Zectas Volume V: The Sequestered Seminary of Sawtorn (5 page)

"Alright, I'll go there alone," Smoke said to Daniel.
"What? Are you not taking these OrkElves with you?" asked Daniel loudly. "Trust me, you can not take on Cynar and his men all by yourself."
"I'm not going to attack Cynar. I'm just going to invest—" began Smoke, but was interrupted by a sudden shaking of the ground.
"Was that an earthquake?" asked a surprised Smoke.
"No, that's an Ork horde passing through," replied Colere, disgust was clearly seen on his face.
Without a word, Smoke left the OrkElves' earth-dwelling and ran towards the edge of the pomegranate trees. He knelt down to hide his presence, and tried to blend in with some of the bushes.
Even without the aid of his Telefax Vision, he saw the horde within seconds. The hair on his arms inexplicably stood up, and a cold sweat ran down his forehead.
 

Smoke forcibly shook his shoulders and arms, trying to drive away the sensation he suddenly felt.
"Don't worry, Faux, you'll get used to it," Colere said suddenly. "It may take a while, but the fear will pass."
Smoke shrugged and returned his focus on the Ork Horde. He used his Telefax Vision and estimated at least ten-thousand Orks perform the most unruly march towards the eastern direction from Vona City. In the lead were at least a thousand dirus wolves, mounted by Orks on bareback.
'I never felt anything like this when I faced against thousands of Brandals,' observed Smoke.
Shortly after, Esper and Daniel knelt down next to him.
"Do you know how much their life bars are?" Smoke asked Colere.
Colere and Esper studied the marching Orks before answering.
"Those Orks belong to the UrukHai Tribe," answered Colere. "I think their weakest should have about 300,000 HP while their commanders around 700,000 HP."
"Wow!" exclaimed Smoke. "I can't imagine how to face that horde."
"Well, they are mostly melee fighters," replied Esper. "Although, the UrukHai Tribe is technically the strongest of the Orks, they are not particularly very smart. They keep rushing the main cities and are killed by the Breathtaking Ballistae guarding the walls."
Smoke scrutinized the frightful legion. From this distance, he estimated the Orks to be as tall as his Maneators, at least three-meters in height. Yet, their bulky green muscles appeared to be larger than Stark's. They carried an assortment of weapons. From mauls, mallets, axes, and any other double-handed great weapons.
"Where do you suppose they're headed?" Smoke asked his two OrkElf friends.
"Probably Lahm Village or Boiteux Village. Those two are the closest ones to that direction," guessed Esper. "They're going to steal their zecs and livestock, but they won't end with that. Next, they'll kill their men, and rape their women."
"And no one's going to stop them?" asked Smoke out loud.
"Well, recently, there have been several Sonstwelter groups defending the villages. Most of them have Jobs belonging to Wizard variations, relying on their long range attacks to kill the charging Orks before even reaching the city," explained Colere. "Usually, they manage to drive them away, but on occasions that they do fail, they slaughter all of the Sonstwelters and the village will be victimized like all the others."
Smoke helplessly watched the Ork Horde leave to wreak havoc on their unknown destination. He hoped that a powerful Sonstwelter group was there to greet them, wherever they were headed.
After the Ork horde left, Daniel suddenly spoke out. "Maybe, they were headed for Newt Village?"
"Never heard of Newt Village before, where's that?" asked Colere.
"It is a new village," answered Daniel. "Cynar created it from an OrkElf Settlement much like this one."
The young noble sighed loudly. "But there, he has set it up as a gambling hub. Cap Sa, Brag, Cribbage, Tong-its, Skat, Faro. Name the game and Cynar has it running in that place."
"Hm. Let me guess, the UrukHai have caught a good whiff of all these lucrative activities?" asked Colere. "And they want to cash in on it."
"Yes, how did you know that?" asked Daniel with a raised eyebrow. "Cynar even trained more than a thousand OrkElves."
Daniel paused, looked at Esper and Colere before cautiously proceeding.
"Of course, the weaker OrkElves could do nothing against the Orks, but it was because of Cynar's underhanded tricks that caught the Orks in a trap."
Colere looked annoyed. "Alright, I give up. How did Cynar supposedly defend against an Ork Horde?"
