Chapter Thirty-Nine

“Ggrrack!” Hyacinth sat upon the brood mother's corpse and croaked triumphantly. A corpse Harmony needed access to. He knew the plan but spent plenty of time celebrating his win.

“Oh, you, get down from there.”

This wooze guardian was the smallest yet. Hyacinth had asked to fight it alone after she'd shaved off most of the thick, long, white fur it used as its Armor. Deep gouges from his spurs decorated the now cooling body. Small as it was, it was still long enough for her purposes.

“I'm not Prey!” He yelled in one of his rare uses of speech.

Harmony let loose a sigh. He'd taken that first battle with a brood mother a little too personally. This can be him reclaiming his pride.

“Come on, warts-For-breath, I want to see if we can complete the second floor. You know I have plans for that beast's spine.”

He Hopped down and Harmony approached the body ready for some field surgery. [Manipulate Dead] boosted by [Mana Rotation] cut into the corpse.

On the first floor, it had been hard to see how good [Keen Investigative Awareness] would be. It could point out weaknesses if she needed help. There Was a gut feeling or hunch vibe to it as well. But at this point, the furry balls of anger fell as quickly as shamblers would on the first floor of Old Bones.

Precise control of skill usage improved. She was able to be more efficient through small tweaks to how and when he fed mana and activated her skills. But when she directed her mind and skill toward more broad and risky potions it provided that gut feeling she could with practice part the fur, strike hard with a cold touch-infused strike to kill wooze in one hit. Yeah, no way was she getting that close to A wooze’s teeth and claws if she didn't have to.

The twiggy toppled over like a fallen tree with the only visible damage being some split bark from Harmony’s kick. The invisible damage struck the part of the monster's soul that allowed it to move, fracturing it into pieces.

It was amazing how much she'd improved what she’d dubbed her soul strike. Watching Max use his skill stone helped a little. Mostly it was the deeper understanding from experiencing and watching her soul, class, profession, and skills get ripped apart when the queen acknowledged her. Grow from your scars.

The group fights, the three on two, four on two, and five on two turned bloody often necessitating a [Stride Before the Fall]. Here [Keen Investigative Awareness] showed its potential. Bringing her attention to holes in Twiggy’s defenses due to lack of mobility near the joints. How quick jukes around trees, or often Twiggys in the thick of battle would tangle up vinestictors and make them useless. And when there was a Harmony to spare, the value in not holding back during the minute she had. If one Harmony needed to take the hits, it would be that one who wasn't staying, leaving her back, broken, bleeding, and brained, where death softened those memories. Watching your dead body get pulled apart, stomped on, or dragged away was worse than fighting through the pain.

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At least nobody else is here to see that. Ambrosia would freak. Adric would do something stupid and put himself in danger. Max would totally be a crybaby about it. That’s how the skill worked and leveled. It’s not like she enjoyed the torment. Dying certainly wasn't ladylike. A swift kick to one of the soul-damaged twiggys bled some frustration.

[Recall] chimed in with its primary function as a reminder, that this group was the last before the second-floor guardian.

“Kroak?”

“Yes, we should attempt to fight the tree lord. You know I have a plan. Give me a few minutes until [Stride] is back up.”

Tree lords, the second-floor guardian. Let’s mash vinestrictors and twiggys together and make them bigger, rooting them as a giant tree blocking the exit. If you didn’t want to face it you had to backtrack. The only good thing was that it couldn’t uproot and chase you like twiggys. Twelve limbs to beat you if you get too close. Vines climbing it that could shoot out at you striking like a whip or pulling you close for a pummeling. How did you win? By chopping the tree down before it beats your team to a pulp. Or using [Rot].

Time to try something new. New to this dungeon at least. [Keen Investigative Awareness] had been useful in the fights, but what it helped highlight as she fretted over this exact battle, became a part of her plan. Dungeon Tactics 101, shoved into what she’d considered the filler portion of the book she’d been gifted by the guilds talking about different environments. Dungeon floors that have trees provide a natural resource you can use to build barriers, trigger traps, and provide fuel. If you don’t want to dull your blades hacking away, a trapper once used a chain and some friction to cut one down.

Silly idea to grasp at. Never would she be able to lift and pull a metal chain big enough to saw down a tree this big. [High Kick] had ability power behind it, allowing it to do the damage it could do. Oh, there was leaning into aspects of the skills, borrowing, synergizing but it was never the same as people who had real strength to pull from.

Uncoiling the bone chain off Hyacinth's back, the lightweight brood mother spine had been strengthened and modified as much as she could with [Mend] and [Manipulate Dead]. A sharpened spinous process along the edge acted like a saw. It worked on normal trees they'd tested it on but they didn't hit back or wrap you in vines. Outlandish, but this was the kind of roadblock that took different ways to get on the path she wanted.

Harmony held one end while Hyacinth took the other end into his mouth. The toad’s jaws clamped down and broke bones regularly. If anyone was going to be a weak link and lose control in the process it would be her.

Ahead, the tree lord waited, blocking where they needed to go. Its limbs and vines swayed despite the lack of wind inside the tower on this floor.

“Let’s do this!”