Zectas Volume V: The Sequestered Seminary of Sawtorn (19 page)

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With Igniz flying close to Smoke, he pulled Freifahrt's reins, hard. "Whoa, calm down," he said to his mount and patted its furry head.
They were traveling on a thin ledge overlooking a steep mountainside, and the dirus wolf kept wanting to turn back.
While Smoke was soothing the perturbed mount, an annoying voice came from behind them.
"It shouldn't take us this long to get there!" exclaimed Flora. The young HighElf stood up from Smoke's rickety cart.
"I could have gotten here faster if I was alone," he said to Flora. "Why did you have to come anyway?"
"I told you, Eleve doesn't trust you to find this place by yourself," she answered.
"Well, couldn't she have teleported us here?" asked Smoke.
Flora nodded her small head. "She could, but where's the fun in that? Besides we've only traveled for half a day."
She directed her voice to the dirus wolf. "But at this pace, we'll get there by dawn."
"Hey, don't be like that," interjected Smoke. "Freifahrt's doing his best, and why do we have to go down this mountain? Can't we go somewhere, where there are proper roads?"
"We could, but then we won't be facing the monster that Eleve picked for you to fight," said Flora.
"By the way, where was she headed?" Smoke asked her.
"She had to be somewhere important. Just don't mind things that doesn't concern you," answered Flora. "Also, this isn't a mountain, it's a volcano."
"Really?" asked Smoke. Due to the lack of smoke and sulfur, he surmised that this was inactive.
"Well, you heard her, Freifahrt, this isn't a mountain," said Smoke. "So, you better hurry up."
His dirus wolf quickened its pace and they reached the bottom of the dormant volcano in twenty minutes.
A group of fifteen orange santelmos greeted them. The fiery humanoid monsters were merrily eating the rocks on the ground.
Some of them would pause and observe Smoke, but seeing as he did not attack them, they resumed eating their fill of volcanic stones.
"These are just santelmos," said Smoke. "She should have told me she wanted me to get their abilities in the first place."
Smoke turned to Flora. "Tell me, do you know if this place is similar to the special gaming grounds?"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Is there some sort of time restriction on how long we can stay here?" asked Smoke.
"No, not that I know of," answered Flora. "Anyway, if you're planning on killing santelmos, I suggest that you don't bother."
"Why is that?" asked Smoke.
"Because that's not the monster that Eleve wants you to vanquish," she said and pointed to a narrow passageway on the side of the volcano. "You're to venture in there. Your mount and I will stay here. Otherwise, it could be dangerous for us."
Smoke nodded and dismounted Freifahrt. "Okay, but what kind of monster am I facing?"
"It is called Paradox, the monster with many faces," said Flora. "Eleve asks that you get its dropped item, and that you must defeat it with your synergized form," she said, pointing to Igniz.
"Using any other ability or equipment may cause you to fail this test," she quickly added.
"Okay, but what does this Paradox monster look like?" asked Smoke.
"You'll know when you see it," answered Flora.
"Fine," said Smoke, and signaled his symbiote to him. "Igniz, let's do this."
Smoke activated the Symbiote Synergy ability, and the dark ember sprite vanished as he was absorbed into Smoke's body. Fumes started coming out of his skin.
"I'll be back, but I'll make you  something to eat while you're waiting," said Smoke. He took out firelogs from the back of the rickety cart and prepared it for them. He placed a pot filled with venison and water.
He stood back and grinned at Flora. "Everytime I'm about to cook, this is what I've always wanted to do."
CRACKLE
A small purple fireball came out from his palms and ignited the firelogs to a warm fire.
"That's weird," said Flora. "Doesn't Igniz just do that for you?"
"Yeah, he does, but this time I'm the one doing it," reasoned out Smoke. "Never mind. What's weird is your reaction to Igniz. Eleve got all excited when she found out, but you acted like it was nothing."
"That's because Eleve already told me," said Flora. "You should have said that you wanted me to act surprised and I would have."
Smoke shook his head in disbelief. "Anyway, I'm going. Make sure to feed some to Freifahrt, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. I know how to take care of myself," said Flora.
His visibility quickly vanished after entering through the slender passageway. Smoke got the sudden urge to say. "Flame on!" and low purple flames came out from his hands and head. He felt like a superhero straight out of a comic book.
With the aid of his Cunning of the Dire Fox, he sensed a group of sixteen monsters up a head. Thankfully, the cramped tunnel was quickly becoming wider.
