Zectas Volume V: The Sequestered Seminary of Sawtorn (22 page)

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The deafening sounds of three-hundred-thousand people all chattering at once echoed throughout Pulper Stadium. Despite the hot blazing sun on a cloudless day, the crowd was exhilarated to see the start of the 999th Magi Gagnant Tournament.
"You really think you can beat Prime Wizard Ouragan just because you upgraded your robes and got that fancy looking ruby mask?" asked Avilo Dawkins, the royalty ninth in line to the throne of Vitzytl Kingdom.
"I'm sure Faux has done more than just that, Lord Avilo," said Jack. "Daniel and Geisel send both their regard. Sadly, they can't make it to the tournament as they went back to Vlahui City," added the boy, whom he rescued from the OrkElf named Cynar.
"It's fine," replied Smoke. "I didn't even think you guys were going to watch."
"Of course we'll be watching, Sir Faux, all of us have our own candidates," said Mouche, Avilo's elderly HighElf steward. "I'm personally rooting for Xantana to win. Of course, Lord Avilo is betting on Prime Wizard Ouragan. Only Jack here seems to think that you have a shot of winning this."
Avilo then chuckled. "Too bad Jack doesn't know your pairings," said the young HighElf noble. "Your first round opponent is Trottel, the Prime Wizard of Vlahui City."
"What?!" asked a surprised Smoke. "I didn't know there were other Prime Wizards besides Ouragan. What about the Prime Wizard of Votl City?"
"Silly, Faux, there is no Prime Wizard here," answered Avilo. "Why would we need one, when Magietrois Florissant is here to protect us?"
"Oh, I see," said Smoke, as the realization sunk in. "But what about this Trottel? What kind of Wizard is he?"
This time, it was Mouche who answered him. "He is the youngest Prime Wizard out of the three. Fortunately for you he focuses on Lightning."
"Regardless of the elemental advantage, a Prime Wizard is still a difficult opponent," said Avilo. "So, don't let your guard down, Faux."
"Are you being serious, or are you just playing with me?" asked Smoke.
"Hey! I told you that I'd support you all the way. Except when you're facing against Ouragan," calmly replied Avilo. "But that doesn't mean I think you'll win."
Smoke shook his head and grinned at him, albeit his face was covered by the Paradox mask.
Avilo and the other Zectians had their own persons of interest, but Smoke had his own as well. He checked on Xantana's, Ouragan's, and Chrysopelea's places in the tournament.
Chrys and Ouragan were in the same western bracket, while Smoke and Xantana were on the eastern one. If Smoke defeated Trottel, he would be waiting to fight against Xantana or her opponent named Fanfaron, a High Wizard specializing in Wind.
After a few minutes, the announcer's face appeared on the jumbovision screen.
"King Kajou, Queen Ella, my Lords, my Ladies, and the rest of Vitzytl Kingdom, I welcome you all to the 999th Magi Gagnant Tournament!" cried out the Announcer.
"The rules are simple. They are the same as the one in the prelimina—" began the announcer, but Smoke paid him no mind. The fact that the King and Queen of Vitzytl Kingdom was here caught his attention.
Using his Telefax Vision, he looked around the important looking seats in the stand. There, he was surprised to find the ugliest King. A small hairy man with brown facial hair and a crown on his head sat on the King's throne. Yet, next to him was a vision of beauty. Smoke was taken by surprise to see such an attractive Queen. Next to them were two children, a boy and a girl who took after their mother's looks.
'I wonder what the King of Chayotl looks like,' thought Smoke, reminiscing about Wysteria's own Kingdom. 'Guess this tournament must be a big deal.'
The Announcer's booming voice brought his focus back on the jumbovision. "Right off the bat our first contestant is our favorite to win, the Prime Wizard of Vona City, Ouragan!"
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP WOOT WOOT CLAP CLAP CLAP
The deceitfully old looking HighElf landed softly at the center of the ring. The High Wizard wore his trademark sky-blue robes, blue pointed hat, and equipped a small elder wand on his right hand. While his black cape waved dramatically with his created wind.
