45 : Venomulard – 2

“Preparations complete.”
“Chuu”
Sunday.
There was just about a week left before the start of the event.
After finishing all my preparations which included the dangling meat fern flower net, I headed to the depths of the 3rd floor for my revenge match against Venomulard.

“Now then…”
In the far end of the 3rd floor… I spotted him.
Venomulard, the『Leader Of The Poison Rats』was in his improvised bed, which looked to be thrown together using dangling meat fern flower vines and he was scarfing down a bloomed dangling meat fern flower.
To be honest, I didn’t really have to go out of my way to defeat Venomulard like this.
As a matter of fact, depending on how the dungeon works, there might even be a possibility that he shouldn’t be taken down.
Something that accumulated and contained the curse was supposedly somewhere within this ordinary concrete building and I’m not entirely too sure what it was exactly, but it was likely what made this dungeon a dungeon in this first place.
So, if Venomulard ends up severely injured in this upcoming fight and the dungeon starts to tremor, I guess I should fall back at that point.
Although… looking at the broken cage on the 3rd floor, I have a hard time believing that Venomulard becoming a monster was the trigger for the dungeon appearing. Rather, it seems more like the dungeon called, the『Tower of Mice』manifested and in turn, caused Venomulard to transform into the monster that he is. Which means, it was probably okay for me to defeat Venomulard.

“CHARGE!”
“CHUU!”
“Mmu!?”
I leaped out from behind the corner and boldly flew towards Venomulard.

“You flying insect!”
In response, Venomulard tosses the dangling meat fern flower away and opens his mouth towards me, unleashing a salvo of venom.
It was an attack that clearly showed his intentions on not allowing me to get any closer.

“Hmph!”
“What!?”
However, before the venom could explode, I caught it with the poison receiving bag and stored it away, rendering it irrelevant.
I held my poison receiving bag at the ready and conversely, I even sped up to quell the poison.

“Sei!”
“As if that’ll work!”
Then, while I was pulling out my rat flail, I further accelerated my flight.
I twisted in addition to give the flail some more momentum and tried to slam it against Venomulard’s head, but he accurately stopped the blow with his arm, preventing my attack.

“I thought something felt amiss when I slaughtered you earlier… so, you were alive after all, insect!”
“That’s right, I’m well alive and kicking, rat.”
I expected that he’d block my attack, so I took a bit of distance away from Venomulard as the flail proceeded to recoil back.

“This time, I’ll devour you alive!”
“Hah, if anything, I’ll be the one doing the killing this time!!『Taruwiveno』!”
Only the 2 eyes that were on my face emitted their dark green glimmer, inflicting Venomulard with Poison (6).
Judging from the effect, I assume Venomulard’s poison resistance was able to reduce the effect by a fixed value of 10.
My『Magic Eye Of Poison・１＋＋』merely looks like a single spell but in actuality, it was performed through each eye individually so if the effect was lessened by a set value… well, it’s only obvious that the amount I imposed would be considerably reduced as well.

“Such meager poison is nothing to me!”
In addition, Venomulard had cleansed the poison status effect by simply empowering himself like he’d done in the previous battle.
Just as I anticipated.
Even though it was far less poison than last time.
He still used a single action to dispel it.

“Hahah”
“Ngu!”
I twirled as I flew forward, striking Venomulard in the shoulder with my flail.

“Hmph!”
Venomulard immediately turns to the side, aiming on swatting me away with his tail.
I noticed the clear signs foreboding his intended move and promptly sprang off the ground, hopping back to avoid the attack without much effort.
Then, while evading, I pointed my left hand’s index and middle finger at Venomulard, and flicked up as if I was shooting a gun.

“…!?”
With just that gesture, 2 of the eyes on the wings sprouting from my back emitted a deep green light and exacted poison upon Venomulard.

“This insect…”
Indeed, this was the new action trigger I’d set for『Magic Eye Of Poison・１＋＋』.
The trigger keys for sorcery were there to prevent any spontaneous activations, which is why it was possible to input several types of triggers for a single sorcery spell.
That’s why I set up a different trigger in advance so I could take others by surprise and still shoot while fighting, or to make sure that I wouldn’t fire with all my eyes at the same time.

“Like I’d be bothered by even a single drop of this pathetic poison!!”
I can’t tell if it was because Venomulard simply didn’t care about the small amount of poison, or if he couldn’t clear it away because he had used his dispel just recently, but he relentlessly rushed towards me.

“Whoops”
Though of course, if he’s throwing himself at me, all I had to do was observe the changes in the center of his gravity, the motion of the muscles around his legs, the direction of his gaze and the way he breathes. Grasping the timing, direction, and all else would allow you to leisurely dodge with a trifling jump.

“Sei!”
“Scurrying around again…!”
And so, after pouncing and landing, Venomulard movements came to a halt. Thus, it wasn’t difficult at all to quickly spin and drive the rat flail right into his face.

