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

already dived into the thick of it with Veranol’s warding and his own life-sucking capacity at hand. Without those two things, they’d be mincemeat.

Jinna wasn’t even shooting her dirty looks. Instead, he wielded his knives with the expert precision she’d come to expect from him while playing his rogue. Shooting a thought to Somnia, Murmur had to know what had changed.

Why is he acting normal again?

Checking, was all the world said in response. Murmur took it at face value and continued fighting. Havoc stood next to her, his concentration as visible in his expression as always. She really wished she could have picked her class; something like the necromancer would have been infinitely intriguing. Merlin and Exbo released rains of arrows, focusing them on a smaller space than she was used to them doing. She frowned—most of them must have received upgrades when they hit fifty, and she’d yet to check them out. She was slacking.

The monster’s armor was thick, although on closer inspection, it wasn’t armor but skin thickened to the extent that it appeared to be something external. The fur on it adhered into its skin, almost like it was woven protection instead. Apart from its strength, though—and its ability to roar and chomp—these didn’t seem to be the sort of threat she’d expected in something called “the prison.”

Just as she thought that, however, it hunkered down, its massive arms convulsing strangely, like it was pumping something through its veins.

“It was you, wasn’t it, Mur?” Beastial growled out without looking at the enchanter. “I can tell. Even after all the times Sin has warned us, you just had to go and egg it on, didn’t you?”

Murmur could tell he was half kidding—hell, she hoped he was—but it wasn’t like any of them had a chance stat. At least not visibly, anyway. “Shut up and get ready to fight his ass instead,” she snapped out a little harsher than intended.

The group fanned out, unsure what to do at first. The glowing red that ran under that armored skin didn’t bode well for Murmur’s imagination. Red spelled danger and often explosives. Bringing this portion of the tunnel down on them might be its goal, but they couldn’t let it happen. There was no way out the other way, and right now, with how her sensing nets weren’t working through the stone, she sincerely doubted they’d be able to gate themselves out. Michael would have thought of that.

There was only one thing for it. They’d have to try and charge their way through before the inevitable shitstorm. It was like Telvar could read her mind.

“Switch to the opposite side. Anyway you can,” Telvar said calmly, taking over the raid voice chat with ease, issuing the command to everyone, including the other two groups.

Murmur could just see it now, the curiosity of the other guilds when they realized the NPC managed to do that. But they moved swiftly anyway. All three groups, as far as she could tell. They dodged, and Merlin yelled out as his leg got snagged by a vicious tooth. He managed to pry it out of the carniverior’s mouth before it chomped down.

“You’re really just a klutz, aren’t you?” Beastial asked him dryly.

Merlin chuckled. “Got me there.”

They made it past just in time. The monstrosity began to spin itself like a drill bit into the ground, digging itself down into the rock base about two feet deep. It stood there, a green and red light flashing alternately, its massive, toothed jaws chomping wildly, as if daring someone to get too close to it.

“You may not pass.” The voice boomed out over the cavern, echoing outside of it, too, as if all three of them had spoken in unison. Murmur glanced around it and wondered how it hadn’t realized that they had, in fact, made it passed it already. Instead of it being in front of her, there was a beautiful waterfall and rock formation. The water cascaded through a hole in the ceiling.

There was nowhere for the water to go, so she assumed it either let out into the ocean from below, or it was one of those game things.

This time, the face, mostly hidden by armored protection, spun around to face the group. Execution in T minus three minutes.

“What now?” Devlish seemed surprised and Telvar looked perturbed and it was all Murmur could do to manage the panic she felt rising in her chest.

Telvar tapped the side of his head, frowning. “Well, it might not have gone the way we wanted, but it’s not a total loss.” He turned around and looked at the rest of their group. “I suggest we try to make it up the waterfall before the golems explode.”

Now, Murmur knew he was acting calmer than any of them felt. If these things exploded, they were going to cave in this whole area. Considering what Telvar had said, that this place wasn’t even close to what it was supposed to be, she was fairly certain it could collapse without repercussions up top. It was that whole underwater-zones-ignoring-physics thing again. Except this was an island.

It took about two seconds for what Telvar said to register with everyone, and then everyone moved, running toward the waterfall so they could climb to safety.

“Stairs? Ladder?” Murmur could hear Sinister’s voice. It might have sounded calm to some people, but she knew the blood mage better. Sin was about five seconds from a panic attack.

Emilarth squeezed behind some oversized, very strange coral feature and reached inside the waterfall. Another set of whirring clicks sounded, but nothing like what had raised the island. She grinned at Murmur as stone stairs began to rumble out. There were probably thirty of them to climb, and Murmur didn’t like their odds too much on the countdown front.

“Up these.” Belius motioned for everyone to run up the stairs, pausing only long enough to make sure a tank and healer were the first ones up there. Both Veranol and Devlish, always up for a challenge