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

expected and seemed quite formidable. The way the eels in her hair twisted back and forth, how her tail sent out little whirlpools every time she moved.

“Witches, dole out acid for weapons. Melee attacks, use acid where possible,” Murmur called out as the massive sea harpy continued to thrash at the loss of her child.

Venotzi focused on Murmur suddenly as the source of speaking, which was a new one. Most mobs couldn’t hear the raid chatter. You! she screamed the word, and Murmur’s head began to pound.

You do not even repent! I will show you what it means to have killed one of my kin!

Devlish roared out, just as Venotzi moved to unleash her fury. “If it looks like she’s going to use her eyes, or those eels wiggle, turn your head away or close your own eyes.”

Better to be safe than turned to stone, after all. Those were the only hints of what was to come that they had. Venotzi moved so quickly, darting in like the water parted for her more than her moving through it. Devlish barely got his tower shield up in time. Giving directions had taken away the slight edge he usually had when he was preparing for battle.

Not that they could have prepared for this.

“Acid works,” Beastial called out, his voice heavy with relief. If it hadn’t, Murmur wasn’t sure how they would have dealt with this.

“As no one doubted, bare weapons do nothing,” Dansyn added, just to make sure everyone understood.

You cannot kill me!

Venotzi lashed out around her, the eels in her hair thrashing like trees in a spring storm. Her attacks caused Devlish to lose a few inches of ground almost every hit. And her scales nicked several of their melee classes when they came into contact accidentally.

“Tail Lash is a definite,” Havoc intoned over the raid. He’d been watching the boss carefully, as if checking on several give away signs. “Tail Lash and Bodywhirl. But her other items will be her own. I’d say a stone gaze and some type of razor scales.”

They could deal with the two abilities that mimicked Pivya’s; it was the turning to stone Murmur wasn’t excited to experience. The boss already appeared to be targeting her.

Ninety-five percent hit, and no new ability launched. Good in a way because most of the raid was taking enough damage. Murmur glanced at her combat log as she activated her Mana Share.

Wave of Anger hits you for 135 hit points of damage for the next 10 seconds.

But Wave of Anger never seemed to peter off. Instead, it just kept on going, refreshing. It was a constant DoT.

HoTs needed to be perfectly timed so no mana got wasted. As it was, on the tail end of the previous battle, they were already down mana despite having the brief lull to regenerate some. Even with her Manabalize and Mana Drain abilities, Murmur found it difficult to keep her own levels above fifty percent even so early in the fight. Which was going to be useless if she needed to share mana to the entire raid. She wracked her brains trying to think of something to do, running through all of her spells in her mind even as she watched for stuns, for anything she could call out to assist the raid.

But the one thing she desperately needed was mana related. She ran through Flux—nope, that wouldn’t work. She contemplated Sudden Drop—nope, bosses were on the doesn’t work list there, too. Sure, she could use Mana Drain to drain the boss’s mana, and she had been using it, but for the first time Mana Bolt wasn’t being her friend.

This ability has diminishing returns. Please note that not all bosses take kindly to being silenced.

Oh, shit. She could feel the eyes swiveling toward her, locking onto her and staying there. Ninety percent hit, and the cast bar was so fast, there was no way to stop it.

Petrified Gaze swept over the raid, and Murmur clenched her eyes shut for two whole seconds. Which was only just enough to avoid it. Most of the raid reacted quickly enough. Except, oddly enough, Jinna and Risk. Murmur stripped them of the effect with Annulment, but noted that down to talk to them about later. People couldn’t go around not avoiding shit.

You will not escape me so easily next time, enchanter, Venotzi yelled out. It echoed so much around them that the water churned briefly. Okay, so Annulment could strip the enchantment of stone off anyone hit by it. As far as she knew, only herself and the healers had those spells, so it only stood to reason that since her stuns and Mez were of no use in this fight that she take over that responsibility.

She squared her shoulders, eyeing her maintained mana bar, and began to throw out Mana Drain every single time she could. Sure, it might end up popping her on that damned aggro list, but if she had a full mana bar, it meant the healers could have fuller mana bars when needed.

Mages, witches, and any other type of caster were already pulling every single thing they could use to maintain their own mana wells. This was more of a fight for survival than one of tricks and adds. And survival, well, that was something she could do. Unless this fight turned into a Russian nesting doll, they should be able to outlast it.

Somnia Online

Continent of Cenedril

Location Scattered - Ruptured Fissure

Day Thirty-One

James followed Riasli like a little lamb, or perhaps puppy was the accurate description here. His footing unsure, he constantly stumbled against the undergrowth around the floor of the rainforest. Riasli kept on directly ahead; while she could have blipped herself to where she needed to be, she couldn’t have taken her pet along, and that was half the reason for making the journey in the first place.

They traveled past the ruins, and further out toward the land of the elves and their suspicious natures. And there, where the forest