Zectas Volume V: The Sequestered Seminary of Sawtorn (24 page)

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With her right hand on her illuminated ferule, Sierra ran her free hand across the slimy cracked surface of the walls. She could feel dents in the moss-lining which covered the entire tunnel. Even though they were only walking for half a kilometer, they still had not encountered any enemies. Yet, despite the lack of struggle, she still found herself short of breath.
A slight breeze would move in and out of the tunnels, but it was seldom. All of Sierra's members encountered the same problem as her, limited by the thin air inside the damp tunnels.
As their long spears, restricted their movement in the tight passageway. The Avendre Mercenaries were equipped with tower-shields and their specialized broad swords. Although much shorter, the added feature of these swords proved to be promising. 
When they moved farther in, a notification window popped up.

"Leaders, status report," ordered Sierra over the open voice conversation between them, as she waited to assess the road ahead.
"Mamelon here. We're about three-hundred meters into our tunnel, but we haven't encountered any hostiles."
"Same here," reported  Virer. "But my men and I are all having trouble breathing. I had the Druids and Shamans check for potential poisonous gas, but they didn't detect any."
"I've scattered the Druids for a maximum coverage of the light," replied Vrai. "But other than that I'm in the same boat as Virer and Mamelon."
Sierra waited for the rest of the leaders to give out their report, but no one else replied. She understood if Phen wouldn't call in, but Rear would definitely give an update.
"Courant, Ardu, Rear, Hazard?" called out Sierra over the conference call. "Are you guys okay?"
"Kind of busy at the moment," replied Hazard over the line. "My side is experiencing a mob of green slimes, and they're being produced by black slimes."
The Avendre Commander paused, as they heard him scream out commands. " Sorry about that. Our poison resistance could handle the green pests, but a third of my men have been inflicted by the black slime's Poison. They're even stronger than the slime monsters from Mandragora Forest."
"We're facing skeleton summoners on our end," replied a gasping Courant. "They're summoning lesser skeleton warriors. But it's not a problem as we've already occupied most of the tunnel."
"My men are under glacier attacks from six great water elementals," said Rear. "The defensive boulder formation of the Avendre are holding, but these monsters are also summoning lesser water elementals as we speak. We're having a hard time reaching them, as we're being blocked by these lesser water elementals."
'Phen must be encountering some trouble as well,' thought Sierra.
As she was about to ask more information from them, mud golems seeped out from the cracks of the tunnel. At a height of less than two-meters, these monsters were the smallest golems she had ever encountered.
"We're under attack!" exclaimed Sierra. "Shamans, stay at the center. Druids, prioritize on support. Use overgrowth to disable the golems. Avendre, we're all counting on you for the offense!"
Honing her senses to use her Animal Instinct ability, she detected that all of her members were surrounded. She counted at least a thousand mud golems.
Sierra smashed her ferule into the nearest mud golem's skull. She expected to see it break, but her staff was absorbed into the monster's head instead of damaging it.
While struggling to free herself, she casted overgrowth on the mud golems near her. Roots sprang out from the ground, breaking the tunnel's floor. The overgrowth forced their way into the golems' legs, preventing them to move in on Sierra's members.
"Let go of my staff!" cried out Sierra, placing both hands on her ferule. She thought about Transmogrifying into a Werebear, but decided not to. The Mercenaries needed to step up and fight in their stead.
As more of her fellow Druids' ferules were stuck inside the mud golems' bodies, the damp tunnel began to darken.
Wanting to brighten up the place, Sierra concentrated more mana into her ferule.
CRACK CRACK CRACK
Then, the mud golem's face began to harden, and showed wide gaps on his head. Light began to show from between the openings.
With one final pull, Sierra freed her ferule from the mud golem. The Avendre Mercenaries behind her simultaneously plunged their broad swords into the earth-monster, draining its life bar to zero.
"Druids, maximize the lights of your ferules!" ordered Sierra.
For five seconds, their tunnel became as bright as day. Then, all of the mud golems' bodies began to dry up, and their movement became stinted.
The Avendre lashed out their broad swords with precise attacks on their assailants, and shattered the dried up monsters to pieces.
"Hoo haa!" cried out the Avendre in a triumphant cheer.
