Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo (18 page)

Smoke grinned widely but realized that they had other matters to discuss. He steered their conversation back to the Ranseur training program until they had finalized everything.
"Thank you for everything," said Smoke gratefully while shaking Guro's hand. "I'll have Thyrsus accommodate all of your requests."
She paused as she looked at him with great concern. "I could tell you weren’t that focused on our Ranseur program. Are you sure about going back into the Labyrinth?"
Smoke gave her a thumbs-up and grinned. He was filled with excitement. "What kind of a king would I be if I hindered my subjects in reaching their full potential? "
 

* * * * * * 

He consulted Espion about the developments in Centzo. His Spy told him that the Brandals moved in closer to the city and had it locked down completely. As such, Espion had trouble getting out of the city. However, the mayor’s adviser had informed him that they should be safe for at least three weeks.
Apparently, the mayor of Centzo had his own intelligence network that was able to provide accurate information regarding the Brandals' movements.
After hearing this, Smoke decided that it was safe to venture back into the Labyrinth. Both him and Sierra thought it best to train some more in the short amount of time they had before they would have to continue with their campaign against Duke Burmistrz and his army of bandits.
Due to the confined space inside the Labyrinth and the plans he had for his party to stay there, Smoke decided to only take Igniz and the three Maneators with him.
The Maneators rode on their war elephants, and Smoke hitched a ride with Weise. As soon as they entered the white mausoleum which was connected to the Labyrinth, they were met with Skeleton warriors, Skeleton archers and Skeleton mages.
Smoke had Igniz increase his luminance and increased the visibility in the otherwise dark crypt. He told his symbiote to just focus on the lighting and not fight at all. Using Aral's Lightning Rod, Smoke dashed in front of the Maneators and dealt with the skeletons by himself. The monsters' bones shattered as he smashed the twin black metal rods expertly against them. By far this was his most comfortable weapon as he handled them like his Eskrima sticks in the real world.
The Maneators were amazed as they watched their king slaughter the skeletons alone. Smoke went after their ranged attackers first. He would face the Skeleton archers' arrows head on and dodge them at the last minute before bashing their skulls in. He got hit a few times by some fireballs thrown by the Skeleton mages, but his high Fire resistance made their attacks ineffective. As soon as he reached the mages, he would deliver swift, powerful strikes and pulverize the skeletal monsters.
Awestruck by Smoke's rapid and efficient moves, Weise had to slap his brothers on the shoulders. "Hey, snap out of it. We've got to do our share too," said the gray Maneator. All three dashed after their king as they would not allow to be only bystanders in this dungeon sweeping. All three of them rushed to Smoke's side and fought against the skeletons.
Swiftly, they dealt with the undead monsters easily and cleared the burial chamber in no time. This caused  the boss monster of the mausoleum, the Skeleton knight, to appear.
Despite its intimidating stature of over two meters and a life bar of 300,000 HP, Smoke and his Maneators were left unfazed, as they knew that it had low Defense. Smoke didn't even find the need to use his lightning rods’ active abilities.
He was about to face the Skeleton knight, but Rasant, Stark and Weise wanted to show off their progress. The red Maneator led the formation and went after the monster’s exposed arms. Weise and Rasant divided the task of finishing it off. Weise went after its legs and sent it crashing to the ground, but not before Rasant's whips caught its skull and ripped it off its body. The three Maneators dealt with the undead knight in less than a minute.
This time, it was Smoke who was impressed. He remembered that the Maneators had taken the Farmers here to increase their levels and had been dealing with this monster for quite some time now.
With this, he felt confident that the four of them could handle the upgraded guardians of the Labyrinth's exit by themselves.
"Do you guys want to take a break?" he asked his Maneators after clearing the crypt.
Yet all three Maneators answered in unison, "No!"
"Let's keep going," said Weise.
"Stark is just warming up," added the red Maneator.
"I can't wait to go inside the Labyrinth and do some damage," roared Rasant.
Smoke nodded and they proceeded directly towards the secret exit of the Labyrinth.
Journeying through the hidden tunnel, past the depths of the mausoleum, Smoke and his Maneators arrived in a cavernous chamber. It had a floor area of over four-hundred square meters and a height of twice that. In theory, this chamber appeared to be big, but Smoke knew that if he brought in more men, it would get crowded quickly and could only result in more casualties on their end. 
He knew this as he watched four massive slumbering monsters at the center of the room. They stayed inside the mouth of the tunnel. Together, they observed four Krampus giants, hibernating in a fetal position with their legs tucked behind their arms.
Smoke knew that these monsters weren't something they could easily handle. After all, this was the place where he got the weighted chain and sickle of Dasende.
Recalling his fight against the Labyrinth’s previous guardian, he thought of using the knowledge he gained during that time to his advantage. The chain weapons of these monsters needed plenty of space to be effective, so he figured that four Krampus in a confined area would have a hard time fighting simultaneously.
"Alright, let's hope we can take them on one at a time, but everyone stay on alert," said a vigilant Smoke as he signaled for his Maneators to stay inside the tunnel.
He slowly and carefully walked forward. After each step, he paused and waited for a reaction from the sleeping monsters. After ten steps out of the tunnel, he saw movement from all four monsters.
"Igniz!" he shouted, and his dark ember sprite instantly flew over him.
His symbiote let out a triple-layered fire cage and trapped all four Krampus inside it. The monsters were still stuck in their fetal position and could not freely move.
Smoke and Igniz took advantage of the situation and quickly started dishing out their ranged attacks. Smoke used his power chainsaw bow and fired poison arrows, while Igniz let out a barrage of fireballs. Their attacks only dealt between 700-900 points of damage, but they did reveal all four Krampus' life bars: Geirel (348,200/350,000 HP), Gavel (398,250/400,000 HP), Lanze (398,750/400,000 HP) and Beil (449,300/450,000 HP).
As soon as he finished reading their names, the Krampus broke out of Igniz's fire cage. With their humanoid bodies, they stood equally at a height of four meters. They had long goatlike horns, blackish fur and cloven hooves for feet.
The Krampus named Geirel had the most slender body, while Gavel and Lanze were both medium built, and Beil had the bulkiest figure. Yet, their body sizes were not the most disconcerting fact to Smoke. What drew his attention were their weapons. All four of them had different weapons that didn’t contain chains.
Igniz attacked them with fireballs, but Beil took out its massive double-edged axe and parried the dark ember sprite's attack.
Smoke turned to his Maneators and put on a brave facade. "I'll take this one. Make sure to survive your battles!" he said while charging straight for the biggest Krampus of all.
 

