Fragments (Somnia Online Book 3), page 35
Sinister and Veranol were hard at work making sure that Devlish didn’t bow down to any of the massive hits Akelu was directing at him, and they needed to kill the elf sooner than later. But if they didn’t pace their damage enough, they might not have the time they needed to escape the collapsing floor.
“He’s alive, and he’s safe, and we have another five percent to watch the elf and figure out which piece of floor is next. If we maneuver him properly, it should help us avoid the floor’s collapse and lead us to that back door.” Murmur pointed in the direction Riasli had used to leave.
“Wait, we need to go back for the kids,” Merlin said, knocking his arrows without skipping a beat. “Also, it’s the portion of floor one behind and to the left of him.”
Everyone began to move, not needing to be told twice. Murmur went with them. The next one had to go smoothly or else her entire theory was out the window. “This isn’t going to give us a way back before we make it through to the other side. I don’t think this is your usual dungeon.”
“You don’t say?” Havoc stood, helping Dansyn to his feet. “Let’s kill this fucker. I’m getting a little sick of things pulling the rug out from under me.”
At least the joke garnered a few chuckles and Murmur couldn’t help but be grateful that Havoc diffused the situation. Tension levels were high, but controlled. Now all they had to do was watch for the floor to signal which portion of it would collapse next. Akelu’s arsenal of spells was impressive. He was truer to the base mage class Murmur had witnessed in multiple games outside of Somnia. Apart from Ishwa, she’d not seen many of them in this game.
He utilized ice the majority of the time, the cold causing steel to go brittle and breaking more than one of Devlish’s weapons, making the tank gnash his teeth in annoyance. Akelu’s health dwindled so slowly it was going to be a race to get him dead before mana ran out. Murmur kicked herself for not getting the mana feeder abilities. They would have helped out a whole lot more here. Surely she was due for the damage dealing, mana-sucking example Dirsna had given her way back when.
Merlin led the way for the rangers, Exbo and him moving as one while they loosed sets of arrows at opposite sides of Akelu’s body simultaneously. They flew through the air with exacting precision, tails of fire winking after them. The magician in their midst barely even blinked at them, so overcome was he by whatever it was Riasli had possessed him with. He was intent on bearing down on Devlish, and it was the most difficulty she’d seen their tank have.
Luckily, since his focus remained so locked on Dev, it enabled most of them to move around far more efficiently. Beastial and Shir-Khan darted in and out, slicing and biting so fast that they were gone by the time Akelu noticed them. Even a flick of his heel could disrupt their rhythm or else cause them damage, but they avoided every movement of the demi-god carefully, dancing away like they’d been doing it their entire lives. In a way, they had.
Everything they did to prep for huge fights like this was practice. Stay out of the fire, get into the good light, avoid direct attacks and AoE blows, and above all, don’t exceed the tank’s aggro. Murmur made sure to keep her buff on Devlish, just in case Akelu got any bright ideas.
Jinna’s own choreography was similar, except he planted traps for Akelu to step in as the giant elf maneuvered around, poisonous barbs that wound around his legs, leeching into his blood stream to speed up the poison. Murmur filed it away as another reason to avoid getting too close to Jirald.
Mellow stood as far back as was comfortable, with Havoc by their side. Both of them were at the maximum range for their attacks to still hit without standing so far that they couldn’t get back to the group if they needed to. Mellow threw poison bombs onto Akelu, hitting him directly with a substance that ate through his clothes, leaving them ragged with burning grey skin showing through.
“Is that acid or fire?” she asked, genuinely curious, noticing the trembling timber to her voice heightened by adrenaline. Murmur didn’t take her eyes off Akelu; she couldn’t. Not in any boss fight. Focus on his actions, his gaze, and anything that could surprise them. She watched Mellow in her peripheral vision.
“A bit of both.” Mellow’s expression was grim, their mouth drawn in a thin line as they motioned over the hovering ethereal cauldron, muttering under their breath. “Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.”
