Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo (46 page)

Still, with a little more than a day left, Smoke asked to be excused. He was given one of the empty houses. Curiously, there were plenty of them in stock.
 

* * * * * * 

After only two hours of sleep in the real world, Smoke briskly returned to Zectas. It was still four in the morning and there was no hint of the sun shining. The poor lighting barely made him see anything in front of him.
Since the village was even smaller than Nanahuatl, Smoke quickly finished digging a deep trench with his wand, behind the surrounding village wall. Afterwards, he created sharp earth spikes inside them.
With his Advance Level 5 Earth Manipulation, he also created a small two-story building similar to the one he built for Banal Village. There were several small holes where their crude spears and arrows could come out of.
 

The residents moved all of their food supplies and essentials into the fortalice at the heart of the village.
His accumulated experience of defending villages against raids came in handy as it allowed him to expeditiously finish the necessary preparations.
Time quickly flew by, and he only had four hours left before the expected arrival of the Iguarats.
Once again at four in the morning of the next day, Smoke stood on top of the wooden walls. He was waiting for the first sign of the invaders. He looked down on the trench below and smiled at his work. The poor lighting made the trench and earth spikes blend in well with the ground. To the point where it appears to be a plain clearing from on top of the wall.
Smoke had already sealed all of the villagers inside the earth fortalice. He also sealed off the doors, disabling any stubborn resident from stepping outside.
As he stared at the unlit trees, his Cunning of the Dire Fox detected the presence of enemies. There were three-hundred in front of him and five hundred on the other side of the village.
Yet, he could not see any of them as they were still hidden within the trees.
In order not to alarm the attackers, Smoke equipped one of the villager's crude arrows without having Igniz enchant them with Fire.
Sensing the direction of one of the invaders, he attacked one of the Iguarats with a single arrow from his power chainsaw bow. Despite the poor visibility, the invader's life bar and name were both reflected. Masoch Iguarat (65,000/80,000 HP).
"They're Beast Types," said Smoke to Igniz, who was still inside his metallic orb. He concluded this as soon as he saw his high damage. It was because of his Beast Monarch ability, which increases his damage against this type of monsters.
Smoke hurriedly leapt off the wall and glided to the top of the fortalice.
SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH
He could hear them clawing through the wooden walls of the village as they climbed up.
"Remember, Bud, leave a single opening for them to escape to. Then, we'll finish them off when they try to run," Smoke reminded his symbiote of their game plan.
After a few seconds, the walls were littered with Iguarats. Since the sun had still not risen, visibility was poor.
The invaders carelessly leapt off the walls and landed into Smoke's trench filled with earth spikes.
"Aaahhh!" "Waahhh!" "Yawch!"
Smoke heard different screams from the trenches, as some of the Iguarats were impaled into the earth spikes. The invaders who jumped later, noticed his trap. They sprang farther away and tumbled on the ground with a bad fall. Yet, they cleared the distance of the deadly trench.
'I expected something like this would happen,' he thought as he patiently waited for all of them to be off the wall.
He could only rely on his Cunning of the Dire Fox to sense where the enemies were, as his eyesight could not see anything beyond three-meters. Finally, all of the attackers were on the ground.
As soon as he noticed some of the Iguarats slowly come out of the trenches. He called out the second phase of their operation. "Igniz, light them up!"
Igniz flew out from his hidden compartment and created a sea of flames inside the trenches. The dark ember sprite glowed brightly at the center of the village as he fired off Firewalls after Firewalls after Firewalls.
Schmucklos Village illuminated brightly in the early dawn. Smoke could now clearly see their freakish appearance.
As soon as one of the Iguarats stepped out of the flames, he saw that they were a little over a meter tall. They had a head and body of the iguanas with the limbs and tails of a gambian rat. Curiously enough, they were bipedal and were equipped with short swords and leather armor.
Then, he heard one of them yell out a command. "For the glory of Queen Gehirnwäsche, rush the man on top of that strange looking building!"
Smoke searched the direction of where the voice came from, and saw that it was from the largest Iguarat, who had to be at least two meters in height. He had on a strange looking head-piece, which appeared to look like a bronze crown.
Using his proper projectiles coated with poison, Smoke rapidly fired them off and let out a torrential rain of arrows in the large Iguarat's direction, but he retreated behind his charging comrades.
