Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo (30 page)

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A busty Aqua Knight, on top of the largest bronze jackal, glanced between the opposite wings. At first, she thought the Vigilantez formation looked like that of an eagle closing its wings on a rabbit before carrying it off to be devoured.
However, only their right wing remained dominant against the bandits. The ruthless Brandals appeared to be a fighting jackal instead of a rabbit.
Mamelon didn't know if it was because of the Werewolves and Tikbalangs strength, or because Thyrsus and Vijaya simply worked splendidly together. Yet, the only thing that was clear was that this was not the side she needed to help.
"Jackol, to the left wing!" she ordered her mount and the rest of her unit followed after her.
Ichaival, Sharanga and Guro were clearly suffering as their numbers were rapidly dropping. She further scrutinized their area and found that Guro's team were holding their own.
The Gladiatrix's Phalanx Aura and Battle Aura increased the capabilities of the Mercenaries around her. Guro was constantly on the move. This gave her men a high boost in morale, giving them the positive attitude to take on the bandits.
Unfortunately, it was Ichaival's and Sharanga's members that were being killed. Sharanga focused on hunting down the Brandal Captains, while Ichaival went after the Brandals' healers.
This time, the Brandals had Witch Doctors scattered among them. This made killing the bandits five times harder. Yet, as they went after their special targets, they neglected to take care of their greenhorn Mercenaries.
Mamelon's Shamans quickly began healing the Avendres near them. Apparently, Ichaival and Sharanga ordered their Acolytes to prioritize on healing the Vigilantez members, which made the Mercenaries be neglected.
The two Hunters quickly ordered their healers to focus on healing everyone, but they already suffered a heavy blow of a thousand dead Mercenaries on their hands.
Ichaival rode his mount closer to Sharanga. "Let's change our support team's precedence to healing the Avendre instead," he said abruptly. "They are clearly weaker than any of our Vigilantez members, and I think our Ranseurs and Arcus will still be able to survive on their own."
"I thought about that as well, but it would be too risky," Sharanga replied back apprehensively.
"So, what should we do?" asked Ichaival impatiently.
"I don't know!" shouted Sharanga as she let out her frustration.
Suddenly, an Aqueous Spike flew in between them and killed a bandit who was leaping towards them with his knife.
Mamelon arrived and intervened. "Focus on killing off the Captains and Witch Doctors as you were doing before. My Shamans will be healing the Mercenaries, while I and the rest of the Elemental Knights will support you from behind."
"Thank you," said Sharanga and Ichaival synchronously. The two Hunters swiftly rode off on different directions.
Sharanga's falcon released her five-trap system on one of the Brandal Captains and brought him down to the ground. The Ranseurs and Avendre Mercenaries in her team quickly rushed to the downed bandit leader and finished him off.
Meanwhile, Ichaival, the Banalite Archers and his Arcus members all targeted the Witch Doctors. Their first volley was blocked by the bandits defending their healers, but their ranged attacks would not be stopped. Their persistence penetrated through the Brandals, wiping out the Witch Doctors near them.
With their sights firmly resolved and the addition of Mamelon's troops, the left wing quickly picked up its pace. The Avendre Mercenaries were slowly getting stronger as each kill contributed to their experience bars and eventually led to them leveling up.
However, after thirty minutes into the battle, the Brandals sheer advantage in numbers was slowly getting to them. The Acolytes' and Shamans' mana could not keep up with the high demand of healing all of their members.
The Brandals closed rank on their Witch Doctors, and protected them with their lives, as more Brandal Captains huddled together around them.

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From the far off distance, Smoke zoomed in and observed the commotion on the foot of the mountain. He grinned when he saw Sierra bravely cutting through the swarm of Brandals.
Despite his army's arrival, he knew that no one was coming to his aid. Not even Sierra or his loyal Maneators. He understood that they would be more effective fighting below than trying to rescue him.
