Fusion (Somnia Online Book 6)

by K. T. Hanna

  Shayla was attempting to power nap, which left Laria up to her own devices. It wasn’t easy for Laria to concentrate anywhere when her mind was worried about so many things. Her desire to pull her daughter out of the game completely warred with her belief that Wren was now somehow connected to the virtual world. Removing her could be detrimental, which might end up worse in the long run.

  Just as she was about to start biting her nails again, there was a knock at the door, and while she was partially relieved to hear it she was also slightly irritated by it.

  So sure that it was James outside the door, she pushed herself out of the seat sending it toppling to the floor behind her. She stalked over and put a hand on the handle before ripping the door open ready to yell at whoever stood there only to find her husband David grinning from ear to ear.

  “Well, looks like I surprised you.” He glanced her up and down, and then he looked up and down the hallway and raised an eyebrow. “May I come in?”

  Laria laughed and motioned for him to come in, locking the door behind him. “Sorry. There’s just an unhappy distraction that sometimes wanders around this office.”

  David glanced around the empty conference room small frown on his face. “I guess you’re happy to see me then, but why are you in here instead of your office?”

  Laria ran a hand through her hair, noticing it was greasy and really needed a wash. “It’s easier for me to work in here with fewer distractions and a completely lockable door. I don’t feel like my office is safe, not since the James incident, and I managed to force Shayla to actually take a nap for once. So here I am.”

  David sat on the desk and crossed his legs. “Good to see the pot is still calling the kettle black. You haven’t been home in days. I was getting worried.”

  “But I’ve called you, and I keep messaging you. I can’t just leave here, not when everything is so up in the air. I have to be close just in case I need to do something that I need the AIs here for. And I can’t do that at home.” Laria could hear the panic in her voice as if part of her thought that David was going to drag her home whether she wanted to go or not.

  David smiled gently at her. “Hey, relax. It’s not like I’m going to drag you kicking and screaming to the car downstairs. I just wanted to see my wife. I miss you.” He looked at the ground as if unsure of the response and Laria realized she’d been a bit of a harpy.

  Moving over slowly, Laria sat on the table with her husband and took one of his hands in hers. His fingers would probably be called delicate, and she remembered many a time watching him code on his keyboard and the way his fingers would fly over the keys. It was mesmerizing to watch and had always been one of her favorite memories. She squeezed his hand gently and leaned on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’ve been a little obsessive.”

  “A little?” David laughed out the words, but she could feel the tension already draining from his body. “Not that I blame you.”

  She could feel the worry flowing through him, the awkwardness he felt at acknowledging the odd situation they were in.

  Why wasn’t she more considerate? After all, Wren was his daughter too, and she was definitely daddy’s little girl. The point was, Laria felt responsible for having landed their daughter in such a dangerous situation, and so she withdrew like she always did. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.”

  She sat there enjoying her husband’s company for just a few minutes, reminded of how much time she didn’t have to make sure this all turned out well.

  “You know, I can help you if you need me to.” David spoke in a very soft voice like he was making sure nothing would overhear them. A brief check told her that he’d enabled his interference device allowing for the conversation to remain undetected. Yet another reason to love the man. “You might even be able to get more accomplished at home, where certain people can’t just enter as they please. I could even reset the server.”

  Slowly, she blinked at him. He was right. She knew she could rely on him, but she’d always been so independent. Now maybe he could help. Maybe David was the key to getting James out of their hair and away from Somnia.

  The entire raid scrambled to carry out their preparations. Murmur completed her own while she waited for Sinister’s resurrection to take. Even though she knew the blood mage could come back to life, she also knew the way the adjusted headsets enhanced every ounce of death experience.

  Sinister’s eyes fluttered open, and she drew in a ragged breath as her form shifted several feet away from Murmur where Veranol had stood while casting the spell. “Fucking hell, Mur.”

