The Rat King was probably cursing its fucking head off. It had brought its underlings to deal with a mere little snake.
But it had unwittingly brought disaster upon itself.
The dense swarm of mosquitoes clung to it like maggots to bone. A moment's carelessness was all it took for one to bite and draw blood.
WHOOSH...!
Just then, the Rat King burst out of the encircling swarm of mosquitoes, moving as if it had used Shift Form and Position.
So fast. It was unbelievably fast, flickering through the backyard like a phantom.
The Rat King was powerful, but if it remained trapped by the five hundred mosquitoes, it would eventually be sucked dry.
One should never underestimate a creature like the mosquito.
Just then, the constantly moving Rat King charged toward Tu Xiao'an, the small snake. It was as if it knew the little silver-white snake was the one pulling the strings.
With his human intelligence, Tu Xiao'an would have much preferred to deal with his opponent easily.
Unfortunately, the cunning rat refused to let him go and was dead set on making him its opponent.
'Then bring it on. You think I'm going to let some rat bully me?'
In an instant, the battle between the snake and the rat began.
The Rat King tried to use its larger size to pounce on Tu Xiao'an and bite him to death, but Tu Xiao'an's intelligence was hardly inferior to a rat's.
He controlled his body, dodging as fast as he could while constantly launching his own attacks. All he needed was one bite on the Rat King to inject his Venom.
Although the Venom couldn't deal a fatal blow to the Rank 3 rat, it could definitely affect its body, weakening its Qi and blood.
After several rounds of entanglement, a few bloody gashes appeared on Tu Xiao'an's snake-like body. The damned Rat King not only had a powerful bite, its claws were also incredibly sharp.
He even began to wonder, 'Is this damn thing really a rat?'
Tu Xiao'an was now part of a whole new world—not human society, but the natural realm where the strong prey on the weak.
He had to admit that being a creature without limbs was a huge disadvantage. A snake relied entirely on its mouth, which made things difficult if it couldn't land a bite. Plus, he wasn't a Giant Snake, so he couldn't use a powerful body to coil around his opponent.
He was still too small—not even a meter in length.
He was at a disadvantage, a complete disadvantage. A First Rank versus a Rank 3. Tu Xiao'an could only keep dodging back and forth, constantly repositioning himself. By now, several minutes had passed, and the battle on the side between the rat swarm and the dozen-plus snakes was drawing to a close. As expected, the snakes were victorious.
The ground was littered with over a dozen rat corpses—a shocking sight—but a few of the small snakes had died as well.
Tu Xiao'an was overjoyed. He knew he truly couldn't defeat this Rat King on his own.
He quickly used his dominance ability to send the remaining small snakes after the Rat King.
These remaining snakes were essentially a suicide squad, but Tu Xiao'an had no other choice. In his current snake form, he was still too weak to take on the Rank 3 Rat King.
With his snake minions joining the fight, the pressure on Tu Xiao'an instantly lessened. Meanwhile, the swarm of mosquitoes once again enveloped the Rat King.
SQUEAK SQUEAK...!
The shrill sound echoed through the backyard.
Taking advantage of his numerous minions, Tu Xiao'an waited for the right moment. In a flash, he lunged forward and bit the Rat King, then immediately let go and retreated a second later.
The enraged Rat King shrieked again and again.
Venom. In that single second, he had injected no less than five drops of Venom.
An ordinary rat would have succumbed to the poison and died within seconds.
But the Rat King was a Rank 3, after all. It wouldn't be poisoned to death that easily.
But now that he had landed a bite, Tu Xiao'an felt confident. Even if the poison didn't kill it, once the toxins spread through its system, the Rat King would grow weaker and weaker.
'Bite it! Bite it!'
Tu Xiao'an continued to command the remaining snakes to attack wave after wave. He wouldn't feel a shred of pity if they all died; the most important thing was killing the Rat King.
The enveloping swarm of mosquitoes blotted out the Rat King's vision, plunging it into darkness.
Wounds began to appear one after another on the Rat King's body, leaving it in a sorry state.
In less than a minute, five snakes were bitten in half by the Rat King, dripping with fresh blood.
It was an incredibly brutal scene, like something from a nature documentary.
During the chaos, Tu Xiao'an found another opportunity to rush in and land another bite, injecting more Venom. The Rat King was now visibly weaker, and the light in its cold, sinister eyes began to fade.
It wanted to kill the damned little snake Tu Xiao'an in a single bite, but would someone as cunning as Tu Xiao'an give it the chance?
SQUEAK SQUEAK...!
The Rat King let out two strange squeals, showing its intent to retreat. Its rabbit-sized body began to sway precariously.
'Perfect. The toxins are spreading through its body. It can't hold on much longer.'
'Hmph. Trying to run?'
Tu Xiao'an sneered, blocking the Rat King's path. The swarm of mosquitoes shadowed it, biting relentlessly.
Suddenly, the Rat King pitched forward onto the ground and stopped moving, as if dead.
The mosquitoes swarmed over its body to bite, but it remained completely still.
'Is it really dead?'
Only three snake minions remained in the yard. Tu Xiao'an ordered them to go over and bite the Rat King a few more times. This cunning Rat King could very well be feigning death.
Sure enough, as the three small snakes slithered over and opened their mouths to strike, the Rat King sprang up as if reanimated from death and bit one of the patterned green snakes.
The patterned green snake shrieked in agony, dripping with blood, but it wasn't bitten in half. Another snake also managed to bite the Rat King.
The scene was incredibly bloody. After a stalemate of a few seconds, the Rat King collapsed completely, never to move again.
His Venom must have finally taken full effect and poisoned the large rat to death.
'You wanna play games with me? I'll play you to death.'
The Rat King was now as dead as could be, its body completely stiff. For a mere rat, though, its fighting prowess was quite formidable.
But in the end, it all came down to Tu Xiao'an's current snake form being too weak. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble—he could have just swallowed it alive in one gulp.
This battle gave Tu Xiao'an valuable combat experience and a better understanding of how to employ his various skills in the future.
The creatures he subdued could help him fight his enemies. Plus, his dominance ability was very powerful. If he dominated the Snake Race, he would have countless vipers at his command.
Level. Tu Xiao'an couldn't wait to raise his Level. The higher the Level, the stronger his means of survival would become.
The yard was now covered in corpses—the bodies of both rats and snakes. Blood was everywhere.
Especially that rabbit-sized Rat King. He truly had no idea how a rat could grow so large.
'How much of the family's food must it have wasted?'
Through this battle, though, he believed he had wiped out the entire nest of rats in the house.
It was funny, really. The rats had actually come knocking on his door, basically begging to be killed.
Tu Xiao'an slowly took a count. There were fifteen rat corpses on the ground, not counting the Rat King.
As for the snakes, there were thirteen corpses, plus one lucky survivor: a small black snake.
Most of the snakes had died at the hands of the Rat King. These First Rank small snakes were simply too weak against it.
Moreover, Tu Xiao'an discovered that these snakes didn't have fangs. They were all non-venomous.