Kit Falbo

MwN3 Chapter 34 - 172

Chapter Thirty Four

“Find Max,”  Harmony instructed Hyacinth, and the shadow toad took off through the water again. 

Here was a problem she could solve tonight. A glimpse of true sight to find the troublesome Saccerate, and then she should be able to dissolve her out of Max’s system. He might have to bleed a bit, but because he is alive and the chaos spirit is undead, he should only have light damage while the possessor is removed. 

Planning might be p...

MwN - Glimpses 1 + 2

Ambrosia - #1

Even without mountains of work to avoid, Ambrosia wouldn’t be anywhere other than in the stands as Harmony opened the Ascendant Games. Too bad the company left much to be desired. 

“Does she have to wear that outfit? It's indecent. I have a hard enough time convincing reporters she's a respectable lady.”  Kelly White complained.

“It’s her armor. One she is bonded to. She can no more change that than she could her…“ Harmo...

Mwn3 Chapter 33 -171

Chapter Thirty-Three

Darkness covered the trail up the mountain to their plateau at the edge of the sacred valley. Harmony walked at the front of the line. The one with the shortest legs should set the pace otherwise they’d get left behind, right? Maybe if she didn’t have stamina. Red, blue, green, and yellow lights bounced with the group. Harmony had chosen a blue one, the water-based light had a cool calming effect that [Cold Touch] reacted to. She’d seen enough to know its ef...

MwN3 Chapter 32 - 170

Chapter Thirty Two

A hectic two days of experimentation with the loot was interrupted when the clock started ticking again. Loap's astute ears for the time gave a midnight start time.

That made Harmony's project of spider lights all the more popular as the nighttime challenge approached. The latest batch waited beside Harmony for the finishing touches. With a grunt, she wiped off the sticky feeling of fate that adhered to her fingertips. It was easy to see why the stuff was ofte...

Update change next week and poll.

Life has gotten busy and the cliff of the end of my banked content is getting closer. Rather than try to jump it, Thelma and Louise style. I will be doing a few changes. I will be moving updates to Monday and Friday only for the Main story line and to keep up with posting three times a week I've decided to throw in some micro-fictions of life elsewhere in the world. Want to learn more about Tess and her spider? How is Bea doing working for the household? How is Ambrosia handling dealing w...

MwN3 Chapter 31 - 169

Chapter Thirty One

Loap, Adric, and Hyacinth were in charge of the heist. No one returned, had any golem limbs, undead torsos, or other potential resources in their arms. [Poise and Bearing] kept the disappointment off of Harmony's face.

Adric moved forward. "There were some complications but it's not a complete loss. I was halfway back here when the teleport hit. I do believe the scraps got left behind, but we might be able to find some use for them.  You'll need to see wh...

MwN3 Chapter 30 - 168

Chapter Thirty

The post-combat lull was a time for assessment. The damage the heir's army had done to Harmony's was twenty percent losses with the bird-bear hybrids nearly eliminated after they took the brunt of the golem rush. The support by competitors ended up negating each other within the format as opposing tribes stood back and used ranged skills to attack and defend. Patrick had been a star unit finishing the battle almost too soon once he lumbered into battle. 

With a...

Happy-4th of July [Maid with Necromancy skipped today]

Today's update will be skipped due to all the events of the 4th of July weekend pulling me out of my schedule. Regular updates will resume Monday!

Sorry for any inconvenience.

-Kit

MwN3 Chapter 29 - 167

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Welcome to war! Competitors may act in a support role attacking enemy units or boosting yours. Directly targeting an opposing competitor will result in a penalty. Follow your troops!

The Front wall dissolved, opening up to the flat stone valley floor. 

“Be careful, nothing is stopping them from targeting bonded. If you don’t feel like you can't support at range or are a bond I have a new mission for you. While we’re fighting, s...

MwN3 Chapter 28 -166

Chapter Twenty eight

Throwing parts onto tables and pulling switches, the creations started to fill the room as everyone acted like kids with new toys. The monstrous soldiers weren't attacking contestants or bonds, but they did slowly wander directionless. A plant monster with tree trunk legs and vine-like arms lashed out breaking the curious focus on crafting tables. Its vines lifted up a moaning zombie ripping it in half with ease. 

The starting chaos sent people scattering...

MwN3 Chapter 27 -165

Chapter Twenty-Seven

That situation at their tribe's site settled into a routine.  No one took the option to leave early and tasks got done without needing Adric to keep them on task too much.  That allowed Harmony to work on crafting, skills, and planning future conflicts.

