Up the crook of a tree, Jason really feels the venom hit him. His elevated heart rate had really spread it around and now that he relaxed even the smallest amount he could feel his limbs tightening up. Good thing he didn’t need to move for the next part.

Jason dives into himself and focuses on the threads that make up his body. While it had been a while since he had last used the active ability of his skill, the venom stuck out too much for any rustyness to get in his way. Across many of the lines representing his physical body were twisted purple black threads, holding onto his own lines while trying to corrupt them.

With a slight bit of effort Jason focuses on them, just like he remember...

Jason pauses as he realizes, no, it isn’t like how he remembered it. Last time he used the skill like this, his ability to see the threads was much lower. Now though, he can see his own threads and more importantly, the threads that make up the strings of venom. Before all he knew was that poison and venom would attach to his threads, but not how.

Now though it became clear. While his own lines were relatively smooth and clean, the venom was anything but. Like a frayed rope, there were uncountable threads that had previously been invisible to him. Each of those threads was why it stuck so firmly. Each one moving like it had a mind of its own while trying to burrow deeper into his own lines.

This was especially obvious in areas directly around the wound. The originally distinct venom lines seemed to almost be melting into his own. Each thread trying to pry away his own, some succeeding and others not. Though the worst part was that upon touching the sections with his mind, Jason could tell that he wasn’t capable of fixing or preventing such things just yet.

Sure, the weaker poisons and such that he had gained immunity too were no longer able to infiltrate his lines. The problem was, that required him to experience those things in the first place. Besides, it isn’t like the System was going to let Jason develop complete immunity to poisons and venoms.

Not that Jason believed you could ever truly be immune to all such things. There were too many strange things out there. Still, he felt that wanting to be immune to mortal poisons and venoms shouldn’t be out of his reach. At least not once he kicked the System out of his system.

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That was for later though. Right now Jason has to focus on kicking the current venom out of his body so he can go back to kicking butt. So now settled down, he begins to send pulses of his Energy at the more loosely attached venom. Each pulse shattering a purple black string.

As Jason gets closer to the original bites though it begins to require more and more Energy until it was parts of string instead of whole lines. This didn’t stop him though and soon enough his body was purged of the venom. While some parts were more damaged because of it, most of the danger had come from the quantity of venom that had been injected.

Ready to get back in the fight Jason opens his eyes to Lily hopping around the side of the tree. The snakes hadn’t given up on finishing him off and so had continued to try and attack him. Luckily Lily was more than ready to fight and through the use of her Energy had managed to defy gravity to an astounding extent.

With a shake of his head, Jason stands up and turns his attention to the main battles. The vipers were managing to kill or paralyze a large number of coyotes. It is unfortunate for them that this was coyote territory and reinforcements kept pouring in. From what he could see, Jason judged that the vipers either were nearly out of venom or were using an ability or power to replenish it at this point.

There was no way that their venom supplies had lasted this long as nearly all the original coyotes and a number of the new arrivals were spread around the battle site. Jason had originally planned to rejoin the fight but now that didn’t seem like the smartest of ideas. Sure, he could likely kill all the current enemies, but at this point all the nearby coyotes should be aware of the fight and heading over.

It wouldn’t be long before instead of just one or two coyotes joining the fight it would be five, six, or more of them. This was a losing battle and the snakes knew it too. While some of them already lay dead, many of the vipers were even now trying to crawl into tight spaces to escape. A difficult proposition with coyotes nipping at their tails, but they tried.

Jason sighed and called Lily back. This wasn’t his fight. Sure, he would have liked to battle one of the evolved specimens. The only problem was they were all in the thick of it and Jason knew his limits. All those stories of one man being worth an army weren’t entirely false. He just wasn’t quite that man yet.

Besides, one he was strong enough that he could come back and stomp over the entire conflict zone, what would be the point? If this was truly a major threat someone would have handled it by now. No, Jason would have better things to do with his time. Sure, Lily is a little sad at having to leave the fight half finished, but that isn’t going to stop him from picking the smart choice.

So without looking back, Jason takes to swinging through the trees once again. Though he can’t help but laugh at himself. This was the second time in such a short span that he had to run away like a monkey. Nothing against monkeys, he would just prefer to stand on his own two feet sometimes.