The moment the voice faded, I blinked in disbelief.
[I just leveled up in the middle of a fight?!]
I flexed my paw experimentally. The burning ache that had been eating at me moments ago was now just a dull throb, how freaking cool! My fur still reeked of poison, but the pain? It was gone. Completely gone!
"Heh... guess I'm tougher than I thought." I said with a smirk, flicking my tail behind me.
The frogs clearly didn't care about my little revelation, because they were still croaking with their freaking throats glowing brighter by the second!
[Alright... no more running! Time to end this before they melt me into cat soup.]
I narrowed my eyes as the frogs launched their spitballs all at once, but I bolted forward, darting left and right through the rain of poison.
My vision sharpened; I could see each droplet in slow motion with each frog's throat twitching just before firing.
[Whoa! I can see their movements. It's like time slowed down!]
I weaved through the barrage, closing the gap in a heartbeat. I launched upward with my claws glowing a purplish color.
"Phantom Claw!"
My paw cut through the air, carving a luminous arc that sliced clean through two frogs in one swing.
They didn't even croak—they just tumbled lifelessly into the water. The others were silent, suddenly less confident now that I'd turned into a murder machine.
"Oh, what's wrong? Cat got your tongue?"
[Ha! I could get used to this!]
I was a freaking menace, but my brief satisfaction was cut short when the water behind me started rippling.
"Huh?!"
The ground trembled, and a deep, guttural CROOOAAAK shook me to my bones.
I turned around and my flattened my ears. Out of the water I've been drinking from rose a frog so massive its shadow swallowed me whole. Its warty skin had green lines, and its eyes—those beady, soulless eyes, locked straight onto me!
"...Oh, great." I muttered. "Of course there's a boss frog!"
[Attention. King of the Swamp has awakened.]
[K-King of the swamp?!"]
The monster opened its mouth wide and launched a concentrated jet of poison—not a spitball this time, but a pressurized stream that soared through the air and could cut stone.
"Aiyeeee!!" I yelped, barely having time to dodge the blast as it splattered behind me with a sizzling hiss. Even steam rose where it struck.
[Yikes, that was close!]
The smaller frogs croaked again, rallying around their king and leaping in synchronized waves toward me.
"Fine. You want a war? You got one!"
I got into a low stance, curling my tail before I pounced.
"Phantom Claw!!"
I spun in the air before swinging both paws in a wide arc. When using Phantom Claw, I can increase the range of my attack up to a dozen meters by sending multiple crescent waves forward, slicing through the cluster of frogs mid-hop.
"I got you!"
The smaller frogs shrieked before falling silently.
Now only the giant boss remained. Its massive throat ballooned again, glowing brighter; so bright that the reflection painted the water neon green.
[Crap... that looks... bad.]
The frog fired an entire torrent of poison spraying outward in a fan-shaped blast.
"Crap—Crap—CRAP!" I yelled, dashing sideways, leaping onto a rock, and then springing again.
Droplets of poison flew through the air like acid rain, sizzling wherever they landed. One even hit my shoulder before sizzling painfully, but this time, I didn't flinch.
The pain was there—but it was pretty dull.
[[Fate bestows you great fortune via Otherworlder Title. Poison Resistance has increased to LV: 2.]]
"Heh... nice try." I ran straight toward the beast this time, weaving between the poison streams.
My vision sharpened—almost supernaturally, as if the world slowed just enough for me to slip between danger, but in reality, I was just super fast.
"HUP!" I leapt into the air, lifting my claws to strike through the air. "Again! Phantom Claw!"
The attack landed square on the frog's inflated throat just as it was about to charge another shot. My attack hit hard as my claws carved through its throat in a blur of purple light before poison splattered everywhere.
"I did it!" I landed in the mud, panting, but to my surprise, the monster didn't fall. Instead, it reared back and started regenerating its throat.
[[King of the Swamp - HP: 440]]
"300?!" I yowled with my jaw practically dropping. "That was my strongest move! Wait a second, I don't do that much attack damage... no wonder he's not dead!" I backed away, still deep in thought until something clicked with me. "Hold on a second, that's not right! Doesn't my Phantom Claw cut through anything? Shouldn't it be dead from one strike?"
I looked up, talking to the weird voice in the sky, and to my surprise, it answered me through my status sheet.
[[Confirmation; the Laws of the World prevent Bosses from dying from One-Shot Attacks. Instant Death, Defense Cleaving, etc.]]
