Fragments (Somnia Online Book 3), page 27
The closer he got to the ruins, the more a feeling of pressure seemed to squeeze his head. Not quite like the vice that people described migraines as, but still, a semblance of pain began in the base of his skull. It was a new sensation, and one that gave him pause. Even in his Telvar skin, there shouldn’t be another line of coding capable of making him feel like a player would.
As soon as he stopped his momentum, the pressure eased up. He raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t directed at him, but at anyone entering the general area. Murmur would have noticed this type of thing, wouldn’t she? The girl was stupidly perceptive some of the time, even when he’d prefer she wasn’t. It stood to reason therefore, that this subtle persuasion not to enter the area hadn’t been present then. Or else, she’d put on her stubborn hat and moved forward anyway.
Both options were a distinct possibility.
Finally, he arrived at the top of the stairs to the ruins, his gaze raking over the vastly changed facade of the structure and he frowned. How had this happened? Each of them had a dungeon on each continent. On Cenedril, Telvar was responsible for Glacier Lake, the only area in the whole island that was max level only. Sui was responsible for Hightower, and this was Thra’s place. It had been regal before, beautiful. Which was exactly the sort of thing that Thra went for. For it to devolve into this dark and dismal place didn’t even make any sense.
She had to know it had changed, didn’t she?
There was nothing for it. He took a step forward, placing his foot on the next step down, only to have the bubble reappear. This time it was a thick substance, and as he pressed down on it, he realized it coated the entire exterior of the ruins in the way shrink wrap might cover a dish. Except it was rubberier.
Forcing his way in could put Murmur in more danger from whatever algorithmic hell was causing this. And reluctant though he might be, calling on his brethren to figure out what the hell was going on might actually be the better way this time. He turned around and blinked back to Mikrum Isle. He needed somewhere reliable and safe to leave his husk while he had words with his siblings.
“Since it’s obviously not noise that alerts the mobs in this zone, what do we think pulls the rest?” Merlin stood at the edge of the dust pile and peered into the darkness beyond. The soft golden light lent a beautiful green hue to his gear, and for a moment he looked like a male version of Tinkerbell.
Murmur chuckled at the thought. He’d not appreciate it at all, so it was probably a good thing that he couldn’t read her mind.
“What’s so funny?” He glanced back at her, a frown on his lips. “It’s actually a legitimate question, not meant to be a pun. You know, for once.”
“Sorry.” Murmur sobered up. “Maybe it’s proximity? Sort of like when we line of sight pull.”
“Don’t know about you, Mur, but I’m pretty sure those statues further down the way would be able to see us if they looked.” Merlin took a few steps closer and hesitated. “But from here they seem to be almost sleeping, or hibernating.”
Devlish went and joined the ranger, peering just as earnestly into the dark. Lacerta had their own form of infravision, so Murmur didn’t bother to offer her buff to him. “He’s right. There’s no movement, not even the rise and fall of their chests. They must be magically enhanced.”
“You don’t say?” Havoc drawled. “You mean those huge fighters made out of rock must be magically enhanced?”
“Shut it.” Devlish snapped, glaring at Havoc. “I mean they seem to be magically triggered and woken. Of course they damn well move because of magic.”
Havoc put his hands up, a resigned expression on his face. “Sorry, man. I’m just frustrated. Didn’t think we’d get caught up to so fast.”
“Yeah, I think we’re all a little irritated by that announcement, Hav. It just meant we have to keep on it.” Devlish pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers and took a deep breath before continuing. “I just—I’m not sure how we go about this. We don’t want to wake more than one at a time. Did anyone try to get out while the other one was activated, or do we just need to assume it’s like every dungeon we’ve ever encountered in this game, and we can’t escape while a fight is in progress?”
