Kit Falbo
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MwN Chapter Thirty-Eight
🕑 Added 2024-09-04 15:15:55 +0000 UTCChapter Thirty-Eight
The champion’s entrance had it all. Shorter lines, fancier doors, and access to specialty areas like the guilds viewing room; other entities had rooms of differing sizes, including the United Gym Alliance, the Hazeldown University Alumnists, and even Lady’s Coodly’s garden party had a small viewing room. All ringside seats, special rooms at ground level, where the masses sat above in the stadium’s seats. Even the competitors didn’t get such a view, needing to emerge from tunnels below for their entrances. The underground section was part of the dungeon’s domain, better for training and getting mentally prepared to fight.
The necromancer could feel the death-laced tendrils of the domain stroking the soles of her feet. In her opinion, the dungeons area stopped an inch above the ground on purpose, or the whole structure sunk after construction. It was not a feeling she particularly wanted today. If anyone made her feel like she was being watched, weighed, and measured, it was Old Bones.
Even as Harmony’s feet itched, she kept quiet as she followed the Lady Coodly through the gilded corridors and painted frescos of past pet battles. A dragon-like lizard with its fiery tail fighting a plant turtle hybrid. The house boys might have been able to name the beasts and even the year they fought, but she could merely admire it as they walked quickly by. This was not how she pictured her first visit to the Colosseum.
The guild’s box shocked her. The room had no wall to block views of the matches, and the wind and rumble of the crowds drifted in. Dozens of unique thrones faced the arena, thrones of gems, metals, bone, and wood, each carved as a symbol of the multi-kingdom spanning organization’s power. The number of people here milling about those art pieces surprised her. She’d expected this to be a bidding war between Hemlock, Lady Coodly, Duke Darren, and Princess Rose, and even then, not much of one.
Even if Harmony didn’t recognize everyone there, the sense of personal power in the room was overwhelming. People of power, those who even skipped the masquerade, milled about. Commission head Serena Vale idly chatted up Lady Somerset, Lady Coodly’s sometimes rival in the garden club. Giovanni, who headed the loose alliance of gyms, laughed at some joke guild master Hemlock was telling him. Lennon, who ran the religious temples. Professor Dunphy, she recognized as he gestured wildly, had to represent the college with a nervous Len at his side.
The maid assured herself that this was because the guild master rarely opened the guild’s room at the Colosseum. They were here more for that and the semi-finals than any minor employee contract auction. Inside, one of her bonds throbbed. Harmony kept herself from muttering, “Oh, no.” It wasn’t associated with the toad or knight at her side. Her eyes flickered briefly to a tall masked man acting as a bodyguard to some merchant baron she didn’t recognize, the mask was a black hood common among mercenaries to hamper inspection skills, but she knew the dazzlingly pretty face under that mask, and the idiot who wore it. He was only a dozen paces away from the duke and princess hunting for his corpse.
A slight jabbing feeling brought her back into her body. Astel offered her a glass of the wine being served. The poking had to have been from some skill. Harmony managed to not flush from embarrassment and accepted the drink. The refreshment represented that she was not here for this party as a maid. She was a resource to be bartered for and an individual free to be themselves at this social event. The attention burned into her as the eyes started to linger in her direction, analyzing today’s prize. Lifting the glass, she swallowed more than a mouthful of the wine and made her way into the crowd.
Rose swung by first, “I’m confident in my chances. Even if the Duke takes the rings from his fingers, I’ll have more funds.”
Lem approached nervously after, “That madman dragged me here to assist him even as I was packing my room. Says you’re the type of cleaning lady with the right mindset to clean his lab. The man creates nightmares, and sometimes they get loose.” He finished with a shudder.
Guild master Hemlock approached, and the short man in his all-white outfit smiled. “You’re up for a Challenge today,” he said with a hint of eagerness, then drifted away as quickly as he’d arrived.
Astel kept her glass full, and Harmony did her best to be short and polite with potential employers. The heads of merchants, associations, and businesses all efficiently stepped forward to check out the maid. Sometimes she could feel a skill inspect her. Other times it was just their eyes.
The trumpets announcing the start of the opening ceremony for the semi-finals was a relief as it ended the constant stream of introductions, but that was when the hollow Duke stepped in with a cruel eager smile on his face. “Chance was not your friend. Be grateful you have a use.”
Harmony ignored him, watching Serene Vale step through the viewing threshold and onto the sandy combat grounds. People started to grab seats. Harmony chose the bone one, hoping it would settle the ache inside her with its sympathetic link to her necromancer class. If there had been a throne for a maid profession, she would have taken that one, but with how long today was turning out to be, any fraction of easing was a goal. Tyler sat to her right and tried to give her a comforting look. Lady Coodly watched the show from her left.
Flashes of red and blue sparks swirled over Serene Vale’s head as she walked towards the center. They coalesced into a projection of her floating at the center of the Colosseum. It was a bit of magic, not unlike what Ambrosia’s band had done for their concert, allowing the audience to get a better view of the commission head.
