Oh... Fuck.

Charlie couldn't help but curse at the situation and himself. The lengthy fight with the overgrown lizard sapped all of his Mana, leaving him too dry and too empty to cast [Devour].

Heavy panic began to set its thick roots into Charlie.

The infectious poison was throbbing with a fiery intensity, spreading deeper still and encroaching dangerously close to Charlie's chest. Of course Charlie wasn't certain, but he feared what would happen if the poison were to reach his heart. Charlie's very own venom was not kind enough to ignore the organs of his enemies, and instead prioritised them.

The lizard was powerful, physically domineering and incomparably stronger than Charlie in almost every aspect except Dexterity. Such a hulking beast should have no real need for a powerful toxin - it's sharp, razor-like teeth could strip flesh like a knife, and it's powerful body was hefty enough to overcome even the largest creatures that Charlie had come across.

Yet, the infection kept advancing, kept crawling ever higher.

Charlie had to keep his head cool and his mind calm, getting flustered and overwhelmed would only kill him faster. Collecting himself, Charlie quickly reviewed what he could do right now and explored every possibility that he could think of... Which... Was admittedly nothing.

Shit!

There was no antidote, no cure, no medicine and worst of all, no time. There was simply nothing Charlie could do right now to neutralise the lizards poison. Of course it was simply Charlie getting a taste of his own medicine, really. How many had fallen to his venom, without even being able to understand what was going on? Whatever the number, it was time for Charlie to come to understand what he had inflicted onto others.

Think Charlie, think! There has to be a way to get through this...

His mind burned with half-thoughts and images of what Charlie had gone through to get here, attempting to glean any bit of information that could save him from this lethal situation.

A.. Taste of my own medicine?

An old memory surfaced from the depths of his mind, of a time when Charlie was still on earth - still human.

Charlie had returned back from an expedition that took him out into the wasteland to procure some medical and housing supplies, to search for any points of interest for the settlement at large and to find food. During the journey, Charlie had been injured by a particularly toxic looking creature, an amalgamation of flesh and rot.

It was an ugly, rodent-like, creature the size of a large dog, six legged and had two heads. Well, the only thing rodent-like about it were it's two heads, pointed and toothy like an oversized rat, with big yellow eyes and massive ears. Yellow and brown mucous dripped from its fangs, promising to kill anything that came into contact with its fetid liquid-rot.

Thankfully, Charlie wasn't bitten and didn't get a large dose of the poison. The stupid creature might have had two heads, but seemingly shared only one brain - neither ever agreeing which way to move, and tripping over it's own feet.

The stupid creature stepped in its own fetid muck, covering its claws in the lethal toxin and grazed against Charlie's arm in a particularly chaotic encounter. The minor graze quickly became infected, and now, oozed the same yellowy-brown rot without end.

The settlements only still living doctor, Amania, once told him a piece of wisdom that struck him as pointless at the time.

"Your arm is going to be fine Charlie." Amania spoke, reaching behind herself to the basket of medicine she kept within reach. Her discoloured white overcoat shifted, revealing wrinkles on her exposed skin.

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"It doesn't look fine to me." Charlie retorted.

Laying on the linen-lined cot, shirtless, Charlie couldn't help but return his gaze to the infectious ooze pouring out of his well-defined arm. There was a sharp, and stinging, sensation that shot up from the infection into and through his armpit. Charlie wasn't certain if he was making it up, but sometimes the pain shot right through and into his heart.

Charlie hoped it was nothing more than the infection making him delirious.

"Yes, yes. Of course you'll be fine. It was the stupid Rattoxes right?" said Amania, shuffling through the many glass ampules and tools in her bag.

"Yes, but you know if you get bit you die. Even you can't help them." chided Charlie.

She was getting old now, which was a miracle in its own right, and even performing her job was clearly wearing her down. Though age didn't affect her wit, or sarcasm, much to the dismay of her clientele.

"A bite? Where? I don't see one on you." said Amania with a devilish little smirk plastered on her face.

"You know what I mean, the toxic shit got into my arm. Now I'm gushing more than Ralph does about women." said Charlie, using his good hand to dismiss her sarcastic remark.

"Yes, yes, but Charlie, you're not a doctor so you wouldn't know. Shit, I'm barely much of a doctor even now - but there is one thing I know." Amania said, picking up a glass flask filled with a familiar yellow-brown liquid.

"It doesn't work for everything, and I'm certain it has killed as many as it helped... But." said Amania, filling a cleaned-up syringe with the toxic liquid that belonged to a Rattox.

"Sometimes, you fight poison with poison and toxin with toxin." said Amania, plunging the thick needle into Charlie's shoulder.

"How does that make any sense?" Charlie hissed, working hard to stay perfectly still under the deeply uncomfortable sensation of the needle piercing his skin. The liquid flowing into his veins felt disgusting, and wrong on so many levels.

"Well, luckily for you, I actually have an answer. It's only the dosage that matters. For you see..."

"It's the dosage that makes poison into medicine, and medicine into poison."

Charlie was ripped out of his memory by searing pain crawling up his long torso at a rapid pace, it was only moments away from reaching his chest. Charlie's heart rate skyrocketed, and he couldn't help but lose control over his breathing - and began to hyperventilate.

An idea borne of stupidity and hope manifested itself from the memories of a distant life once lived. The words of Amania echoed in his head for a brief moment before Charlie steeped what remained of his resolve.

Well... I hope I'm immune to my own venom... I guess.

Charlie, inspired by the baffling attempts at wisdom by the long dead doctor, decided to bet what remained of his life on nothing more than the dire hope to survive.

With great unwillingness, Charlie struck his fangs deep into his torso, a hair above where the infection had spread, and unleashed another [Hollow Fang] with the last remainder of his drying pool of Mana.

It was instant, a feeling of the infections infernal heat clashing against the utter chill of his venom, permeated his torso and spread out quickly. The infection visibly slowed down, halting in place right below the entry wounds of Charlie's fangs - almost as if it had come against an impassable wall.

Charlie felt the blooming flower of hope take shape, only for a moment, as at the same time a feeling of utter despair penetrated all thoughts of survival and scattered them into the winds of despair.

Deep, unbridled and terrifyingly cold, Charlie's venom did not take sides and attacked everything in its path. Muscle, blood and bone, everything fell before [Hollow Fang]'s might. Even the poison could not contend against the Mana-fuelled venom desire for territory.

It was like a war raged inside of Charlie, neither side willing to give an inch. The infection, almost emboldened by the venom, released it's grip on Charlie's lower body and focused entirely on the torso.

Charlie's venom was no easy matter to deal with, though. The poison quickly found itself being consumed by the corrupting power of the venom, fueled by the last drops of Charlie's Mana and will.

Of course, neither the poison nor Charlie's venom were sentient beings. There was no war, just a simple clash of two toxins competing for the same resources and reacting violently to each other presence.

Charlie was simply delirious, and overcome by a powerful fever. Hallucinations, stray random thoughts and utter gibberish took up the entirety of his mind, yet not giving any respite from the pain of the venom and poison battling it out inside of him.

Hundreds of shiny eyes peeked over the moist and weedy stone, watching the mysterious creature writhe in place - menacingly. Their hunger egged them onwards, urging them to step in and snatch the dead lizards corpse, but none were brave enough to deal with the serpent that still had this much energy after it's battle.

The eyes retreated, one by one, back into the shadows unseen. A single pair of glowing blue eyes remained and lingered, evaluating the strange creature for a moment longer, before following the the rest and returned to the darkness.

Unknowingly left alone, Charlie held on throughout the furious battle raging within the depths of his body and sank deeper into total delirium.