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

Veranol: Got it, Mur. If you miss calling one, I’ll call it. Dev has a lot to handle with this damned beast.

Devlish: Hits like two tanks.

Murmur chuckled, even if her lack of sleep was telling. She was so tired by now that she found it difficult to stand. Just a bit more time and they should be done with these three dungeons. Snowy came and stood next to her, lending her strength without her having to ask for it. When this was all over, he was getting the biggest hug ever.

One attack ran into the next. Tail Whip, Body Whirl, Petrified Gaze, Scale Slingshot…DoTs were all up, debuffs all in, and mana distributed as she could. The only thing that draining the mana affected for Venotzi was her Petrified Gaze. By the time she hit twenty percent, she didn’t have enough left to cast it. Finally, one less thing, because Murmur’s mana was down to about a quarter again due to her being used as a mana pump to try and keep all of the healers around fifteen percent.

And then, when ten percent hit, all hell broke loose. Venotzi’s Scale Slingshot jettisoned out a fraction earlier than expected, perhaps because she hadn’t been using her Petrified Gaze moments before. Devlish’s shielding went up a moment too late, and the scales hit seven of the raid members.

Masha went down, as did Risk, Jinna, and two of the mages. Paper cannons, the lot of them.

Devlish also came perilously close to dying, but one of the bards—Dansyn, she thought—managed to throw a small shield around him that divided some of the damage between them. Barely useful, but in this set of circumstances, barely was enough.

“Get Masha up.” Even if he was being a dick, they needed healers. “Get Etriad and Dalvin up.”

They’d be resurrected with twenty-five percent mana. Not a lot if they’d had full or near full pools before, but now they’d have an extra ten percent. Not to mention their spells could damage Venotzi. She didn’t even risk a look at the others, knowing she’d feel guilty for neglecting to raise Jinna. But with his attitude and his current lack of DPS, the mages would hit better.

She was so focused on making sure the others got rez’d, she momentarily lost sight of where in the skill rotation Venotzi was. Just a split second was all it took for her to mis-time the damned Petrified Gaze. Of course, Venotzi’s mana would regen. What an idiot she’d been.

She could feel the stone start at her eyes, moving down her entire face, reaching across the strands of her hair. Each minuscule fraction of time amplified by the sensation of turning to stone. It ran down through her torso, sealing off her runes, shutting off her vocal cords and stealing the breath from her lungs. Ironic, really, considering they were bloody well under water. Slowly her mind started to blank as well.

And then suddenly, the force of power hit her, like a wave of rainbows from above, and she gasped air into her lungs again, freed from the petrification effects of the gaze. Sinister looked at her long enough to wink and turn her attention back to the battle, and Murmur kicked herself for losing track and making one of the healers expend needless mana.

At least the fight was almost over.

“Burn like there’s no tomorrow!” Veranol called out ferociously.

Five more percent to go. Another Tail Whip, another Body Whirl, and the raid fought like it was possessed. Arrows everywhere, earth exploding from the depths of the lake all around Venotzi, waves of magic clashing all around.

Finally, she dropped to the ground.

Venotzi and Pivya have been slain by the Fable, Exodus, and Spiral alliance.

You receive a getashi.

You receive a midia crystal.

You gain experience.

You gain bonus experience for being the first to defeat Pivya.

You gain bonus experience for being the first to defeat Venotzi.

You gain bonus experience for not dying to Venotzi.

You gain bonus experience for realizing that some monsters just need to be fought. Funny thing, that. Right?

You gain bonus experience for not attempting to circumvent the portal restrictions.

You shall be rewarded.

You are already max level.

Your experience will be funneled into your hidden ability pool, allowing you to work toward higher levels with more battery power.

Murmur eyed the very short experience listing. She’d gotten so used to getting such long ones at the end of every dungeon that she’d completely forgotten how to deal with normal experience or reward notifications.

“Something’s missing,” Merlin mused next to her.

“Shut up.” She groaned as she moved to check the loot this time.

“Come on, Mur, you know you want to hear it,” Merlin needled as he followed her.

“No, I do not want to know that you think we should have had a longer list of achievements at the end of that damned death notification.” She couldn’t help laughing despite herself.

All in all, she felt okay about the battle. A few of deaths to learn the first fight and very luckily none on the other. It wasn’t about to be their best fight ever, but given the circumstances, she didn’t expect it to be.

“What was that all about? You know I don’t need any fucking mana. I could have laid into the damned boss mob.” Jinna’s voice cut like a porcelain knife. Right into her heart, clean and gushing.

Murmur told herself it wasn’t him, and that the AIs would figure something out, but it didn’t mean it hurt any less. Taking a silent deep breath, she turned around to face him, trying to keep her expression impassive and calm. “Both of those mages had earth magic, which made damaging Venotzi easier. Resurrection also grants them twenty-five percent mana, at that point, more than they died with. I made the call based on the DPS in the raid at the time and on what I believed to be our best chance to defeat it.”

She could feel Merlin standing there, watching them, ready to pounce, but Jinna didn’t seem to