Zectas Volume V: The Sequestered Seminary of Sawtorn (38 page)

A group of eleven people, stood in deep snow over half a meter thick. They wore long thick robes, and huddled together against the cold winds.
"Are you sure about this, Baskog?" asked their Exorcist Guild Leader.
"After I acquired the book's knowledge, it gave me this coordinates," replied a heavy-set Knight, equipped with black plated armor. He had a silver cross embossed on his chest. He also carried a black kite shield on his back with the same matching silver cross, and on his side he hanged an axe. "We're suppose to find the castle after we cross this path," he added, pointing to the entrance of a long and narrow road, which headed up to the cold misty mountain.
Then, a petite girl in fully covered green Aero Magus wardrobe walked up next to them. She slammed her tiny fist into Baskog's chest, smack at the center of the silver cross.
"Who would have thought that you would get a Hidden Job," she said. "And a Night Templar at that!"
The female Aero Magus then turned to three Death Knights, who also wore black plated armor. But theirs had white skulls on both shoulders, and had shields embossed with the same skull design.
"Unlike Puthaw, Bato, and Ligon. You've really done well, Baskog," she added, and giggled.
"Shut up, Magikera!" shouted the one called Puthaw. "Baskog was just lucky he got suspended from work. Otherwise, he would have ended up as a Death Knight, like us!"
"Yeah! Shut up, Magikera!" added the one called Ligon. "Besides, a Death Knight is also a Hidden Job."
"Sure it is, one that's already been well documented in the forums," taunted Magikera further.
"Bato, can't you make your little sister shut up?" asked Ligon.
"It's better if you just ignore her," said Bato. "She will tire of it... eventually."
"Bah! What about you, Magikera?" asked Puthaw. "You're still an Aero Magus, and that's not even a Hidden Job!"
"Not a Hidden Job, huh?" she asked. Suddenly, she lifted her right hand up, and sent Puthaw into the air, only to fall into the thick snow.
THUD KLANK
Puthaw's heavy Death Knight armor went right through the padding of the snow.
"Ouch! That hurt!" cried out Puthaw, but he did not retaliate in any way.
Then, a beautiful WoodElf with long black hair stepped in between them. "Alright, that's enough horsing around," said Hilot, wearing a Priestess' robe made for the freezing weather. "Let's just get in there, and find out if Baskog really found King Aquila's Castle."
"Pfft. Why do I even stay with you guys?" said an equally charming HighElf with the same black hair. "Amahan, can we go already?" asked the Priestess named Tabang.
"Wait a minute, Tabang," replied Amahan. "Atiman is still going through his checklist."
A muscular HighElf, who had a build fit to be a Knight, was mumbling to himself as he crossed out the Decane's provisions.
"We're still good on mana pots," said Atiman. "But our Tanks only have 65% of their usual number of life pots."
"I don't know about Baskog, but that's more than enough pots for us," interjected Puthaw. "See, we three won't need as much as before," he added, pointing to his fellow Death Knights. "That's just how we Death Knights roll!"
"Oh, shut up," said Magikera and got out her tongue.
"Anyway, Hilot, Puthaw, and Baskog have a scheduled four-hour break in the next two hours," said Atiman. "And after that are Ligon, Tirador, and myself."
"That's perfect," said Amahan, and gave Atiman a thumbs up. "Thanks for keeping up a tight hold on our logistics," he added.
"Let's use these two hours to gauge whether we need the entire force of the Decane for this Quest," explained Amahan. "But I'm certain, we can continue on even with three members missing."
"Why not drop this dead weight, while we're at it," said Magikera, and pointed to the eleventh member of the Decane. His cloak and robe completely covered his face, arms and hands.
"I do not understand the cause for your resentment," said the eleventh member. "In the first place, you were the ones who put me in this predicament."
Without further warning, the concealed member got out his hand, and displayed a powerful blue orb, aimed at the mouthy Magikera.
Amahan quickly stepped in front of her, and blocked the orb's path.
"You've had enough fun, Magikera," he said, and pointed his finger at her. He then turned to the eleventh member and said. "I apologize in her behalf, Matz. That's just her own way of dealing with this cold, I guess."
"Your pitiful excuse for your comrades are just that, pitiful," said the robed member called Matz. "But I accept your apology," he added, and canceled the blue orb.
Amahan let out a deep sigh and said. "Let's all just head up this mountain, already."
