Chapter Eighty-Seven[Telescopic Superior Vision], does Rose have a skill like this? It was superior to the second skill the birds had to control their mass, but that was only because they were limited to making themselves lighter. [Wooze Sight] had it beat in Harmony's opinion

  “Gwahk.”

  “Oh, you like me lighter? I'm not that heavy when I'm riding on your back.”

  “Gwap.”

  “Fine. Are you ready for the chicken? I'm sure you'd rather not repeat the first three floors. Think of all the extra stairs.”

  Hyacinth coughed in disgust.

  With [Shadowed Graves] stretched above and and below the pair charged off to hunt the coward of the skies.

  Harmony was going to hurl and it was a question of how long she could hold it in. The thunder roc spiraled tightly as it flew. There was little they could do except hold on. This was Hyacinth's fault. His impact mauled one wing making it useless. A normal bird wouldn't be able to fly, but this one had a skill that overcame that issue, with only one wing it made for that tight stomach-wrenching spiral.

  [Poise and Bearing] combined with the experience of Adric’s swings was normally enough to combat dizziness and nausea. When she wished for [Wooze Sight] She didn't mean to get woozy sight. Her new vision skill was unmanageable and her other skills could not influence it with synergies or react to it properly with her physical skills. [Cimed] skills were too limited.

  Rather than suffer Harmony wrenched it out and hurled it into the wind. Relief Was immediate and repced by hunger. To satiate that she needed this bird cooked. Before you get to roasting you need to remove the feathers.

  Bald is beautiful. [Manipute Dead] and [Beautician] synergized to shave feathers off.

  The tight spiral was going to make the nding hard. Through [Familiar Bond] she conferred with Hyacinth and slowly made her way to him while she continued the de-feathering. The shocks were annoying as the guardian's defensive skill constantly zapped her. She'd been cooked enough that the healing patch went off renewing her.

  The roc dipped, losing altitude. Lower, lower, lower, and she leapt with Hyacinth, hand on his strap while the momentum sent them in slightly different paths, a boost of stamina allowed her to keep hanging on.

  Their crash was softer as they plugged into The shadows of [Shadowed Graves]. The more constrained shadow realm of the dungeon helped Hyacinth control their forces as he reemerged.

  Tackling the bird was always exhausting. The unnatural hunger pulled her up from that sprawled position and led her to the roc’s mangled and broken corpse. The bird had four skills. [Flight Assistance], that is what helped keep the roc in the air, for her she could jump and float at that height for a bit. [Phantom Feathers] that had Hyacinth rolling on the ground ughing. “No, I'm not keeping the chicken suit skill.”

  [Gust] was strong. That powerful circle of wind pushed everything away. Useful but not what she wanted.

  Harmony watched the yellow arcs of power spark between her fingers. [Electric Shell] “Perfect.”

  Taking care of the paralyzing pollen and the pnts that produced it was not an issue. None of their skills were interesting enough to try and after the horror of the second floor, it was not something she wanted to burn a [Stride] on. As much as Hyacinth helped with the locust swarm, she'd yet to get through this floor without them swiping at her. Today Would be different.

  [Electric Shell] covered her body as the first swarm moved in. The first one darted in, and moments before it hit her skin an arc of electricity spat out and zapped it. The bug fell to the floor twitching. The guides weren't going to be wrong but watching it was satisfying. Swarms fell to the zapping and she stomped on the fallen.

  Harmony cackled as she marched forward accompanied by pzzit of stunned locusts. She dropped the skill as she approached the sleeping guardian of the floor. It was time to package it up one final time.

  The binding of the bastard was not a quick process, but it was best to let sleeping monstrously giant snakes stay that way. Almost there, and in six more seconds [Stride] would be back up to complete the finishing touches.

  A stray fleck of pollen flew into Harmony’s nose. Not enough to paralyze her or do any damage. “Achoo!”

  The great uncontrolble sneeze. Involuntary spasming of muscles. But today Harmony had a new muscle that she was barely getting used to. A slight bit of stamina rippled through her body and it jostled [Cim the Remains of Power] and inside [Electric Shell] sparked. If she was a foot further away or had a little more control then nothing would have happened. As it was, a spark jumped off her fingertip and into the giant snake for a measly bit of damage.

  The big ass snake’s eyes snapped open and the world seemed to slow down as chronostasis kicked in. Was eighty percent good enough? History told her no. Not that it would have full movement. That would have been a disaster. It was, however, more heavily armored than when it started out. There were pns for this. Harmony kicked away just as the thrashing started and called Hyacinth to her.

  Perception returned to normal and she counted out the invulnerability as it thrashed and slowly cracked the not-thick enough shell she’d created around it. “Now!”

  The two slipped into the shadows for death from above. If Hyacinth could break that chicken’s back he could cave this snake's head in.

