by K. T. Hanna
Rashlyn and Devlish weren’t included in the stunning order because right now no one knew how this fight was going to go down, and it was very likely, since they’d barely had to do any of it up until now, that they might have to tank swap if anything inflicted on either of them required it.
It seemed Urohne was talkative. He was surprisingly agile, and liked to punctuate each circuit with a comment. “Your puny weapons have no power over me.”
None of the phrases were repetitive, but they were annoying, and Murmur sighed as the snake-tiger-bear thing shuffled backward, Jinna barely jumping out of the way in time, and held his hands together as if catching a ball.
She cast her damage spell on him only to receive a pop-up message that made her gape.
Your target is immune to this, and any type of spell that inflicts damage. This is your one warning. Anything else cast against that shield will result in spell or ability reflection and damage the caster or attacker at one and a half times the original damage.
“Stop casting damage at it!” Murmur and Sinister screamed at the same time. Beastial, Mellow, Havoc, and Dansyn had just released their own attacks, obviously not having read the warning message they received, and screamed in pain as it tore at them, taking their health down a good twenty percent and making Murmur wonder about the damage-to-beast ratio in the game. If their own damage, even magnified, did that much damage back to them then it was going to take a good while to whittle this guy down.
“Great, what is that?” Havoc glared at the monster, pulling his pet back so it hovered by his side. The pain was still visible in the way his eyebrows pinched and he clutched his stomach as if trying to fend off any more.
“What’s he doing?” Rashlyn sounded a bit panicked, not that Murmur could blame her, but she had no clue what Urohne was doing.
She shrugged. “No clue. We can keep debuffs alive though; as long as it doesn’t do damage to him, it won’t do it to us.”
Murmur took an involuntary step closer. Urohne was casting, and it was a long-ass cast bar. Her Mana Block should do, right? Taking a deep breath, she threw caution to the wind and dived in.
Mana Block took a decent chunk of mana, probably about five percent all told, but it was worth it to see the look on Urohne’s face as he realized what she’d done. Not only did she interrupt the spell so he’d have to begin again, but she’d effectively blocked him from using any mana at all in the next six seconds. Considering the barrier only had five seconds left on it, she was quite certain she’d just prevented a huge attack. Or at least, that’s what she’d hoped to do.
“How did you?” Sin grinned at Mur, and gave her a quick hug before she began to cast another Blood Grenade, readying it for when the barrier fell. “Never mind, I know you’re brilliant.”
Murmur smiled tightly, so glad Sin was there with her, but it was difficult to break eye contact with the beast because it wouldn’t leave hers. It focused on her, pure malice and hatred gathering around it like a cloak. Whatever ability Murmur had stopped, she really hoped it was worth it, because if she wasn’t quite mistaken, the next time that bubble came up, it was solely going to focus on her, and with the recast timer on her stun, there was a heap of things she needed to make sure of before she used it.
“Get ready. Barrier dropping now!” Jinna called out, as if all of their attention wasn’t focused on Urohne.
The first disaster was avoided, but they’d have to be quicker pulling away with their spells next time. Murmur knew that the next time the reflection wasn’t going to give a warning, in fact, she couldn’t believe they’d received one the first time.
It appeared Urohne shared her thoughts. This time around the attacks were faster, more vicious. The tail was its own entity, which they discovered once it leg swept Exbo. Moving as if it was separate from the rest of the beast’s body, it surprised them all by moving in a totally counter intuitive way. The ranger cursed as he smashed his head against the floor and got up, staggering. Merlin running in to help whisk him out was the only thing that saved him from being hit a second time in quick succession.
Urohne’s eyes flashed, and the intelligence it exhibited made Murmur’s skin crawl. Again, there was something else behind there, a level of awareness that was staggering.
Devlish let out a yell of pain, and Murmur switched her attention immediately, not quite believing what she saw. Urohne’s right fang was impaled neatly through Dev’s bicep. She watched helplessly as Urohne dragged the dreadknight up several feet into the air before his arm slipped off the fang and sent him plummeting to the ground, where he barely landed safely. Rolling to the side, he stood up, grimacing with the agony and refusing to look at the gaping wound.
Rash rolled into his old place, determination written all over her face as she activated her own taunt in the form of Jeer. A red-laced aura surrounded her, and Urohne’s eyes focused on her reluctantly. He let out a huge roar and executed a flurry of paw attacks, diving in at the end with his face to bite her.
But the monk was agile and ready for it. She dove into the fight, activating Phantom, which allowed her to dodge and counter every attack, and she took no damage while managing to mete out more to the huge beast. Watching her tank was like watching a dance with death.
Chilling, yet beautiful with a deadly grace. Murmur secretly thought monks were the shit.
Back in the corner, Veranol had patched up Devlish, luckily the cure seemed to have worked, but Murmur couldn’t help wondering if it was timed. Did they only have so much time to remove injuries like that? Right now, she felt they got lucky, and as Urohne’s health ticked down toward sixty percent, Murmur tried not to give into the fear she felt blooming in her gut. Once that reflective shield went up, she knew without a doubt that she was going to be the target he focused on. There was nothing she could do about it except brace herself.
