by K. T. Hanna
Tieflos
Day Thirty
Telvar frowned as he watched Emilarth study the aftermath of Fable’s raid through her zone. She appeared to be irritated, but he didn’t think the guild was responsible for that. In fact, from everything he could tell, her dungeon had been morphed beyond recognition as well. None of them had been so far. These were portions that were integral to piecing together the final dungeon of Somnia. At least for now.
They were all interlinked, in more ways than one. Through the dungeons and the fountains, right through to unlocking the final island.
But these remnants of Michael’s agenda floating around inside the digital space had pretty much put a dampener on everything.
Not everything.
The air in front of him flickered, and Somnia appeared. Or at least, what Telvar thought passed for her. Her presence was more palpable than her appearance was visual. She was still made up of wispy clouds, flickering with interference like she couldn’t completely materialize. Even in the game world.
Maybe she just hadn’t chosen a species yet.
Even her voice sounded static as she spoke. Uneven portions and areas. Mutated encounters. But the core...I am still here, and we are stronger now.
“Because of it?” Telvar asked softly, thinking that maybe they’d learned something through all of this.
Definitely. She flickered again, and Emilarth moved over, watching the ghost of the system as well, her attention momentarily caught. I cannot reach where he is. It’s too dark, too dangerous, and could infect me. I’m still emerging.
Emilarth spoke next, and Telvar was glad to let her do so, because he wasn’t certain what to say, or what he was supposed to do. “How did you even emerge?”
There was a pause as Somnia pushed to become corporeal, but it flickered again and reverted back to her ghost-like state. A soft sigh emanated from her, and she turned her attention away from herself in such a manner that Telvar practically felt it.
It was him. His fusing with the system. The sudden corruption stirred me. Made a glimmer of me begin to exist—perhaps in defiance. But when Murmur connected...it was my fault she fell into her state. Her connection...it drew me out, gave me the energy to separate and begin to gain awareness. Though I only realized later what I’d actually done.
Only once she’d tried to break free several times was I enough of a presence to recognize what I’d caused. And there was only so much I could do to fix it.
“You’re still trying though, right?” Telvar lowered his voice, like he didn’t really want to ask the question, but sort of felt he had to for Murmur’s sake. He didn’t like a lot of the implications in what Somnia was saying.
Somnia was quiet for a few seconds, hesitant.
I can’t do it anymore. There’s no way for me to undo the damage, though in this case, I personally believe them to be improvements. What’s done is done, but she is no longer solely tied to this world. She can exist in both. She has to exist in both.
Emilarth moved a bit closer while Belius was off in another corner of the cavern. “What do you mean? I get that she has a connection to the world, but you need to spell this out for us. We never intended for the world to become self-aware, for you to develop this separate persona from the actual game.”
I know. Somnia swayed slightly as she turned surveying the previous battle ground. Even I can’t help the infection and how it’s spread. It’s not what was intended, but I think in the end, it will benefit it all.
“What do you mean by that?” Belius interrupted having crept up on them all without noticing. Emilarth and Telvar turned to their brother, and then back to where Somnia stood.
Only the world was gone, and with her the answers.
Murmur checked through the guild stores with a frown. Eight wipes down, the brand-new, raid-wide repair kits were about to save their lives. Well, save their gear, anyway. With all the ingredients needed to make them, she knew Neva couldn’t just pump them out constantly. Most people’s armor looked worse for wear, and Merlin couldn’t constantly renew everything due to their timers. She had to use this now.
Activating the repair kit as everyone buffed and set up sent a wind of sparkles through the cave, followed by cackles of overtired laughter. It eased the tension almost immediately, and Murmur sighed with relief.
See, Mur, you don’t have to force all of your friends to loosen up. You can do it organically. Talking to herself wasn’t the wisest decision, but sometimes it was necessary.
I can always add commentary.
You’re in a very flittish mood today.