* * * * * * 

Weise rushed in with his Gora Shield in front of him and his flamdius above it.
TWANG
His shield resonated loudly as Lanze thrust its spear hard against its surface. With a single attack, he was stopped dead in his tracks. Suddenly, he was swept off his feet as the spear butt of Lanze's weapon knocked him off-balance.
Lanze quickly launched another attack and speared the fallen Weise. Fortunately, he was able to block the attack with his shield and rolled away to safety.
He knelt down and composed himself. His life bar displayed (348,104/350,000 HP). However, he was not given time to formulate a plan, as Lanze launched a storm of spear thrusts at him. All he could do was block with his shield, but it could not cover his entire body.
In only thirty seconds, Weise received 21,000 points of damage from Lanze's attacks that hit his exposed parts. The Krampus showed no signs of stopping its onslaught.
TWANG
Weise leapt forward and his shield reverberated once more. However, this time it was he who banged it firmly against Lanze's torso. He stunned the Krampus for three seconds by using his Shield Smack ability. In that time, he focused on hacking off the Krampus' right arm, with which it held its spear. He delivered three swift strikes, but only dealt 9,000 points of damage and did not accomplish his plan.
The moment Lanze snapped out of its stunned state, it sent the head of its spear towards Weise's stomach. Weise narrowly escaped by deflecting it with his shield, but the spear head still nicked a portion of his arm and damaged him for 700 points.
He was about to launch another attack with his sword, but Lanze was faster and sent its spear head into his exposed shoulder, knocking him off-balance. Weise fell down and Lanze quickly shoved the Gora Shield away from him.
The shield slid across the floor of the cavernous chamber. It was out of reach, and Weise knew that a storm of spear thrusts was heading his way.
Thankfully, Rasant was close to where his shield landed and kicked it back to him. Weise grabbed the shield and managed to block most of Lanze's attacks in time.

