Chapter Twenty-One

[Intruder Sense] radiated out. Nothing. This wasn't going to be that easy. There is also the risk that it won't pick up on where the coins might be. Owlsley's pet dropped down from its climb with her in the giant sloth's arms. The landing zone was about to get crowded. Everyone understood the mission and the need to spread out.

Harmony picked her direction, straight toward the blue team. Max, Rose, and Len may be on rival teams, but she'd still like to find one and consult with them about their tribe's situation. There were also other questions. The time between their arrival to Hazeldown and the start of the Games had been too short. It never did feel like the right time to ask them if they felt anything off about Queen Talia. Tyler hadn't, but he was the least perceptive of the bunch.

The ground was uneven, muddy, and crowded with tossed and broken paving stones creating an uneven surface and constant tripping hazard. It was an odd contrast to the larger obstacles of fallen, rotting trees scattered across the area where they'd dropped into. Not a single one was standing, each massive, in that they were as wide as Harmony was tall.

Adric tried to leap on top of the first one. The thing crumbled and squished on impact, having him sink past his knees. "Oh, gross." he moaned while stuck.

"Maybe check before you leap?" Visually they did seem more solid than they were. Harmony could feel the rot and decomposition. It reminded her of visiting the Grave Society. Reaching out she poked the side and felt it give away.

"A little help, please?" Adric asked.

[Manipulate Dead]? That could probably dig him out. There were better tools. She extracted Hyacinth. "Hey, Lazy, time to get to work."

With a slight toss, he shifted his size. Bigger, the biggest yet, as his change from evolution seemed to be pushing up his natural size. He'd fill up some rooms, but not quite a house yet. [Familiar Augment] was working in that he managed the change well without any instability.

With his massive arms, he dug into the soft tree, ripping Adric out.

"We should probably split up to maximize the hunt. As long as you don't get stuck again I'm only slowing you down." Harmony told her pet. Not that she wanted him to leave, but the cost of losing was a potentially embarrassing early exit.

"You sure?"

"I have Hyacinth accompany me and can call if I need help."

With a nod, the prince dashed off.

"Clear the way." She told her partner.

With a hop and his massive weight, he smashed the rest of the fallen tree flat. With another leap, he flattened the next one. Harmony followed in his wake deeper into the valley. The hunt was on. Onward, she tapped her borrowed sense and get nothing but minor animals, usually fleeing. No coins. The [Intruder Sense] seemed mostly attuned to living beings, with its ability to even sense mimics, at least the simple ones she'd run into with it. Perhaps some of those ruined structures would have the prizes. The best would probably be at the center of the valley.

"Groapt," Hyacinth grumbled. His toe nudged a small pile. Buried in the muck was the first coin she'd seen. Dull copper, large, about the size of her palm.

Pulling it out, the image of a very familiar dog graced the metal with a look of amusement staring out in fine detail. Closer to the fluffy white version than the scary one she'd seen. If they were all this big, how would she carry… the coin dissolved in her hand after a few seconds

One point earned for the red tribe!

At least she wouldn't need to worry about others stealing from each other. The coin hadn't been in her last ping of [Intruder Sense], now a useless waste of stamina in respect to the hunt. Time to switch up tactics.

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While this coin seemed randomly placed, it was unlikely that in this game that would be how they were distributed. The immunity idol now buried in the floor of her shelter has been paired up with the empress spider. Odds were they'd be the same here, even Gareth wouldn't bet against her on that. "Any prey around?" She asked.

Hyacinth shimmered back down into his pocket-sized package. "Greep." and through [Familiar Bond] he relayed three locations to Harmony. He'd actively avoided these ones after scaring away one group that had been on their destructive path.

Picking him back up, it was time to see if her thoughts were right. Twelve boars, bigger than Harmony, gathered around a small clearing between fallen trees. Prey? Maybe for her giant monster of a partner. Strapped to her spider-crafted armor that covered Night she pulled out a sharpened spider leg that had been turned into a makeshift dagger. Those angry Pigs turned toward her, charging to protect their space.

One of these days she'd be less reliant on Hyacinth in these kinds of situations. Who was she kidding? She was a necromancer. At best, she could have more minions handle a group like this. With her free hand, she wound up and threw her familiar straight toward the charge.

