodded and kept gazing at the auburn horizon. "Smoke, do you really think our curse will be lifted once all three Witches are dead?"
Noticing the serious look in his eyes, Smoke took a moment to respond. "Honestly, I don't know. Sierra told me that she could remove her curse if she acquires the blood of all three Witches of Wysteria. You and the others were cursed by the same Witches, so hopefully..." he answered with a straight face and stared at the orange sky.
"Thank you for being straight with me. I have my doubts as well. I can understand your optimism, but I'm afraid that I don't share it." said Ledur before fully expanding his bat-like wings. "I'm going on a break for a couple of minutes." he added and swiftly took to the skies.
Smoke wished he could have comforted Ledur, but didn't want to lie to him. He stood at the top of the earth tower, worriedly looking at the winged Tikbalang's silhouette in the distance.
The third wall was about 90% completed, but Smoke needed to recover his mana before working on the last 10%. Since he couldn't finish the wall yet, he decided to call Espion and check how he was doing.
The young Spy was placing early warning devices precisely three kilometers away from the village. The Lioumereans provided trip wires, snares and flares, which would help indicate the enemy's arrival.
Smoke gave specific instructions on where to place the traps and flares. Since the traps were to be set up in forest patches, they had Sharanga modify them to react only to the humanoid type of monsters. That way, only the incoming Gobble Goblins would trigger them.
"Espion, is everything set?" asked Smoke.
Espion answered energetically, "Yeah, I'm almost done thanks to Vijaya's help earlier."
"Good work. Return to the emergency shelter immediately afterwards. I'll be giving out battle assignments as soon as I finish up the third wall."
"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I'm done. I think we still have about sixteen hours before they arrive." Espion said before Smoke ended the call.
As Smoke stood alone on top of the command center, he noticed that he still had a few more minutes to spare before his mana bar becomes full again.
This made him decide to practise the new ability he learned from the book "You and your symbiote Volume II". He rushed down from the command center to check on Adder and see if he could have his symbiote back.
He opened the window of his newly-acquired ability.