“And speaking of escape.” Sinister spoke up, her gaze focused directly onto Murmur, her eyes fierce. The enchanter backed away a couple of steps. “Stop it, Mur! You heard what she said about the key, right? They’ll pry those keys from our cold dead corpses. And since you’re not allowed to die, you need to give one of us the key so we can hold it. That way you won’t be the target for the Somnian enemies at least. Not that we seem to be able to deter you from being Jirald’s target. The least we can do is this.”
“You don’t know that wasn’t just bravado.” Except in a way, Murmur already knew exactly that. The statue might have originally been an NPC, but her motives were muddied by the mind control performed on her, and those last words had been full of a vile hatred so strong, she spoke as she turned to dust.
“Don’t be an idiot, Mur!” Rashlyn crossed her arms too, her ears twitched in irritation. “You know as well as we do that Sin is right. Give one of us the key so we can take the hit if we need to. I’d prefer to hand over the key to them than to see them kill you for it.”
Sinister high fived the monk, but her victorious grin was more like a grimace. “You know how I feel about all this. I won’t lose you Mur, and you can’t stop me from protecting you.”
Murmur looked at her friend, and burst out laughing. “Oh, my God, Sin! Would you listen to that melodrama you’re wearing? Look, I get it, okay? I’m not about to stop any of you protecting me, as long as you don’t smother me in the damned process, okay?”
Sinister’s smile turned sheepish, and the girl rubbed her nose in that adorable way she had when she was unsure of herself.
“I get it. I guess that did sound a bit pompous, didn’t it?” Her tone held a portion of uncertainty, like there wasn’t room in the glass for more.
“Pompous is an understatement, Sin.” For once, Beastial wasn’t riling her up. He seemed genuinely concerned for her, and his smile was a kind one. ”That was almost mothering.”
Sinister laughed. “Mothering, big sistering, take your pick. But enough about me, let’s move onto these statues, huh? Anyone got a plan on how to defeat them quicker, better, faster, stronger?”
Murmur moved forward and gave the other girl a quick hug. “How do you think the statue will react to a hug? Or perhaps a bout of persuasion if I can get my brain to cooperate?” She tapped her head self-deprecatingly.
“Persuasion didn’t work the last time, and to be honest, I’m not sure you want to hug any part of that. It’d smoosh you like a bug, Mur, did you hear me? A bug!” Sin’s attempt at a smile was more wan than usual, but a slight sparkle did enter her eyes.
Murmur grinned. “Oh! Speaking of statues. Mellow, you know you can reach into the guild stores from here, right? I’m not exactly sure how your class works apart from what you’ve told me, but since the potions you make require you to consume the ingredients, you should just be able to reach into the guild stores and get them yourself. Guild storage is overflowing.”
Mellow nodded. “I have basic brews, and specialty brews. All in my witch’s cauldron. Basic brews are pretty much just my spells. Easily incanted, and there’s a level I’ll reach with my hybrid and specialty choices where I’ll be able to simply cast them without a cauldron. But up until now my specialty brews have required that I hoard a heap of stuff. Sadly, I don’t have all that many acidic spider or scorpion glands on hand right now. And yes, there’s a difference between them and normal ones.”
“Oh.” Murmur ran over the guild interface again, making sure she wasn’t about to put her foot in it. “You have access to the guild stores as one of the senior members. I’m pretty sure we have some more shit in there for you.”
Mellow perked up, their face blushing a pale pink that made the locus look sort of pretty for a moment. “That’s fantastic. I have no idea why I didn’t think of this before.”
Murmur grimaced, pushing the interface aside. “Well, we didn’t exactly think we’d have to figure out what could eat through rock now, did we?”
“Bet a mage could explode that shit to smithereens,” Havoc mumbled, the sullen tone present once again. Mur knew it was because he missed his class, but necromancer was at least close.
“Probably could, but we can always improvise.” She tried to put enthusiasm in her smile, but it didn’t seem to work.
Jinna piped up. “You know, the rangers have traps, and I have a few from my assassin tree, so, between us we should be able to come up with something to make it go quicker.”
