The Tree of Ascension: A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy Book 2) Craig Kobayashi (top 5 books to read TXT) 📖

to face Auto, channeling 143 Mana into his fourth cast of Creeping Death on Auto. A quick look at the Chimerist’s Healthbar and debuffs let Garath know that Handsome had already landed his sixth Q.E. stack while he’d been fleeing, and Auto’s Health was under half once again.

*Mana,* came Handsome’s scratchy and fatigued voice into Garath’s mind.

*Harass that Goddamn Preacher then!* Garath mentally shouted in response. Garath had been looking forward to seeing how the mischievous Cambionic Flayer would interpret his earlier command to use dirty tricks.

Handsome flew toward Maimon, whose Healthbar was under half-full. White light surrounded Maimon’s entire body now, not just his hands and staff as it had before, leading Garath to believe the Preacher was casting one of his most powerful heals. At the very least, it was a considerably longer casting time than the Skills he’d used to heal Auto earlier in the fight. Garath smiled, knowing the time was perfect to put his plan into action.

The Necrologist was disappointed that he wouldn’t have a second volley of Death Bolts to send at the Preacher with Handsome being out of Mana, but he didn’t think it’d matter that much anyway. The white light surrounding Maimon intensified as the Preacher’s channeling came to an end and Garath issued a mental command to his demons to switch targets and hit the Preacher with everything they had. *Now Sharon!* he shouted into the Party communication channel.

The light faded from the Rabbi and entered Auto’s hairy, toothy, and too-muscular form. Garath’s suspicion that Maimon would blow his biggest heal on Auto at this point in the fight was spot on. The white light that surrounded Auto as the Preacher’s healing magic took hold on the Man-Bear was almost blinding. The light show was pretty neat, but far from the only indication that Maimon had just blown his load.

Auto's Healthbar was all the way back to 100%. He wondered just how much damage Maimon was able to effectively erase with that one spell. Garath already planned on thoroughly reviewing his combat log after the duel, and this was one more thing he’d have to look for. On top of the impressive amount of Health Maimon’s spell had restored, every stack of Q.E. that had taken hold on Auto for the entire fight to that point, in addition to the Blight that Garath landed on both opponents as soon as they were in range again, were dispelled. Maimon had definitely blown his load on that beastly spell.

You’re fucked now, Preachaman.

Less than a second after his mental command to his demons, Sharon’s Herbal Outbreak took hold on Maimon, and Garath spammed Death Bolts at him. Bill reached the Preacher and sunk his obsidian, dagger-sized teeth into Maimon’s left leg. The Preacher’s long white robe bled crimson around the wound, and he shrieked in pain. Auto sprinted to his healer, and smartly pried the hound off with clawed hands, tossing the bleeding Bill through the air like he was weightless.

Handsome arrived on the scene, and Garath would’ve given anything for a way to record what transpired next.

The Cambionic Flayer dipped low, grabbing the bottom of Maimon’s blood-stained robe before pulling it up and over the Preacher’s head. Handsome dropped to the ground, slipping between Maimon’s legs as the Preacher dropped his staff. Before he could pull his robe back into place and cover his tighty-whities, Handsome junk-punched him.

Maimon fell to his knees and Handsome flapped his wings, rising to the Preacher’s eye level. When Maimon finally got the robe back in place, Handsome poked him right in the eye. Bleeding, blinded, and infuriated, Maimon scrambled on hands and knees, feeling around wildly for his staff. That’s when the Golem arrived.

Auto stepped between the gargantuan Golem and his dying healer, meeting the huge demon in melee combat if only to allow Maimon the time he needed to recover from Handsome’s harassment. Handsome, for his part, wasn’t done. The winged demon latched onto Maimon’s head, a gnarled hand grasping each of the Preacher’s ears, holding on for all he was worth.

Even this far into the fight, between Garath’s Regeneration stat of 63 and the fact that he received a 30% reduction to all Mana costs while in House Cat form, his Mana bar was still sitting pretty at 1,101/1,690. With the amount of available Mana, Garath was tempted to throw a few more stacks of Quickening Entropy on his target for good measure, but he knew from experience that Auto wouldn’t allow them much time to take down his healer. With that in mind, Garath channeled his Mana into a deluge of Death Bolts, hoping beyond hope to land a critical hit.

Standing side by side, the fluffy white Necrologist and grey-tabby Naturist sent a volley of black and green orbs at the Preacher, still trying desperately to peel the winged demon off his face. With his Health low even before the attack due to the constant incoming damage from the DoTs, Garath was sure Maimon wouldn’t survive much longer. But Garath wasn’t the only one with a valuable teammate.

In the mere seconds they’d been focused on Maimon, Auto had taken the Dreadreaver’s Health to 0, and tossed its corpse to the ground, then charged at the two cats blasting their best attacks unimpeded into his healer. Garath could feel him coming and issued a mental command to Bill to meet his charge, hoping the demon-dog could keep the Chimerist off of them for long enough to finish Maimon. The Cambionic Fel Hound limped toward the Man-Bear with one leg oozing green blood.

Garath and Sharon both ignored Auto’s approach and the inevitable damage they would sustain when he arrived as they each sent bolt after bolt into Maimon, each knocking off a fraction of his remaining hit points. Through what was sure to be agonizing pain, and with a demon humping his face, Maimon was still able channel Mana into a cast. As much as Garath disliked the Preacher, there was something to be said about