Chapter Eighty TwoA pre-dawn departure. Len groaned as he saddled his horse and muttered. "The wildest theories are necessary."

  Lord Tyler moved slowly to get Sparky ready, shuffling while still not fully awake.

  Thorne, Rose, and Harmony got even less sleep as they worked to make everything perfect. The goal was to slip by any potential ambush, and hope they didn't need their backup pn. Thorne had some trinkets that would help obscure scrying and inspection skills.

  The guards lent a scroll that could be used to give the whole group a burst of endurance but their steeds would pay for it ter.

  None of the boys noticed the switch-up. Rose wore a perfume most days so switching scents was easy. Hargreaves, for all Harmony’s personal annoyance about his assertiveness the other day, pyed his role perfectly. The fewer the people that knew the better.

  It was early enough that there were enough natural shadows that [Shadowed Graves] wouldn't be needed for Hyacinth if he was here. The shadow toad was already scouting ahead. Harmony suspected because he could more zily travel forward without the need to press quickly. A good ambush was great, but what essentially was a grueling sprint was abhorrent to him.

  “Rose is having a tough time dealing with being the focus of the attack. She's usually not so tense and pushy. I hope you don't hold that against her.” Adric commented partway into the journey, twisting around to talk to Harmony as she held onto his back.

  This wasn't the time to burden him with her currently low opinion of his sister. Adric deserved that time with an actual friendly family member in Benji. And now, well, They were going to be attacked soon.

  Hyacinth had signaled through [Familiar Bond] that he'd found a lingering scent of men and women. As hidden as they tried to be, hiding completely from that apex hunter was hard. The slight spike in angry authority as they got nearer had her skills starting to agitate, confirmed it was them.

  “Circle Rose. They're here!” She ordered Adric.

  This had been the debate st night as [Beautician] worked its magic. Would they attack again, and what would the group do if they did? Waiting in the fort hadn’t been an option. They’d already shown they could stir up dangerous spirits of the Deadwoods, and Harmony had pces to be. More importantly, was the question of what were the goals of these mysterious attackers? Stop the bonding to Hargreaves, with his murky shrouded history of bonding Highsmythes and barring that kill Rose? Except that wasn’t right. They’d sent too many with the risk of being noticed. A kidnapping as the backup pn made more sense. They’d be prepared to deal with both Thorne and Hargreaves if they were to attempt it again. With the need to keep the pn private, this was their girly secret.

  All the information the boys got was to circle up and protect Rose when given the order. Everyone but Adric dismounted as he had the only mounted combat skills and training. The horses and Sparky all had training to stay nearby unless directly attacked.

  [Shadowed Graves] stretched out. Hargreaves created a shield around Thorne, Rose, and himself. Len set up spells. Spectral fmes rose from Tyler’s armor. Max waited with his bde out.

  The ruined ambush ahead turned into an assault as the attackers switched tactics and charged. They'd abandoned the obscurement area effect to personal charms, not unlike the choker Harmony had worn to the Feast of Talents.

  There was no way to face the assault without breaking the circle and forming a loose wall.

  Most of the first wave of incoming ranged spells fshes uselessly against Len's defense and his geist's telekinetic blocks.

  This wasn't the kind of fight where they'd wear them down with range attacks and the unknown attackers rushed forward for close combat.

  ***

  Why wasn't Jessica taking this seriously? The spirit ughed as she stood in the corner of Tyler’s vision, more than a little distracting as she stood there without a lick of clothes in a body made of light and fire. Evolution hadn't solved that problem. What it had done was make his body harder to damage, he'd be the iron door blocking their way.

  The vanguard of the attackers rushed into range. This was going to hurt. [Taunt]. The front ten attackers shifted their attention to Tyler.

  ***

  Max pushed the scraping noise coming from the spirit prison away. Saccerate wanted out to py. It had been too soon since the chaos spirit possessed a body. The boost in strength it gained the st time from its victim had allowed it to tweak his [Chaos Seed] before he managed to corral it again.

  That didn't do much except push thoughts of modifying new skills into his head. Not everything could turn sour like [Oath] had? Not The kind of encouragement he wanted or needed. And he didn't need a distraction now as what had to be two dozen came in skills fshing. This organized defense would fall. Time to go crazy.

  As the ten frontmost attackers shifted their attention to Tyler. Max activated [Dashing Strike] and rushed into the crowd.