Walking towards the entrance of the long and winding path, Amahan called out to his companions. "By the way, do you think we should make a rally point here?"
"Sure," replied Atiman. "I can see it, Merchants and Traders lining all up," said the Archbishop, pointing at the thick snow behind them. "But, after we've looted the castle... and hunted down all the rare item drops."
"Of course," said Amahan.
"How long do you think that would take?" Baskog asked Atiman.
"Not sure," replied Atiman. "Depends on your tanking abilities against the monsters here, I guess."
"If that's the case, then I'd say one week!" confidently declared Puthaw. "The Death Knights will decimate all the monsters here in just seven days!"
"Puthaw, it's saying things like that, that makes Magikera mouth off again," said Amahan, as he led the way into the steep narrow road.
Walking into the mist, the Decane members braced themselves, as the path they traveled on was only three meters wide.
Now, it would not seem to be that narrow, but this icy road still gave all of them a slight case of acrophobia. Maybe it was because none of them could see the ground from either side.
"Magikera, you better stay quiet," reprimanded Amahan, before she could speak. "You don't want to be pushed, do you?"
"Haha," sarcastically replied Magikera, but kept her mouth shut all the same.
As they hiked in silence for the last twenty minutes, Amahan suddenly motioned for his guild to stop. He had picked up the familiar but disgusting scent of rotten flesh.
"Puthaw, your up," said Amahan, and moved back behind the three Death Knights.
Puthaw, Bato, and Ligon moved forward with their skull shields in front of them.
SHING SHING SHING
Puthaw was the first one to draw out his long executioner's blade, its hilt ornately designed with a skull. "Ligon, you take left. Bato, you take the one on the right."
Then, from both sides of the narrow path, two monstrous creatures with gorilla-like bodies clung to the edges of the road.
They had found the source of the foul stench, undead yetis with rotting flesh glared their red eyes at them. Only a few patches of their white fur remained, while the rest of their bodies had began to decompose.
In complete synchronicity, Bato and Ligon moved at the same time. Together, they severed their respective undead yetis' arms, which was grasping on the sides of the road. In one fluid motion, they smashed their skull shields into the monsters' chests, dropping them back to the abyss.
"See, Atiman?" asked Puthaw. "I told you us Death Knights can handle the monsters here."
The undead yetis revealed their life bars to be 900,000 HP. This made throwing them down, be the easier choice, rather than fighting them on the tiny space of the narrow road.
Suddenly, two more undead yetis walked up from behind their group. These monsters tried to ambush the Decane members, but Baskog stood his ground at the rear. Pointing his black kite shield with the embossed silver cross at the yetis, he used its holy cross attack. In one flash of white light, both invaders released their hold on the ledge of the road and fell.
"What about that, Puthaw? Did you see that?" taunted Magikera. "Well, I saw that clearly," she added, pointing out how Baskog had them outmatched.
"That one doesn't count," retorted Puthaw. He then charged forward at the undead yetis clinging on the sides of the road.
In one mad sprint, Puthaw wielded his executioner's blade with angst and fury. Numerous hairy arms flew up in the air, as the Death Knight cleaved them off the undead yetis who hindered their way.
Having survived countless quests together, the rest of the Decane members all knew too well to run as fast as they could. As they chased after the mad Death Knight, they dealt the finishing blow to those undead monsters clinging to the road, letting them fall back into the dark unknown.
It took them twenty minutes of running, slashing, and bashing, before they finally saw the end of the steep road. It led them to a expansive landing covered in snow.
All of them, except for Matz, were breathing hard as they tried to catch their breath. Their breath clearly seen through the cold air.
Then, Amahan pointed to the other end of the landing. "Look! Baskog was right after all," he said, as all of them watched a grandiose castle partly covered by the mist.
From where they stood, they could make out the doors to the castle, whenever a gust of wind momentarily blew away the mist. They only had to cross the spacious palace grounds in front, with the dead flower gardens on its sides.
The Castle was, however, blocked by a thick iron gate.
"Should I break it down?" asked Puthaw, readying his executioner's blade to hack the gate.
"Stop!" yelled Amahan. "We don't know if there are any traps."
"Or there could be monsters who will come at us, as soon as we break through the gates," added Atiman.
"I guess that makes sense," said Puthaw, and sheathed his lengthy blade. "If it wasn't coming from you two, I would've probably barged in already," he added and chuckled.