Smoke would have wanted to catch more boulders and roll them down the mountain, but he was saving his mana for something more efficient.
He aimed his torrential poison arrows at the Brandals in the back. Inflicting as many of the bandits with the 'Poisoned Status.'
With the Brandals only a few meters away from him and the Lioumereans, he switched to Aral's Lightning Rods and defended the front lines.
'I don't have to kill them, I just have to push them back,' he thought to himself.
He struck the bandits one by one with only a single hit, and they tumbled down bringing along two or three of their comrades with them.
Through Smoke's tenacity, he eventually reached the area were his magnetic underlings were fighting.
The Brandals soon realized that it was difficult to get past the monstrous DarkElf and his golems. Despite this, the bandits still moved forward as the capital's walls were still being destroyed by their catapults.
The bandits tried moving to the side, away from Smoke and his golems.
Smoke quickly realized what they were doing, but he was still lacking in mana. He hurriedly yelled out for help. "Ledur, funnel them towards me!"
The winged Tikbalang temporarily stopped his repairs on the walls and created a slanted, three-meter earth-wall that was going towards Smoke's location.
Blocked by the earth obstacle, the Brandals furiously rushed at Smoke and his two golems. Yet, unbeknownst to the bandits, Smoke was only biding his time.
As fifteen minutes had already passed, his mana recovered to the point where he could create two more golems. He swiftly took out two more electro stones and created more minions.
Smoke fought eight bandits at once, while his golems were mobbed by ten bandits. Fortunately for him, the Brandals' weapons could do little damage to his metallic minions. They were unreasonably slow, but extremely sturdy.
Yet the major factor as to why they were able to hold their position against the numerous Brandals was because they held the upper ground, and Smoke had every intention to abuse this tactical advantage.
Together with four metallic subordinates, Smoke defended the passageway from the waves of Brandals. Concurrently, Igniz, Laernea, Gandiva and their durcules beetles kept attacking from Afar.
The Lioumereans picked off the dying bandits with their arrows, while their two-meter durcules beetles stabbed the bandits with their black horns.
Not to be outdone, Smoke's dark ember sprite's unceasingly attacked with his fireballs. He steadily lowered the life bars of the bandits.
"Igniz, swallow them in flames!" shouted Smoke suddenly.
Not a second later, Igniz created multiple firewalls inside the slanted confinement and inflicted every bandit caught in its flames with the 'Burned Status'.
The poisoned bandits, in the back of their formation, stopped climbing and hurriedly retreated downward. They spread out and circled around the earth walls. There were still more than a thousand of them left.
Smoke was about to call out for Ledur's help, but he was taken aback when he saw four flaming boulders coming straight for the bandits.
He used his Telefax Vision and instantly recognized the source of the boulders. He found Jinggu and Sharur preparing to fire another round of boulders at them.
'Their effectiveness in using siege weapons coupled with their Far Sight ability really makes them formidable long range opponents,' he mused.
Looking at the OrkElves' sides, he found that Sierra and her troops had already captured half of the catapults. Yet, they were temporarily stalled as more Brandals began to swarm them.
Smoke was about to resume fighting the bandits on the mountainside when he suddenly saw two red flares go up at the same time. His eyes instantly went over to Ichaival and Sharanga, the Hunters who fired them.
Their troops were blocked off by the bandits and each of them were surrounded by several dead bodies of Avendre Mercenaries and a few of their Ranseurs and Arcus.
He scanned their area to search for the reason they shot out the flares. A few meters away from them, he saw twenty mounted Brandal Captains charging straight at them. They were all the remaining bandit leaders in their area.
"Laernea, Gandiva, leave the mountainside, but avoid the bandits at all cost. I have to get down there now!" he said in a rattled voice.
Smoke abruptly leapt up and took to the skies. "Igniz, with me!" he yelled out and his dark ember sprite instantly stopped attacking the bandits.
