Zectas Volume V: The Sequestered Seminary of Sawtorn (36 page)

A few seconds later, Niemand's body vanished as it crossed over to Mictlan.
Still protected by his mechanical legions of Tulo and Upat, Smoke walked over to the item left behind by Niemand.

'Pfft! What a rip off!' he thought, disappointed.
'Wait... If this guy was only a Commander, then where are the Ork Colonels?' he asked himself.
"Freifahrt, to me!" called out Smoke, worried that he had not seen Wertlosvati or any of the UrukHai Colonels.
A few seconds later, his large dirus wolf dragged a MoriHai by the arm. It then laid the Ork down in front of him.
Pointing his right palm over the dying Ork, he pierced it with several flame-swords and ended his suffering.
After mounting his steed, Smoke called out to his four legions. "Automaton Knights! We're chasing after those smelly beasts!"
He yelled loudly. Yet, looking back at his special unit, he realized that Legions Una and Duha were left with 7,000 and 6,500 Automaton Knights, respectively.
'This is great training for when I face Duke Burmistrz,' he thought, imagining leading his Avendre Mercenaries into battle. 'But I need to minimize my losses.'
 

* * * * * * 

Chasing after the charging Orks who left their Commander to die, Smoke chewed on his bison jerky and drank pompom juice. He was still deciding on which strategy to make before their attack.
'They don't have a commanding officer now,' he thought to himself on a positive note. 'So, this should be easy,'
However, he instantly realized how wrong he was. The last order given out by Niemand was to scale the walls and ravage the city, and that was what the surviving Orks were doing.
Despite being assaulted by elementals spells from above, the green giants pushed on and kept running towards Votl City. A random large comet would blast a few of them away, and slightly reduced their life bars. Despite this damage, these Orks merely picked themselves up and ran forward like nothing happened.
Of course, most of these Orks still had life bars over 200,000 HP. Some even had 400,000.
Yet, the most intimidating thing that Smoke felt, was their resilience and focus on wreaking havoc to the city.
'They're like those bunnies from hell, that keeps on going and going and going, with a never ending supply of energy,' Smoke thought and shuddered, as he watched some of the amputated Orks scale the walls with one hand.
He even saw others stab their severed arms with axes and swords, and then used those to aid them in their ascent to the city.
'Don't mind that! Need to focus!' he chanted to himself.
Even though hundreds of Orks have already died, Smoke and his special unit was still greatly outnumbered thirty-five to eighty.
'Since I can't face 80,000 Orks all at once, best to chip away at their sides,' he decided and ordered his four legions to consolidate into one the nearest outer section.
With the Orks blindly charging forward, Smoke and the Automaton Knights took the green giants by surprise. Three mechanical Iron Knights simultaneously backstabbed one Ork, and fought them to the death.
After twenty minutes, the Orks on the ground numbered only 30,000.
'Good. My plan is working,' thought Smoke. 'Now, we're almost evenly matched in numbers.'
Yet a frown covered his hidden face, after he looked up. The reason the number of Orks were reduced, was because most of them had already gone up more than half way through the amethyst walls.
Smoke hurriedly joined the front lines of his Automaton Knights. Frantic to create a path towards the wall.
'I need to stop them from climbing up,' he thought, determined.
Examining his Iron Knights, he saw that most of them were already banged up.
"Eleve can fix them, anyway," he said to himself, and ordered Legions Tulo and Upat to take the lead.
"Isa, Duha, don't stay behind!" exclaimed Smoke. "Push forward! Tulo and Upat can't hold them off for long."
Ten minutes later, and Smoke finally reached the Votl's fortification. Yet, 30% of his Iron Knights were still stuck behind, surrounded by a sea of Orks.
Smoke created firewalls after firewalls, but covering an area of 50,000 Orks was beyond his current mana and level.
So, he settled to create a path of firewalls towards him. Slowly, his Automaton Knights stepped into the flames, unscathed and intact.
However, when he counted, Smoke was only left with 28,000 mechanical Iron Knights.
"No matter what happens, stop them from climbing!" cried out Smoke. He then created thick firewalls after firewalls, leaving only four unburning paths for the Orks to take.
As Chrys' poisonous green cloud corroded their HP, most of the invaders' life bars were already below 85%.