"So, what do we do now?" asked Puthaw.
"I propose that we move the break earlier," said Amahan. "Hilot, Puthaw, and Baskog, is that fine with you three? Or do you need to be somewhere later?"
"And then what? The rest of you will bust through the gates after we leave?" asked Puthaw, dropping a clear hint of hurt in his voice.
"Of course not," replied Amahan. "Actually, I was planning to take on those undead yetis again," he said. "I want to see their respawn time, and study their behavior."
The Exorcist paused, scrutinized Puthaw's expression before proceeding. "We might need to run away from the castle," he added. "And we can't escape down the same path, if we're blocked by undead yetis."
"Yeah," said Puthaw, while nodding his head. "That makes perfect sense."
Baskog timidly raised his hand. "Um. I don't mind if we move the break earlier," said the only Night Templar. "I do have to do something."
"How long will that take?" asked Amahan.
"Maybe, one hour, tops?" replied Baskog.
"That's in game time, right?" confirmed Atiman.
"Yup, an hour in Zectas," said Baskog.
"Okay, this is what we'll do," began Amahan. "Baskog will log out for one hour, while we fight those undead yetis again."
Amahan looked around his guild members, to check whether everyone understood. All of them nodded without a word.
"After that, we'll head back here and break the iron gates, together," added Amahan. "Everyone, got that?"
"Sure," replied Magikera.
While everybody else nodded silently again.
At once, Baskog logged out, while Amahan led the Decane members back to the narrow and steep road.
 

* * * * * * 

After an hour passed, Baskog went back online. As expected, all of the guild members were waiting for him in the expansive landing in front of the iron gates.
"Brr. It's still this cold, huh?" asked Baskog.
"It isn't as cold for me anymore," said Puthaw. "But then again, we never left. So, we could be numb to it already."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" said Baskog. "I just had a really important errand to do," added the Night Templar. "How did the yeti hunting go?"
"Turns out they respawn every ten minutes," replied Atiman. "So, it could be a problem for us if we got mobbed."
"Ahem! Ahem!" Puthaw forcibly cleared his throat. "Are we ready to break the gates, or what?" he asked Amahan. "Afterall, the traitor is here already."
By now, it was common knowledge among the Decane members that Puthaw felt betrayed by Baskog's Hidden Job change.
"Sure, let's do it," said Amahan.
"Oh, wait!" said Baskog. "Before we go do that, I have to tell you about this rising star in the Sawtorn Continent."
"You mean, Faux?" asked Amahan. "I already know about him. He's quite a character all right, but let's talk about that another time."
Amahan paused and did a long stretch with both his hands together. "Now, let's just focus on what lies behind these gates."
The Exorcist then tapped on Puthaw's shoulder. "Please, do the honors!"
The Death Knight grinned, and whirled down his executioner's blade with one swift motion.
KLANK
The iron gates busted open. Puthaw, Ligon, and Bato were the first ones to enter the vast palace grounds. Whereas, Amahan, Atiman, and Tabang were in the center of their group. While, Magikera, Tirador, and Baskog were in the rear.
Whereas, Matz stood alone, and walked some distance behind them.
"Looks like we're in the clear," blurted out Magikera.
Suddenly, three red apparitions, over two-meters tall, materialized from the mist. Their faces were covered by a hood and a mask, but the thing that caught the Decane members' attention, were the massive crimson scythes they carried.
"Oops, spoke too soon," said Magikera.
"What do we do now?" Atiman asked Amahan.
The rest of the Decane members turned to face their Exorcist Leader.
"Okay, here's the plan," confidently replied Amahan. "Win!"
"Good plan!" shouted Puthaw, and charged at the apparition in front of him.
"Crescere Vita! Vitam Reficio!" Atiman started shouting out blessings on Puthaw. "Medeis Reficio! Sanctum Gladium!" The Archbishop increased the Death Knight's maximum life, mana recovery, life recovery, and holy offensive attack for the next ten minutes.
After blessing Puthaw, Atiman went on to cast the same buff spells on Ligon and Bato.
All four of them faced the same monster, but Puthaw moved faster than any of the other Death Knights.
SHLINK
Puthaw's executioner's blade was met with the red apparition's scythe, but the Death Knight maneuvered his sword to slide down the long handle of the scythe. He nicked two fingers off the monster, revealing its name and life bar, blood wraith (1,780,000/1,800,000 HP).
