Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley (32 page)

Smoke grinned as he let Igniz soar around the emergency shelter. He knew that Symbiote Vision had a huge drawback, but right off the bat, he could already think of several scenarios where he could effectively use this ability.

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After extensively discussing their battle strategy, Smoke still had ten hours left before Crucibelle's supposed arrival. He ordered his troops to get some rest but stay on alert and near their designated positions.
His private army members began to disperse from the great hall of the emergency shelter. Before they left the building, each Condortlian Warrior picked up thirty of the newly-crafted throwing spears.
Smoke followed them outside and heard Adder asking them to do a couple of practice throws before the battle. As Smoke and the Condortlians walked out together, the Maneators decided to follow them.
Ledur and twenty Tikbalangs joined them as well. Soon, all of Smoke's private army members walked with him to watch the Condortlians.
It was already very late when they gathered outside in the open area between the emergency shelter and the third wall. Igniz managed to light up the entire space with his luminance alone. Adder prepared six straw-goblins as targets in advance.
"Men! Fall in!" Adder shouted. Instantly, thirty Condortlian Warriors formed a six-columned platoon and stood twenty meters away from the target.
"Volley!" Adder commanded. The Warriors in the first row threw their spears and made direct contact with the targets. Most of the spears went straight through the target dummies as they could not sustain the spears' weight.
After throwing their spears, the Warriors retreated to the back of the columns. "Volley!" repeated Adder in a commanding voice. The Condortlian Warriors next in line attacked the targets with similar precision.
Adder kept giving the same command until the Condortlians used up all thirty of their spears. Each of the Warriors hit their respective marks every single time.
CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK.
Ledur clapped his black hooves, producing an abnormal clapping sound. "Very good, Adder, but you haven't seen a Gobble Goblin's transformed state."
The winged Tikbalang raised his right hoof and indicated for the Condortlians to wait. He created six clay pillars in front of the straw targets.
With the new targets in place, Ledur signaled for Adder and his men to continue. "Charge!" Adder commanded and the Warriors in the front row dashed straight for the pillars.
This time, the Warriors were not equipped with throwing spears but round shields and long bastard swords. Each Warrior slashed the pillars hard and broke off large chunks of it.
Smoke and everyone else looked very pleased. Ledur smiled, impressed by the Condortlians' prowess. They all started to clap, but Adder raised both his hands and asked them to be quiet, as he wanted to resume the practice.
Slowly, Smoke's private army members started to walk towards their designated locations and left the Condortlians to their training. Smoke was the only one left watching them.
After almost an hour of practice, Adder asked the Condortlian Warriors to take a break and head to their assigned positions.
With just Smoke and Adder left, the Condortlian asked him to stay a bit longer. "I'd like to show you something." Adder said as he took out his double-bladed BlitzSturm.
Smoke instantly noticed the sword's increased length and width. He tried to wield it, but it almost fell to the ground as soon as Adder handed it over to him.
A notification window popped up soon afterwards.

'Hmpf. Just like the Condortlian Emerald Shield.' thought Smoke bitterly.
Using his left arm, Adder lifted BlitzSturm with ease and went straight for the clay pillars.
SMASH! SMASH! SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!
With one swift strike after another, the pillars were reduced to rubble as Adder slashed his BlitzSturm through them.
Smoke walked up to Adder and patted his back. "Nice! Looks like you'll be a great help against the Gobble Goblins."
"Thanks, but that demonstration was to showcase the improvements made to BlitzSturm." Adder held his double-bladed sword in front of Smoke.
"Ah, I see. Well, great job on that as well." Smoke said with a smile as he bent down to examine the BlitzSturm.
"Maybe you want me to do something with your weighted chain and sickle?" asked Adder.
Smoke shook his head. "Nah. I already tried using the Transmutation ability on it. It seems it's made out of a very strong material called perlite. Apparently, it doesn't melt easily, making it hard to forge or transmute the weapon."
Adder understood and stowed his BlitzSturm onto his back. "Well, that's it for today. I'll head to my station and rest there."
"Alright, Adder. Just remember what your top priority is. Your life is very important, don't be reckless about it in battle."
Smoke watched his second-in-command nod before walking away. Since he still had some time before the battle, Smoke decided to log out of Zectas. It was time for him to eat a quick meal and take a power nap. He wanted to feel rested before facing off against Crucibelle and her army of Gobble Goblins.