Clamping down on the restlessness in her mind, she focused just like the rest of them, applying her debuffs and watching his health like a hawk. Just before his health dropped to the next level of shield, she sighed with relief that her DoT ran out, and nuked the damned boss once more for good measure, bracing herself for the impact she knew was coming.
Except it didn’t come. The shield didn’t activate, and Urohne apparently had free choice as to what abilities to use, because right when he hit sixty percent, he began to glow and he focused right on Murmur.
A warning beep sounded through the system.
Warning: You have been targeted with Righteous Anger.
Run.
“Run, Mur!” Sinister and Havoc yelled out simultaneously.
They didn’t need to tell her again. Hell, they’d not needed to tell her anyway, but it did seem to help her sense of urgency.
Snowy nipped at her hand and then at her tunic, grabbing the material and tugging her along as the huge beast leapt from its platform and began to pursue her. Murmur watched the sparkles surround her. Wards thrown from Veranol, speed from Dansyn, and heal topping from Sinister. Even Devlish threw something on her she’d not seen before. Intervene would allow him to take some of the damage inflicted on her, effectively splitting it for up to one thousand damage.
While it was a great gap filler, she knew that if Urohne caught her, there was going to be a hell of a lot more damage to her than that. She might not quite fear death in Somnia the way she had before, but she wasn’t ready yet to give it a try. There was so much to compensate for, things she had to put in place first.
Merlin’s laughter peeled throughout the room, resounding like the good hearty laugh he always used.
“Take that you big cat... thing!” he shouted, and Murmur wished she could trust herself enough to look around.
But then Snowy stopped as well, and she slowed down, pausing enough to look over her shoulder. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but Merlin had rooted Urohne, which didn’t hold it for long, but enough to be effective in breaki
ng its forward momentum. However, it appeared Merlin also cast Brambles, which made the resulting sprint more like a slow-motion jog.
Murmur glanced at the timer in the corner of her HUD. This special ability had a few seconds left, so she couldn’t rest easy quite yet. Another arrow struck Urohne and roots broke up through the cement to wind around its feet and tail. Rock showered up and sliced him in the gut as a result of the spell, and the scream from their opponent was mostly rage.
Brambles began to cover his body as Exbo fired another shot, reaching him in the soft part of flesh just below the chin. The root broke with a mere second to go, and Murmur allowed herself to heave a sigh of relief as combat resumed its normality.
Except this time, even with Terror and Jeer, Urohne kept looking at her. He’d turn his head, eyes piercing right through to her soul as his life began to head toward the forty percent mark, and it was all Murmur could do to concentrate on her rotation. She had no idea what he’d do once he hit fifty or even forty. If he could change up his abilities like they’d already seen him do, then surely he could change up the percentage they occurred at, right?
Or else...she frowned. Maybe that wasn’t quite right. Perhaps he’d end up combining these skills. It still could all be scripted, even though she highly doubted it about any of the encounters in the world anymore.
That’s it, question everything. Nothing is what you think it is, and you’re definitely not in control.
Murmur fought off a shudder, wrestling with her attention to stay where she needed it and not give in to overanalyzing the voice that sounded far too much like Riasli. Focus was what she needed, focus on Urohne.
This time, Devlish and Rash swapped agro without the dread knight having to a take life-threatening hit from a fang, leading them into a tanking rotation. From what Murmur had been able to observe, the tanks got a debuff which worked at slowing them over time, and once it hit a certain number of stacks there was nothing they could do anymore about avoiding damage from one of the fangs. Thus, they were swapping at five stacks and keeping each other wary.
Murmur kept her eye on the healers’ mana and figured she may as well attempt to use her new sinuous line. It seemed far more potent than the previous spells she’d received from it. At least, considering their usual fights.
She activated Mana-Drain. Urohne’s eyes grew wide, and she saw the DoT apply itself, upping her damage significantly. At the same time, every single member in the raid received a small boon: a mana over time reiteration that would last until the DoT on their opponent ran out.
The chunk it took out of his mana bar was quite hefty. Each tick of it gave them all back about thirty mana. With seven of them utilizing mana, that was a large portion. She couldn’t help but feel excited with using the new ability, only lamenting that its recast was five whole minutes. But without that timer, it was a tad overpowered.
“I love you, Mur. And whatever you just did.” Sinister grinned. She’d regained three hundred mana by the time the DoT wore off, and Urohne was well on his way to the forty percent mark.
Mur just smiled at her friend, still concentrating fiercely on her target. “I do what I can.”
His health ticked down again, and the tanks swapped out a second time. She watched as his mana neared forty percent too. If she timed all of this right, maybe toward the end she could just take the rest of his mana and he’d be done. There was no coming back from that.
At forty percent, Urohne cast his ball again, and everyone managed to stop relatively on time, although Havoc still had a couple of smaller DoTs ticking and he grimaced as the damage intensified in return for a few seconds.