Then, a notification window popped up.

As soon as he stepped outside, Smoke disregarded the window. He found a massive cavern with an underground lake. He estimated it to be as large as an arena, if not larger.
The place was well lit as a group of red santelmos were engaged in combat with one large blue water elemental. The aquatic monster towered over the santelmos at a height of three-meters.
The water elemental let out several water-whips which struck the santelmos' vital parts.
Eight of the santelmos brushed off the water-whips and punched the water elemental's body. The life bar of the water elemental was revealed (121,200/400,000 HP) and its name, Paradox.
Paradox grabbed one of them with its large hands and lifted the monster up, towards its face. Its mouth then grew wide, obscenely out of proportion to its body. It swallowed the santelmos whole.
The other flaming monsters came in and attacked Paradox with their powerful punches. They were slow to move, but their numbers worked to their advantage and allowed them to make contact. Yet, the aquatic monster did not even flinch as it took in the damage.
Instead, Paradox grabbed another santelmo and wolfed the monster down in one gulp.
'This should be easy, with a life bar of only 400,000 HP,' thought Smoke. 'Might as well join in and help those santelmos.'
He pointed his palm at Paradox, and charged all of his mana in front of it. A large purple fireball was slowly taking shape.
Yet, before Smoke could launch his attack, his eye caught the sudden movement of a giant monster coming out from the lake.
It was a monster he was most familiar with. A subspecies of a water dragon with the ability to attack with Lightning, an olm.
Looking at the thick tube-like body of the monster with two black rods coming out of its ears, Smoke remembered his time when he fought against Aral.
Thankfully, this olm was significantly smaller than the one he previously killed. As Smoke was wondering what the olm was doing, a flash of blue light illuminated the cave when it suddenly launched a Lightning Strike on Paradox.
'No! That olm is killing my prey!' thought a worried Smoke.
BTOOM
The Lightning Strike resonated around the cavern. A cloud of dust picked up, obstructing his view of Paradox.
He could not see anything, but his Cunning of the Dire Fox sensed that his targeted monster was still there.
When the dust settled, Paradox's life bar displayed (400,000/400,000 HP). However, this time, it was no longer a water elemental. Instead, it had a rocky figure, similar to Smoke's golems.
Paradox launched a boulder from its right hand, and struck the olm on its head, revealing the olm's life bar (250,000/300,000 HP).
Now embodying the form of an earth elemental, Paradox fired another boulder on a humongous stalactite on the ceiling, directing it to fall on the olm's head.
The stalactite pierced through the olm's cranium and split its head into two. Paradox then sent a barrage of rock bullets on the dying olm, and reduced its life bar to zero.
In its earth elemental form, Paradox opened its mouth in the same manner as when it was a water elemental, and ate the severed head of the olm.
The surviving santelmos were still in their aggravated state, as their flames flickered with blood red.
They simultaneously attacked Paradox. The first hit did zero damage and only morphed Paradox back into a water elemental.
It was only after that when the santelmos inflicted a damage of 400 points on the versatile monster.
Paradox did nothing to stop their attacks, and allowed them to pile on the damage, as if to taunt them of their difference in power. It was not until its life bar displayed (350,000/400,000 HP) that it grabbed one of the santelmos and gobbled it up.
Smoke hurriedly resumed making his charged fireball. He concentrated all of his mana to the front of his palms. It took him ten seconds to form a fireball half the size of his body.
Watching from above, Smoke stepped closer to the edge of the ledge, in order to get a better aim at Paradox.
BAKOOM
Smoke's massive purple fireball hit Paradox squarely on the back. However, another dust cloud picked up as a result of the sudden blast.
The dust cloud blocked his vision of Paradox. Then, his Cunning of the Dire Fox picked up four water-whips heading his way.
Trying to avoid them, he leapt down from where he stood and fired several fireballs at the general direction of the now aquatic monster.
He caught a glimpse of Paradox's life bar as it displayed (335,000/400,000 HP).
"Really?" said Smoke out loud. He knew that his fire attacks would have lesser damage on Paradox, but he did not think it would only amount to this much.
Then, ten water-whips emerged from the aquatic monster. Smoke tried his best to dodge them, but four water-whips hit their mark.
Smoke was damaged for 5,000 points on each attack, revealing his life bar to be (259,254/279,254 HP).
An onslaught of water-whips came his way. Smoke kept backing away, but there was not enough room in the cavern to escape the extra-long whips.
