Chapter Fifty Six

  The pack of five wooze swayed in pot frozen in fear of death, but ihe [Beauti] and [Style and Grace] influenced [Shadowed Graves] effect had them admire the killer in front of them. It was only momentarily as their dungeon-influenced aggression overcame it, they twitched forward but not fast enough to get through the cold as their insution was stripped away and the cold sent them fainting with shock. Harmohat copy of her fade away with a grin.

  Three times she broke her new skill as she worked out exactly how to influe in the dire she wanted. Every time she pulled a little more uanding of how to tame the random nature of the skill. There had so far been no way of casting the shadow without one effect taking hold. It robably better to direct responses rather than rely on people's natural instincts to darkness eclipsing them. The ime she worked in a team, hopefully, there was some way of limiting the effe any adventuring partners.

  “Bored,” Hyath grumbled out loud, speaking rather than croaking this time. Not everyone could be an exception like him.

  “You’re not going to be bored when we have to practice flying again.”

  The sed floor was still a struggle. There was ing around the difficulty of such sturdy oppos. Pain from the death of the [Strided] Harmony who'd pulled the attention of three frantic twiggys lingered as she untangled Hyath from two virictors crisscrossing vines over the path. "Still bored?"

  "Grupt." He huffed as they turo kill the straggler Harmony hadn't defeated before dying. As for the tree lord, they skipped it. Time to face the birds.

  “Graaaaaaaack!” Hyath roared at his near-perfect collision with the thunder roc, his massive frame breaking the bird's back with his impact from above. This time it didn’t rise higher into the sky as it faltered enough to crash into the ground, dragging them through the dirt and grass in a wild ride that ripped up the turf and dislocated Harmony’s shoulder. Not dead yet, Hyath used his spurs to strike while Harmony focused [High Kick] on unbroken parts of the roc's wings. The arcs of electric pain stabbed them in response, and eve tried to run rather than attack. Whe spark faded and the head slumped down it died.

  Hyath pushed her arm bato pce before she dowhe restoration potion allowing the pain to be a dull ache only lingering because of the memory of it. “Ready for the fourth floor?”

  The stairs up the sky were a bit rough on the massive toad. “Gwah!”

  “Fine, I’ll make shadows so we hop up quicker.” [Shadowed Graves] and her familiar’s teleportation put them only a few steps away from the entrao the floor. After this dungeon, she was sure he would decre stairs his greatest enemy.

  A well-prategy was effit and monotonous, but at least Hyath had fun on this floor. [Dust] worked remarkably well oempted sprays of pollen. They’d even mao collect a weighty amount of the valuable resource. Without that attack the deadly flowers were weak. The pollen was alive, s to synergize the skill with [Manipute Dead] was useless. So much pollen ended up in dust during the spring so losing that synergy hardly mattered. [Shadowed Graves] wasn't needed here and she wao save her mana for other skills.

  The crickets… well, Hyath was the oversized apex predator for those oversized locusts. He munched on them like they were the most delicious snack while she used [Small Armor] and other movement skills to dance, and dodge away from them.

  “Quit snag on those ones ahe rest, ya fat idiot!” Harmony cried as she rolled away from a pair.

  Sometimes he got too ied ireat. An aura from [Cold Touch] helped slow the locust, but only a little. That didn’t mean she was without bites that needed some [Mending] after fights with swarms of more than a dozen. Hyath feeling that pain too mea really serious when that happened.

  Harmony used [Manipute Dead] to off some spttered bug goop on her while Hyag finished mung o of the floor’s locust. There had been no pn to take on the guardian of the fourth floor today. “Want to do it?”

  “Groak.”

  Harmony nodded. He would say, why not? This aradise for him and it’s not like he got bit half a dozen times on this floor. You’d think he’d be more cautious of a snake big enough to try to swallow him. The bastard that it was. That’s what the guides all called it. B.a.s.t.a.r.d, Big ass sargeting all range damage. You couldn’t even taunt or harass the thing off-target. Fighting it robably a nightmare for Len or Rose when they went through this floor if they wao use their skills.

