The Culling of Man: A litrpg adventure (Peril's Prodigy Book 1)

by Craig Kobayashi

  'Eeeeewww! I got the dick blood on me…' Garath whined to himself as he skidded to a stop. Then he turned back to the fight. He felt the adrenaline and rage of battle overtake him in an exultant blood lust. He Inspected the Dragon again to see if he had done any serious damage.

  Aldrasyl

  Health: 36,232/49,500

  Race: Beast - Ice Drake

  Level: ???

  Mana: 14,811/15,500

  Specification: Mythic Reptile

  Description: Mysterious and powerful, Dragons were the masters and apex predators on the dead planet of Thysandra for millenia.

  Traits: unknown

  Garath noticed a small black skull icon below Aldrasyl’s Health and Mana bars. He willed more information from his UI and into his conscious mind.

  Buffs and Debuffs (Aldrasyl):

  Aldrasyl suffers 19 damage per second from Your Bleed attack.

  Aldrasyl suffers 26 additional damage per second from Your Bleed attack due to critical Bleeding.

  Aldrasyl suffers 12 damage per second from Sharon#142's Herbal Outbreak for the next 9 seconds.

  Aldrasyl suffers 20% movement speed reduction from Almaria's Led Legs for the next 29 seconds.

  Aldrasyl suffers 16 damage per second from TodoroKen's Chemical Burn for the next 11 seconds.

  Aldrasyl's Strength is increased 30% by Rage Level: Absolute Abhorrence.

  With at least a little hope that they could actually defeat this behemoth, the fighting spirit of The Band surged. They had already separated the Mythic Reptile from over 13,000 Health Points. Every Raid member swelled with empowerment. They could fucking do this. They could defeat a Dragon that the world itself advised them to avoid at all costs. Then Aldrasyl finally managed to get back to his feet, cobalt blood still gushing in steaming spurts from his traumatized trouser trout.

  *Gary!* shouted Garath over the Raid commuction channel.

  Without a second's hesitation, the bearded Armoron stepped forward with his shield held nervously in front of him. Gary's pasty white skin darkened into a reflective silver as he used his strongest defensive Skill, Protective Plating, then raised his metallic shield out to one side and his free hand out to the other - leaving his torso completely exposed - and barked some choice words at the Dragon. Garath couldn't hear what he said, and didn't know if Aldrasyl would even understand a human language, let alone a specific human language - but whatever the ginger lumberjack said seemed to have done the trick.

  The furious white Dragon bellowed a mighty roar that shook 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 pool of 810 was down by 378 - leaving the Necrologist with just over half of his maximum Mana. He gritted hi
s teeth and had to really focus to control the 115 Mana as it pooled into his fifth casting of Creeping Death - without the Mana cost reduction from his form and AyAyRon’s urgent sounding tune, the same spell would have cost him a staggering 159 Mana. With five stacks of QE on the Dragon, Creeping Death was dealing over 13 damage per second in addition to the 5.3 damage per second from Haunt - and he wasn't the only Raid member getting work done. An uninterrupted volley of various magical attacks and projectiles that pelted the Dragon from every angle hadn't slowed at all. Slowly but surely, they were bringing down the Mythic Reptile.

  *Steve!* Garath shouted, an abbreviated version of the next tank's designation, 'Steve-oooooh'.

  The Necrologist nearly emptied his Mana pool pouring 149 of his last 432 Mana into a sixth stack of QE and risked breaking his concentration to take a quick glance at Aldrasyl's Health bar. Garath almost squealed with delight upon seeing that huge white reptile's Health was below one-third and dropping. Garath couldn't help watching the impressive numbers scrolling continually in his vision. Between the five stacks of QE and the damage-over-time effect of Haunt, Garath alone was dealing 18.4 damage to the white Dragon with every passing second. If Garath was the only member of the Raid damaging the Dragon though, it would take him roughly 30 minutes to bring it down at this rate. He considered making another wild run at the Mythic Reptile to get in range for a Blight, but thought better of it.

  Getting the Quickening Entropy stack count to six would nearly empty Garath’s Mana completely but, after seeing those numbers, he couldn’t help himself. Struggling to keep his focus, the Necrologist dumped 194 of his last 283 Mana into another casting of Creeping Death. He was about to shift back into his natural form to retrieve his Mana Potion but the increasingly enraged Dragon had other plans.

  With a single beat of his great wings, Aldrasyl knocked everyone outside the building off their feet. With a practiced series of complex movements and ancient magic, the great white Dragon unleashed his most powerful area of effect attack - Shatter Stomp.

  In a fraction of a second, the massive Dragon created a strong, outward gust by twirling a in tight circle. He sprayed a blue mist from his mouth that was pushed away from his form in every direction - covering everyone outside the brick building with a thin layer of glossy cobalt liquid. Then, with an Ability passed down the hereditary line of Ice Drakes, Aldrasyl sucked all of the remaining heat in the air through his open mouth and into his lungs with the sound of a malfunctioning Hoover. The blue mist plastered to BoTH's fighting force reached its freezing temperature of -90 F and locked them all in place.