"Why, by the help of Sonstwelters, of course," replied Daniel with a superior look. "In fact, he even had Jack and myself send out a recruitment letter to Sonstwelters."
Daniel reached for a piece of paper inside his aristocratic robe, and raised it up for everyone to see.
"But I never recruited anyone. I don't want to make Cynar even more powerful than he already is," elucidated Daniel further. "Not only that, he also had the help of a powerful Terra Magi, then. But now, I doubt his village of sin could withstand an Ork Horde like this one."
"Why do you say that?" Smoke asked Daniel.
"Well, because Ayert died," answered the boy promptly. "And the recent number of Sonstwelter recruits has been dwindling."
"And who in the world is Ayert?" asked Esper, crossing her arms and asking with her raised voice.
"The powerful Terra Magi, who catches the Orks inside his earth-traps," replied Daniel, keeping his conceited expression. "Haven't you been listening to what I said at all?"
Esper was about to shout something back, but Smoke quickly stopped her.
"Alright, alright. That's enough!" strongly interjected Smoke. "Colere, Esper, can you please bring Daniel back with you to the settlement. By the way, Daniel, can you give me that piece of paper that Cynar uses to recruit Sonstwelters?"
 

* * * * * * 

Nash stepped out of his game pod and did his ritual reach for the heavens, as soon as he stood on both his feet.
'You think I'd get used to this by now,' he thought to himself as he watched his room. His mind began wondering why being in Zectas and the real world felt no difference to him at all.
It was two in the morning, and he thought that everyone in the house was already asleep. However, as he was about to begin his Eskrima stretching exercises, he heard a loud cry coming from his Mima's room.
"Aaaaahh!" cried out Daphne, his grandmother.
Nash quickly ran for her door.
"Mima, Mima, are you alright?" he called out from behind her door. "I'm coming in, okay?"
After bursting through, Nash found his Mima sprawled on the floor. He hurriedly ran to her and tried to help her up, but she forcefully pushed him away.
"Stop, it hurts!" she yelled out. "Don't touch me!"
"But, Mima, what can I do to help?" asked a worried Nash.
"Just get me a glass of water," she said weakly. "Walk and don't run. I don't want you spilling water on the carpet."
It was clear how difficult it was for her to breathe. Nash understood that the glass of water would not help at all, but that his Mima only wanted him to step out of her room.
He obediently walked downstairs to the kitchen and got her a cold glass of water. He took his time walking back up to her room, desperately hoping that she was feeling better.
"Nash, come on in," said her Mima, who was back on her bed. She had even pulled her blankets neatly over herself.
"I'm sorry for worrying you like that," she began. "It wasn't anything serious, I promise. I just forgot to take my painkillers, that's all."
Nash firmly shook his head. He placed the glass of water on her night stand and grabbed her hand, as he sat on the bed next to her.
"Mima, you can be honest with me," he said, looking into her eyes. "I know it's been getting worst, but I don't know how to help you."
"Oh, Nash, you've already helped me enough," replied Daphne. "You've been a great older brother to Seth and Donny. You've been more of a parent, really."
Suddenly, she stroke Nash's hair and pulled him in for a hug.
"I promise, everything's fine with me. I just forgot my meds that's all," she repeated.
"You want me to take some time off from Zectas?" asked Nash. "I'm not on any immediate Quests at the moment. You and I can—"
Daphne covered Nash's lips with her wrinkled hands.
"I just need to rest," she said. "Give me a couple more months and I'll be back in top shape."
Nash strongly shook his head once more.
"Nash, now you listen to your Mima," she said with such authority. "Just live your life like you usually do. That's the best way you can help me recover."
"I don't like this, Mima, but if you insist," stubbornly replied Nash.
"Good boy," she said with a proud smile. "I knew I raised you right. Now, why don't you go back to your room and go back to your game, or were you about to get some sleep?"
"I was about to get a power nap," answered Nash with a yawn. "Alright, Mima, I'm going back to bed, but please tell me if anything's wrong."
"Don't worry, Nash, I promise I'll tell you if anything alarming is about to happen," replied Daphne. "Good night and have a good sleep."
"You too, Mima," said a smiling Nash, as he was about to close the door, he saw his grandmother winced, but it was just for a moment.
 

* * * * * * 

At two in the morning, the dark skies of Zectas was even darker than the real world. At least, from where Smoke was.
