Zectas Volume III: Malediction of Veneficatl Valley (41 page)

He was shocked at the words written in the window, but even more so when another progress bar appeared. This time, 'Earth Manipulation' was written on it.
Fifty percent into the progress bar, the ground both of them stood on erupted. Ledur came out from below and separated the two of them. He swiftly carried Smoke to safety as he flew up into the air.
Horrabelle scrambled to her Nightmare and mounted it immediately. "Nyak nyak nyak nyak! So you did have a plan, after all!" she yelled as her army was coming to her aid.
It took Smoke and Igniz only a few seconds to be able to move again. Igniz came out blazing and instantly fired multiple fireballs at Horrabelle. The Witch countered each of the dark ember sprite's attacks with black lightning bolts.
"Now!" Smoke shouted at the top of his lungs.
Thirty well-concealed planks, scattered across the plain, were pushed to the sides and Smoke's private army rushed out of the tunnel entrances they were covering. A red werebear ran faster than anyone else. She leapt towards Horrabelle's side, with claws aimed at her throat.
"Die, Witch!" yelled Sierra as she was about to rip Horrabelle's head off. Unfortunately, her leaping attack missed as the Nightmare sensed her bloodlust and dashed forward.
Horrabelle rode towards her army. As she did, she looked back and saw Smoke and Sierra's own army of more than one thousand five hundred men and women.
Mamelon and the Elemental Knights ran past Sierra as they chased after the dark elemental mare. Two hundred twenty mounted Bowed Fishermen unleashed their torrential water arrows as they stopped where Sierra was.
All of Smoke's core members rode in chariots being pulled by dire wolves as they led their battalions after Horrabelle. All except for the Lioumereans and Maneators, who rode on war carriages and war elephants respectively.
Armored Bakers, Blacksmiths, Carpenters, Cobblers, Cooks, Farmers, Merchants, Tailors, Tanners and Thatchers were running behind their battalion commanders. They were equipped with iron rolling pins, heavy hammers, chisels, cooking and skinning knives, pitchforks and scissors.
Their weaponized tools not only dealt more damage than the basic weapons usable by all Jobs, but also gave them familiarity with their weapons, allowing them to move freely in battle and use their weapons efficiently. This was the time to display the results of their two months of training.
Horrabelle rode past her Tikbalangs and Gargantuan Goblins as they ran to protect her. Her Therianthrope forces closely followed.
Up in the sky, Smoke steeled himself as he watched the battle about to unfold. He carefully aimed his Berserker's Ring of Flames and a dark red casting circle appeared several meters in front of the charging goblins.
The progress bar for the ability filled up three seconds later and a circular firewall erupted from the edges of the casting circle, trapping all five Gargantuan Goblins inside it, along with a brown werebear and ten werewolves.
Inflicted with Berserk status, they instantly started attacking one another. The Gargantuan Goblins started ripping each other's arms out, while the brown Werebear was sinking his jaws into werewolves' necks. Regrettably, Smoke's current Mana could only sustain the spell for nine seconds. After the flames died out, Smoke's private army members immediately took advantage of the groggy monsters. Adder, Jinggu, Stark, Weise, Rassant, Espion, Thyrsus and Vijaya led their respective battalions to massacre the enemy.
Depleted of Mana, Smoke tapped Ledur on the shoulder, signaling for him to let him go. Falling through the air, he threw his Digger's wand over to Ledur and opened his cloak. "Detain your wayward brothers!" shouted Smoke as he equipped his power chainsaw bow and started gliding in Horrabelle's direction.
The winged Tikbalang instantly created a deep trench in front of Horrabelle's Tikbalangs. Caught by surprise in the middle of a charge, they couldn't stop themselves in time and pushed one another into the trench.
Smoke and Igniz kept attacking Horrabelle from the skies, while Sierra hitched a ride with Laernea as they chased after the Witch.
With the two Lioumerean war carriages in the lead, Mamelon and her regiment of thirty-five Elemental Knights shortly followed. Sharur, Sharanga and Ichaival were doing their best to open up a path for them as they engaged the Therianthropes.
Horrabelle, on the back of her Nightmare, yelled, "Anyone who can hear my voice, turn back now!" She ordered her minions to retreat as she was unwilling to lose any more troops. She had come to Tromperie plains only to exact revenge on Smoke, not wage a full-scale battle.