  Garath desperately willed himself to shift back into human form to avoid taking 150% increased damage from the inevitable AoE attack but cursed when he received a system derived #nope.

  You are Frozen.

  You cannot shift forms while a condition debuff is in effect.

  Focusing on a blue ice icon in his vision, Garath was able to see that they would all be frozen and unable to move for another six seconds. The great white Dragon finished his attack by soaring over a hundred meters straight up then turning back and descending at nearly 400 miles per hour - his eyes locked on the small feline Necrologist covered in the Dragon's own blood. As the massive weight of the Drake connected with the ground, a shockwave effect rippled out from his point of impact, shattering all of the ice once again into jagged fragments - all of the ice apart from the impossibly hard, blue ice rendering the fighting force immobile, of course. The piercing shards shot in every direction, ripping skin and chipping bone and even severing the outstretched arm of one of the casters.

  The AoE attack hadn't killed a single member of the raid but Garath noticed several Health bars drop to dangerously low levels in his peripherals. His attention was quickly pulled from those concerns though. Aldrasyl was staring wild eyed directly at him.

  With a snarl, the Dragon charged at the bloodbathed white cat. Garath's own eyes widened and his heart pounded faster and harder in his chest than it ever had before. He was still locked in place, unable to move for another two seconds. He closed his eyes as Aldrasyl closed the final few meters between them with one ice-shattering step. Garath knew it was over. He was going to die. He would not respawn. He was going to join over five-billion nameless people on that god-forsaken death prompt.

  Just before accepting his inevitable death, the lifetime nerd and gamer that never did anything with his life gritted his teeth. He couldn't accept this. Whether it be his fear of the beyond or sheer will to live, Garath refused to let this monster take his life. On this new Earth he could be who he always wanted to be, a hero. He had been a gamer his entire life and therefore had been the savior of hundreds of worlds and vanquished millions of foes. Garath's resolve firmed and he came back to himself. He would be damned if he couldn't do something to vanquish this one foe to save his world.

  The feline Necrologist opened his eyes with a grim resolve, looking directly into the face the Dragon that would claim his life.

  "NO!" Garath yelled. He pulled his will inward and triggered the instant cast of Black Blood. Time seemed to slow and he could actually feel every blood cell in his body transform - ready to act as a shield to protect him, even if only for a few seconds. Maybe until the spell holding him in place faded and he could run. Maybe long enough for Athios or another member of the Raid to pull a rabbit out of a hat and save his ass (again).

  As the blood responded to his renewed will to live, black droplets began to seep out of his pores then dispersed into a dark vapor around him.

  Aldrasyl opened his fanged mouth and lurched forward to execute the helpless feline. Frozen in place, Garath was watching the toothy orifice close around him when something brilliant occurred to him. Behind the menacing row of four-foot-long teeth he caught a glimpse of the glistening, pink soft-tissue of Aldrasyl's mouth and throat. At some level, he knew it was probably a bad idea, that the black vapor made up of his blood swirling around him was his only chance to live - but he also knew that this foe would mercilessly try to kill him again and again until succeeded, and that was even considering the spell shield held... and to be fair, even Garath really couldn't blame the Dragon. Once the Ice Drake took revenge for his ruined rod, he would just as mercilessly kill the rest of the Raid. Garath couldn't let that happen. He saw his chance and he took it.

  The black blood-vapor hardened into a pointed lance of glossy obsidian and extended into the roof of Aldrasyl's gaping maw. Garath shuddered as he felt the sickening crunch of his hardened blood puncture bone and slide into the Dragon's brain tissue even as the wicked fangs of Aldrasyl's powerful jaw clamped around his slight form. The Ice Drake seized, his jaw clenching even tighter, crushing and grinding the Necrologist as his body convulsed in a dying fit.

  With many of his tiny bones crushed, a lung punctured, and multiple open wounds leaking vital blood with abandon, the Necrologist lay in the pure darkness of Aldrasyl's closed mouth. As he watched the last of his HP depart from his Health bar, another prompt opened and was minimized. Not long for this world, Garath barely noticed and he heaved his last, painful breath.

  The Dragon's convulsions slowed, then stopped. In the end, the cost of saving the countless lives this Dragon would have taken was Garath's own. The Necologist took solace in the fact that this vicious beast would accompany him into the beyond, never to take another human life.

  Chapter 22

  Emerald Glade

  A warm breeze surprised Garath's nostrils with the sweet scents of spring flowers and cut grass. He inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with the welcome sensation. Too afraid to open his eyes and see exactly what the afterlife had in store for him, he just laid there enjoying the feeling of the sun on his face.

  *Are you enjoying yourself?* a deep, confident voice asked in the form of mental communication that Garath had become familiar with while in his House Cat form.

  Hesitantly, the Necrologist peeled his eyelids apart. The first thing he saw made him wish he hadn't. The stoic, dr
aconian face of the great white Dragon, Aldrasyl, was only a few feet above him. Garath's eyes widened and he crab-walked backwards in a mad scramble as to get out from beneath the massive Dragon. A massive Dragon with more than enough motive to end his life. To his surprise, and profound relief, Aldrasyl merely watched him scrambling away with an unamused expression plastered on his scaled face.