"Don't you think that's enough…? I mean, he's already knocked out and I would say he's doomed to die soon anyway. We should hurry and finish our mission before others inside the island are alarmed." Checking the Island ugly's unmoving body, Dusty Mercury vocalized with a bit of pity apparent in her tone.

Hearing this, Vital Burst who was continuously kicking him paused. Then, after a short period of deliberation, thinking her words truly made some sense, he replied, "You're right. Let's go."

Afterward, without preventing the steams being released from his body, he began walking toward the building at the distance. Shortly afterward, before five minutes had passed, the two were stopped in their tracks once more by an abrupt speech.

"You two chose the worst-timing to come. Even if you came, you should've been just defeated by the Island ugly and then scram. But now, you've forced me to come out of the bed, and that's seriously annoying me." While strolling toward the two confounded invaders, Virus stated with clear frown displaying itself on his face. By his side, the golden beauty was also following him very silently.

Next, pointing his finger at Vital Burst, he proclaimed as if he was emphasizing the obvious, "You… you will die here."

Then moving the direction of his finger toward Dusty Mercury, he added, "And you…" However, before he could finish his next line of sentence, he spotted that Vital Burst was already charging in his direction.

'Unfortunately, without my ring, I'm not his opponent yet.' As this notion appeared inside his brain, looking toward the golden beauty, he uttered, "Stop him for a moment, but refrain from killing him for now."

"Yes, master." As if she was already waiting for Virus to say these words, the golden beauty charged toward the incoming Vital Burst. Soon, they were upon each other as they both sent a fist at each other at the same time!

Bang!

A rather loud noise resounded in the vicinity as a result of their clash as they were both forced to retreat back for a few meters after the initial contact.

After that, without any delay, the two charged at each other once again as they engaged in a heavy fist-fight.

They exchanged a few punches and kicks when the golden beauty looked back and uttered, "Master, oddly, he's getting stronger by every move we exchange… at this rate, he's going to exceed me in at most a minute. I better deal with him right now using my long sword, or else… very soon, that might be impossible for me even if I use my weapon. What should I do?"

"Haha! You're right, I'm going to kill you soon and then I shall deal with that silver head! Just accept your fate and die already!" Getting even fiercer, Vital Burst announced maniacally.

"Don't kill him for now… I'm curious about something." Uttering this, Virus released his sense of awareness while contemplating to himself simultaneously, 'How does he keep getting stronger like this? It's as if his strength has no limits even if it's just a temporary one...' Putting one hand under his chin, he focused his awareness inside Vital Burst's body, 'Let's see what's going on inside you.'

Instantly he began to study every abnormal change that was taking place inside him and soon, just like that, he arrived at the answer he was looking for.

"Huh… I see. So that's your trait… blood!" Muttering this, a momentary light of wisdom passed through his eyes while he proceeded to ponder, 'So his trait is being able to burn and consume his blood directly and then convert it to strength… like this, the more he consumes it, the stronger he gets! Though it seems he has to do it in a gradual and slow manner or else he would face some backlashes-' Remembering how he had coughed a mouth full of blood while facing the Island ugly, Virus concluded.

Actually, the conclusion Virus had reached at was totally true. However, burning a lot of blood in a quick manner did put a lot of strain on his body and it even damaged his life to some extents, so unless he was left with no other choice, he would've never burned a large quantity of his blood in a short period of time.

Catching their breath, shocked, both Vital Burst and Dusty Mercury's eyes went wide open as they stared at him speechlessly.

'How was he able to guess the way Vital Burst's trait functions so fast???' Wondered Dusty Mercury to herself in astonishment as she secretly prepared herself to release her power at any seconds now.

"How-" Pronouncing this single word, Vital Burst shook his head before continuing, "Haha… I don't know how you were able to see through my trait, but so what? It's not like you'll be able to do anything about it even if you have knowledge regarding it!"

"Your face seems to have gone pale man… is it due to lack of blood in your system?" Instead of responding to his mocking inquiry, Virus threw his own question at him.

Hearing this, a sharp glint passed through Vital Burst's eyes as he ruminated to himself while gritting his teeth, 'Damn it… he's already figured the shortcomings of my trait… I can't continue like this for long... so he's going to stretch and prolong this whole battle until I'm at my limit! Though Dusty Mercury might be able to assist, I'm not sure about the extent of her powers… so that's a no. It seems I can't dilly-dally any longer… I have to complete my mission as soon as possible and then leave this damned place at once!'

