The Culling of Man: A litrpg adventure (Peril's Prodigy Book 1) by Craig Kobayashi (ereader android TXT) 📕

the entirety of his armor-scaled body. Aldrasyl spared a look at Garath that promised retribution before turning to Gary and charging. The Dragon stopped just short of the bearded man and opened its mouth wide as Gary lifted his shield to brace himself. A white beam of energy shot out from between long fangs and connected with Gary's shield. The damage from Aldrasyl's attack destroyed the iron guard on impact, its durability dropping to zero in a flash. Gary's broken buckler dropped in two pieces to the ground. Gary fell on his back, defenseless, from the impact.

*Raust!* called Garath on the Raid channel - the signal for the second tank, Raust, to get the Dragon's attention.

Raust hesitated to taunt the Dragon after watching what had just happened to Gary, who was still lying motionless on the ground with several healing spells already entering his form, as Aldrasyl closed the distance to the defenseless Armoron with long strides. The healers just outside the doors spammed rejuvenating spells on overdrive, lighting Gary up like a Christmas tree and restoring the Health he had lost. A handful of damage absorbing bubbles from the Preachers surrounded Gary, and Raust struggled to find his nerve.

Garath gathered his Mana into the 3 second cast of Haunt, condensed into only 2.25 seconds thanks to AyAyRon’s Stormy Song. An enormous red circle appeared beneath the Ice Drake, signifying that Garath's target had been identified. The Mana cost for Haunt was listed in its Skill description as 138 but, thanks to the Mana cost reduction from being in House Cat form and another 10% reduction from Stormy Song, the Blood magic damage-over-time spell only cost Garath a net of 99 Mana. When he released the cast a spectre of red light flew out of his body to get to work, dealing 75 damage to the Dragon over the next 14 seconds and reducing its movement speed by 30%.

With his Blood DoT in effect, the Necrologist began to cast his newest damage-over-time spell, Creeping Death. Instead of a magic orb or haunting spectre shooting from his outstretched hand, the Quickening Entropy debuff seemed almost to transfer something from inside of the Necrologist directly into the Dragon. The 55 Mana cost (lowered to 40 Mana due to his form and the song) paid and the damage-over-time in effect, Garath gathered his will again into a second stack of QE as Raust finally made his move.

Because the healers had completely restored Gary's Health and the Preachers had stacked protective bubbles on his motionless form, the bearded man survived a vicious swipe of Aldrasyl's long claws - albeit with less than 10% of his Health remaining - before Raust was able to pull the Dragon's attention with his taunt.

As a Legionnaire by Class, Raust's taunt was a projectile replica of his kite-shield that seemed to be made up of pure light. The golden shield arced through the night, leaving a trail of gold dust in its wake, and connected with the back of Aldrasyl's head just before the Ice Drake landed a killing blow on Gary. The massive white Dragon craned his neck to look with fury in his eyes at Raust, who was then glowing the same golden light as the replica shield.

Aldrasyl seemed struck with indecision for a split second, looking back down at Gary before turning again to Raust - who was glowing brighter by the second. Even as Garath channeled the form and song reduced 68 Mana cost into casting a third stack of QE, he couldn't help wondering about the real world mechanics of what he had always called the aggro-table in games. The white Dragon, its decision apparently made, left Gary's still form and charged to attack the glowing Legionnaire.

He could be wrong, but it seemed to Garath that, instead of a pre-programmed algorithm that would make the decision of who to attack for monsters in games, Aldrasyl seemed to be acting on perceived threat. Raust was glowing so brightly that it must have seemed likely to the Dragon that the Legionnaire must be readying a powerful attack, leaving Aldrasyl no choice but to abandon his current target and attack what he perceived to be a more important target.

*Preachers, get your bubbles on Raust now!* Garath called over the Raid communication channel as he released his third cast of Creeping Death - refreshing the duration and adding another stack of QE to the damage-over-time effect. A quick check of Aldrasyl's health-bar showed the Dragon just below half of his maximum Health. With three stacks, Creeping Death was dealing 8 damage to the Dragon with every passing second - though it didn’t seem like a lot to Garath, especially in comparison to the Dragon’s impressive 49,500 maximum Health, he knew that over 30 seconds the stackable DoT would deal 240 damage. Nothing to sneeze at, but he could do better. A quick check of Aldrasyl’s buffs and debuffs showed that Haunt’s 14 second duration had elapsed, and Garath paid the 99 Mana required to cast it again. He released the cast and a second glowing-red spectre exited his form and entered the Dragon.

A handful of semi-transparent protective bubbles appeared in an instant around Raust and the Legionnaire cringed as he raised his shield and took a defensive stance. Aldrasyl reared back and sent a volley of pointed ice shards at Raust from his gaping maw. Several of the wicked spikes dissolved as they met the protective barrier provided by the Preachers and several more  clanged against Raust's raised shield behind them.

Garath began the casting of his fourth cast of Creeping Death, paying a hefty 88 Mana to add another stack and refresh the cooldown. He remembered reading in the Skill description stating that the Mana cost of each subsequent cast of Creeping Death would increase by 30% but he hadn’t done the math at the time. After the fourth stack of QE left his body, his Mana