The Therianthropes followed her command. More than nine hundred of these monsters were moving in a circle around Horrabelle in order for her to escape safely.
Sierra, seated on Laernea's war carriage, was the one closest to the Witch, but she only had Gandiva, Mamelon and the Elemental Knights to back her up.
From above them, Smoke shouted, "Stop! It's alright, forget about it. It's too dangerous to follow her."
Smoke landed in front of them and made them stop. He turned around and watched Horrabelle run off with her Therianthropes. He consoled himself with the thought that they managed to save eighty of Ledur's brethren at the price of his Transmutation ability.
The rest of his private army made quick work of the Gargantuan Goblins, with no casualties and only a couple of serious injuries. Sierra ordered Laernea to ride fast towards the brown werebear. She wanted to save the surviving eight werewolves, as she planned for them to join her pack.
Smoke headed to the trench in which Ledur trapped the Tikbalangs. He tried to forcibly push the thought of his idiocy out of his mind as he kept himself busy using the Horse Ring of Domination on the Tikbalangs whenever his Mana allowed it.
 

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Smoke was gliding blindly towards Nanahuatl. Igniz was trying his best to console him by doing various aerial tricks, such as somersaults and loop-the-loops, but his expression remained unchanged.
He thought about logging out of Zectas but couldn't think of a place in the real world that could ease his pain. Somewhere deep inside, he felt that he could only find peace if he stayed inside Zectas.
Sierra tried to talk to him, but he glided away as soon as he finished converting all of the Tikbalangs. He left her in charge of the army in Tromperie. She kept calling him, but he denied all incoming calls.
A single thought drove him to Nanahuatl. He thought that if he could go to Kumbaba's Infinite chamber, located in the cellar of his house, and witness the grandeur of the universe once more, he could somehow get past this.
After many hours of gliding, his feelings of misery, regret and shame still lingered within him.  He couldn't face Sierra, considering how he vehemently convinced her that the Witches were the Magietrois. He spent more than two hours convincing Ledur the same thing and, in the end, only got him to join the operation after pointing out that they would have better chances of removing the curse from him and his brothers by working together with Horrabelle instead of simply killing her outright, uncertain if that would do the trick.
Only his core private army members knew the truth about the botched operation. Sierra, Adder and Ledur witnessed everything from within the underground tunnels they had dug before Horrabelle arrived. A camera rune placed near Igniz's orb compartment, allowed the three of them to see everything that was happening, but they couldn't hear how Horrabelle tricked him; they just saw her suddenly attack him.
Smoke finally arrived in front of his house in Nanahuatl. He landed hard, making a miniature crater in the ground. He rushed blindly towards the cellar, knocking over a couple of chairs and a vase along the way. When he reached the fifth wall of the cellar, he took out the family tokens from his backpack window and placed them into their respective slots on the wall, but nothing happened. With no one there to see him, he slumped down to the ground and lay there, motionless.
Several minutes later, Darius arrived with a loaf of bread. He sat down next to Smoke and said, "You know, it helps to wolf down an entire loaf without thinking about anything else. Just focus on eating it all in one sitting." he said as he offered it to Smoke.
Slowly, Smoke sat up and reached out for the bread. He did what Darius said and focused on finishing the loaf as fast as he could. It took him twenty seconds to eat the entire thing. He smiled as he remembered the time when Darius was still really thin and begged him for his last loaf.
"Thanks, Darius. That helped." said Smoke with a faint smile.
"Sierra called and told me everything." said Darius as he placed his arm over Smoke's shoulder. "You can't blame yourself. All the information you had pointed to the Witches being the Magietrois."
"I know, but it's just so frustrating because I keep telling myself to be careful and do better, but I still end up doing stupid things like this." said Smoke in an irate voice.
Darius squeezed Smoke's shoulder and said, "It is best to be patient with everything; most importantly, with yourself. Don't lose courage by thinking about your imperfections, but rather set about remedying them. This mistake may have caused you pain, but with it, you've grown wiser."
Smoke took a deep breath and tilted his head backwards, pressing it against the wall. He closed his eyes and thought about what Darius said. He agreed that wallowing in self-pity wouldn't accomplish anything.