Cornered, Smoke parried with numerous fireballs, deflecting the water-whips from directly hitting him. He thought he was getting the hang of Paradox's attacks, only to realize that the monster was actually still feeding on the surviving santelmos.
After it finished, the water-whips doubled in number. Smoke thought about using his Manatl, but decided not to as it could risk changing Paradox's element and restoring its life bar to full capacity.
Thinking on his feet, Smoke used his serval shoes and ran circles around Paradox.
Its water-whips could not keep up with Smoke's blazing speed. Moving in a clockwise motion, he encased Paradox in a circular red firewall.
As fire from the Trailblazer ability began to fade, Smoke fed it with his mana and turned the flames to purple. The ring of flames became a full-fledged dark inferno.
Smoke then stepped behind the flame barricade and began attacking Paradox with fireballs from all directions. His Fire Manipulation was still at Intermediate Level 2, but he was already capable of firing up to thirty-two fireballs at once.
An enraged Paradox countered with water-whips cracking out of the firewall on random locations, but Smoke could easily detect the long range melee attacks of the whips.
His fireballs could only damage Paradox for 200 points, but the numerous and steady barrage brought the monster's life bar to (215,800/400,000 HP).
Whenever Paradox tried to leave the center of the flaming ring, a myriad of fireballs attacked it from that direction, and pushed the monster back to its origin.
"Kayaaaaaata!" cried out Paradox in anger.
The screams of the monster only fueled Smoke's attack, as the fireballs slowly increased in size.
Paradox stopped attacking with its water-whips. Instead, it used hundreds of them to prop itself up. The monster could now see beyond Smoke's firewall and spotted his exact location.
However, Smoke did not know this, as he only relied on his Cunning of the Dire Fox. An ability which informed him that Paradox was still at the center of his flames.
Then, Paradox raised sixteen of its water-whips to its shoulder-level. The water-whips instantly began to take a different shape. It was that of a javelin.
Oblivious to the incoming projectiles, Smoke kept on attacking the center of his firewall, which only had water-whips propping up Paradox.
Suddenly, he heard Flora's voice coming out from the elevated entrance of the cavern. "Faux! Above you!"
Smoke looked up and saw the water javelins coming his way. He was able to dodge half of them, but received a damage of 72,000 points. His life bar was reduced to 64%.
'It can do that as well?' thought Smoke in disbelief, as it looked up at the raised Paradox.
Smoke aimed his fireballs upward and resumed blasting Paradox.
Yet, the monster did not mind Smoke's attack. Instead, it looked up at Flora. This time, it raised thirty-two water-whips and turned them into javelins aimed straight for the HighElf girl.
Desperate, Smoke redirected his fireballs to intercept the water-javelins, but his fireballs only turned to steam and did not reduce the javelins' speed.
Flora stood still, as if frozen in her place as the javelins flew closer towards her. Several javelins pierced her body, and she fell down from the ledge of the cave's opening.
Smoke tried jumping in order to glide to her, but his serval shoes did not have the same leaping ability as his Lunar Boots.
Instead, he used his shoes' Trailblazer ability, and ran as fast as he could to her. Sadly, he was too late as he saw her body settled on the cave floor, pierced by a stalagmite.
Before Smoke could get to her, Flora's body turned to ash. The ashes scattered, as if a sudden gust of wind blew through the cavern.
Angry, guilty, and frustrated; Smoke was left speechless. Instead, he turned around and extended both his arms towards his ring of flames.
Smoke charged up to sixty-four fireballs from all directions. They were slowly growing in size, but not evenly.
Instead of a spherical growth, Smoke's flames became elongated. They grew thinner and thinner.
Elevated by its water-whips, Paradox began moving out of Smoke's firewall. It launched another round of water-javelins at Smoke, to which Smoke easily evaded by using his Hyper Jump ability.
Leaping to Paradox's blind spot, Smoke launched his charged fire attacks at the monster. He modified Paradox's technique, and turned his fireballs into fire-spears.
All sixty-four of them hit the aquatic monster's back. Each fire-spear damaged it for 1,500 points, for a total of 96,000.
Despite heavy damage of Smoke's new attack, Paradox was still left with (89,800/400,000 HP).
"Ahakahakahakahak," sniggered Paradox. The aquatic monster raised its water-whips and was about to counterattack, when it spotted Smoke's second volley of fire-spears overhead.
A notification window then popped up in front of Smoke.