However, their victory was short lived. Another batch of mud golems immediately seeped out from the cracks in the tunnel.
Knowing the monsters' weakness, the Druids immediately let out another beam of light. The Avendre launched another round of slashes on the dried up golems, while the Shamans traveled about and cured the slightly injured members.
Once again, they let out another shout of preemptive conquest, but once more their hurrah quickly faded. As soon as they dispatched the mud golems, another wave of them would appear.
Suddenly, a voice cracked over Sierra's open conference window.
"Sierra, we've killed at least four waves of these lesser water elementals in our tunnel. But it looks like there's no end to them. Unless we can reach those big monsters summoning," reported Rear. "What are your orders? Should we Transmogrify and deal with them?"
"Same here," chimed in Hazard.  "It's just an endless wave of monster after another."
One by one, the other leaders all gave out a similar update.
Sierra did not want to rely on their Transmogrified forms. The main purpose of this Quest was to get the relic, but the other one was for their Mercenaries to prove themselves. She stared farther down into her passageway. Squinting her eyes, she noticed a faint red and blue lights moving at the end of it.
"Can anyone else see the red and blue lights at the end of their tunnels?" she asked over the conference.
"Yes!" bellowed her fellow leaders in confirmation.
"Alright, leave your men behind. Let them continue fighting the respawning swarms," ordered Sierra. "If we leave these pests alone and push forward, we could be mobbed and be blocked in."
Everyone of the tunnel leaders gave out their affirmative responses.
"Take a maximum of two healers with you, and maybe five to ten Mercenaries," she quickly added.
Sierra then called one of the Avendre Commanders near her and gave him his new mission.
Following her own command, Sierra dashed out and left her division to fend off the mobbing mud golems. She took only one Druid, a Shaman, and five Avendre with her.
Smashing the mud golems to the side with her ferule, Sierra and her selected companions ignored the monsters as they raced onward.
Yet, after passing the seven-hundred meter marker, she instantly noticed their absence. The mud golems ceased to come out of the tunnels.
"Everyone, run faster!" encourage Sierra, as she led them towards the red and blue lights.
The tunnel exited to an immense cavern, with a sole stupendous creature at its center. She reflexively extended her arms and ferule, stopping her comrades from moving forward.
The monster towered over four meters. Its face was covered by a root-like beard, and its hands and legs were similar to that of a rotten trunk. Its skin was that of a drenched bark, dripping with sap. Its deep-socketed red eyes glowed eerily, the same red lights that Sierra spotted from the far off distance earlier. On its head were a pair of stag moose antlers, which protruded out from the side.
Right beside the monster, was a shining blue sword, glistening with overflowing power. Yet, a light-blue barrier enclosed upon it.
'That must be the relic,' guessed Sierra, as she focused her eyes on the weapon.
Slowly, the chunky monster turned around to face the other Vigilantez who arrived at the scene. Only Mamelon, Virer, and Courant had reached the extensive cavern.
"You, Four, have done well to reach me," suddenly said the heavyset monster, enunciating each word clearly.
'It's Intelligent,' surmised Sierra. She was already worried that her Overgrowth ability would not work on the monster with roots for a beard, but her concern doubled knowing it could speak.
"Was it you who gave the order to keep my subordinates occupied?" the monster of the cavern turned to ask Mamelon. "No! It was not you," it said, as it answered its own question.
However, before it could say anything else, Virer unleashed a flurry of fire-lances at the monster. Its life bar and name were revealed, Leshak (1,499,000/1,500,000 HP).
The Flame Knight's fiery attack fizzled against Leshak's drenched bark-like skin.
"Feisty, aren't we," said Leshak. "But no, you're not the one as well," it said. A wet root suddenly came out from the ground, sending Virer flying to the cavern wall.
THWACK
A hard sound of Virer splatting on the wall echoed throughout the cavernous chamber. Leshak aimed four sharp roots at the downed Flame Knight, but Sierra hurriedly used her own Overgrowth ability and set up her own wall of roots.
"Yes!" exclaimed Leshak, turning only its face around and stared at Sierra. "You're the one I'm after."
Sierra cringed at the sight of Leshak's twisted head all the way to its back, but she felt her hair stand on end when she saw the thick brown-fur cape covering its behind. Several skeletons protruded out of it.