Darius then took out his Beggar's tablet and showed it to Smoke. "This came in just two hours ago. Our Beggar brothers have found some evidence on the Magietrois. Turns out, they are, in fact, real! We're still looking for more information on where they may be now, but one thing's for sure: they're no longer here in Wysteria."
"Getting the crucial information right after the big blunder...just my luck!" said Smoke sarcastically.
They sat in silence next to one another for about a minute. "Hey...thanks for stating the obvious, Darius. Sometimes, the things that are clear to others...they aren't as clear to someone who is hurting." said Smoke and slowly stood up. "Sorry for cutting our reunion short, but I have to go."
Smoke asked for a rowboat and some supplies. He thought he would take a scenic route back to Verbrannt and train along the way. He had neglected practising his abilities lately and thought that perhaps he could have done something to stop Horrabelle if only he had mastered one of them.
Darius was the only there to bid him farewell as he rowed up the river towards Verbrannt.
                

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Inside an emerald royal war room sat a grim-looking General. Green miasma emanated from his dragonscale armor. His plans to capture one of the cities in Chayotl Kingdom(Western Kingdom) have yet to come to fruition.
He sat alone at the head of a rectangular table. The empty chairs in front of him only had magical mirrors placed on them. While he was deep in thought, the image of Ultimo Maire, better known as Duke Burmistrz, appeared in one of the mirrors and sat at the table as a hologram.
"Greetings, High General Lizardo, and may the bloodline of Vinceretus rule forever!" Burmistrz kissed his own fist and bowed to the armored General.
Shortly afterwards, a middle-aged orangutan Simiavulg appeared as a hologram above one of the other mirrors. He carried a red metallic staff with him.
"Salutations, High General Lizardo, and may the bloodline of Vinceretus rule forever!". Like Burmistrz, the red-staff wielder kissed his own fist and bowed down to Lizardo. "I, Ecume Semblant, have come to serve you."
SCRATCH SCRATCH
Semblant kept scratching his neck and back. Lizardo looked irritated at his vulgar display.
"Forgive me, High General. Ever since I transformed into Indignus, the fleas have been unrelenting in their endeavors to suck me dry." said Semblant apologetically.
"What is your update on Saruras?" asked the intimidating Lizardite.
"The Simiavulgs were slightly enthralled to go to battle when Smoke mentioned that one of the Witches of Wysteria was going to attack us. Luckily, I've persuaded them to stay within the boundaries of the village. The Simiavulgs are still in check and will not involve themselves in any of your attacks on Wysteria, my liege." replied Semblant humbly.
"Good. What about you, Ultimo? Is Centzo still not conquered?" Lizardo asked with contempt.
"I've surrounded the city, my liege, but the Sonstwelter residents of the city have united under one man...some Arch Bishop named Incitant. I tried sending the Brandal legions into the city, but we suffered a devastating blow of forty thousand casualties." Ultimo described the problems he was facing against Centzo, "Due to this, I now only have eighty thousand Brandals at my disposal."
The green miasma coming out of Lizardo's armor transformed into a gaseous hand and reached towards Ultimo's hologram. Its fingers slowly wrapped around his neck.
"My liege, please, I still have a plan of dispatching the Knights that are in Coatl. Together with Macher and the Sonstwelters, we should...be able to...crush Centzo." Ultimo had a hard time talking as his projection's throat was being crushed by Lizardo's gaseous hand.
"Don't be a fool! What do you think would happen if you left Coatl undefended?" yelled Lizardo, "Smoke's army could just walk in and take over the city! Keep your Knights in Coatl and your Brandals outside of Centzo for now."
High General Lizardo's green miasma released its hold on Ultimo's throat.
"It won't be long before Centzo falls. I intend to send my Varanus Indicus horde to your aid as soon as our newest member has finished making improvements to it." said Lizardo. He nodded to a slim figure standing in the shadows.
"Ultimo, Semblant, I would like you to meet the newest addition to our cause: the Black Lady of Malady and the last surviving Witch of Wysteria, Horrabelle." he said as he motioned for her to sit beside him.
The black-robed beauty sat down next to High General Lizardo. "May the bloodline of Vinceretus rule forever!" she said emphatically and kissed his right hand.
TO BE CONTINUED...