Winning While Poisoned

I looked over at the snake. It was baring its large fangs which dripped a weird translucent liquid. To my guess, that's probably just its spit, but it could also be venom. It's best I don't get cut even the tiniest bit from those things.

In order to make a distortion dome, it doesn't require wind magic, but dark magic. However, I am inexperienced with dark magic as I have not used it once. Well maybe to make a mask for Midnight but other than that, nothing else.

Dooooom!

Ichigo readied his distortion dome, the snake within the area. The only thing I can do right now is launched a few waves of distorted slashes.

"My lord."

Ichigo called me as he was still in position.

"Huh? What is it Ichigo?"

"You must kill it. Its weak point is the top of its head."

I looked at the snake's head. Sure, I can probably get up there now that the snake can't stop time anymore, but now that it lost its ability, it's going to be extremely defensive.

"HISSSSSS!!!!!"

The snake lunged its whole body towards us. I don't know if that's how snakes attack or it's just suicidal. Ichigo dashed forward and activated his distortion dome. The snake noticed and before Ichigo vanished it had stuck half of its body out of the dome.

Shatter!

The air became distorted and the part of the snake's body that was in the dome was cut off clean. The snake made a faint cry as it flew over us, its fang only an inch away from my cheek, and crashed into the wall behind us.

Slit!

Huh? What was that? I think I just felt something touch my left cheek. Don't tell me? I touched my left cheek, and there was blood. Then, I suddenly felt sleepy and my body felt numb. I fell onto the ground and my vision was blurry.

Is this the effect of the venom that the snake had on its fangs? I expected it to give me pain, but all it's doing is making me sleepy.

"My lord!"

I could hear Ichigo's muffled voice calling me. I saw a glowing purple figure in front of me, lifting me up.

"Resist the poison. If you fall into slumber, you'll-"

After that line, I couldn't hear anything else. I'll what?

"Ichigo, tell me... what will happen if I fall asleep?"

"You will be consumed by the poison and die in-"

Again, I couldn't hear anything after that. But I did catch a bit of that part. Die... so if I fall asleep now, I'll die eventually. I couldn't hear the specific amount of time, but that's not something I want to experience.

So...

I grabbed onto Ichigo's arm.

"My lord?"

"Ichigo, I have an order for you."

"Speak it, I will do whatever you order me to do."

"Stab me please."

"Excuse me?!"

"Pain... pain will disrupt me from getting sleepy."

"Are you sure about that tho-"

"My orders... are absolute. Are they not?"

Ichigo hesitated, but soon he agreed. My vision was already getting extremely blurry and I couldn't hear anything around me anymore. I rested my head on the wet stone floor. I was almost about to close my eyes until I felt a sharp pain in my left arm.

[Health: 3035/3400]

That instantly woke me up and the sleepy feeling I had was gone. My vision returned and so did my hearing. I looked over at my left arm and Koshiro had pierced it with his blade. He pulled up my sleeve so he could cause harm to my arm directly. The buffs that my clothing gives only apply to the area that my clothing is covering.

When he saw me sitting up with a face full of pain, he instantly took it out and knelt on the ground with his head to the floor.

"I humbly beg for your forgiveness! I must apologize if I have caused you immense pain! I will accept any punishment you give me."

This guy, he really is loyal. It's not his fault though, I ordered him to stab me and he did. Technically, he did nothing wrong.

"Lift your head up, you did nothing wrong. And no punishment will be given."

Ichigo lifted his head up and took hold of his blade. The hole that Ichigo put into my left arm began to regenerate.

"Ichigo."

"Yes?"

"I think I can take it from here. You can stand back."

Ichigo nodded and backed away.

Now you dumb snake, I'm going to get my revenge on you.

The snake wriggled around. It could move correctly now that its other half was gone. All it could do was squirm around helplessly.

I sprinted towards the snake. I used [Leap] and jumped into the air and stayed in the air until I was directly over its head. I pulled out Koshiro and then use [Jab]. The sword would let out a glow. As I began plunging, I used Wind Magic to propel me forward. In addition, I shot out flames from the end of my boots and used them like thrusters.

Gush!

My blade easily went through the snake's head and it let out a faint cry, then fell onto the ground with a faint thud. I hopped off the snake's head but left Koshiro in its current position, sticking out on top of the snake's head.

I did it, right? Is this snake finally dead?

I launched a few blades made of compressed wind and it grazed the snake's eye. No reaction, it's definitely dead.

As I sighed in relief, my body suddenly lost all of its strength and I fell on my back.

What is this? Why did my body suddenly give up?

Ichigo ran over to me and lifted my head. I asked him why I had suddenly collapsed.

"It is the effect of the venom, my lord. At a cost of evading its lethargic process, you only have half the time left to live."

"How long?"

"About three days."

Three days, huh? Well, that's a bummer. So if I fell asleep, I would have six days to live? Or maybe its seven since he said about. Either way, my end was sealed as soon as the snake inserted its venom into my blood system.

Maybe I should cut the part where the venom was. If it was my arm, I could have done that instead, but it was near my face.

Ding!

[Level up!]

[Congratulations, you are now a C-rank demon]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Quest: Defeat the Chronos Cobra (Completed)]

[Rewards: Elixir Thrive, Antidote{10}, Water Magic(Lv1)]

Elixir... Thrive...?

[Elixir Thrive: Activates once venom has reached its highest point; All forms of poison will be cleansed off]

So... that means... I'm basically resistant to poison?

A second later, the feeling I lost which was disconnected from my body had returned. I lifted my head up and touched my left cheek. I felt much better after I had received the effect.

I also received Antidotes, huh? Are those for me to give to other people? Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to give people the antidote if they were poisoned.

[Souls are nearby]

Souls, right... Of course, the snake would give off a soul. After all, I got Ichigo's soul after I defeated him, so this snake will also give me its soul.

But something seemed off.

The soul rankings are blue, green, purple, yellow, and then red... right? This soul was different. It was... dark. It was black with a white glowing core. It seemed to emit a different aura than the souls I've taken in becoming spectrals. It's as if this thing was... empty.

Before I'd even lift my arm, it just flew straight towards me. Then as it sank into my chest, my lower arm and lower legs began to glow.

Flash!

Clang!

I jumped, and I heard a metal sound coming from my feet. Then as the light died down, I was equipped with metal gauntlets and greaves. They were a bit animalistic. The arms were scale-like but also clawed. They almost resembled an open snake mouth, baring its fangs. The greaves were the same, and they both have glowing veins which gave a faint pulsing silver glow.

[New Attribute Unlocked!]

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[Soul Arsenal]

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[Soul Weapon Claimed: Ouroboros]

[Weapon Abilities: Time Stop Refining]

Weapon abilities? So I can only use this ability when I equip the weapon. And... time... stop... refining? I understand Time Stop, but what's refining for?

[Time Stop Refining: Stop time for a second. Plus an additional second for every moment time is stopped (Up to 10 seconds); Cooldown between each time stop is 5 seconds and each time stop costs 250 mana]

Up to ten seconds?! Though I expected longer but ten seconds is alright. I'm kind of not happy with the mana cost, but now that I leveled up...

[Mana: 8000/8000]

I think that's a pretty good amount. Now, I should get out of here.

Ring!

[You have 10 minutes to escape.]

[Time to escape: 10:00]

[Time to escape: 9:59]