Somnia Online by K.T. Hanna (reading strategies book txt) 📕

target thing, but instead it must just be one target at a time until the cooldown was up.

Ishwa, Etriad, and the other casters had begun to carefully orchestrate their attacks. They didn’t stay in one spot, but instead they moved constantly. A couple of them cast while the others moved, rinse and repeat. Clever tactic, considering that mole creature was constantly trying to surprise them with a stun and a brief mana drain.

Archers positioned themselves at different points around the room, releasing their arrows in a wave of attacks, alternating through different shots every turn. At first Murmur couldn’t tell why, until she realized that as long as they did that, Riasli’s shielding couldn’t defend the way it needed to. The more variation, the less opportunity her defenses had to adapt to the shot or spell used.

Which meant that if Murmur hit her with an amalgamation of the spells she wanted to, there would be no way for the feles to defend against it.

But pushing them all together would turn it into a sort of Frankenstein monster’s spell, and she had to make sure that what she had pictured in her mind was what she’d be able to create. Still exerting what few abilities of her own she could, Murmur waited for the moment to release the concoction of spells she held firmly in her mind’s eye. It was going to be as dangerous for her to execute correctly, as it was for Riasli to combat.

As Riasli dropped below fifty percent, she began to glow. Not one of those soft and subtle glows that soothes everyone in sight, but one of the pulsating evil glows that means an electrical connection somewhere is wonky. The wind and tornados around both her and her final remaining mole died down. In fact, it became so still and stifling, Murmur started to wonder if the air had somehow been sucked out from around them.

Riasli grabbed her staff in both hands, and her gaze shot upward, tilting her head back at an unnatural angle. Words that sounded more like gibberish than spells spilled from her lips, like a chant that shouldn’t be spoken. Every second sconce winked out in that specific moment, eliciting a collective gasp from the raid.

And then Riasli’s head snapped back up to look at everyone, her eyes now a bright and glowing orange, flickering with the same rhythm as the rest of her body. While she had regained her feline form, that was where her similarities with the original Riasli ended.

Her tail lashed, but it had a different weight to it than before, and her staff began to pulsate, oranges and reds melding together into a bubbly carafe of blood. She rose a few more feet, and instead of the air twirling into mini tornados, her body began to spin.

Like a dancer, though, with her head spinning rapidly in time in order to keep her eye on that spot. She spun and she spun, gaining momentum, even as the DoTs ate away at her health. First hitting forty-eight percent, and then dwindling her down to forty-five. It wasn’t even as if they could attack her with anything other than spells.

The spinning made anything projectile that wasn’t magic-based simply spin off her. Murmur could feel her power building, even as the rogues and bards cut down her last mole. Even as her health dropped down to twenty-eight percent. The speed and the darkness gathering around her felt like it had a life of its own.

Murmur wove her protective shield, readying it for release, grateful that she had enough backing to be able to pull this off, to be able to stand sure in the face of the gods-knew-what Riasli was working up to. If she got it just right, released it at the correct time, it should theoretically protect the entire raid.

Riasli continued to glow as her spinning sped up so fast Murmur could barely discern that the blur was the feles. Round and round, the glow became brighter—so much, in fact, that it was blinding. A whirring began, like something building up to release.

Snowy head butted her hand, and Murmur released her spell.

You have created a new spell.

Mind Block Barrier

Type: AoE defense buff

Cast: Instant - Recast 60 seconds

Duration: 12 seconds

Effect: This spell allows you to ward off any dangerous mind magic directed at your group or raid for a period of (but not exceeding) twelve seconds. Got someone wanting to play around in your head? Look no further than this.

Her wave of protection funneled out, encasing every single person in the raid. Sure, they took damage, but their minds were safe from whatever Riasli had planned for them. In response, the feles screamed with frustration as her life plummeted down to twelve percent.

Using some of her abilities drained her life. That wasn’t a sort of class Murmur would enjoy playing.

Riasli alighted on the wrecked cobblestones, stumbling as she came down. Blood matted her face completely now, running down from her ears and overshadowing the blood on her face she’d come into the battle with.

“I will take you all with me. None of you are getting out of here alive.” She spat the words, blood bubbling on her lips. Murmur drained more of her mana, determined not to let the cat get any devastating spells off.

But the melee classes and ranged, they didn’t care what their opponent was saying, they simply laid into her now she was in reach. Brutally, even. But at five percent, a shadow descended on them all, cloaking the entire ballroom and extinguishing the last of the sconces, leaving only the dim light of the overcast spelled sky above them to give them light.

“Ah, Riasli,” the voice mocked, sounding so familiar to Murmur that she took a step back.

The only answer the feles gave—as the DoTs continued to tick down her life, as she stood there in whatever type of shielding this shadow held her in—was a whimper. There was genuine fear in her eyes.

Was this Michael? Finally?

This