“Shit.” Merlin smacked himself in the forehead. “Totally forgot about that. I got an ice trap. I also have a quicksand one, but I wasn’t sure if that would work in this case. I mean, aren’t they sort of made out of sand?”
Rashlyn nodded, stood up from where she’d been sitting on the ground, and stretched her left leg out behind her, balancing perfectly on her right. “It’s not easy fighting those things, and I hate spending this much time on fucking trash mobs. But if we’re going to kill the bastards, we need to do it right.”
Murmur tended to agree with her. Flipping through her arsenal in her mind once more, she concluded that there was indeed no way for her to actually contribute to the taking down of the stone giants other than buffing and debuffing, and throwing the occasional damage DoT on it, which ticked for far reduced damage.
Snowy nudged her hand, and she ruffled his fur. He had a good point. “Let’s move forward then, shall we?”
“Best way to head.” Merlin grinned and jumped down from his ledge, out in front of the others.
A ripple of orange light ignited from the point where he landed, easily a dozen feet beyond the area where the last mob died. The light flowed out several feet, coming to land at the foot of not one giant statue, but two.
The resulting rumble that echoed through the cavern shook it so much that dust and small rocks fell from the ceiling, mixing into their hair and giving everyone a fine layer of powder over their skin. The statues bent in unison to duck their heads under the small overhang of their alcove, and stepped into the middle of the corridor at the same time, planting their staffs firmly against the floor.
Vibrations echoed across the stone surface and through to the bones, setting Murmur’s teeth on edge, and Merlin slowly rose from his landing position, and glanced back at the group.
“Oops?” He cringed, probably knowing everyone else was ready to punch him. “I guess we know how they’re triggered now. Think these are Mezable, Mur?”
“We’re about to find out.” She hoped against hope as she released her spell toward the left mob.
Her Mez caught the mob around the head, swirling like a halo.
Your Mesmerize spell has landed. This creature has a powerful force controlling their mind. You will need to fight for dominance, and your spell is not reliable, as it could break at any moment. Make sure you debilitate the mob as you can. Diminishing returns apply.
“Fuck,” Mur muttered under her breath, but before anyone could ask her what she meant, she focused on the second statue and called out to Rashlyn. “Pull it back to the front of the dungeon, where we fought the first one. Use it as the staging ground.”
She was going to need all the help she could get, and all the distance too. As Rashlyn began to comply, Mur watched the slow statue follow her, not foolish enough yet to debuff it because Rashlyn’s aggro was tentative at best. “Merlin. I need you to keep this thing rooted. If you have to interrupt damage to do so, just do it.”
Merlin nodded. “Not like I’m contributing all that much anyway. I’ll stay in between them. Can I ask why?”
Murmur watched as Rashlyn grew in size, still somehow so tiny against the bulk of the statue. She threw some debuffs its way, and watched Snowy take off after it, even as he kept looking back at her. They had to defeat these, Riasli had seen to it. There were no puzzle options here. “My Mez on this thing will work, but I can’t let my guard down. Mez will break when it feels like it instead of when the timer expires, and it will take effect with diminishing returns. I need everything I can use so that it doesn’t make it to the group before I can refresh the Mez.”
“Got it.” Merlin sounded so businesslike, so different from his usual carefree self. But it was Merlin in a nutshell. All pun and games until something got serious.
Mur cast her Nullify on the target, followed by a slow and weakener, while bringing up her Mez timer to keep it front and center so she could see it break. The way it ghosted over her eyesight was cool in a way, yet eerie in another. But it told her the split second it broke, because it broke about three seconds early, and barely blinked once before she renewed it. Riasli wasn’t going to let them make it to her easily.
She kept her eyes on her group. With the Mez timer pulled up, the fight was oddly accented through the transparency of colors it provided her vision. Jinna maneuvered his way around the mob, planting something against the ground she couldn’t quite see, what with the dimness of the lighting in the area. “What’s he doing?”
Merlin shrugged. “Not sure, I couldn’t catch his muttering from where I was perched. Speaking of which—sorry about this.”