The announcer's voice tried to drown the crowd's cheer. "And he's up against a raising super nova, Danarga the Enchanted Maiden!"
His opponent then climbed on the other side of the ring. She was a beautiful Enchantress, wearing green revealing tights. As soon as the battle started, she summoned a tree ent and even used charms to increase its powers. All this in order to attack the flying Aero Wizard, but none of her attempts could hit him. After playing around in the air for some time, Ouragan let out his strongest gust of wind and knock both the Encantress and her tree ent off the ring. It took him only two minutes to finish her off.
After he won, Ouragan looked towards Smoke's direction. As their eyes met for a brief moment, Smoke did not hesitate to stare right back at him.
'Is he angry at me or something?' wondered Smoke. He had no clue as to why the Prime Wizard would give him such a look.
Then, the Announcer's voice boomed once again. "As expected! Ouragan advances to the semi-finals! And he does it with such ease!"
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP WOOT WOOT CLAP CLAP CLAP
Sounds of cheer erupted. The crowd always cheered loudly whenever Ouragan was up, and this time was no exception. Even though his battle was short, the audience still loved his performance anyway.
"Next up, let's go to the eastern bracket. The hottest Pyro Magi Xantana, versus the proud and dashing young lord Fanfaron!" cried out the Announcer.
Fanfaron, a young Aero Magi dressed in green robes, was at a clear disadvantage against Xantana. She mercilessly abused her elemental advantage. With Fanfaron's each attack, she countered with a much stronger fireball. Her flame attacks grew triple in size as they were fanned by Fanfaron's power. In the end, she defeated the youth in under ten minutes.
"There you have it folks! The hot Xantana advances to the semi-finals! And she's just warming up!" screamed the announcer.
CLAP CLAP CLAP
The sound of clapping and cheering was definitely softer than Ouragan's, but a loud applause came from where Smoke sat. Next to him was Mouche, Avilo's steward, as if the old HighElf was clapping for dear life.
"Next, let's go back to the western bracket. The proud flying Sonstwelter Chrysopelea, versus the electrifying High Wizard Lightoric!" shouted the announcer.
Right from the get go, Chrys copied Ouragan's move. He flew upward and stayed out of range from Lightoric. The old High Wizard's lightningballs could not hit Chrys' swiftness in the air. However, Chrys was not playing around. When the wind picked up, Chrys immediately let out his strongest gust of wind, and pushed Lightoric off the ring.
CLAP CLAP CLAP
"Chrys is in the semi-finals! Although, it was clear that his moves looked extremely familiar!" cried out the Announcer.
Focused on the Announcer's voice, Smoke felt like the guy was screaming at the top of his lungs. "Finally, it's time for our last participants for the semi-finals. The unknown Earth Elementalist Faux, versus the powerful Prime Wizard of Vlahui City, Trottel!"

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On the large circular ring, an older tiger Lioumerean of about forty stood across Smoke. His long orange hair with black and white stripes flowed freely below his shoulders.
A poised Smoke with open palms was waiting for Vlahui's Prime Wizard to make a move. Despite having heard the Announcer start off their fight, none of them were attacking.
"You're a fan for the theatrics, huh?" Trottel suddenly asked Smoke.
"Don't know what you're talking about," he answered. He contemplated whether to initiate the first attack, as he had planned to play it defensively.
"Your mask," said the Lioumerean Prime Wizard, pointing towards his face. "Why do you need it? Is it a solution to your problem? Because the problem is your face?"
Trottel chuckled at his own joke.
Deciding to wait for Trottel to make the first move, Smoke calmly stared at the hysterical Lioumerean. Albeit, slightly confused why he was laughing.
"Alright, alright. Let's get on with it," said Trottel, raising both his hands. "I was looking forward to a challenging first round. Too bad it was against some, Amateur."
Sparks of lightning flickered out from Trottel's fingertips. The Lioumerean casually formed his fingers into the shape of a gun and fired several shots of lightning-bullets from it. Blitzing electrified projectiles leapt out towards Smoke.
