It’s just a jump to the left. The guards stepped in, colliding into Xera’s right. The metal hands struck at her hips. As Alex tackled one around the knees, tight. It did little to slow their barbaric thrusts. That’s when the battle got insane.
Chronostasis provided a warped view of time as the team tried to react to how quickly the fight started with the guards' single-minded focus on Xera. The leftward hop had prevented Harmony from getting run over after Tasha sent off what were essentially warning shots, for all the good it did in stopping the metal-covered monsters.
Tun-Knee wasn’t so lucky as he got knocked over and wrapped in a [Restraint].
They weren't ready to face two guards, and the link she had with Xera relayed that the young girl was in danger of moderate physical harm, but nothing deadly. It was enough that Harmony felt her skills get boosted somewhat. Too bad silence prevented her from practicing with it, as that [Command] skill had come as the fight started.
Tasha was forced to [Sit] from the other guard’s skill, which had her floating in the air on her butt, as it didn’t negate whatever levitation effect the redhead was using.
That left Xera facing two opponents almost alone. Alex tried to peel one off while receiving incidental backhanded blows and getting thrown about. Until he reached the proper strength, Alex, in either bear or human form, was getting pulled along for the ride as he grabbed a kicking leg or arm, trying to stop it.
A shame-filled lesson, it was easy to imagine what could have been if they’d gone after someone lightly armored or underprotected. Xera’s expensive armor took the blows, but the rhythmic clang eventually knocked her arm out of its socket even as the pattern on the metal chipped and cracked. And that all happened before the delay skills the guards used on the team wore off.
Tasha’s recovery had a massive metal ball removing one of the guard’s heads. Tun-knee had Xera’s skills snap back into place, her shield blocking the next several blows. Alex, frustrated and angry, roared and transformed into the biggest bear since he’d gotten close with his inner beast, bursting out of his armor and ripping the headless guard to the ground, where his mouth crunched around the command crystal and ripped it out after finding the strength he needed
“Meep,” Hyacinth warned through [Familiar Bond], their watch-toad still on task at the far end near the entrance.
Good. [Beautician] got to work with the make-up skills she had picked up around the dramatic. The fight had the team look a little a mess, except for the redhead, so Harmony ignored her, except to add a splash of blood to her clothes as she added extra signs of wear, tear, and exhaustion, even to her clothes with a little cut on her cheek she caused herself as the team hacked apart the final guard. Couldn’t have the team looking too competent.
Harmony moved forward, and with one hand on Xera's shoulder, she popped it back into its socket as the second dungeon monster fell. Still, that danger-sense rang through their link. Three sources of malicious intent that were strong enough to cause Xera harm.
A thin shield of [Final Silence], created to dampen sound, surrounded the group as Harmony worked her skill with flexibility. “We’ve got the uninvited guests. Hyacinth counted ten, who will be here shortly.”
Alex shifted to a near-naked giant man. He’d start to shrink unless he continued transforming back and forth. “Ten? I expected five at most.” Worry weighted his voice.
Tasha didn’t say anything, but her smile widened a little bit, which wasn’t the response Harmony expected.
“Against such a force, any level of aggressive defense would be acceptable.” Tun-knee counseled.
The rules of self-defense for The Academy agreed that students had the right to defend themselves against overwhelming odds, be it levels or numbers. Discussions with Becca had been informative. In that fight between her and Julie Gottman, the older student would have been forced to attempt to restrain her because she had more than twenty combined levels on Harmony, but if the situation had been reversed, Harmony could have used any skills necessary to survive. Professor Flint's intervention had stopped that from being needed.
In places like Oorty’s Tomb, where help wasn’t easily called on, the threshold for lethal resistance was lowered. But Harmony didn’t want bodies. At least not today, other days probably, today, no. She wanted answers.
“Xera, I have one question. Am I in any danger?”
“No, but Harmony, they might not be close enough for that.” The young defender answered.
There could be differences in their sensitivities? Harmony didn’t understand exactly what caused the effect that decided danger was enough to send the link into action, but it probably wasn’t too far off between the two of them. And if this wasn’t dangerous to her? She’d planned for five. She’d planned for ten. She’d even planned for twenty, letting Hyacinth loose and Adric respond to her calls.
While relaying where the ambushers were coming from, with hints of who from [Familiar Bond], Hyacinth let her know the time for talking was nearly up. Don’t let any escape. She ordered, knowing it would cost her.
The blood red sickle ripped through the distance, cutting through the barriers in the domain to teleport to her hand. With [Style and Grace], she turned to address those who’d chosen to interrupt her dungeon run. Instead of adding death, erasure, authority, servitude, or renewal, Harmony kept her voice solid and conversationally pleasant. “Kevin Azim Tyrell, Rem, shouldn’t you be with the rest of your group and not here? Garry and Don, I know I ended our tutoring sessions, but there was no need to surprise me here?”
They couldn’t fool Hyacinth's nose if he’d met them. Whatever stealth system the students used ended as the ten students and two pets shimmered into a group of an even dozen.
“Kevin!” Xera gasped, outraged at the quartus’s presence.
“Isn’t that the kid whose arm you ripped off, Knollen?” Tasha asked Alex.
Alex transformed into a bear and roared, causing the boy to flinch.
Kevin stepped up as the voice of the ambushers; his solid gold armor gleamed the same sheen as his skin. When he spoke, Harmony found his authority broad and thin, with the undertone of a lord who knew they were right. “Every year, the rankings need a forced correction. It’s in the numbers. Even now, Pillar Flint has requested an audit of Miss White’s ranking to be delivered in the morning. We’re here to make sure that’s not needed. All you need to do is let her perish and swear an oath not to speak of it. White, you may face Oorty’s Tomb if you wish for an easier path and save your friends from death.” The quartus tried to add some sympathy to his voice.
