46 : Venomulard – 3

“Jyuou! Hmph! Sei!”
“Fufufufufuu”
The fight between me and Venomulard persists.
In order to crush me, Venomulard pounces at me, thrashes with his front limbs and tail, sends out a barrage of venom, and disperses his poison mist.
In response, I didn’t overlook even a single sign of Venomulard’s movements as a means to accurately avoid his attacks and pile up counter-attacks for myself.
Of course, I also remembered to maintain the poison effect on Venomulard by minorly applying『Taruwiveno』.

“Damned… WINGED INSECT!”
“Fuhahahahah”
It would appear that I had stacked up too much poison on him.
Venomulard mustered his strength and cleared away the 35 stacks of poison that I’d accumulated.

“Ahahahahahaa! How fun!!”
“Ggu!?”
I nimbly approached and punctured Venomulard with the tooth knife as I was passing by, then immediately kicked away from his body as I pulled the knife back out while twirling about.
Following that, I also used around 3 of my eyes to cast『Magic Eye Of Poison・１＋＋』and inflicted 10 Poison onto him.

“Again with that!”
Venomulard’s poison cleanse had a cooldown of approximately 30 seconds.
Maybe it was because of its cost and my attacks, but although he was dispelling even the slightest bit of poison earlier, now he only seems to use it when it was bordering close to 30.
The cost of my poison attacks was 5 HP for the tooth knife, and 10 for『Magic Eye Of Poison・１＋＋』 .
Which means, it’s probably best to keep the poison at around 20 stacks.
Ahh, this was truly enjoyable.
It’s so much fun figuring out the optimal amount of poison to use and unraveling the unknown along with it.

“Disappear”
“I’ve already seen that many times over, you know?”
Venomulard hurls out his venom.
In return, I flew diagonally behind it.
Why didn’t I fly ahead and away?
That’s…

“Ghu!?”
“So I could judge the distance of the explosion with how willing he was to harm himself.”
I’ve caught Venomulard’s venom with my poison receiving bag numerous times and could see that he had enough since he was trying to adjust the range of the explosion to finish me off.

You could determine at least that much if you can find even the tiniest difference in his behavior.
As a result, Venomulard revealed it all with how uncommitted he was towards self-injury and I made it out without even a scratch on me.

“Da…Ngh!?”
“Though, looks like I can’t attack from here.”
That said, the distance between us had increased.
If he shot more venom out at this range, it’d be a bit tough to read.
Which is why I hid behind Venomulard’s bed, using it as cover.
This caused Venomulard to tense up for a moment, unsure of whether to attack or not.

“Aha, just as I suspected, there’s something there after all”
“Guu…”
As if to take advantage of that moment of hesitation, I flew out and struck first from afar with my flail.
I continued my attack and jumped once more, thrusting the tooth knife into Venomulard’s arm.

“You!”
“Whoops”
Venomulard tries to grab me.
I didn’t have the leisure to retrieve my knife, so I gave up on it and retreated.

“I refuse… not to the likes of you…”
“You’re starting to run out of breath there.”
I quickly used the『Appraisal Loupe』to check on Venomulard’s HP.

△△△△△
『Leader Of The Poison Rats』・Venomulard　Level 15
HP : 7522/18328
Poison (16)
▽▽▽▽▽

“Still half left, or already half gone. Fufu, I wonder which it is.”
If your opponent doesn’t make any unknown moves and you’re just in a perpetual state of labor where you repeatedly move in a predetermined way, it’s awfully boring.
However, it’s not as if Venomulard eyes have given up yet, nor did they look enraged.
In that case, he still must’ve had more to offer.

Similarly, my HP’s been reduced by about 50% from the poison costs as well as the attacks that shaved off bits of my HP.

“As long as I remain standing, I guarantee I will devour you!!”
“Heeh…”
An aura of red and black seeps from Venomulard’s entirety.
Appearance-wise, that’s all there was to it, but he’s clearly grown more intimidating.
I couldn’t help but smile in the presence of his form.
Because, from here on, I’m sure I’ll be venturing towards an unknown territory once again.

“JYUAAA!!”
While still enveloped in the poison mist, Venomulard exposes his teeth and throws himself at me.
And he was fast about it.
Compared to before, his speed had probably increased twice as much.

“Nhn!”
I hopped to the side, but the place I fled to was within range of Venomulard’s tail.

“Jyuun!”
“Ggu…”
Venomulard rotates hastily and I propped my Rat Flail up to receive the blow.
However, the handle of my flail was dented and I was violently sent flying.