  Up above they dipped out of the sky into their deadly dive. The snake’s head tilted up and opened its mouth wide. Chronostasis kicked in a second time, so soon that it came with a fsh of blinding pain and slight wetness Harmony knew was blood out of her nose. As rge as the snake's head was it might not be able to swallow Hyacinth whole this time with him being so rge. He wasn’t repceable, so why risk it.

  [High Kick] shoved her familiar off target. [Stride Before the Fall], why did it have to be so literal this time? The skill paired a copy of her up with him. Now, while he moved out of the danger of being swallowed, she’d shoved him to nd on top of the middle of the bastard’s body. The first backup pn was now a bust.

  Giant monsters can swallow a person whole. Yeah, this was more common than people liked to admit. The heroic adventurer cuts their way out, an old cliche of fighting dungeon monsters. A stupid pn and one the hero didn’t usually survive. Harmony didn’t need to survive, but it didn’t make it any less idiotic or a failure, but even then one had to pn for failure.

  Quickly she drank the healing potion she had on her. Too many monsters healed when they swallowed someone and a potion broke in their mouths. Time sped up as she entered the snake's open maw. It was actually lucky that this was a snake. Most monsters liked to chew their food, or actually bite them into pieces before swallowing them. If she'd tried this technique with them she'd become a paste.

  Harmony’s nails morphed into cws. Stamina squeezed [Electric Shell] to full bst, damaging the [cimed] skill to get extra output. One small trick she’d learned while experimenting so far. And [Mana Rotation] sent [Cold Touch] into a deeper chill. Too bad she wasn’t big enough to actually choke this monster with her corpse. Time to put on the hurt before she died.

  Hyacinth crashed down on the hardened pte at the snake's midsection, multiple fractures already covering it from it breaking out of its incomplete prison. His oversized impact added a few more and sent blood squirting through the cracks. But outside of that collision, his spurs and mouth were unable to do more. He hopped off and into the darkness of [Shadowed Graves].

  The Harmony who was not trying to be the bitterest pill possible to swallow, nded with a thud on the snake's back; her impact might as well have been a light tap. Over all of her dungeon runs she'd gained a familiarity with this snake's skin, mastered to the point it was cy in her hands under the influence of her skills. That made sinking her fingers in to create hand-holds a simple process she did immediately as the snake started to shake and move.

  Inside the snake, there was barely enough space to breathe as the muscles contracted and pulsed to shove her deeper down the gut. Every bit deeper she made it pay. Cw marks with broken nails embedded she had to regrow. Patches of frostbite and Welts from zapping arcs.

  Soul sight gave an interesting internal perspective of the guardian's skills, more vulnerable like she'd bypassed the extra protection most guardians had. Not that she had much time to live, but just within metaphysical reach was the biggest risk to her pns. Death called, hers, and since she was going to die anyway Harmony put her everything into a soul strike to shatter the skill it used to dig into the earth and escape when things got rough.

  The loss of pain and suffering was a relief, the loss of backup and potential emergency escape was not. But that sacrifice accomplished one thing. Having your skill shattered was immensely painful for most creatures. Wooze were a special kind of stupid getting pcid if their rage broke, and pnts seemed to feel no pain, but the goal was always to immobilize them. The bastard, that snake, shrieked and filed.

  Harmony held on, Digging Her hands in until her fingertips touched its flesh and she activated a fresh strike of [Cold Touch].

  Hyacinth messaged through [Familiar Bond].

  Really? Harmony responded, her body bucking and shaking as she held on.

  I am not prey!

  First, they needed to get the damn thing to stop moving. Confusion works. [Renew Spirit] blended with [Mend]. This better work. She shoved into the fourth floor guardian not making the broken skill workable but calming the pain of the damage she caused. The filing abated. Pop, Hyacinth was coming swiftly. Harmony canceled and reapplied [Shadowed Graves] fshed in with intent. This kind of monster wouldn’t freeze well in fear. Awe, let it feel awe. A fraction of a moment was a powerful thing, all it took was a fraction of a moment to make her sneeze, and all she could do was hold it still for that tiny moment.

  This time it didn’t look up.

  Hyacinth crashed down on the bastard’s head, letting his spurs be the point of impact. The force dug its head into the ground and lifted its whole body up as the rebounding energy had to go somewhere.

  Even with her grip, Harmony found herself thrown forward. Working with ndings from [High Kick], the touch of graceful acrobatics from [Style and Grace], and the bance of [Poise and Bearing] she spun in the air and managed to nd on her feet.

  The ck of stairs forming was spelled trouble even as it twitched, head buried in the dirt of the impact crater. Run. Harmony sent to him.

  Hyacinth leapt. Up he went. Straight up. “Graaaack!” He cried as he focused his mass in a lesser, but not small impact right back down on the floor guardian’s head. Under his proud mass, the snake stilled, and stairs to continue on bloomed out of the bloody aftermath.