by K. T. Hanna
Murmur frowned and watched as Rashlyn picked off their targets one by one. Frankly, when the raid had a chance to focus fire on a singular target, their DPS was quite terrifying.
“Is this too easy, Mur?” Havoc was at her side, what she could see of his face contorted with confusion. From the feel of his emotions, he’d been going through much the same thought process as she had.
She shrugged uneasily, aware that this was, in fact, simple. Which meant there had to be a catch somewhere. There had to be something she wasn’t sensing up ahead of them, and she realized her friend was waiting for a response. Chastising herself inwardly, Murmur answered him. “Yep. It’s a little too simplistic for my liking, considering the riddles we’ve had to solve and the hoops we have to jump through up until now. But we also haven’t actually zoned into the dungeon yet either.”
Havoc seemed hesitant to speak, but she could see that there was something he wanted to say, so she waved him on and hoped that he understood what she meant. The fight was so mechanical and so predictable that she barely had to pay attention to it.
“You don’t think Belius is pulling something, do you? I mean, it’s not like he’s been super nice to us lately.” Havoc pushed the words out in a rush as if doing so would make it less of a testy subject. Even his casting actions were filled with an apathy she hadn’t seen him exhibit before in Somnia.
She laughed a little, irritated that they’d been forced to take the portal and thus limited in how much rest they got and how they could tackle the dungeons. “Belius is nothing if not calculating. But right now, the whole world around him is making its own plan, and he either has to get off it or get with it. So I don’t think this is a direct result of his meddling. I think it’s far worse than that.”
In that moment, as Rashlyn pulled the final gobcrab, it let out a gigantic knock back in a full 360-degree radius around it. Three of their members plummeted to their deaths over the side of the mountain, including Ishwa and Veranol. Luckily the rest of them only got slammed into the cliff side of the plateau.
Havoc sighed as he pulled Leroy back and checked over his pet for any lasting effects. Murmur scratched Snowy behind his ears again as he leaned against her. “Guess I spoke too soon,” he half-joked as the battle continued.
Murmur nodded, curious as to why the gobcrab had waited so long to use its ability. Perhaps it could only use it when it was the last one standing.
Sinister’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts. “Resurrect, mend up, heal up, and double check your supplies. We need to get up to the spire as soon as possible.” Even the blood mage looked tired and somewhat drained. The irony of the latter was not lost on Murmur.
She fell into synchronized steps with the blood mage as they took off up the path again. The sleek icy path hadn’t changed, and the snow still insisted on mocking them from the sidelines. Snowy occasionally bunny hopped through the white blanket, sending snow cascading down over the edge of the mountain. He would sink almost up to his belly in the fluffy stuff.
The railing was really just a chain soldered to thick metal stakes driven into the icy ground. There was no give in the stakes, not even the merest shake. Something had hammered them in hard and fast. Murmur was grateful that they had; otherwise, they would’ve already lost half of the raid who reached out to grab the chain to steady themselves when they slipped.
There was one more tiny plateau on the way up, barely enough to fit two groups at once. The air felt thinner up here, and Murmur noticed that everyone seemed to have rosy cheeks. She could even see it on the dark elves, lunas, and lacertas. The further they ascended, the more the wind howled around them, leaving the entire raid huddled against each other as they finally approached the cave at the peak.
Among the first to arrive up the top, Murmur couldn’t help the gasp of wonder as she saw exactly what the cave was. Shuffling in a way still wary of the sheer lack of activity in her sensory net anywhere in their vicinity, she couldn’t help but wonder at the sheer cut ice that sparkled in the fading sunlight.
It was that sort of clear blue that only the Mediterranean oceans used to have. But this was frozen, as if it invited everyone to marvel at its icy depths. She didn’t doubt that if she looked into the heart of the ice long enough, she’d probably be lost. Snowy butted his head against her thigh as if pulling her back from the precipice.
The cave rose up all around them, pushing through to the back side of the mountain without emerging out the other side. It was oval in shape if looked at from the front, and at the very highest point in the middle of it the opening stood about twelve feet high. It seemed delicate, almost like an ice sculpture. The best thing was that everyone fit into the space. All thirty of the raid members.
However, there was one very peculiar thing about the whole cave. The one path they were able to take would lead to a dead end. It was oddly dissatisfying. Irritation welled in her as she turned around surveying the rest of the raid who stood with her. From their expressions and the feelings, she sensed it seemed they’d had the same thoughts as she did.
“Is it just me or it does there appear to be no other way out of this place?” Karn voiced the question on everyone’s lips.
And Murmur immediately wished the young rogue had not. As if she’d turned the key in the lock, Murmur felt the ground began to rumble. In an ice cave at the peak of a mountain, it was one of the scariest things she’d ever experienced.
Cracks began to appear in the perfectly blue ice that surrounded them, and the rumbles made the ground much slicker than before, which was saying something. Several of the raid members plummeted painfully onto their asses, while others face planted it. Murmur cringed at the occasional cracking of bones, her only solace in the fact that potions could heal breaks.