* * * * * * 

Rasant was facing a Krampus equipped with a sword that was unusually long and thin.
More than eight minutes had passed, but the two of them were in a stalemate. Rasant kept a safe distance away from Geirel and continuously lashed his twin whips at the monster. However, each of Rasant's attacks was perfectly parried by Geirel and it received no damage during their entire battle.
The past week, Rasant’s brothers helped him improve his defensive stance. While using it, he could evade most attacks, but in exchange, he would often end up dealing no damage as well.
Weise and Stark's training proved effective, in the sense that his life bar was left pristine. Yet, he felt restrained and not himself. Deep inside, he felt that this fighting style was not suited for him.
Rasant watched the situation inside the cavernous chamber and knew that he had to tip the odds in his favor soon. Cracking his twin whips wildly, he performed a wide attack that created an opening for the monster.
Geirel parried his whips and charged forward into his space. Yet, before it could reach him, Rasant expertly flicked his wrists and his barbed whips encircled around Geirel's arms and caught the steaming Krampus. The initial attack dealt 3,000 points of damage, but he didn't stop there.
The orange Maneator used the momentum of the zooming monster against it. He pulled his barbed whips as hard as he could and Geirel was forced down to the floor and slid towards him fast. He then pulled out his barbed whips from around the monster's arms and ripped out pieces of its flesh.
With Geirel on the ground and its back exposed, Rasant's rapid whip cracking made eight afterimages of his barbed weapon as it whipped against the Krampus' back.
The Krampus remained on the ground for four seconds and received a total damage of 24,000 points, but before Rasant could do any more damage, Geirel leapt forward and countered with a double slash squarely on his body. Thankfully, his reflexes allowed him to step back, and Geirel's attack only  left a shallow cross-shaped wound on his chest.
Despite being hit, Rasant did not cower. He attacked with the sharp ends of his twin whips' handle and stabbed it into the Krampus' side.
On account of his strong counterattack, Geirel backed away. However, this did not change the fact that Rasant received 6,000 points of damage from such a light attack.
He did not mind being damaged by their exchange, just as long as he could dish out more. He cracked his whips again and prepared for another similar attack.
He created a wide opening and Geirel went in for the bait head first, but this time, Geirel was much faster than before and it escaped his barbed whips.
The Krampus shook its extraordinarily long sword on the side and revealed its true form. The lengthy blade extended its reach even further by dividing into segments connected by a single metallic line. Geirel's weapon was actually a whip sword.
It wrapped its unique weapon around Rasant’s left arm and snaked its way around his waist. With one swift motion, Geirel pulled back its whip sword, gashing the orange Maneators flesh.
Rasant received 18,000 points of damage, but he steeled himself and both his barbed whips latched onto Geirel's neck. He pulled it hard until the monster’s blood started to flow down the metal thorns attached to his whips.
This time, he dealt 10,000 points of damage. Right after he received Bleeding status from the Krampus last attack, he also inflicted the same status on Geirel.
Since the Krampus could not break free, it extended its whip sword and wrapped it around Rasant's arms. It was a contest of whose body parts would come off first.
However, Rasant was at a clear disadvantage, as Geirel had twice as much health than him.
Suddenly, a red Maneator came flying from across the chamber and knocked Geirel off-balance, forcing both Rasant and the Krampus to the ground.