Free Web NovelChapter 57: Poison Immunity
Damon didn’t answer.
Leif climbed out of the wreckage with an ease that didn’t match the punch he’d taken. He should have been hurt. Damon had felt the impact travel up his arm, felt the satisfying crunch of cartilage giving way beneath his knuckles.
But Leif moved like someone who’d just been shoved, not struck.
"Yeah, definitely stronger." He adjusted his gas mask, the tubing swaying with the motion. "That actually stung a little."
"How the hell—?"
"The rest of you, get out. I have someone to educate."
Leif’s voice cut through the greenhouse, sharp with authority. The other alchemists didn’t hesitate. Some scrambled for the fire escape at the back, while the rest funneled through the same door the attendant had used. Within seconds, the laboratory stood empty except for the two of them.
Damon watched them go with a raised eyebrow. "Surprisingly high rank in the guild. Or at least this branch."
"I’ve earned my position." Leif adjusted his gas mask, the tubing swaying. "Something you wouldn’t understand. You’ve had everything handed to you since birth."
Damon ignored his comments.
"I see you’re finally living the high life after being Matthew’s footstool."
"Like you’re any better, Damon."
"Oh, I’m definitely better." Damon’s voice hardened. "At least I don’t poison a fellow student’s food because I hate them."
"Please." Leif waved a dismissive hand. "It’s been years already. This time, I don’t think I’ll be stopping at simple vomiting potions."
Damon exhaled slowly. He wasn’t getting through to this guy. He never had. Leif had always possessed a worse temperament than Matthew, a cruelty that ran deeper and darker.
Even Matthew, for all his bullying, had occasionally reined Leif in when his methods crossed into something truly sadistic.
And then Damon remembered the best way to get under his skin.
"Still carrying that inferiority complex? Must eat at you, knowing even a bully like Matthew thinks you’re pathetic."
The words landed.
Leif went still. Not the stillness of calm, but the taut, trembling stillness of something stretched to its breaking point. The greenhouse fell silent. One second passed. Two.
Then Leif’s hand twitched.
"I’ll kill you."
[POISON CLOUD]
Green mist erupted from his sleeves in a billowing wave. The gas surged toward Damon with murderous intent, spores that Damon knows would be bad news.
"Try me."
Damon’s hand moved before Leif could react. His inventory opened with a flicker of golden light, and he pulled out the antitoxin vial Lena had packed for him.
The dark green liquid sloshed inside the glass, and he downed it in one swallow without breaking eye contact.
[ANTITOXIN CONSUMED - D-RANK]
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE ACTIVE]
[MODIFIED EFFECT: COMPLETE POISON NEUTRALIZATION — 20 MINUTES]
[POTION EFFICIENCY: +30% EFFECTIVENESS]
Leif’s eyes widened behind his glasses.
"T-The hell, an antitoxin? Were you planning this confrontation?!"
"No."
Damon let the empty vial drop to the floor, where it rolled across the tiles and clinked against a fallen shelf.
"You just happened to come at the right time. Or the wrong one, depending on your perspective."
He drew his sword. The blade caught the greenhouse lights as golden energy and blue-white lightning wreathed its length, crackling down the steel in eager arcs.
"I’m going to cripple you for a week. Same as I did with Matthew."
Leif took an involuntary step back. For the first time since the confrontation began, the bravado in his posture flickered.
"You... Matthew’s Shell, that was you?"
"Who else?" Damon leveled the blade. "Now. Are we doing this, or are you going to keep talking while I walk over there?"
"Screw you! That’s just an antitoxin, let’s see if it can handle an A-Rank’s worth of poisons!"
Leif’s hands dove into his robes, emerging with vials clutched between every finger. He fanned them out like claws, each one filled with liquid in shades of venomous green, sickly yellow, and deep, pulsing crimson. The glass clinked together as he spread his arms wide.
"Enough to put down a giant eagle! Let’s see your little antidote survive this!" freeωebnovēl.c૦m
Damon couldn’t help it. He laughed.
Leif was right. Under normal circumstances, a single antitoxin wouldn’t stand a chance against that many high-grade poisons.
The man had spent years stockpiling the deadliest concoctions his twisted mind could brew, and by the look of those vials, he’d brought his entire collection.
Too bad Damon wasn’t playing fair.
His system had rewritten the antitoxin the moment it hit his stomach. Twenty minutes of near-total poison immunity. And Leif, for all his theatrics, had no idea.
People who poisoned students just to feel powerful didn’t deserve a fair fight.
"Whoa." Damon’s voice dripped with mock terror. "I’m so scared~!"
He raised his sword, lightning still crackling along the blade.
"Go on, then. Throw them. Let’s see what happens."
"It’s your funeral!"
Leif hurled the first wave.
Three vials shattered at Damon’s feet in quick succession.
