Chapter Thirty-Seven

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Tyler asked as he climbed over the black shifting mound of spider corpses to get to the other side.

"Imagine needing to eat spider and root soup for the rest of the competition. We'll all be begging to be voted off." Despite all the hard work getting here, the aftertaste from this morning's bowl still lingered in her mouth. She could trade her sense of taste away, but that cost took something away that she didn't want to risk losing in this risky situation.

On the other side of the pile, [Intruder Sense] radiated out; the [Claimed] skill proved to be one of the best tools she had for detecting mimics. They should be able to farm up a decent supply of the rewards to last a few weeks. They'd burnt through the first batch too quickly. The skill detected nothing.

Had the mimics been cleared out recently? The spider's corpses had been dead for over half a day, as decomposition put their death just after midnight, while everyone was in the competition. Who won this battle?

Mimics didn't leave corpses; the abominations they were. It seemed unlikely that they'd kill each other off completely. Even if both groups of monsters retreated after a heated battle, this area shouldn't be so dead. "Something wrong?" Tyler asked.

Hyacinth launched himself up and off Loap's furry bosom as Harmony got to work. [Manipulate Dead] synergized with [Disintegrate], rippling into small explosions, cracking and disrupting the wall of corpses. Pockets of high-pitched shrieks of pain emerged from the pile. So good at mimicry were they that [Manipulate Dead] couldn't tell the difference. That made destroying them so much easier.

The toad's turn. Shifting before impact, the mountainous familiar crushed the closest source of the screams. The other hidden mimics didn't hesitate as they squeezed out of the pile, their spider carapaces opening up their giant toothy mouths with long tentacle tongues.

Loap's spear pierced one through. A mimic jumped into Jessica, only to crackle and split like it had jumped into an open flame. Tyler's maul swung back and forth. Harmony used the spider corpses they'd mixed into against them, binding and ripping into them as the mimic's reveal weakened her ability to affect them with the same skill.

She hadn't known they were there. [Keen Investigative Awareness] built on a hunch her long experience with Hyacinth had created. One thing her toad and the mimic's had in common was that they were ambush predators. A little smarter, and the mimics would have had a few in the area to distract them before she figured out they'd modified to defeat [intruder Sense]. Having the skill made useless was a damaging blow for this gathering attempt. But without that surprise, the small mimics were picked apart. Some were too small to give any award, but twelve thumb-sized vials of the healing water and six single-meal bites of the all-meal bar were retrieved.

"That's it?" Tyler asked as Harmony used [Mend] on a nasty gash that sliced through his armor. He'd tanked a blow the spider armor couldn't handle. Even the small ones nearly poked it full of holes.

"The bigger ones give better rewards. Might need to test some of the unstable crystal combinations against those." Harmony answered. They'd brought five of the cobbled-together explosives to try out.

With [Intruder Sense] not working, it was a slower journey deeper into mimic territory. Harmony used [Disintegrate] and [Cold Touch] to probe ahead while Jessica used her blue fire. The longer they didn't find anything, the more nervous she got. It was easy to imagine the abominations had gotten more resistant or trickier, maybe hiding deeper into the ground to avoid probes.

Nothing. The wall of dead spiders was still visible as a black line on the horizon. "Maybe they're all dead or moved on?" Tyler said, breaking the silence.

This was the kind of threat you wanted to know where they were at all times. The fact that they changed enough that [Intruder Sense] no longer worked was worrying. What else could be different?

"Something is coming," Loap announced before Harmony could comment snarkily.

Always trust a beast kin's senses. It still felt wrong. Wrongness is what arrived. Charging forward over the flat land, Bipedal, but made of cubes and teeth, not a stealth attack but an obvious frontal assault. It was biologically off; they were already in full mimic attack mode, but restricted by the human shape. Only six of them. No stealth or subterfuge.

Harmony processed some fate for a vision of what that true sight picked up. The distortion made her queasy. [Poise and Balance] tried to counteract it but failed. The constantly shifting and folding in on itself landscape of churning magical aspects on top of the hideous blocky creatures was too much.

Not the advantage she was looking for. Should have kept one of the smaller ones alive at the spider wall to test on first. Or better yet, have figured out what [Eternal Fable's Heart] did before joining the games. Theoretically, six man-sized and shaped mimics should be easy to defeat, the monsters susceptible to Jessica's flames, [Cold Touch], and [Disintegrate], but nothing about this attack was normal.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Which is why when Jessica launched their longest ranged attack of a blast of flame from her projection, the way it didn't do much but make it scream wasn't a surprise. "Bloody messes." Hopefully, the Games wouldn't throw something at them that they couldn't handle. That didn't mean it shouldn't be approached with caution.