“Know your place, you winged insect!”
“Ahahahaha!!”
Nevertheless, Venomulard’s HP pool was enormous, and I knew that the power of my attacks didn’t amount to much.

“Winged insect? That’s a nice nickname! Bzz, bzz! Bzz bzz bzzzz! What’s the matter? All this stress gonna turn you into a hairless rat?”
“You…”
That’s why I provoked him.
Taunt, add in a little poison, then swing the rat flail to do even the slightest bit of damage.
Assuming that my opponent hasn’t already fallen for my instigations.

“Do not make light of me!”
Venomulard leaps at me again as if he had lost himself.
He expands his mouth, shouting out as his head slightly creaks to the side.

“Whoops…”
I flew back again to avoid being pounced at.

“Close…”
I knew Venomulard was going to go for a horizontal sweep with his tail as soon as I landed, so I took another jump back in order to evade it.

“Kaah!”
“But no cigar!
Then, after pin-pointing my location with his 4 eyes, Venomulard opens his mouth in my direction and lobs it out forth.

“..!?”
“Ahah”
I stopped Venomulard’s venom by catching it with the poison receiving bag in my left hand and gestured with my right hand to cast『Magic Eye Of Poison・１＋＋』, faintly increasing the poison that was on him. Following this, I tried coiling the vine that connected the rat flail’s handle and blunt part around Venomulard’s neck.
However, it didn’t work out in the end.
Venomulard nimbly pulls back his neck and rolls over side-ways, just in time to narrowly escape.

“”…””
Venomulard and I both glared at each other.
If you ask me, Venomulard being able to maneuver like that was still within my realm of expectations.
He had moved in a way that made me believe he could’ve done so since the first battle as well. I knew he had good eyesight considering how he’d block the flail, and it was clear that he was intelligent enough to articulate words and sorcery.
But… how was it from Venomulard’s perspective?
Even if a winged insect is just a winged insect, I’d like to think that I must be a insect that should be crushed at all costs in his eyes.
To a certain extent, it’ll be easier to read his movements if he perceives me as a threat.

“Youu… Jyuoooooou!!”
“Ngh…”
Venomulard lets out a roar that shakes the room.
The purpose behind it was obvious, to the point where I didn’t even need to think about it.

“My power is not limited to me alone! March forth…!”
“Tch!”
He was calling for the other rats.
Which is why I swung my flail as if I was in a panic.
I was half serious, half pretending.
The reason being, the dangling meat fern flower net was certainly set up, but it wasn’t guaranteed to work.

“It’s clear that you’re in distress! In that case, I’ll do this as well!”
“The poison mist!”
Venomulard slams 4 legs down on the floor, generating a cloud of poison at his location.
I jump back in return, keeping my distance from the poison mist.
He was unquestionably trying to buy time.
The poisonous haze thickens and Venomulard’s figure was thoroughly concealed by it.
Venomulard must’ve been hit with his own poison status, but it was likely rendered invalid due to his resistance.

“Now, with this…”
“Well now…”
I clutched the Rat Flail with both hands and darted through the air.

“I’ll be able to clobber you one-sidedly, won’t I?”
“You won’t be able to do a thi-… gifu!?”
Twirling in mid-air, I gripped the base of the flail with one hand and outstretched my arm widely before bashing the blunt object which had been extended to its maximum range against the side of Venomulard’s head that was completely unguarded.
Indeed, my Rat Flail had surprisingly long reach and a few seconds inside the poison mist doesn’t do that much poison damage, so I wasn’t too worried about it.
It would seem that he’d misread me based off of my flustered appearance.
He thought that as long as his mist of poison was up, I wouldn’t initiate an attack.

“Thi-.. Jyuu!?”
“Hmph!”
That’s exactly why he was full of openings right now.
After getting hit with the Rat Flail, that window of opportunity became even wider, allowing me to draw out the tooth knife from my waist with my left hand. I hopped onto Venomulard and stabbed him in the neck, twisting the knife as I pulled it out.

“Goaaaau!”
“Ggu!?”
However, the price I had to pay for attacking was immense.
I received a little over 20 stacks of poison.
Furthermore, Venomulard writhed from the pain and briskly spun in place, causing his tail to lash like a whip. It scored a direct hit onto my body and sent me flying away.

“Gulp… Well, I guess we’ll call that a draw in terms of injuries.”
“How dare yooou…”
I hurriedly picked myself up and drank the contents of the potion kettle, restoring my lost HP.
Venomulard suppresses the wound on his neck with his front limb and scowls at me.
His blood was spilling, but I can’t tell how much he’s actually losing since it’s immediately disintegrating.
Well, it doesn’t matter.

“Now, it looks as if your cute little underlings won’t be coming any time soon, but let’s keep the battle going, shall we?”
“I will never forgive the likes of you, you winged inseeeect!”
The battle continues to rage on.
Only this is certain.