Zectas Book II: Heraldic City of Coatl (5 page)

 

 

Smoke cordially gave a bow and tried to shake her hand. The old lady just stared at the hand and looked at him from head to foot. Smoke retracted his hand and gave his greetings instead.

 

 

"Good afternoon, Madam Dawny, my name is Smoke but other people in the city might know me as Ilad. Let me just say that I like your name. It's very similar to a special person back home."

 

 

"Thank you, I like my name as well. Gandiva and Laernea already told me about your situation. Please feel free to stay in my farm for as long as you need. Just stay away from Ental."

 

 

"That's very kind of you Madam Dawny. Who is Ental?"

 

 

"She's an old hell boar that doesn't know she's pass her prime."

 

 

Just then Smoke felt the presence of a huge monster heading straight for him. He quickly created an earth ramp that made the hell boar, Ental jump over his head.

 

 

Ental landed smoothly and stood besides Dawny. She pointed her sharp fangs and two tusks at Smoke. The hell boar when on all fours, had a height of about five feet. She had a lean and muscular body with brown skin and spiky hair. Ental didn't look like an average pig for eating.

 

 

"Whoa! Calm down girl. I'm a friend. Ahh, Madam, can you please talk to Ental?"

 

 

Igniz came out of his hiding place and readied some fireballs in the air. Smoke signaled him to calm down. Ental responded to Igniz. The hell boar was wagging her tail and jumping around at the sight of Igniz.

 

 

"It appears that Ental likes your dark ember sprite. I didn't know you had a symbiote."

 

 

"Yes, I have to keep him hidden because he's already quite famous and other people might easily recognize me as Smoke."

 

 

 

 

Now, that everyone had officially met each other. He wanted to know how Sierra and the others were doing, he called her to check up on them.

 

 

"Hey, how are you guys doing on your end? Have you found the village? I hope you didn't encounter any of the patrolling Knights."

 

 

"No we're fine. We've narrowed it down to five potential villages. I'm having Adder, Jinggu, Sharanga, and Thyrsus investigate the two northern villages. While the rest of us scope out the remaining three. How about you? Have you been invited to the labyrinth?"

 

 

"Not yet, but I've entered a tournament that should get me the invite. Provided I win, of course."

 

 

"What kind of tournament is it?"

 

 

"It's called Swordsman to Knight. I have some pretty tough competition but it's not anything I can't handle."

 

 

"You better win it. I want to get this quest over with so we can proceed with mine."

 

 

"Like I told you before. This quest shouldn't take more than a week, tops. Well, maybe a month, worst case scenario..."

 

 

"Smoke! You better be joking, Don't forget that I have most of your private army here with me."

 

 

"I'm joking, I'm joking. Jeez, anyway you better take care and make sure to keep everyone safe and intact. I don't want to have one of my men having a missing limb."

 

 

"You don't have to worry about that, I'm better than you remember? How could you have let Adder lose his arm in the first place. Tsk tsk tsk."

 

 

"Yeah, yeah, just be safe okay?"

 

 

"You too..."

 

 

 

 

 

Smoke contemplated on how he would fight in the District tournament. Considering the fact, that the qualifiers had defeated a Guard Knight would only mean that they were like Blastar and Cudny.

 

 

They must be players who were at level 90 or more. He wondered why there were such individuals who would stay as basic job holders when they can easily get their advance jobs.

 

 

Looking at his gladius, he thought that it would have been better if he bought a sword at the weapon shop. If only the prices weren't that high.

 

 

Then, Smoke recalled the prizes for the Swordsman to Knight tournament. They were all high class Knight equipments.

 

 

The tournament happens only twice a year. If they lost before, this would give them plenty of time to train and raise their levels and abilities.

 

 

Smoke thought that it was highly likely that Blastar and Cudny failed before and decided to try again this time. Six months is more than enough time for dedicated players to improve themselves.

 

 

They had six months to prepare for tomorrow's tournament, Smoke had less than twenty four hours. He tried imitating all the Swordsman skill's that he knew and thought if he could use them.

 

 

If he could fight at his full potential then he would fight all of the competitors now. But with the handicap that he should fight as a Swordsman was too much of a restriction.

 

 

He didn't even have a single Swordsman's ability. His only trump card was the 'Armadillo Bash' from his shield. Even that had a long cool down of ten minutes.

 

 

Dawny was watching Smoke from her front porch, he was clearly struggling. The old lady decided to give him some advice.

 

 

"Did you know, that most Swordsman abilities are enhanced by elemental magic?"

 

 

"Huh? What do you mean?"

 

 

"At the moment of impact on a Sword Smite's attack, a fire blast explodes which is directed towards the target. Knocking them back and increasing the damage by at least three times."

 

 

"Wow! I didn't know that at all. That isn't found in the ability's description."

 

 

"Of course not. Most users only use their abilities without fully understanding how it works."

 

 

"In that case, does that also mean that the Quadruple Lunge attack uses Wind or Lightning enhancements?"

 

 

"Right! That was very intuitive of you. Lightning impulses increase their attack speed and movement speed for a few seconds."

 

 

"Thank you very much! That was some really great advice. I think I'll try out a few modified 'Swordsman' moves now."

 

 

Smoke created a colossal square wall in one of the farm's open lands. He went inside and started honing his sword play for tomorrow's district tournament.

 

 

 

 

The southern coliseum of Coatl held their district's Swordsman to Knight preliminaries. The winner of this competition would become the district's champion and would gain the right to fight at the round robin championships.

