Somnia Online - K.T. Hanna (best black authors .txt) 📗

of her coma. “I mean, it was like the world with no coding, a sort of bubble-wrap area, when the servers shat themselves that time.”

She didn’t know how to say it without sounding completely insane. Because even to her, the idea sounded ludicrous. “Somnia, or the Ais—or, hell, the game—appears to have safe pockets. Like pockets of space where the world itself can protect those it seeks to from others. Perhaps even from itself.”

Davenport watched her for a moment. “Protect itself and others it cares about? Are you suggesting somehow that the world knows what it is?”

Laria hesitated, but neither David nor Shayla gave any indication they were going to help her. Typical. “In a way. I think some of the odd occurrences have distinct correlations to the world of Somnia as a whole becoming aware of itself.”

“Hm.” Even that sound seemed entirely full of skepticism. But Davenport had seen a lot of shit happen over the years. Laria doubted he’d just ignore what she’d said out of hand. But that didn’t answer the question of what was happening to James in the first place.

The older man paused for a moment, brushed a hand through his hair, and stood up straight. “Keep an eye on him, and let me know if my game has decided to grow legs and walk away from us. I’m not sure how I’d chalk up the taxation loss, so I’d need to get my team on it.”

With that, he left the room, a half grin tugging at his mouth. Only Laria got the distinct impression he’d only been half joking.

They said beaches were difficult to run on. Murmur wanted to counter that with water was bloody hard to hike through. When they finally reached the cave mouth, she took a moment to glance around, noticing that the guards Karn and Snowy had mentioned were just visible around the entrance.

The Shalan Guardians stood about nine feet tall, muscles rippling through every aspect of their body. To the human eye, it appeared like they’d been working out since they were teenagers. While it was obvious the species was modeled on sharks, the heads didn’t look like goofy adaptions of a shark puppet.

Their mouths jutted out slightly, opening impossibly wide to show of several rows of teeth on both the upper and lower jaws. And the fins she’d seen through Karn’s eyes were more like flexible knives with painful looking serrated edges.

The guardians at the front were only the beginning. She could feel more groups further up the large stone ramp that led to a clear break in the water. Not to mention in the open space just beyond that. Which she only knew was open because of the way the beings in there moved around. Behind where that prison cell was lived a ray of sadness. She couldn’t identify what it was, but it appeared to have strangled power. No, that wasn’t the right term.

Its powers had been limited. That’s what she’d been looking for.

Except they still had to get past the guards in the water, up the ramp, and then those up in the dry room area before they could deal with the prisoner. She issued a ready check, making sure everyone was paying attention, and felt Devlish shift beside her as his muscles tightened with anticipation of battle.

“Bit bloodthirsty, aren’t we?” she asked with a side eye and a grin.

Devlish smiled, showing his sharp teeth. “Maybe just a bit.” He shifted his stance and called out to the raid. “Move in, now!”

The Shalan Guardians saw them coming as soon as they rounded the entrance. The two groups of three on either side of the ramp’s entrance snarled at them. As one, they moved with spears and approached their incoming attackers. Murmur already didn’t like the intelligence in those eyes, nor the fact she was certain those fins could cut most things to shreds.

The guardians proved her right almost immediately. Karn called it out as her stun got resisted: “Serrated Edge attack incoming.”

Murmur didn’t like the sound of that. Karn was nimble enough to jump out of the way, but the tallest guardian in the first batch lowered themselves into a squash and then spun into a handstand spinning kick that reminded her of capoeira. Those legs were lethal, their flexible blades cutting through anything they touched. Jinna was the first one to fall, while Exbo got a nasty gash, and Ishwa was standing close enough to somehow get an arm cut off.

“Interrupt rotation!” Devlish called out. Murmur agreed, loosing her stuns on the group now they were in range. Except the Shalan appeared to pay attention to stuns only when they had to. A few times her stuns broke earlier than they should have.

Several more of the Shalan managed to release their Serrated Edge attacks successfully. By the end of that first fight, they’d lost four raid members. While resurrecting them, Murmur made sure to cast Agility on everyone she could for whom it wouldn’t cancel out something more beneficial for their class. If more agility prevented mage sashimi, then she was all for it making the fights easier for them.

They had a lot of these Shalan Guardians to get through before the real fights would begin. It wasn’t just a feeling; it was her sensing nets. There was so much more to go before they’d manage to finish this zone.

Somnia Online

Somewhere in Limbo Near the Continent of Cenedril

Location Scattered - Ruptured Fissure

Day Thirty-One

The space around them was pitch black, and yet Riasli reveled in it. She felt so at home in this space. After all, it was where a part of her had sprung from. Sure, it wasn’t the original island that would sprout up once all the keys were gathered together to reveal the age-old enemy of Somnia. Nope, now it was a new thing, its very own thing.

Right now, it was the prison limbo that encased the essence comprising of most of Michael’s brain. In their scattering over