Chapter Fifty-FourHarmo [Shadowed Graves] end as the brood mother’s body dropped. Soul strike had improved uhe shadows it cast, but not enough to punch through the fluardian’s defense against that kind of attack. The most pleasant surprise had been how deaths uhe effect returned some of the energy she lost keeping the spell in pce. Just enough that she could hold perpetual shadows as she rushed through the first floor killing woozes.

  “Groak.” Hyath pined.

  “You’ll get enough of a workout ohird floor. Just keep practig tricks with the shadows.”

  As He’d gotten bigger it had been harder for him to find shadows that were appropriate for him to move through. Harmony would have taken this skill just for the utility it gave him if she had known the effebsp; It’s the sedary fear-based aspect that was trouble.

  Bates immediately suggested the guild and Thorne. Field skills were more likely post-evolution, and his experien Naewauld had given him enough background to know what to do. Training was scheduled, and notices were distributed over the area that would be affected. The bes of having a membership.

  How could an effect that gave everyone some version of the heebie-jeebies be useful on a battlefield? One has to look at the exceptions. Hyath seemed ued, sparse with information he hadn’t mentioned any bes, but if somethiive was annoying him he was crabby enough to pin. Adric thrived in it, but that could be chalked up to him being “undead.” Maxwell seemed ued as well as he practiced uhorne’s supervision. But the new agent of ge had avoided her outside of dropping off notes for st night's dinner guests. New oath issues or embarrassment over almost killing her? Actually killing her if [Stride Before the Fall] was a metric.

  es to her? That didn’t help the is and strangers forced u. Authority was a tenuous one, but that was their beliefs, and not everyone seemed to tribute to it. The note about researg authority had been gathering dust on the priority list. That wasn't something she could trol. What could she trol?

  The twiggys were affected by the fear. [Keen Iigative Awareness] was able to pick up subtle differences. Either extra frantiess in some aggression, a brief freeze when they crossed into the closest and stro effeaybe they’d scoot bae befaining what could be sidered fidend moving to attack again. The ohat tried to appease her had only been hi once, moving to bloother strike from the cluster of enemies from attag. Even then, after that o, she was fair game.

  It was weird. Theoretically, reas to fear were based on experiences or how someohought. These ubiquitous dungeon monsters should either all act the same, or be ued. There were implications there that could be accessed. [Manipute Dead] had been simir in the early days in how it affected dead material. The base usage chaotically ripped, twisted a dead material until it exploded. Randomness she’d trolled with time and effort.

  “Grack.” Hyath prodded from his spot on top of a pile of two soul-damaged twiggys and a mix of cut and limp virictor vines.

  “One more mihen I’ll be recharged enough to face the tree lord. I want to beat that coward as much as you do.”

  The risk of [Shadowed Graves] spooking the thunder roc well before they got in range was a worry. There were tingencies for that, but they weren’t pleasant. Tree first, then birds.

  [Stride Before the Fall]. Two Harmonies and ooad dashed toward the tree, dang around the vines. [Final Sileopped them and the crashing branches cold. The saw could have worked but Hyath was right, skip this. One Harmony joined Hyath, the inal with the healing patch, and survival gear. They leaped into the shadows. The tree tried to stop them like it always did. The soul strike that followed cracked through the defense allowing the pair to get past and tinue on.

  Oayed behind the choice of who stays a fone clusion. Just a sacrifice. The tree lord was waking up. Time to get wild. [Shadowed Graves] expahis time with [Cold Toubsp; synergized into the mix. A brief shivering chill paired with the shadow as it expahat wasn’t the aim. She leaned into the cept of freezing in the face of death, that fear chilling you so much it was hard to move. [Could Touch] out-leveled the baby skill too much, and she could feel even the darkness of it burn uhe application. That would take time to heal if it existed.

  Even damaged [Shadowed Graves] persisted long enough for Harmony to watch the great and powerful tree lord still out of fear. Was it luck? Or had she tapped into it? Only for a moment was it uhat spell. The branch came crashing down but she was already gohe choice made. [Stride] didn’t need levels like that right now and dying hurt.

  Having [Shadowed Graves] at only level two would be an issue. It would be stupid to break it agaiing synergies guide the way fear maed did have potential. Kind of like how she used [Beauti] with the trol of [Manipute Dead].

  The birds of the third floor should provide plenty of fuel for the skill though. Stepping up onto the grassy pne she unleashed her darkness as she gripped onto Hyath’s babsp; The great eagles and other birds prompted to attack were harder to see iarless dark.

