Zectas Volume V: The Sequestered Seminary of Sawtorn (20 page)

He was surprised to see such a high experience reward from a monster with such a low life bar. Yet, he quickly dismissed the idea. He realized that Paradox did have the ability to fully restore its life whenever attacked by a different element.
Instead of heading for Paradox's remains, Smoke went to see where Flora's body was. Nothing was there, not a single trace of the red-haired girl was left behind.
Dragging his feet, Smoke went over to pick up Paradox's loot. It was a red metallic mask with golden flames etched into it.

'Guess this must be what Flora meant when she said Paradox had many faces,' somberly thought Smoke.
Depressed, Smoke canceled his synergized state and separated with Igniz.
He then showed it to his symbiote and said. "We got the mask, but how do we tell Eleve about Flora?"

Cuddled on the sofa, Nash and Sherry held hands as they watched a documentary on puffins. The two of them shared the simple pleasures of being a couple and enjoyed their isolation from everything else in silence.
Yet, as Nash reached out to grab the cold lemonade from the coffee table, Sherry felt his discomfort.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "Still bothered about Flora's death?"
"Sorry, I know we already talked about it, but it's all I can only think about," answered Nash.
He then pointed to the tv screen. "Oh, look, the mommy puffin finally got her baby to eat by herself."
BZZT
Sherry turned off the television. "You should no better than try to change the subject," she said and patted his back.
"I just don't get why she entered the cave," said Nash. "She was the one who said it was dangerous to go beyond the entrance."
"Well, you did say she was a special flower girl, right? She was the reason you met Eleve in the first place," said Sherry, as she tried to console him. "I don't know what Eleve will do to you, but like you said, it's best that you tell her directly."
She then stood up and offered her hand to him. "In fact, you should head home and tell her right now."
"Wait, you haven't told me how everyone in Verbrannt is doing," said Nash.
"Not much has changed," replied Sherry. "Jinggu is still missing. Adder and Ledur are still out training their special units."
Suddenly, Sherry released his hand and lightly slapped his shoulder.
"Wait! There is one thing," she said chuckling. "Mamelon went hysterical on your latest video. She kept laughing at those OrkElves you had pretend to be Sharur and Jinggu. She said you must have been pretty desperate to hire such wretched-looking OrkElves."
Nash let out a forced grin. "Wachs was bad, but Colere was very good."
"See, I thought I'd get you to laugh at that one," said Sherry. "But you won't feel better until you confront Eleve."
This time, Nash gave her a sincere smile. "Alright, I'll do that. Thanks again for listening," he said and hugged her tightly.
"You know I kind of miss your Werebear form sometimes," he said, as he squeezed her in his arms. "But the feeling quickly disappears when I feel your real body next to me."
Sherry giggled and lightly slapped him on the cheek. She forced herself out of their embrace and said. "Your cheesy lines won't work on me!"
Then, she gave him a quick peck on the lips and said. "Now, go already!"
"Alright, alright. I'm going," said Nash, grinning widely.
He then grabbed her hand and said. "If ever you're in trouble or just want to hang, just call—"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I know," said Sherry and forcefully pushed him out of her house.
Nash no longer resisted and voluntarily walked out on his own.
When he stepped outside, she called to him once more. "Hey, maybe this will inspire you to get back into the game, I'm already level 116."
"What?!" exclaimed Nash. He tried to ask how she raised her level more than he did, but was met with a shut door instead.
Nash shook his head while smiling. "I knew I shouldn't have said my real level!"
Now, he had two reasons for sprinting back home.
 

