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

Before her own group and the others could meet, another message flashed across her vision, nearly causing her to trip and fall on the rocky upper beach.

Regional Threat has arrived!

Tornado Cat Champion ★★★★★★★★

Regional Threat Level: Very High

(Note: Due to the extremely difficult nature of this Threat compared to the local defenders, certain restrictions have been lifted.)

The sight of an 8-Star monster in the message finally did make her trip and fall on the beach.  As she sat there staring at the words Tornado Cat Champion★★★★★★★★, her knees bloody, she knew they were done for.  Even though they had managed to take down a 3-Star monster in a room full of other monsters, they weren’t in any way ready to tackle an 8-Star monster.

The last part of the message didn’t make any sense to her, but she figured it really didn’t have to – they were dead, anyway.  With a lot less resolve than just a few seconds ago, she got up off her hurt knees and mentally got rid of the message, only to see the others looking as despondent as she felt.  She didn’t have time to feel sorry for them, however, as a sudden screaming from the city caught their attention.

Above Chardelia, looking down the side of the cliff, was the largest creature she had ever seen.  It was literally monstrous, which was an apt description of the monster Threat looking to attack and kill everyone in the city.  It was cat-shaped and grey-furred, but as far as any other felines she had ever seen, that was where the resemblance stopped.  Jaws filled with sharp teeth opened and closed in anticipation, even as its frightening claws dug into the side of the cliff; the 100-foot-long Cat also had a faint swirl of air rotating around its body, picking up dirt and small stones as it went.

Tornado Cat Champion ★★★★★★★★

Threat Level: Very High

She knew what a tornado was from descriptions, though she had never seen one.  She had seen a hurricane, which was just as destructive as a tornado – or so she had heard.  If that was the case, then they were in some real trouble.  Not that they weren’t before.

Strangely, the Cat seemed hesitant to jump down from the cliff – unlike every other cat she had seen in her life, which seemed not to care about heights and were ready to jump on just about anything.  Instead, it looked around for a way down and finally found it; there was a crevice in the cliff that led upwards onto the plateau that made up the majority of the island, which was just wide enough for the dangerous monster to easily defend.

Arcen saw it at the same time.  “We can’t let it get down here!  If it does, there’s no stopping it from killing our family and friends!”  He took off for the crevice, followed quickly by the rest of the group, including herself.  Looking towards the other Hero groups that were heading for them, she could see that they were doing the exact same thing.

Despite the insanity of it all, Jeska felt…uplifted…for some reason.  Maybe it was the shared purpose she had with the other Heroes; maybe it was that she was going into a serious battle that they probably had no chance of winning, alongside her brother; or maybe it was because she had died and been resurrected so many times within the dungeon that she didn’t know any better.  Regardless of the reason, it finally felt good to put their Skills and experience – albeit minimal, at that – to use in their chosen purpose: To defend the people of this island, with their dying breath if necessary, no matter what their families thought of them.

That had been the hardest part of everything. Losing the easy familiarity and camaraderie of their father had hurt, but they knew that even if he did everything he could to avoid seeing them, he loved them in his heart of hearts.  It was a massive sacrifice on both sides of the situation, and Jeska and Arcen, just like all of the other Heroes, would do everything they could to ensure that such a mammoth sacrifice was not in vain.

At least Jeska would go to her grave knowing that she had done everything she possibly could to save them all.

Time seemed to advance quickly as they ran for the crevice, while at the same time it seemed to take forever.  Her brother reached the base of the incline, heading upwards, and sprinted ahead, though he was quickly overtaken by both Pascale and 5 other Scouts, whose speeds were extraordinary. Jeska and the others just arriving at the crevice watched as they reached the top in record time, only to be swiped away by the back of a furry paw the size of all of them put together.

“No!  Hurry, everyone!” Jeska yelled as she imbued as much speed as she could into her legs.  The rest of the Fighters were out front, leading the pack with their longer and stronger legs, and they reached the top just as she saw the face of the cat appear.  With a lightning strike, it bit down on the first Fighter to reach the top – Percy, it looked like – and it was only a hastily raised shield that prevented him from being killed right then and there.  Instead, the impact against his defense was so powerful that he was knocked back down the crevice at high speed, flying past her and the other Mages, Healers, and Support Heroes.  Percy’s Healer, Margarite, broke off and ran back down to him, and Jeska was glad to see that he had survived – though he was banged up pretty bad.

The rest of the Fighters – including her brother – were in a fight for their lives…and