Chapter Twenty-Three

One point earned for the red team!

The swampy zone was not without other targets. Muddy skeletons twitched in a pile as Harmony collected this group's copper coin. Buried underneath the controlling aspects in the corpses were old degraded skills. The bodies were probably moved from Hazeldown to wherever here was. The old skills were more like dehydrated fruit than unusable. She broke twenty to get one skill back to usable status finding a few drops of her blood was key to getting it started up again. Old dead not being completely unusable was refreshing. It took the knowledge she'd gained upgrading Bea as well to get this just right while still half-blind from the seals.

[Claim the Remains of Power] was now a proud holder of [Rush].

This Competition nears an End!

With that notification a timer blinked in the corner of Harmony's vision, one she couldn't shake. A large number that counted down one second at a time.

"Well, it's over nine thousand. That should give us not quite three hours."

"Greep!"

"I have not been wasting time playing with a bunch of bones! Taking skills from beasts and monsters is too dangerous with these restrictions. You're just bored."

Maybe she had gotten a little carried away, but she was starting to see the advantages of the seals making her work on other aspects of her skills. That combined with the fact that once she left the games she'd have less time to focus on the abstracts of advancement and deal with politics, responsibilities, her mother, and the issue of the queen, hands and all. Would it be too much to hope that the attacks would end now that she's in Hazeldown?

Activating [Rush], what she'd expected to be a speed boost hit her like she'd drank five cups of strong tea, as her heart started to race, focus sharpened, and muscles twitched to move. The racing in her chest had a peculiar effect on [Eternal Fable's Heart] as stamina overflow vibrated through her, which in turn micro-triggered [Rush] again creating a feedback loop. One impulse was to rip out the newly won skill, but other than the queer side effect nothing felt like she was going to die. In fact, it felt good. That first impulse having been discarded, faded like a distant memory. The next one was, what was she doing standing still?

"Let's go!" Harmony yelled as she kicked off, heading deeper into the sacred valley.

The countdown seemed to slow for moments as she zoomed out of the swap and into a patch of woods. Ahead she spotted them before Hyacinth, "Squirrel!" Oh, this competition had repeat monsters. Or not quite, these were child-sized with nuts the size of melons. Hyacinth jumped off matching their size.

Harmony joined him in the game of catching and returning the woody chunks in a deadly game of dodgeball. [High Kick] focused on striking out and returning them to their senders. [Small Armor] dodged and weaved with [Style and Grace] while chronostasis kicked in if it looked like it was going to get tricky. Time flew in a way that when she checked the timer a chunk disappeared. A rolling giggle ticked her ears that took a moment to recognize as belonging to herself.

Bigger squirrels gave up a silver coin. Grabbing it the [Rush] pushed Harmony on. When she paid attention to the countdown it slowed down, when she didn't, it zipped by as she lost time. Copper coin collected. Copper coin collected. Silver coin collected. Copper coin collected. Copper coin collected. Something was wrong. Something was right. Ticks of elation vibrated through Harmony, the collecting of coins only supported that feeling. There would be flickers of strain, but those passed.

"Geep!" What's Hyacinth complaining about? "Geep!" More coins! Silver coin collected. Copper coin collected.

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"Ow! You bit me!" Harmony complained to Hycinth, rubbing her chest, slowing a little but still moving. That moment of distraction continued on as her face slammed into an invisible barrier.

"Harmony! Remove the skill!"

Len? Len! He stood on the other side of the barrier. What was he yelling about? "Len?"

Hyacinth resized while still on her chest. The massive toad pinned her to the ground, sitting on her from waist to legs. Was he playing again? [Recall] half worked, reminding her he did that twice recently, but she got him off to keep moving.

"Sorry about this Harmony." Len placed his hand over Harmony's heart.

She giggled a little as it tickled the way her chest fluttered under his hand. The martyring in the swamp had cost her the spider-crafted armor, so there was plenty of skin with only the metal of night pasted on. The spell slammed into place cutting off the rapidly fluctuating flow of stamina.

[Rush] Which had been kept stable from the constant poking not letting it die finally collapsed from overuse turning into useless degraded sludge that happened when Harmony let [Claimed] skills fail. Ew! Harmony ripped the burnt-out skill out of its spot and tossed it away.

The pain and fatigue hit worse than the one time she'd been convinced by Jessica to join the girls drinking early on at Coodly Manor and Ambrosia had to pull her away in an episode where she'd blacked out. Her morning routine would help with… nothing she was silenced. "Rotting blood and ashes." She moaned.

"What were you on, Harmony?" Len asked "I've been chasing you for half an hour. You plowed through a pack of lizards freezing them and shattering them with your feet, collecting a copper coin in the process, and still wouldn't sit still."

[Recall] brought up no memory of that. Did Len have to talk so loud? Blurry eyes were having trouble bringing him into focus. "[Rush], it conflicted with a skill and I got stuck. Ugg, thanks for… you can get off me now Hyacinth…" Harmony's eyes focused. Len was in the purple lizard's skin, which made him part of the green team, but his arms were bare and black lines covered them. Wards for wizard's spells. "Are those tattoos!?"

"Don't change topics. You need to have a better system for trying skills you've stolen from the dead." She'd never officially told him that. "Don't give me that look. It wasn't that hard to figure out. Adric also told me, confirming my theories."

"I thought I was being careful," Harmony promised, yet Len's face stayed the stoic image of a disappointed teacher. "Fine," She groaned. "I'll do better. Now explain the tattoos. Those deadwood statues better not have been prophetic."

"It saved my ass when I entered the Games and ended up naked. Not prophetic, but the tattoos were a good idea that I borrowed from that display. It wasn't an unheard-of tactic by some casters that use wards. There are additional advantages to being an adaptable spellman where I can modify them if needed. You're lucky I was looking for you."

Hyacinth popped back into pocket size allowing Harmony to sit up. The silence spell Len had doused her with faded leaving her hungry, sore, and irritated. The modified morning routine she'd adopted with the seals in place ran through her system and barely cut the edge off.

"Why were you looking for me?"

"It's Max, he's on the blue tribe. He's not well. Since he was sworn to you I thought maybe something had happened. I don't think your frantic state is causing his issues."

Max, what trouble had her agent gotten into now? She didn't like to think about how both his class and profession were dedicated to her. He was part of the issues she set aside and hoped he'd figure it out on his own. Every time she meddled it seemed he got stuck deeper. Forcing herself to notice the oath it did feel off, but she was careful not to touch it. In all the time here he hadn't summoned her.

"It's probable his oath to me is sealed. I don't know how that would affect him." Harmony answered.

"That might be it." Len didn't sound convinced.

"I'll try to find him and figure it out." The countdown now had barely five hundred seconds remaining. "But it won't be today." How much time had she lost? And Len, risking himself and his tribe's point total chasing after her clearly cared. [Rush] probably would have burned out before she did, but he didn't know that. Naewauld had been so much about survival and not enough about friendship. Without a skill to back it up, she gave him an earnest smile. "Thanks for saving me. I'm in your debt."

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