[Disintegrate] was her primary focus. The cleaning skill needed leveling. While [Manipulate Dead] was easier for the spider corpses she alternated skills trying to sync up the efficiency of destroying...

MwN3 Chapter 26 - 164

 Chapter Twenty-Six

Gareth leaned in and threw an arm over Harmony’s shoulder. “Look, it’s not that bad. In some way, it is the greatest con ever. Increased difficulty and prizes?  The Ascendant Games have never been played. We have no metrics or numbers to compare what is coming, and I know numbers. This is just a bit of drama and theatrics after the first round to give those who have doubts a way out.  If it weren’t your action, it would have been someo...

MwN3 Chapter 25 - 163

Chapter Twenty Five

“Ambrosia, let me sleep you demon!” Reality sunk in. Her inky black alarm toad continued to tug at her arm and Ambrosia might as well be a world away. “I know I told you not to let me sleep in, but why did you have to listen to me?”

Her wake-up routine barely took the edge off. Late nights since she got here were normally not an issue. This time she’d clearly pushed too far. Tyler had the right idea, though his forced rest was coming in the form of an...

MwN3 Chapter 24 -162

Chapter Twenty-Four

    Len laughed when she told him they made her the leader of their tribe.  A good-natured one, only because he knew enough about her that being a leader was not her favorite activity despite being shoved into aristocracy.  “I’m betting you delegated most of that.” He said after wiping away the humor-induced tears.

    “Yeah. I mostly do tours three times a day complimenting people. Adric and a few volun...

MwN3 Chapter 23 - 161

Chapter Twenty-Three

One point earned for the red team!

The swampy zone was not without other targets. Muddy skeletons twitched in a pile as Harmony collected this group's copper coin. Buried underneath the controlling aspects in the corpses were old degraded skills. The bodies were probably moved from Hazeldown to wherever here was. The old skills were more like dehydrated fruit than unusable. She broke twenty to get one skill back to usable status finding a few drops of her bloo...

MwN3 Chapter 22 -160

Chapter Twenty-Two

The butler kept his uniform impeccable and posture perfect. Apparently, that was part of the package that came with the undead servant. He was noticeably not floating, his feet firmly on the ground, and Harmony could feel, with weakened soul sight, that his powers were noticeably reduced. The seals were so hidden she wouldn't have suspected his true power if she hadn't seen it in action.

“The heir has ordered me to gather coins. I maintain leeway in how. Once ...

MwN3 Chapter 21 - 159

Chapter Twenty-One

[Intruder Sense] radiated out. Nothing. This wasn’t going to be that easy. There is also the risk that it won’t pick up on where the coins might be. Owlsley’s pet dropped down from its climb with her in the giant sloth's arms. The landing zone was about to get crowded. Everyone understood the mission and the need to spread out. 

Harmony picked her direction, straight toward the blue team. Max, Rose, and Len may be on rival teams, but she’d still lik...

MwN3 Chapter 20 -158

Chapter Twenty

Everyone got the message and everyone marched their way around the shores of the lake towards the beacon signifying the sacred valley. There was no timer, but it didn’t seem like the thing you wanted to show up last to. It was a reminder to map out the area extensively. This constructed area couldn’t be that big. If only Hyacinth had kept his teleportation unsealed, but then his size would have provided a different problem. It was not lost on her that both of his skil...

MwN3 Chapter 19 -157

Chapter Nineteen

After three days, everyone had some form of shelter, and Loap still refused to purchase clothes even though she’d earned enough points for them. The spear from the empress spider leg was much more valuable to her.

“Any progress?” Harmony asked the beast kin as she stared up at the obelisk.

“You were right about the layers. Jessica can see the heat spell out more text if we can get Tyler to stand here so she can use his eyes. I haven't ruled out the o...

MwN3 Chapter 18 -156

Chapter Eighteen

Twenty competitors in one camp. Not counting bonded pets, spirits, talking swords, an astral copy of someone's grandpapi, a flute who begs to be played, of course, Loap, and Prince Adric.  Eight of the twenty-four other contestants who were introduced were among their numbers.  The rest were plucked from the crowd and eager to prove themselves.  All of them were excited, competitive, and curious about what challenges were waiting.  At the same time, ...

