Escaping to the ceiling was all well and good, but this situation was far from ideal.
Stuck to the ceiling, my movements were inevitably slower than when I was on the ground.
I was already pushed to my limit on the ground — there was no way I could keep dodging the eel's attacks from up here.
If I didn't get back down soon, I'd be a sitting duck.
That said, the eel wasn't exactly swimming in free time either.
Its MP had dropped quite a bit.
Based on what remained, it could fire off three more flame breaths or sixteen fireballs.
Compared to the start, I'd managed to drain a fair amount.
But it still had enough left to shoot me out of the sky.
The question was: would I make it back to the ground first, or would the eel shoot me down first?
I immediately started moving.
The target was the nearest wall.
But the eel had anticipated that too.
To precisely cut off my movement, it launched a fireball right in my path.
Dodging while clinging to the ceiling was brutally difficult.
This wasn't the time to worry about the yellow gauge.
I dodged the incoming fireball at the maximum speed I could manage.
I had no choice but to brute-force it, relying on SP consumption reduction and SP recovery speed.
I had to retreat to the wall's edge before the yellow gauge ran out.
I managed to dodge the incoming fireball, but the maneuvering cost me precious time.
The yellow gauge kept draining.
This was bad.
If the yellow gauge ran out, I wouldn't even be able to stay clinging to the ceiling.
That, at all costs, I had to avoid.
Easier said than done — the eel's sniper-precise fireball shots kept me from advancing as quickly as I wanted.
And then, finally, the yellow gauge hit zero.
Exhaustion crashed over my body in an instant.
And a fireball bore down on me without mercy.
Damn it!
I judged that I couldn't dodge in time and launched myself from the ceiling into open air.
A fireball exploded nearby, and the shockwave raked across my body.
I barely managed to stop myself from spinning out of control and shot a thread out.
I reeled in the thread that was anchored to the wall.
The fireball passed through the space where I'd just been hanging.
My body swung like a pendulum, and I just barely managed to avoid the magma below and touch down on solid ground.
Another fireball came flying at me without hesitation.
Using the momentum from my landing, I rolled out of the way.
It hurt.
The price of continuing to move after the yellow gauge ran out was terrible shortness of breath, full-body fatigue, and waves of pain.
I forced myself to ignore it all with the power of Pain Immunity and Pain Reduction.
Because the eel was about to unleash another flame breath from its maw.
I whipped my exhausted body into a dead sprint.
The edge of my vision burned crimson.
Heat surged at my back.
I ran as if trying to tear free from it.
And I dodged the flame breath.
《Proficiency has reached a certain level. Skill『Evasion LV6』has become『Evasion LV7』》 Having survived the flame breath, I let out the breath I'd been holding.
The yellow gauge had started recovering.
The fireballs had stopped coming.
At last, the eel's MP was spent.
Having lost its long-range arsenal, the eel slithered onto dry land.
All I could see of it was the portion around its head.
What emerged was a dragon reminiscent of an Eastern serpent — a massive, elongated body stretching into view.
Even with its MP gone, its eyes still locked onto me with unwavering focus.
It seemed I'd been thoroughly designated as a target.
At first, it probably considered me nothing more than a minor nuisance to swat, but somewhere along the way, its fireball attacks had grown increasingly serious.
Once it started spewing flame breath, it was fully committed.
Apparently, the fact that I kept dodging its attacks didn't sit well with it.
I couldn't imagine it would let me go even if I tried to flee.
Even if its MP was gone, its SP was still very much intact.
My SP, on the other hand, had taken a serious hit.
The cost of moving after the yellow gauge depleted had also eaten significantly into my red stamina bar.
I still had the bonus from Overeating, so I wasn't anywhere close to being unable to act, but if it came down to a battle of endurance, I would lose. That much was certain.
I couldn't outrun it.
So that left one option.
Fight, and win.
If you looked purely at Status numbers, I didn't have a chance.
But numbers weren't everything.
Once you fought enough, you understood instinctively — in this world, Skills were the most critical factor.
The fact that I was still alive despite such a massive stat gap was nothing short of a miracle.
And the thing driving that miracle, without question, was the power of Skills.
By pushing my Skills to their absolute limit, I'd bridged the stat gap and clawed my way onto the same playing field as the eel.
The difference in stats was enormous, but it wasn't absolute.
It was a gap that Skills could more than cover.
And I'd already seen through all of the eel's Skills.
With its MP gone, the combo of Accuracy and Evasion with probability correction was what I needed to watch for.
Plus, the defensive power granted by Dragon Scales.
And the Fire Dragon's final Level 3 technique.
Beyond that, there was raw physical strength wielded by its colossal body.
Even just listing those out, it was an incredibly powerful opponent.
But I still had my trump card.
My strongest attack — Poison Strike.
Against this attack, the opponent's defensive power barely mattered.
A lethal toxin that would corrode even its scales and devour its body from within.
Until the very end, the only thing I could rely on was Skills.
Skills were the only area where I could surpass it.
But that also meant there was a possibility of surpassing it.
Neither of us had meaningful defense.
Whoever landed a decisive blow would win — a one-hit kill matchup.
So the deciding factor would be…
And just like that, the second round on solid ground began without any signal.