Dungeon of Chance: Even Odds: A Dungeon Core Novel (Serious Probabilities Book 1) Jonathan Brooks (book recommendations txt) 📖

a large wall of thick ice that everyone huddled behind; at the same time, the curvaceous Support started to sing a song that produced a white fog that hovered over the pit of lava bisecting the room.

It was an exceptional idea, because if his monsters couldn’t see the Heroes, they couldn’t bombard them with their projectiles and magical effects – including the Nether Mage Slime.

“We’ve got 28 seconds until the Fog of Harmony disappears – get to work!” Rosara, the Support Hero, shouted a few seconds after the fog was in place.  At her order, the others got to work on the 13 Slimes Clay had placed in the room, who were now moving around the barrier of ice that the Mage had put up moments ago.

Weapons slammed into the wave of Slimes rolling towards the Heroes, as blades, a staff, and a mace pierced through or slammed into their bodies in an effort to find their internal nuclei.  The Slimes weren’t without attacks of their own, however, as small globs of fire, ice, and poison slime flew out from the monsters; the Floating Slime was surprisingly nimble and dodged a few attacks before Pascale, the Scout Hero, managed to score a hit on its nucleus with a quick strike.  Worst of all, the Glowing Slime was able to heal any Slime that had its nucleus destroyed, as long as it was within 10 seconds.

But for all of that, the Slimes were all 1-Star monsters. Having persevered through more than enough practice killing 1-Stars over the last few weeks, the group easily took them out – though it took some time.  As the last Slime collapsed into a pool of slimy jelly when its nucleus was destroyed, the fog separating the group from the rest of the monsters started to dissipate.

“Get ready!” Rosara shouted.  “3…2…1…Go!”

Arcen ran out from the wall of ice with his shield facing the incoming onslaught of projectiles and magical effects, shouting and using a Skill that “taunted” most of Clay’s monsters in the room to attack him.  While the Fighter was enveloped in the cloud of darkness, Jeska peered out from behind the wall of ice, flinging out some magical spells of her own.  In rapid succession, the 3 Stone-tipped Ferns were destroyed with a ball of flames, a shard of ice, and a small boulder.

That was when Clay’s Goblin Dancer finally had a chance to “attack”, having been largely unaffected by the Fighter’s “taunt” for some reason.  It was likely because instead of doing damage, the Dancer was a bit like a Support Hero.  It—she, Clay supposed—gyrated to some unheard music; before Jeska could retreat back behind the wall of ice, she was entranced by the dance of the Goblin and was frozen into place.

The difference between the monster’s and Rosara’s Skills, however, was the fact that the Dancer’s effect needed to be maintained; the Support Hero saw what happened to the Mage and immediately used her own singing skill to halt the Goblin’s dance.  Jeska was able to move again and ducked behind the wall of ice again, a second before another barrage of ranged attacks could reach her.

Kelty was keeping Arcen alive at a distance with her healing Skills, while Pascale had snuck off and was nearly across the pit of lava.  His Skill use made the Scout seem to blur to Clay’s vision, and the rest of the monsters completely ignored his presence as he made it across to their side unhindered.  While his monsters couldn’t see the Scout, the Dungeon Core had no problem watching as Pascale snuck up behind the Lamia Flameweaver and stabbed deeply into her back, killing her almost instantly.

The act exposed him to the others, however, and he barely avoided being hit with a beam of focused light from the Weak Light Elemental by rolling to the side.  Unfortunately, as soon as he ended his roll, he was smacked with two condensed balls of air from the Gust Ferns. He was hit backwards, taking a little damage, but the worst of it was his precarious position – he nearly ended up in the lava below.

“Pascale, stay down!” Jeska yelled, which was quickly followed by an enormous explosion of flames as the Mage used one of her recently acquired Tier 2 Skills.  The explosion enveloped the Gust Ferns and the Spitting Serpent, completely incinerating them; it also hit the Nether Mage Slime, but only seemed to wound it slightly as a few chunks of its gelatinous body were blown off.

This left the wounded Mage Slime, the Dancer, and the Elemental.  Clay watched with rapt attention as the Heroes prepared to wrap them up, and he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pride; this was the first time that none of them had died this far into the battle, and it was looking as if they could actually complete it successfully.

Pascale was back on his feet and he rushed the Dancer, who was just then shaking off the effects of the Support’s song, and he practically decapitated the poor Goblin with crisscrossed blades over her throat.  The Scout turned to attack another monster, but then he suddenly hit with something Clay hadn’t seen before: a close-range attack by the Nether Mage Slime.  Twin beams of the darkest black shot out of the wounded monster and seemed to seek out the eyes of the Scout. Pascale screamed as they tore into his face, blinding him with a band of painful-looking shadowy smoke covering the upper portion of his face.

“Hold on, I’m coming!” Kelty screamed, before sprinting for the side of the room where the handholds were to get across.  Clay knew she had a healing Skill that could eliminate Debuffs, the “Blinding Agony” of which the Scout was currently suffering from.

At the same time, Arcen, no longer the target of any attacks, was already making his own way over the