Yellow gas erupted from the first, a corrosive mist that should have eaten through his boots and into the flesh beneath. The second burst into a cloud of crystalline particles that would have seized his lungs. The third released something dark and viscous that splattered across the floor, hissing where it touched stone.
Damon walked through all of it.
The yellow mist parted around his boots. The crystalline particles bounced off his skin like harmless sand. The viscous fluid clung to his uniform for a moment before sliding off, unable to find purchase.
[POISON NEUTRALIZED: CORROSIVE MIST - A-RANK]
[POISON NEUTRALIZED: LUNG-SEIZING CRYSTALS - A-RANK]
[POISON NEUTRALIZED: BLACKBLOOD VENOM - A-RANK]
"What—" Leif’s voice cracked. "What is that? What kind of antitoxin—"
"The kind you can’t afford."
Damon closed the distance. His sword came down in a vertical slash, lightning trailing behind the blade like a comet’s tail. Leif threw himself sideways, barely avoiding the strike, and the sword carved a scorched line through the floor where he’d been standing.
"Stay away from me!"
Leif scrambled backward, hurling more vials as he went.
Damon didn’t bother dodging. He walked through each one, the system notifications flickering past his peripheral vision too fast to read.
None of it mattered.
The antitoxin was absolute.
[POISON NEUTRALIZED: PARALYTIC FOG - B-RANK]
[POISON NEUTRALIZED: BLINDING POWDER - B-RANK]
[POISON NEUTRALIZED: NESTING PARASITE - A-RANK]
"Running out of tricks?" Damon asked.
"I’m just getting started!"
Leif’s hand dove into his robes and emerged with a single vial. This one was different. The liquid inside was black, so dark it seemed to absorb the light around it.
He held it up like a holy relic, his fingers trembling.
"This one’s my masterpiece. Took me six months to brew. One drop on your skin and your nervous system shuts down in seconds. So stand down!"
"And you think I’m going to let you throw that?"
Damon raised his free hand. Lightning gathered in his palm, crackling with barely contained energy.
[LIGHTNING LANCE]
Twin bolts screamed across the greenhouse. Leif dove behind a workbench, the lightning scorching the stone where he’d been standing. He popped up a moment later, the black vial still clutched in his hand.
"You missed!"
"I wasn’t aiming for you."
Damon’s second volley struck the workbench itself. The wood exploded, and Leif was thrown backward, his robes catching on splintered edges. He hit the ground hard, and the black vial flew from his grasp.
Damon caught it out of the air with his free hand.
"Nice potion you got there. You mind if I keep this?"
Leif stared up at him from the floor. His glasses had cracked, one lens spiderwebbed with fractures.
His gas mask was askew, revealing a sliver of pale, scarred skin beneath. His chest heaved with panicked breaths.
"Give that back..."
"After what you just said about it? Not a chance."
He turned the vial over in his fingers, examining the black liquid within. The fluid seemed to move on its own, swirling against the glass like something alive.
"Six months to brew, you said? That’s a lot of work."
"Persival—"
"I wonder how long it would take me to find a use for this. Could use it to kill a powerful boss and get a ton of exp~."
"You wouldn’t dare."
Damon crouched down, bringing himself to Leif’s eye level. The broken lens reflected his face back at him in fractured pieces.
"You poisoned my food for months. You made me sick. You made me miserable. And you did it because you thought I couldn’t fight back."
He pocketed the vial.
"Now I’m the one holding your masterpiece. How does it feel?"
Leif’s hand shot toward his belt. Damon saw the motion, saw the glint of a hidden vial, and reacted on instinct. His hand closed around Leif’s wrist before the vial could reach his lips.
"What’s this? A suicide pill, or a last-ditch power boost?"
"Neither."
Leif twisted his wrist, and the vial shattered against the floor between them. Blue gas erupted, thick and blinding.
It was a distraction.
Leif ripped his arm free and bolted for the back exit. His robes streamed behind him, the tattered fabric flapping as he ran. He hit the fire escape door with his shoulder and vanished into the alley beyond.
Damon straightened, watching him go.
"A smoke bomb...?" he muttered. "Coward..."
The greenhouse fell silent.
Poison residue still stained the floor in multicolored pools, and the scorch marks from Damon’s lightning traced jagged lines across the stone. Shattered glass and broken plants lay scattered everywhere.
Damon looked around at the destruction and sighed.
"I’m going to have to pay for this, aren’t I?"
The door to the main hall creaked open. The attendant peeked through the gap, her eyes wide as she took in the wreckage. Behind her, Damon could see Lena trying to push past, her face pale with worry.
"He’s gone," Damon said. "The guy who started it. He ran."
The attendant stepped carefully into the room, skirting the edge of a still-sizzling puddle of corrosive mist. freewebnoveℓ.com
"This is... extensive damage."
"Send the bill to my father, he’ll cover it, I think?" He paused. "So, how much trouble am I in?"
