My "Brother" Attacks with Venom Fangs
I was hungry.
Strangely enough, at that life-or-death moment, I felt overwhelming hunger.
I was no longer human.
Probably not even an ordinary animal, but a monster.
Whether monster or human, if you don't eat, you die.
The difference might simply be how intensely the hunger is felt.
And this hunger was extreme.
An instinct strong enough to make you risk your life to hunt.
Looking at the Serpent in front of me, I felt that urge.
I wanted to fight it.
To bite and tear it apart.
If I ripped open those scales, sweet blood and flesh would be inside.
If I ate it and digested it, I would grow stronger.
That was probably why my siblings were fighting each other as well.
But I still had reason.
And I also had enough mental strength to resist that instinct.
There was nothing to gain from fighting my brother right now.
***
He lunged at me with a hiss.
"Saaak!"
I slipped past him.
"Shirrit!"
Fast Crawl Lv.2! It worked beautifully.
But the problem was that my brother's Fast Crawl was also Lv.2.
I had successfully dodged him, but he chased after me fiercely.
He was faster than me.
Even if I hid in a crack in the rocks, another Serpent like him could crawl in after me.
Did I have no choice but to fight?
I hurriedly climbed onto a rock nearby.
And what I saw beyond it—
For a moment, I was stunned.
Then a sharp pain snapped me back to reality.
My brother had bitten my tail.
I had never had my tail bitten before.
Pain and shock made me thrash.
My tail burned fiercely.
Not just from the wound—
it felt like venom had been injected.
Of course it had.
My brother had venom fangs too.
While struggling, I bit his side.
Something squeezed out from the venom glands inside my cheeks.
A venom attack.
***
[Venom Fang Lv.1 proficiency has increased rapidly.][Venom Fang Lv.1 → Venom Fang Lv.2.]
The effect was excellent.
My brother seemed to feel pain similar to mine.
The feeling in my tail gradually went numb.
But since I had bitten his side, I might have the advantage.
Maybe I could win now.
…No.
I was thrown away as he violently flung his body.
In a brawl, size difference mattered this much.
Neither of our venoms were particularly powerful yet.
Both of us could still move.
But I didn't run away.
I simply watched as my brother raised his head and approached.
***
Flap—flap.
The moment I heard that sound, I glanced up at the ceiling—
then quickly hid in a crack in the rocks.
A situation similar to earlier unfolded.
My brother bit my tail again.
The burning pain returned.
But since venom glands weren't infinite, the effect was tolerable this time.
And then—
Someone punished him instead of me.
A bat hanging from the cave ceiling swooped down and grabbed him.
Normally, these cave residents didn't dare act because they feared Medusa Mom.
But now they attacked the Serpents freely.
The scene I had seen from the rock earlier was exactly that.
Bats fluttered down and snatched up white Serpents.
And one bat, attracted by my white body, had swooped down.
But instead of me, it grabbed my brother.
***
Then a sharp pain hit me again.
My brother had bitten my tail and was holding on desperately to avoid being carried away.
I bit into the crack in the rock to avoid being dragged along.
And then—
Snap.
My tail broke off.
Luckily my vital organs were safe, but a piece of my tail about the length of a finger tore off.
Looking up, I saw my brother and the bat fighting in midair.
[Blade-Claw Bat Lv.4]
Just as its name suggested, the bat had claws as sharp as blades.
True to his Ferocity trait, my brother fought viciously.
They tangled together and crashed to the ground.
The bat was writhing—its wings seemed broken.
My brother had become a ragged mess and was about to die.
And I realized what I needed to do now.
***
Blood was pouring from my severed tail.
My stomach burned with hunger.
I needed nutrition.
At least as a Serpent, I didn't need to chew.
I opened my mouth wide and swallowed the bat first.
It was only about the size of a baby's fist.
I left the claws behind so they wouldn't tear my stomach.
Then I tried to eat my brother too, but he was too big.
Sorry, brother.
The other siblings will probably take care of your remains.
Ah… my head was spinning.
I must have lost too much blood.
Dragging my heavy body, I hid in the crack in the rocks.
I covered myself with dirt as much as possible.