He decided to leave the remaining Brandals on the mountainside as he knew that Sierra will capture the catapults, disabling them from entering any potential cracks in the city walls.
Also, with the end of the falling boulders, Ledur would be able to finish off the bandits by himself.
Despite the fact that the mountainside was secured, his attention was solely on Ichaival and Sharanga as he felt an ominous feeling from their direction.
The Brandal Captains split up ,and ten of them went after each Hunter. He looked at the distance between the two of them and realized that he could only reach one of them in time. His troubled eyes darted between Ichaival and Sharanga, confused on who to rescue first.
'What did those two do to be specifically target by the Captains?' wondered Smoke worriedly.
Smoke saw Sharanga's falcon throw one of her traps at the bandit leader and disabled him from joining their assault towards her.
Whereas, Smoke watched Ichaival use his Phantom Arrows on the leading Brandal Captain and knocked him off his black ctenosaur. Ichaival then immediately proceeded to the bandit directly behind them.
Without any time left, he gambled on saving Sharanga. He hoped that Ichaival would survive the Brandal Captains' attacks, enabling him to come to his aid afterward.
Smokes body was engulfed in dark purple flames as his symbiote orbited around him rapidly.
CRASH
The DarkElf came crashing down on the Brandal Captains near Sharanga as he used his Comet Crush ability. He temporarily stunned them before they reached her, and hurriedly switched to his weighted chain and sickle.
Right at the start, he used his weapon's deadliest ability, Cyclone of Slaughter. Smoke and the nine Brandal Captains appeared to be engulfed in a tornado as several afterimages of the sharp sickle and iron-ball surrounded them.
The ability lasted ten seconds. Three mangled bodies of the Brandal Captains with zero life bars were revealed after the tornado of sickles ended, while six of the bandit leaders were blown away backwards by the weighted iron-ball.
Smoke quickly switched his attention to Ichaival. His grit his teeth when he saw that there were still eight Brandal Captains heading towards the Hunter.
"Igniz, stay here and help Sharanga," blurted out Smoke and went straight to Ichaival.
Using his Hyper Jump ability, he desperately moved towards Ichaival. Yet, it only instantly propelled him ten meters forward. His friend was still out of his reach.
The Brandal Captains then took out their whips and aimed it at him. A sudden flashback entered Smoke's mind as he remembered how König Mitleid died in the hands of these bastards.
He kept on running and patiently waited for the Hyper Jump ability to finish its cooldown, but a sinking feeling inside him said that he could not make it in time.
WHIPISH WHIPISH
Eight whips cracked simultaneously, all aimed at Ichaival. A teary eyed Smoke did not avert his gaze at his friend and kept on running towards him.
Before the Brandals' whips could hit Ichaival, a female Aqua Knight pushed him off of his mount and was caught by the bandit's whips instead.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
Mamelon screamed in pain as her armor was forcibly pulled off and from her body. Four of the Brandal Captains released their whips and swiftly charged forward on top of their black ctenosaurs, while four more kept her tied up with their whips. The charging bandits mercilessly plunged their swords at her exposed flesh.
Her life bar, which was already at 35%, was instantly reduced to zero. Her lifeless body slumped down to the ground and slowly faded out of sight as she was forcibly logged out of Zectas.
BZZZT BZZZT
Smoke smashed the black lightning rods into two of the bandits' skulls and temporarily paralyzed them. He proceeded to disarming the remaining Brandal Captains of their swords and whips as he used Eskrima techniques he learned in the real world.
Ichaival quickly recovered from the fall and fired his arrows rapidly at the bandit leaders surrounding Smoke. The rest of Mamelon's Elemental forces arrived and helped Smoke and Ichaival finish off the remaining leaders.
"Raaaaaaaaah!" screamed the throng of bandits charging at them. Smoke noticed that only a few of their Witch Doctors were left, along with the last five Brandal Captains.
Greatly outnumbered, Smoke followed Ledur's technique and created several random earth walls to slow them down.