* * * * * * 

Squatting in Florissant Seminary's supposed tranquil meditation chamber, Smoke felt that the atmosphere was anything but serene. Eight lit candles surrounded them and their flames were angrily flickering, rising in height and temperature.
Eleve's stern gaze felt like her eyes were burning a deep hole in his chest. Even Igniz's slowly flying around, as if trying to coax the old HighElf, was uneffective.
"So, let me get this straight. Flora ran inside the cavern to warn you and you couldn't do anything to save her?" she asked condescendingly.
"Yes, that's what happened," humbly said Smoke.
"She was so special," began Eleve. "In all of the flower girls of the Magi Gagnant Tournament, she was the one I connected with the most."
Suddenly, the flames of all the candles in the chamber rose to the ceiling. He still felt the searing heat, despite his high resistance to fire.
"Eleve, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean—" began Smoke, but he was cut off. Several flaming swords entered his body. His life bar was instantly reduced to 30%.
"You're lying!" suddenly shouted Eleve. "There's no way that Flora is dead! Tell me where you hid her!"
Igniz attacked the elderly red-haired HighElf with his fireballs, but she easily deflected them. Instead, she attacked him with a flaming sword as well and pinned him against Smoke's body.
"I guess the saying about bad luck with dark ember sprites was real after all," said Eleve.
"Eleve, don't!" begged Smoke. "Kill me, but please don't kill Igniz."
As they were talking, Smoke's life bar went below 25%, thus activating Horrabelle's cursed Decay Aura. He began losing 100 HP per second.
"What is this?" asked Eleve, stepping away from him. "You've been cursed?"
Eleve then canceled the flaming swords, which left a scorched Smoke sprawled on the floor. The flames of the flickering candles turned pure white and went to him, restoring his life bar to full capacity.
"Thank you," said Smoke, but then the flames returned to its flaming sword appearance.
"I'll tell you what, I won't kill you," began Eleve. "If I did, you'd just come back after four days."
Igniz was about to attack her again, but Smoke held his symbiote at bay. "Wait up, Bud. We can't fight her."
"You really feel guilty for Flora's death, huh?" she asked. "If she really is dead. Frankly, I don't believe you. So, I'll put you to the test."
She pointed her palms at both Smoke and Igniz, which activated a notification window.

Purple smoke came out of Smoke's skin, indicating that he had merged with his symbiote.
"What is this? What are you doing?" asked a worried Smoke.
"I can't technically kill you," she said with disgust. "But I can make sure that you'll be wishing you were dead."
PLOP
Eleve and Smoke teleported out of the Seminary and onto a small island, with a land area of less than one square kilometer.

"The next piece of land isn't for another three-thousand kilometers," said Eleve. "Teleporting is the only way off this island. That, or death."
A confused Smoke looked around the barren island and found nothing but a rocky ground with sea surrounding it.
"If you tell me that Flora is really alive, then I'll let you go and I'll even let this off as a mean joke," said Eleve.
"What do you want from me?" asked Smoke. "You want me to lie?"
"I want you to tell me the truth," said Eleve. "Tell me she's alive, and you were just lying about her death!"
"I can't do that!" replied Smoke. "I'm really sorry I couldn't do anything to save her, but she really is dead."
"Fine!" screamed Eleve.
She then attacked the sea from all directions with a myriad of fireballs. Steam began to rise from where her attacks landed.
After a minute of unceasing fireball attacks, she stopped and turned to Smoke. "I'll come back after five days, if you're still alive, then that means that Tlaltezin declared your innocence. If you're dead, then your symbiote won't be coming back to this world again."
PLOP
With that the ancient HighElf vanished, leaving a disdained teleporting sound and a fiery fragment of her stern body.
"Igniz, I don't know if you can hear me from within," he said to his chest. "But I'm going to try logging out of Zectas. Maybe, that will cancel this forced Synergized state we're in."
Smoke logged out, and hurriedly logged back in. However, purple fumes were what greeted him when he opened his eyes in the realm of Zectas.
'Damn it!' he thought angrily. "Damn you Eleve! Damn you!" he cursed at the heavens, but no one was there to listen. He was alone on the barren island, or so he thought.
Suddenly, his Cunning of the Dire Fox picked up close to twenty monsters from the surrounding water. Slowly, red humanoid crustaceans walked out of the sea. Water dripped down from their scaly armored bodies.
With one look, he could tell that they were tough. These crab-men had one pincer larger than the other and walked upright. He tried logging out, but was met with the notification window he had expected.

"Guess this must be the start of the test," said Smoke out loud. He then grabbed his chest and spoke to Igniz. "Don't worry, Bud, I won't let you die."
Opening both his palms, Smoke used his Fire Manipulation to create a ring of purple fire around him. He began attacking the humanoid crab monsters with his fire-spears coming out from the flames.
After the aquatic monsters were hit, their life bars and names were revealed, clawful (177,640/180,000 HP). His fire-spears could only do a little over 2,000 damage points.
Smoke grinned. He unleashed a torrent of fire-spears at the surrounding monsters and was steadily withering down their lives.
However, the clawfuls would not back down. Sixteen of them broke through his firewall. They moved fluidly like boxers. These monsters led with their smaller pincers for rapid jab-like attacks, and then suddenly lunged out their larger ones, as they took a swipe at Smoke.
Thanks to his Cunning of the Dire Fox, he was able to dodge six of the attacks, but the other ten made contact with his flesh, as their larger pincers tore through his armor. Due to his synergized state being weak against aquatic monster attacks, each pincer-punch dealt 4,000 damage points.
Surrounded, Smoke used his Earth Manipulation to raise himself onto a platform. Only three clawfuls were able to cling to his rising escape. Using earth-spikes, he stabbed their bellies and dropped all of them down.
Finding sanctuary on his earth-platform, which rose to a height of nine meters, he looked down and assessed his situation.
'I can't use my fire attacks on them,' he thought.
From high above, he began attacking the clawfuls with earth-spikes, dealing 6,000 damage points. In a matter of seconds, he killed one of the aquatic beasts.

