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

Hero Guilds, who took abuse of abilities very seriously. Clay had heard about Heroes being executed for using harmful abilities in a non-dungeon setting, though most minor violations came with heavy financial penalties, instead.

But what he saw now scared him a little.  With their previous restraint from using their abilities now lifted so that they could combat the World Threat, which he had heard about but never actually seen before; there was no holding back.  Magical spells he had no name for zipped through the air, slamming into different parts of the Ogress’ flesh; arrows that seemed to be lit up with some sort of inner fire impacted and exploded on the monster’s skin; and the sounds of screams and heavy impacts could be heard down below, though they were currently out of sight, still being inside the Forest.

The deafening noises of the attacks were only worsened from the shouts of anger and pain from the Ogress, and Clay fell on his face twice when the monster’s club slammed down, trying to kill the Heroes.  He didn’t know if the Ogress had succeeded in killing anyone yet, but a break in the houses along the town’s outer perimeter allowed him to see a huddle of more Heroes sending out flashes of bright white-yellow light towards the battle, which he recognized as a light indicating healing.  Healers were the only Class allowed to use their abilities in limited quantities outside of dungeons, and he vaguely remembered seeing a healing being performed in Renton when he was very young.  The light looked exactly the same as it had back then, though there was so much more of it going on.

Tearing his gaze away from the battle, while doing his best to keep his suddenly full bladder from emptying in terror as he basically ran toward danger, Clay finally ducked between two houses and ran inside the town proper.  Their store was only two streets over, which meant vaulting a small fence surrounding someone’s back yard (twice) before he got within view.  Just as he burst out into the cobblestone street, he saw Nina disappear into the front door of their store.  Almost caught up to her…

His lungs were burning by the time he got inside, and he had to put his hands on his knees to catch his breath for a moment.  “Nina!  Where are you?  We have to go!”

“Clay?  Help me look for Spark – I can’t find him!” he heard shouted back at him from upstairs.

“Leave the stupid cat!  He probably ran away from the giant monster right outside, which is exactly what we should be doing!”

“No!  He’s got to be here some—aaah!” she was saying, but Clay was having none of it.  He had recovered enough to race upstairs and grab his sister, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder.  The last few years of packing and delivering heavy loads had strengthened his muscles considerably, but it was hard to keep ahold of a squirming 10-year old.  “Put me down!”

“We’re leaving, Nina!  Your cat will likely be perfectly fine even if the Ogress tramples Renton; we, however, will not.”  He rushed downstairs and ran towards the door, when another quake seemed to shake the entire world.  Clay stumbled, fell, and ended up launching his sister ahead of him and out the door.  He was getting to his feet when he saw Nina look back at him with anger, though her eyes quickly widened so far he thought they were going to pop out of her head.

“Clay, move!” she shouted, but he could tell it was already too late.  Some shouted celebrations – likely from the Heroes fighting the monster – were the last things he heard as a shadow fell over the front of the store.  Nina backed up out of the way, but Clay wasn’t as lucky.

The Giant Ogress had been defeated, but as she collapsed in death, she fell over on her front side, flattening half of Renton as the massive monster fell.  Nina was hurled away at the impact even as Clay was flattened to an unrecognizable pulp, the young girl knocked unconscious but otherwise okay.  Within moments of the last of the Ogress’ death throes being played out, she disappeared in an explosion of multicolored light motes that seemed to float away into nothingness, leaving behind a half-destroyed town where she had fallen.

And from the front yard of the house next door to the general store, came a black and red cat, sniffing his way over to his destroyed home.  It happened upon the remains of the poor young man that used to live in the building; and since the cat didn’t like him, he lifted his leg like a dog marking its territory, peed onto the flesh and blood that used to be Clay, and then trotted off in a good mood, looking for the girl that gave him such wonderful scratches.

*          *          *

Stupid, blasted cat!  Even when I’m dead that thing can’t help but torment me—wait…I’m really dead, aren’t I?  Clay’s world had gone blank the moment the building and who knew how many tons of dead Giant Ogress slammed down on his body, turning it into a paste that was entirely unrecognizable.  And he had seen it underneath the mass of the disgusting monster, too, because his “blankness” hadn’t lasted long; a second or so after his life ceased to be, his awareness came back above the now-destroyed town, where he could look around him with just a thought.

Is this my…soul? he had pondered, but nothing had really answered him.  He instinctively knew how to look around the town, and he quickly found his sister where she had been blown out of the way from the impact of a 250-foot Giant Ogress crashing down only feet away from her.  He was instantly relieved to see that she didn’t appear to be seriously hurt; she was