Somnia Online

by K. T. Hanna

  Finally, Rav spoke. “What’s the plan?”

  “Distribute it. Find anything you can and instead of killing it, make sure the anti-virus is injected through it into the system. It’s not going to be enough just to fix the base; we’re going to have to fix the portions that have already been infected in order to make sure it goes through to the source.” Laria got the words out in a rush, surprising even herself. David squeezed her shoulders again as he took another sip of his coffee. “We need to make sure it doesn’t spread farther through any means—we can’t afford it getting out of Somnia and into the rest of the net.”

  It was Thra who spoke next. “They will be in that dungeon for a good number of hours yet. It gives us time to get it done, if we split up.” There was a worried underwhir to her words, and Laria wondered what it was they weren’t telling the humans.

  “Okay. Just be careful,” Shayla said, like she was worried about them. And Laria found herself feeling oddly protective too. Not like she didn’t have enough to worry about with Wren, so that was great.

  “We will. Thank you for doing this. We have been otherwise occupied.” Sui’s voice hummed out of the machine too. This time it was more even-keeled and held less interference. Whatever had been wrong with him seemed to be fixed.

  It was a clear dismissal, and Laria left the room with the others, making sure it locked behind them. She just had to hope they could complete the task or the game world was going to dissolve, and she wasn’t sure how safe that would be with the intricate connections to it some people seemed to have.

  The water was colder than Murmur expected, at least until the Boon kicked in fully. It smelled of salt and sweetness, not what she’d expected to associate with an entirely different level of the world that was out to kill them all. And she really didn’t want to put her head under, but it was either that and swim toward the rest of the dungeon, or else be left behind.

  Her first instincts were to close her eyes, but that wasn’t going to help anyone, and if the buff they had cast didn’t let them see underwater as well as breathe, they were shit out of luck. Steeling herself to be stung without remorse by the salt that would assault her eyes, she opened them.

  And choked in a mouth full of water in surprise as she didn’t succumb to horrific pain as caused by the sea water in the lake. Typical. Of course, Somnia wasn’t going to adopt the regular concerns that belonged to a saltwater lake. She was willing to bet that all arrows and spells were going to fly straight and true, and the physics of water wouldn’t affect anyone either.

  Of course not. What did you expect? That would be a horrible disadvantage. No one would ever go to the underwater zones.

  Somnia almost sounded indignant, and Murmur had to choke down the laughter along with a sliver of water that got past her lips. You make a good point, was what she said instead.

  I should think so.

  Murmur cast her gaze around, watching as everyone swam through the water. No one felt comfortable. In fact, everyone seemed to be just as on edge as she was. Maybe the countdown that hung over the water breathing buff in the corner of her vision had something to do with that.

  Oh, that’s right!

  Murmur was about to ask what Somnia was talking about when an eyeful of information flashed across her vision.

  Due to the complexities of the underwater world, your casters have received a mass AoE version of Underwater Breathing.

  Unending Breath

  This spell allows you and all the raid members you buff to breathe underwater. This ability can only be removed by the players choice, or else by death of the player. It must be recast after a death. Or else, you know, they might drown.

  Murmur blinked at the spell and the muttering around her. At least she wasn’t the only one who got the damned thing. With this, though, she could feel palpable relief flooding every single member of the raid. Even Jirald. It made sense, though. No one wanted to die from drowning.

  “Hey, guys. The good news is I don’t think any of us are in any danger of drowning now.” She knew she wasn’t imagining the relief in some people’s faces. It would have been tough to make sure everyone was always one hundred percent covered. Murmur cast it for the first time; the complexities of the spell almost knotted her fingers. Directing a scowl inward, she thought with all the heat she could muster in Somnia’s direction.

  Fantastic. Couldn’t have made it a bit easier to cast?

  Mur could swear she heard a chuckle, but no response.

  “Okay, let’s move on out, then.” Murmur laughed and Devlish raised an eyebrow ridge at her.

