Chapter Twenty-Nine

Welcome to war! Competitors may act in a support role attacking enemy units or boosting yours. Directly targeting an opposing competitor will result in a penalty. Follow your troops!

The Front wall dissolved, opening up to the flat stone valley floor.

"Be careful, nothing is stopping them from targeting bonded. If you don't feel like you can't support at range or are a bond I have a new mission for you. While we're fighting, steal everything that isn't locked down and see if you can get it out of this valley or back to camp." Harmony ordered Adric and Hyacinth to stay behind to organize the heist.

The built army surged forward at a pace that took a steady jog to keep up with. The army they'd gone with featured elementals, water, and lightning. Living toys that looked like nutcrackers who proved to be a solid middle of the pack with few counters, and what looked like bears with bird heads. There were a few shuffling undead with the oversized Patrick she'd built. Finally, monsters made of black crystal rounded out the group. A mishmash focusing on units that were not the strongest but hard to counter and the water/lightning combination that took out the stronger options like golems. She trusted Gareth's numbers, but it was already a contest filled with the unknown of how other tribes would support their troops.

The first mistake became clear. A simple one due to the limited space the fort provided. They'd tested for combat prowess, but they hadn't tested for speed. The bear-bodied monsters bounded forward on all four limbs faster than the other units. Each creation had a speed and as they rushed toward the center of the valley the army became staggered groups based on relative speed.

This could result in several possible disastrous outcomes, from bad matchups to outright elimination. "Rotting luck." Harmony used chronostasis to speed up her perception slightly allowing time to tackle the problem. Instead of cheating, strategizing might have been more valuable. [Keen Investigative Awareness] didn't spot anyone getting ideas to fix this. One idea bled through. It was time to do it herself.

Harmony kicked off at a run, using stamina for a burst of speed to get ahead of the mess. [Shadowed Graves] spread outward. The battlefield-type skill ached for a real fight. As the shadow crossed over the bear units she directed them to halt under the paralyzing fear of death, simple creations they froze in place. The next two clusters were hit with a sensation of hesitancy, to look at death and flinch. The toys were commanded with awe to push toward battle quicker and the undead a fearful rage to rush ahead and attack.

For a quick patch-up solution, it did get the waves of troops closer together. The first opposing units came into sight. Bleeding golems. Despite their fatal flaws, they were the toughest, strongest, and most destructive of the options and apparently the fastest as well. Well ahead of any troops in sight fifty of the monstrosities charged forward.

The obvious trap had been a ruse. If they'd been unable to recluster her team's troops… She'd watched the matches where the golems weren't facing a hard counter. Attacks sliding off their bodies, three hard punches to crush any opponent. They would have crushed the bears, then pulverized the crystal monsters, and with two-fifths of their army gone, only then would the hard counter of electric elementals be there to shock them into immobile husks.

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Hardened Golems crashed into those bird-headed bears. The others were shortly behind. Three things saved the Red Tribe's first line from a massacre. First was their "cheats" Only so many units could be crafted at a time, and the tables were not compatible. They tried. That left a lot of free hands. Where Harmony worked on Patrick other team members worked on equipping the troops, Earthen helmets crafted from body parts on the bird heads, simply breastplates for the bear bodies. When the golems struck, defenses shattered but lives held. Second, was that the golems were so fast the attacking army's supports were not there, you could see small figures moving in the distance but they were still racing to catch up. Third, was [Shadowed Graves], as harmony let the random fear reaction grip them as they entered the shadow, pushing forward in an urge to fight, freezing for a moment, turning to take a step away, or simply the awe of wanting something dead causing them to strike out at the nearest creature, usually one of their own. An organized rush now jumbled, tripped, and messed up in that touch of chaos.

Seconds purchased that mattered, as the hard counter came into play, water, and electricity arched among the golems, destroying the internal mechanisms that kept them powered. The slower part of an opposing army rushed forward, competitors in furs and scraps of blue fabric joined them. Princess, no Heir Rosaline, at the forefront, a bow made from animal bones and strung with gut in her hand raining arrows tipped with tooths into Harmony's army. The look of frustration was vivid on her face.

Beside her stood Agent Maxwell. "Chaos strewn rot." Len had said something was wrong with Max. He looked like he's aged twenty years and not just from the fact that his once glowing pink hair and beard were now stark white. His eyes had a haunted hallowed look. Harmony went to his oath touching it and feeling the wrongness.

Max doubled over in pain. Okay, no touching. Rose wrapped her arm around him with a nasty look Harmony's way. Rot, not like she knew that would happen. Was he too far from her as a singularly sworn? That didn't make sense. [Recall] ran through her times with Max. Harmony tapped the memory of Saccerate in Geists, Ghosts, and Oddities of the Deadwoods. ""This spirit. You should be able to trap her and draw chaos from her."

"Unless she's too strong and rips the chaos from me," Max grumbled back."

She might not have told him to trust her, but maybe he'd picked up on the feeling and felt obligated. And the blood play worked. In the Deadwoods, it worked! The prison had been secure. What is going wrong?

But, the possessor was literally a creature of control with the strength to wrestle bodies away from experienced adventurers. She had And she bloody suggested her to him. "Saccerate, I'm going to go in there and erase you from existence."

[High Kick] launched Harmony toward the blue tribe. Rage coursed through Harmony as she readied her skills to reach in and deal with the rogue spirit, fuzzy as soul sight was, she knew the general location. [Disintegrate], [Claim the Remains of Power], [Final Silence] pushed through a shock of [Renew Spirit] should work. She let the snarl break her composed face with enough emotion she saw Rose flinch at her sudden approach. With a restriction on targeting opposing competitors, there should be time to talk and do what needs to be done. But where had Max gone?

The blue Tribe shifted away. Why? Was Saccerate fully in control? The spirit would be right to fear her. Harmony twisted to see the blue tribe's army decimated nine times over and to the dregs. Okay, more time to talk. Looking back to her target, she pushed forward harder. She didn't need to see when the last blue tribe soldier fell as light enveloped Rose, Max, and the others whisking them away as Harmony landed with a crash where they would have been

"Rot!" Harmony screamed. Max's problem was her fault.

The battle should have lasted longer. Three armies competing for dominance. Harmony looked back to the battlefield. In the head-on-head match-up, they had done well.

Owlsley skidded to a halt next to her and asked the obvious question. "Where is the other cursed army?"

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