After swiftly dealing with one of the boxer-like crab-men, he grinned and felt good about himself. Yet, he suddenly felt a churn in the pit of his stomach. Something felt wrong, as if his gut told him to stop attacking the monsters with earth-spikes.
He wondered if it was Igniz trying to tell him something.
'This wasn't suppose to be easy. It's suppose to be a test whether I am innocent of Flora's death,' he thought. 'I should focus on only using Fire Manipulation.'
He took out a ruby mask etched with golden flames. The Paradox Pyro Face, which he got after Flora died.

While Smoke was inspecting the ruby mask, the clawfuls began helping each other scale his earth-platform.
'Oh, looks like these crabs know how to work together,' he thought.
Fixed on using his Fire Manipulation, he donned the Paradox Pyro Face. He then engulfed the barren island in a sea of purple flames. The damage from the firewalls were less than 300 points per second, but every accumulated damage mattered.
It took him the next forty-five minutes to kill all twenty clawfuls on this tiny island. He leapt down and quickly collected their loot.

Yet, when he was done looting, he felt an ominous presence. He felt he was being watched by someone from a higher position.
He quickly looked around, but could not see anyone, nor could his Cunning of the Dire Fox sense anything.
However, he quickly dismissed this odd feeling of being observed when he picked up close to a hundred clawfuls coming to shore.
Using his claws of Chiropterra, he scaled back up his earth-platform and prepared for the clawfuls' attack.
"Who ever you are that's watching me, just come out and face me like a man!" he yelled in all the direction of the island. "I'm ready for you anytime!"
Yet, there was no answer.
Feeling uncertain whether someone was really there, he focused on the invading clawfuls. He unleashed his fireballs and turned them into fire-spears, as he launched them at the aquatic monsters. Despite his unceasing use of Fire Manipulation, his mana regeneration well compensated the deficit.
It took him close to two hours to finish off the monsters.
When the battle was over, he quickly logged out of Zectas. Only to return a few seconds later.
'Phew! At least I confirmed I could log out before they come surfacing,' he happily realized.
He stretched his hands to the skies, as he prepared for the next wave of clawfuls.
Smoke remained on top of his earth-pillar, ready to attack with his flames. He filled the barren island with a sea of his purple firewalls as soon as the red armored crab-men surfaced.
"Crabababababa!"
"Crababababababa!"
He heard their mocking laughter as they easily walked into his flames. They were damaged, but it was not enough to deter them from scaling his earth-tower.
He began attacking them with his fire-spears, but this wave of clawfuls were more than he could handle. Twenty of them, with life bars of 80%, were briskly clawing their way to the top of his earth-tower.
Alarmed at their steady advance, Smoke focused his attention towards them. He targeted them with fire-spears, but the clawfuls simply hid their heads behind their large red crustacean shoulders.
Desperate, Smoke was inspired to improve his fire-spears. He concentrated on one single flaming spear and turned it into the shape of a sword. The same one Eleve used to attack him earlier. He found the flaming sword to be stronger and more maneuverable. With just one, he manipulated it to orbit around his earth-tower. It pried off the clawfuls' pincers and threw them down to his firewalls.
With his right hand, Smoke controlled the fire-sword, and with his left he let out a steady stream of fire-spears on the clawfuls below. It felt like making circles in the air with his right hand, and squares with his left. Sweat drenched his clothes, his satiety bar was quickly draining. His new found method for fending off and attacking the clawfuls were effective, but it took a high toll on him.
Somehow, he survived the wave with only two crab-men reaching up to him. He suffered 10,000 damage points, but he quickly threw them down the platform before receiving anymore.
Spent, Smoke squatted on his earth-tower, quickly devouring the crabmeat and drinking pompom juice to replenish his mana bar.
The next few waves were equally hard, if not harder. The struggle was real. It was not until the seventh wave, when two pleasant notification windows popped up and made him smile.