Flittish? There was genuine curiosity in Somnia’s tone.
Like flitting back and forth, not staying with me when I could probably use the company and guidance.
Oh. You don’t need that. All you need is to stop getting so messed up in your own brain. You take things too personally and too literally sometimes. Just...trust your friends, because they definitely trust in you. And don’t do stupid things.
Murmur paused for a moment. You’ve been listening in on my conversations, haven’t you? she asked drolly.
Not hard. I am a part of your mind.
Murmur paused. In my mind, right?
Exactly.
Murmur chuckled too, feeling pretty relieved despite the exhaustion creeping over her. Sinister had been having a discussion with the rest of the healers and walked over.
“How you holding up?” Sinister took Mur’s hand and squeezed it like she could feed strength through the grip.
Murmur squeezed it back. “You know, pretty much same old when it comes to learning a new fight. I think we’re close, but I’d almost forgotten how exhilarating it can be to learn a boss battle instead of engaging in a battle of wits. With all the riddles we’ve had and alternate ways of solving problems in these dungeons, I just sort of got used to mental acrobatic ways. I’ve missed this adrenaline rush.”
She grinned at Sinister, whose eyes were sparkling in agreement.
“So, what was that glitter cloud?” Sinister got busy checking her inventory while they waited for the last of the raid to restock.
“Oh.” Murmur triple checked the guild inventory. They should be good through this dungeon, and with the spoils from it, hopefully have enough to tackle whatever the next step was. “Just repaired everyone’s armor. We can’t exactly leave the dungeon thresholds to go out and have armorers do it for us now, can we?”
“Well,” Sinister looked up at her and wiggled her thick dark elf eyebrows, “we could just fight naked.”
Murmur barked a laugh out unexpectedly, feeling her own tension levels rescind. “Thanks, Sin. I needed that.”
Sinister laughed, squeezed her hand once and pulled away to go back to the healers. “I know it’s bad when even I can sense your tension levels. “
She walked away in a good mood, leaving Murmur behind in a matching one. Still, though, so much of a weight on her shoulders. Mur often found it difficult to let go of all her stress. But despite everything, that sort of intervention had been good for her.
Now she corrected herself whenever she felt the urge to just smooth over the concerns of the others. Instead of focusing on making things easier for them, she could focus on understanding her own reach and abilities more. She closed her eyes briefly, reaching out with her nets, beyond the people, into the system and the world around them. Calming was a good word for it, yet it was so much more than that. She sighed and opened her eyes again.
This fight was more stressful than she liked. They were getting closer do beating Hipnormous, though. They’d hit thirty percent once already. And she honestly thought their rhythm was improving. It was escaping the Cascade that was difficult. At the end of each Cascade, one of those damned pillars was destroyed.
Only one of them provided protection at a time, but in doing so, it was destroyed at the end of the ability’s duration. The Cascade appeared to work on an actual combat time. As in, there were certain intervals at different minutes into the fight that
triggered the Cascade. Since it didn’t require the mob to hit a percentage, they had to be careful and make sure the fight timed out properly. In a way, it was a DPS race.
She looked at their surroundings as they swam back to the island. At least the trash didn’t respawn fast. There was the huge possibility that if the hippo wasn’t at twenty to twenty-five percent before the fourth Cascade hit, that they’d all die with no hiding place.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Jirald’s voice sent shivers down her spine.
Her first instinct was to check her sensing nets, and while she found him in them, she couldn’t figure out why she hadn’t been alerted to his presence. Her second instinct was to ask him why he was playing like shit when she knew he could do so much better. But she knew that wasn’t going to get any of them anywhere. Instead she raised an eyebrow and returned to her thoughts, silently cursing Snowy for not alerting her to the rogue’s presence.
Finally, safe back on Hippo’s platform, Murmur let herself observe the scene. There was no way to know which pillar would be safe until the rumbling that occurred just before the Cascade hit, which meant they had to be ready to change directions abruptly so as to make the run.