"What? You're kidding me!" I frowned, or at least tried to as a cat. "I'm assuming my Phantom Claw falls in the defense cleaving category. Dang it!"
The frog's huge, glassy eyes blinked lazily, as if mocking me, before it let out a guttural CROOOAAAK that made the ground quake beneath my paws.
"YIKES!"
Ripples spread across the entire swamp, and the surrounding mud began to bubble like boiling water, and then out of nowhere.
Plop. Plop. Plop!
From the muck, smaller frogs began crawling out; tiny ones, a dozen, then two dozen, then too many to freaking count!
[Oh, come on! It can summon minions?!]
My fur bristled as I hissed, stepping back.
"Alright, that's it! I'm officially done with amphibians for life!"
The smaller frogs didn't waste any time; they leapt at me in a coordinated attack before
I dashed sideways and slashed through three with a single swipe—but another two landed right on my back.
Their sticky bodies clung to my fur with their tongues wrapping around my legs.
"Ew ew ew ew—GET OFF!"
I spun and rolled in the mud, tossing one off before stabbing the other with a quick jab of my claws.
The boss let out another croak that made my ears ring, and suddenly, the smaller frogs' bodies started glowing.
"What now?!"
KABOOOM—!
They detonated. And I mean like actually DETONATED!
"Whoaaaaa!!" Green sludge blew outward like mini poison bombs, splattering me across my fur. I immediately hissed, feeling the sting much more this time!
[[Poison Resistance (LV: 2 → 3)]]
[[Toxin Mitigation has been acquired.]]
"Y-yeah, that's right! Keep leveling me up, stupid frogs!" I smiled through the pain.
But even as I bragged, the King of the Swamp started to move. For a creature that big, I didn't think it could move fast, but it lunged at me with its enormous tongue snapping toward me like a whip.
"Gaaah!" I barely ducked under it, feeling the wind whip past my whiskers before the tongue slammed into a nearby rock, shattering it in half.
I couldn't help but stare in disbelief.
"That would've killed me! What is this, Frogzilla?!"
The tongue retracted with a squelch, and the monster's throat began glowing again. I immediately knew what was coming.
[Okay, okay, think! Phantom Claw isn't strong enough! It's too tanky! There has to be something else I can do!]
The frog fired another massive poison torrent, though I dodged again—but this time, it tracked me.
"What the?!" I had no choice but to leap toward it, sprinting beneath the attack line and charging straight under its belly. "Mrowww!" I slashed upward with both claws, leaving a glowing purple X across its underside.
[[Critical Hit! 40 damage.]
[I did 40 damage? Awesome!]
[[King of the Swamp - HP: 400]]
[But still? You gotta be kidding me! This thing just won't go down!]
The giant frog bucked violently as I regained my balance and quickly gained some distance. I was now panting with my chest heaving as I tried to think. This was gonna be a pain in the tail!
The King of the Swamp let out another giant CROAK, shaking the entire area around me.
The sound was so loud my ears folded flat against my skull in pain. I could feel it; something was coming.
[That noise... what is it doing now?!]
The ground beneath me started to bubble again, but it wasn't from frogs this time, but rather the sheer pressure of magic building in the air.
[[Warning: Area Skill Detected — Swamp King's Domain]]
"Domain?! You've got to be kidding me!"
Poison mist burst outward in a circular wave, and suddenly, the swamp water around me started to glow green. Everything within fifty meters was covered in vapor thick enough to make my eyes sting. Even my lungs burned just breathing it in.
[[Status Ailment: Slumber + Poison. Continuous Damage over Time]]
[Gah—seriously?! It's poisoning the entire swamp while trying to put me to sleep?!]
I was now stumbling around, coughing as my body began to feel heavy. My paws sank deeper into the mud, and even my tail drooped down low, but out of nowhere, the boss frog vanished into the mist.
"W-Where'd you go?!" A blur of movement was caught to my right—too fast—and before I could react, the tongue came out of nowhere, striking me square in the ribs.
"GAAHHH!"
I flew through the air like a rag doll, crashing into a huge rock with a loud thud.
Pain immediately shot through my entire side as I gasped for air, trying to breathe, but the air that entered my lungs was freaking burning.
[[HP: 5/20]]
"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!" I wheezed, struggling to stand. My left foreleg trembled under me, refusing to take any weight.
The poison mist swirled around me, and through the fog, I could see two glowing yellow eyes. It was big and hungry, probably mad at me for striking down its children.
And it was coming straight for me.
[No, I have to move! MOVE!]