A single arrow inflicted 30,000 damage points on the Iguarats. He made sure to only hit them once, allowing them to run towards him in their poisoned state.
Smoke focused on the enemies in front of him, as Igniz was the one in charge of the Iguarats in the back. The dark ember sprite created more firewalls, and targeted the ones closest to them.
His Cunning of the Dire Fox sensed three-hundred Iguarats rushing towards him, while the rest, he assumed were still caught inside his trench of spikes and flames.
The Iguarats careened their way towards Smoke on top of the fortalice. Through their large numbers and sheer will power, a few of the invaders reached the sealed central structure.
Yet, as soon as they made contact with its holey walls, they were pierced with the villagers' spears. Dozens of Iguarat bodies were scattered in front of the fortalice as the residents finished them off.
Smoke intentionally wanted the villagers to take part in wiping out the invaders. In order to give them the courage to face them on their next attack.
Four more waves of half-dead Iguarats reached the fortalice, but all of them were wiped out without even reaching the DarkElf on top of it.
Then, Smoke heard the largest Iguarat give it another order. "Retreat! Everyone, retreat!"
The Iguarat leader stood on the escape path that Smoke had prepared. The remaining Iguarats filed into a straight line.
'Just like I planned,' smirked Smoke. He looked up at his symbiote, about to give him the next order, when a sword suddenly pierced through his stomach.
Smoke faced his attacker and found the Iguarat leader smirking at him. "The name is King Übel Blick. I'll come back for you stranger. But, next time, I'll bring the Queen's selection army."
"Igniz, finish them off," ordered Smoke, blood suddenly gushed out from his mouth. He received the Bleeding status and was injured for 30%.
His dark ember sprite was about to follow his instructions, but Übel threw his shield at Smoke. Reflexively, Igniz fired several fireballs to change the trajectory of the shield.
When Igniz turned to create the sea of firewalls, Übel and the surviving Iguarats had already climbed over the village walls.
Smoke pulled out Übel's sword and blood gushed out from his belly. His life bar was quickly draining. "Igniz, I need your help," he called out to his symbiote.
"Can you cauterize this wound for me?" he pointed to large lesion on his stomach.
Posthaste, the dark ember sprite glowed brightly as it let out his hottest flames to seal the wound.
Smoke calmly chewed on a jerky to increase his life bar.
"Let us out of here!" yelled Blöd, the village chief.
"Wait a minute. I need to confirm that it's safe," responded Smoke.
"Don't worry about us. You saw how we killed them when they came in contact with our spears," argued Blöd.
Despite being injured, Smoke smirked at the residents' gained confidence. Even though the Iguarats were already severely injured, the fact remained that the villagers were the one who killed them.
This was what he wanted from the start. To give them the confidence to face these invaders. "Alright, alright, but I'm almost done. Please hold on for a bit longer."
After he had recovered, he stood up and checked the immediate vicinity of the village. There were no signs of any living Iguarats in the area.
He used his Earth Manipulation to open the sealed fortalice, and briskly all of the Schmucklos' warriors came out with spears and arrows.
"Amazing," said Blöd as he looked at the sea of flames surrounding the village. The well designed flames did not damage the wall nor did it reach outside the trench. "Are all DarkElves this powerful?" asked the astonished chief.
"Generally speaking, I think so," humbly replied Smoke.
However, Smoke's face quickly became serious as he remembered what the Iguarat King threatened them with. "Blöd, what is this Selection Army that Iguarat King was talking about?"
Blöd's jubilant countenance instantly vanished. His face turned sullen and took a seat on the nearest unused log.
"Hm... The reason most of the villagers here are women is because when we fight with the Iguarats, they only kill the men," explained Blöd.
"And this is because of the 'Selection,'" added the village chief. "Every twenty years, the entire Iguarat Queendom raid our village and take one of our young females. They mostly range from ages sixteen to nineteen."
"They just take one female?" asked an intrigued Smoke. "What do they do with her?"
Blöd shamefully looked down. "I'm not sure. Five years ago, during the last Selection, I and three others ventured into the Iguarat Castle to try and rescue her."
The village chief paused as he regretfully remembered the past. "But we stopped even before we got in. We could already hear screams of torture. I couldn't begin to imagine what they were doing to my little girl."
"What? The one they abducted was your daughter?" asked a surprised Smoke.
"Yes," replied a broken-hearted Blöd. "I tried to enter, but the other volunteers stopped me. They told me to think about my other children."
Smoke was speechless. He did not know what to say to a father whose daughter was taken from him.
"But after seeing you in battle, I know that you can finally free us from them," excitedly explain the village chief. "Please, kill their Queen, Gehirnwäsche."
 

