Chapter Thirty

The post-combat lull was a time for assessment. The damage the heir's army had done to Harmony's was twenty percent losses with the bird-bear hybrids nearly eliminated after they took the brunt of the golem rush. The support by competitors ended up negating each other within the format as opposing tribes stood back and used ranged skills to attack and defend. Patrick had been a star unit finishing the battle almost too soon once he lumbered into battle.

With a [Mend], [Manipulate Dead], and [Renew Spirit] superficial wounds made to him patched up to pre-battle form under Harmony's ministrations. The rest of the tribe worked on whatever meager healing they had access to and reapplied broken armor. Time to recoup, but the lack of the green tribe's army was worrying. At least the army was well clustered as it sat in the middle of the valley. The red tribe's army rotated to face towards the distant fort with the green flag.

"I see them! No support! Army only!" Milo cried.

"Are they invisible?" Harmony asked out of frustration as she darted back to the support area. Maybe they felt only a weak group would be left after the first two armies clashed? It didn't feel right that they'd send them in without support.

The troops selected by the other remaining tribe came fully into view. Earthen golems charged forward. Beside them trudged the same toy soldiers they'd chosen to build, except this new army's colors were in shades of green. The tree-men who hated undead, and bugs rounded out the opposing army. Not a single counter for golems

Owsley yelped, clutching her hand. Her [Prismatic Bolt] was one of the longer-ranged attacks they had in their arsenal. "Competitors are among the units! Hold your fire!"

Harmony rushed by her side. "What's the penalty?"

"Pain and silenced." She squeezed through clenched teeth. "Not sure how long it will last. It feels like it will last a long time. Probably the length of the battle."

The opposing skills flashed out cutting into the last of the bears and vaporizing water elementals. There they were, whatever camouflage they were using breaking with the attacks they made. "They're riding on their backs," Harmony gasped.

It was ingenious, stopping most direct attacks and allowing them to use close combat skills. They'd be at risk of taking damage, but the armies were focused entirely on the opposing creations, ignoring competitors.

The attacking army crossed into the dark of [Shadowed Graves] as Harmony moved forward. The deaths had kept it charged up. The chaos caused by the fear disrupted the green team's more organized slaughter. With the lightning elementals, their attacks arched jumping to the riders as well as opposing units causing some more delicate fights to abandon their rides and retreat. It was not a lot of damage, but between that and the fear, a good portion of the green tribe abandoned their perches within their army almost in anticipation of greater risk of collateral damage when the armies clashed for a melee.

A near-equal slaughter commenced. Harmony had missed it in the last fight, too distracted by Max's plight. [Shadowed Graves] was alive and the darkness swirled as the battlefield skill fed off it with an effect she didn't know it had, only revealed amidst the slaughter. Shadowy tentacles flickered into existence tying units up and driving madness into the eyes of those it touched. At that moment Patrick waded in with shadows crawling up his side, feeding off the blood and darkness. "We can still win!" Harmony yelled moving in close to heal her creation, looking to support it.

At the edge of the battlefield, Harmony's soul shuddered. A thread through the darkness touched her chest. Thin, nearly invisible threads stretched out over the battlefield. Another field skill. They constrained little things where a matchup was equal, a slight tug to make a wound on their troops more lethal or a strike that would have eliminated an opponent instead left them alive to continue fighting. "We've got to cut the threads!" Harmony yelled. Her spider blade passed uselessly through it.

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"What threads?" Owlsley yelled back.

They couldn't see it. These tiny bits of fate. This wasn't the stuff of spirits, or undead, even reaching through her maid skills to [Recall], the threads were new and unusual. Why could she see it and not others and how does one combat something altering your fate?

The one touching Harmony's chest pulled a little, but something in her tugged back hard. [Eternal Fable's Heart] did the opposite of a beat. Rather than only pushing out with stamina on that beat, it pulled in on the silent part, swallowing the thread of fate. That feeling of a fated mistake ripped away. Even with seven seals the heart produced its secondary effect as hidden undercurrents were revealed to her. Swaths of power from the dungeon's games from the ground and feeding the troops of this little game. Without soul sight, the connections inside people became clear in some ways but also quickly became too much as more was revealed than she wasn't used to seeing. Multiply these revelations by every interaction and layer of existence and the information was overwhelming.

In the face of this new experience, Harmony narrowed her focus. Inside a soul was easiest, due to her practice of building up soul sight. A quick glance at Tyler showed the fiery body of Jessica merged with his with a thin edge of her of what she expected to see overlayed with this new vision. It sealed the deal in her mind that it really was the sunfire berserker and not some quirk of spirit that borrowed aspects of her as she died.

And the threads of fate, those gleamed like rays of light back to Felix Campbell and his four swords. His living blades, unique individuals with skills, and containers built into the metal. Two in each hand, one ridiculously in his mouth, and the fourth even more ridiculously strapped to his backside like a tail, his polyamorously bonded loves. Their strength was evident, but she doubted that was their full strength as there was an evenness that she suspected came from seals, maybe multiple ones upon them, with this new sight she could almost make them out. Here was the man who nearly killed Kenny.

As quick as that [Eternal Fable's] sight came, it shut off as it ran out of whatever powered it. The afterimage of it all had Harmony reeling and unable to react in time as Felix stepped forward and twisted his body in a way that all four swords swung out projecting a wave of destructive energy straight at Patrick.

The attack on Kenny had cut into his soul and container. For an undead creation that was patched together with magical spit and twine, such an attack would be catastrophic. Harmony stretched out magically, [Renew Spirit] and [Manipulate Dead] to feed into her creation and counter the attack. Harmony's active application, hampered by distance, met the attack, and that conscious control broke up as the four-strike attack brushed her attempt away. The resulting feedback shot back and hit her soul like a gut punch. [Final SIlence] snapped onto herself stilling everything and leaving Harmony powerless.

Patrick split like a ripe fruit. The damage was too much, and it carried force that blew the giant undead backward, crushing several remaining troops and any hope Harmony had of her team winning this contest.

Felix Campbell, was so bloody strong, that bastard probably thought himself the hero of the story with his harem of blades. He even had a cocky smile and wave, sword still in hand, in her direction. It left an image that stuck around as the competition's teleportation magic whisked Harmony away in a flash and deposited her team back at their obelisk.

With a growl, Harmony kicked a rock. Outlasted, outplayed, and outthought. They'd have to step up their game. More than that, Saccerate needed to be dealt with for Max. Then there was the conversation with Felix about the attack on Kenny.

"At least no one is getting voted out from our tribe." Tyler tried to say comfortingly.

A vote she could handle, maybe. She had her immunity idol buried at her place. It was a deeper frustration. A realization that Felix might be stronger than her. That Max needed more than a mad dash to punch Saccerate out of him. That she'd been treating this as a vacation and now it's gotten more serious. Maybe the theft worked? Maybe there was a bit of hope in having more materials to work with?

Harmony looked at her tribe, many of their faces filled with similar bouts of frustration and disappointment. It was time to ask the question. "Did we manage to grab any loot?"

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