"We can do this!" Smoke cheered the Automatons, but mostly for himself and Igniz synergized inside him.
Suddenly, a falling shadow brought Smoke's attention to the ground, which made him look up.
"Waaaaaaah!" screamed a falling Ork.
SPLAT
Smoke heard the sound of bones being crushed, as it came in contact with the solid ground.
'That's one way to kill them,' he thought, pleased.
As he kept on gazing upward, Smoke saw several more falling bodies.
'Looks like it's raining Orks today!' he joked inwardly.
Using his Telefax Vision, he spotted that it was just not green giants who were falling down, but also the  Sonstwelter and Zectian volunteers.
After having seen the demise of the fallen Ork earlier, Smoke hurriedly created a wide spiral funnel with his Earth Manipulation.
However, this charitable structure was not biased. It saved the lives of those it caught. It slid them down its spiral slope and landed all of them safely on the ground.
With pin-point accuracy, Smoke aimed his flame-swords at the Orks entangled together with his allies. He made sure to finish them off, before the could harm anyone else.
"Faux! Thanks for saving us, Man," said a Paladin Lord.
Smoke recognized him to be Edel, the Sonstwelter who earlier offered him to join his guild.
"We were following Chrys' orders, of pushing these monsters off the ledge," explained Edel. "But these Orks are more than persistent. A lot of them grabbed on to us, and brought us down with them."
"I'm glad you are all safe," replied Smoke.
He glanced over at the people he rescued. Doing a quick count, he estimated them to be thirty in all, both Sonstwelters and Zectians.
"So, how's it going up there?" asked Smoke, while launching flame-arrows at the incoming Orks.
With the Automaton Knights surrounding them, Smoke and the fallen wall defenders were for the moment, safe.
Edel shook his head and said. "Somehow we're holding up well. The Healers are still secured and the wall of melee fighters are still holding up."
The Paladin Lord strained his neck, as he looked up. "Well, when we were there."
As they spoke, more bodies were thrown off from the wall. Sadly, Smoke's earth-funnel could not cover such a broad wall.
Looking up, Smoke knew what to do. "Edel, can you lead the others to defend this place?" he asked the Paladin Lord. "I need to do something."
"Sure," replied Edel. "I'll have a group stand by the bottom of the funnel, to finish off the Orks that are caught. While I'll position myself in between here and the front lines."
Then, a blue aura appeared underneath all of them.

Smoke looked around, and was impressed to see that it covered such an extensive area.
Edel then proceeded to Heal the injured, and the other Paladins followed suit.
'Good,' Smoke thought. He then extended both his arms downward, and began to add more earth into his funnel.
Ten minutes past, and the area that the Automaton Knights were protecting had shrunk by five-meters. Even his dirus wolf had began to back away from the Orks.
"We got this!" yelled Edel at Smoke, as he stopped reinforcing the funnel.
Five more minutes in, and it slowly began to take shape of a large tree. He directed the thick earth upward, which started to broaden the mouth of the funnel.
"There!" exclaimed Smoke. He then turned around and launched a torrent of flame-arrows. He was taken aback to see that the Orks had been held firm. His wall of Automaton Knights stood their ground, as Edel and other Paladins joined them in the front lines.
Smoke then looked at the aura underneath him and saw that there were now two overlapping auras. He ran closer to Edel, to ask how everyone was doing.
"I've activated my Thorn Aura," explained Edel. "And it looks like the Orks don't like the taste of their own strength."
"Great job!" said Smoke. "Let's keep this pace and thin them out."
A little over two hours passed since the Orks invaded, Smoke glanced at his unit. With a heavy sigh, he counted his Automaton Knights to now only number 24,000.
On the upside, only 40,000 Orks were left on the western district of Votl. With 10,000 of them constantly trying to climb the walls. Only 25,000 remained on the ground fighting against Smoke and his men. Whereas, the remaining 5,000 fought on top of the wall against Chrys and the Vitztytl Defenders, only to fall into Smoke's funnel.
Smoke checked his satiety bar, and saw that it was almost at 50%. He glanced at his allies and saw that they looked like they could barely stand. Only the Automaton Knights remained sturdy, as they were mechanical soldiers powered by magic.
Posthaste, Smoke handed a group of his allies one clay-jar of pompom juice. "Share this, but don't drink it all at once," he said. Before he proceeded to the next group to do the same.