“Welcome to the semi-finals of the companion championship. Here the best of Hazeldown’s region will compete to battle in the capitol, where courageous trainers show how far their bonded pets can advance. Now for the Commision anthem, fresh from the streets, the rising stars of Hazeldown, Songstress, and the Flows.”
The band shimmered into existence as Serene made her way back. The necromancer’s thoughts froze in shock. This was the last place she expected Ambrosia.
A soft beat started to rise as Grohl began to tap his drum.
“This is for you, Harmony White!” Ambrosia announced. Dedications weren’t unusual, usually for a competitor or former champion.
Fel’s smirk replayed in Harmony’s mind. Who needs enemies when you have friends.
Then the songstress started to sing. “They want to be the very best….”
Harmony expected some kind of twist. An act of defiance from her friend against the system that the best tamer viciously criticized for taking advantage of pets. But no. The crowd clapped along as all the bandmates showed off their talents. It was that classic song about catching, training, teaching with battles, fighting, and victory.
“...your dream!” the beast tamer finished to a roaring crowd and her shocked friend. The band shimmered out the same way they shimmered in. The illusion of them disappearing signaled the start of the competition.
The announcers yelled to hype up the crowd. “In our first match, we have a rare growth pet that starts extremely weak and only through difficult and dangerous training. Welcome, Ree, the living ward.”
A geometric symbol floated up and into view. It glowed with arcane blue energy and shifted between symmetrical shapes, squares, triangles, and stars, flashing complex designs as the lines of its body transformed. The crowd cheered.
“Opposing him, physical to Ward’s ethereal, everyone’s favorite pet rock, Ferris.”
The earth elemental that strode out was an uncommon version of a common pet that some dungeon divers used. Iron veins streaked a rocky eyeless body. The pets were great for crushing shamblers, pulping piles of flesh, and shattering bone. Harmony figured every pet had trained against them, so one making it this far meant either it was amazing or the beast tamer behind it was.
“You don’t need to watch that.”
Harmony turned to the voice. “Ambrosia?”
“One of the perks of being the musical guests. You get to hang with the elites, though we’re somewhere above the servants and below them. You know I wouldn’t miss seeing you today.”
The crowd roared, and the necromancer glanced back at the battle. A projection of the contestants floated above the actual melee. Considering that is what happened when Serene announced the start and the band playing Harmony figured it was built into the Colosseum. Ree, the living ward, was getting rocked by boulderous fists whistling through the air. Blue sparks flashed every time there was a clash against the floating shape.
“Ree is going to win. Some of these matches are pointless. “The beast tamer commented disdainfully.
Harmony wondered if they weren’t watching the same match as the ward barely seemed able to do anything as it got smacked back and forth by full-strength strikes. Ferris’s strikes weren’t getting any stronger. Was Ree getting worn down? Outside of being pushed around, the ward didn’t appear to be taking any damage. It almost charged into the swinging fists. Why she didn’t see it sooner, it was like fighting a skeleton. You could batter it about but, eventually, get into trouble unless you manage to break it. “I see.”
“You feeling okay, Harm?”
Anyone else asking, and she would have lied. “Unsettled. Change is happening. I hate feeling at the center of it.”
Ambrosia seemed happy at that response, not the hug and sympathetic petting Harmony expected. There would be time to call her out on that later. With a little bit of [Manipulate Dead], She tugged on her friend’s hair.
“Ow.”
That was more than a little childish, but the necromancer wasn’t in the mood for her friend’s amusement. All she wanted was to get through the next few rounds of pet battles, find out who her new employer was, and have her idiot of a pet not be discovered. With the prince on her mind, she probed her primal bond with her pet allowing her gaze to flick to the masked Prince Adric chatting up the fiddler Stiriling. The petite girl felt his muscular arm with looks of admiration. Harmony wished the woman would drag him away to some private room to get him away from his sister, who sat not twelve paces away on a pink quartz throne. The employment contract had days off written so she could confront Ambrosia and him properly later.
Searching for a distraction, Harmony switched to watching the fight. Watching the blows until Ferris missed. That brief reprieve was all it took for Ree’s pattern to shift. With it, a wave of kinetic energy stored in him shot out, snapping the rock elemental in half at the middle where the legs met the base. The crowd reacted to the sudden shift of fortune.
“Ree took what he was given and returned it back. Those who recognize ward work will notice that it was in a simple defensive mode to negate and store some kinetic energy. Clearly, Ferris couldn’t handle it when the living ward changed to transference mode to give back all the punishment it had been taking. We’re getting a report from the training stations that Ferris’s master is conceding the match.” The announcer called out.
A crew moved out to clear the area for the next match. A geomancer used his powers to clear out the severed limbs, dragging them away with magic while carefully staying outside the area projecting to the audience. Harmony supposed that could be her new job, maid of the arena. Selene was here for the auction. She could be spending her days dragging dead bits of pets off the sand as the dungeon’s presence nipped at her heels. As unlikely as that was, it gave her a concrete image of a potential future to focus on.
The next match moved into the field. A living swarm of hive-minded white blood-sucking worms surged like a tide to face a mystical stag whose antlers sparkled with blue light. As thrilling as the match promised to be, Harmony wasn’t into it. Her future was about to be decided, and even as the elites watched the combat, she could feel the focus on her.