He let Igniz out of his hidden compartment, and his symbiote flew right next to him. The cold breeze made his eyes squint.
"A great time to fly, right?" Smoke asked Igniz with half closed eyes.
His ember sprite nodded energetically, excited from being freed out of his metallic orb.
Smoke was being sarcastic, but it looked like Igniz did not catch on. He had to skip his regular scheduled power sleep in order to travel at this hour.
One of them was enjoying the flight in the dark, while the other shivered and pushed on.
Suddenly, Smoke's Cunning of the Dire Fox felt two Zectians approaching them from behind, fast.
Without looking back, Smoke instinctively grabbed Igniz, and dove for the cover of the pomegranate trees. The moment he landed on the ground, he quickly dug a cave and hid inside it. He felt his clothes become wet, as his body made contact with the dampened ground.
Yet, he diverted his attention to solely focus on the individuals above him. He hoped that from the Zectians' perspective, it was just a flickering orb that instantly vanished. He created a small peephole to look above, but could see nothing but the dark silhouettes of the pomegranate trees.
"Igniz, do you think they saw us?" asked Smoke, as he let out his symbiote from his orb.
The dark ember sprite shook his small head, and Smoke hoped he was right.
Suddenly, his Cunning of the Dire Fox sensed the same Zectians stop directly above him. Yet, they were still in mid-air.
'Unlike me, these Zectians could freely control their flight,' thought Smoke to himself.
They stayed there for five more minutes before heading towards the eastern direction, the same course Smoke was going. He waited another ten minutes before stepping out of his pseudo lair.
"I think we better continue on foot," Smoke said to Igniz, after he filled in the cave he had built.
Smoke ran as fast as he could, continuously using his Hyper Jump Ability to increase its experience. Not only that, he had gotten to the point where he could also catapult himself forward with a sudden boost of an earth-pillar from the ground.
Having been restricted with what abilities to use, gave him a chance to focus on training others which he only usually uses during combat.
He spent the next two hours on foot, and sunrise had already greeted the skies of Zectas. Due to this, visibility had slightly improved. He checked his map and saw that he still needed to travel two more kilometers before he could reach Diebe Den.
However, he spotted a curious pomegranate forest up ahead. He quickly flattened himself on the ground when his Cunning of the Dire Fox sensed Sonstwelters.
With the aid of his Telefax vision, he found several of them guarding the outskirts of the forest. Most of them were of Mage Job variations, but there were also a few who belonged to the Warrior and Thief Jobs.
Then, he noticed two of them square off against each other, while the others surrounded them. It was a male Wizard and a female Assassin. The two of them handed over a bag of what appeared to be zecs to another Wizard Sonstwelter.
"I think this is that Newt Village Daniel was talking about," Smoke said to his symbiote.
"What do you think they're doing, Bud?" he asked Igniz.
Smoke wanted to see what was going on inside the crowd of bystanders, but there was no way for him to see unless he was going to glide.
He decided to remain flattened on the ground and observe from a safe distance.
Sparks of lightning suddenly erupted from within the crowd, and then he saw them jumping up and cheering.
'Looks like it was a fight and somebody already won,' surmised Smoke.
Judging from the sparks of lightning that he saw earlier, Smoke came to a conclusion. "I think the Wizard won," he said to Igniz.
However, after the crowds parted, he saw the female Assassin standing victorious instead.
"Guess I was wrong," he said and his symbiote gave him a knowing look. "Yeah, yeah. You don't have to be smug about it."
Smoke turned around and laid flat on his back.
"Any suggestions how we get across them?" Smoke as Igniz.
The dark ember sprite began orbiting around him.
Staring at his symbiote dubiously, Smoke let out a deep sigh. "You want me to turn back and circle past them, huh?" 
He looked back at the gathered Sonstwelters and turned to Igniz. "I guess that would be best."
Unwillingly, Smoke crawled back to where he came from. He kept shaking his head unhappily, annoyed at the delay caused by stumbling upon Newt Village.
After moving some distance away, he traveled north in order to go around the gambling village. It was already seven in the morning when he saw the mouth of a cave, the sole entrance to Diebe Den.
Smoke used his Telefax Vision to get a better view of the entrance. He spotted several OrkElves moving in and out of the cave, but no children. Not until fifteen minutes later, when he spotted a familiar face.