Next to her, Snowy braced himself with all four legs and growled deep in his throat his hackles standing on end. His claws extended ever so slightly, digging deep into the ice as if he was trying to gain a foothold. When the wolf got upset, Murmur knew there was something wrong that shouldn’t be. Sinister fell on her butt and sat blinking up at the ceiling above them a horrified look on her face.
Murmur followed her friends gaze. The overwhelming sense of horror that began to emerge in the center of her stomach felt like it was worlds away at first. Above her, sealed into the ice, were iridescent worms. They writhed as if creating the quaking earth, their movements in direct coordination with that of the ground around them.
And then the ground gave way beneath them. Having stood directly in the middle, Murmur was the first to fall. She hit what appeared to be an ice wall after at least a dozen feet with a painful smack, but it didn’t stop there. In fact, despite traveling at a ridiculous speed along what appeared to be icy ground, she realized they were actually enclosed in a tube of ice.
A fucking slippery slide made out of ice.
If that wasn’t enough as she shot along at the speed of the gods-knows-what, a message flashed across her vision.
Welcome to the dungeon of Tieflos.
This, the first ever incarnation of this dungeon, has been activated by Murmur of Fable. Thank you for visiting Tieflos, and we hope you enjoy your stay.
Somnia Online
Continent of Firtulai – Tieflos Region
Late Day Twenty-Seven
Jirald was starting to get uncomfortable. So much, in fact, that his skin was beginning to itch in a way that resembled growing pains when skin was stretching over bones too big for what it had been before. It was almost like his skeleton was trying to break free of its confines.
Which was of course, impossible.
It had to be her. Something that Murmur was doing had released mites into the air or something. She led them up this godforsaken path to the top of the mountain having no idea what she was doing. All she ever seemed to do was wing it all the way. He couldn’t see where she contemplated the quests she had been given, n
or could he comprehend how she made the decisions she did.
Jirald was glad that at least Risk seemed to see her for what she was. With an ally, he was beginning to feel bolder.
He glanced at Masha, who was walking next to him, like a shadow Jirald hadn’t asked for but nevertheless appreciated. Though he would never tell the older man that and risking getting all sentimental.
“What’s up?” Masha’s question startled the rogue, because the man hadn’t even flickered his gaze toward him. There was something about him that just always knew when Jirald was getting extra irritated. Which had been much more frequent lately.
Jirald shrugged, the rolling motion of his shoulders lessening some of the uncomfortable itching beneath his skin. “We are up too fucking high.” He rubbed his arms, wishing his class had bulkier material for its aesthetic. The grumpiness rumbled in his gut, and he reached into his inventory and pulled out a piece of bread, biting into it with a viciousness usually reserved for wild animals.
Masha raised an eyebrow and didn’t say anything for a few heartbeats. “Oh. Is that all? You worry too much. We’ll end up where we need to be.” And he grinned at Jirald in that maddening way that always ended in the cleric being right.
“Wipe that smug smile off your face, you bastard.” And even though Jirald said it with his mouth half full of bread he couldn’t help but feel better. It was the way Masha had always been. Sometimes it made Jirald want to kill him, and other times, though he would never admit it out loud, it made him feel like someone actually cared. Masha didn’t need to know about Jirald’s discussion with Risk. No one did.
The cave they stood in only amplified the chill he felt in his bones, which pressed against his skin, stretching it so much he thought they were about to break free. It was an odd sensation, as if there was a part of him inside trying to become whole with him. Like he’d suppressed a part of him he’d never realized he had.
It was the thoughts in his head that made the chill down his back seem worse than just the ice in the cave. A tingling began beneath his feet, and for just a moment he thought he was about to transform. Until the fucking floor fell out from under him and sent them plummeting after the rest of the raid.
Somnia Online
Continent Tarishna: Mikrum Isle
Fable Guild Headquarters – Telvar’s Office
Late Day Twenty-Seven
Telvar cocked an eyebrow at his sister as she burst through the door looking decidedly worse for wear. “You realize that you’re still an AI, right? I mean you don’t have to breathe that heavily.”
All he received for his trouble was an irritated glare. “We’re in the character bodies that we chose to take on. Everything was tuned for realism, and so this damned cat gets winded.” She righted herself and perched on the edge of his desk, her composure somewhat regained.
“Well, when you put it that way, what made you run into my office instead of flashing in like you should have?” Telvar wasn’t really in the mood to play her games. He had better things to do, like protect their best chance at saving Somnia.
“Belius is in trouble.” All of Emilarth’s humor was gone. She was never one to let concern for anything to get the better of her good sense of humor, but right then the sensation was almost palpable.
“And you thought I’d give a fuck because?” Telvar didn’t miss a beat, and he had no intention of helping his brother any time soon. Not after the shit he’d pulled, justified or not.
“You can’t mean that?” Emilarth seemed genuinely surprised.
Telvar didn’t even bother to look at her. “I can, and I do.”
“But he’s gotten himself in trouble.” She was being more persistent than usual.
“Do you mean he courted trouble or he is in trouble?” Telvar wasn’t kindly inclined in any way toward his younger brother. Not after the whole shard incident. He was still fixing the algorithms, still getting back to becoming himself. None of it was easy even if he had meant it in a good way.
