Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo (2 page)

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Sierra and the members chosen for the strike force spent the next three days training inside a forest patch near Verbrannt. The sycamore trees there were well-spaced and resembled the forest near Braucht Hilfe village. The core members of the guild were each designated to lead specific teams, although there were some exceptions: Espion was sent to the forest patch near Braucht Hilfe in advance, while Thyrsus and Vijaya were left in charge of Verbrannt due to their long-range scouting abilities which proved useful in detecting potential attacks.
Their specific teams were as follows:

Strafe, Ichaival's team, was trained to scale the sycamore trees quickly. Their posts were well-spread—only eight to twelve members per tree. They were divided into two groups on opposite sides of the forest, directly across from one another. They practised accurately hitting their targets from above without hitting their allies.
Gate, Sharur and Jinggu's team, was divided into northern and southern groups, each consisting of two hundred Armored Farmers. They learned how to fight defensively inside a forest, equipped with round shields that were bigger and heavier than usual but covered more of their bodies. Their main task would be to hold the bandits inside the entrapment while staying in an upside down ‘U’ formation. The Armored Farmers would rotate positions and take turns on the front lines.
Illusion, Sharanga's team made up of mounted Bowed Fishermen, disciplined themselves to shoot while riding and accustomed their aardwolves to running fast between the trees. They practised riding back and forth between the two Gates day in and day out. They needed to be able to create an impression that there’s more of them than there actually was. Since Illusion was assigned to cover the sides of the entrapment, Sharanga found herself running back and forth between the two sides during their drills.
Bulwark, Rasant, Stark and Weise's team, was divided into three smaller groups. Weise and Stark were in charge of thirty Iron Knights while Rasant was in charge of sixty. Each group was told to maintain a square formation, as if defending something important within. Weise's group positioned itself inside Jinggu's northern Gate formation, Stark's group within Sharur's southern Gate, and Rasant's group was placed smack in the middle of the battlefield. They would stay hidden on the sides of the entrapment at first, and then carefully make their way to the center of the battle.
Mutilate, Ledur's Tikbalangs, were to jump down from the trees and initiate the assault on the guards around a Brandal Captain. They were split into groups of four. After taking out the guards, they would go after the bandits farther away from the Captains and create an opening for the Slaughter team.
Slaughter, Sierra's werewolves,  would be scattered between the North and South Gates. As the werewolves were swift and agile, they were expected to deal with Captains once a path was made clear for them. Sierra organised her werewolves into pairs, each meant to hunt down a specific target.
Both the special teams of Mutilate and Slaughter then trained to periodically run to Rasant's Bulwark at the center of the battlefield.
Balance, Adder's team, were trained to do almost everything except scale trees. They were meant to play both the defensive and offensive role on the ground and provide support all over the battlefield. In case of emergency, they were to help out any of the other teams. However, the Condortlian Warriors didn't have enough time to acquire the ability to ride mounts; only Adder rode on a dirus wolf. Luckily, the Centaurs, innately fast on their own, offered themselves for the Warriors to ride on. Gone were the days when the proud Centaurs of Pferde would not allow anyone to ride on them. As soon as Adder heard this, he asked Tragar, the bulkiest of the Centaur Rangers, if he would be willing to carry his shield for him. Tragar happily agreed and found no problems with it.
All teams repeated the exact same drills for three days, until the Lioumereans' arrival. Sierra immediately ordered the strike teams to gather at the plains outside of the forest.
She stood right beside Gandiva and Laernea. "Everyone, I'd like you all to meet our secret weapon: our eight team, called Life." said Sierra and drew everyone’s attention to the Lioumereans’ carriages. Twenty men and forty women got off both carriages. All of them were dressed in Acolyte robes. The whole strike force cheered when they saw that they now had healers.
Sierra clapped her furry red paws loudly. "Alright, let's do another day's worth of drills, but this time we'll have our Acolyte friends positioned inside Bulwarks."
After their final day of training, the strike force set off on their mission in high spirits.
                                           
 