"Alright, I'll do it," said Smoke.
Blöd gave out a relieved smile, as if he had already slain the Iguarat Queen. "Great! I'll take you to their castle, just tell me when you want to leave."
"Wait, wait, wait. What about this village? What about your  other children? I was thinking of going by myself. You could just show me the directions and—" but Smoke was quieted by the village chief.
"Nonsense! I shall join you. They already killed my two sons, and my other daughter is already married," stated Blöd with finality.
Smoke wanted to ask him about his wife, but decided not to.
 

* * * * * * 

Due to Blöd's strong insistence, Smoke and him were traveling on foot. On their way to Gehirnwäsche Castle.
They had to pass through the plains, and from there, Smoke saw the majestic Mount Luzid. It was the largest mountain on the island of Trugbild.
"Is that the mountain Schön was talking about? A mountain containing this?" asked Smoke, and raised one of Prosjak's precious gems.
Smoke remembered her telling him how there were several jewels, much like the ones he offered her, inside the mountain.
"Yeah, there are plenty of those shiny rocks there," replied Blöd passively. "What good are those things for anyway?"
"Well, people use them as a status symbol," answered Smoke. "Trinkets and such."
Blöd looked at Smoke with a raised eyebrow. "Really? That sounds weird."
After a full day of travel, they finally arrived in a front of a decent-sized mansion.
'This does not look like a castle at all,' thought Smoke to himself.
Yet, after realizing the size of the houses in Blöd's village, he understood why they would call this place as such.
"Aaarrrgh!"
"Owwwww!"
"Aaaakk!"
Suddenly, they heard screams of torture from outside the Iguarat Castle.
"I'm guessing those are the terrifying shrieks that made you turn back, the last time?" asked Smoke.
Blöd nodded his head in agreement. He tightened his grip on his crude spear. "But this time no one is here to stop me."
Silently, the two of them made their way near the walls of the mansion. It had high windows, so, Smoke had to scale its walls using his Claws of Chiroptera.
When he got to it, Blöd kept on asking him. "What do you see? What do you see?"
"Shh!" Smoke shushed the excited village chief. "A tall slender Iguarat is punishing King Übel Blick."
The formerly largest Iguarat was on all fours while being whipped by the Queen with her whip. She had a crown made of gold, and a curious looking mask which covered her face completely. Her long robes also covered her entire body.
"I'm sorry Queen Gehirnwäsche!" screamed Übel. "That stranger looked really powerful, but next time we'll be— Arrgh!"
Übel was whipped on his butt once more.
'This looks like a perfect opportunity,' thought Smoke to himself as the King and Queen Iguarat were busy with themselves.
Without looking at Blöd, he told him of his plan. "I need you to stay here and keep a lookout on any potential guards. If there are, I want you to warn me, and hide afterwards. You got that, Blöd? Blöd?"
Smoke looked at the ground below him, but saw no sign of the village chief. Then, he turned to the other window, to the back of him and saw Blöd.
"Alright, it's just the two of them. Let's do this," excitedly said the village chief. Without any other warning, he squeezed himself into the window.
THUD
The King and Queen Iguarats instantly faced the fallen  Blöd.
"Blöd Mensch!" cried out the village chief, yelling his own name at the top of his lungs.
"Attack him, my Queen," yelled out the Iguarat King.
WHIPISH
With one crack of her bow, Queen Gehirnwäsche knocked off Blöd's crude spear.
