The eel twisted its long body.
From the exchanges we'd had so far, it was clear the eel was quite wary of me.
Not as much as the monkey, but for a monster, this eel was pretty sharp.
Which just made things tougher for me, of course.
《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill "Thought Acceleration LV2" has become "Thought Acceleration LV3"》 《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill "Foresight LV2" has become "Foresight LV3"》 As if responding to that Voice of Heaven (tentative), the eel moved.
It twisted its body and slammed its tail at me.
Of course I dodged.
But the eel's attack didn't end there.
Immediately after, a horizontal tail sweep came swinging at me.
I pulled back further to avoid it.
This time, rotating around from the tail, its head came lunging straight at me.
That was what I'd been waiting for.
In the world slowed just slightly by Thought Acceleration, I stared intently at the eel's approaching mouth.
At the very last moment where I judged I could still dodge, I activated Poison Synthesis.
Then immediately retreated.
Exactly the same tactic as with the catfish.
But the impact was devastating.
Just as I'd planned, the eel ended up with my lethal poison in its mouth.
The eel's HP was plummeting.
Thrashing in agony, the eel flailed its body wildly in every direction.
I withdrew from the range of its wild thrashing.
In the end, if both sides wield one-hit-kill power, the one who lands the attack first wins.
And naturally, whoever has the superior strategy for landing that hit is going to be the victor.
Furthermore, my evasion outclassed the eel's accuracy.
Even with Accuracy Level 10 and probability correction on its side, it couldn't keep up with my combo of evasion, Thought Acceleration, and Foresight.
That was why, the moment I'd dragged the eel to the surface, my chances of winning had shot up dramatically.
But it still wasn't over.
One-hit-kill power or not, the eel probably wouldn't die from just that single strike.
I hadn't been able to kill the catfish in one blow either, and I doubted its superior species would keel over that easily.
Besides, the eel still had the power of that Skill.
Right before my very eyes, the eel's HP was rapidly recovering.
"Life Change: Consumes SP to recover HP"
The fire dragon's Skill — its Level 3 technique.
SP was being consumed, and HP was recovering in kind.
There wasn't enough SP for a full recovery, but it could still restore enough HP to survive the lethal poison.
On top of that, new entries appeared in my Appraisal results for the eel: "Poison Resistance LV1" and "HP Auto-Recovery LV1."
Even so, the poison inside its body was still chipping away at the eel's HP bit by bit, but the peak of the damage had passed.
Well, as if I'd just sit there and watch the eel recover without doing a thing.
I wrapped as much thread as I could produce, as tightly as I could manage, around the eel's body.
It would probably burn through in an instant, but that was fine.
All I needed was for it to stop the eel's movements, even for a single moment.
Just as I'd aimed, I succeeded in halting it — if only for that brief instant.
In that moment, I fired off Poison Synthesis in rapid succession at the eel's face.
Drops of lethal poison struck the eel's face in multiple places.
The eel tore through the thread and thrashed about wildly.
The poison that had entered through its mouth and eyes mercilessly drained the eel's HP.
The rate of recovery from the Auto-Recovery it had just acquired wasn't nearly enough to keep up.
The Poison Resistance it had just obtained was nowhere near sufficient to withstand it.
The weapons I'd honed throughout this life as a spider weren't so easily blocked by a hastily thrown-up shield.
With no SP left to fuel any further recovery, the eel could not endure this attack.
《Experience Points have reached a certain level. Individual: Small Poison Taratect has risen from LV7 to LV8》 《Various base stats have increased》 《Skill Proficiency Level-Up Bonus has been acquired》 《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill "Parallel Thinking LV4" has become "Parallel Thinking LV5"》 《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill "SP Recovery Speed LV2" has become "SP Recovery Speed LV3"》 《Skill Points have been acquired》 《Experience Points have reached a certain level. Individual: Small Poison Taratect has risen from LV8 to LV9》 《Various base stats have increased》 《Skill Proficiency Level-Up Bonus has been acquired》 《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill "Burst LV8" has become "Burst LV9"》 《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill "Endurance LV8" has become "Endurance LV9"》 《Skill Points have been acquired》 《Experience Points have reached a certain level. Individual: Small Poison Taratect has risen from LV9 to LV10》 《Various base stats have increased》 《Skill Proficiency Level-Up Bonus has been acquired》 《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill "Arithmetic Processing LV6" has become "Arithmetic Processing LV7"》 《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill "Vision Enhancement LV8" has become "Vision Enhancement LV9"》 《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill "Life LV8" has become "Life LV9"》 《Skill Points have been acquired》 《Conditions have been met. Individual: Small Poison Taratect may now evolve》 I won!
End of Part 3!