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Sweat drenched Nash's sleeveless shirt as he repeatedly struck an old tire hanging from the garage ceiling with two eskrima sticks. Thirty minutes in, he finally stopped and started to do his stretching exercises.
Done with his eskrima practice, Nash was about to head up to his room when he saw a forlorn Donny, with his head on the kitchen table. He was surprised to see his youngest brother looking so sad, so he stopped and asked, "What's up, little bro?"
"I'm twelve! I'm not that little anymore, Nash." exclaimed Donny.
"Hey, what's with the attitude?" Nash asked and sat next to Donny.
"Sorry," said Donny sincerely, "it's just that Seth's been avoiding me lately."
"Weird, I thought I heard you guys earlier this morning. Weren't you doing eskrima training?" asked Nash with concern.
"We did, but he left right after we finished the basic exercises. I was hoping to train some more, but he just left, saying that he had to read a book on 'Data Lakes'." said Donny sourly, "If he wanted to do research on some lake, he could have done it after we trained some more." He then crossed his arms and shook his head. "I’m telling you right now, Nash: there's no way Seth is going to make it past the second round of eliminations of the upcoming AUTOMATA competition."
"Donny, I think you misunderstood. ‘Data Lakes’ is probably a book related to the elective he's picked up, not a book about an actual lake."
"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Donny curiously.
"You see, I think that Seth realised at a young age something that most people don't realise until they're much older." replied Nash.
"Still in the dark here." said Donny, "You’ll have to do better than that."
"What I mean is, I feel like Seth already knows what he wants to do for the rest of his life. Maybe that'll change, maybe not, I'm not sure. But for now, it's best that we support him."
Donny nodded and tried his best to understand. He then asked, "So what's Seth going to be?"
"A Computer scientist, like Dad was." answered Nash with a smile, "The road to getting there is rough, so do you think you could cut him some slack?"
Donny shrugged. "Fine. Guess I'll have to get used to training on my own. I still want to become the national champion of AUTOMATA." he said with conviction.
"And that's great too. Let's just be supportive of the things each of us wants to pursue, okay?" said Nash. He stood up and ruffled his youngest brother's hair. "Okay, I'll let you plan out your training. I'm going back up to my room."
Once back in his room, Nash comfortably sat on his computer chair and rolled its wheels over to his desktop computer. He started scrolling through his latest video feed. After spending some time editing, he did a final check on his latest video and finally clicked the ‘publish’ button, uploading his video for the month.
Nash couldn't decide if he should include Crucibelle in the video or only show the defense of Banal village. In the end, he included the fight with Crucibelle, but erased the parts where he managed to block her attacks with his perlite chain and sickle and the parts that showed that he had high resistance to her flames. He only showed that his life bar was low, and that he was rescued by Mamelon and the Elemental Knights.
He understood the importance of always hiding your aces. After all, that was what Horrabelle demonstrated—she made it seem like she was meeting up with him to negotiate, when in reality she was only there to rob him of his abilities.
'A fool doesn’t realise that he is being deceived, while a clever man would merely play the fool.' thought Nash to himself as he remembered how foolish he was to take Horrabelle's words at face value. However, he was no longer beating himself up over it.
Darius reminded him that it is best to accept your mistakes and grow from them. Taking a self-discovery trip along the Murray river gave Nash the time he needed to get some of his confidence back and think things through. He was now focused on the future, rather than the past.
After he checked his published video on Zectas’ website, Nash turned off his computer and stretched his arms. He drank a glass of water and stepped into his game pod. While getting comfortable, he smiled, as he was looking forward to seeing Sierra's face again. He was less than an hour away from Verbrannt.
 