However, as soon as she did, Smoke arrived at her side as he used his Hyper Jump ability. Equipped with his twin lightning rods, he unarmed the Iguarat Queen's whip with a fluid Eskrima move.
He then struck her chin with a Lightning Shock attack, and stunned for a few seconds. The attack unintentionally removed her mask.
Smoke was about to attack her, when he suddenly felt the King coming at him from behind.
The second largest Iguarat had a sword and shield at hand, and aimed at him.
Turning his attention on the King, Smoke parried the Iguarat's sword and attacked him with his second rod. Yet, Übel was able to block it with his shield.
"Guards! Guards! We are being att—" Übel was silenced by a pin-point strike to his chin. The Iguarat King was sent flying through the air as Smoke knocked him back with a Lightning Shock attack.
Seconds later, dozens of Iguarats came rushing through the doors.
Smoke would have wanted to use his weighted chain and sickle, but sadly, he lost it during his battle with Ultimo. It was the dropped item when he died during that fight.
Needing backup, Smoke let out Igniz of his metallic chamber. "Igniz, you have to slow them down."
At once, his symbiote created a sea of firewalls around them, blocking the path of the Iguarats. He then began firing his fireballs at the Iguarats who tried to brave his flames.
With the Iguarat reinforcements delayed, Smoke then took out silver and black pieces of rocks, and scattered them in front of him. He then casted his Golem Creation as he used two electro stones as the power source of his metallic minions.
More Iguarats came rushing in, some of them got past Igniz's firewall. Yet, they were met by Smoke's two metallic golems.
"Smoke! It's Verloren, my daughter. Look!" yelled out the village chief as he pointed towards the unmasked Iguarat Queen.
Despite several enemies arriving, Smoke turned to face her, and saw a woman with the same face as Blöd Mensch.
She stood up, and with a blank expression on her face, stared back at him. The supposed Iguarat Queen did not attack them. Yet, her eyes were clearly in daze.
"Queen Gehirnwäsche, attack them, now!" yelled out the Iguarat King.
After the King's instructions, Verloren, the village chief's daughter, began attacking Smoke and her father with her whip.
Smoke leapt back and dodged her attack, but Blöd got hit and damaged by 20% on his life bar.
'Four more strikes of that whip and Blöd is dead,' surmised Smoke.
However, Blöd did not back away and bravely held on to his daughter's whip. "Verloren, it's me. It's your Dada."
"Stop! What are you doing to our Queen?" shouted the Iguarat King. "Stop telling her lies!"
Slowly, Verloren's eyes became watery. Her tears uncontrollably flowed. "Dad? Dada?" she uttered in a bewildered tone.
Suddenly, the Iguarat King came running towards Verloren. He removed his bronze crown, revealing a third eye on middle of his forehead.
"No one can take you away from me, Gehirnwäsche," yelled Übel Blick. "Face me!" The Iguarat King's third eye began swirling around, trying to hypnotize Verloren.
However, a flash of bright blue light filled the large room. Smoke used his Lightning Strike on Übel and damaged him for 150,000 points. His life bar was left with 25%.
With the Iguarat King paralyzed, Smoke rushed him with his Hyper Jump ability. He unleashed a flurry of blows on him with his twin lightning rods.
Strategically inflicting Lightning Shocks on Übel to prolong the Iguarat's stunned state.
Meanwhile, Blöd ran to his daughter and hugged her. Verloren's eyes started to became clearer.
"No! You belong to me!" yelled out the Iguarat King as Smoke delivered the final blow, reducing Übel's life bar to zero.