The rat blazed like a green streak of light and, instantly, in front of Rue, swung its double dagger in a downward strike. Fast. Too fast. Rue already had his sword on form, yet it was barely enough.

  Like a whiplash, the daggers slammed at his obsidian sword, almost knocking it out of Rue’s hand. A small crack broke off in his right palm. His saving grace was that his sword was still in his left hand. But, before he knew it, the Tall-rat already had both of its daggers up again. Cruel green sheen briefly mixed with white moonlight, and it struck down on Rue—Rue did not stay idle.

  With his right hand, he reached up, catching one wrist, but the rat’s right dagger slammed straight into his shoulder blade.

  A crack fractured across the night.

  Vapor of cold hissed out of Rue’s cracked obsidian armor, blowing the dagger back after it had done the damage.

  A streak of pain colored the area just below his neck. However, Rue was no longer the same as before. His spells worked inside of him to mend this wound, and Stasis of Obsidian Ice’s coldness rushed into the pain like a tsunami and smoldered it.

  Rue tightened his grip on the rat’s right hand. He tried to snap its wrist apart. But the rat’s lanky arm instead thrust its dagger at Rue’s neck. It connected. Another crack popped. Rue retreated, taking a couple of steps in quick succession, intending to bring his sword up.

  The rat did not let that happen. It entered Rue’s defense, daggers about to repeat their downward strike. It struck down on Rue’s chest. The daggers slithered through his obsidian armor until a screech wailed through into Rue’s body like gnawing cries. A thin cut of blood rushed out with its savage strike.

  For the first time, his obsidian armor was colored with blood.

  It was too quick. Too nimble. How the hell was Rue supposed—

  The Tall-rat twisted its daggers and committed to an upward swing. Shadows blanketed both daggers beneath them, causing Rue to see that their green sheen had weakened. Still, its next strike crashed into Rue’s hip this time. Crack. It was no longer strong enough to casually slice into his armor, but the crack would be more troublesome.

  Rue struck forward, and the rat’s skin glowed with emerald shine as it ducked down. Both of its daggers were pulled, about to jab forward. Rue also thrust his sword forward, only for it to skid past his right dagger. His sword managed to dig just above its chest, but in exchange, one of the rat’s daggers broke part of Rue’s chest with a loud splinter.

  A loud sound of breaking glass echoed through the air. His right chest opened into a strike; the rat was about to commit to an attack, and Rue had expected it. He brought his sword up to cover his chest. But, instead, the Tall-rat withdrew. It clutched its own chest where Rue had snaked his sword into. Dark frost began to color its new wound, and that was not all.

  Its body was losing its green sheen. Not only its body, but also its weapons. Through those tiny pipes or wires, green acid flowed from those daggers, taking their color, and a bright emerald light shone around the wound Rue had given it.

  Was it transferring its acid? Did it not get much from earlier? It might have decided to rush at Rue before filling its acid…

  Am I being underestimated?

  The Tall-rat’s speed at first was indeed quite ridiculous, and that must have taken a lot of acid to execute. Not just its first initial speed, but each of its swipes as well.

  Rue wanted to stay still, to let his spell recover his armor and not risk fighting further to lose his obsidian. But the rat was in the same condition as him. No, wait, it actually needed more acid. So, its next move should be obvious.

  The rat turned, running toward the fallen El-rat, which was still groaning like a whale. It ran toward the green sludge that pooled just near the elephant rat. Just as Rue suspected, the rat’s canister was nearly empty, not even one-third full.

  This one must have retreated from the stadium to refill its acid, only to find Rue, and decided to take him off guard by using a ridiculous amount of acid.

  Yeah, not happening, buddy.

  Rue summoned eight Frost Shrapnels around him. Frigid air convulsed around him. Noticing this, the rat turned and now pushed its remaining acid to its feet.

  Wise decision.

  It bolted forward. Daggers lunged at Rue.

  Still fast, but not fast enough that he could not counter.

  Rue met its attack, letting his Frost Shrapnels disappear.

  He caught both of the daggers’ strikes. Rue steadied his footing and pushed. The rat growled and screeched, showing its sharp teeth. But Rue paid it no attention. He launched a series of slashes, and finally, the rat found itself on the back foot. It was still faster than Rue by quite a bit. Its Dexterity must be several points higher. But without acid to boost its Dexterity and Strength anymore, Rue could let his obsidian armor absorb some lucky strikes.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Sure, it could still manage to cause some cracks along Rue’s armor. However, when Rue turned to attack, the rat had no choice but to focus both of its daggers.

  Rue struck down in a downward arc. The rat awkwardly made a ridiculous X with its daggers, and it did not work. Rue’s obsidian sword blasted its defense and gored down upon the rat’s shoulder. It managed to back away before Rue could drag along its gut, but the damage was already done. Now its skin completely lost its green sheen.

  It got too used to fighting with boosted ability, just like Rue with his obsidian armor. But, in Rue’s case, he had spells to support his armor and body. If anything, the damage the rat had done to him had mostly healed, and a new obsidian piece had already covered it, even the slash from the start.

  Going for the sustainability route instead of the flashy spell was the right decision. It was something these Tall-rats did not have.

  The rat tried to slice onto Rue’s neck—Rue let it happen. Surprisingly, both daggers still managed to crack a piece of his neck armor. He did not expect that. Brief pain flared, but Rue used this chance to step forward and whip his legs into the rat’s.