Steadily, the morale and strength of Votl's western ground defenders rose.
With that, the Ork numbers began to decline.
"Faux! Looks like it's over," exclaimed Edel. A grinning Paladin Lord rushed to Smoke's side and gave him a strong pat on the back.
"Good work, Edel," replied Smoke. "You and everyone else did great!"
As Edel started to walk away, Smoke caught the Paladin Lord staring at him.
"What?" asked Smoke. "Something wrong?"
"Did you know that you're already famous?" blurted out Edel.
"Eh?" asked Smoke, confused.
"The forums... Everyone's already been talking about you," added Edel. "They even say that you're already on the same level as Amahan, Tristan, and Smoke."
"Really? I don't think I'd be—" began Smoke, but was cut off.
"But I think that you'll be greater than all of them," declared Edel. "If you ever decide to create a guild, please tell me. I assure you that all of the members of Sunrise Kingdom will sign up under you."
"That's really not going to—" said Smoke, but was cut off again.
As Chrysopelea suddenly dove down from above. "Faux! The Orks are leaving!"
"I know, they must be retreating!" cheerfully replied Smoke.
"No! They're headed towards the northern district!" yelled Chrys. "Trottel's gate has been busted open!"
"Damn it, Trottel!" shouted Smoke.
 

* * * * * * 

Riding Freifahrt at top speed, Smoke led 14,000 Automaton Knights towards Trottel's side of the Votl City. He left 10,000 mechanical Iron Knights with Edel and the other defenders near the base of the funnel.
Moving in the same direction as the Orks, Smoke and his special unit were ignored by the green giants.
'Looks like their one track mind works in my favor too,' he thought, thankful.
However, the fast-pace marching of the Orks gradually decreased, until it came to a sudden hault.
KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG
Smoke was able to stop Freifahrt at once, but the rest of the chasing Automaton Knights bashed their armors into the Orks.
The loud commotion made the green giants turn around.
SHING SHING SHING SHING
Sharp clashing sound of steel against steel, echoed on the grounds of the northern gates. Claymores and great two-handed weapons collided with brute force.
As Smoke and his special unit defended against the Orks in the back, more and more MoriHai turned around to fight them.
The outnumbered Smoke and his Automaton Knights were steadily being overwhelmed. So, before they would be completely surrounded, he let out his Digger's Wand and dug a deep trench in front of him.
Hundreds of MoriHai instantly fell in Smoke's trench. This, gave him a better view of the northern city gates. Thousands of Orks flooded to rush inside, creating a choke point.
Elemental attacks came from above. Smoke saw powerful Lightning strikes aimed at the invaders who got inside.
'That must be Trottel,' surmised Smoke, shaking his head.
Yet, the Lioumerean's hopeless attacks did nothing to stop the Orks' advance into the Votl City.
'Good thing all the residents have been evacuated behind the Castle Walls,' thought Smoke, as he watched Sonstwelter stalls in the market district being broken into pieces.
Although, he was more than two-hundred meters away, Smoke was confident of his Earth Manipulation. Seeing the gates were destroyed, he pointed both his hands at the gate and constructed a thick earth-wall. Yet, its initial height was only three-meters.
The Orks on top of the rising earth-wall fell down from both its sides. The green giants who were left outside, scrambled to grab hold of the rising top ledge of the wall.
Smoke had no intention of stopping. Not until he had completely sealed the gate that was ten-meters tall.
However, a massive dirus wolf came charging towards him, from the other side of his trench.
Freifahrt shook Smoke off its back, and lunged at the incoming dirus wolf. Both gigantic mounts dropped into his freshly dug trench, but not before the Ork rider leapt off and landed in front of Smoke.
"Boangi or brave? Which one are you?" asked an Ork that was almost twice the size of Niemand. He did not have a two-handed weapon like most Orks. Instead, he had two ornate gauntlets with knife-like finger points.
"Guess I try," said Smoke in Orkish. "You are UrukHai Colonel?"
"A DarkElf who speaks the most beautiful language," replied the UrukHai, who stood up straight. "You are right. I am Colonel Vergewaltiger."
Smoke took a quick glance at his earth blockade. He grinned from behind his Paradox Mask, as it had grown to at least eight-meters, before he was interrupted.
