[Current Stack: 1 Mythic Chest, 6 Fragments, 200 Tokens.] [Status: Poisoned (Absorbed). Toxins compounding at 1.25% per minute.] [Vault Pressure: 10%.]
The three Siren-Serpents dove beneath the murky, waist-deep water, their massive sixty-foot bodies moving with terrifying, silent speed.
"They're flanking!" Isabella yelled, her twin curved blades glowing with icy hydro-magic. "Back to back! If they drag you under, the water pressure will crush your lungs before their teeth even touch you!"
Isabella spun, parrying a massive, scaly tail that erupted from the water behind her. The kinetic force sent her skidding backward across the flooded arena, her boots struggling to find purchase on the submerged stone.
"I've got the left!" Kurenai roared, her crimson nodachi blazing with Oni-fire. She swung the massive blade in a devastating arc, boiling the seawater and forcing one of the serpents to recoil with a furious hiss.
"I shall secure the right," Ayase murmured. She drew her katana with a sharp exhale, freezing the water instantly beneath her geta sandals to create a solid platform.
But the largest of the three serpents—the Alpha—ignored the girls completely. Its compound eyes locked onto Yuto. It could sense the massive, unnatural density of the magical energy and hoarded poison radiating from his glowing green veins. To a monster, Yuto looked like a walking, all-you-can-eat buffet of premium code.
The beast lunged, its jaws unhinging to reveal rows of venomous, needle-like teeth.
"Human, move!" Isabella screamed, throwing one of her blades desperately toward the beast's eye, but it glanced harmlessly off its thick scales.
Yuto didn't flinch. He didn't draw a weapon. He just raised his left arm, the one glowing with toxic, compounded poison.
If I Vault the poison, it technically counts as unspent damage, Yuto calculated, his eyes narrowing. Which means I can withdraw it with interest.
"Withdrawal: Toxic Principal," Yuto whispered.
He punched the incoming serpent directly in its massive, armored snout.
He didn't use raw strength. Instead, the moment his knuckles connected with the beast's scales, Yuto temporarily opened the Vault and forcefully transferred the compounded, pressurized poison from his own veins directly into the monster's system.
The result was apocalyptic.
The Siren-Serpent didn't just stop; it violently convulsed. The sheer density of the hoarded toxins, multiplied by Yuto's Vault mechanics, hit the beast like a biological nuclear bomb. Its iridescent blue scales instantly rotted into a sickening gray. The leviathan shrieked in absolute agony, its massive body thrashing wildly before it liquefied entirely, dissolving into a massive cloud of glowing golden data.
[Target Defeated: Siren-Serpent Alpha.] [Loot Dropped: 1,500 Coliseum Tokens, 1x Rare Hydro-Core.]
Silence fell over the Colosseum. Even the roaring nobles in the VIP stands stopped cheering.
Isabella froze, her jaw slack. "What... what did you just do? You didn't even use a skill. You just touched it and it melted."
"He weaponized his own untreated illnesses!" Shion shrieked from the safety of the upper wall, pulling at her purple hair. "Who does that?! Who purposefully gets poisoned just to use it as a counter-attack?! He's a sick, greedy freak!"
"He is a master of internal alchemy," Ayase corrected reverently, bowing her head toward Yuto.
The remaining two Siren-Serpents panicked. Seeing their Alpha instantly atomized, their predator instincts broke. They turned and frantically tried to slither back toward the submerged iron grates.
"Oh no you don't!" Kurenai yelled, leaping off a floating pillar. She brought her nodachi down like a guillotine, cleanly severing the second serpent's head from its body.
Ayase was right behind her. With a single, blindingly fast flash of silver ki, she drew a horizontal line across the arena. The third serpent froze perfectly still, before slowly sliding apart into two neat halves, the water around it freezing solid from her blade's aura.
[Targets Defeated: Siren-Serpents x2.] [Loot Dropped: 1,000 Coliseum Tokens.]
Yuto exhaled a long, ragged breath. The sickly green glow faded from his neck, replaced instantly by the burning, agonizing red heat of his Babel-Stigma. He walked over to the massive pile of floating golden tokens and the glowing blue Hydro-Core.