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

determined to end her life. Sharon was fighting a losing battle from the roof - casting Roots to bind S'thys Zor in place on the far side of the central platform. The Strength Attribute of the massive Naga allowed it to rip the Roots away after only a few seconds. Luckily, those few seconds were just enough for Sharon to cast Roots again, entangling the enraged Naga until he was able to break free again, and then be entangled again on repeat. She wouldn't be able to hold him forever, as repeatedly casting - even a low cost spell like Roots - would bottom out her Mana before long. The Naturist was in no position to help.

The health bars affixed to the Naga surrounding the Necrologist were already below half and falling fast. Dark purple energy shot out again from his diminutive feline form, contrasting ominously from the pure white, innocent looking kitten. With Blight's debuff renewed, Garath was ready to make his move and free Warrion from mind control.

As luck would have it, Warrion was already heading his way... with raised daggers and a deer-in-the-headlights expression. Garath dodged another trident then jumped onto its wielder, sinking his needle-like claws into the neck and shoulder of the Naga.

‘I really fucking hope this works,’ thought Garath to himself as he attempted yet another wild combination of untested magics that he had never even fathomed before the moment of action.

With his dense, efficient feline muscles coiled tight, Garath launched himself into the air with as much power as his ten points of Strength, packed into the athletic cat form, would allow - the result was tremendous. And for the first time, Garath’s jump in the form of a House Cat went exactly as planned.

The distance of the forward leap in the direction of the oncoming, charmed Assassin would, sadly, never be measured. As soon as his claws left the blue skin of the Naga Pikeman, a tingling sensation started to prick on the back of his neck. By the time he was a few feet in the air, the sensation had spread over his entire body. His arms extended outward, spreading into wings. His white fur gave way to black feathers and his hind legs tucked into his torso as he shimmered into crow form.

Warrion had closed the distance from the edge of the platform and was leaping to attack, but the Assassin wasn't Garath's target. He flapped his wings and climbed a few inches, barely avoiding a leaping dagger strike from Warrion - a strike that definitely would have hit its mark, had the trajectory of Garath’s launch not been altered. With the wind beneath his wings, Garath gained altitude quickly to avoid the Pikemen extending upward with their long tails and swiping gold-tipped tridents at him as he passed over head. Easily ten feet above melee range, he tucked his wings and set aim on his real target - the Hypnotist. The enemy caster was channeling to keep her mind controlling spell active with her eyes closed and hands outstretched as she stayed above the water by treading back and forth with her powerful tail.

The mind controlling bitch never saw it coming. At the peak of his dive, Garath initiated the shift back into cat form. His black feathers gave way to white fur and his already tucked wings retracted back into furry little paws. As soon as he was able to, the fuzzy, falling Necrologist focused his will into a Death Bolt, hoping to time it to land on the Hypnotist's face as he did.

Miraculously, his timing and aim were perfect. He released the bolt of black energy and reached out with extended claws, latching on just as the enemy caster reeled from the unexpected blow to the face. Between the surprise attack and the massive spell backlash from having her Spell interrupted, the Naga Hypnotist was in a world of hurt. Her HP had dropped to below ten percent and Garath knew his Plague debuff would finish her off.

Garath leaped a second time off the slimey blue skin of a Naga and shifted back into crow form. Shifting from one animal form to another felt much the same to Garath as shifting to or from human form did. With a bird's eye view, he took in the situation - there were definitely goods and bads.

Each member of the small Naga army was infected with Plague and had been taking steady damage since the fight had begun, good. Warrion hadn't wasted a second of his new found freedom and was facing off with the last of the Naga Pikemen from the far left platform, good. Sharon was running out of Mana as well as options with the ever enraging S'thys Zor. The Pikemen accompanying the dungeon boss were on the roof of the gazebo, approaching the Naturist from behind, bad. Athios was being chased from platform to platform by four Pikemen and a Sentry, but had somehow managed to dispatch the Hypnotist on her side, bad and good. In all, the situation was pretty dire.

*Athios save your Mana, go crow and kite them to Warrion, fight them together. I'm going to help Sharon,* he projected the combat orders to the party.

"Thank God for that, young man. I can't believe I let you... Ackk!" Sharon screamed bloody murder as a trident impaled her from behind. She fell to her knees coughing up blood from a punctured lung as the Naga retracted its weapon and prepared to finish the helpless Naturist.

The blow never landed. Garath shifted from crow to his natural form just before crashing into the back of the unsuspecting Naga, bringing his full one-hundred and ninety pounds barreling into its back. The impact landed them both on their backs atop the slippery roof and they tumbled, tangled and struggling, grappling off of the gazebo. The second Naga on the roof reacted quickly, slithering off the roof to attack the Necrologist that decided to drop in on their Sharon stabbing