“That’s seriously how it works then?” Murmur raised an eyebrow as she refreshed her own DoT, reinforced her personal shielding, and reapplied her debuffs. Letting one of them fall at an inopportune moment could mean death for all of them. She’d not heard the witch incanting before.
Mellow grinned so wide it scrunched their lack of a nose, but they too didn’t take their focus off the boss while they answered. “Not really, just makes me feel more witchy. The spell is called Bubble Bubble, though.”
Murmur nodded. There was no room for smiles, nothing that would break her concentration. She couldn’t miss a cue, couldn’t miss a beat. One badly timed step could her or kill them all. Only this time, instead of just adrenaline at the rush, a sense of dread lingered in the back of her mind.
Eighty percent came and went, and they danced around another piece of missing floor. Murmur watched their path carefully, mapping it out so they would hopefully be able to make it to the door. Slowly, they wore Akelu down, but the fewer hit points he had, the more the insanity of the blue flame in his right eye glowed. Murmur didn’t like the forewarning she felt the glow was giving them, like he was ramping up to some special ability that was going to send them scurrying away like maniacs.
Not to mention the fact that seventy and sixty percent had dropped pieces of the floor she hadn’t wanted to lose. Getting Devlish to reposition the hero wasn’t an easy task. Akelu was a caster, and silencing spells didn’t stay on him for as long as they should. She’d even attempted to use Hypnotic Suggestion on him to no avail. Being a magic user, his resistance to her mind control spells was better than any opponent they’d encountered. And realistically, mind controlling a boss was way overpowered. Riasli should never have had this much power to begin with.
Murmur knew the fight wasn’t taking as long as it appeared to be. It was always the way in a boss fight. Every intricate detail tended to stop time, slow it, and have everyone focused on nuances. She noticed her friends stretching and moving, trying to force concentration on a fight that asked for it, yet didn’t provide an actual challenge outside of Devlish being able to take hits, and them firing at several joints on the giant with precision.
“This fight is wearing on me. The repetition isn’t helping my focus.” Veranol grumbled as he meted out yet another ward to protect Devlish from the incoming smash against his shield and body.
Sinister rolled her eyes. “Seriously? Have you learned nothing, Ver? You know you can’t—”
But whatever she was going to say got lost in Akelu’s roar as his health finally hit fifty percent. It rebounded through the cavern, echoing off the rocks up high in the ceiling, and showered dust and debris down around them all, and the pieces of floor that were still whole began to move.
Somnia Online
Firtulai Continent
Richnai Fortress Caverns
Day Fourteen
Jirald stood panting, clutching his side as Masha gave preference to Eslan to keep the tank alive. If the damned warrior went down, the rest of them were toast. Swigging down a healing potion, he could feel as the skin of the wound knit back together, accelerating the healing process begun by the almost useless HoT their bard sang.
The damned mobs up in the castle proper were more difficult than he’d imagined. Everything about them screamed at him to go back, level himself and everyone else past thirty, and return, because at twenty-nine, it was obvious that one level was too much for their group. Two of them had already hit twenty-nine, and Jirald was close to hitting thirty, but with some of the members of their small raid force still being two levels beneath the guards they were fighting was hurting them. Their attacks glanced off or were resisted for a lot of the potential damage.
There was no easy way to get them leveled up. All they could do was fight mobs and more monsters, constantly. He watched as Masha joined in the DPS, swinging his mace around like a battle cleric. The sentiment was fleeting, but jealousy still rose up so violently, Jirald almost choked as he made his way to fight again, his health almost restored. He hadn’t meant to pull aggro, but he’d managed to land a critical backstab just as Eslan got stunned for a couple of seconds.
The only thing that saved him was his ability to Fade. It allowed the rogue to basically drop all aggro for up to five seconds, which gave the tank a chance to gain it back. If the tank was unable to, well, that just left the rogue a bit of a ripe target. That was the good thing about Eslan—he knew what he was doing. Masha might be nice to everyone, but he wasn’t one to play with people who weren’t good at their class. He meant to get things done, by any means necessary.