 

 

The coliseum was about as big as the one found in Rome. It had an area of six acres and could hold a total capacity of 80,000 spectators.

 

 

The center arena was an ellipse with a maximum length of 287 feet and a maximum width of 180 feet. The walls had a height of 15 feet.

 

 

Tickets sold at 10,000 zecs at the lower boxes and the furthest seats were priced at 1,000 zecs. Even at those prices, all the preliminary tickets were sold out.

 

 

There were only eight participants in the southern district preliminary round. In order to win in the preliminary you could either knock the enemy off the stage or kill them...

 

 

The winning player would not get the status of a Chaotic Evil player as it has been set inside a tournament. However, the dead player would incur the same normal penalties of dying. If the participant was an NPC then they would be killed.

 

 

 

 

 

A loud announcer's voice was heard throughout the entire coliseum. It signaled the commencement of the game.

 

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, its time to start off our preliminary round for the Swordsman to Knight Tournament. For our first match its: Cudny vs. Pantalla!"

 

 

Cudny and Pantalla stepped onto the circular stage. Before the match started, Cudny gave Pantalla a flying kiss. The disoriented Dwarf didn't know how to react.

 

 

When the horn for the start of their match blew. Pantalla was still looking back at the audience. His girlfriend who was watching the match was glaring angrily at him.

 

 

With his back exposed, the Dwarf was easily pushed off the stage by Cudny's shield.

 

 

"The winner of the first match, it's the crowd's favorite, Cudny! Now it's time for our second match: Tarcza vs Pedang!"

 

 

This time it was Tarcza and Pedang's turn. Their battle lasted for thirty minutes and no one was giving in. Both their HPs stayed at 50%.

 

 

It looked like the fight would continue for another thirty more minutes when Tarcza used an all out attack which Pedang took on with his shield.

 

 

Even after blocking the attack, Pedang's lifebar was only left with around 20%. On the other hand, Tarcza stood motionless and was drained from his failed coup de grâce. Pedang grabbed the opportunity and pushed Tarcza off the stage with his shield.

 

 

"And the winner of our second match is Pedang! Now let's move on to our third match: Blastar vs Ecran!"

 

 

Blastar and Ecran took to the oval ring. Ecran readied himself and as soon as the horn went off, he made a dash towards Blastar.

 

 

The middle aged Swordsman met him head on and used the same technique 'Sword Smite', Ecran's slash was blown away and he was thrown off the ring. Blastar's fight lasted less than twenty seconds and he stared at Smoke, as he stepped over the defeated Gnome's body.

 

 

"Wow! That was quick and the winner of our third match is Blastar! Now! For our finally match on the first round of elimination. It's Ilad vs. Szabla!"

 

 

Smoke took the stage and he was followed by the huge Ork, Szabla. His opponent was carrying a Zweihänder. Szabla took the initiative and immediately used his 'Great Divide' ability.

 

 

Szabla missed his target but the floor of the ring had been greatly damaged. Smoke backed off a couple of more steps and continued dodging all of Szabla's attacks.

 

 

The stage now looked like it was about to break apart because of all the missed 'Great Divide' attempts. There were no more solid footing available on the stage. Smoke was now at the edge of the ring. The Ork readied himself for one more slash.

 

 

Just as Szabla was finishing his downward slashing motion. Smoke moved swiftly to his back and slashed him pushing him off the ring.

 

 

"That took long enough and here I thought that Pedang's match was gonna be longest. Right, the winner of the fourth match is Ilad! We will have a short break as our Earth Mages reconstruct our ring for us."

 

 

Smoke went to his assigned area and ate his prepared meal. He was sharpening his blade when he felt an ominous feeling that someone was watching him from the crowd.

 

 

He tried looking around but couldn't find the source. He shrugged it off. After all, he was in a competition where at least 80,000 people were watching him.

 

 

The announcer's voice resonated everywhere in the coliseum. They would resume the second round of the competition.

 

 

"Thank you for waiting patiently! I hope that won't happen again. That's right I'm looking at you, Ilad."

 

 

Smoke just gave a wave to the crowd as his disguised face was shown on the main screen. The hooded cape, bunny ears and specialized mask gave him the perfect disguise.

 

 

The main screen displayed the participants of the second round.

 

 

 

"Let's start our second round! First up, we have our beautiful Cudny vs HighElf Pedang!"

 

 

Cudny started her signature move and gave Pedang a flying kiss. Pedang's eyes just stared at her with fury. He wouldn't fall for her stupid tricks.

 

 

Cudny then made a sad face. The crowd started to jeer at Pedang, started calling him names and mocking him for even trying. The horn blew and this time. The HighElf ran towards the blond Swordswoman's left side.

 

 

He had planned to follow her usual attack pattern. Cudny jumped high into the air and performed her 'Quadruple Dive' attack.

 

 

Pedang managed to block all of her attacks and slashed her for 3212 damage points. The crowd gasped as their favorite participant was hurt.

 

 

The crowd started yelling at the HighElf. Cudny recovered and was pushed back near the edge of the ring. Pedang was about to use his own 'Sword Smite' ability when he saw Cudny jumped in the air again.

 

 

The counterattack was picture perfect. The HighElf's back was exposed and received all four attacks from Cudny's 'Quadruple Dive' attack. Pedang was thrown off the ring.

 

 

"And the winner of that beautiful match is our beautiful Cudny! Now, let's move on to our troublesome players. Our next contenders, Blastar vs. Ilad!"

 

 

The Lioumerean manlion stepped onto the ring first. Smoke followed and did not cower at the killing aura Blastar was emitting.