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Numerous flares flew towards the heavens and the sky above Banal village turned emerald green. Smoke stood alone on top of the ten-meter command center and watched as Gobble Goblins tripped the early warning devices from all four directions.
From this position, Smoke could use his Telefax Vision ability to observe the encounters near both the main and the back gate. He readied himself to glide down at a moment's notice to support either side.
The next round of flares went off. He expected one more round to follow shortly afterwards, but it didn't end up being triggered. 'Looks like the goblins aren't that naive.'
A group of thin goblins hurtled onto a clearing and was immediately attacked by a fearsome winged Tikbalang. Ledur swiftly swooped down, picked up two of the green monsters and lifted them up in the air.
The two goblins struggled to break free as they were being carried towards the first wall of Banal. They tried scratching Ledur's arms. However, the winged Tikbalang did not give them the opportunity to do any significant damage and briskly dropped them just a few meters away from the main gate.
The damage from the fall killed the two goblins instantly. Seconds later, orange-colored flares went off. The incoming goblins no longer cared for the traps as they made a beeline for the bodies of their dead kin.
'Hmm. Maybe they aren't that smart after all.' Smoke thought as he watched the start of the battle from the command center.
The first group of goblins started to eat as soon as they reached the corpses, but as they did, Vijaya's six falcons swooped down. Enhanced with the Steel Falcon ability, they relentlessly assaulted the feeding goblins with their talons.
Fire arrows began piercing the goblins as Vijaya attacked from the top of the first wall. She fired her arrows as fast as she could.
This combined attack killed four goblins very quickly , but the falcons were slowly being overwhelmed as more thin green monsters arrived.
"Keeekk keeek kekekekek!" Vijaya ordered her falcons to retreat. Unfortunately, one of her falcons, Dakhana, was caught by a goblin.
The other falcons were speedily soaring towards their owner and didn't notice that their comrade was captured. Dakhana used its beak to damage its captor, but the goblin endured it and pulled the falcon towards it even harder.
Thanks to Vijaya's Steel Falcon ability, Dakhana received little damage after its legs were tightly squeezed by the green monster, but the situation looked grim. Desperate, Vijaya drew her Hunter's bow back with more power and determination.
Her fire arrow was joined by five spears as it flew below the five retreating falcons and pierced the goblin's body. Greatly damaged by the spears, the goblin's life bar showed only (5,321/50,000 HP). Near death, it released its hold on the falcon.
Dakhana took advantage of this and plunged its talons into the goblin's eyes. As the falcon gouged out both its eyes, a fire arrow struck the monster's chest and killed it.
The falcon hastily retreated before any other goblin could grab a hold of it, while Vijaya and twenty-two Condortlian Warriors slaughtered the goblins in front of the main gate.
 