Chaos or not—my body needed to recover first.
***
[You have defeated Little Green Serpent Lv.3 and Blade-Claw Bat Lv.4.]
Huh?
Did it count as my kill?
[Level Up.][Level Up.]
Heh.
A huge level gain.
I closed my eyes for a moment.
Soon an overwhelming wave of sleep hit me.
***
What?!
I fell asleep.
How many opportunities had I ruined in my previous life because of sleep?
I once overslept on the day of the college entrance exam and had to repeat a year.
Naturally my father beat me severely for that.
To this day, that mistake ranks around fifth among the ten biggest regrets of my life.
So had I just made the same mistake in my new life?
The villagers were literally talking about exterminating the Serpents outside, and I fell asleep?
Well, I had an excuse.
It was sleep I couldn't resist.
My body had taken serious damage, and I had swallowed an entire bat.
***
Now I felt refreshed.
My dizzy mind had cleared, and my body felt light.
My stomach was full, but it didn't interfere with movement.
Before leaving the crack in the rocks, I checked the most important thing first.
I definitely heard the message that my level had increased.
***
[Little White Serpent Lv.3]
[Skills]
Venom Fang Lv.2Fast Crawl Lv.3Bite Lv.1Poison Resistance Lv.1Bleeding Resistance Lv.1
Wow!
The once-empty skill window had suddenly filled up with all sorts of things.
Bite, Poison Resistance, Bleeding Resistance. Skills that had never been there before had appeared all at once.
And something else stood out—several of the skills had leveled up quite a bit.
Poison Resistance and Bleeding Resistance must have been acquired while I was sleeping, since I never heard the voice announcing that I had gained them.
It's not the strong who survive—it's the ones who survive that become strong.
I might be the smallest one here, but I will survive until the end.
I have no intention of giving up.
With my resolve hardened, I crawled out from between the rocks.
Ah… I kind of want to give up.
Outside the cave, a large number of people had gathered.
There were soldiers holding torches, and they looked ready to enter the cave at any moment.
Steadying myself, I slowly moved closer to the cave entrance.
What set me apart from my other siblings—even from Mother Medusa who had died—was that I could understand human language.
I could eavesdrop on the soldiers' conversation.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just set a fire and smoke them out?"
One soldier asked reluctantly.
The man in armor—probably the captain of the guard—clicked his tongue and pointed at the torch.
The flame flickered sideways in the wind.
"The wind's blowing from inside the cave outward right now. Think that'll work? And even if you try to smoke them out, Serpents stay close to the ground, so it won't be effective."
"Y-Yes, sir…"
"Don't be scared. It's only the mother that's dangerous. The babies aren't even monsters—they're basically just Serpents. Wear your greaves properly. Gambeson will be enough."
The guard captain reassured his subordinates.
Both he and the soldiers wore quilted armor called gambesons.
They were coats stuffed with sturdy linen. With something like that, our fangs probably wouldn't be able to pierce them.
If that were the case, then no matter how many siblings we had, we would be wiped out quickly.
"At dawn, we move in immediately."
As I turned to go back deeper into the cave, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
Could I also analyze a human's status?
I focused my eyes and tried to examine the guard captain.
[Guard Captain Lv.23]
Was his race "Guard Captain"?
Ridiculous.
After confirming that much, I gave up trying to learn more.
All I could see was his name and level.
It was exactly the same as when I tried to look at Mother's stats.
It seemed that I couldn't properly analyze opponents far stronger than myself.
I stopped wasting time and headed back inside.
The interior of the cave was a complete mess.
The siblings who had filled their bellies had finally stopped killing each other.
The bats seemed to have realized that us Serpents weren't easy prey and were only picking at pieces of corpses.
Even at a glance, fewer than a thousand of my siblings remained.
If only I could give a speech like:
"Before those guys enter, we all scatter and run! Those with luck will surely survive. Let's meet again someday if we live!"
…but of course, I couldn't do that.
I passed by the siblings staring at me and went deeper into the cave.
The cave Mother had chosen as her dwelling wasn't very large or deep.
But at the very back, there was a fairly spacious chamber.