  It crumbled to the ground, with its canister open for Rue to see. Slicing down on it, Rue broke the canister into two, breaking its myriad of small pipes connected to the rat’s back. His strike continued to render the rat’s body. The rat cried out, twitched, and breathed heavily.

  Red blood welled along with green. Rue angled his sword to its neck to prevent further suffering.

  He stabbed down.

  [You Have Slain Blight Rat, Tall-Rat—Level 40]

  [Level Up]

  [Level Up]

  [Spell Choice Impending]

  Rue did not doubt that this fight would be much harder if he were a normal Integrator, who did not have his Arch core. He wouldn’t be able to level up this fast, and much less put a ridiculous amount of Creation points into one skill.

  Sruka’s words replayed in his mind.

  Someone blessed, huh.

  Pulling his sword up, he once again looked toward the entrance where rats had managed to invade. It was quite quiet outside. But if Rue stayed silent, letting the wind drift, then he heard a cacophony of horror.

  He summoned his Frost Shrapnels, not bothering to aim at the fallen big hulk of rat elephants. Rue didn't watch as the spell flew; the kill notification was more than enough for him.

  [You have Slain Blight Rat, Acid Elrat Carrier—level 20]

  [You have Slain Blight Rat, Acid Elrat Carrier—level 20]

  [You have Slain Blight Rat, Acid Elrat Carrier—level 20]

  [Level Up]

  This Tall-rat had almost killed him, despite not having a full canister.

  Caution; he needed to approach with caution. Maybe he should just wait for the rest of the Tall-rats to leave the stadium and ambush them? Now they had no supply of acid remaining, especially assuming that none of them carried any extra inside the stadium.

  It was the wise decision… But what about the humans inside?

  “Well, well, he really went and did it!” Ben cheered. The old man hopped off the ambulance and whistled softly. Like a child, he eagerly ran across and spat down onto the Tall-rat’s ruined back. “Disgusting thing.”

  Rue was about to snap at him; he wanted his fallen foe to be respected, but he could not speak. Then, someone kicked the rat’s head and spat down again—this time, it was Edna.

  “I’m sorry to doubt you,” the middle-aged woman said.

  “Let the blade do all the work. Guide it,” she muttered, her hand gripping tight on the Arming Sword Rue had given her.

  He’d forgotten to correct that.

  “Ru—James, good job,” Ein said, joining them. He looked like he was about to spit, too, but decided against it. “We want to charge into the middle? Do we drive there? I think it's better if you just are in front of us, and we try to gather people as we go.”

  Rue gave him a nod. The plan sounded good enough.

  “Also, lad, what about these swords? Or daggers? These big daggers? We can have them, right?”

  Right, he hadn’t…

  [Vermin Dagger][Uncommon][Novice—Piece]—made for the warrior of blight, Vermin dagger drinks and runs on acid. Only those who are brave enough to dabble in the beauty of acid can pull the dagger to its full potential, as the true nature of poison is much deeper than one thinks. Vermin dagger will hungrily welcome any form of acid to coat its blade and, ever more gladly, to sharpen its edge and power and share the beauty of acid onto anyone.

  Uncommon?

  The broad, oversized blades were attached to a bone-wrought pommel. The bone extended to hug the blade area just above the handle, protecting the handler’s hand from its acid. These big blades could be enhanced with acids, making their edges sharper and more powerful, too. Yeah, these things were dangerous.

  Unfortunately, the description made it quite clear that these daggers should work with acid. These small tubes attached along the handle were a pathway for the acid to enter the blades. Also, the Tall-rat’s back with those sharp pipes… those clearly inserted to them so they could spread acid along their body as well. It was as if these weapons were made for them, and that was perhaps why the dagger earned uncommon rarity.

  Rue snapped his fingers at Ein, who just stared at him, confused. There was a bit of fear in his eyes upon seeing Rue’s obsidian figure.

  He made a writing motion.

  “Paper and pen? Sure, here.”

  He gave him a small notebook and a pen.

  Rue opened an empty page and wrote. He handed it back after.

  Ein raised his eyebrow and read the book. “Mine…” he scowled. “Do you have to take the entire page? This is our supply book.”

  There was a slight bit of annoyance that he could not possibly use the dagger the way the Tall-rat could. Still, he could experiment. In fact, the description made it clear that…

  Rue took both daggers and walked to the nearest El-rat that had a frozen shrapnel goring its head point blank. Blood still spurted like a waterfall and mixed into the pool of acid, the size of a small pond.

  “Careful there, lad. What are you doing anyway? We need to go.”

  Rue dipped both daggers into the pool.

  Acid slithered around the dagger’s edge. Bright, brilliant jade glowed in Rue’s hand. He lifted it. A drip of acid fell. In his hands was the deadly, poisonous dagger that had sliced through Stasis of the Obsidian Ice in one strike, and it must be the cause of this stadium’s gate breach.

  Rue handed both daggers to them.

  Ben eagerly took one with a wide open grin.

  Edna took the other one and shoved the Arming Sword to Ein, who received it without complaint.

  Rue took the supply book again and wrote.

  ‘Return both to me later. Don’t lose them. Let’s go, we are going straight to the center of the crowd.’

  Before that, it was time for him to select a new spell before entering a stadium full of corpses.

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