With the aid of his Hyper Jump ability, Smoke reflexively dodged the initial onslaught. Yet, there was no end to Trottel's lightning-bullets. Four earth-pillars immediately rose from the floor of the ring and blocked the incoming attacks.
"Your Earth powers are no match for me!" taunted Trottel, as he kept on firing the same lightning-bullets into one earth-pillar.
Normally, this pin-point attack would have destroyed any barrier, but Smoke's pillar stood sturdy. All of this was credited to the bullets being made of electricity, which was grounded into the floor of the ring.
Then, Smoke's Cunning of the Dire Fox lost Trottel's presence. Less than a split-second later, it sensed the Prime Wizard again, but this time he was standing directly behind him.
Lightning-bullets flew out of the Lioumerean's finger tips, but they did not reach their target as Smoke had put up a full concave earth-dome.
"Aww! Won't you come out and play?" jibed Trottel. "I promise you'll get a jolt out of it!"
Vlahui City's Prime Wizard then proceeded to fire his lightning-bullets at Smoke's earth-dome. Two minutes of the same attack did nothing to Smoke's earth defense.
Sensing that Trottel was on the northern side of the ring, Smoke created an exit of his earth-dome on the opposite side.
Carefully, he stepped out and was about to launch his counter attack.
However, an electrical flash crept up from behind.
BZZZTT BZZT BZZT BZZZT
A large ball of lightning, three-meters in diameter, grazed him on his left shoulder. He was blown towards his earth-dome, crumbling all of it down.
A storm of lightning-bullets hit Smoke's back. The grounded DarkElf took all of the electrical attacks.
Sprawled on the floor, his life bar displayed 78%. Then, Trottel stopped attacking him, and moved in closer.
"Pfft! Even though my element was supposedly weaker than yours," sneered Trottel, pointing his fingers in the shape of a gun at Smoke. "You still couldn't do anything against me!"
Smoke slowly lifted his face up to look at the tiger Lioumerean.
"Heck! This was easier than a stroll around the plaza," added Trottel. "Capital E-Z— Aucck!" He was cut short as a large boulder, the size of his body, struck him from behind.
Trottel's arms and legs were pushed backward against Smoke's massive boulder. The Prime Wizard of Vlahui City was forcibly thrown above the ring.
From his grounded position, Smoke pointed his hands at the boulder and changed its trajectory. Its height increased even farther. He sent the tiger Lioumerean ten meters in the air, only to send him straight back to the ground in one fell swoop.
CRUMBLE CRUMBLE CRUMBLE
The jumbovision picked up the distinct sound of Smoke's boulder fragmenting. He canceled his boulder before it would smash Trottel to a pulp. He did not want to accidentally kill a Prime Wizard in front of a full stadium. His boulder, however, still did its job.
The screen of the jumbovision focused on an unconscious tiger Lioumerean lying outside the ring.
Then, the Announcer's voice crackled across the stadium. "Um. I don't exactly know what happened, but it seems that Earth Elementalist Faux got in a lucky shot and dropped Prime Wizard Trottel off the ring... I guess this means that Faux is miraculously moving on to the next round."
No one in the stadium clapped, not even his friends Avilo, Jack, or Mouche. They stared at Trottel and back at Smoke, and back at Trottel again, shock at how quickly the battle ended.
Smoke struggled to get up and clutched his injured shoulder, while he limped off the stage.
An astonished Jack and a confused Avilo quickly went to help him down. Old Mouche also started running, but the HighElf was not fast enough to keep up with the two young nobles.
"You sure got lucky with that one, Faux!" exclaimed Jack, carefully grabbing Smoke's right arm and helped him walk. "But you know what they say, Luck is also an ability!"
Trottel's followers hurriedly ran to him and placed him on a stretcher. Healers circled around the Vlahui Prime Wizard, as they exited the stadium posthaste.
"Don't give him false hopes, Jack," said Avilo, who walked beside them. "One can only be so lucky in one tournament."
