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

description, the lesser demon would follow his orders but harbored nothing except hatred for the Necrologist that had summoned it. The Flayer scowled hideously at him, then turned and began to unleash a volley of Death Bolts one after another at the blue-skinned humanoid. Garath let loose his own volley of black energy into the same Naga, ripping large chunks from the red Health bar over its head as the rest of the dungeon monsters advanced.

Warrion rushed one of the Naga Pikemen, deflected a trident directed at his face by crossing his daggers in front of his chest and thrusting upward. The Assassin spun, then ducked below the following side swipe from the long-range melee weapon. He rushed behind the tall, muscled Naga and managed a flurry of quick stabs into the lower back area of his attacker. Thick blue puss oozed from the open wounds, bringing the HP bar affixed to the Naga's head down to just below half in seconds with multiple bleed locations steadily draining even more from the Naga's diminishing Health pool every second. The heavily muscled Naga warrior spun sharply, raking the air with his long weapon in search of the gangly Assassin but Warrion moved just as quickly, hurrying to stay at the back of his target.

As soon as Garath began to summon his Flayer, Athios sent a silver disk to land beneath the lead trident-wielding Naga as it neared melee range with its weapon extended. The Naga sunk into the silver disk to wait outside the confines of time and space until released through a second disk or the spell timer ran out, causing massive spell backlash to the caster. Inside the cavernous tunnel and unable to perform her signature attack of dropping opponents to death, Athios had to improvise. She settled on keeping at least this one Naga out of melee range for the time being, releasing the second disk back at the entrance of the cave.

The blue-skinned humanoid emerged facing away from the battle, looking around wildly in confusion. The monster reoriented itself then resumed its charge. With fierce concentration on her face and her hands outstretched to control the spell casting, Athios continued relocating whichever Naga she deemed the biggest threat back to the tunnel-like corridor from which they had entered, buying precious time for the four-man Party to deal with the attack.

Sharon also sprang into action. She locked down an oncoming Naga, calling upon her powers of Nature. Green light suffused her hands as she reached toward the ground, then summoned horned roots up and out of the stone floor. The entangling roots wrapped around the tail of her target several times, rendering it immobile even as it struggled to free itself - hacking wildly with its trident and tearing rents in its own blue skin as it yanked this way and that against the sharp thorns.

Garath and his Flayer brought their shared target down just before it reached melee range with barrage of black balls of death and it fell to the ground, lifeless. No flash of neon light ushered the blue-skinned humanoid to whatever afterlife awaited it. Instead, its body just fell lifeless to the stone floor with a wet schlap.

Begin combat log:

[You have been awarded 4,625 Experience for slaying Level 14 Aquawood Naga Pikeman]

End combat log.

Garath watched curiously as a glowing teal orb the size of a baseball rose from the corpse then hovered motionless a few feet above it. The Necrologist shrugged, figuring he would give it more attention after the skirmish, and gave a second command to the little demon at his side to target the Naga Sharon had wrapped up at the mouth of the cave. The two of them got back to work releasing black orbs two at a time into their new target.

Warrion and the Pikeman continued their deadly dance, the Naga whirling repeatedly to get the Assassin back in front of it as its Health bar neared empty from repeated back stabs and constant bleeding. Warrion finished off his foe with a simple severing of the spine. A sickening pop echoed off the rounded cave walls when he wedged his blade between the Naga's vertebra and twisted. Limp and lifeless, the snake-person slipped to land on the wet stone floor. Schlap.

Begin combat log:

[You have been awarded 4,950 Experience for slaying Level 15 Aquawood Naga Pikeman]

End combat log.

Athios continued her strategic relocations throughout the battle. At any given moment, at least one confused Naga Pikeman appeared at the end of the corridor, looked around for a second, then re-located the skirmish and again attempted to join it, slithering back through the cave as its comrades dropped one after another.

Sharon was breathing heavily when the teal orb rose from the corpse of her target, whose Health bar had finally emptied after long minutes of holding a channeled cast. With only a third of her Mana left in the blue bar above her head, her hands released their tension and the horned roots slid unnaturally back into the stone floor, removing the only thing holding the dead snake-person upright. Schlap.

Begin combat log:

[You have been awarded 4,625 Experience for slaying Level 14 Aquawood Naga Pikeman]

End combat log.

As Garath's eyes landed on the last two Naga Pikeman he started laughing hysterically - which the Flayer at his side found repulsive, if the expression gracing its hideous features were any indication. The Necrologist would have thought the increasingly frustrated dungeon monsters were chasing each other through some kind of spatial anomaly if he didn't already know what was happening. Each time one got close to the Party it was promptly relocated back to the entrance, courtesy of Athios.

Warrion triggered his Stealth Ability and slipped into the shadows, reappearing seconds later, mid-jump, with two raised daggers behind the closer of the remaining enemies. Both of the short one-handed blades sunk into the Pikeman's neck, one on either side of its spine. With another kill order to his Flayer, Garath rejoined the