“You said we could have her when you were done with her. “ Garry hissed, trying to keep quiet, but not enough to avoid Harmony’s ears.
Rotting gross.
It was Tun-Knee that burst out laughing first, his ears twitching since he clearly heard that request too, “This is grr-rreat. Prey coming to play with us after teasing the darkness.”
Alex lost what little was left of his clothes as a golden aura surrounded him, and he fully transformed into the bear he once was, his face snarling with anger at the threats now fully the bear they had trained with.
The complete lack of reaction by Tasha as she floated there casually, eyes shifting to each new target as one might review flowers to pick, felt too placidly unworried.
Xera’s voice had a touch of wonder in the question she asked Harmony, “Why are you not in danger?”
“She’s ABSOLUTELY in Danger!” Kevin screamed, face reddening at how the attention was shifting off of him.
What made her special? Plenty of people were smart and worked hard. Hidden adjective? Problematic heart? Special body? Unique armor? All flavors and benefits she’d seen in one for or another elsewhere. Only a tertiary in the rankings, and she’d rubbed elbows with other years' chosen nine at The Warden’s Rest. For levels and numbers, this should be risky. Kevin understood this, but Kevin could go fornicate with himself.
“The real question is, Why are you so weak?” Harmony asked, letting the full force of her desire to solve his problem coat her words.
Behind the ambushing group of twelve, a large black shadow grew. It loomed over them, blocking off the entire way out, a girthy plug whose large, speckled eyes glowed as he opened them. The room shook from his deep “Heh, Heh, heh.” The show off. But that flinch created the opening.
[Stride Before the Fall]. Harmony didn’t even need to use silence as she appeared in front of Garry and Don naked. The idiots ruled by their little brains deserved pain for being here. Shocked ogling gave her time to grab them by their necks and slam their heads together and begin breaking their skills. Three skills and they’d slip into shock. Oh, the experiences gained on the operating table.
Alex ripped off two arms from the boy whom he’d dismembered before. Ouch.
Four got pegged by Tasha’s spheres, for none of them were as fast as floor guards.
Tun-knee as support was having the roughest time, but Harmony kicked off to help deal with who he was tackling and cripple those who had their chests caved in by Tasha’s balls. While this was happening, no one noticed as the wall behind them opened and a large tongue grabbed three people, pulling them in. Harmony reminded Hyacinth not to chew lightly and not to swallow.
Xera grappled with Kevin, and Harmony felt the emotional danger hit. That danger she’d felt every time the pair had hung out during class. The poor girl had been growing a crush on the golden-skinned boy. “You were supposed to be my consort!” She yelled as she layered her projected armor, locking her hands into his.
“Only if you were worthy, and yet you associate with this error! Linking to them.” He yelled back.
They exchanged more words as Xera’s heart broke. The collapsed bodies around them, including the mangled pile Hyacinth spit out, made their yelling the only noise now echoing in the first floor of the tomb. Harmony approached, pushing the boosted [Poise and Bearing] with [Keen Investigative Awareness] to find the right words, while a boosted [Final Silence] shut Kevin up. The silence allowed the quartus one quick glance at the failed ambush around him before Xera’s clashing skills crushed him to the floor.
“It’s over. You won. You’ll find better. This is one end we’ve faced together, and we will face more.”
Harmony wrapped the sobbing fourteen-year-old girl in a hug as the team gathered up their victims. Tun-knee and Tasha focused on securing them. Three were dead, dead, still, their heads were intact, mostly,
Knowing she didn’t have all day to console Xera, Harmony ordered the girl to help secure the prisoners with her shields and got to work on those bodies, working to put things back together, physically adjusting them with her knowledge of anatomy and using [Manipulate Dead], and [Disintegrate] on any bits that needed removal. It was almost perfect that she had an excuse to try this out on humans instead of gnomes. And with no Marci to worry about killing the injured ones, or needing the extra stress of trying this on her teammates for the first time, she was able to slip into focus quickly.
Alex was back to his human form, a spare red robe covering him, one he’d brought for exactly this kind of emergency. “What are you doing, Harmony? He asked.
“I’m a healer.” She informed him.
“But they’re dead?” Alex answered
“A revivalist.”
“Necromancy is forb..”
Harmony held up her hand, stopping him from finishing that sentence. While she was technically using some of that. This was all something that an experienced enough healer with the right combination of skills could do. [Mend], [Renew Spirit]. and [Cold Touch] got to work. It helped that she didn’t want them fully functional in case any of them decided to fight back, as the first experiment gasped back to life.
“Gods and bones!” Alex cursed.
“I’ve got two more that are less damaged, one of which you ripped both the arms off of. I’ll probably need a blood donation from someone.”
“He was dead.” Alex insisted.
“Not for long enough. We’re all sturdier than you think, and people's souls don’t fully depart even. You act like people don’t take the recently deceased to be healed.” Harmony quipped as she mended the first arm back on. The bear hadn’t been gentle, so there was extensive tissue damage as well.
“They don’t.” Alex insisted.
That almost caused Harmony to stop. She knew people did get revived quickly, in the heat of battle, triage, and a lot of potions. The shock to a heart back to beating again was common, and people acquired second-chance skills and abilities at high levels or as part of their body types. The Ascendant Games saved people from death, so why couldn’t she? It should be common. Bloody, why not? Rather than ask a question the man probably didn’t know, she worked, reconnected bones, vessels, and muscles.
Things to look into after they dealt with the consequences returning would bring them, but at least they would return with no one dead.