Murmur grinned, her adrenaline beginning to flow. “Please. On the level of our screw ups over the years, this one is way down on the chain.”
She paused to refresh Mez—as the statue once again broke it—before continuing. “Seriously though. This could have been worse, and we don’t know that just progressing down the hall wouldn’t have triggered both at the same time too. Looked pretty even from what I saw.”
Then she noticed what it was Jinna was doing, and a smile spread over her face as he laced the thick rope through the intricate little stakes he’d prepared. When he was done, Rashlyn turned the statue, tripping it as the ropes pulled tight just around the ankles.
It tumbled to the ground in what seemed like slow motion, and Murmur watched as it hit the ground with a smash while her guild and group mates scrambled and gathered behind Veranol’s shield. Rock shattered against the stone ground, as its spear wielding arm detached and became rubble. A cheer of victory went up, but it was short-lived as the huge mob began to try and right itself with the one good arm it had.
Murmur almost missed her Mez break and thanked the foresight that her vision changed in time enough for her to nab it. She wasn’t sure how well Merlin’s Root was going to hold stone feet. This last Mez had only lasted twenty seconds. Diminishing returns was an understatement.
In the pale light given off by the fine rock dust of the first statue they’d fought, Murmur noticed something glint on the statue’s forehead. Being as high as they were before, she’d not noticed the gem.
“Smash the gem!” she yelled, suddenly sure that was how to defeat them.
Beastial reacted first, stepping forward and smashing it with his giant mace, not quite avoiding the gnashing of stone teeth against his ribs as he did so. He grunted in pain and stepped back, a portion of his breastplate caught in the teeth, and watched the fissures spread throughout the gem as Veranol hurried to heal him.
As the gem fractured, so did the statue, and an inhuman sound rose up from it as it rapidly broke down, presenting them with the same golden dust even as the gem left the red behind and turned back to gold.
“Let’s try that again, shall we?” Devlish grinned, as the tension lifted visibly from everyone’s shoulders. “Except next time? I get to smash the gem.”
Everyone laughed, that is until Merlin called out. “Root broke.”
And Murmur’s Mez chose the same moment to break.
Murmur hoped against hope against hope that the mobs only respawned with prior knowledge of actual deaths and how their opponents fought them. If it passed into the collective consciousness while other mobs were already spawned, they were so going to be screwed with this next statue.
She took a deep breath as Rashlyn, still in her larger form, ran forward so her taunt was in range. The statue paused briefly as it moved passed Murmur, but chose to go after the player actively taunting it instead. Murmur heaved a sigh of relief, letting out the pent-up breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
But then, the bandits hadn’t realized their tactics, and only the outer dwarves had shown any inclination of evading their attacks when they were fighting outside Hightower the second time. Perhaps they did have to die first and then respawn for the experience to filter down into the collective data of the zone. In which case, they had however long these mobs took to respawn on their side.
She pitied the people who’d come here after them. Because they were going to have a whole mess to deal with. But that sort of thinking only meant Riasli was going to beat them, and Murmur begged to differ. She wasn’t about to let that damned enchanter get the better of them.
At least her debuffs seemed to stick. Without another statue to control, Murmur felt like she wasn’t contributing enough to this fight. Her Enfeeblement, Nullify, and Weakness spells just didn’t feel like they did much. And this whole stone immunity thing wasn’t easy either.
She could see the frustration outlined on a lot of their faces. On Dansyn’s, Havoc’s, Merlin’s, and Exbo’s. Sinister seemed the most out of sorts, which wasn’t strange considering pulling blood from a stone was nigh impossible.
Jinna drove his stakes into crevices in the ground, enhancing their effectiveness with a pinch of acid on the tip. She wasn’t sure why the metal stakes didn’t melt, but she wasn’t going to question it yet. There’d be plenty of time later. Perhaps there was only a brief window of time to do it. She’d have to ask the rogue about his traps, not the least because she had an insane person after her and thought it might help if she knew what else he had in his arsenal.
