Chapter Forty-One

Now they were eighteen.

Erin, who wandered in for a bowl of soup with nary a word to anyone before leaving, had been the low-hanging fruit. The recluse was already on the chopping block.

Louis, a literal horse trader, milked all the value he could get. Harmony's royal favor, a favor from Mr. Rising Dawn, Tyler, commitment that Prince Adric would owe him a favor, and backstage passes to Songstress and the Flows needed to be piled upon him. The politics of bribery. No one else seemed interested in being bought off, so the next elimination vote would be interesting. Bloody Eric needed to go.

The vote hadn't been that bad when the time came after everything was arranged. A notification had them choose who they wanted to vote off. The two with the most votes disappeared in a flash of light along with their bonds. Adric would go with her if she were chosen, hopefully.

Eric's string of curses at his failed coup was almost enough to warm her heart.

The vote didn't mean there wasn't work to be done. "Gareth, tomorrow you're learning to swim."

"Yes, Lady White," he answered anxiously.

To keep from repeatedly checking on her bond with Adric, Harmony dove into the challenge of mastering Gareth's fear of swimming. Two days to crack the ice on his panic.

"Into the water again, Gareth!"

Harmony kicked the bookie off Hyacinth as he carried them deeper into the lake. They'd gotten him to the point where he only panicked now when his head was underwater. [Shadowed Graves] expanded, timing to the dunking to override the man's deep desire to fight and flee with a combination of freezing and awe. He could now swim underwater for a minute before his fears started to betray him, and they had to start over again. The man looked like a flailing, wet, exhausted rat after the repeated near-drowning.

It took her away from crafting, but leveled [Shadowed Graves]. As Gareth mastered his fears, Harmony mastered hers. Her shadow was the looming inevitability of the end, and it connected to the panic she was trying to change in the bookie. Her authority could feel how he wanted to be connected to her; his desire to join her house, and just a touch of authority, added to the awakening of the skill, strengthened what she wanted to do to him. The largest downside had always been that it didn't differentiate between friend and foe. With this, there was hope in being able to choose targets and how it gripped those under its dark embrace.

The splashing reached a peak, and Hyacinth tossed the wet bookie back onto his back, where he coughed out the water he swallowed. "This is torture, you know." He said weakly.

"But we're making progress, and you gave consent. I don't want someone holding a large bucket of water in front of you to have you freaking out while you're under my employ."

"You know that's not how my phobia works." Gareth moaned at the joke.

"It's okay. We're done for today. We should head back anyway. I want to find out if the hunters were successful."

She signaled Hyacinth to return. This was a test of Gareth's plan. The last two hunting groups had gone to the mimic wastes with limited results and the need to retreat. Attacking the mimics before they transformed enough at a distance failed. They were either resistant to most attacks or able to dodge like their flesh was the wind. Excessive explosives worked, but took a lot of resources. Contestants with seals were restricted from going on the hunting teams, too.

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Five hunters laughed and joked. Only Kenny had a sour look out of the group of six who left.

Owlsley patted Kenny on the shoulder. "Come on, it wasn't that bad."

"So, it worked?" Harmony asked as she approached.

Owlsey pulled out one of the meal biscuits, "Perfectly. We've got twelve more to go with this. With Sock's help, I managed to take out six Kenny-mimics."

The Calestian competitor huffed, irritated.

"It wasn't that bad. You have nothing to counter speed." Owsley assured him.

"You try watching yourself get killed over and over again. There was that one who tripped and fell into Milo's spear. I swear he didn't need to die, and he only did it to mock me."

Pick the weakest, least combat-effective, and most incomplete contestant and have them get duplicated was Gareth's idea. That didn't mean it should have been as easy as they were describing. Harmony had recommended they pick Kenny for a reason.

"I believe you, Kenny." Harmony turned to the hunters who'd accompanied their volunteer. "Don't let those mimics lull you into a false sense of security. A mimic copy of Kenny can and will be a dangerous threat." With a little authority, she made sure they could hear her seriousness.

That straightened the boy's spine a little.

The retelling of the Hunter's battles was a comedy of disasters. Kenny's dying in ridiculous ways to skills, crushed, cut in half, electrocuted, but in ways that, when described, were slightly humorous. As convenient a way as this was to farm the mimics. The abominations were advancing in skills, dodging [Intruder Sense], and creating deadly combinations from the memories of the copied people. They shouldn't have taken a step backwards. Accept the blessing or not? If they got any more dangerous, no one would make it through the Ascendant Games. May this game of killing Kenny continue to work.

Thoughts for another day. Today was going to be busy. Loap's ears were on high alert; the clock had started. "Rest up. The next competition will start soon. Who knows what surprises will be waiting for us?"

Taking her own advice, Harmony headed to her shelter to gear up. Needing to redesign a new set of armor after blowing herself up had at least one advantage. This new set left open the spaces where Night's white metal armor was adhered rather than hiding it under awkwardly crafted armor. After all that hard work, she'd graduated to being barely competent with modifying the dead spider's carapaces to something that finally didn't gross out her [Beautician] skill.

It helped that she'd created a network of embedded elemental crystal lights. It glowed similarly to the unsealed Night. The benefits of the light were small, considering her skill set. The green light from the earth crystal boosted [Dust], and the yellow light had chronostasis speed her perception up a tad more. Any possible explosive interactions were limited by keeping opposing and reactive elements separate.

Equipping it properly took an inconveniently long time.

"You decent yet?" Tyler called through the door. "Everyone else is ready."

Tyler had stepped into the role Adric left vacant, replacing speed with a solid, unmoveable presence to keep things running. "I'll be out in a second."

[Manipulate Dead] sealed the pathways in her new armor together, and a pocket of water with a drop of her blood squeezed into the system, lighting up the embedded crystals. Grabbing a dagger and Owlsley's special explosives, she stepped out.

Tyler's armor had changed after his experiences. Plates of stone, hooked into the black armor for extra defense. Thick enough that even mimic's blade-like attacks shouldn't pierce. "The slower ones have already started the walk to the Sacred Valley. Let's hurry up."

Harmony kicked off.

At the edge of the barrier, everyone waited with an anxious energy, ready to redeem themselves for their last loss. Loap raised a hand and counted down with her fingers.

As the shielding fell, Harmony caught a glimpse of a massive building filling the whole valley.

The fourth competition begins! First tribe to get all their active competitors to the center of the Sacred Valley Stronghold wins access to the growth chamber!

The familiar disorientation of teleportation enveloped Harmony. In the blink of an eye, the grand view of the stronghold was ripped away and replaced with an empty square room with smooth stone walls, ceiling, and floor, and no visible exits. Beside her, none of her tribe had joined her. Only Hyacinth was still firmly nestled on her person. If people were teleported with their familiars and bonds, it still left one major question. Where's Prince Adric?

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