  He grinned. “Follow me. Let’s get our serious swim on now!”

  He leapt through the water and began moving with powerful strokes, like the fact that everyone else could breathe under water had somehow rejuvenated him. Dev and the other three lacerta in the raid swam circles around the rest of them. Sadly, the buff didn’t make the water feel warmer. Despite having the Boon in their favor, the water surrounding them still had a horrible chill to it. Murmur didn’t like the way it felt against what skin she had exposed.

  It all just reinforced her hatred of underwater zones. Telvar would pay for not warning them about this. Although, given the name of the dungeon, she should have guessed. He’d point that out to her too.

  Small batches of fish swam around them. All of them conning a yellowish green that meant they wouldn’t fight them unless attacked. It gave Murmur a moment of thought. Because if they used AoE attacks during the raid and hit these, they could swarm and become a problem. She knew Devlish had seen them and noted the same thing. Their pretty underwater rainbow colors might be appealing to the eye, but if they weren’t careful and got ambushed in a school of apparently harmless fish, they could end up being eaten alive.

  In the game. And respawning. At least the death wasn’t permanent, right? Imagine that being possible in the real world? Murmur shuddered at the thought. Where would the crossover for her end?

  Sinister swam beside her and reached for her hand to squeeze it. “You okay?”

  Murmur was surprised. Sinister’s voice didn’t gurgle like Murmur expected it to under water. Of course. It was a game, and water breathing just meant it treated the water like oxygen. So of course, breathing was going to work and everything would sound the same. It was just a pain in the ass to have to swim through everything. She still didn’t like thinking about the fact that she could see underwater. Too much thought about it made the logical part of her brain panic.

  “Yeah. Got a lot on my mind. The least of all is that I hate water dungeons, and I’m never sure what to expect.”

  The underwater world was beautiful: kelp strands in different colors rising from the bottom of the lake, fish with darker mirrored colors swimming in and out of the leaves. Serene was the best way to describe it, so soothing. The sound of the water moving leant a gentle swishing to the atmosphere, lulling and almost hypnotic. Corals with rainbow hues, and anemones as big as a room with their tentacles swaying in the current. Beautiful to look at, scary to swim through.

  Even scarier to swim through as Murmur realized that one anemone wasn’t fixed to the ground, but actually trailing after them. It was massive, like could barely fit in a house massive.

  She cleared her throat, but thought against alarming the raid. That sort of creepy shit was bound to make some people panic. She spoke over guild chat instead. Dev. Don’t look now, or, you know, look now, but that anemone behind us is chasing us way too fast to like be a simple anemone.

  Shit was all the response Devlish gave.

  Stopping suddenly, the lacerta tank turned and observed the massive hunk of pinkish-orange anemone making its way toward them. Considering the bulk of it, it moved surprisingly fast.

  “Incoming,” he announced, boosting his voice so it reached the whole raid.

  The word caused the rest of the raid to turn as well. Most of them seemed surprised by it, except for a few who were more hyperaware of their surroundings. Like the ra
ngers and their tracking. Maybe the water had lulled everyone a little too much.

  The absolute worst thing about water raiding was moving in it. Everything they did moved slower, and it was all Murmur could do not to scream for Telvar to come so she could give him a piece of her mind right there and then.

  Finally, the monster came into view. Anemomight, level fifty-four, conned dark orange. The worst thing was definitely going to be the difficulty in figuring out how to melee attack the thing. Devlish prepared for impact, his tower shield raised. Murmur readied herself, watching the types of attack it’d possess. She had no idea what to expect given the way an anemone was built. Tentacles stood out from its head, while the column of its body was solid. As long as Devlish could keep the attention of the tentacles, the melee fighters should be able to attack the beast’s column section.

  Theoretically, of course.

  The column appeared to have multicolored streaks running down it, almost like blood red had mixed itself into it somehow, making it bleed perpetually.

