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

“I don’t think so? Maybe.” Murmur was sure there were fewer of them. She reached out to her sensing net and realized that the small versions were still attached to the boss through what appeared to be a focal point. The little ones were a shield that helped make up its health, and the anchor appeared to be hidden in the middle of all of them. Letting her future self be worried about self-recrimination, she pushed her irritation aside and followed the link to the exact one.

Fluctuations in her net hampered her ability to track the anchor down, but finally she managed it. There was nothing overly different about it, which made her feel a tad better about having missed it initially. The same wash of almost-fluorescent colors, this one mimicked the perfect blood streaks that ran down the boss’s column. It was the only thing that stood out about it compared to all of the other ones.

Examining the link, the anchor was tied directly to Anemomight, so killing it, should kill a portion of the boss anyway. Besides, the worst that could happen was they had more of the monsters to kill, and they were already stuck with that anyway.

She ran through her spells in her mind, needed to stop that mana flow, the energy. With a thought to her wolf, she showed him what needed to be done. How that link needed to be severed. He left the current anemone he was mauling and shot away to the thick of the creatures. It was through this hub of a creature that the Anemomight controlled all the smaller ones, directing them intelligently to attack in groups and take down as many people as it could. Probably why it was in a type of stasis too.

Smart plan, easy enough to overlook at first. But every single one of the creatures protected that little one. She could feel it. The soft wave of defensiveness. Since she wasn’t interfering in her own powers anymore with that whole trying-to-force-everyone-to-just-do-what-she-wanted thing, it seemed her ability to sense, to hear, to feel, and maybe even to speak increased tenfold. She’d kick herself later. Future Murmur was going to hate past Murmur.

Snowy crept through like he was stealthed. She wasn’t sure how he seemed to walk through the water, but he did. Murmur couldn’t divert her attention for more than a couple of seconds; she could only hope she’d conveyed what needed to be done as thoroughly as she thought she had.

Resist!

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

No. No. She didn’t want them to resist again. Opening her mouth to speak to Dansyn, she sighed with relief as his stun went off right then catching about two-thirds of the ones who’d resisted her own. Luck was on her side, however briefly.

Warning.

Stuns have been used too often against the mini anemomights, and they have developed a resistance to this type of spell. Please be aware that your stuns will have diminishing returns from hereon in.

“Fuck. Stuns have diminishing returns,” Murmur muttered over the raid chat. She could feel the tension rise in each individual person. There was no way to ignore that ripple through her nets. Thoughts and words flittered through her mind that were not her own. Worry, determination, anger. All of the emotions, and all of the curse words. It was like she’d freed her mind up to do what it was supposed to.

The shorter duration of the stuns was immediately obvious as soon as she cast the next one. Being the shorter stun, it barely held even a moment. They’d killed around two-thirds of the monsters so far. So they were doing well, but it was taking too much time and costing too much mana.

And then it was like she could feel him. Feel it, see it through whatever connection they had as Snowy pushed past two of the normal minis, avoiding the Petrification ability by the hairs of his coat. He sprang at the connecting tentacle, his mouth open in a snarl. She’d never realized his teeth were so sharp, nor that there were so many of them. He chomped down with what could only have been a special move, because it cut through the thick and sticky appendage that fed life to the Anemomight with ease.

The tentacle flailed immediately before Snowy could even let go, and it picked him up with it as it thrashed in agony. The only good thing was that the wolf wasn’t flung against hard stone walls or floors. Maybe underwater zones were good for something after all.

The rest of the smaller ones withered, their defeat coming easily now. And as they dropped, the Anemomight squealed with rage and pain as its own Petrification came to an end. Its health plummeted to thirty-two percent, and Murmur heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Not like their opponent suddenly died. The fight would still be hard and take time. She tapped it with Mana Drain. She leeched with with Mana Theft. It’d be touch and go for a bit considering their mana levels, but the raid should emerge victorious.

Somnia Online

Continent Tarishna: Vahrir Marsh

Day Thirty

Telvar stood, with Emilarth at his side, gazing up at the massive structure that housed the Dungeon of Vahrir. Belius scouted the outskirts as he tried figure out just what had happened to his gate guardian.

“Guess you lost that, too,” Telvar snapped, realizing immediately that he was doing so. Not that Bel didn’t deserve it.

“Look, Tel.” Belius stopped and half glared at Telvar. The other half of his expression was almost unreadable. Like he was sad and yet angry, but still regretful. “I shouldn’t have done what I did the way I did it. But I stand by my decision to help you gain that resistance. You never listen to me. What was I supposed to do?”

He ended the plea on a plaintive note, his expression beseeching, and