Midair, Hychinth shifted, from tiny to massive, he was still traveling at the speed Harmony tossed him. He timed it perfectly. This was, after all, another kind of ambush. Surprise! They had no time to move or scatter as he crashed into all twelve of them, blasting their formation apart. His armor was tougher than their tusks, not enough to avoid every injury, but at the point when it happened he was having too much fun.

Harmony entered to clean up on the stunned and dazed wild pork. [High Kick] aimed to crush skulls and snap spines. The knife was sharp enough for quick gutting actions, and long enough when pressed flush into the right spot to pierce their hearts. [Cold Touch] slowed and stunned as she moved from boar to boar. There was caution in the efficiency, as the seals restricted so much of the power she'd gotten used to in Nae's Garden for her more inventive techniques, but physically not much had changed except improvements after evolution. Even with vital body sealed she could lift and toss a boar. Her body performed stronger than it had in its pre-evolution state.

Hyacinth killed seven of the twelve while Harmony finished with five. It was not a competition despite the toad's bragging. These were the Ascendant Games. And in the middle of the pig's former home, a silver coin.

Five points earned for the red tribe!

The other prey locations only provided copper. The last one was squirrels armed with nuts. Hyacinth barely changed size and went wild harassing them with a form near equal in size, leaping after them, catching nuts aimed at his head, and returning them with such vigor he brained two of them.

Harmony couldn't not chuckle at his enthusiasm. This was his vacation too. Camping and games with a bunch of children in the woods combined with mild threats aimed at challenging everyone to become stronger. She'd even been put on par with them skill and ability-wise lessening any risk of jealousy or overshadowing them. Here she could avoid her mother and finally have time to figure out her exact social status in Hazeldown. That was reason enough not to avoid being eliminated from the Ascendant Games. Compete for extra time away. Making Hazedown proud would be great, but it would only be fooling herself into believing that was her primary motivation.

"Gwee!" Hyaching cried in victory as he stood on his mountain of squirrel corpses.

"You know you could have swallowed them all in one gulp and a fraction of the time?"

The shadow toad returned a huff.

"Fine, have your fun. But if we're eliminated and voted out of the games because we played around I'm assigning you all the tasks I don't want."

The pair pushed out deeper into the mess that was the sacred valley, leaving the fallen trees and entering a more open area where the rubble merged with the ground was more than just bricks. Glass, broken lumber, pieces of tables, and chairs, and even a creepy doll head all churned within the earth. Living plants appeared, but were thorny, man-sized, bushes that dotted the landscape. There had to be coins here too, that was the game, and the first warren dug up out of the ground as an emerging tunnel gave the sign as to where one might be.

"I'm not going in there." At least she wasn't while there was something unknown living there. [Shadowed Graves] cast out with dark shadows above and below, she pushed them into the tunnel. Without Hyacinth being able to slip through them it was a different kind of utility, and with one of her skills she'd avoided getting sealed. The crutch she'd been using to modify how she struck fear into the hearts and minds of those whom it eclipsed had been influenced as her stats had been sealed, lessening the depth of which she could play fast and loose with synergies to get what she wanted. A terrible loss if she hadn't discovered that she no longer needed to put so much effort into it. That had always been the goal. To gain more control, and somewhere along the line, it became easier to cheat for a guaranteed win. Whatever these beasties were they'd need to come out here and fight her to prove they weren't scared.

The fat white grub with a wicked set of teeth that burst forth from the ground made Harmony glad she hadn't tried to go in there, it and the dozens that followed swarmed out. Hyacinth leaped from Harmony's chest, shifting size in the process. Oversized grubs for an oversized toad.

"Gross, chew with your mouth closed."

Not that the grubs brought the coin up. Someone would still need to go in and get it. Probably a copper one unless worse opponents were still underground. Maybe Hyacinth would go without her? What if something went wrong though?

Harmony gathered courage as death crossed into her shadows, sending a feeling crawling up her spine. As a necromancer you got used to death and the unique signatures different kinds had, freshly killed, ancient, rotting, powered by others, yearning for violence or peace. Some you couldn't forget, lingering in memories, similar to perfume reminding you of a friend or enemy. Harmony turned to face that feeling. "Hello, Hargreaves. What are you doing here?"

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