  “Please tell me someone else is having difficulty not making anime porn references because of the tentacles.” Merlin’s tone was so put upon that even Murmur snorted with laughter. It was the perfect icebreaker to help them get through the sudden appearance of a boss none of them had expected.

  And it was the last break they got for a while. Murmur knew Mez was off the table. It always was with bosses, but stuns sometimes worked. Flux just stared back at her like she was dreaming or hoping. But the one thing this boss had going for it—Anemomight was a magic user, or at least a mana user. That made Murmur’s job so much easier and a hell of a lot more fun. Balancing all her support skills and more, was the whole reason the enchanter now appealed to her. Draining mana wasn’t always easy, and on a larger mob of importance, rarely a sure thing.

  Just as she expected, the notification flashed across her vision as soon as she cast the spell.

  Warning.

  This spell will have diminishing returns on Anemomight. While mana draining can help, in this instance it might be better to find another route to disabling it.

  Murmur grinned, and this time she felt a well of self-satisfaction within her. Fine, she wouldn’t drain its mana, she’d just block it from using it. Concentrating, and glad that she had built up such a large pool of MA, Murmur released Mind Bolt on the creature as soon as she saw it begin casting.

  Anemomight squealed in frustration at being unable to cast, and its feelers twisted and turned on its body like it was seeking the source of its discomfort. Seeking her.

  Tentacles rushed forward, attempting to attack all the nearby melee, to shoot through them. It was only with great effort and taunting skill that Rashlyn and Esolan managed to pull some of the aggro over to them. Both Risk and Devlish had struggles of their own.

  Devlish seemed angry, even if it wasn’t directed at the other dread knight. He seemed to be angry at the boss. “Risk and I need to swap out aggro on a regular basis. The debuff can’t reach more than a few stacks, or else we’ll take too much damage. Make sure you’re watching for the switch, healers.”

  Murmur saw Sinister’s bristling irritation out of the corner of her eye and not for the first time wasn’t that sad that she no longer healed. After all, it was always more difficult than people thought it was. But the bloodmage adapted so well. Her abilities swayed between the two tanks. From what Murmur observed, they seemed to be alternating between each other, distributing hit points to help, while, at the same time, leeching healing off the Anemomight as the blood mage spells slowly sucked away at its life.

  Exbo and Merlin led the rangers in shots. Naturally fire wouldn’t work in water, not in any way. Or at least it shouldn’t. While it made a lot of sense, Murmur thought it comical that the game-world chose this instant to decide to pay attention to physics.

  She glanced to the other side where Mellow managed the mages with Ishwa. The tiny gnome seemed a bit worse for wear. His eyes had bags under them, which had to be pretty severe if they were showing through in the damned game world. But his power as a mage was enthralling. Ice seemed to do the best damage, and in short order, every attack that could raise ice did.

  Anemomight squealed in pain, several of its very many tentacles drooping lifelessly. Slowly its health bar inched down further, until it hit fifty percent.

  Murmur had given up on creatures having predictable thresholds in this world. Nothing ever made sense as if Somnia was trying to constantly keep them guessing.

  In a way I do.

  Shut up, I’m concentrating. But Murmur liked being right. Although maybe not as much as usual this time around.

  When Anemomight hit fifty percent health, its squeal changed. More pain and rage filled the entire area, echoing underwater with gurgles intact. Murmur found that her ears ached so much a trickle of blood came out, and she stared at the liquid on her fingers. The emotions it put out were almost overwhelming to her.

  Dansyn sped away from the group, suddenly pulling out a lute. He struck a discordant melody that was almost as painful on the ears as the screech that made her bleed. Fish in the closest proximity to them scattered, the sensation of panicked alarm echoing back into Murmur’s net.

  For a few moments, Anemomight appeared to be practically frozen in place. Its health still ticked down with all the DoTs on it, but it simply sat there, swaying in the water with no other movement. As if Dansyn had stopped the Anemomight from executing a horrific ability.

  Just when it seemed like everything was fine. Just when it appeared to moving into the next stage of the battle, the creature globbed.

