Chapter 24: Disgust
In the middle of the broken formation, with all tanks and their disbelieving eyes set on her, Venomous glared at Red Stigma and threatened to kill him with her sword up. Of course, it would take her a while to take down this man, so her voice went towards his tanks first.
"The poison I gave you is nothing dangerous. On its own, that is… Look at this man's limbs and lips." Her sword shifted its tip towards the first fallen tank's limbs. Those had been shivering even since the poison kicked in.
It didn't take a genius to realize that the poison aimed to subdue the man's speaking and moving ability. In the process, Venomous also took every offense and defense from the player.
In low levels, this poison was especially dangerous.
The tank she had met the second looked at the fallen's inert limbs and turned his eyes to Venomous, "I see where you are coming from. You want us to give up on Red Stigma and ally with you." There was also a chance the snake wanted to increase the teeming fear within their hearts.
But it was unlikely as Venomous' smile deepened. "Correct. Give up on Red Stigma, continuously taunt him so I can kill him without losing even one point of my HP and I will let you leave this dungeon."
Luck was on her side.
The one who spoke was the second tank, so he had seen how strong she and Michu were. Lazy Bum and Sandra's abilities were also great, but the monkey and snake had eclipsed their achievements nonetheless.
Those also reached to the tank's head and he agreed on the spot, "I will… But…" But there was a guild behind them. This guild was kinda popular, but the player's worry was something else.
He was just new to the world like everyone else here.
He didn't understand the importance of the guild but could tell how important it was to be loyal to one. In the upper rankings, players rarely changed guilds and if that happened, then the whole events were set up on the TV from the hunts and other war-like events.
This popular guild was also beneficial and losing its support over one dungeon wouldn't be worth it.
Nonetheless, the tank didn't want to die yet and so he was willing to survive. Just like in the previous era, he should be able to leave the guild and just enter another one… It was naive thinking, but Venomous also didn't plan to become enemies with other players.
She also didn't plan to let others control her dungeon's raids and leverage her without paying an appropriate price. Her green eyes swept through the tanks, then she stated, "This man has to die. I am not going to let him go… That's the price he would sooner or later pay anyway. For your guild, though… I will allow you to take any item he drops.``
Red Stigma howled, "Are you going to listen to her?!" His eyes went from side to side, clearly threatening the tanks, "Is that how we, the members of Evil Akuma Guild, play and live in this world?!"
To his howls, the tank said, "For our guild, it's better if we just accept her offer. You can pass all your items to us, so nothing gets lost. More consumables also should help us in this plight…" The monsters were already close, so any more second wasted would be critical to their future!
"I refuse! I fucking refuse it! Remember! You are on the guild quest to help me! If you fail it-" Red Stigma stopped as the tanks shook their heads. They all reached an agreement through chat, then the second tank began.
"Lesser Taunt," He said and pointed his shield at the red swordsman. The red aura became like a red flag that worked too well on Red Stigma. Not only his eyes became redder, but his face also lit up in a red hue from the anger he felt within.
He grasped his sword and by supporting himself with another hand, he aimed to just jump at this tank!
But before any move could be done by him, another tank called from behind, "Lesser Taunt." A new red flag blinded Red Stigma's eyes and he became pulled by this skill! He arched his head and looked behind with reversed vision.
"Lesser Taunt." "Lesser Taunt." "Lesser Taunt."
A wave of lesser taunts swept through Red Stigma and his body completely froze from all those skills applied. His body didn't know how to react and his mind also didn't know how to feel about this whole situation.
Shame? Grief? Hate? Anger?
All of those exploded within and his mind became blank… "S-stop it…" But the fear of dying overcame everything he had felt so far. The fear that all newbie players had within themselves unfolded within him.
Red Stigma asked, but with his neck being displayed so nicely to the snake, how could she even stop herself from biting it? Alas, Venomous had enough reserve within herself and the arousing scene didn't conjure in the dungeon.
Rather than her mouth, Venomous used her sword to bite this neck.
Slash!
"STOP!" Red Stigma screamed after Venomous took a step forward. She sent a sharp slash that tore through Red Stigma's neck with ease, bringing a deep cut to his pale skin. This cut oozed out so much blood it could be only a critical strike!
This sent shivers down Red Stigma's spine. He didn't feel much pain due to the settings he'd chosen before, but this woman's steps and her decisive slashes scared the hell out of him.
He whispered, "You are… cutting me… The player… A human… You don't feel… anything?"
Yumi just took another step forward. Her foot stomped on Red Stigma's stomach, then she thurst her sword straight into the opened wound, inflicting another critical strike in the process.
Her weapon descended onto Red Stigma decisively in a succession of critical strikes.
With Red Stigma's screams and his question, everyone around him bit their lips; some even closed their eyes as they couldn't take too much of this brutal scene.
If it were monsters… then it would be different… It would be fantasy-like or so they thought… Nonetheless, Yumi's sword stopped just before Red Stigma's HP fell to zero. She glanced at him with narrowed eyes, then said, "I feel disgusted. But this disgust amounts to nothing I had felt in real life. And I wanted to kill you ever since you overheated my cute monkey."
"Huh? What the-" Red Stigma's speech stopped the moment Yumi's sword slashed through his neck. Just like she declared before, his head fell off his neck and rolled on the ground until his whole body turned into a thousand particles.
[You have killed a player.]
[Your nickname becomes red-flagged.]
[Red Flag - Upon dying, you lose two times more experience than usual. You also have a 100% chance to drop one of the equipped or unique items from inventory.]
[You have killed a player in the dungeon. Red Flag stays for an hour or until you leave the dungeon.]
"Pointless threats…" Yumi waved her sword, then glanced at the tanks. She extended her hand, spread it, and potions with antidotes began to appear one by one on it.
The tanks snatched those as fast as possible, then gulped down before any effects of her poison could possibly kick in.
While the last drop of this potion went down their throat, Yumi had long since returned to her party.
"Welcome back, Yumi!" Michu greeted Venomous the moment she took a side next to him. He had been fighting some monsters already, so her sword slithered its way to help him as well.
She replied, "I am back."
"It went differently than you predicted," Michu stated, then bonked the monster to the death.
Of course, Venomous didn't believe it would go that smoothly, "I was just lucky…" But it was lucky that the second tank spoke and sowed enough fear to other tanks! She let out a rare, content smile and Michu commented on it quietly.
"You wouldn't need luck if you could smile this way!" His genuine thoughts piqued Yumi's interest.
"Are you sure? Next time, try to catch that smile. I would love to learn it."
"You don't have to learn it. Just smile whenever you feel like, even if there are enemies around you."