  Blood red eyes regarded Murmur in a new light, slight apprehension visible in the expression. “I’ve never liked dying because of the XP loss, but this…now I plain hate it.”

  Murmur smiled half-heartedly. “Yeah, it’s not much fun. Definitely takes the shine off the world.” She finished her final round of rebuffs, making sure that every single player in the raid had the correct enhancement buffs specific to their class abilities. Speed and haste, mana regen and hate generation. It all required a level of spell management that always kept her thoughts busy in a fight.

  Sinister gulped audibly as the ground around them began to shake. Slivers of rock and debris trickled down from the ceiling of the huge cavern, and for just a second Murmur feared the whole structure might collapse.

  Then an almighty roar echoed through the vast chamber, resounding off the walls and magnifying as it did so. The timer paused for several moments during which Murmur felt like her head was inside a tin bucket being battered with a stick on the outside.

  She could barely even glance around to see how the rest of the raid fared but managed to squint her eyes through the ringing in her head. Esolan was down on one knee, steadying himself by leaning forward to put weight on one hand. Masha held a cleric shield over Ishwa, who seemed to have fallen.

  The same repeated for most of the rest of the raid, and Murmur realized she couldn’t see Jirald at all. A cold sensation swept through her stomach, and she instinctively slammed her shielding into place in a hardened clear protective shell of pure kinetic energy just as Snowy growled from next to her.

  She turned just in time to see the wolf bare his teeth, and Murmur pulsed her barrier to push outward from her person reflexively. A deep chuckle reached her ears as swirls of shadow pulled in on each other to present Jirald’s solidified form in front of her.

  “Always so wary, Murmur.” His voice sounded oilier than usual. “It’s like you’re expecting to be stabbed in the back or something.”

  She took in a deep breath, grateful for Snowy’s low growls giving her a sound with which to ground her thoughts. “Or something,” was all she said, her gaze pointedly challenging the assassin to try something.

  Sinister laid a hand against Murmur’s elbow briefly. Just a touch, enough to let her know Sin was there. Murmur relaxed slightly. It was never a good idea to rile Jirald up, even if she wanted to. Especially not with less than two minutes remaining.

  “Did you want something?” Sinister asked, her voice sugar sweet, her eyes staring bloody murder.

  Jirald’s chuckle held an edge of insanity, and his gaze only reinforced the sound. “Definitely something,” he said and vanished in a flurry of shadows before they could respond again.

  “Great.” Murmur eyed the timer and ran over the rest of the raid roster before turning to Sinister. “Now I have to watch for him as well during this next fight.”

  Colossus has left his post as the guard of Vahrir. He will await you at the final trial. Come prepared.

  Murmur blinked as the golden writing floated through the air above them, each word punctuated with a step of the Colossus as it walked away. Then, just as suddenly, the vibrations halted with thirty seconds still left on the countdown.

  Everyone was healed, everyone’s mana was full, and everyone had fresh weapons, repaired of the damage they’d sustained in previo
us battles.

  She hadn’t expected to lose members of the raid while fighting trash, but at least they’d recovered and hadn’t wiped completely. Murmur had a sneaking suspicion that the countdown wouldn’t have halted regardless of how many of them died.

  Buzzing reverberated around the entire chamber, echoing off the walls and back at each other, creating such a crescendo that Murmur had to cover her ears briefly, just like the steps of the Colossus had done.

  The countdown timer disappeared signaling the start of the encounter. After the buzzing came the echo of wings. They fluttered so fast and so loud that they amplified the buzzing sound. Murmur wondered who the hell’s idea it had been to put a hive in a chamber that could echo like this. Then she remembered the hive probably wasn’t supposed to be here.

  Correct. This iteration of the dungeon was not one originally intended by Somnia. However, everything is still a part of the world and must be dealt with, whether intentional or not.

  Murmur didn’t have time to analyze the statement. In the middle of the swarm of worker-bees was a gigantic golden bee-scorpion-ant thing with a green tinge to its carapace. It was easily about three times bigger than the largest warrior they’d fought earlier, and its wings looked like they were barely able to sustain the weight as it flew.