Seeing the gravely distressed expression on Vital Burst's face, a rather wide grin found its way on Virus' face before he notified him in a calm tone, "Don't worry… I won't try to prolong the battle just because I'm aware of the weaknesses of your trait."

With this, a chill went down Vital Burst's spine as he felt like he was totally being seen through with all of his secrets or thoughts exposed in front of this monster.

Nevertheless, not bothering with any of his reactions at all, Virus proceeded, "I was just a bit interested in the way it worked, and now that my curiosity has been sated, this battle won't continue for much longer!" By the end of his sentence, a very serious and keen glimmer had replaced that relaxed attitude as he glanced toward the sky for a blinking moment before he took it back and directly connected his mind to his ring.

'Trigger Median Configuration – Fragmentary Integument!'

Immediately, dark scales began to cover his arms and legs as the distance between each scale began to glitter in sapphire blue. Of course, his clothes were ruined as usual.

Seeing this stupefying transformation, Vital Burst's eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he looked at Virus and stuttered in horror, "What… what did you… what kind of monster are you!"

In the meantime, having a bad premonition about this entire situation, Dusty Mercury began to release her power to its limits!

"Hmm?" He was just about to send another command to his ring when, abruptly, a frown showed up on his face as he distanced himself from his current spot the next moment.

"So… you can create a boundary of mercury around yourself and even intensify its effects to a specific degree. Hmm… that's a nice trait, to be honest. Mercury exists almost everywhere on this planet and with it, you can poison your opponent without them realizing… which will, in a rather short period of time, lead to a chain of after-effects like muscle weakening, mental disturbances, etc, etc. And ultimately even death!" Focusing his awareness around himself, Virus replied after being done analyzing his surroundings.

"How… how are you still fine! And how did you guess what my trait was!!!" Seeing him totally unaffected by her mercury, Dusty Mercury yelled in his direction in utter shock.

"Haha… well… if it was anyone else, that person would've been already influenced. But unfortunately for you, you met me!" With an evil chuckle plastered on his face, Virus voiced.

Actually, the instant her power was released to its extreme limits, Virus had already sensed it and with that, he promptly began to study it while utilizing his awareness. And as a result of that, he uncovered almost everything about Dusty Mercury's trait.

He discovered that she could gather mercury from her surroundings like from the very earth itself and with that, she could make a boundary of mercury around herself. Moreover, the way this special boundary functioned was that it was most intense at the center of the boundary (Dusty Mercury's location) while it gradually got weaker the further the target was from the very center.

This was also the reason as to why Virus had quickly changed his previous location all of a sudden to a spot where the intensity of mercury was rather low.

'If it was someone else… he or she would've been finished already… good thing my body has immunity to impurities which is making it resistant against mercury. Though this won't continue for long and I'm still going to be poisoned very soon.' He deliberated to himself. Although Virus' body was immune to impurities, it wasn't immune to poison. So, when exposed to a very poisonous substance, the most his immunity could do was to act a bit resistant towards it and buy him some more time. Virus understood this fact very clearly.

So left with no choice, Virus decided to deal with Dusty Mercury first before changing his target back to Vital Burst. However, at this time, Vital Burst swiftly took out a hidden gun from his pocket as he took a shot toward Virus.

Bang!

Unfortunately for him though, since Virus had already scanned him with his awareness, how could he not know about his hidden gun, so the moment the gun was shot in his direction, to the absolute disbelief of everyone other than Bella, without even taking his eyes off of Dusty Mercury, he brought his hand before the incoming bullet and then clenched his fist.

The next instant, he opened his fist as a bullet dropped on the ground from inside his palm while he said with a chilly smirk, "Come on… you're using a trashy gun on me now? Really?"

Then, connecting to the pitch-black scales covering his whole body, he conveyed a new instruction to it.

'Divide Initial Configuration – Machine Gun!'

'Explosion mode!'

Right away, a particular futuristic machine gun took shape inside his grip as he aimed it at Vital Burst without any hesitation.

Then, articulating each word very clearly, he mouthed, "This is what you call a gun."

Bratatatat~

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