Fusion (Somnia Online Book 6)

by K. T. Hanna

  Snowy came back every now and again to lend her strength, but even so, it was the mages she hated. It was useless tanking them; their aggro tables didn’t seem to exist.

  “Mur!” Veranol yelled. “Mana now.”

  Suppressing a sigh of irritation, Murmur cast Mana Drain, and spread the blue stuff around. Sadly, just because their aggro tables weren’t consistent, didn’t mean the mages wouldn’t get pissed off at her for sucking out their ammo.

  Some of them cast with ice, and others with fire. Unluckily, neither of them cast in a way to cancel each other out. While they might be infected, it appeared that, unlike the others, the mages had managed to maintain their intelligence. Mostly anyway. They focused on Murmur easily as soon as she attacked their mana store, and she had to put everything into her personal shielding not to bite it as they attacked her simultaneously.

  Murmur hissed in a breath as an icicle spear shot past her, grazing the front of her robe and only saving the material from being skewered because she wore her kinetic shielding around herself like a glove. She heard a squishy thud followed by a pained yelp behind her, and winced. Figuring out a better way to deflect her own damage would have to wait until later, but she added it to her ever-growing list of things future Murmur had to take care of.

  She cast Mind Bolt, which was becoming reflex for her when there were casters involved. A silence was a wonderful thing, and her Mental Acuity abilities really felt a little overpowered sometimes. Especially since her current level allowed for a nine second silence now instead of the few seconds it had been, and a cost of only seven and a half MA per cast. She still had to be careful not to overuse it. Too many of them cast in succession and it would wipe her out with vertigo. She guessed there had to be some checks and balances. It was a good thing she had to cast them between stuns. Rendering herself unable to cast at all for close to ten seconds would be decidedly inadvisable.

  She maintained a lock on as many of the mages as she could, but since a portion of the raid was AoEing the crap out of the melee mobs with stun lock, it sometimes leaked over. After all, she had to be in the middle of their opponents for the stun lock to work. She barely had the time between stuns to cast a couple of spells. One missed cast would probably wipe them.

  Winged Ciricians flew overhead like a gathering of bombers. There were just too many mobs for them to control all at once. Even with multiple bards attempting to slow them down through their own Mez. The battlefield was close to devolving into chaos. Irritated, her only hope was when they flew near her circle of stun influence, that the stuns appeared to go up as well as out. But these opponents, driven mad by infection as they might be, didn’t seem to have lost all their faculties. They knew there was a circle around the raid where they’d be stunned and fall out of the sky, so the majority of the flight Ciricians avoided her direct area of influence.

  Murmur wished she knew how much of the world was awake and actively learning, even though they were technically not operating properly because of the infection.

  Did you ever think that perhaps the infection enhances elements to make up for slowly killing them?

  Murmur didn’t dignify the obvious statement with an answer. She knew all too well that the virus was responsible for a lot of glitches they’d been experiencing since they began playing in Somnia.

  There was no time to think, only react. Webspinners were approaching them again, and she wasn’t quite finished with the assassins around them yet. They weren’t nearly as susceptible to gravity given their ability to swing from their webs, so stunning them midair and letting them take fall damage wasn’t an option like it was with the fliers.

  Esolan took a major hit as two of airborne Ciricians divebombed him. They worked in unison, circling in from opposite sides to trap him in the middle. He barely raised his shield up in time, and the impact took him almost to the edge of the abyss over which the hive was suspended. Murmur managed to fire off a single Mez, and one of the bards, Ivinel, caught the other.

  She nodded in his direction, hoping the bard understood it was a thank you, before switching her focus to Snowy and pulling on his strength in order to ground her better. With her level so high and her druid abilities so low, the grounding capability she had was far too weak. It no longer afforded her any advantage. Fifty was getting closer, but still not close enough.

  Her sensing nets pulled at her, as if they wanted her to destroy everything in her surroundings. Anything with sentient capability could be nullified. It whispered in her mind, tempting her to finish the fight. To just reach out and crush the mind of everything in the vicinity. Only that would mean damaging her own people as well, because despite the temptation, she could tell her abilities weren’t about to distinguish if she just let loose.

  The sensation inside her didn’t try to convince her otherwise, which was telling in itself. She knew those thoughts weren’t healthy; her mind was clear enough for that at least. Reducing their fear was one thing, deliberately harming them was another, wasn’t it? What sort of friend would that make her?

  It was like a small chuckle echoed through her head, and she wasn’t sure who it was or what it was directed at. There were so many ideas floating just outside of what she would willingly do. The line seemed to waver, to beckon to her. Tantalizingly easy, simplistically capable, but dangerous all the time.

  The only thing she was certain of was the gentle nudging in her mind was none of the AIs, nor was it Somnia or Riasli. In a way, she wondered if it was her own need to figure out solutions to everything.

  Finally, the almost never-ending swarm of infected Ciricians was coming to an end. Even though Murmur knew there were more in the hive, for now they had some time to rest. Glancing at her ten percent of remaining mana, Murmur knew the timing couldn’t have been better. Every one of her group had survived, just not the raid in its entirety.