An item for their collection, not unlike Lord Tyler’s nicknacks, but people. Many would be contemplating preventing her from going to some rival. That would almost be ideal, someone who only put value into the idea of her and wouldn’t look deeper. Between the duke, the princess, and the guild master, that wouldn’t happen. Each seemed confident in their plans.
Violent flashes of combat flashed in front of her. White worms scattered and exploded. The stag cried in pain as some of the swarm latched onto its haunch.
The necromancer’s mind brushed the action away and dissected what the big buyers wanted from her. The typical pettiness of the duke due to being rebuffed when he felt it was his time to shine and the sweet revenge he craved. The princess’s guilt at not being honest when honesty wouldn’t have gotten her anything. The guild master’s focus is on the dungeon and using its interest in her as a way to interact with it. They all had expectations and ideas about who and what she was, and she could feel that attention. It itched even if it meant they’ll overpay for her contract enough that she could probably buy a house by the time class and profession evolution happens. Maybe Ambrosia’s un-asked for help to increase her popularity for a bigger payday out of this mess wasn’t bad. That smug look in response to her discomfort still deserved that hair tug.
When Colin was declared the winner, Harmony was too focused on her thoughts to figure out if that was the stag or hive-mind. No matter the outcome, she knew Ambrosia wouldn’t abandon her. Hyacinth would always be at her side. Her moronic pet Adric wouldn’t stay away when she wanted him to, though, at this point, it was a relief to be able to keep an eye on him. Two more matches before her turn to be the center of attention, a little [Poise and Bearing] for that, and then she could deal with the fallout after. Logic had everything be a simple step forward, but then why did she feel like she was walking toward the edge of a cliff?
A giant silver ape slammed a three-headed goose half the size of a house into the ground. The force sent a wave of dust about the arena. Barrier magic blocked the dust from entering the rooms.
The unusual hydra’s heads honked with fury, and a skin-tingling skill effect radiated out, covering the whole arena with a hint of forced fear. [Hail the Hyd-goose] was in effect.
The outside skill’s influence drew a quick response from the necromancer as she removed the foreign effect on her mind. The animal’s skill was designed to make you extremely wary. How little it affected her current state of mind before she shrugged it off implied she was as already in that state. She watched everyone else’s behavior changes from the pet’s skill.
In his masked bodyguard guise, Prince Adric leaned away from Stiriling and let his hand go to his weapon as he shot Harmony a Look. The fiddler, for her part, draped herself more on the man.
“It’s an honor to be Harmony’s friend,” Ambrosia replied more than a little forced and an octave too loud as she chatted up a guest.
The duke laughed nervously. Hemlock seemed unaffected, which wasn’t shocking. Rose’s hand gripped a coin purse until her knuckles turned white. Each relaxed some as they shook off the effect.
Harmony returned to the fight, and the silver ape lessened its grip on the three-headed goose as skills’ effects caused it to hesitate.
The bird beast exploded out of the grapple when it loosened enough for it to act, its heads snapping viciously.
“A Penalty mark has been given to Quackenbeast for that skill usage. While not a restricted or damaging skill, if anyone feels faint, feel free to consult a medic at an aid station.” The announcer relayed to the crowd, sounding a little shaken himself.
Regardless of the penalty mark, Quackenbeast’s three heads took advantage of the skill, honking and using crushing bites on the slightly disoriented opponent. The crowd started shaking off their wariness and roared at the violence. The goose’s three heads moved as one and latched onto the ape-like pet’s arm, biting down with such might that a crack could be heard as the arm’s bone snapped.
“Julioso has conceded! Julioso has conceded! It’s an upset of epic proportions!” The announcer cried.
The audience also went wild at this news. The roaring settled as the crew came out to help the wounded pets away. “As part of the mid-match festivities, guild master Hemlock and Duke Darren Gnomstock will have a special announcement. So be sure to keep in your seats.” The announcer added to little fanfare for those in the general populace seating.
Those awaiting the auction in the guild’s colosseum suite reacted differently as chatter rose. Lady Coodly looked past Harmony to Lord Tyler sitting on the opposite side. “Do you know what’s going on here?” She asked him with more than a bit of irritation.
Selene, the commissioner, marched grim face straight over to Hemlock and started chewing him out in a whisper. However, her face was screaming with anger.
Princess Rose merely glared at the Duke.
Professor Dunphy excitedly talked to Len, who was pailing as the conversation continued.
Harmony felt relieved the attention was not on her. The mysterious announcement close to the time of her auction was unusual. Would that happen before or after? She imagined her contract being purchased and then made an example for those in attendance. “Lady Coodly, can my employment auction be after the announcement?” She asked her employer.
“I’m sure the pair of them are trying to muddy the water, but your instincts about being better to know what is going on first is right. You can’t compete with the unknown, and if someone is scared away from bidding on you due to whatever words those two have, then they didn’t deserve you in the first place.” The matriarch said firmly.
“Of course, m’lady.” She let [Poise and Bearing] keep her stead but felt anything but that.
