Free Zectas Volume IV: The Salubrious City of Centzo by John Nest, You The Reader

Tikbalangs in a frontal assault on the mansion. Those who can wield these shields would follow me to the side and rush the gate."

"So, I'm the bait while you take all the glory?" Sierra smirked as she finished Smoke's plan for him.

He smiled and winked at her. "Well, this plan would only work because you'd be there to grab the enemy's’ attention," he said and pretended to be a Werebear, waving his arms and roaring.

"Fine!" replied a smiling Sierra and shook her head in surrender.

Smoke and Ledur immediately started working on the earth shields, while the rest of the army set up camp and prepared their defenses and meals.

Since they only needed the earth shields as camouflage, they didn't need them to be strong. Due to this, it only took Smoke two minutes to make one, while Ledur, with higher level of Earth Manipulation than him, created one in less than a minute.

In a little over an hour, the two of them created forty-seven pairs of earth shields. The members of the stealth team were Smoke, Adder, Condortlian Warriors and Centaur Rangers, as they were the only ones capable of equipping the crafted disguise.

After they were done with the shields, Smoke and Ledur joined others for meal. Adder, Laernea and Gandiva had prepared the collected meat from the monsters that blocked their path to Foudre and offered their lives to them.

The Vigilantez were happily eating a hearty ancient bison stew and grilled war echidna.

Smoke took a big chunk of meat and happily asked, "Whose idea was it to hunt the ancient bison, again?"

With his mouth full, Tragar raised his hand and briefly smiled at Smoke. Afterwards, he resumed eating his share of the juicy morsel.

At the sight of Tragar devouring his meal, Smoke remembered a Simiavulg book he read about the Centaurs. It described them as barbaric nomads with no sense of dignity whatsoever. Since the book was written by a Simiavulg, he assumed that it was biased. Despite them being transformed into monsters, Ledur and the Tikbalangs were clearly dignified in how they carried themselves.

However, Tragar and the other thirty Pferde Centaurs were a different story. They were normal Centaurs, but they sometimes acted even rougher than the book's description of them. Nonetheless, Smoke smiled at them sincerely.

Out of one hundred abled-bodied Centaurs in Verbrannt, only these thirty signed up to fight. He knew that the Centaurs in front of him might look rough, but they are pure-hearted and brave enough to risk their lives on the front lines.

Once they were all well fed and rested, the selected Vigilantez began making preparations for battle. Smoke ordered his dark ember sprite to enchant the Lioumerans’, Condortlians’ and Centaurs’ weapons. This gave them bonus fire damage for the next ten hours.

The Vigilantez left their unnecessary baggage behind and readied themselves to face whatever awaited them on top of the mountain. Smoke and Sierra took charge of their teams and went their separate ways.
 
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    ROOOOAARRRR

The massive red Werebear roared as she led the charge. Two Lioumereans on stag moose accompanied by Werewolves and Tikbalangs speedily followed after her, while a single winged Tikbalang flew above them.

After five minutes of uneventful running and making as much noise as possible, Sierra decided to slow down. She stopped and turned to the other Vigilantez. "Looks like there’s no enemies this far out."

At a vigilant pace, they carefully hiked their way up Mount Foudre. As they climbed, they could feel the wind getting colder and the lightning bolts striking the mountain getting closer.

After an hour and thirty minutes, Sierra and her group finally saw the main gate of the black mansion.

ROOOOAARRRR

She roared once more. A few seconds passed and nothing happened. Thinking that the guards were probably inside, she led her group towards the gate.

Suddenly, her Animal Instinct picked up a hundred hostile creatures around them,