Finally, the guard fell to his knees, falling flat on his face as blood slowly leaked out of his wounds. Masha glared at the corpse and began casting his resurrection spell, first on the other healer who’d accompanied them. Once everyone was standing again, Masha whirled on Jirald.
“What the hell was that?” His words came out through clenched teeth, sounding quite calm, but from the flashing of his eyes, Jirald knew Masha was anything but.
“It stunned Eslan just after I landed a critical hit. There was nothing I could do.” Except Jirald knew that wasn’t right. He should have been paying more attention to what the guard had been casting. He would have known the stun was coming up, should have interrupted the ability with a stun. But he’d been absorbed in doing as much damage as possible and hadn’t wanted to interrupt a stellar rotation.
Masha waited, probably seeing the realization as it spread over Jirald’s face.
“Oh good, you’ve reached the same conclusion as I did. Next time, Jirald, don’t be such a dick. You could have wiped us completely.” Masha paused and began rebuffing the raid while he spoke to the rogue. “I’m just glad you came prepared and have potions on you that let you help with taking him down the rest of the way.”
It was the closest he was going to get to giving Jirald a well done, at least any time soon. The rogue swallowed his pride, which was difficult as fuck considering how much he had of it. He needed to get his head out of the quest for the shards and out of his need for revenge if he was ever going to level up and catch Murmur.
“Sorry. I’ll start playing like a rogue.” Jirald mumbled the words, barely able to get them out through the anger. Most of it was directed at himself, but he couldn’t seem to stop glaring at Masha.
The cleric shrugged. “Good, because you’re not a healer in here. And even if you play like the best healing rogue ever, it’s going to be a shadow of what you could accomplish if you’d just stop dwelling on the fact that you’re not what you thought you’d be. Just give into what the game allocated you. And maybe you’ll get an inkling of why it did.”
Masha turned away in a clear dismissal, done with him for now. Jirald counted to five, trying to get his temper under control, and then ten. Finally, he hit twenty and managed to breathe. He pulled up all of his skills and started going through them while the rest of the raid finished getting ready. Masha had a valid point, not that he’d let him know that. But it was time Jirald mastered the rogue without regrets, and the sudden peace that came over him once he made that decision only cemented it.
He stood up, brushing himself off, eager to break into the fortress proper after having cleared all of the trash out of the way. Maybe he could take out some of his frustrations on the overpowered NPCs. And then do it again once they respawned. The idea made him feel far better about his previous mistake.
Fully buffed, the raid group was almost ready to set out. They stood as a loose group of twelve, milling around while they repaired their gear with bots, and sorted potions, or gained tinctures from the alchemists and guild bank.
Standing toward the back of the group, Jirald took another deep breath, clearing his head, and focusing on his goal. Get the Getashi and level, be the best rogue he could be, and beat Murmur and Fable when they were at the top. Seemed simple enough.
Pain sheared through his right side, just above his kidneys, and he gaped down in horror at the dagger protruding from the wound as blood began to bubble on his lips. He blinked, barely making a noise, but it was just enough for Masha to look back at him.
Staggering forward, Jirald reached out for Eslan’s hand, and the level thirty-one tank pulled him into the rest of the group as heals trickled into him from the song and cleric.
“Well.” A rogue materialized, pulling from the shadows, clad in an inky black set of armor. Dark elf, his skin was a deep purple, and his hair and eyes were as black as a starless sky. He was slender and short with a lingering sneer. “Missed the critical hit there, I see.”
“It’s okay, Karn.” A softly sarcastic voice clung through the storage area. Behind the rogue, a man in dulled charcoal armor with a lingering black cloud clinging to his every move, pushed through to the front. “Forgive my rudeness. I am Risk, the guild leader of Spiral. And I’d like to thank you for clearing the trash out of our dungeon.”
Murmur braced herself against the floor, her legs wide in a squat, just in time to reach out to Sinister, who’d been so intent on healing Devlish that she hadn’t noticed the floors were moving. Her hand gripped around Sinister’s wrist, which jolted Murmur to the ground. Snowy managed to get his teeth around the bottom of her tunic and pull. And all the while fucking Akelu floated away on a different platform with Veranol and Devlish scrambling to get their footing back after the sudden erupting movement.