  The s coiled on a mound. You get one free shot to wake it. That wasn’t a good thing. It would take one damage and be impervious to all damage for the first five seds and mad as hell.

  Of all the oppos guides were most mixed on how to defeat this guardian. They generally boiled down into three separate camps. One is cross-css impersonation by having the range dealers only use melee-ons and the tank pretends to be a range hero. You need ara sturdy tank, maybe an elusive dodge tank. If someone slipped up it would switch targets to the real range fighter. The seost popur way is stab-n-go, one very brave aremely fast person pokes the snake and then runs it into an ambush. How to make that ambush successful was a different story. Last was a team heavy in snares and slows that worked as long as the range damage dealer the bastard targeted had a good escape meism. They would then zig-zag through a team as the others wore it down.

  The failures and unique successes held a particur i. Oeam yered blessings, buffs, and boons on the sleeping snake, and then five seds after it woke up a hexer reversed those bes. The hexer was an evolved css along for the ride but it worked. One person tried to gently tie up the s they were th and piled on too much weight, and with a tick of damage, it would awake. They were half successful in that it did dey the snake as it thrashed out of their bonds. One group sealed it up tight, pnning to poison it, the survivor revealed that it could dig down into the ground and then pop up elsewhere taking some damage in the process.

  As long as you avoided damaging the snake you were fine. Failures oftehat fact thinking they were the smartest adventure and had the perfect solution. Some tried a healing spell or shield that ed damage and then moved to remove scales, both through neand other methods ended in disaster. Removing even one scale ted as damage.

  Harmony approached the sleeping snake. Do no harm. How about making it beautiful? Snakeskin was made out of the same material as nails. That created so many iing options. There was never a doubt she was going to use that against it. Turn it into spikes to hamper movement. See if you get it to stab in. Remove sheets of skin so [Cold Touch] could be effective. Standio it, a head se it could swallow Hyath, she calmed her breathing and focused. None of those little tricks would be enough to stop it. None of the highly sensitive dies who’d undergoy treatments had ever pined about pain.

  [Manipute Dead] synergized with [Beauti] as she approached it first smoothing and strengthening some, then for the risky part. [Mend] joihe fold adding its strength. That old knight might have been able to snap out of his armor after she'd sealed it at the joints but she hadn't had unlimited time and effort. This shough, as nothing happened after she fused and smoothed the scales together, when she was doh it it would be a mo of her time polishing and hardening a bunch of old women’s brittle nails.

  The whole project took time. It was better to ihan uhe sheer scale and size of the snake was an issue. [Stride] gave a like-minded assistant, able to burn through all the needed skills while boosted by [Mana Rotation] for the brief time she had herself.

  Hyath didn’t even pin. All that took romise.

  With a cast of [Shadowed Graves], Harmony stood o Hyath, spitting distance of the bastard. “You do the honors.”

  Hyath spat out his toriking the snake in the eye. Barely a hit, but enough to t. The shadows above and below meant they could escape if needed.

  The giant snake's eyes shot open. Its jaws opened wide with a loud angry hiss. Harmony had avoided the head, as it would be the most sensitive spot. It struck. At least it tried, body trapped in a hardened immobile shell of its own skin.

  “Gweh, gweh, gweh!” Hyath ughed in the face of what could be sidered an apex predator to him as much as he’d been for the locust.

  The guardian vibrated with rage, its invulnerability tig down. All it could do is vibrate.

  A well-executed pn was a wonderful thing. [Manipute Dead] ripped away the weakest scales around the target’s head. Frost formed at the neancer’s fiips [Cold Touch] ready for extended use. “I’ll try not to make this st too long. Let the chill numb any pain.” Her tone held zero pity, but there was no point in being cruel. Hyath tio ugh as Harmony approached to finish it off. Hyath could be cruel enough for both of them if needed.