Zenis decided to attack Billy because keeping his distance was obviously the worst thing he could do. In the meantime, Billy decided to avoid stealing the enemy's health. He probably had the skill that put him in the over-health status, but any loss would trigger that insane attack again. As much as Billy hated to admit it, he couldn't defeat Zenis as he was now, and he needed more knowledge…
"I need to keep my cool and learn more while stalling for time, and the others will also benefit from this," Billy thought. "Even though he spent a lot of time here, he could only have leveled up a few skills, not all of them."
Zenis fired a massive ball of magic mercury, and Billy managed to block it with a single hand, and then he increased his speed in time to block Zenis' kick. It was a pain to keep Limited Foresight active and fight at the same time, but it was convenient for situations like that.
All of a sudden, multiple arms appeared from the back of the enemy armor and then began to punch Billy. While his armor was resisting, it still was losing too much durability, and unlike Zenis, Billy's armor couldn't repair itself that fast.
After the first wave of attacks, Billy used Reflect and forced the enemy to suffer a bit from his own attacks and pushed him backward as well. Billy used that fraction of a second to use half of his mana to create a gravity field around the enemy and increase his weight. While Zenis was adjusting to that, Billy grabbed his spear and then leaped with all his might and hit the enemy's neck… the armor got in the way, but at least the glaive pierced it for more than three centimeters.
Those two returned to that sector and the attack opened a massive hole in the ground. The dungeon's interior was supposed to be near indestructible. Still, it didn't prevent Billy's attack from creating that fifty meters deep hole.
All of a sudden, Zenis kicked Billy in the stomach and pushed him out of the hole. Before he could react to that Billy was punched until he hit the ceiling, but things didn't end there. Zenis kept punching him until he created a hold even deeper there. Billy tried to resist, but all his attacks were punched away… the only thing he could do was to heal himself and repair his armor with magic. When they reached the precious layer of the lake of lava and were literally swimming downward, and through it, Billy understood that the enemy had finally snapped.
"At least he isn't using the effects of his other skills…" Billy thought while he was feeling the taste of his own blood leaving his mouth.
In the meantime, Icarus, Lucyna, and Meryl watched them moving away. That battle was too high level for them… even Icarus could only watch with his speed, and the other two couldn't because their speed mode didn't reach that level.
"We need to follow them before the holes are closed…" Lucyna said.
"It seems that they aren't being closed," Meryl said. "Zenis has the power of the dungeon's core, and he can control how the mana here is used. Besides, we can't interfere… there is nothing we can do to help."
They wanted to know when Billy got Icarus power and when he managed to learn how to steal mana like Meryl, they were also curious about the armor. Still, doing all that wouldn't help them. When Zenis mentioned the possibility of their power being taken back, they realized that they relied too much on it. They have been improving a lot in other aspects recently, but they still had a long way ahead of them. They didn't know if they could even beat Billy's friends without their powers.
"What do you think we should do?" Icarus asked. "Should we try to copy Zenis and absorb dungeon cores? Destroying them only gives us a portion of their powers."
"Zenis stayed here for over a year just to assimilate those powers, it won't work," Meryl said. "He probably used Acceleration Manipulation to speed things, but even so, that didn't make much difference."
"I think it is worth the shot… He took this long because this dungeon is too big and powerful," Lucyna said. "Even if the others won't grant us these massive power-ups, we will need all the help we can get."
"Still, can we go to another dungeon fast enough and return to help Billy?" Meryl asked, and then she felt the whole dungeon shaking like it was about to collapse.
"Well… We don't have any other choice," Icarus said. "We are only alive because of the skill that sends the damage to him. If we insist and mess up… We will end up causing his death."
The others nodded, and then they began to run upward using the hole created by the fight. It didn't take long for them to reach the surface again, and then they saw Zenis punching Billy's armor and making the whole atmosphere tremble. The speed of his punches and their amounts were high enough to cause thunderbolts to fall on the ground. Meryl soldiers were running around because they couldn't understand what was happening.
"There is a dungeon in my former territory, and I am going there," Meryl declared. "Icarus should go to the tyrants since it is the furthest away. There is one south of here, you should look for it, Lucyna."
"Okay," Lucyna said.
"Let's hurry up and return here as fast as possible," Icarus said. "We can't let Zenis get any of our powers. If he kills Billy, then it will be pretty much game over."
The others nodded, and then they began to run. Billy and Zenis put some distance between them when they saw that happening. Billy used that chance to repair his armor while Zenis decided to taunt him, which was very weird.
"It seems that your friends abandoned you…" Zenis said.