"But I'll save you for last," Leshak said to Sierra.
Suddenly, running towards Mamelon, Leshak caught the Aqua Knight off guard. It grabbed her with its massive root-like hands and plunged her to the ground.
Half of Mamelon's body disappeared as Leshak squashed her with its arms.
Sierra illuminated her ferule to get a better view of where Mamelon was, as she did not want to accidentally hit her friend.
On the other hand, Virer unleashed another round of his fire-lances at Leshak's back.
The cavern monster responded by letting out a thick fog, blocking their view of itself and Mamelon.
"Virer, stop! You might hit Mamelon," cried out Courant, who was patiently waiting for an opening.
The Flame Knight held back his attack, but still pointed his flaming lance at the smog.
Then, Mamelon emerged out of it.
"Mamelon, are you alright?" asked Virer, as the Flame Knight rushed to her side. The Shamans who were with him, quickly healed her.
The Aqua Knight silently nodded. She tried to speak up, but seconds later, another figure came out from the mist.
Again, it was Mamelon, completely wearing the same equipment as the one who had stepped out earlier.
"Wait! Who is the real Mamelon?" asked Virer, backing away from the Mamelon who stood next to him. With trembling hands, he pointed his flaming lance at her.
The Mamelon next to Virer opened her mouth and tried to speak up, but no sound came out. She strongly pointed to herself, as if trying to signify that she was the real Mamelon.
However, the second Mamelon did the exact thing. She turned to Sierra and Courant raising her hands, as if showing that she was on their side.
"Mamelon, you need to speak up!" exclaimed Sierra. "Tell us who's really you!"
But none of the Mamelons could comply. They continued with their pantomime. Both trying hard to convince them that they were the real one.
The second Mamelon slowly walked over to Courant and lifted her armor's full-faced mask. Her angelic face and blond hair were revealed for everyone to see.
The first Mamelon hurriedly did the same and showed her face to Virer. Both of the Mamelons had the same features.
"What kind of monster can completely copy someone?" asked Virer out loud. "Even Mamelon's body proportions are right!"
"It must have used some kind of Silence curse on Mamelon, preventing her from talking," said Courant from across the cavern.
"I agree," said Sierra, slowly moving in closer to the Mamelon next to the Electro Knight. Her men were poised to attack as they followed behind.
Then, the second Mamelon who was now standing next to Courant, suddenly punched him in the face. The monster pummeled Courant to the ground, draining his life bar to 70%.
Before Sierra and her comrades could react, the disguised Leshak created another mist. Hiding both it and the Electro Knight from Sierra's view.
Thinking on her feet, Sierra signaled Mamelon and Virer to surround the mist. A total of fifteen Avendre Mercenaries, five Druids, and six Shamans were ready to engage in battle.
As they expected, two Electro Knights with the same life bars stepped out from the fog.
"Attack them both!" ordered Sierra.
One of the Courants raised his arms and took on a defensive stance. He desperately shook his head, as he tried to tell them that he was not Leshak, but not a peep came out.
On the other hand, the other Courant reacted by swinging his arm at the nearest Avendre. Fortunately, the Mercenary hurriedly jumped backwards, barely escaping Leshak's clutches.
"There! That's Leshak!" she shouted, pointing at the aggressive Electro Knight. "Avendre, ranged attacks!"
The Mercenaries threw their broad swords at Leshak, revealing that their weapons' handles were attached to long, sturdy ropes. Their swords embedded into the monster disguised as Courant, and it slowly reverted back to its own hideous body.
Sierra then turned to her fellow Druids. "Increase the light on your ferules! Dry up Leshak's saps."
While the Druids followed their instructions, Sierra used her Contrition ability on Leshak, which made the monster susceptible to more damage. She then buffed Virer with Archon's Blessing, doubling the damage of his next attack.
"Virer, wait for my signal," said Sierra.
While waiting for Virer's attack, Mamelon and Courant lunged their elemental lances at the entangled Leshak and kept attacking from a safe distance.
The Mercenaries did little damage to the gigantic tree-like monster, but they did manage to restrict its movement.
Leshak tried to grab one of the Avendre, but was quickly pulled back on the opposite direction by the Mercenaries' rope-broad-sword.