Chapter Fifty-Seven

A flicker of fiery blue light, leaving the afterimage of Tyler, brought him to the scene first. He'd learned to master skills better in the last competition as well. A crowd was watching. Harmony's authority ached from pressing it on someone who resisted, and in that pain, she could feel shifting attitudes of the red tribe.

Her bloody arm, coated with a little bit of Eric that had not left with him, had to make for a striking image. [Manipulate Dead] peeled off that red and her own blood from the attacks. [Mend], as ready as it had been to heal a broken heart, stitched up her wounds, some she hadn't noticed in the heat of battle. Gouges from jagged bits of exploding earth, and blows that were near hits rather than misses, her body had ignored as inconsequential.

"Harm, are you okay?"

Voicing her frustrated thoughts was madness. She didn't have the conspiracy theorist class, and worse, they had an audience. That was one of the reasons why she hadn't acted more decisively.

"No. I don't like being messed with. Eric's attack was unfortunate, and I had to defend myself. It's not a position I like to be in."

The question was who was pulling the strings? That energy came from Rosaline, but was she being nudged by Saccerate, or had the court and their helping hands not given up? There was even an off chance the dungeon or Hemlock was involved, and paranoia could eat someone alive at all the different possibilities. Maxwell could be the mastermind if you went through enough possibilities. Making the wrong or even the right accusation could have wider consequences.

"It's not like Eric left you with any other option." Tyler started.

"Don't excuse me in this. I had plenty of other options than to antagonize Eric the way I did. I'm not saying I didn't have my reasons, but I didn't explore my options. I reacted to distaste and insults, and not even ones that were more impressive than my past." Tyler, for all his current concern, was a perfect example of how people could change if you saw the value in them. "I need to be more sure before I act."

Tyler looked like he wanted to fight her on this, but with a small grunt, he gave in. "You're a model of patience, Lady White."

Returning to the perpetual stew pot that was the unofficial gathering spot was somber. Many of those lost were not well-liked, The Bull more than their owner, but one third of the tribe's competitors had been lost. Even if it was mostly self-inflicted, it left a wound on the community. A complete overhaul of the contribution board needed to be done, and Gareth was gone. Jessica's projection moved over to Milo to get paper slips to start that process.

"Did you get what you wanted?" The normally quiet Benny asked.

Had he been part of Eric's crew? Harmony activated [Keen investigative Awareness] and [Recall]. Unlike the others, he was a good worker, but not a standout among the collection of big personalities. Reliable, more concerned with feeding his purple ooze, Pina, who needed more all-food bars than any other pet. The whole crew had been the primary hunters once it became clear that it was an easy way to gain contribution points by killing Kenny-Mimics. Benny had been exceptionally worried when the food supply had gotten low, and it wasn't over the taste of the soup. A leader takes responsibility.

"Not in the way that I wanted or planned to, but yes. Eric and his troublemakers were unstable. They leaned on him, and he threw them away to attack me, and then, in the rage of his failure, he attacked me after breaking his seals. I'm more disappointed we lost Gareth to the competition. Even without them, we have the resources to win. The teams should now be relatively even."

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"Our dear leader showed us what she does to rebel scum. You really interested in replacing her, Benny?" Owlsley asked.

"I was just curious, Ows. Not like any of us want to be in charge. I didn't accept the offer to join these games expecting to die." Benny answered.

That broke the tension enough that everyone got on with their chores, ignoring the broken landscape where she and Eric had fought. Not completely ignored. Malik, after his bowl of soup, smoothed out the tripping hazards.

Jessica came forward with Milo and the new contribution board. That drew a little discussion, but they'd accepted this system for so long that no one complained as they pulled job slips to complete.

Harmony watched the return to normalcy. Her anger simmered. Rather than rage, she chopped up the problem into distinct tasks to handle. No matter how big or small the meal, you ate it one bite at a time. It was time to get to work.

Harmony found Milo's astral bonded ancestor near the young man's shelter. "Hey, Pappi. I was wondering if I could pay for some of your time."

The spirit floated over. "As I mentioned earlier, there are some topics I won't cover, but I am here to help. Perhaps a discussion of medical techniques?"

The unfathomable. That was a potential problem on the list. This was something that she needed to approach sideways and stroke the old spirit's ego. "One of my friends has an astral veil, or shield covering him from inspection. I was wondering what I would need to do to bypass it if I needed to heal them?"

"They should be able to withdraw it. But I'm assuming you mean a grievous injury and they are unconscious or in a state of delirium. That's a tricky thing, but considering how many patients have built-in defenses or reactive bonds, they aren't unusual. After my close encounter with Milo, he wants a bit of space, so I'm happy to tutor you in handling medical traumas."

It was time to spend some of the contribution points she'd saved. Here was the first chunk needed.

That began the week of training. Two hours every day after the basic chores she'd taken on.

"Use [Renew Spirit], and focus on getting all of the energy into me," Papi instructed.

The training was in two parts. First was to interact with astral energy on a more targeted level. This required her to differentiate it from her necromantic senses and narrow in on what she was putting energy into. If Papi wasn't a spirit, then this would be ten times harder. [Renew Spirit] was always an all-encompassing return of vigor, but with some advantages with undead due to being a necromancer, the boost that could be added to astral aspects was a side part. Papi gave her the opportunity to really focus, but in her spare time, she found switching between all the different things she could focus on helped. Approach the skill like a knife rather than a hammer. In many ways, it was an extension of when she squeezed the energy into individual ice crystals.

The second aspect was noticing astral energy better. If you couldn't see it, you had a hard time interacting with it. Measured use of [Eternal Fable's Heart], [Mana Rotation], [Keen Investigative Awareness], and [Analyze] slowly attuned her to the deeper shades of the world. Exercising what she considered to be soul sight always took effort and intention, and now it was like a portion of that was passive. When people used their skills, if there was a faint hint of astral energy, she could feel it as part of the function of the skill. Not like an overpowering astral bond, but as a smaller part of the more complex formations that made up skills. It was a shallow education on how the bits of different energy, intention, and movement combined to create the skill effects. She could almost see how they worked. For some, the astral energy was like a kidney to the system, processing waste; for others, it opened an aperture for the user to interact with.

It was not a leap and bounds increase in her ideas around skills, but the micro functionality knowledge would be valuable with future uses of [Claim the Remains of Power] and if she ever got another shot to improve an undead, like Beas' skills.

The growth chamber revealed improvements in increasing sync levels for several skills, but mostly in [Renew Spirit]. Harmony didn't have a clear picture of what that meant. Numbers go up, and that was good enough.

Most notably, since returning from the last competition, Adric had a change in his current condition. It now reads as Hopeful. What had changed? If he could hold on and fight, so could she. At the end of that week, a notification ripped her and everyone else out of their peaceful sleep.

The seventh challenge of the competition begins! Every tribe has a mimic hiding among them. Find and eliminate the imposter.

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