  Hyath as a creature of shadows didn’t have that issue. Through [Familiar Bond] he reyed what was o her. He leaped and she used her skills to blow off their feathers sending them crashing to the ground. No longer did Hyath o jump as high with the range slightly increased for Harmony. That made for easier ndings but only slightly. The biggest ge was how the shadows rippled when they nded creating a cushion, or if need be a portal the shadow toad could slip through.

  A few times Hyath grabbed a free-falling bird with his tongue before it hit the ground, hastening their deaths and feeding himself.

  With the now mostly featherless birds dohere was but o oo plubsp; A ce, it still sat on its spot even after the dark had e. The giant toad sprinted forward, Harmony riding on his back for their run.

  The thunder roc fpped its wings and the first gust came. Just as it hit, Hyth slid into the shadows of the ground slipping under like it ool of water carrying her. Harmony’s new [Shadowed Graves] darkness was easier to slip into. They’d noticed the dungeoance was less as it had to test with her skill. It still kicked them out, but they mao get closer and serve momentum. Together they charged forward. When the sed bst of air came they slipped u too.

  Now Harmony was close enough to start strippihers, fog on the wings, determined not to let it escape and at least blunt its bst of wind. The bird squawked annoyed. Aric field charged the air, lightning sparked along its body, and where feathers were missing quasi-substantial feathers formed coating the house-sized bird.

  [Final Sileruck out. Those quasi-substantial feathers flickered… then stayed. “Bloody bsted. Pn B!”

  The guides were right. They usually were. Silence was extremely limited on the oversized chi. The rept feathers were resistant to it. It draihe guardian, but that didn’t matter if it got away. The third fp came and the pair slipped into the shadows again.

  The thunderous roched into the sky. ing up quick out of the ground she might be able to get a good [High Kick] in before it got too far away. Too bad for that coward that wasn’t what was going to happen.

  The shadows from [Shadowed Graves] coated not only the ground but the sky above. The shadows weren’t meant to be used like a pool of water, they were meant to be traveled through. This is where Hyath’s practi the other floors mattered. Extra straining effort and the pair popped out of the sky above the rising bird.

  Gravity carried her down and Harmony added its momentum to [High Kick] as she lept off of Hyath’s bad aimed her steel-booted heel down through the air at the bird. It didn’t see what hit it.

  Something broke as she nded with a crash where the ned body met causing the bird to squawk in surprise. Not enough, it was the size of a house. The electric field did more than give it wings. It jolted through Harmony enough that she bit her cheek and tasted blood. Still, she gritted through the stant pain, using the remaining fathers to create grips with [Manipute Dead]. Latched on, she was ready. Even the size of a house, the roc really felt it when the horse-sized Hyath crashed down.

  Harmony without those grips would have been thrown from the bird in how it bucked at that impact. The Shadow toad dug in with his spurs into its flesh even as he twitched against the field. Despite the assault the guardian tio rise, passengers on its back.

  They dug in for the long haul. Hyath raking with his sharp spurs. Harmony alternating strikes empowered by [High Kick] and [Cold touch], as well as stripping more feathers it was forced to repce with the electric effect.

  [Shadowed Graves] cost ticked away. [Mana Rotations] swirls stilled and she was forced to pull from herself. Die damn it.

  The bird ied, flipping one-hundred ay degrees until all the pair could do was hang on gripping with all their strength as they dangled above the ground. One of them would give out first. She forced ostasis on. Time slowed so Harmony could keep track of how muergy she had left. If the shadows failed first they’d have ara hard time nding. [Stride Before the Fall] sat ready and thankfully didn’t use mana. That was the value of the quantum bond in the skill.

  Two clocks rag against each other in a war of attrition. So close…. Electric feathers blinked out and now all the batants were falling. ’t… lose… the… shadows. Harmony pushed off towards Hyath, grabbing ba.

  They didn’t feel the impact as they slipped into the shadows, but when they emerged the ground was still shaking from it. That guardian’s death recharged her just enough to keep her from bottoming out. But pantingly she let [Shadowed Graves] stop and the sky brightened.

  Hyath y simirly exhausted beside her spread out on the grassy ground. “Grooooaak.” He groaned.

  “I agree. Toads were not meant to fly.”

  Besides the corpse, the third-floor exit opened up. A path doaired with a spiral of floating stairs rising up to the fourth floor. Harmony’s new skill reached level three. As for the fourth floor. They’d face that battle tomorrow. Today there was more training to be had at the guild facilities.