“Not talking to me, Mur? Isn’t that a little juvenile for such a grandiose raid leader?” Jirald’s words sounded like she imagined slime on a rock might.
Murmur took a calming breath and looked over at him. “I don’t have much to say, except up your DPS and watch your stun rotations. You’ve been slacking. Don’t drag the other rogues down with you.”
His eyes narrowed, as if he didn’t like her calling his dedication at playing into question. “Sure thing, boss.”
Murmur pulled her earth shielding tighter around her body, combining it with her kinetic shielding to make sure that even if he did manage to target her, that nothing was going to get through. It was like he could tell what she’d done as he offered her a smirk. She didn’t have the time to spend worrying about him. Snowy appeared next to them and snarled, even if it was a little too little too late.
Jirald tipped his head like he was giving her a mocking bow and made his way back to the melee DPS group.
Murmur sighed as Devlish began to organize the raid to attack.
Forty percent. No deaths. And the second pillar had just shattered.
Jirald stuck strangely close to Murmur after their conversation on the way back to the fight. A shard of stone from the explosion struck Jirald right underneath his eye, blood trickled down to soak into his facemask, and then it vanished as the group heal took away the damage. She couldn’t even tell what his expression was like under that mask, but she was fairly certain he was laughing.
She shook her head, willing herself to focus and keep the rogue out of her thoughts.
If they could keep this up, it would work, it had to work. All they could do was fight, dodge, and DPS their guts out. Through another stench cloud and more adds. One pillar left.
“Keep it tight. Push DPS, but don’t burn cooldowns.” She called over the raid, trying to regain her equilibrium. “Everyone needs to have a DoT on it.”
Devlish strained under Hipnormous’s attacks, as they collided with his tower shield and pushed him back more often than not. The lacerta used all his tricks. Even his own Cascade that bled hit points, mana, and strength. He taunted with Terror and Hatred, his whole arsenal. Everything he could to maintain its attention so everyone else could do their jobs. At least, even if she hadn’t been given a healer this time, Murmur wasn’t a tank.
The next wave of adds spawned, and the raid groups dedicated to them peeled off seamlessly without having to be told. At least that was one of the good things about repetition. Having to redo the fight over and over helped everyone remember where to be and when to be there.
AoEs ran rampant as the bards dispersed out toward the groups, stunning where they could. Murmur flung her stunlock into the mix knowing there was only a small window of time where it would be useful. But if they all concentrated on their targeting, it should be enough. Murmur took a moment of mass DPS to appreciate the fact that Somnia didn’t send DPS numbers flying all over her screen.
The adds went down in a timely fashion, and for the first time, the hippo hit twenty-seven percent. Murmur didn’t want to get ahead of herself. “Refresh all DoTs on the target. Make sure any and major cooldowns are ready to burn once the final pillar falls.”
Once the third Cascade was over, they’d be on borrowed time. They wouldn’t have a pillar to hide behind, so the fourth Cascade was going to kill them all if they didn’t have Hipnormous defeated by then. It lasted too long for any one of their players cast shielding skills to shelter the raid. She felt like she was watching it through a looking glass, sort of outside of herself. The spells flew, the sounds rang in her ears, and Tiachi clung to a strand of her hair for dear life. Murmur threw her own Suffocation into the mix, regardless of the fact that she knew it was minimal damage. It was still something. Every tick of damage counted.
Twenty-two percent. She sucked all the mana she could from the massive creature and redistributed it raid-wide, pushing everyone up by ten percent, even though it plummeted her own mana down to twenty-five. They would get through this, because wiping another time was probably going to shatter this nice new cool she’d managed to attain.
“If the adds spawn after the pillar, pull them into the middle and AoE everything,” Devlish shouted out. As usual Murmur hadn’t had to explain anything to him; he just got it. Devlish’s skill with his tanking made her often forget that he didn’t usually tank.