Meanwhile, on the other side of the castle grounds. Baskog tanked the second blood wraith by himself. Of course, he was already buffed by the standard spells from Hilot and Atiman. Simultaneously, Magikera and Tirador kept on attacking the same undead monster with their long range magical attacks.
Baskog pointed his black shield at the blood wraith, and unleashed his holy silver cross attack on the red apparition.
The blood wraith tried to block Baskog's holy attack with its scythe, but the white light went past it.
At the same time, Amahan faced the last blood wraith alone. He pointed out his right palm at the apparition, and a gigantic white hand appeared from underneath it. The giant hand held the monster firm, while the Exorcist pelted it with holy cross attacks.
The hooded Matz, who did nothing the entire time, walked next to the busy Amahan.
"You know, I could have finished all three of them at once," said Matz. "If you just did your research right."
"I keep telling you, I'm really sorry," replied Amahan, while still attacking his captured blood wraith. "But what's done is done. Let's just move on from it."
"I will move on... once you have fixed this," said Matz, pointing at himself from head to foot.
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk." Matz clicked his tongue. "You know, I could have eliminated all three of them at once. Now, you just have to deal with these monsters the hard way."
As his eyebrows crossed, Amahan took in a gulp of air. His breath clearly visible through the cold weather as he exhaled it out. He then turned to Matz and said. "You mean something like this?"
Amahan canceled out the giant white hand holding his blood wraith. Instead, he pointed both his palms to the ground and shouted. "Maxime Exorcismo!"
An extensive casting circle appeared on the ground, covering the entirety of the castle grounds. A myriad of holy symbols appeared from within it.
At once, all three blood wraiths stopped moving.
"Hey? What gives?" complained Magikera, and ceased her attacks.
All of the Decane members followed suit, and stopped attacking as well.
"Evinco Malum!" shouted Amahan, and the life bars of the blood wraiths steadily dwindled to the last HP. It took less than three minutes for the red apparitions' life bars to display zero.
TING DING TING
The sound of the blood wraiths dropping their scythes resonated within the castle grounds.
"Like that?" Amahan asked Matz.
The hooded Matz nodded once and said. "Yes, but my attack would not have drained all of my mana."
Amahan did not respond. Instead, he took out a blue potion and drank it all in one gulp. He walked away from Matz, and headed towards his guildmates.
With his back facing the cloaked Matz, Amahan took out two more blue potions and chugged it down.
"Hey, Baskog, what were you saying about Faux, again?" asked the Exorcist, as he subtly tried to change the topic.
"Um," replied Baskog, surprised by the question out of nowhere. "Oh, right! The forums are saying that he's gotten to the point, where he is as famous as you, Tristan, and Smoke."
"I think he could be even better than Smoke," added Magikera. "But maybe that's just because that stupid DarkElf has been lying low lately?"
"Well, Faux isn't just lying around," said Baskog. "In fact, he had just successfully defended Votl City against an Ork Horde which numbered almost a million."
"How did he do that?" asked Puthaw, bewildered.
"Technically, he was only one of the thousands of people who defended the city," explained Baskog. "But he was given the temporary title of Vice-General."
"Faux, could be a big deal, but I don't think his fame will last long," said Amahan. "But like I said, as the same case as with Smoke and Tristan, if they're not in the continent of Nawterra, why bother with them?"
"True," said Baskog. "Now that you mention it, I think Faux is going to be in deep trouble soon."
"Why is that?" asked Magikera.
"Oh, right!" blurted out Baskog. "I forgot to mention that the Orks had fooled them all."
"Eh? How?" further asked Aero Magus.
"Vitzytl's capital city may have been defended," began the Night Templar. "But now the Ork Horde is going after the other three cities who have barely any defense."
"Ha! This Faux character isn't even on Smoke's level," said Amahan. "I'm sure that Smoke wouldn't have fallen for such a ploy."
Amahan let out another deep sigh, cleansing his mind.
"Alright, pick up the loot and let's see what this palace has to offer," ordered Amahan and led the way towards the castle doors.
Matz tried to walk directly behind Amahan, but the Exorcist hastened his pace.
Amahan stopped, and waited for everyone to arrive before he opened the door. "Everyone, ready?" he asked, holding the knob of the palace door.
"Do it, already!" yelled an excited Magikera.
As soon as they opened the door, a notification window popped up.