The shifting platform made for unsure steps on their behalf. Murmur glanced around as soon as she managed to gain her bearings and frowned. She couldn’t see a pattern in the way the sections of floor moved. Having cleared out four of them when they collapsed made for a floor puzzle she’d not been expecting. Akelu fought Devlish, locked in a battle that the dread knight was going to lose unless they could figure out a way to keep up with the damage they needed to do.
The platforms moved and locked into place next to another one for approximately five seconds. It was the only window they’d have to change platforms.
Havoc, Mellow, Sinister, Merlin, and Exbo balanced precariously at the edge of their current platform using their ranged attacks for all they were worth. Beastial growled deep in his throat, and she knew he was angry that he couldn’t contribute, while Rashlyn and Dansyn paced irritably.
Murmur kept all the platforms in her view while absentmindedly casting her debuffs and weak damage spells at Akelu. Right now he wasn’t her concern, as callous as it sounded. She just had to make sure he was as weak as possible and get their group out of the fight mostly alive.
“Do you think a platform is still going to fall at forty percent?” Rashlyn sounded too calm. Murmur glanced at her, noting the way she was biting her fingernails.
“I can’t see any light to give us an indication of which one it might be, so if it does, it’s not letting us know in advance.” Those probably weren’t the words Rash wanted to hear, but they were the words Murmur had for her. It’d have to do.
“Great,” the monk answered joylessly.
“Rash. Focus. Help me figure out how best to jump these platforms so we can help more, and think less about how frustrating this damned fight is. We’re all right there with you.” Having to calm her not stuck-in-the-world friend down wasn’t Murmur’s first productivity choice, but Rash had always been there for her, so it needed to be done.
While the platforms didn’t seem to have a pattern, some did bump up against each other every twenty seconds for five seconds. Some of them even moved together. The tension in her shoulders was starting to give her a headache. Murmur frowned and raised her voice.
“We need to travel as far as we can on the platforms. We have a five second window to make it from one to the other, so we need to stick together. Line up with me on this side, and as soon as these two platforms stop,” she indicated the one approaching them, “we need to cross.”
The first time traversing the platforms went smoothly, and luckily it coasted ever closer to Akelu and his battle with Veranol and Devlish. Two more jumps and Beastial, Dansyn, Jinna, Rashlyn, and Sinister jumped to the platform the boss was on. The sections weren’t small by any means, but that was more than enough people crowded onto it with the tanks and Akelu.
The rest of them were going to have to consistently jump from one platform to the next in order to stay as close as possible to Akelu. Which was easier said than done, but at least it was possible for the ranged classes to still do damage.
Forty percent came and went with no sign of new attack, or new surprise. Akelu appeared to have unending mana and reinforced his blows with the strength of his craft, sending Devlish buckling to his knees multiple times. They’d fought so long that Mellow had to refresh the growth potion on the tank.
This boss seemed completely focused on the tank, having apparently forgotten his initial anger with Murmur. He rarely lashed out at other players, so focused was he on Devlish. Maybe that focus gave him extra tenacity because the dread knight seemed to be having a time of it. Even pulling out the stops and using all of the abilities he had, Murmur hated to think what would have happened if he didn’t have Telvar’s shield.
The percentages of his health dwindled, and slowly but surely, Murmur thought Akelu’s attacks sped up. Not hugely noticeable at first, but Devlish was barely managing to fend off the attacks now, going down to a knee more than half the time. Veranol’s wards disappeared in an instant, and Murmur could practically sense the frustration rolling off Sinister as the healers fought to keep Devlish up.
That regeneration-assisting bard song had never been more practical, because as it stood, the healers barely had enough to keep Devlish alive, and Murmur’s little shield was puny in comparison to the giant’s attacks. Murmur frowned as Akelu’s health approached zero. Down past twenty percent now, and the magical attacks were sparked with red. Which either meant greater force, or contaminated spell weaving. Or, you know, fire. But since he’d had yet to use fire, she highly doubted the latter was true.