"What are you looking at?" asked Vergewaltiger. He turned around and spotted his earth-wall. "Oh! You must be proud."
"Gukgukguk!" Vergewaltiger chuckled. "You are Boangi! You locked yourself outside with all of us?"
Then, the MoriHai Orks who fell into his trench climbed back up, and stood behind their UrukHai Colonel.
Unconsciously, Smoke took a step back. He scrambled his brain for what to do next.
WOOOHSHHIIIIWOOOHHH
A powerful tornado instantaneously appeared in front of the blocked city gates. Ouragan flew inside it, and pulled in all of the MoriHai Orks. Their massive green arms and legs flailed in the turbulent winds.
THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD
Ouragan threw the Orks against Votl's walls.
However, Vergewaltiger remained where he stood.
"Prime Wizard Ouragan! Always a pain in the ass!" said the UrukHai Colonel. "Guess that means the fight in the southern side is already finished."
"Smo— Faux! Are you alright?" yelled Ouragan from above.
"Yeah! I'm fine!" replied Smoke.
"Think you can handle him?" asked the old HighElf.
Smoke did not reply, but only stared at the monstrous UrukHai Colonel before him.
"Right! I'll deal with the small fries," said Ouragan. "And you handle him!"
Ouragan then flew towards the recovering Orks, and created his amplifying casting circle in the air. Fire Mages immediately took advantage of this, and directed their spells to pass through it. Several of the Orks below were pummeled into the ground by fireballs.
"Automaton Knights!" blurted out Smoke. "Go and finish off those Orks!"
At once, the 14,000 Iron Knights behind him marched around his trench to hunt down the green giant stragglers.
"Gukgukguk!" Vergewaltiger chuckled once more. "Ouragan left you to deal with me? Elves are really boangi! Gukgukguk!"
Suddenly, Vergewaltiger vanished.
SLASH SLASH
Smoke's Cunning of the Dire Fox sensed an attack coming from behind. So, he leapt forward with his Hyper Jump ability. Yet, even then, he still received a damage of 20,000 points from the light scratches on his back.
He leapt further away, but Vergewaltiger instantly caught up with him.
The UrukHai Colonel did another double strike attack with his tiger-like gauntlets, but Smoke deflected it with his flame-shield.
'How could he move so fast?' wondered Smoke, seeing as the UrukHai Colonel was the largest Ork he had seen.
He then counter-attacked with eight flame-arrows, at point blank range.
Vergewaltiger was forcibly pushed back by Smoke's rush of flames. The Ork's life bar displayed (1,492,000/1,500,000 HP).
Pestered by the Ork's fast movement, Smoke launched eight earth-pillars which interlocked. A stunned Vergewaltiger was caught within it.
Smoke then Hyper Jumped behind the Ork, and unleashed a torrent of flame-arrows.
Eight flame-arrows, sixteen, thirty-two, then sixty-four. The damage of Smoke's flame attacks piled on. Coupled with his passive Fire damage enhancing abilities, he dealt a total damage of 240,000.
"Aurgh!" screamed Vergewaltiger, as the flame-arrows left a myriad of blisters on his back. He turned his around to give Smoke a stare of death. A mixed look of anger and disbelief was clearly seen on his face.
However, Smoke was the one who was more surprised. He had only attacked him with flame-arrows and it dealt this much damage.
'The Fire Blister can't have this much of an effect?' he thought, wondering. Then, it hit him. 'Of course! Serval's Glow, Paradox Pyro Face, and Xantico's Inheritance.'
All of these abilities turned him into a Fire specialist. The passive bonus he got from them, increased on an exponential scale when his flame attacks were stacked up.
Amused at his newly discovered power, Smoke neglected to notice Vergewaltiger escape from his earth-pillars.
With an elastic twist of his wrists, the UrukHai Colonel used his tiger-like gauntlets to free himself.
"Raaaagh!" roared Vergewaltiger, and his sharp gauntlets dug into Smoke's shoulder. He then pinned Smoke to the ground. With his free hand, the Ork began to claw his armor off.
Smoke's life bar quickly drained. Each strike dealt 10% on his HP.
Desperate to escape, he used his Hyper Jump ability to propel himself diagonally on the ground.
"Aaaah!" yelped Smoke, as a large chunk of his flesh got torn off from Vergewaltiger's death grip.