  Anger emanated from the false queen, and green saliva dripped down from her antenna to burn the stone ground beneath the entourage.

  Dev braced himself, and Murmur took a deep breath, getting ready to use her stuns on the workers while the rest of them focused on the queen. She’d already scanned the workers to check that they didn’t have that pesky buff on them the melee fighters from earlier had.

  Just as she was about to speak to the raid, she heard another set of buzzing from behind them. A cold sensation crept over her as she turned to face the way they’d entered. Relief swept over her as she realized this set of buzzing was from a non-infected group of Ciricians led by the queen who had given them the quest. The real queen.

  “We will take care of the workers, while you take on the Usurper. It is the least we can do for you as a thank you for having returned five of the infected to our fold instead of killing them. Thank you for sparing them and attempting to save them first. For this we give you our gratitude and support.”

  Murmur smiled. “Thank you. We will leave the hive workers to you.”

  She turned back to the incoming enemies and spoke to the raid. We’ve received aid from the quest giver queen. Her and her army will do their best to take care of the workers, so we can concentrate on taking down the Usurper. Tanks, defer to Dev. Ranged, listen to Merlin and Ishwa. Melee, pay attention to Beastial. Healers, follow Veranol. Let Dev get aggro. And go.

  The queen pursed her lips, and a strange whistle emerged. Out of her peripheral vision, Murmur saw the Usurper’s guard leave her side. They moved as if against their will, like puppets being pulled on strings that were too tight. Their gait was staggered, halting, and broken. It made her wonder if that was the work of the infection or something else.

  She suppressed a sigh of irritation and turned to concentrate on the battle ahead. While everybody was buffed and loaded up with potions, Murmur had barely been able to regain her mana in time for the fight to start.

  Sinister stood next to her, her blood red robes waving in the wind that gusted up from the abyss. This time Murmur was determined to make sure the blood mage lived. She cast Veto on the guards as they flew over to their allies to aid them in landing their spells. Then she turned Nullify onto the Usurper, followed by her upgraded Cancel Magic spell to strip the Usurper of at least one of her beneficial buffs.

  Despite Dev’s taunts, the Usurper focused her attention directly on the Murmur.

  “Shit,” Murmur muttered under her breath. She had to stop casting prematurely with opponents like this. These higher tiers seemed far more sensitive to her debuffs than those below her had been. Snowy growled deep in his throat again, backing his body up to rest against her legs, to lend her any strength he could. She appreciated his warmth and the safety she felt with him, but that wasn’t going to help if the Usurper didn’t focus her attention on the tank.

  Pulling out Mind Wipe, Murmur released it, hoping to change the aggression list for at least a few seconds. Directly thereafter, she ceased casting on the Usurper. It was the only way she could diminish her aggro. Instead, she turned to AoE debuff the guards.

  Just in time too, because as the Usurper turned toward Dev, it released a spray of boiling hot sticky mess. If she hadn’t known better, Murmur would’ve thought it was boiling hot honey. But since it had a sickly green hue to it, she was guessing it came from the source of the infection.

  All of the melee fighters gathered around Dev to attack the Usurper, received at least some spray from the AoE. Several of them screamed in pain as the liquid hit where their skin wasn’t covered by armor. She watched as Veranol and Sinister directed their attention to alleviating the damage and healing wounds while Murmur delved into her arsenal to cast Esoteric Fix on all of the melee fighters. Removing the debuff, the acid spill caused ceased its effects, immediately allowing the healers to top off the melee fighters without having to waste mana on remaining DoT damage.

  The downside to the AoE was that it didn’t appear to have a timer, only appeared to be activated when the Usurper got riled.

