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

that rock wall to break out? Then it would likely pull all of those mobs with it when it came. Sure, she could keep a heap of mobs Mez’d at once, but there were always resists. And she’d be bound to doing just that unable to do almost anything else.

Devlish. She spoke over raid. I want to test something out. Can we pull the first ones that are on the other side of the ramp?

Devlish: Sure.

He turned around as the last of the Shalan had been looted and pointed at the opposite side. “Testing a theory out. Switching to the other side!”

Everyone followed him, and they rinse-and-repeated the earlier attack on the opposite side of the cavern. Sure enough, when the final of the six Shalan fell, there was a crumbling on the side they’d just left, followed by a low growl that did little to belay Murmur’s fears.

“Okay.” Devlish spoke up. “We’re just going to clear each side a little at a time, and then we’re going to figure out when those growling things are going to break out of those walls.”

“Fun.” Merlin’s deadpan voice echoed how Murmur actually felt.

The raid kept hammering away at the groups one at a time. Pull, Mez the second group a bit away from the first. AoE down the first group, move onto the second. Make the creatures behind the walls roar.

And the creatures did roar, and they did sound angry, like they’d probably rip the whole raid limb from limb. Hell, occasionally Murmur found herself thinking of doing just that herself.

Finally, with one group left to fight on each side, the raid paused.

“Okay, so with the trash cleared but for one group, what are we thinking will happen?” Veranol eyed very obviously weakened walls. “The walls are going to break once we fulfill whatever the requirements are, right?”

“Of course.” Merlin shrugged. “But my money is that we’ll have two massive monsters at once.”

“Really?” Rashlyn looked doubtful. “I would think we’ll have the opposite wall come down, and have to fight the group that’s left close to that one. And then, because we’ll have to AoE those down and just get them out of the way, the other monster will then come and join us.”

“Couldn’t we just have Mur Mez all of the adds—the weak ones?” Havoc asked. “I mean, those are just trash mobs, so we should be able to just Mez them and kill the big dude and then kill the trash, and then kill the other big dude.”

“Sure,” Dansyn said, his arms crossed. “Or we could just kill one group and see what happens. I’d really, really like to get a few actual hours of sleep.”

Devlish sighed and spoke over the raid channel. “We’re going to kill the right-hand side group first and see what happens. If the wall breaks once we are done, we will tackle the new mob with the Shalan guard group from the opposite side at once. Rashlyn will off tank the Shalans, and then Esolan will off tank the big guy from the other side, if he pops out when we think he will.”

Then he continued. “And if we have to wait until we’ve killed both groups of Shalan, then we will have Esolan tank the right-hand side, and I will tank the left. DPS will go to Esolan’s first.”

Murmur sighed, glad to have Snowy by her side. At least they had a plan.

The final group of Shalan came running when Devlish pulled the first of the first group over with his Lariat. It left Murmur time to Mez the others and get them under control while the rest of the raid gathered around the first group. She could feel the tension in the entire raid, because no one was sure just what would happen once these six guards were dead. It was an undercurrent of excitement edged with a hope of not wiping and having to swim all this way again.

Even if it was a cavern, being out of the water felt so much better than in it. As long as no one knocked a hole in the side and flooded them with water.

Devlish broke the Mez carefully, making sure he had his taunts in place and that no harm would come to Murmur. He’d definitely taken to the tank role, considering that a little over a month ago, he’d been mildly irritated about the fact that he’d been stuck with a class he wouldn’t have chosen to play.

Guess I know what I’m doing after all.

Shush. You and I both know it wasn’t quite you then.

Take away all my fun. It almost sounded like Somnia was pouting. She’d certainly gained some attitude since her presence made it known in Murmur’s mind.

Shh. I’ve got to concentrate. The final Shalan was down to ten percent life, and the entire raid was bracing for what came next.

A big, rather conspicuous, nothing.

Followed by another roar and some wall crumbling.

Well, that and Sheladrios, locked behind those rusting iron bars, began to glow. While the raid was still coming to terms with the fact that nothing happened, and while it might sound silly, nothing happening when you expect something to, is more of a shock than people might realize.

Murmur took a few steps toward the massive cage. The giant turtle had moved. His massive eyes blinked slowly, opening to stare right at her, or perhaps through her. She felt like he saw everything. Snowy whimpered slightly next to her, but it wasn’t a fearful sound, just more of a concerned one.

“You have come to free me?” The thing spoke softer than its grand voice implied, its eyes full of emotion and hope as it watched her.

“We have come to free you,” she said softly and received a smile in return. Or she thought it was a smile, since she’d never really thought about turtles and smiling before.

Quest Update.

You have spoken to the prisoner and realized his plight.

You must kill all of those who imprison him to obtain the key to