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Seated comfortably on board the five-by-three-meter rowboat he borrowed from Darius, Smoke was slowly making his way towards Verbrannt's docks. He waved to some of the Fishermen casting nets over the river as he passed them by. As he reached the docks, the Gondoliers cleared a path for him and helped him with his rowboat, tying the ropes securely. Smoke thanked them and headed straight for Rauch castle.
On his way there, he met a pack of aardwolves being led by two one-meter-tall Halflings who were mounted on aardwolves themselves. Due to their small stature, they made the aardwolves around them look bigger.
'Sonstwelter Halflings? Now that's something you don't see every day.' he thought, amused.
Smoke stayed out of their way, when he suddenly recognized a beautiful, mounted Aqua Knight with her faceplate lifted up some distance away from him. He remembered that he promised Mamelon he would meet with her as Ilad, his Flame Knight alter ego. He briskly searched for an empty alley and donned the Gora armor set he won back in Coatl.
Smoke, disguised as Ilad, walked towards Mamelon. Yet, before he could reach her, an aardwolf blocked his way and he was stopped by one of the Halflings. "Halt! Just because you're a Flame Knight doesn't mean that you can get near our boss."
"Wait, Louche. Maybe he's one of Mamelon's men?" said the other Halfling.
"Don't be stupid, Earat. I made sure to memorize all the Flame Knights under her, and none of them wore such dilapidated armor." said the one called Louche, “Besides, how will I be able to make my move on Mamelon if you allow more suitors to her side?”
Just then, Smoke remembered that he had Igniz's flames coat his armor to disguise its tattered appearance. "Bud, a little fire please." he said in a whisper. Instantly, Smoke's armor lit up with dark purple flames.
The two Halflings reflexively pulled back their aardwolves.
"A purple Flame Knight? I've never seen one before." said the one called Earat, "Are you perhaps one of Mamelon's friends?"
Smoke tried to speak out to clear the misunderstanding. "Yes. I'm not one of Mamelon's Knights, but I do know her. My name is..."
"Ilad, is that you?" cried out Mamelon excitedly. She rode her mount straight through Earat and Louche's aardwolves. She hastily got off her bronze jackal and walked up to him. "It's been so long, and I kept missing you."
She then blushed and quickly added, "Uhm, by that I mean that we always seemed to be on different assignments, not that I missed you. I mean, I did miss you, but I wasn’t thinking of that. I mean—"
He couldn't get a word in at all, as Mamelon spoke excitedly fast. He had to tap her shoulder, and she finally fell silent.
"Sorry about that." he said in a forced deep voice. Smoke thought he should differentiate his alter ego's voice from his own. "I've been detained by various activities."
Mamelon raised her eyebrow. "Why are you talking like that?"
"Talking like what? Oh, you mean like this? I just thought it would help me seem more charismatic." he said innocently and let out a fake laugh.
Mamelon shook her head and said with a frown, "No, it doesn't."
Smoke quickly tried to change the topic. "Anyway, about my share from the mounted race. I'd like you to have it. Think of it as my welcome gift to you for joining our guild."
"Are you sure? But it's so much money. Why would you want to give it to me?" Mamelon's cheeks blushed a bright red.
"I just want you to know that I deeply value your contribution to the guild." said Smoke sincerely.
For a few seconds, the two of them stood quietly facing each other. Smoke was waiting for a reply, but Mamelon was silent the whole time. Finally, the blazing Flame Knight broke the awkward silence and spoke out. "Well, it was good seeing you." He then started walking in the opposite direction.
Mamelon slowly snapped out of her daze and called out to him, "Wait! We just got to see each other again. Why are you leaving already?"
"I have a new mission." quickly answered Smoke, but paused shortly afterwards while thinking what it was.
"What mission? Maybe I could join you?” asked a hopeful Mamelon.
Smoke looked at the purple flames on his armor and said, “It’s to search for the remaining temples of Vigilantez.”
“I see.” she replied and nodded, “ That sounds dangerous. You could definitely use my help.”
“But, Mamelon, we have to do what Sierra told us.” interjected Louche.
“Oh...right. I have my own mission. Sierra asked for backup on the Braucht Hilfe campaign."
"Campaign?" he asked worriedly.
"I think it's our first official strike against the Brandals encroaching Centzo." answered Mamelon dismissively, "Anyway, you might want to eat first before going on your next mission. I know a great place here; I've got high Intimacy with the chef there, so the food would be special." she said with a hopeful smile.
"That sounds lovely, but I really have to go. Maybe next time?" said Smoke hurriedly and ran towards the castle.
The Aqua Knight wanted to call out to him once again, but stopped herself. She stood still and stared helplessly at Ilad’s back.
Suddenly, Smoke looked back at her and yelled, "I'll see you around, Mamelon. Take good care of yourself!" He then disappeared into an alley.
Mamelon couldn’t help but make a wide grin and talk to herself in a whisper. "So you do care about me, after all…." she said as she put her hands to her chest.
She then turned around and was about to reprimand Louche and Earat, when she caught a glimpse of Smoke gliding in the air, headed for Rauch castle.
"Hm. Smoke and Ilad must have received an emergency call from Thyrsus." she thought out loud. She then turned to the Halflings and told them to next time show Ilad the proper respect he deserves.