Smoke lightly laughed. "Who knows? Maybe lady luck will stay by my side throughout the entire event?"
'Good thing, that guy was chatty,' thought Smoke. 'Otherwise, he could have ruined my plan.'
In order to make his other opponents lower their guard on him, Smoke intentionally allowed himself to be injured.
The damage was minimal to say the least. In fact, he could walk fine and was only pretending to limp as well.
"Hmmp! Even with all the luck in the world, you still won't be able to defeat Ouragan," argued Avilo.
"Don't be too sure on that," said Smoke. "We won't know the outcome, until it actually happens."

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After a short ten minute break, the Announcer's voice boomed anew. "Despite Faux's lucky break, I'm sure that Chrysopelea and Prime Wizard Ouragan will give us a more entertaining fight!"
Ouragan, an old High Elf in blue robes, stood on the left side of the circular ring. Whereas, Chrys, a young DarkElf Sonstwelter with goggles, was in a fighting pose on the opposite end.
The audience in the front-row seats were suddenly blown back their chairs, as a strong surge of wind came from the ring.
Both Ouragan and Chrys disappeared from sight, as the two of them were already in the air soaring above the cloudless sky.
"I'm sorry that our jumbovision could not keep up with this long distance battle," apologized the Announcer. "But I'm sure the victor of this bout will be clear soon enough!"
Smoke, who sat together Jack, Avilo, and Mouche, was looking up. He used his Telefax Vision to get a better view of their aerial battle.
In the sky, Ouragan was sending surges of wind-cutters at Chrys, which the young Sonstwelter easily blocked by putting up his own air-shield.
'Looks like the scroll Perdant bought was on the mark,' surmised a pleased Smoke. 'He really does open with his wind-cutter attacks.'
Chrys then zoomed out from where he was hovering and tried to flank Ouragan's left side. He copied the Prime Wizard's wind-cutter attacks, which Ouragan easily evaded with his swift flying.
'Chrys is doing a pretty good job against Ouragan,' thought Smoke, somewhat surprised.
"It appears that Ouragan has the upper hand, and is running circles around the young challenger," suddenly said the Announcer. "Yes, Folks, Chrysopelea is defenseless against the mighty Prime Wizard's wind-cutter attacks!"
Smoke quickly turned to face the Announcer, who was staring up at the sky. He realized that the Announcer could not see them, and was only making things up.
'I guess Ouragan opening with wind-cutters was common knowledge,' he thought, slightly worrying about his two-million zecs investment.
"See! What did I tell you, Faux?" suddenly said Avilo, slapping him hard on his supposedly injured shoulder.
"Tsk, the Announcer is just lying," replied Smoke.
"Oh, don't be like that," coaxed Avilo. "Just because you're scared of fighting Ouragan, doesn't mean the Announcer is wrong."
Smoke ignored Avilo and focused his attention on the aerial battle. Chrys was zooming around Ouragan, which created a barely visible trail.
Then, the wind-trail left behind turned green. As Smoke was wondering what kind of attack Chrys was about to do, a foul stench descended upon the entire stadium. Unfortunately, the paradox mask gave no protection against such a repugnant smell.
Seconds later, Jack, Avilo, and Mouche were inflicted with the Poisoned status.
"What's going on here?" asked Avilo, clutching his chest with his right hand.
"I think it's caused by one of the contestants attack," said Jack.
Having a high resistance to Poison, Smoke was not inflicted with the affliction.
Then, the Announcer's voice echoed throughout the arena. "Ladies and Gentlemen, please do not panic. There is no cause for alarm. Magietrois Florissant will cure us from this ailment."
Not a second later, an orange phoenix flew across the coliseum. It left a trail of an orange flame and covered the entire area in a dome-like barrier. Then, golden dust sprinkled down to the entire audience.
At once, everyone was cured of their Poisoned status and were completely healed, even the noxious odor disappeared.
Quickly searching for Magietrois Florissant, Smoke looked around the entire complex but could not locate the phoenix's caster.
