Chapter Sixty-Three

Not all the mossifants burst nicely. There were too many self-checking skills for Harmony to ignore the irritation at certain princesses' oversized reactions that were causing imperfections in attack techniques. That left mud everywhere and in everything. The worst was when they ripped at the point of impact leaving the pair half-stuck in the mud that was once the mossifant's innards. Some paid for such treatments, as the mud rejuvenated skin and was used in beauty treatments. A major dungeon export Harmony had smeared it on a noble's face more than once. Still, an inconvenient mess to extract from quickly to avoid any potential ambushes. Deeper into the floor, mossifants gathered in packs of three or four.

Rose was even gone from the next morning's training for personal reasons. Why couldn’t she accept Harmony reaching out to her? Adric informed her, “She just acts that way sometimes.” Not that they were the closest of siblings.

The mossifant startled by the death of its packmate started to move. Quickly Hyacinth and her dove back into the shadows to fall again. No time to rest from the jarring impact. The creatures had no eyes, so they couldn’t look up. That isn’t to say they didn’t have some way to sense adventurers, but for this particular attack, there was no avoiding it.

Boom! The whole back fractured and rather than the mud shooting out to the side a giant spray shot straight up. “Muck and bones.” Those were all the words Harmony could get out before the mud arched back down coating both her and Hyacinth in a thick layer. At least it had been the last mossifant of the group.

Hyacinth managed to shake himself like a dog would, splattering his coat of gunk everywhere, getting the thickest parts off.

The caked-on sticky mud was resistant to [Dust]. [Stride Before the Fall] could create a clean copy, but that felt absolutely stupid while there was still a chance of danger on the fifth floor. That left scraping it off with her hands. At least Night had no crevices for it to get into but there was still plenty of bare skin.

Hyacinth was even too exhausted to laugh at the scene. Every jump was him pushing through the dungeon environment to go from floor to ceiling. Harmony pushed [Renew Spirit] into her partner. It helped but when you used it on someone for the ninth time in a day it was less effective.

A frozen little squirt waited, the water elemental was the key to unlocking the guardian as the lone enemy left. But once you did that the big squirt would come and that was a big problem. Dropping [Shadowed Graves] it was time to recharge. A re-application of [Cold Touch] kept it frozen while the pair gathered their energy.

Big squirts, those massive water elementals that could drown whole teams in their bodies. But they started with long-range attacks after rising up in the center of the floor. Spiraling bombs of water that explode on contact. Water blades with skill-enforced cutting power. Geysers it could send up through the ground.

As for trying to kill those on the center of the floor last, late squirts only show up at the edges after the rest have been cleared out. Shatter this one and it is a mad dash to get to the guardian.

“You got this?” Harmony asked.

“Grupt.”

She started walking. Hyacinth stayed behind. This wasn’t a new tactic. You didn’t read through guides because they were useless, even if they didn’t quite fit your situation, you read them for knowledge. Once she was ready Hyacinth would break the little squirt and then the fun began.

The center of the fifth floor, but not the exact center. You didn’t want it coming up right under your ass. As for how most teams beat a giant water elemental, you broke them bit by bit. Hundreds of tiny crystal pieces floated inside, you had to disable them and at this point, most people had a skill that could do that if they could hit them. Silence skills helped. They stilled the turbulent water inside, not that it blocked other skills, but that stilling would allow people to swim out of the body if trapped inside.

With [Cold Touch] there was a volume issue. What worked on a small squirt wouldn’t work on one this big, one casting wouldn’t be enough. This was always going to require an extra pair of hands. [Shadowed Graves] extended out, not wasting energy to pick a function. Through [Familiar Bond] she sent the signal.

The earth cracked and buckled as every bit of moisture and water was pulled toward the middle of the floor. Harmony took two squishy steps back as her positioning was still too close to the center.

[Stride Before the Fall] This would always take two of her.

The Pillar of water that would form the big squirt shot straight up with enough force both of her were blown back another step. Combined [Final Silence] hit first. Boosted by the shadows above and below the guardian continued to form but with still water. When it was moving it would be harder to freeze.

[Mana Rotation] spun up for both of them. Those gems that floated in the body sparkled under the sight granted by that skill, making them easier targets. That wasn’t the goal.

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Boosted by [Shadowed Graves] and [Mana Rotation] the Harmonies reached out and touched the water and let [Cold Touch] flow. This was always going to take more than just one of her.

The big squirt screamed a high-pitched shriek as ice spread out. It wasn’t without skills. There was no avoiding danger while doing this. Touch was needed to get maximum use out of the skill, even boosted it took time for such a large volume of water. Two attacks came down on each of them. A water blade lashed out, [Small Armor] activated, taking most of the blow on her pauldron with a last-second shift but it wasn’t enough as the wide flexible blade left a gash down one Harmonies side [Mend] followed behind to stitch herself up.

