The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Jonathan Brooks (read me like a book .txt) 📖

winter, I have some additional help against these monsters.  Like I said, don’t think of these Raiders here as Raiders; think of them as thousands of dangerous creatures that are here to help defend us.  We need to do whatever we can to support them, otherwise there is nothing preventing these things from reaching us.

There was silence as the other Cores considered what she said, while the invaders raced down the tunnel toward the arena.  They had a few minutes until they arrived at the massive room, which didn’t give them a ton of time.

“I see.  Did you happen to acquire information pertaining to an attack on your dungeon beforehand?” Regina asked.

No, but when you have the kind of luck that I have, I wanted to plan for the worst and hope for the best.  And since we’re all part of my “Shared Risk”, it wouldn’t surprise me that you all share my well-proven bad luck.

“And I told you that it isn’t necessarily bad luck, Tacca, no matter what you say,” Shale interjected, already back from his conversation with Sterge and Gwenda, which she had missed entirely.  “They’re spreading the word and will be ready.  Do you have a plan?”

Sure enough, the excitement of the crowd died down as screams of fear echoed through the arena, but they were drowned out by the sound of thousands of Raiders arming themselves and getting ready for battle.  Not that Tacca had much hope for them, being relatively low-Level and weak in comparison, but there was a strength in numbers; that had been proven by Tacca herself when her creatures had been able to overwhelm the first paired group of Raiders in the arena and managed to kill one, even if they were far below in Level.

Once they arrive, I’m going to release all of my creatures at once, giving them instructions to kill the invaders first.  After that, I will have no control over them – which, my new friends, is another little handicap that you may or may not have noticed and you’ll probably be affected by, as well.

“Great; you sold us a lemon here in this deal.  I need a refund.  I want to speak to your—"

Enough.  We need to work together in order to succeed.  Send your creatures as fast as you can, because that is the only way this will work.

Tacca just hoped that was true, because she still wasn’t sure what they could do to kill all of those arriving at the arena within a few minutes.  True, they had numbers on their side, but so did that enormous army of Raiders that had attacked to the north, and they had sadly failed to kill more than a few of the blue-skinned invaders.  When she added in the purple and red-skinned monsters, it seemed hopeless.

The other Cores grudgingly agreed, and a wide variety of creatures started to stream down the tunnel at full speed; whether or not they would arrive in time was another question, but they were moving as fast as they could.  Even if they made it in time, Tacca was more than worried that it wouldn’t be enough.

Unless she could find a way to even the playing field, they were doomed to defeat, even when every creature and Raider in the arena was there to fight against the invaders.  They had to try, though, didn’t they?

*          *          *

Sterge was enjoying the show today, just like he had enjoyed the last week of entertainment the arena had provided.  He never thought he would be one to actually enjoy watching Raiders fight against the monsters inside of a dungeon, but there was just something about witnessing a well-organized defense against odds that seemed doomed to failure.  As each group participated in their fights, ramping up the difficulty by having two separate groups work together to defeat overwhelming numbers of dangerous targets, it was exciting to see how they performed and succeeded.  In addition, while Sterge and his group didn’t participate themselves, they were learning a lot from those they watched, even if it was seeing how Melee classes blocked attacks with their shield, to how they saved their strength for the larger threats, to applications of abilities or strategies that they had never thought of before.

Take these three groups working together at the moment: while they were fighting more than twice their number of beasts, they were taking advantage of their 4 fully armored Melee classes to control where the wolves and other canine-like monsters went.  Arranged in a circle facing outwards to provide coverage, the Scouts filled in the gaps between the Melee, while the Casters and Healers were in the center, healing where they were needed or sending out various spells to hit their attackers where they could do the most damage.  They must have practiced this, because they look more like a 15-person group than 3 5-person groups.  It was that teamwork that was so impressive.

Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention just as a small figure appeared in front of his face.  Sterge fumbled to pull out his mace attached to his side, because he recognized it immediately: it was one of those Fairies he’d seen help those monstrous creations that looked just like people that the dungeon had produced somehow.  Now that had been a crazy fight.

Suddenly, a tiny voice came from the Fairy.  “There’s no time to waste; those invaders that Tacca told you about when you first came back have found us!  They’re on their way here now!”

Who?  Tacca?  Wait…invaders? 

Oh, no.

“Those six-armed monsters we warned everyone about?” Gwenda immediately asked, and Sterge turned to the side to see that it wasn’t just Gwenda that had seen the Fairy.  There were open stares as dozens of Raiders around them saw the fluttering figure, even if they couldn’t hear it over the noise of the arena.

“Yes,