"You can use your lame pick-up lines on someone else," Billy said while he equipped the armor. "I already have three gorgeous, extremely sexy, and most important, milfs that are waiting for me at home. My life is perfect, and I have no regrets, and I will protect this life until the end of times."
Again, Icarus, Lucyna, and Meryl got annoyed at Billy for saying nonsensical things while they had goosebumps. He felt that they should feel thankful for him since he made the enemy raise his guard and recover his mercury projectiles. They were finally free from those troublesome weapons… Still, it was hard when the situation was tense, and they felt that they would be killed just by the aura of the enemy if they relaxed for a couple of seconds. If that doesn't kill them, the enemy certainly will with his powers...
For whatever reason, Zenis waited for Billy to attack. It wasn't like he couldn't analyze the armor, so he was supposed to see its potential. Objectively speaking, Billy knew that his suit was perhaps two levels below the mercury armor. Still, he couldn't make up for that.
After putting his glaive on the back of his armor, Billy charged after increasing his speed. He punched the face of the enemy, or so he planned… For the first time, Zenis used his arms to block the attack, and while the strike created a powerful shockwave that sent the others flying in the distance and made the whole dungeon vibrate, it only pushed Zenis for a couple of meters.
Billy launched a barrage of punches and forced the enemy to assume a complete defensive stance. The attacks and the vibrations caused by it made some rocks in the ceiling of the dungeon fall apart, and that was a first. Still, instead of worrying about that, Billy was pissed that his attacks were being blocked completely even while he was using Physical Disturbance.
"I see. Not only the armor offers you great mobility, defense, and attack power, but you can also enhance it with your own skills," Zenis said. "Without having to worry about counters, you can attack freely and steal my mana as well."
While clicking his tongue, Billy launched a double punch. As stupid as that sounded, the enemy reacted to that as well, but he used that chance to grab Zenis' hands, and then he headbutted him. The attack paralyzed both of them with the vibrations, and while Billy didn't achieve much, he at least stopped Zenis from analyzing his skills out loud.
"Now he has to focus on me, but I am not doing much yet…" Billy thought. "The headbutt probably hurt him, but that isn't nowhere near close enough to defeating this asshole…"
Instead of stealing the enemy's supply of endless mana, Billy decided to steal his health, but then all of a sudden, when Zenis noticed what had happened. His body blurred, and then he grabbed Billy's armor and thew threw it upward. That happened so fast that Billy didn't even realize what had happened until his back hit the ceiling, and then the frontal part of the armor suddenly got kicked.
It was probably the first time the enemy used all of his speed, it had been only a reaction to the fact that his life got in danger for a moment, but then in the next moment, Billy was the one vomiting blood and feeling his body getting crushed.
As if that wasn't enough, Billy felt his will to fight decreasing… Zenis was probably using some of his innate abilities to control his emotions. Before it was too late, Billy fired an Absolute Bullet toward the enemy, and since he was so busy attacking, Zenis didn't notice it. In the end, the very moment his armor was hit, it froze with him inside, but it only lasted for half a second, and then the ice melted. Still, that had been enough for Billy to punch the enemy with all his might and send him flying downward, opening a crater on the ground upon impact…
"Despite his lack of self, his instincts still can kick in when it matters…" Billy thought while he used Full-Heal. "I probably didn't steal much of his health, but he reacts to anything that causes him harm, no matter how small… is that one of the effects of having their mind being overtaken by our supposed goal in this world?"
The attack apparently woke up Zenis from his stupor since he didn't immediately go to attack Billy. While that helped him, things were far from over. He had to defeat the enemy in front of him, but he also had to find a way to deal with that will that almost controls the enemy…
Instead of attacking Billy, Zenis used gravity manipulation to make his armor heavier and force him to go down or spend more mana. What he didn't know was the fact that the armor had its own source of mana, so Billy used that chance to steal Zenis' mana and absorb some extra from the gravity manipulation.
When Zenis realized that, he clicked his tongue in annoyance. It was the first time he had done that. It seemed that his true self was being exposed the more they fought. To the point that Billy began to wonder if Meryl's hypothesis was correct… Would their minds and actions just that much because of the nature of their skills, or was it because of something else?
"I always thought it was weird that we could only get experience by using the dungeons… Considering what he said earlier, it seems that the origins of our powers and the dungeons are the same, that they were created by using the mana of the world, but by whom?" Billy asked.
Billy couldn't believe that the world had a will or something that prepared that whole system. It was too familiar for humans to be like that… at least to humans from Earth…