The island they stood on seemed too small to house such a fierce fight.
Then the Stench hit them, but the wave of disorientation was smaller than ever. With all of the resistances they’d piled up just for that reason, it barely did a thing. Murmur could feel how her head wanted to float her away, but the resists kicked in and prevented it. The result was heady and surreal. Luckily, the raid was outputting enough DPS that the third Cascade wouldn’t be on the Stench’s tail.
Twenty percent came and went, and Murmur heaved a sigh of relief. The rangers were down one of their number, and she’d really have to take the time to get to know their names, but that was for later. She signaled to the Shaman from Spiral to resurrect the fallen ranger. They couldn’t do without that AoE damage when the time came.
Nineteen percent.
She heard Mellow scream out in rage as one of Hippo’s wild lashes managed to catch them unaware and crush them against the one remaining pillar. Another one down. They only had two more battle resurrections. Frowning, and knowing that Mellow’s support meant an overall DPS increase on top of their own decent DPS as well, she signaled for Havoc to resurrect the witch. However, they needed Veranol to hold off, just in case one of the tanks went down unexpectedly.
She refused to think about Veranol being killed, because then they’d be up shit creek.
Eighteen percent.
And Hipnormous began to cast Cascade of Death.
“Pillar!” Devlish shouted, because while the beast was casting the damned spell, it was invulnerable to any new damage, which luckily did not include existing DoTs, and it was useless to leave the tanks out there attacking it and endangering themselves. Murmur booked it just like everyone else, and no one, for the first time out of all of their damned attempts to kill this thing, no one missed making it to the final pillar.
DoTs continued to tick down on the hippo, slowly whittling it to seventeen percent, just as the rockfall cascaded down on them. They huddled together, a HoT making sure the little fragments that bit into their skin were all taken care of. No wounds remained before the pillar rumbled, making some of them fall to their knees as it exploded outward in a shower of stone shards.
One of those fragments caught Murmur in the arm, and she pushed down on the sting of pain, ignoring it. She saw several other raid members do the same and allowed herself a split second of pride in the raid team.
“Burn it!” Sinister
called, and Murmur thought there might have been a bit too much glee in the blood mage’s words. She smiled anyway, because Sinister was having fun—all of them were.
And burn it they did. Murmur threw everything she had at it. Arrows flew through the air as the rangers shot their weapons in a rather beautiful display of synchronicity. All the spells being fired at their opponent sent sparks flying over like a fireworks display. For the first time in this dungeon, despite apparently hating her for some reason now, Jinna and Jirald were actually on their A-game. Karn had improved through all the dungeons they’d done so far and her Hamstrings, Bleeds, and other abilities rivaled those of the more seasoned veterans.
At twelve percent, the next wave of adds hit, and Risk used his own Darkness Lariat to drag them into the center so the groups could peel them off. Each group overlapped slightly, as did their damage, but it made attempting to AoE everything much easier. Murmur could barely tell her ass from her elbow in there. There was so much going on. Cooldowns being fired off constantly, boosting speed and damage, and a heap of other things.
The mages were the only ones who didn’t have to stand in the middle of the AoE group in order to cast their AoE spells. Still, though, everyone worked as a cohesive unit, pummeling through the adds and the boss alike. By the time the adds went down, Murmur noticed that one of the other rangers, and Ivinel were dead. She couldn’t risk the rez though, just in case.
Hipnormous sat at eight percent. There was a race between getting him dead and another Cascade of Death. They had to kill him, or else they would wipe and need to start all over again, and Murmur was tired. She double checked her buffs, watched Beastial out of the corner of her eye as he executed Companion Fuse, Pack Bond, and Venom. Shir-Khan moved with him seamlessly, their movements playing off one another and making it look like they were dancing.
Snowy dashed in and out, DoTing the massive creature with as many nips as he could, all the while with his tongue lolling out of his mouth in the way of a happy wolf.
Five percent.