It was where Mother slept—essentially her bedroom.
Sigh… Coming back here should make memories of my late mother resurface…
But nothing like that came to mind.
All I could smell was the disgusting stench of filth scattered everywhere—leftovers from Medusa Mom.
Still, in my opinion, these might be the key to surviving this situation.
I wasn't sure if the plan would work… but—ah, there it is.
What I had found were statues of animals.
Of course, Mother didn't have a hobby of collecting sculptures.
These were actually her petrified "boxed lunches."
Medusa Mom had a bad habit—she liked keeping food near her sleeping place and nibbling on it while lying down.
Petrification was an incredible ability.
Even a jaguar with terrifying fangs or a wild boar with an absurdly long snout would freeze solid the moment they looked into Mother's eyes.
They didn't rot and remained preserved, and once the petrification was undone, they would return to fresh, living food.
That was why Mother had displayed various monsters like this.
I focused my eyes and examined their names.
[Horn Jaguar Lv.33 (Petrified)]
[Geiger Hog Lv.29 (Petrified)]
Among all of them, these two seemed the strongest.
I didn't even need to check their levels or names—I had seen Mother hunt them.
If these creatures were released, even the guard captain and the soldiers outside would have trouble handling them.
If chaos broke out, I could escape in the confusion.
I remembered how Mother had undone petrification before.
Was it like this?
I climbed on top of the two monsters' heads and squeezed out as much venom as I could.
It seemed like I could release a large amount of venom from my fangs only about twice.
I couldn't pierce rock with my teeth, so all I could do was coat the surface.
But this should be enough.
Mother had only licked the statues once with her venom-coated tongue, and that was enough.
The color returned almost immediately, and the petrification was undone.
Ah… I guess I really was Medusa Mom's child.
When I sprayed my venom, the petrification of the monsters began to loosen, just like when Mother did it.
Color was slowly returning to their bodies.
Once they regained consciousness, they would immediately try to escape the cave.
If I took advantage of that chaos, I could slip out too…!
"Move in!"
At that moment, a shout came from the cave entrance.
Was it already dawn?
The entrance had become extremely noisy.
What about the petrification?
It still hadn't fully undone!
The monsters' color was slowly returning, but they still hadn't moved.
I decided to check what was happening at the entrance.
The soldiers were entering the cave.
They had split into two groups and were holding torches.
"Check the gaps between the rocks! One stab with a spear is enough!"
As expected, the guard captain was the dangerous one.
I had briefly thought about hiding in a crack in the rocks and escaping later, but I was glad I gave up that idea.
The soldiers methodically stabbed and killed my siblings hiding in crevices.
"Don't worry about the ones that escape! We've got men waiting outside anyway!"
A few Serpents managed to break through the encirclement and flee, but even that seemed to be anticipated.
Were soldiers in such a rural place really this thorough?
Most of my siblings acted purely on instinct.
In other words, they fled deeper into the cave to avoid the soldiers.
The soldiers advanced slowly inward without rushing.
Mother's bedroom wasn't small.
But with nearly a thousand Serpents covering the floor, it looked cramped with barely any space to step.
Even the soldiers who reached this point hesitated to move any further.
"What should we do?"
"I really don't want to go in there…"
The soldiers looked uneasy.
I felt relieved.
It seemed they hadn't noticed the petrified monsters hidden in the corner yet.
For me, who needed time until the monsters were freed, this was an opportunity.
"Hm."
But the guard captain was truly relentless.
He lifted his torch and looked at the direction the flame was flickering.
"So there is a ventilation hole after all. Now that dawn's broken, the wind direction has changed."
"Then—?"
"Take out the oil bottles!"
The soldiers grinned and pulled out brown glass bottles tied to their belts.
My siblings didn't understand what was happening, but I realized it immediately.
"Once you light it, pull back right away. Throw!"
Dozens of brown bottles flew through the air at once.
They shattered loudly as they hit the ground, splashing foul-smelling oil everywhere.
The Serpents recoiled at the smell—but the real thing to fear wasn't the odor.
"Light it!"
Several soldiers threw their torches.
Flames burst to life with a roar.
Our home… was burning.