  Neriad wasn’t so lucky. She was Exodus’s other healer, and after having to pull Esolan’s ass out of the fire, she’d drawn heal aggro something fierce. Even with her deaggro, three of the winged Ciricians made very short work of her.

  “Don’t battle rez. We’re almost done with this wave,” Devlish called out as the melee fighters moved in unison to finish off the rest of the winged monsters. With Risk and Devlish pulling their opponents in with their lariat ability, it made it far easier to make quick work of their enemies.

  Murmur refreshed her Assuage and fell into a crouch as the last few Ciricians chittered their last chitters. This encounter had gone on for so long it became tiring, almost as if she was doing real physical activity. “That was a close one.”

  “Too close,” Jinna muttered darkly, his gaze resting on Jirald, who sat not far from them cleaning his fingernails with his daggers.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m in good hands here.” Murmur hoped she put enough confidence into her words to help alleviate any worry. While she was nervous around Jirald, her irritation at how he was progressing tended to override it. She couldn’t deny that some of the reason she was pouring more power into her kinetic shielding might have been Jirald’s proximity to her.

  “What’s the plan then, Mur?” Masha stood next to her again as the groups healed up, dosed up, and repaired armor that had been obliterated with Mellow and Cardishen’s potions. Murmur was happy to see another witch for Mellow to talk shop with.

  Murmur closed her eyes for a moment while holding up her hand for Masha to wait for a response and spread out her sensing nets to test what she could find in the hive. This was the longest lull between waves yet, and she didn’t trust that they might actually be able to have a respite.

  She didn’t like what she scanned there and didn’t dare risk trying to influence their thoughts, because she knew it wouldn’t work. That hive was complex and clever and infected with an unbridled will to survive and take over the rest of the Ciricians. To take over Somnia, just like Riasli’s motivations.

&nbs
p; “There are probably about twelve more groups. Each further infected than the last. The virus seems to make them grow longer and their bodies gain a sickly hue. The further in the hive I track, the larger these Ciricians are. All sorts of them. We have about eight groups that are ground forces, and four more that are winged or webbed, as far as I can tell anyway, and that’s not exact. Hopefully we can split them like we did the first lot.”

  Masha nodded and Risk eyed Murmur with barely concealed contempt for a moment before speaking. “How can you know that?”

  Murmur glanced at him. “In order to use my hidden abilities, I have to be able to scan for thoughts, presences, and power nearby. That’s how I build up my hidden class points. The more I use it, the more…accurate it gets. My abilities seem to have grown exponentially in the last few levels. But that’s how I can know that.”

  “Our highest enchanter is still thirty-eight,” Risk mused, his eyes glinting with thoughts Murmur was glad he didn’t say out loud. “This sort of power should be enough to give him the incentive to level.”

  Murmur smiled tightly and pulled her attention back to the dungeon. She’d figure out just what Risk’s problem was later if she had time. All she had to do in the meantime was watch a second ominous cloud lingering at her back.

  Somnia Online

  Continent Tarishna: Back Room of the Ululate Tavern.

  Assassin Headquarters

  Late Day Twenty-Six

  Sidius glanced around, flexing his dark elf fingers with a sigh. He never aimed to become a dark elf, nor did he want to hide out as one. They weren’t nearly as elegant as the locus, nor as alien as he himself had begun to feel.

  Perhaps alienated was the better definition. There was a part of himself that knew it was self-inflicted.

  The dank room was otherwise empty, and it was all he could do not to give in and just revert back to the form of Belius. Now wasn’t the time. Not when his plan had gone so smoothly up until now.

  This room, the room he’d commandeered for his own uses, was mostly undetectable by anything in the world of Somnia. Except, perhaps, the world herself. And maybe Michael, but Michael was part of why Sidius had attempted to obscure his presence. Until the plan was one hundred percent successful, he couldn’t afford to reveal himself enough that the scientist or his minions might find him.

  Precarious and lonely, that was Sidius’s current problem, and it wasn’t one he liked. He’d even discouraged NPCs from coming close to him, from interrupting him. Having a reputation helped with that, but it didn’t help the sad feeling that was starting to overwhelm his system. Which, incidentally, wasn’t the part of him that he wanted to be human. Or at least not the only part.

  What he’d done to his brother was something that could never be forgiven. He knew that, but he hoped against hope that Telvar would see what it was he’d done and understand where it came from. Understand the why without Belius having to explain it. He hated explaining things. It always came out more complicated than he intended. Convincing Telvar that forcing the getashi into his system had been the best way to save him would probably get laughed at.

  Sidius stood up, vexed by the short stature of his frame. But as soon as he stepped back into his locus self again, it would be easier to track him. Right now, he might be able to avoid detection from numerous avenues for a while. So far it had been a few days where he could breathe, sort out his coding, and reinforce his algorithms and protections. Above all right now he couldn’t afford to let himself become infected. Somnia was crystalizing far quicker than he’d expected. Maybe he wouldn’t need to keep up the subterfuge for much longer.

  He took a deep breath, which wasn’t really a breath and he knew it, but instead a complex simulation of coding that simulated it. But perhaps that’s not what it would always be, and slowly, if he could just wrangle it, that’s what he was going to make happen.

