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

was literally ripped apart by the insanely strong winds.  Where its “body” ended up, Jeska couldn’t tell, but after a few moments it was nowhere to be seen.

The Stone Golem seemed largely unaffected by the wind as it stomped ahead, though it was visibly slowed in its progression.  Nevertheless, it got to the side of the Cat without too much trouble and punched out with one of its massive arms of stone; the Threat was too fast for it, however, and it lithely jumped to the side and out of range.  The Golem tried to follow, but a paw filled with deadly claws sliced into it from the Cat in response to the initial attack, and Jeska heard a screeching as they bit into and tore off large chunks of the hard stone of the animated rock monster.

And yet, it wasn’t dead quite yet, so the Golem toddled forward on half-destroyed stone legs.  Just as another paw full of claws was about to strike again, the stone monster paused, shook violently, and then exploded into dozens of sharp, jagged pieces.  All of the Heroes near Jeska dropped to the ground upon seeing this, their reaction to unexpected explosions and attacks heightened from their time in the dungeon.  The fragments of propelled stone shards sailed harmlessly over their heads – but the Cat wasn’t so lucky.

The massive Threat was too close to the explosion to get away unscathed, plus it didn’t really understand what was happening; as a result, the feline got a face and chest full of sharp stone fragments, one of which pierced through its sensitive nose.  When Jeska was able to concentrate on it, she noticed that its Health bar had taken another chunk of damage – but she estimated that it was still at least at 95% of its original amount.  Entirely too much for them to try to succeed in killing it – especially if those other monsters failed so spectacularly.

But they still had to try.

“We have to wait until that wind goes away!” she shouted to the group, which was acknowledged by the nodding of multiple heads.  “Fighters, up front to keep that thing off of us long enough for—what is that?!”  Jeska sucked in her breath in fright as a new monster appeared from down below – one that appeared even worse than the Tornado Cat Champion.

Creeping Fern ★★★★★★★★★

Attack Type: Melee, Ranged, Magical

Element: Nature

A 9-Star?  This is from the dungeon?  As much as she appreciated the dungeon helping out (which was still almost impossible to believe), she was suddenly worried that the cure could be worse than the disease.

The Creeping Fern was a disorganized ball of fronds and vines, looking like a mess of confusing and tangled appendages.  It practically rolled up the incline as if someone had bowled it up through the crevice, though Jeska was sure that it had needed to slow down at some point; it was too wide to get through the rocky passageway without needing to squeeze through.  Although the massive Tornado Cat Champion was half again as long as the Fern, it was much narrower and wouldn’t have had any issues getting down below.

Just as Jeska and the other Heroes had noticed the new monster, so too had the Regional Threat.  However, despite it being a higher Star rating and likely more powerful, the Champion looked at the ball of vines with a strange expression in its eyes.  The Cat crouched down in what looked like an anticipation of attack as it faced the incoming dungeon monster, but then Jeska heard a deep rumbling coming from the Threat.  At first, the Mage thought it was a growl of aggression, though it didn’t really sound…aggressive.

As soon as the Fern was close enough, the tornado-like winds surrounding the Cat threatened to toss the plant monster away, but it immediately shot dozens of vines connected to its form down into the dirt and stone of the plateau, keeping it in place.  Its speed slowed considerably as a result; nevertheless, it continued to advance by picking up a vine near the back and then planting another one out front to keep it anchored to the ground.

When it was close enough, the Fern shot out a dozen more vines from its fronds towards the Cat, but before they could reach the Regional Threat, the giant feline finally responded.  Pouncing forward and avoiding the vines aimed at it, the Cat quickly closed with the vine ball and smacked it hard with its paw, for some reason with its claws retracted.

The powerful impact of the paw against the ball of vines was so great that the vines holding the Fern in place were ripped off of the monster instead of the ground, and the plant was hit at least 150 feet away down the plateau.  It bounced a couple of times before finally coming to a stop as additional vines shot out of the Fern when it hit the ground, again anchoring it in place.

The Tornado Cat Champion had completely ignored the rest of the Heroes as it turned and sprinted faster than Jeska thought possible after the Creeping Fern, chasing it down.

“Was it…purring?” Arcen wondered out loud, and Jeska intuitively knew he was right.  The low rumbling wasn’t a growl – it was a purr.  The Cat, just like a normal-sized cat, was treating the dangerous 9-Star monster like a ball of yarn.  Similar to how it had played with the Heroes a short time ago, it was playing a game with the Fern.  If it hadn’t been a life-and-death situation and if the Cat hadn’t already killed some of her friends, she would’ve thought it was funny.

Unfortunately for the Regional Threat, it didn’t seem to realize that it had made a mistake underestimating the ball of vines it was playing with.  As it neared the 9-Star dungeon monster, the tornado-like winds surrounding the Cat settled