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Red flares went off and indicated that most of the goblins were only twenty meters away from the first wall. Smoke equally divided his Tikbalang corps into four division and assigned them to northwestern, northeastern, southwestern and southeastern sides of the first wall.
Each division was fairly spread out. The Tikbalangs were reminded several times to be extremely cautious at this point, since they'd be separated from each other. They waited for some of the goblins to arrive within their reach and punched them with iron horseshoes before retreating.
The hurt goblins were enraged and angrily chased after the fleeing Tikbalangs. The northeastern and southeastern divisions baited the goblins to follow them towards the main gate, while the northwestern and southwestern divisions led the goblins to the back gate.
Equipped with their new horseshoes, the Tikbalangs had faster movement speed if they galloped on all fours, using their hooves as main support. This enabled them to easily outrun the goblins and made Smoke's hit-and-run strategy effective.
As the northwestern and southwestern divisions moved along the first wall, the eight Condortlian Warriors stationed there took careful aim with their spears and attacked the pursuing goblins.
The Warriors made sure not to kill any of the goblins, only to reduce their life bars. All of Smoke's men were given strict instructions on the specific locations where they should kill the goblins.
As soon as the Tikbalangs reached the back gate, a rain of arrows fell from the sky and inflicted heavy damage to the goblin forces. Ichaival took charge of the back gate with eight Condortlian Warriors and twenty-seven Banalites on top of the wall with him. They kept attacking the goblins who were rushing to the ten Tikbalangs on the ground.
The Tikbalangs bravely made their stand and started to fight off the damaged goblins. Most of the goblins who reached them had less than 50% of their life bars remaining, which lead to Tikbalangs killing them with only two blows to the head.
The bodies of defeated goblins began piling up in front of the back gate. Eighty goblins were killed in a matter of minutes.
However, against Crucibelle's army of a thousand strong, the battle was far from over. As more goblins entered the fray, Ichaival and his men could no longer lower the life bars of all incoming goblins.
The monsters started to throw their crude weapons at the Warriors and Banalites positioned on the wall, but both their accuracy and their damage with them was low.
Each of the ten Tikbalangs on the ground had to deal with more than ten goblins at once. They were slowly being overpowered. The back gate remained shut until the Tikbalangs' life bars dropped to 70%.
"Open the gate!" shouted Ichaival.
The Tikbalangs hurriedly ran inside. Although the majority of the green monsters stayed behind and feasted on their dead kin, more than a hundred of them ended up chasing after the Tikbalangs as they bolted towards the second wall.
SMASH SPLAT!
The goblins that entered through the gate turned around to see what caused the loud noise. Two barrels of wine had been dropped from the top of the wall and shattered on the ground in front of the gate.
Smirking, Ichaival drew his bow back and released a fire arrow. The arrow landed where the barrels were dropped, igniting the spilled wine and scattered pieces of wood.
The thin green monsters were terrified at the sight of fire and took a step back in unison, away from the flames that blocked the back gate.
"RAAAAWRR!" "ROOAAAARRR!"
The shocked monsters rattled even more when they heard two distinct roars coming from the direction of the second wall. An orange Maneator equipped with two whips dashed towards them, followed by an even larger red Maneator equipped with a long glaive.
"AYIIIIII AYIIIII YIII YIII YIII!"
Regaining their composure, the goblins gave out their own battle cry and charged at the two Maneators. None of them noticed Jinggu, who stood up from his hidden position on top of the second wall. He aimed his ballista at the charging monsters and groups of small goblins were blown backwards as large bolts landed right in front of them.
Rasant moved swiftly and wildly swung his barbed whips. Apparently, Smoke thought that with his attack speed, Rasant could handle two of them at the same time and asked Darius to craft these whips specifically for him. The orange Maneator rapidly assaulted the monsters from their sides, slicing through their skin with ease.
Meanwhile, Stark charged straight through the goblins. He kicked the ones that tried to grab a hold of his feet and knocked away three of them that tried to jump on him. The red Maneator blindly swung his Rzeka glaive and attacked anything that came within his range.
With the goblins' attention on the two of them, a gray Maneator stealthily appeared from a camouflaged hole. Weise carried a flamdius and Gora shield. He carefully planned his movements, weaving between groups of goblins and staying out of reach of Stark's glaive.
Weise slashed the goblins' backs and dealt significant damage with his flamdius. Some of the goblins tried to intercept him and attacked from his left side, but he'd just bash them with his red shield.
The three Maneators made short work of the thin monsters that were led into the first layer of Smoke's trap.
From the top of the first wall, Ichaival occasionally glanced at the fight occurring behind him. He was focused on attacking the Gobble Goblins locked out by the flames, most of which were either eating corpses or trying to make towers to scale the wall.
//Stopping here.
As the flames blocking the gate were quickly dying out, ten transformed goblins prepared to enter.
From the command center, Smoke observed that Ichaival still had the back gate relatively secured but was starting to show signs of struggling against the goblins. The front gate, on the other hand, had two of his best men guarding it. With his power chainsaw bow equipped, Smoke glided down towards Ichaival. His dark ember sprite came out of the metal orb on Smoke's chest and attacked the goblins with a barrage of fireballs. Together, they targeted the monsters that came within range.