'Don't worry, I'll see you soon enough,' he thought to himself, positive of the tournament's outcome.
Looking back up, Smoke could no longer see Ouragan. The only thing visible in the sky was a flying Chrys and circular green clouds.
Zooming in on Chrys, Smoke saw him grinning widely.
'The Poison must be even more concentrated up there,' theorized Smoke. 'Too bad that won't do anything to Ouragan.'
Then, the green clouds were suddenly swirling faster and faster. Smoke originally thought that it was another part of Chrys' attack, but seeing the worried expression on the fellow DarkElf's face told him otherwise.
"That appears to be a poison-cloud attack coming from Chrysopelea," informed the Announcer, as the screen displayed a slightly closer view of their aerial battle. "I certainly hope Prime Wizard Ouragan is not affected by the Poison."
Three seconds later, the green clouds completely dispersed from the area, and an unscathed Ouragan appeared in its place.
"What did I tell you, Folks! As Expected of Ouragan!" exclaimed the Announcer, his voice resonated from the jumbovision.
'Looks like Chrys didn't know that Ouragan has high Poison Resistance,' mused Smoke, pleased that his Ouragan info was indeed correct.
"Hey, Faux, you don't expect me to believe that you can actually see them from here?" said Avilo, and tapped on Smoke's arm. "Why aren't you looking at the jumbovision screen like the rest of us?"
"Wind-wyvern," blurted out Smoke. "Ouragan is about to use his wind-wyvern attack."
"Oh, so you've brushed on Ouragan's moves, I see," said a pleased Avilo. "That's good, but I don't think he would use it against another Wind specialist."
Smoke then turned to Avilo. "Didn't he use it against an Aero Magi named Schwätzer, about four years ago?"
"Oh, yeah, he did do that," said Avilo, nodding with his knitted eyebrows. "But why would he use a finishing move this early?"
"Maybe Ouragan got pissed at Chrys' poison attack," suggested Smoke. "Especially since the whole audience was inflicted by it."
A few seconds later, a clear shape of a wyvern made of air blasted Chrys off the sky. The Sonstwelter was plummeting fast, but he soon recovered and flew back up to where Ouragan was waiting for him.
"That's what you get for not doing anything against Prime Wizard Ouragan's wind-wyvern attack!" cheered Avilo.
"Chrys' barrier just couldn't stand Ouragan's attack," explained Smoke.
Jack then tugged on Smoke's arm. "Faux, you can really see them from here, can't you?"
Facing Jack, only his smiling eyes were seen as he nodded at the young noble.
KATHUD
Everybody quickly turned to the center of the ring, the source of the loud sound. The circular ring was broken into several fragments, with a big hole at its center.
Then, Ouragan slowly descended towards it. When he landed, he shouted to the announcer. "He's technically inside the ring, but I don't think he will be getting up anytime soon."
"I beg your pardon, but who is inside the ring?" asked the Announcer.
"Chrysopelea! I blasted him down just a few seconds ago, didn't you see that?" asked Ouragan loudly.
"Oh, of course! As expected of Prime Wizard Ouragan!" exclaimed the Announcer. "Like I said, Folks, the winner of this match will be decided quickly. Prime Wizard Ouragan proceeds to the finals!"
"And may I say, that all of us watching are pleased with the results!" added the Announcer.
Smoke stared at Ouragan, bewildered at what move he used to finish off Chrys. While he was doing so, the old HighElf caught his gaze and grinned at him.
Ouragan then floated out of the stadium.
As Smoke was staring at the back of the old Prime Wizard, the Announcer's voice rang again. "Due to the unfortunate circumstance of our ring being destroyed, we will have to delay the next match for another two hours."
A unified groan was heard all over Pulper Arena.
"If you want to leave, please feel free to do so. The tickets you hold will still be useable then," added the Announcer.
The announcement ended as soon as Ouragan disappeared from Smoke's sight. Just then, he felt a cold wind breeze through him, and he felt the familiar ominous feeling of being watched from pincer island once more.