  Now that Murmur had been replaced on the aggro list, she could cast her debuffs consistently. She kept an eye on their allies behind them who were still fighting the guards as well as the aggro list and her place on it. Any time she attempted to assist their allies behind them, Murmur’s place on the list skyrocketed. Apparently helping the quest giver was a bad idea while the Usurper was alive, so she had to be careful about how much she helped.

  In the meantime, Dansyn had the bards playing a series of debuff songs in a canon-like formation. Between them, the bards managed to maintain the Renewal song, their discord horns, their elemental resistances overture, their mana chant, and alternated their armor song and razor bite. The formation Dansyn had them playing in seemed to lend more strength to the overall effect. She made a note to inspect how that worked later, because it was definitely having a moment in the fight.

  Only Esolan remained in his tanking gear to backup Dev should the lacerta tank require it. The rest of the tanks, including Rashlyn, reverted to DPS gear and were in amongst the melee fighters. With her gear changed to complement her damage output, Rashlyn’s Hundred Fists and her Kenji attack flying kicks dealt a good chunk of damage. Personally, Murmur thought the monk was much happier DPSing, at least if her expression was anything to go by.

  Beastial wasn’t the only beastmaster in the raid anymore. But Murmur was so proud to see the other beastmaster appeared to be learning from her friend. Shir-Khan was in his element, leaping high along with the massive lizard pet, onto the back of the Usurper and digging in their claws, biting where they could before leaping back down. They dodged their opponent’s attempts at retaliation with ease. Beastial swung his axe like it was an extension of himself, cleaving into the joints of the legs hovering just above his head. The strain of the coordination it took for him to execute those attacks showed in the veins that threatened to pop out of his neck.

  Merlin and Exbo were to her left behind the healers along with the three other rangers in the raid. Their aim was as true as the archer cliché. Enhanced by both her buffs and the bard’s songs, the rangers focus fired each joint with alternating Quick Shots, Rapid fire, and Jumpshot. They even looked like they were executing a wave in a stadium as they performed each of them in synchronization.

  Jinna and Jirald not only battled the Usurper, but also competed with each other. Their damage output stayed neck in neck. Not that Murmur was surprised, but Jirald was ridiculously skilled. She’d already known she wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley, but now she wouldn’t even want to see him in broad daylight. His attacks
were vicious, and a mad gleam entered his starry eyes. Jinna on the other hand was the picture of controlled violence. He backstabbed, multi-attacked, and reapplied his bleeds with a second to spare every time so that it never fell off.

  With a flying opponent, it was difficult for melee classes to do their best damage. The ranged classes, however, were much better off. Havoc was in his element as his DoTs stacked and began to pull serious damage the longer the fight went on. While he had many uses, the slow build suited the necromancer best, allowing him to truly shine and rake in damage dealt. Leeroy seemed to be enjoying the fight too, even if he was a pet. Not that Murmur could comment considering the way that Snowy bit the Usurper with glee when he joined the beastmaster’s pets on its back.

  Havoc wasn’t the only necromancer either; the other was level forty-eight, and his gear didn’t measure up to what Havoc possessed, but his skill was undeniable. Like most of Spiral, in fact. The necromancer pets danced together in what looked like a liquid dance of scythes and death. If only the Usurper was that easy to defeat.

  Because while it appeared that everybody was doing their jobs, many of the melee fighters were being hacked and slashed by the strange sharp hairs that lined the legs of the Usurper. Each time one of them was injured, it created a debuff that sat on them until Murmur had the time to cast Esoteric Fix on them yet again. Since it had sixty-second recast it was all Murmur could do to keep it on cooldown. Trying to rely on the single cast version would see her out of mana in no time.

  Like clockwork, when Devlish’s aggro equaled double that of the person below him in the queue, the Usurper sprayed her poison again. There was only a brief warning before it happened, and it was barely enough for the melee fighters to scramble out of the way of the projectiles. The healers took care of Dev and removed his debuffs, but the rest of them had to wait until Murmur’s AOE spell was back off cooldown.