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

"Nice tiara," commented Warrion, cracking a smile.

"Haha hey, fuck you."

"Wow," said Warrion, a bit taken aback.

"I'm sorry. That was mean. I didn't mean that," Garath explained. He'd never really grasped the concept of playful banter.

"No worries," said Warrion, shrugging. "You're a caster, soon we may even find a dress for you to wear with your tiara."

Garath smiled and flipped off the Assassin. He was relieved that Warrion wasn't the type to be offended by his sense of humor - an aspect of his personality best described as sadistic - that had pushed away more than a few friends throughout the years.

"Sharon, you get the next set, okay?"

"Yes dear. That's fine," was her simple response.

"Let's go get it," said Garath, his glowing eyes burning white with battle lust. He dismissed his Flayer and Fel Hound back into the depths of his mind in order to shape shift.

From his position at the edge of the cave, Garath's skin was dusted by the thin layer of mist swept away from the impossibly high, cerulean waterfalls of the cove. It wasn't a lot of water, but he couldn't help being reminded of a boy scout trip in his youth to Havasu Falls in Arizona. Even just hiking near the larger waterfalls, the entire scout troop was soaked to the bone after a few hours.

The dampened Party of dungeon divers shimmered into a murder of Crows, standing together on scrawny black legs at the cave mouth. The four of them took off with a low trajectory, barely skimming the surface of the water to avoid being detected, then climbed sharply as they reached the center platform, using the pillars of the ornate gazebo to avoid being seen. They landed atop the structure, above the unaware group of Naga protecting the platform. From there, they were able to get a better look at the rest of the cove.

Between their position atop the center platform and the curtain of waterfalls walling off the far side of the cove, a row of five tall statues stood on a track raised out of the water. The track ran in between the two (still guarded) platforms ahead to the waterfalls beyond before splitting into a T at its base. The falling blue water furiously pounded at five square slots protruding off the track and under the cascade.

Garath looked on, perplexed, at the track and statues from atop the gazebo. He wondered if it was some kind of dungeon puzzle like in Zelda or Skies of Arcadia. If so, it looked obvious that the statues would have to be moved down the track and placed on the square slots beneath the pounding blue water - potentially in a specific order. Either way, he would give the statues further consideration after eradicating every last Naga from their beautiful little cove.

The last mobile patrol was also in view and Garath tried again to Inspect the larger Naga, this time with more luck - and a fair dose of chagrin.

S’thys Zor

Humanoid - Naga

Health: 1,875/1,875

Level: 19

Station: Commander

Rage: 0/100

Description: unknown

S'thys Zor looked like an absolute beast. Strapped to his insanely muscled back, he wore two of the Naga tridents - each significantly larger than those Garath had been stockpiling in his Items panel. The huge Naga swam with a massive, powerful tail back and forth in front of the track housing the statues from one platform to the next, popping out of the water to look around at seemingly random intervals. Garath puzzled over the safest way to pull one of the groups without alerting the patrolling, hulked out, and frankly terrifying S'thys Zor.

*Maybe we should pull him first,* Garath suggested with a projected thought to the Party channel. He nodded his beak toward patrolling group from behind one of the gazebo's pillars.

*Shouldn't we fight him last?* Athios asked astutely.

*Yeah, I'm with Athios. Giving that a hard fuck-no, G,* Warrion agreed.

*I thought that too,* said Garath, *but his path is so erratic.*

As if to prove his point, S'thys Zor and his two bodyguards stopped and reversed direction, then popped up out of the water to look around.

*Dude. He's fucking jacked,* Warrion observed.

*Seriously.*

*I have an idea,* Athios said. *G, you can just dismiss your pets on command now, right? Are there any limitations for that?*

*Uhmmm,* thought Garath, running the question through his mind and recalling the results of his tinkering in the cave just after he had bound the Flayer to Earth. *I'm still experimenting with it, so I couldn't say for sure. I can summon and dismiss them instantly now that they're bound to Earth, but I haven't thoroughly tested it. What did you have in mind?*

*Well, first we take out the group on this platform. Then, we hide behind the pillars while you have your little imp go get the big one's attention. When S'thys chases it, have your little demon kite him toward the waterfalls, then we pull the group on the right. If at any point he's going to kill your demon, just dismiss it - or let him, that thing creeps me out. If the imp can keep him busy long enough, we may even be able to clear both platforms.*

*That could work,* said Garath thoughtfully, running through the scenario in his mind. *If we pull the group below us to this side,* he gestured to the cave side of the cove with his beak, *we can probably use the pillars and avoid pulling the boss.*

And that is just what they did. By their third group of five, the Party had worked out all of the kinks and were ready to rinse and repeat their method. On the cave side of the gazebo, the Party shimmered back into human form.

The skirmish was joined when Athios pulled the Sentry through space-time to join them atop the gazebo. As Warrion moved to silence the horn blower, Garath and Sharon dropped from the rooftop to engage the other four. The one thing they didn't account for when making their plan in crow