  It was hard to describe. Glob was the only term that came to her mind. Its column lurched suddenly, bulbously, and lurched again, like it was throwing up. But what would an anemomight throw up then?

  It ended up being a question Murmur really wished she hadn’t thought of. Because slowly, like a gremlin birthing, the column began to sprout bubbles. Except they weren’t bubbles. They were more like eggs or perhaps pus-filled boils that birthed smaller, just as annoying mini anemomights. So many of them Murmur lost count. Snowy growled and Sinister gulped next to her. Murmur knew the bloodmage was trying not to throw up. She couldn’t blame her.

  After all, hundreds of small anemones wiggling their tentacles in front of them was just too much.

  At least the Anemomight appeared to be frozen in time. As if in doing what it did, birthing these baby versions of itself, had somehow frozen the boss mob. Murmur couldn’t help the relief that flooded her. She knew that if they’d had to deal with all of them at the same time, loss was definitely on the agenda.

  She took a deep breath, conning the creatures and realized they were all level fifty-one. Hard group mobs. Enough to swarm the lot of them. Murmur took a deep breath and counted to two, but only because when she hit two, their opponents began to move forward.

  “To me!” Devlish cried, and Murmur hoped he was right. AoE time…if it could even work in water.

  She moved to him as fast as she could, but barely faster than the mobs reached the raiders. She saw Etriad, the Spiral mage, go down under a swarm of ten or so, and gulped nervously. Letting go of Flux, she hoped for the best, and it worked. At least with her stun rotation, and that of the bards, this might be doable. “Dansyn, Ivinel, help stun. Stun on cooldown. Stun all the time.”

  Because a percentage would always resist. It was just the way these things worked. And when there were hundreds of the creatures, the resists were no longer negligible. More stuns wouldn’t break a stun, and might even catch some of those who’d escaped the first time around. At least, that was the theory she’d been working on these past oh, fifty levels.

  Murmur kept an eye out as she found her groove, and tried tapping the Anemomight for mana, but received an annoying notification.

  Anemomight is currently phased out of this battle. You cannot harm, heal, or otherwise attack this creature. Only those spells already in effect will run their course.

  I
rritated, Murmur attempted to tap the smaller ones. They had some mana, but not a lot. It would have to do, or else herself and the healers were going to run out before this battle was over.

  While she stunned, everyone else had fun. Not that stunning wasn’t fun, but it required concentration and well-timed debuffs that didn’t get in the way of her rotation.

  Snowy got to dart in and out like a white fur whirlwind. The rangers loosed their AoE Rapid-fire, and the mages had a field day with what appeared to be whirlwinds and blizzards, but she couldn’t be sure.

  The way ice flew through the water gave Murmur pause. If it was ice and unable to melt because magic, then wouldn’t the water around it attach to it and also become ice? Shouldn’t it end up just freezing everything?

  You’re thinking too much.

  Somnia sounded disgruntled by the train of thought, and Murmur shrugged.

  Resist!

  A majority of your targets have resisted your current stun. Please be aware you will be their first target.

  Fuck. Murmur glanced around, noticing Dansyn to her side. “Need your stun now!”

  He shook his head. “Waiting on refresh.”

  But about twenty of the little shits were already converging on her position, and Murmur took a deep breath, hoping they didn’t hit as hard as she thought they did. She hated death, even if it was in a game. At least the creatures had to fight through the rest of the raid in order to get to her.

  The blobs didn’t seem to have any ranged attacks and they ran over everything and everyone on their way to her. While it was probably the only reason Mur survived, it left Jinna and one of the Exodus rangers she’d never caught the name of, in the rampage’s wake before Dansyn’s stun hit them.

  Three people down and the boss was only at fifty percent. Devlish called for a rez on both Jinna and Etriad. The rogue’s damage was excellent, and as annoying as that mage could be, his DPS output was brilliant. They needed everything they could get, especially AoE in nature.