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

brain of what should be a normal human body was going to throw him into a total loop.

“Spread out!” she called, glad they’d all rebuffed and restocked from the chests. She was determined to use the stores that Neva had sent with them regardless of whether or not they could access guild stores. Which reminded her of the connection she’d created. She felt along it, just to check, just to be safe. Relief flooded her. At least Neva was safe back at the keep.

The pain in James’s eyes radiated out toward her, smacking her head like torrential rain. She could feel everything he was feeling, and even tightening her own mental shielding didn’t minimize the intensity. He looked at her, but not like he recognized her, just like he wanted help; he wanted out of something that must seem like a nightmare, because he didn’t seem to have control over his place here.

His eyes were haunted, and he was forced into playing a role. Oh, how she wanted to know what had been done so she could undo it.

He raised his hands and began to weave them through complex shapes and patterns, casting a spell. Then, when he opened his mouth, she knew instinctively that he was going to scream, and it was going to be painful and amplified. “Anything you can do to deafen this…do it.”

She only just got the warning out when one of the bards—Ivinel, she thought it was—pulled out a lute quicker than she could blink and strummed an oddly discordant note on it. The effect of the sound rippled around him in a water like wave she could see. It rippled visibly around them, like pools of sound waiting to catch something.

As James let out his scream, the raid took only a fraction of the damage that Murmur thought they would have.

You have partially resisted Mindless Shriek

You have taken 112 points of damage.

That was doable. “All bards have that?”

Dansyn answered with all the information she needed. “Yep. Two-minute cooldown. Working out rotation now. Not something I ever thought I’d use.”

Perfect. She loved it when she didn’t have to coordinate. She glanced around, moving herself as she saw her raid testing the waters, checking what abilities and what elements this massive patchwork elf or whatever could be damaged by.

“He’s in a nightmare, though. We have to figure out how to wake him. We cannot let him die.” Murmur spoke while locking eyes with the creature for a split second. He was in so much pain there was barely a glint of humanity in there. She had to choke back on her compassion lest she forget what they had to do.

“It’s just an NPC,” someone scoffed. She thought it might be the witch Cardishan. “It’s not like it matters.”

Murmur wasn’t sure what to say to that, not while she was still trying to land her slow on him. While she wasn’t getting immune messages, she knew he was probably pretty resistant to them.

Sinister snapped as she laced one of her slow bleed and heal spells around him. “That’s beside the point. In case you haven’t noticed, not everything in this game is what it seems. Besides, that’s what the quest asked for, so that’s what we do.” Her tone practically dared anyone to go against her.

Murmur could feel the irritation flowing off the other guilds who were not Fable, but she didn’t care. The quest was the quest, and maybe, if they took enough time, she could even figure out why and how James had ended up like this. Or was it based off James?

No. That’s him. He’s been taken over; his mind is behind the facade pushed upon him by Riasli and Michael’s persona in here. We’re working on a disconnect, but it needs to be from both sides.

Oh, because that’s not complex as fuck at all, Murmur quipped in her mind, trying to flay Somnia with sarcasm.

Not my fault. Not really, anyway. Lots of new information involving the plans Michael used on your headgear being based on a previous model he used in a thesis. Long story—keep his character in-game alive, because his connection is worse than yours was until we can leverage him a little and bring him back safely.

Again, the world escaped from her head without a word and left Murmur standing there watching their new opponent. His fingers almost worked themselves into knots several times. The grim determination that covered his lips never once dropped. But on the occasion when she saw his eyes, she knew he was trapped in there. This wasn’t him, even if the persona he presented was a warlock.

Arrows slid off him with the flick of his wrist. No wonder she’d never heard of a warlock before in-game. This one was ridiculously overpowered. The shielding he’d cast on himself appeared very similar to Veranol’s wards, but somehow hardier, and took way more damage.

Murmur tried her Flux, quite certain it wasn’t going to work anyway. She wasn’t disappointed.

Jamesnegon has resisted your Flux.

The notification set Murmur’s teeth on edge, but she took a breath and powered through. Mez would also be useless. Snowy’s jaws weren’t, though, and he glanced back at her with a distinctively wolfy grin on his face like he knew exactly what she was thinking. He probably did.

Ishwa seemed confused when he called out the resistances. “He’s not impervious to anything, but nothing does much damage. Nothing magical, anyway.”

Devlish laughed. “Steel bites pretty decently, but not in the usual way.” He too sounded somewhat bewildered.

Murmur almost spoke over guild but stopped herself just in time. Instead, she narrowed it to her group. Beastial, Devlish, Havoc, Merlin, and Sinister were in the know. She would have told the other Fable group too, but she wasn’t sure how to make that possible without creating an entirely different group, and they were in the middle of a battle.

Guys, this is one of my mom’s…co-workers. He’s a dick and an ass and tried to get her fired and the game shut