“That doesn’t matter. He needs our help.” Emilarth’s tone held sincerity and urgency, and her eyes didn’t twinkle, not one bit.
Telvar sighed, glad of that particular human expression. “Fine. I’ll bite. How do you know there’s trouble, and what type of help does he need from us?” And he waited. Because Emilarth had to know whatever explanation she came up with for him needed to be a doozy. After everything he’d been through and put up with, his give a fuck about Belius was in the negative.
Emilarth hesitated as if she was trying to choose her words carefully. “I’ve been tracking Riasli as much as I can, including all of the false trails she’s left us. It hasn’t been easy, and frankly, for anyone else I would’ve already given up. Riasli’s trails lead everywhere and anywhere, except with glaring obviousness when you’re looking for it, to the area where I know Belius currently is.” She shrugged her shoulders and cracked her neck obviously uncomfortable with the whole situation. “She’s there with him, in Ululate. She has to be. Her absence of self is reflected with the highest potency in that area. It’s as if she’s tried to lead us off trail by giving us so many to follow and specifically coding the area she is in as if she isn’t. Does that make sense?” Even Emilarth seemed slightly confused by her own logic.
Telvar saw her point. He pondered her words cautiously, not wanting to lend them any credence should he find a hole in her theory. Telvar even went to the extent of searching his own neural network and pushing out through the game to see if he could pick up on what she was talking about.
Because of the information she’d given him, it was quite easy for Telvar to pinpoint the suspected activity. Emilarth was right. Each instance was too obvious, as if someone had set up a façade so anyone searching for those exact circumstances would be misled.
Considering who Riasli was, the whole situation made even more sense. He still wasn’t sure what it had to do with his brother, but Riasli was a problem that needed to be eliminated. If that meant he had to assist his shitty little brother, then it was an unhappy side effect.
Telvar sighed, resigned to taking whatever next step Emilarth wanted to. “Fine. What’s the next step?“
“You almost sound like you wish he was guilty of everything. Isn’t it better to know he had some sort of plan in the long run?” Her tone was soothing and yet the words persisted in getting under his scales.
He shook his head. “Not really. What it means is that our little brother didn’t trust us, and now we have to fish his ass out of the fire. And be dammed if I won’t let him burn to a crisp before I do.”
The landing at the end of the slide was positively jarring. Murmur hit the ground with such force, the wind was momentarily knocked out of her. As soon as she took in her next breath while scrambling to get out of the way of the incoming rest of the raid, she noticed a debuff appear briefly across her screen and automatically accessed the information.
Disorientation Debuff
Warning: You have just finished a very bumpy ride. Due to the sudden nature of this dungeon entrance and your less than stellar landing, you will remain disoriented for the next 150 seconds. Please be aware that anything attacked with in this time-period may not be the target you think it is.
Please enjoy the dungeon. We look forward to kicking your ass.
Murmur frowned at the wording of the debuff. It seemed strangely worded, less on the snarky and more on the serious side. She had the distinct feeling Somnia wasn’t responsible for this turn of events. The rest of the raid tumbled above her, still making its way down and the noise echoed chillingly through to her. When they landed, she knew they’d also receive the debuff.
Something tugged at the back of her sensing nets, as if it was slithering up each strand of them and trying to leak into her brain. She shivered, and it had nothing to do with the icy cavern in which they’d landed. There was something drastically wrong about everyth
ing in Tieflos, and her thoughts couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
It felt like she was being watched, or perhaps more aptly, being weighed. Something was out there, avoiding her ability to sense it, and biding its time while it took in everything about her and about the raid.
She scrambled to shout out the warning just as the others were picking themselves up off the ice. “Devlish! Attack incoming! Veranol, Sinister—heal rotations.”
Sure, she only called out to Fable, but she’d known them for years and knew just how quickly they could snap to attention. Murmur had a feeling those precious few seconds we’re going to count. Again, a fleeting thought in the back of her mind reminded her how much more difficult it would be if she couldn’t sense incoming attackers, even if it had been jumbled and reactionary.
Veranol’s wards popped up on Devlish almost immediately, and it was the only thing that saved their tank from going down.
Rashlyn pulled out all the stops, triggering her hidden abilities, Phantom followed by Ignore in an attempt to buy the other healers—who were still shakily standing up from their landing—some more time. Even though Exodus and Spiral weren’t from her own Guild, Murmur had to give them props for reacting as quickly as they did.
Devlish and Rashlyn managed to engage three of the incoming monsters immediately. The dread knight pulled another to him with his Darkness Lariat. That still left three others to run rampant. Though Murmur managed to engage two of them each with a single target Mez, the third one was fast enough to rake its claws through three disoriented raiders who had just landed.
Murmur cringed, finally able to Mez the third target. The Disorientation debuff was no joke. At any other time, she’d have been able to stop all three of them. To be honest, the first two were a fluke of targeting given that her spell barely hit them. Trying to land her debuffs was crazy difficult. She blinked several times, trying to focus, and chose instead to use the more mana intensive group debuff versions so she could at least hit something.