The other harmony got a hand-like appendage reaching down from the unfrozen top half. The most dangerous attack when you close in is the one that would pull you in to drown. She found herself plucked up [Cold Touch] still active the limb started to freeze but it wasn’t enough as the bit squirt tossed her into the unfrozen top half as she took her last breath.

Water all around, swimming in Night wasn't easy, luckily that wasn’t what she needed to do. You die enough times, and you figure out how to get the most out of death. In the last unfrozen part of the guardian she was exactly where she needed to be. [Cold Touch] pulled from the finality of accepting death, the stillness of everything. Harmony screamed, her lungs filling with water, and the cold raced out.

From below the sense of duality ended as the top part cracked under the force of the cold. In that ice Harmony saw her corpse suspended in its final moments, a look of rage and acceptance on her face to match the memory. But the floor guardian still fought the freezing as water started to drip from the ice. She watched on, drained.

Boom! Crack. The unbearable weight of Hyacinth's massive form crashed into it from the sky. The frozen giant shook, and ice chunks cracked off crashing to the ground shattering the gems inside. The tipping started. That was an impact that couldn’t be ignored. The frozen guardian fell and broke on the dried hardened moss.

The stairs to leave or rise formed while Harmony downed a healing potion and hobbled over to Hyacinth who could use his own. He probably wouldn’t even protest the taste this time. Soon it would be time to head back to Naewauld they had a dinner to get to. The sixth floor would be a different kind of monster, but they had plans if needed.

The bite of flaky fish melted in Harmony's mouth. One thing about the Dragonfly Inn’s chefs was that they did an amazing job of reminding you of the pleasures of being alive.

“Oh, I’ll be helping escort all the contestants to the deadwoods soon.” Prince Adric bragged.

There was no way she was going to leave him alone in Naewauld while she went on that trip. He and Bowe deserved the space to stretch their legs that the trip provided. He’d stayed at the fort there a few times as a punishment for wild youthful shenanigans and visiting there was one of the first things he did after his terminal choice to commune with friendly spirits about being mourned.

“Spirit bonds! I know they're out of fashion now but my grandfather had the most wonderful ghost butler. With all the contestants getting one do you think they'll come back into style? What are you getting Lady White?”

Zil Zapsot was old enough to be a great-grandfather. That would put Ectoplasmic bonds as being more common ages ago. If the whole team ended up with something other than invisible geists it might cause a surge in popularity. The sheets were already giving nicknames, picking favorites, and doing pieces on each of them.

“I will not be taking a spirit bond. I'm going to offer support and for my curiosity.”

“White already has all her bonds. Probably what drew the dungeons' attention. That and her necromancer class. I want to know how the garden climb is going. Dropping a bastard's head off like that. What a way to make a statement.”

Tony ‘one sock’ Dwight. Full-time gambler, and part-time informant for news rags and bookies. The severed snake head was meant to be a statement, but one for the Grave Society. Apparently, her point spread much further, not helped by the society mounting that gift at the entrance to their compound.

“It was big squirt that gave my parties more trouble than the bastard. More than a few members drowned inside it. Never mind those darned mossifants.” Zil mused. The ancient adventure was often lost in thought at the table.

“And how is our Fearless Lady Night faring on the fifth floor?” Asked Lady Lois, the sole reporter to have made it to Ma Bell’s table since Harmony had been here. That was her only question so far. She considered herself an observational expert, trusting her eyes more than her questions according to Max’s notes.

[Poise and Bearing] fought away a sigh. That was her nickname. Mostly [Shadowed Graves] fault as they were reporting the effect it caused as a kind of fearlessness as she spread a false night. Max was The Glimmering Rose of Naewauld, because of his pink coloring, she would have thought they would have named Rosalind that because of her preferred name, but no, she was The Problem Princess. Len was The Mad Professor which he protested fiercely. Tyler liked his moniker.

“I want to know if it’s true that our Rising Lord of Dawn has a thing for her,” Tony asked. And there it was. Lady Coodly probably had a hand in that rumor's construction.

Interest in her climb of Nae's Garden was something Harmony anticipated upon seeing the guest list. With a half-raised hand as a signal, Tess walked over much of the maid's fumbling had been solved, but not through practice, metal braces from her elbow to wrist and working as thigh highs helped guide her movements now. An inventive engineered solution to her problems that Harmony approved of. Tess carried a silver tray and one of her spiders held a small velvet bag from his perch in the middle of the tray.

“As for the fifth floor”

Tess’s mechanical spider emptied out the bag over the tray. Hundreds of tiny blue crystals scattered on the silver platter and in the middle of them a single blue skill stone.

That had been a special prize discovered among the big squirt’s corpse. An uncommon drop for the guardian. Mana stream, not one Harmony could use but everyone desired mana skills so possibly a good tool for bartering for what she wanted. It was time to plan for that last slot, no reason to get caught flat-footed again and have limited options.

Every single person at the table understood what that pile represented. All questions about Harmony’s relationship with Tyler would fade away with that distraction. Let Lois observe this for her article. It was time to operate from a perceived position of power.