“GAAAAH!!”
“Since I’ve made it this far…!”
Venomulard surges towards me as I slid across the floor.
I can already mostly guess as to what Venomulard had done.
He just simply rose his stats.
As straight-forward as it sounds, you could also consider it an attack that was hard for me to deal with.
Regardless, there seems to be a certain risk to it.
The number of poison stacks on Venomulard hasn’t went down since.

“I don’t intend on losing!!”
“Mgh!”
I hurriedly leapt and narrowly got away from Venomulard’s jaws by the skin of my teeth.
Then… I grabbed onto the fur on his back, and sat astride.

“My… Ghi!?”
“Hmph!”
I dragged the rebar with attached concrete out from my bag and slammed it down on the tooth knife that I’d stabbed into Venomulard earlier, sinking it deeper into his flesh.

“Sei!”
“You-… Mmguh!?”
I swiftly dismounted Venomulard who was now recoiling in pain and released my grip on the rebar as well.
Then, I took one of the poison receiving bags that was filled to the brim with Venomulard’s venom and crammed it into his mouth which he then ruptured open with his own teeth.

“ーーーーー!?”
“GGAAAAAAAAAH!?”
Upon doing so, the venom inside of the bag explodes in accordance to its properties.
The massive amounts of venom burst and erased my right forearm. Venomulard’s front teeth are also vaporized, causing him to sharply reel his head back. His aura extinguishes along with the mist of poison.
It seems that his consciousness had also gone blank.
Ahh, so this is where the match is decided, no doubt about it.

“『Taruwiveno』!!”
“Grghh!?”
Excluding the eye that was blown away, 12 of my eyes gleamed in an abyssal green light and inflicted Venomulard with poison.
The displayed stacks of poison now reached 165.
However, this alone wouldn’t be enough to defeat him.

“Mnn!”
I coiled the vine of the rat flail around Venomulard’s throat and put my entire body weight into pulling it.

“Kuu… Gahh…”
“Hahah, hehe, ahehah!”
Naturally, there’s too much of a difference between Venomulard’s weight and mine, so I wasn’t able to completely clamp down on his neck.
Even though he was poisoned and currently in a daze from the impact of the explosion, it still wasn’t enough to finish him off.
On top of that, I was currently one-handed, close to passing out from the pain, and my HP was being whittled down.

“Amazing… How breathtaking! THE SWEET TASTE OF THE UNKNOWN!!”
“You… Mon…ster…”
Using my forearm, I flipped the potion kettle up-side down, spilling it over the rest of my arm and my non-existent right hand.
Although it wouldn’t regenerate my hand, it had stopped the bleeding.
The restorative water that leaked to the floor was soaked up by Venomulard, healing him for a slight bit… but in exchange, it also increased the strength of the poison accumulated on him as well.

I had forgotten about it, but come to think of it, my potion kettle contained poison too.

“『Taruwiveno』”
“!?”
The cooldown was over and the charge time had concluded. Thus,『Magic Eye Of Poison・１＋＋』was dealt to Venomulard once again.
Venomulard had already exceeded 300 stacks of poison now.

“My…”
I could feel Venomulard’s vertebrae snapping through my hand.
His whole body steadily goes limp.
Any discharged bodily waste is immediately disintegrated away.
Still, I continued to tighten the vine.

“Phew… hah… haaah…”
Then, part of Venomulard’s fur and flesh had disintegrated from the curse. The rat flail’s vine tears and severs. When I was sure that Venomulard was dead, I finally loosened my tension.

≪Taru has risen to level 8≫
“AAAAAAH! SUCH BLISS! THE GLORIOUS UNKNOWN! WITH A BOSS! A BATTLE!!”
I was so overwhelmed with delight, the volume of my voice had drowned out the announcement of my level-up.

△△△△△
『Spawn Of Jugemu』・Taru　Level 8
HP: 132/1070
Satiety: 100/100
Interference: 107
Abnormalities: 19
‏‏　‎Immortality, Insect Wings ×6, Additional Eyes ×11, Levitation
Titles :『Spawn Of Jugemu』,『Rawism Beginner』, 『Unusual Cuisine Eating・1』,『If You Eat Poison, Lick The Plate・1』,『Iron Stomach・1』,『First Cursed Production』,『Poison User』『Insufficient Curse』, 『Gluttony・1』,『First Sorcery Acquisition』,『Hide And Seek・１』

Sorcery・Evil Eye Arts:
『Magic Eye Of Poison・1＋＋』(Taruwiveno)

Owned Items:
Poisonous Bite Rat’s Fur Clothes, Poison Rat’s Pointed Hat, Appraisal Loupe, Poisonous Bite Rat’s Tooth Knife, Poisonous Bite Rat’s Fur Bag, Potion Kettle, etc.