Chapter 155: Venom Beat's Roar!

When the resurrected Venom Beat slowly stood up, the massive amount of soil covering it fell away with the force of a landslide.

Simultaneously, an ominous purple gas spewed out from the lower part of Venom Beat’s torso.

Then, the surrounding poisonous swamp transformed into an even more ominous color.

“Liliera, please don’t get close to that deadly poison gas!”

“Understood!”

That Venom Beat is a mutant species with unknown deadly poison.

If we carelessly approach, there’s a high risk it will unleash a dangerous poison that even my antidote magic can’t detoxify.

“First, I’ll stop its movements and then apply the reseal!”

“I won’t let you!”

The moment I tried to stop Venom Beat’s movements, a red-black lightning of magic power attacked along with a sharp voice.

“!?”

We dodged the magic lightning and turned toward the direction the attack came from.

“You are!?”

The one who launched that attack was surprisingly the Demon who broke the seal.

He was considerably weakened, and I completely thought he couldn’t escape the torrent of deadly poison that spewed out when he broke the seal, got caught in it, and had the finishing blow dealt to him…

“You were alive!?”

However, strangely enough, the Demon was not just alive but clearly healthy.

To the point where you wouldn’t think he was dying just a moment ago.

“What is the meaning of this…?”

The Demon afflicted by deadly poison said that even the comrades he asked for treatment threw in the towel.

I can’t believe that near-death state was a lie.

“Hmph, you look puzzled.”

The healthy Demon floats a broad smile.

“I will tell you. The answer is… you yourself, brat!”

“M-Me!?”

Told that I am the reason the Demon became healthy, I am bewildered.

What on earth does that mean!?

“That time when the seal was broken, thanks to the antidote magic you unleashed, the poison corroding my body was also detoxified!”

” “…!? A-Aaaah!?” “

S-So that’s how it is!

Crap, I was careless.

I never expected that the area-of-effect antidote magic activated to protect ourselves from Venom Beat’s deadly poison would even detoxify the Demon‘s poison!

“I thank you, brat! Because thanks to you, I was able to resurrect!”

The Demon, with a smile, shapes the red-black magic power emitted from his hand into a spear and readies it.

“In return, I will kill you so you do not suffer.”

The Demon explodes the magic power put into his wings and attacks us at high speed.

“I won’t let you!”

The one who blocked that blow was Liliera.

The magic power put into Liliera‘s spear rivals the magic spear in the Demon‘s hand.

“Rex! I will take on this Demon! Rex, concentrate on sealing Venom Beat!”

“No, I have already deployed a barrier to prevent the poison from leaking, so let’s concentrate on defeating the Demon first.”

Earlier too, we were about to have the seal destroyed and the barrier deployment obstructed because of this Demon.

It’s better to settle things completely with this guy.

However, Liliera raises her voice in denial.

“I am Rex‘s comrade! If so, I can defeat a Demon alone… no, it’s out of the question if I can’t defeat him!”

“You spout nonsense, little girl!”

The two step back from the recoil of repelling each other’s spears.

“So let me do this! I will prove that I won’t be a hindrance as your partner!”

“!”

From Liliera‘s words, a strong will could be felt.

That is surely words born from her pride as a single adventurer.

If so, throwing cold water on that resolve would be boorish.

“Understood. I leave that Demon to you!”

“Yeah! Leave it to me!”

“Ah, Liliera.”

I call out to Liliera as she was about to head into battle with the Demon.

“Thanks for blocking the Demon‘s attack earlier! Thanks to that, I made it in time to deploy the barrier!”

“!? …Fufu, here I go!”

“Hmph! I will make you regret challenging me alone!”

Once again, Liliera and the Demon charge with spears in hand.

“CYCLONE BURST!”

“ARROGANT BURST!”

The magic unleashed by the two collides in the center and bursts.

“Taaaaah!”

“Zeaaaaah!”

Using the bursting magic as a blinder, both close in on each other and thrust their spears.

The two dodge each other’s attacks by a hair’s breadth, and continue the exchange while alternately changing their positions.

Alright, I’ll leave the Demon to Liliera and decide to concentrate on sealing Venom Beat.

“To do that, I first have to prepare the magic circle for sealing.”

When performing a seal with basic magic, using sealing magic is sufficient.

When sealing a powerful opponent, to increase the success rate, magic items or magic circles are sometimes used to increase the power, but the magic itself just needs to be activated normally.

However, when sealing a giant opponent of Venom Beat’s class, the story changes.

That is because sealing magic is a type of barrier, so it has an effect range.

When sealing magic is activated, targets within a certain range are sealed.

But, if the opponent is too large and protrudes greatly from the magic’s activation range, the magic fails.

Therefore, when sealing a large target, it is necessary to draw a magic circle of a size that can accommodate the entire giant body.

Or place barrier-type magic items to surround the target.

Originally, I intended to do those preparations before releasing the seal, but I couldn’t prepare because the Demon destroyed the seal.

“But well, I have no choice but to manage somehow.”

Fortunately, the opponent is that giant body.

Also because it just awakened, it probably hasn’t noticed our presence yet.