  With all his practice Max managed not to fall face-first when the silence hit him. He braced himself for an attack. Instead, the attacker ahead leaped over him, spshing Hargreaves's barrier with a liquid that started to eat it.

  ***

  Bowe and Adric were not having a good time. Three rooting Spells strapped the two to the ground. While attackers darted around them. He feared death, but not in the same way now that he experienced it once.

  ***

  Harmony found herself simirly assaulted moments into the battle. When the silence she was hit was a blessing as all those cranky skills quieted. It did leave her vulnerable. A spool of ribbon shot out as an attack and wrapped her up, complete with a cute bow.

  Two attackers passed Harmony, but not without a passing swing as a club into her side. [Poise And Bance] had managed to keep her standing despite those restraints until that point and she toppled over.

  A woman glided over. “I voted that we take care of you now, Lady White. But the proposal was rejected as not worth the trouble.”

  The barrier broke and Hargreaves let out a howl that sent Harmony's skinny crawling. The real gut punch hit as silence ended and her skills woke up with a painful fury. [Mana Rotation] boosted [Shadowed Graves] To get the darkness to spread quicker with a new application of the field-level skill. [Manipute Dead] with [Beautician] modified her nails into bdes to cut herself free.

  “Hyacinth, rescue the princess!”

  The toad popped up out of the shadows a short distance away from the dissolving barrier. With the flick of a skill, a spotlight hit the familiar. No damage but Hyacinth was highlighted by a light-based skill that followed him as he hopped, burning off any shadow he could jump through, even Harmony's magically produced ones.

  “We know all your little tricks.” The woman said with an obscured smile on her face.

  Harmony opened Her mouth and spat light into the woman's eyes. They didn't know that one. Nails shredded the rest of the ribbon while the woman stumbled back blind.

  Harmony used her soul sight, sorely tempted to break one of the attacker's skills. What was she looking at? And poof the woman was gone.

  “Rose!” Adric Cried.

  The attackers teleported out with their prize in tow.

  Without waiting for the dust to settle, Harmony turned toward the aftermath. Only one of the guild horses remained. Sparky was Tucked safely into his shell. Tyler Looked like he'd been run over by a herd of Mossifants.

  Max and Len looked defeated. Adric was cutting the roots that pinned Bowe to the ground. And trapped in a crystal prison the spitting image of Thorne in her gear. It worked! The guild mistress had been right about the options they’d use to neutralize her. Now they only needed to get her out.

  “What’s girl talk?” Tyler asked, spitting blood and chugging a potion.

  “Huh?”

  “Jessica keeps jumping up and down, yelling about girl talk and needing to move. The jumping is distracting.”

  “Oh?” Tyler’s bonded spirit had been spying on them during the makeover. She would have thought her necromantic sense would have alerted her. “How fast is Sparky? I need you to grab that crystal and haul as fast as you can to Naewauld.”

  “Thorne?”

  “That’s Princess Rosaline with a makeover. We need to move before they realize their mistake!”

  All Credit to Tyler, he jumped into action, as he pulled the crystal prison out of the ground.

  Hargreaves started to re-collect one piece at a time, reforming from whatever had been used to shatter him. “Greater banishment. Nasty stuff. His eyes nded on the imprisoned Rosaline. Why aren’t you moving, Go!” Spectral chains shed the crystal to the side of the snail and Tyler jumped on kicking it to speed.

  The undead servant's eyes turned to Harmony. “If you would?”

  How impertinent. He'd asked if he could deal with her at the camp and now he was demanding, well, she knew what he wanted. Harmony switched to soul sight anyway. He really had been blown to pieces, but he was healing. [Renew Spirit], [Hend,], [Manipute Dead] all worked to get him back together quicker. There was an old scar on one of his very tasty skills. She buffed that out some, but not without the old spirit flinching. The skill didn't reactivate but maybe it could over time. “You owe me. “

  His response was a very servant-like half-shrug. The kind you got when you did a favor for a coworker. It was the first time she’d seen the ancient butler be anything but the image of perfection. Then he adjusted his suit and became all business as he zoomed off, flying a foot over the ground after his charge.

  “We should get going too.” Adric insisted, and with a twist scooped Harmony up and slung her behind him. They headed off.

  With only one horse between them, Len had to ride holding onto Maxwell's waist. It would be a race against the clock of them discovering they took the wrong person.