MwN3 Chapter 17 - 155

Chapter Seventeen

Familiar and unfamiliar faces wore red throw-overs, long one-piece sleeveless outfits. The reward for arrival and their reprieve from nudity. Made everyone look like they were in a cult. Owlsley stood by her giant sloth. Eric's eyes were locked onto her chest. If only he'd been sent to a different camp. More than half weren't those who marched into the Colosseum. Those who were plucked from the stands. No Len, No Rosaline. No Maxwell. No Tyler. Could they each be assig...

MwN Chapter 16 - 154

Chapter Sixteen

A vote was not the kind of contest she'd prepared herself for. Being well known, a threat due to competency, or looked down on due to Necromancy was not the kind of thing that kept you in a competition like this. There had to be more to it.

Empress spiders she could fight. Peer politics were a different kind of horrible monster. This was all Hemlock’s fault.  What kind of challenge would test a maid newly raised up to a lady?  This would certainly make ...

MwN3 Chapter 15 - 53

Chapter Fifteen

The empress spider chittered as it stabbed its black spear-like legs in Harmony’s direction. Adric handled the medium man-sized ones dashing to the large openings in the wall of webbing as they stuck their bodies out, whacking them as quickly as possible before jumping to the next.  Hyacinth handled the babies that were the size of dogs or cats. Shifting in size to allow him to squeeze into openings of varying sizes.

That left Harmony to handle the big one. ...

MwN3 Chapter 14 - 152

Chapter Fourteen

Spiders, Hyacinth could smell spiders! It was getting dark, and Harmony wanted out of the mimic territory before they camped. The woods at the base of the mountain range were ahead of them, and Harmony’s sense finally felt more right. Birds could be heard, and Hyacinth finally sensed something more than the nothing of the sandy scrubby mimic-infested plains they’d been deposited on. 

After thoroughly checking the area with her skills, Hyacinth took night ...

MwN3 Chapter 13 - 151

Chapter Thirteen

Hyacinth didn’t smell it. Harmony didn’t sense it. It was Adric yanking the pair of them backward from a vicious square mouth of teeth rising out of what looked to be a flat stretch of earth that clued them in. The creature's tongue shot out nearly matching the speed Harmony was getting pulled away. Not too dissimilar from the kind of attack Hyacinth could make, except this tongue split into multiple tentacles. 

[Cold Touch] lashed out, coming up short of...

MwN3 Chapter 12 -150

Chapter Twelve

“Grrrheept.”   Hyacinth’s alert pulled Harmony out of her introspective testing.  She’d just about figured out how and how much chronostasis was hampered by the seal. Prey, but almost everything was prey in that toad's senses.

Just a man. At least hyacinth hadn't acquired a taste for people like he had cats, vigilantism aside. 

Soul sense was now limited. The suppression of so many parts through seals meant most functionality would requi...

MwN3 Chapter 11 - 149

Chapter Eleven

Not the dungeon. A sandy, scrubby area with trees and mountains in the distance. No competitors waited. That had been a fear. A giant battle royale. Guessing exactly what the games were going to be had gotten pretty wild at times. The lack of domain and death was next. The visceral feeling of being in Old Bones wasn’t here. The clear blue sky was less of a surprise, as she’d seen such simulated features in the tower of Nae’s Garden. Checking her bonds, Hyacinth and ...

MwN3 Chapter 10- 148

Chapter Ten

Time with Hemlock was unusually informative. Seals were spiritual locks on abilities. Anything considered too strong would be balanced for the games. The best seals would be invisible once they settled in, leaving aspects that needed improvement untouched while suppressing overpowered traits. It took experts with the skill to do it properly, but the ancient dungeon spirit had the knowledge and abilities to place seals on competitors to create an even playing field.

Whi...

MwN3 Chapter 9 147

Chapter Nine

How rude, but how much of that was Rose? Evolutionary mood swings or personality crisis, and that nasty new bonded item, Len’s conspiracy theories around how strong the post-evolution hangover was were getting to her. Despite those nagging thoughts, Harmony was ready to drop-kick the princess out of her considerations.

Adric’s Arm wrapped around her shoulders. “I wouldn’t want to be in Rose’s place with all those expectations and responsibilities.” Maybe t...

MwN3 Chapter 8 - 146

Chapter Eight

Harmony waited near where her former team would be teleporting in and focused on presenting a picture of a calm and welcoming friend. Max had been unhappy with her abrupt departure and all the burdens she'd left him with. The others probably were unhappy too. Sweet treats should soften the sting some. Ambrosia held a tray of tarts and chocolates to help greet them beside her. A sincere apology might help, too. But how to explain why she left without explaining 2025-05-14 13:29:30 +0000 UTC View Post