It was when I thought that.

A sound like metal scraping, gichi gichi, echoed from the ground.

Looking down, Venom Beat was pointing its massive horn towards us.

And the next moment, a purple mass was fired at high speed from Venom Beat’s horn.

“Liliera! Venom Beat’s poison attack is coming! It’s compressed to high density, so it has enough power to destroy city walls, please dodge it!”

I warn Liliera, who is fighting the Demon.

Apparently, it mistook the clash of magic between Liliera and the Demon earlier as an attack on itself.

“Hah!? What is that absurd attack!?”

“Kuh, fool! Do you not even know who destroyed the seal for you!”

Liliera and the Demon try to dodge the poison bullet approaching at high speed by a hair’s breadth.

“Ah, no good! Please dodge wider!”

” “Eh?” “

Crap, I missed the chance to tell Liliera!

“Venom Beat can burst the poison bullet it fired by hitting it with ultrasonic waves!”

“Ehh!?”

Simultaneously with the warning, my ears start ringing kiin.

Looking at the ground, Venom Beat was flapping its spread wings at high speed to generate high frequencies.

If we were at close range, we might have sustained damage just from that sound wave.

“Kuh!”

“Tch!”

Right after Liliera and the Demon hurriedly distanced themselves from the poison bullet, the poison bullet writhed as if water was boiling, and the next moment it burst and scattered to the surroundings.

“S-Saved, Rex…”

“Please dodge Venom Beat’s poison bullets widely so you don’t get hit by the bursting spray, or defend with barrier-type defense magic. Its fighting style is basically a method to weaken the opponent with poison.”

“Cheap guy despite being huge.”

Ahaha, you could certainly say that.

It’s troublesome because it fights utilizing its giant body while actively using poison.

“Since it recognizes us as enemies, stopping its movements is the first priority.”

I thought I would sneak close and seal it, but as expected it doesn’t seem to go that well.

“That being the case, I will have you seal your movements! GRAND GEO LANCER!”

I pierce Venom Beat’s entire body with wide-area annihilation magic and seal its movements.

It’s fortunate that its movements are still sluggish because it’s right after resurrection.

“Wh-Whaaaaaaat!?”

Then a voice of astonishment rose from the Demon over there.

Surely he is surprised by Liliera‘s ability.

Yeah, having a comrade you can entrust your back to is nice!

“Now, with its movements sealed with this, I will perform the seal!”

While Venom Beat is unable to move, I begin preparations for the reseal.

I draw a perfect circle with earth magic from the sky to surround Venom Beat, and begin preparations to draw the magic circle.

Even so, this Venom Beat is not resisting at all.

The Venom Beat I fought in my previous life was much livelier, though.

It’s somehow limp, looking like it’s critically injured on the verge of death.

No… could it be playing dead?

It’s a mutant species, so it might actually have high intelligence.

I see, it’s waiting for me to descend to carve the large-scale magic circle into the earth.

And it probably intends to attack the moment I let my guard down and turn my back.

But since I noticed that, I won’t just quietly get attacked.

“COCYTUS PILLAR!”

To not give it an opening for a counterattack, I pierce Venom Beat’s body with a mountain of ice thorns.

The mountain of ice thorns that pierced Venom Beat’s body freezes the body along with the poisonous bodily fluids overflowing from the wounds.

Venom Beat, realizing its playing dead was found out, writhes and flips over, convulsing its legs in agony.

It intends to aim its poison mist spouts this way and do an area attack!

“I won’t let you! EROSION FREEZE!”

The activated ice magic power freezes the numerous poison mist spouts on Venom Beat’s abdomen.

Venom Beat, with its poison mist sealed, takes a posture curling its legs to protect its body.

Yeah, it’s rather convenient for us that it went on the defensive.

“Alright, I’ll carve the sealing magic circle while I can!”

“U-Umm~~ Rex?”

At that moment, a hesitant voice could be heard from Liliera, who is supposed to be fighting the Demon.

“What is it, Liliera?”

Even during that, I don’t divert my consciousness from Venom Beat.

It’s an owner of intelligence to the point of aiming for a surprise attack after inviting carelessness; there’s no telling what it will do.

“Umm, that Venom Beat looks like it’s dying, so wouldn’t it be faster to normally deal the finishing blow without going out of the way to seal it?”

“Eh?”

Told by Liliera, when I look closely at Venom Beat, Venom Beat was limp while twitching pikupiku.

“Huh?”

Strange, wasn’t that Venom Beat a special individual that underwent special evolution?

While I was watching thinking that, Venom Beat’s head slumped gakuri, and it stopped moving with its legs curled up.

“Bugs become like that when they die, don’t they.”

Yeah, now that you mention it, it might look like a bug dead on the roadside in summer.

“Umm, could it be… it really died from that just now?”

Ehh!? Wait a minute! Because that just now was a checking attack unleashed to seal the opponent’s movements and poison!?

There’s no way I could defeat it this easily, right!?

I hurriedly look at Venom Beat with detection magic, but I felt absolutely no life force from that body.

“Ehhhh!?”

D-Did I really defeat it!?