It was Jack Dawkins, the young boy who stole his bag of gems. Jack stepped out of the cave. He was looking down on the ground, Smoke surmised that the boy had not spotted him yet as he was walking straight towards him.
"Igniz, listen. No matter what happens, stay inside," he said to his symbiote, as he walked towards the entrance of Diebe Den and Jack. "Here goes nothing," he whispered under his breath.
Smoke casually strolled over to the young Thief and called out his name. "Hey, Jack! Jack! It's me, Faux."
Jack looked up. He looked startled after having his name called out. However, he quickly turned around and ran away as soon as he recognized Smoke.
Needing to talk to Jack, Smoke quickly created earth shackles under the boy's feet and captured him.
"Intruder! Help! Intruder!" cried out Jack, as loudly as he could.
"Hey, hey, hey," said Smoke in a calm voice.
"I'm not here looking for trouble," began Smoke. "I'm here for a job. I'm here for this," he whipped out the piece of Cynar's recruitment paper which he got from Daniel.
"Where did you get that?" asked Jack with a worried face.
"I got it from you," smugly replied Smoke. "You might have stolen my gems, but I got something from you as well."
Smoke wanted to tease the boy for stealing from him.
"No way!" retorted Jack. "There's no way that you got that from me."
The boy quickly searched through his pocket and whipped out a similar parchment.
"See! Intruder! Help!" cried out Jack once again.
Smoke quickly realized that it was not a good time to get at back at Jack. He hurriedly ran to him and whispered. "Calm down. Daniel sent me. He's the one who gave me this paper."
Jack stopped shouting, but twenty OrkElves had already charged out from the cave. They were equipped with light-armor and long-spears.
"Quickly, remove the shackles," said Jack in a hushed tone.
Smoke followed the boy's instruction and played along.
"What was that?" yelled out Jack to the OrkElves who just arrived. "I was just testing how fast your response time was, and it was slow! You can be sure that I'm going to inform Cynar about this."
"Stop pulling our legs, Jack!" yelled one of the OrkElf guards. "We'll be the ones to tell Cynar about your pranks!"
The group of OrkElves then returned inside the cave.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Smoke pulled Jack closer. "Why did you believe me?"
"Well, Daniel doesn't recruit any Sonstwelters to join Cynar. But I have to do it otherwise both of us would be whipped." replied Jack flatly.
"So, what's the plan?" asked Jack. "Do you have an army waiting for your signal?"
Smoke saw Jack look behind him, all excited. He shook his head.
"No," Smoke quickly answered. "Step one is you return my bag of gems."
Jack gave a blank expression. "I can not do that. I already gave it to Cynar. I give everything to Cynar when I return to the Den."
"Really?" asked Smoke dubiously.
"Honest," replied Jack, making an imaginary cross over his heart.
Smoke let out a deep sigh. "Fine, then just introduce me to Cynar. Tell him I'm your latest recruit."
"What? Aren't you hear to rescue us?" asked Jack, taken aback.
"I am, but I need to know more before I can execute the rescue," replied Smoke sincerely.
"Damn it, Daniel!" cursed Jack. "Why did you have to pick such a weak Sonstwelter."
"Hey, who says I'm weak?" asked an insulted Smoke.
Jack shrugged his shoulders. "What was your name again? Faux was it?"
Smoke's eyebrows met, but he nodded to Jack's question.
'Maybe I should just leave this Quest alone and get back to my search for the Magietrois,' Smoke thought sourly.
"This way, Faux, but I warn you. Cynar can be really tricky," said Jack, leading the way into the cave. "He even has his own casting circle of truth."
"Don't worry about me," said Smoke. "Just make sure that you don't give out any indication that Daniel was the one who sent me."
"I don't think that's a problem," replied Jack. "Cynar already thinks that Daniel is dead. One of our scouts in the city spotted him being chased by a bunch of Sonstwelters and didn't find any sign of him."
Jack then turned around to face him. "By the way, how did you do that?"
Smoke shrugged and gave him a winsome smile.
The young aristocrat shook his head and groaned.
'Good thing I made sure to disguise Daniel well. Otherwise, Cynar's spies could have spotted us leaving the city,' thought a pleased Smoke, as he followed Jack into Diebe Den.
Suddenly, a notification window popped up when he entered the cave.