Smoke quickly propped himself up, but saw the UrukHai charging straight for him.
'I need to get away from him,' thought a distraught Smoke. 'Guess there's no helping it!'
He propelled himself upward with a sudden launch of an earth-pillar, and opened his Wings of Cologus in the air.
"Coward! Come back here!" yelled an angry Vergewaltiger. "Are all Elves just good at running away?"
Smoke did not mind the Ork's taunts. He was more worried of the people on the northern wall, who had seen him fly.
"Maybe they didn't see me?" he said to himself, unconvinced.
"Fine!" blurted out Vergewaltiger from below. "I'm going after the flightless boangi people in the city!"
The UrukHai Colonel then sprinted towards the walls.
Checking his life bar, Smoke had only 28% left. Although his mana bar had a higher maximum capacity, it displayed 10%.
He quickly got out a pompom juice, and drank the entire clay-jar in one gulp. Yet, it only increased his MP to 30%
'I can't stay up here any longer,' he thought, as he saw that Vergewaltiger had almost reached the city. He knew that the UrukHai could easily scale those walls.
Gliding at top speed, Smoke headed in front of Vergewaltiger to cut him off.
'My Fire can pierce him, but I need to use my Earth to hold him down,' he reviewed his game plan on his mind. 'But after stunning him, my mana will only have one more attack.'
In his synergized form, Smoke let out dark flames from his body. Moving in closer, he tucked his head inward and dove.
THUD
The ground where he landed on scattered upward, and molten rocks flew everywhere. He used his Comet Crush attack to stun the UrukHai Colonel.
'Should I attack or hold him down?' he asked himself, given this second of a fully stunned Ork.
Confused on what to do, Smoke melded both his Fire and Earth Manipulation abilities. Eight pillars struck out from below Vergewaltiger, but these were not the same ones as before. They had red hot lava swirling around its shaft and on its sharp tips.
Magma-pillars pierced through Vergewaltiger's green skin. Only to melt when it went through his body. The UrukHai Colonel was raised off the ground, suspended by Smoke's melded ability in mid-air.
The Ork was immobilized and his life bar quickly drained to 70%.
"I did it!" shouted Smoke. He raised his right fist in the air in celebration.
He then checked on the Orks near the wall. Ouragan had frozen the invaders in solid blocks of ice, while the Automaton Knights finished them off with their claymores.
"Looks end is over," said Smoke in Orkish.
Turning to face Vergewaltiger, Smoke's eyes widened when he saw the sharp points of the Ork's gauntlets aimed at his eyes.
Smoke had overestimated the strength and durability of his magma-pillars. He should have known better, and was now going to pay the price for this mistake.
SLINK SLINK
The created flame-shield instantly shattered, but the Ork's gauntlets now struck his chest instead.
Smoke was pinned down to the ground, but this time, Vergewaltiger had a better hold on him.
"You can't use that same trikasi on me twice," snarled the Ork.
After using the Comet Crush and the melded magma-pillars, Smoke only had enough mana to do a Hyper Jump ability once.
He kicked the Ork in the groin, and tried to Hyper Jump diagonally. However, Vergewaltiger remained unfazed and dug his gauntlets deeper into his skin.
Smoke's life bar quickly drained, and his Decay Aura activated. Aside from receiving the damage from the Ork's attacks, his life bar also went down 100 points per second. The curse aura, however, also inflicted the same damage on Vergewaltiger.
"Is this your dying will? Your final attack?" questioned the UrukHai. "This is pathetic!"
Vergewaltiger stopped attacking, and held him down with both hands instead. "Let's see who dies first?" he taunted. "Gukgukgukguk!"
"You want a final attack?" asked Smoke in the common tongue. "I'll show you my Suicide Attack!" he said, but both his arms were pinned down by the Ork's legs.
"Don't speak anything but Orkish," said Vergewaltiger. "It will only make your death more batigir."
Immobilized, Smoke glared his eyes at the Ork. Yet, given this few seconds, he had recovered enough to create one last earth-pillar.
TUCK
The sudden launched earth-attack sent Vergewaltiger's feet off his right arm.
This final attempt only angered the Ork. Vergewaltiger's gauntlet came crashing down on his shoulder.
Smoke did not want to admit it, but he knew that the Ork's attack would hit first.
However, before the gauntlet hit him, a notification window popped up.