From what she could see, this stage involved casting that reflective ball again. There was nothing he was doing, which seemed different from the first time. Murmur watched his casting carefully, because timing this right was paramount to getting out of this stage without dying.
As opposed to the first time he cast it, the ball grew bigger the longer the protected casting went on. Murmur waited until it hit six seconds on the bubble around him and loosed her Mind Bolt, effectively cutting off the spell mid-cast.
However, it didn’t go as smoothly as earlier. Without any forewarning, a focused spear of light caught her in the abdomen and impaled through her to the floor.
“Fuck! Mur!” Sin screamed, and all Murmur could think of as the agony hit her body was there were only four seconds to go before the field dropped. They didn’t have time to change their strategy or to fuss over her.
“Heal me,” she said as the light dissipated, leaving just her, her wound, and the blood pooling around her. While she might have let the whole group avoid damage, she had in turn skewered herself. Still, with Sin’s heals flooding through her, and Veranol’s wards helping stem the damage, she cured herself of any magical ailments that might be left, and barely managed to push herself upright before the shield fell and Urohne was once again on the move.
“Live to die another day, little enchanter. It might be sooner than you think.” The beast hissed the words out, screaming in frustration as it rushed toward Devlish, like it wanted to bash the damned taunt out of his abilities.
Murmur stood further back this time. She wasn’t entirely sure how twenty percent was going to work out. If it was the pursuit again, there’d be a guaranteed difference. There had to be. It was like his powers grew and adapted to their fighting styles while the fight was ongoing. None of that waiting for the mob to learn from the previous life’s fights shit. No, this one learned on the go.
The debuffs came faster this time, with less space between them. It required more tank swaps and for the ranged classes to move out a little further, causing the rangers to back against the walls as they watched for the tail movement.
Murmur tried to keep the battle in her vision, but they were so spread out it got difficult. She knew, without any doubt at all, that she was going to be the next target as well. Of course, she was. It didn’t scare her so much as frustrate her.
Rooting and slowing seemed to work. But what if it compensated? She eyed the mana on the healers again, while throwing all her debuffs back up on Urohne, renewing them, waiting to see if he gave any tells that what he was about to put them through was another wrench in the wheel. At least Sin and Ver weren’t about to run out of mana, and glancing at her own, neither was she.
Urohne used a lot of his own. It cast spells to enhance its melee attacks, and she couldn’t quite place what class it was supposed to be. Sometimes it reminded her of a scorpion, without all the legs, and poison barb. But there was still poison contained within, and a slimy way of entering battle that put her on edge.
The base of the tail was often used as a good weak spot. Due to the blood flow directed to that portion of the body, making a creature bleed out was usually a good target. But this time, their opponent seemed to have softer skin underneath its chin, like a snake, like any animal really.
Each rotation of abilities saw the ranged classes focus their fire, determination making all of them grind their teeth in a way that made Murmur cringe and hope it didn’t reflect in the real world.
Twenty-two percent and Murmur’s hands began to perspire, just a couple more and she’d see whatever was waiting for them. Even now, in the back of her mind, she knew this was a test. More than a boss, this was a test of their strength and their perception, of their ability to act on their feet.
She knew with utter certainty that Arita had placed this monster here, this Urohne, with its snark and sarcasm, with its rage and vendetta. While it was a boss, it was also a test, the first in Hazenthorne. Well...at least the first they’d encountered since returning.
Twenty percent hit, and a giant boom filled the hall. Some of the stone floor tiles cracked, shooting through the center of the room and relegating some corners of the tiles to dust.
Not only did Murmur get the notification that she needed to run, but sh
e also noticed as she turned tail with Snowy’s urging, that this time the damned monster had its shield surrounding it. Which meant damage was off limits. She hoped to high hell that the root and brambles weren’t actually damage abilities.
But she didn’t have time to think about it anymore because running away from it was her only choice.
The room was large, and yet when being chased by a huge tiger-snake-bear being, Murmur though it felt extraordinarily small. She had to race toward the doors and hope against hope that she could make the turn relatively sharply and avoid it jumping over to her side of the room.
Maybe she could make it think she was about to run out of the room, as the doors hadn’t closed behind them. She pushed the thought through her sensing net, and out into the room. The door echoed through her skull like a lifeline, so much that she had to shake her head so as not to give into her own coaxing.
She really hoped that the shielding she provided to her raid would protect them from her own thought projection, but even if it didn’t, right now she didn’t think she had much of a choice. As long as it helped them keep Riasli’s murmurings out of their heads, she’d take it as a win.
Urohne’s pursuit of her was definitely slowed by the brambles and root, which gave her a tiny bit of breathing room. She dashed to the door, standing on its threshold, amazed to see how close Urohne was despite everything her friends were doing to try and stop it. She took a breath, and waited, casting her own reinforced root toward it.
Ducking away and up the other side no longer seemed like her best option, Urohne was far too large for that up close. She took a deep breath, and watched the countdown of his protective shield. Just two more seconds.
Her root broke, and she noticed brambles on him yet again, slowing him even as he galloped toward her faster than she’d imagined he could while being slowed down that much, his focus solely on her.