The group clustered up. Hyacinth stayed in his diminutive form. He was under strict instructions not to attempt to eat a mimic, like he didn't already know better; he'd seen what they turned into after they died, probably tasted awful, and gave you the runs. Harmony's concerns were more about them surviving enough to do some real damage from the inside of his stomach.

What she hadn't expected was the man-like mimics to exercise caution too by not diving in mindlessly attacking, and instead circled them far enough to be out of reach of Loap's long spears and the effective range of many skills. Dungeon beasts always went in for the kill and rarely stopped for any reason. One breath of them hesitating became ten and then twenty.

"What are they waiting for? Do I move in and [Taunt]?" Tyler asked.

That was also one of the big avoids. The wound from the arguably weaker mimics showed how useless his current armor was. Many of a tank's skills were only as good as their armor. If Jessica's flames didn't work, would [Cold Touch]? [Stride] was still in play, but what were the mimics waiting for?

"Not yet. I'm going to probe."

Harmony lunged forward, and the one in front danced back, none of them taking her opening. Not unexpected, but the one she was facing wasn't her target [High Kick] propelled her sideways. The mimics weren't slow, but none of them had shown this level of speed. Adric could have diced them up if he were here. This should get her close enough to…

The mimic was gone, leapt… no, it had kicked away?

Loap and Tyler closed ranks, moving where she landed.

The constant moving of the six potential attackers had her and the others searching for potential strikes or tricks. [Recall] played everything back, subtle differences she'd missed emerged as the blocky creatures were less blocky and uniform, some getting taller and others shorter. And what had it used? Soul sight shifted on, still more a feeling than what it was before the seals in many ways, but what she got was a very familiar feeling. "It stole my [High Kick]."

Concepts of other skills were growing as the bodies changed quicker, shorter ones shrinking more, taller ones becoming wider or starting to grow long ears. A pair for each.

"They're stealing us," Loap said.

"That can't be good," Tyler added.

Chronostasis kicked in for more time to think. The mimic's new skills slowly solidified into place, but their containers and bodies were also stabilizing. It would be harder to spring out tentacles or teeth, and they should take damage from strikes that the squishy mimics were immune to. Well worth the trade for them in the long term, though, why did her copy need [Recall]? If it were only or primarily focused on offensive skills, it would be a nightmare to deal with. Fighting people who could go all out was a nightmare to plan for. That was one reason why she had so many contingencies for Felix. Dungeon beasts were almost always simple, with only a couple of skills. If they had to adapt non-combat skills as well, it provided an opportunity.

"We can't let them finish copying us. Pick a target Loap." Harmony ordered, dropping tiny Hyacinth on the ground.

The beast-kin launched her spear towards one of her forming copies, who had one floppy grayish ear.

The Loap-Mimic lept straight up to avoid the weapon. Tyler and Harmony lunged after it. [Shadowed Graves] expanded above her, getting a clock started on how long her mana reserves will last in the fight. She targeted the fractional fear effect, so those covered would lash out. Of all the fear aspects, awe, hesitation, even fleeing, once someone commits to making a swing, it had the potential to mess up a person's timing the most. Long blade-like tips grew out of the mimic's fingers, and it swung while screeching with a mouth full of wide, pointed teeth.

Harmony unleashed her chilly attack first, a spiderweb of frost formed on the mimic's body. You could see where the bending, morphing flesh froze solid, and the warm-blooded adapted parts that shook it off, creating a jagged pattern on the creature's body. It was enough to prevent its escape as Tyler's stone maul crashed into it, the frozen bits susceptible to impact and shattering.

The five other mimics hadn't ignored the opening created and moved in, targeting Loap.

Jessica materialized with a flash, her body in the way of one of Tyler's copies. It recoiled from the fire, patches of black dotting it.

Loap did her own leap, the spare copy joining her in the air, but three others waited to catch her. Mid-air Loap kicked her copy with enough force to send it tumbling away.

Hyacinth expanded out, blowing the waiting mimics away, but took two wicked scrapes and a patch of frost in the process as one of the Harmony-Mimics had a partially formed [Cold Touch] enough to use.

It was enough time to regroup and allowed Jessica to defrost the damage done to Hyacinth. The shattered mimic slowly dissolved into the reward. With one down, the numbers were more even.

"So, your little sworn oath breaker hates us now?" Mimic-Harmony asked, her face now matching perfectly except for a sneer. A bite of [Poise and Bearing] boosted her words.

"We're too full of doubt. How do you live with yourself?" Mimic-Tyler asked.

"Ca'cha ka qi. You're right to worry that our clan won't take us back." Loap's remaining one announced as she hobbled back to join the attackers surrounding them.

They could speak, and they were copying memories? "Bloody Ashes." Harmony cursed.

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