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

he couldn’t get her. And they all, including the damned rogue, knew that dying in this dungeon wasn’t a good idea.

Taking Sinister out would accomplish so many things for him. He’d distract Murmur, remove a healer, and could potentially wipe the raid.

They couldn’t afford a wipe, and he knew it.

Jirald stood there, his nine-foot frame towering as he backwards gripped his daggers. The smile didn’t reach his eyes, and his gaze followed Murmur’s every move. Snowy growled beside her.

“Ready,” he whispered, but it sang through the air like a swirling wind, touching everyone who heard it.

Murmur clamped her shielding around herself and Sinister, determined to mitigate whatever she could despite the gradual drain on her MA. If she calculated it correctly, they needed to finish this fight in about twenty-nine minutes or her MA would be out of action. Merlin and Havoc both took a step closer to her, like they were forming a vanguard. Fable knew the rivalry had turned poisonous.

Jirald crouched further down, his snake eyes gleaming. “Set.”

Snowy growled, growing bigger this time. His legs and body elongated, pushing out until his back reached her chest. A flash of red shot through his eyes, and saliva dripped from his now-larger fangs.

“We’ve got this.” Havoc spoke as the wolf transformed.

Merlin nodded next to him. “We’re not going down.”

Even Risk and Masha, Ishwa and Karn…all of the raid closed ranks, presenting a united front against their opponent.

Jirald simply grinned. “Go.”

He shot out from where he stood and vanished momentarily. But Murmur was prepared, and her ability to see invisibility was shared with the entire raid.

She willed it out there, demanded that her abilities encompass the entire raid. This way, she could depend on her friends, on the people who didn’t need her to take care of them. On the people who would be there while they all took care of things together.

Your Level 8 spell See Invisible has been expanded.

Mass See Invisibility

Cast: Self or All of the Others

Type: Buff

Duration: 30 minutes

Effect: Really? Does this really require explanation? It does? Affects all allies within a twenty-foot radius.

He couldn’t hide from them if they could see him. And he couldn’t surprise them too much if he couldn’t disappear. Her abilities enhanced her group, her guild, her raid. It was time she stopped carrying everything on her shoulders and got down to the business of working as a team. She could already hear Veranol laughing at her. Apparently, she’d had to learn it the hard way.

A flicker of irritation passed over Jirald’s face as he realized the entire raid could see him now. So much for the element of surprise. But it wasn’t like that was the only trick up his sleeve. He still possessed all the abilities any in-game rogue had.

Because he technically still was one. He might have taken on a boss role, but he was still Jirald at the core, regardless how rotten it had become.

Risk and Devlish stood together side by side, and Risk had pulled out his tanking regalia. Murmur noticed Esolan was in his off-tanking gear, and she knew they had to have a plan.

Devlish hefted that damned shield, and she could have sworn it had grown again. Almost as tall as the lacerta, he hefted it and screamed what sounded like a war cry. Except she knew differently. It was a scream of defiance, used to hide whatever it was the two dread knights had up their sleeves.

Jirald looked over, reluctantly tearing his gaze from Murmur, and that’s when she knew they could win. Everything was subject to game mechanics in here. Even if sometimes the physics was completely wonky. Even if sometimes what happened wouldn’t work anywhere else.

A split second later, as Devlish executed his Hatred and his Torment, she saw the same realization flash over Jirald. The rogue knew it now. Sure, he had abilities he could trigger and ways he could fight as unfairly as possible. But he had to obey the rules of the game. It was built in, integral. He couldn’t avoid being taunted, because he didn’t have the magical resistances to enable that.

The rogue’s first strike hit the tower shield with a massive clash. Murmur could feel the frustration surrounding him now, feel how angry he was with himself for getting carried away. And he was completely devoted to find some loophole, some glitch, or some way to game the system.

But Risk and Devlish didn’t plan to make that easy on him. Just before the debuff that made Jirald face Devlish wore off, Risk was there, taunting with the same spells in the same ways, and forcing Jirald to look at him next.

Jirald cried out, frustration coloring the sound. He executed multiple frontal attacks, his blades whirling so fast she couldn’t keep track of them. It became even more difficult to do so once the rest of the guild joined in the attack.

Belius, Telvar, and Emilarth jumped on the bandwagon too. Emilarth’s healing abilities were paramount to filling any gaps. Two enchanters in the raid was something she still wasn’t used to, but Murmur would take all the help she could get. Considering Belius seemed to have taken mage as his hybrid class, he could at least contribute somewhat to the damage.

Telvar jumped into the fray, next to Rashlyn. The two of them executed their combat moves as if they were performing some sort of exotic dance.

The rangers had spread out, making sure they didn’t present a single target easily taken out by a rogue’s lethal AoE attacks, and the mages had mimicked their movements. Bards danced in and out, buffing, damaging, debuffing. Witches’ cauldrons bubbled, and the rogues, well…Karn and Jinna seemed uniquely set on paying Jirald back for having to suffer through his moods while they fought together.

Murmur noticed that each healer stood with a ranger, separating themselves from each other, yet providing themselves with some decent cover should they require it.

She took in a breath as she watched the new and improved Snowy rip at Jirald’s body