Fortunately, the tables instantly turned when Smoke saw Thyrsus, Vijaya, Phen, Rear, Ardu and Vrai coming towards them. He surmised that they must have been alarmed to see the red flares as well.
Smoke briefly thought about Mamelon's valiant sacrifice. He deeply appreciated her selflessness, but there was no time to brood on her death at the moment.
Uncertain of how they stood against the Brandals, he knew he needed to reassess the battle situation fast.
"Elemental Knights under Mamelon, please join with Ichaival's forces. I swear that we will wipe out all of the bandits here and avenge her death!" boldly declared Smoke, and quickly leapt to the skies.
"Igniz, let's go!" he shouted and his dark ember sprite immediately joined him in the air.
With a rough estimate, he guessed that roughly a third of the Brandals were left. He assumed that there were less than nine-thousand bandits all.
Although, the Vigilantez's forces were scattered, they now had the upper hand. They slightly outnumbered the bandits as they still had thirteen-thousand members left.
Yet, the Brandals' misfortune did not end there. One after another, flaming boulders came hurtling down from the sky.
Apparently, Sierra secured more catapults, while Sharur and Jinggu coordinated with their Avendre Mercenaries and sent a total of twenty of these boulders at the clustered bandits.
From his aerial view, Smoke saw the remaining Brandals rattled by the onslaught of the heavy boulders. The scattered Vigilantez turned into a favorable position, as they unknowingly trapped the bandits from within their formation.
As the rain of boulders continued, the Brandals became suicidal. It was as if they have lost all hope, and were fighting to take as many of the Vigilantez with them to the grave.
The Iron Knights, Ranseurs and Arcus had no trouble with the deranged methods of the Brandals, but the bandits were slaughtering the Avendre Mercenaries by stabbing them without any regard for their own safety.
Smoke quickly realized this, and called all of the core members on their battle channel.
"Everyone, open a path for the bandits," he said, and was instantly answered with dispute.
"Are you insane?" asked Sharur incredulously. "We have them right where we want them!"
"Yeah, Smoke. Why should we show them mercy?" asked Ichaival. "Mamelon even had to sacrifice herself just to save me."
"We are not letting them go. We just need to line them up and have Sharur and Jinggu pick them off one by one," hurriedly explained Smoke.
Everyone fell silent and waited for his next orders.
"Adder, Thyrsus and Vijaya, open your ranks and form a wall of Mercenaries towards the south," ordered Smoke. "Also, tell Ardu and Vrai to ready their Therianthrope and Tikbalang forces at the end of your formation."
"Sharur and Jinggu, change your targets to coincide with their lined up formations. Make sure not to hit our allies!" stressed Smoke strongly. "As for everyone else, make sure that they follow along these lines."
Before Smoke ended the voice conference, Vijaya got one more question in. "But how will we make the Brandals move as you wanted?"
"I will handle that," said Smoke as he dove down towards the throng of bandits.
Igniz started orbiting swiftly around him, but Smoke told him to stop. "No, Igniz, we are not trying to stun them."
He switched to his white metallic staff and landed softly in the middle of the Brandals. It took a few seconds for the bandits to react, but before they could hit him. Smoke had already created a concave Manatl as he crouched down.
While the bandits were attacking, stabbing and pounding on his purple barrier, Smoke suddenly screamed. "Everyone, the Captains have broken through the Vigilantez's formations! Escape to the south! Run for your lives."
Smoke repeated the same words loudly. Slowly, he noticed the bandits around him were thinning out. Some of the Brandals tried to yell that it was all a lie, but the spark of hope had already been ignited in the hearts of the bandits. The Brandals charged at the Vigilantez opening, and did not bother to attack anyone else.
Farther down the line, the bandits were struck down by more boulders as Sharur and Jinggu re-calibrated all of the remaining catapults.
As for the Brandals who escaped the flaming boulders, they were met with hundreds of Therianthropes and Tikbalangs.