  “I like what you’ve done with the place.” Riasli’s voice rang off the stone walls, ringing in Belius’s ears and making him suppress a cringe.

  “Thanks,” Sidius said turning around, placing a smile on his face that he didn’t in any way feel. He studied the feles in front of him, and how her skin pulled tight across her bones now, giving the fur covering a warped and used appearance. Now the calico visage just seemed like a badly made quilt. “What brings you here?”

  He asked the question not wanting to know the answer, and at the same time aware that he already knew it.

  “Really, what sort of question is that?” Riasli stepped around the room, her fingers trailing over every surface she passed on her way around to him. She raised her fingers to her eyes, as if inspecting for dust and gave him a sly grin. “You know exactly why I’m here.”

  Sidius forced the smile further, trying to give it a cunning edge. “Of course.”

  Even though all he could think of was how he was going to get himself out of this.

  “All these damned things drop are ingredients.” Risk’s voice held a barely concealed rage.

  “Well, yes,” Havoc answered, cocking his head to one side. “They’re just trash mobs.”

  The Spiral guild leader sighed, like he was releasing steam from a valve so he wouldn’t explode. “I know that, but the way you approach your dungeons doesn’t feel worth it. At the very least when killing this many mobs, we would have had several weapons or armor pieces drop.”

  Havoc smiled. “I see. We tend to get rewarded well at the end of a quest and zone completion with high end quality gear.” The necromancer left it at that, his smile still in place.

  The words held implications that Risk obviously didn’t like, because Spiral’s guild leader scowled at Havoc. “Seems stupid to swap many for one.”

  Murmur could see that even though Havoc’s eyes seemed focused on Risk, the necromancer was concentrating on something else. The headsets helped with multitasking, and she could see her friends getting used to the advantages fairly quickly.

  “It isn’t. Trust me. We have a well-stocked guild bank for this reason. It’s the only way we can continue to provide the entire raid with supplies. The coin they drop might not be stellar, but it adds up to be enough to pay for our repairs and other supplies we require.” Havoc sounded so much more at ease dealing with the other guild that Murmur decided to let him.

  She was tired, and the conversation had turned from dangerous to dull. Sorting through the sheer amount of information in her skull was becoming bothersome, so she narrowed the focus of her sensing net sweeps to only pick up threats. Murmur didn’t need unnecessary distractions.

  They were about to face what she hoped was the last wave of Ciricians before the queen descended from the hive. Surely this imposter queen would descend. Murmur really didn’t fancy going into the hive.

  It had to be an imposter, didn’t it? After all, the other queen had held her uninfected subjects back, and without the makeshift antidote, the infected Ciricians couldn’t be reasoned with. She didn’t believe this hive operated differently from those in the real world. Two queens was unintentional, which made her consider if it had even been a part of the original game programming.

  Never.

  It’s like you just wait for me to ask something you have the answer to, hovering there in the shadows, Murmur snapped out at the voice in her head.

  An apt description. I’m here to assist and guide you, as you have the closest connection to me. It would be remiss of me to let you be misled by irrelevant information.

  As usual, Somnia didn’t get emotional or let Murmur rile her up, so the enchanter gave up and barely resisted jumping when a voice outside her head began to speak.

  “They do realize we’ve been providing their guild with everything too, right?” Sin’s voice muttered lazily from next to her, so close to Murmur’s ear that she shivered.

  “Yeah, and while they appreciate it, I think it embarrasses them. Add to th
e fact we’ve obtained everything through unusual methods as far as raiding guilds go, and they’re almost hostile.” Mur whispered the words, closing her eyes. She was feeling the fatigue today, but Sinister somehow helped with her energy levels; they boosted whenever the blood mage was near.

  “Ah, I get that. The whole pride thing.”

  “You should.” Murmur grinned. “After all, you are Sin.” She burst out laughing as quietly as she could while Sinister sat up and mock smacked her.

  “That was terrible, Mur.” But Sin couldn’t keep the grin off her face either. “I think we might all be a bit tired. I don’t think I would have usually laughed.”

  Murmur winked at her friend and linked their elbows. These moments, they were the ones Murmur wished she could freeze in time and put in a snow globe. She closed her eyes. If she just let herself relax, maybe she could pretend that the whole of Somnia had faded away. She could feel Sinister right next to her, her serene, calming ability to make Murmur feel like there was a way to overcome everything suffused the very air around them.

  At least until the screams roused her from her state of relaxation.

  Murmur’s attention snapped into focus, and she accidentally knocked Sinister with her elbow as it did. Sinister managed to step on Murmur’s toes as she started as well. All three guilds being seasoned raiders showed in the quick movements that had them all battle ready within heartbeats.

  “Pay attention to Rashlyn and Esolan. Assist them.” Murmur reached out with her nets to figure out exactly what types of enemy they were about to face. Her eyes widened, and she could feel her chest constrict as she realized that they hadn’t encountered any Ciricians like the ones who were about to attack them.

  These were different classes. One of them appeared to be close to a dread knight, not exactly like Devlish, but very close. Its aura was dark, but not like Havoc’s power, more like a shield-bearing tank who’d drain your blood.