What happened next was pure visual masterclass. Though SmileyX was clearly a few screws loose in the personality department, his fighting skills were top-notch, polished to a deranged gleam. He moved like he had a PhD in dodging laser beams, a certificate in micromanagement, and additional units in aerial combat. Forget mere agility; this was performance art.
One moment, Smiley was dodging a laser beam from a floating eye with a backbend that would make a yoga instructor weep. The next, he shot up a net, executed a gravity-defying roll to avoid another beam, and then, with a sweeping slash, bisected the netted eye with almost surgical skill. His movements were undeniably awkward to watch, thanks to his... unique choice of clothing (a leather brief? Really, dude?). But if you could just manage to block that fashion faux pas out of your mind, he almost looked like he was dancing—bending, twisting, his jumps impossibly accurate, angled just so. Whoa, blade dancing? Is that a thing now?
"Billabong, boost!" SmileyX called out, dodging three more beams with the grace of a deranged ballerina before sprinting towards Tinman.
General Awareness:
Name: ??? ---> Billabong
"You got it, Smiley!" Tinman—now officially Billabong (I'll give it to him, it's a cool name for a walking teapot)—responded with a grin audible even over the laser-fire. He positioned his tower shield, a slab of gleaming metal almost as large as me, vertically, ready for action.
My Heightened Awareness tagged the danger zones, producing mini circles like ripples across the battlefield, marking where explosions would bloom next. This is sick, bro! I couldn't help but feel a thrill. I opened my satchel and began eating fruit, because, tragically, popcorn was not an existent snack in my current Isekai situation. Though technically in definite trouble, I was completely awestruck by the chaotic ballet unfolding before me.
Billabong maintained his position, a stoic wall covering himself from the barrage of incoming attacks. SmileyX, meanwhile, barked orders while simultaneously dodging and doing more ballerina poses. Billabong squatted, and Smiley stepped onto his shield. With a grunt, Billabong immediately lifted it, boosting Smiley upward. Smiley accompanied the boost with a jump that launched him with amazing speed, so fast he zipped right past the floating eyes. "Huh?" I mumbled, nearly choking on a chunk of fruit.
"Stone Skin! Toughness!" Billabong bellowed, his voice echoing through the lab. His armor began to faintly glow, and its texture visibly became coarse, like stone. What else?
General Awareness:
Name: Billabong
Activates: Stone skin; toughness.
Then, Billabong shouted, "Taunt!" He proceeded to spit undignifying bars like a battle rapper in a FlipTop competition, his voice reverberating through the lab:
You ain't monsters, you just trauma with pupils,
A calamari reject with anxiety noodles.
Floatin' in the air like you searchin' for clout,
Bruh, you got ten hands and still can't figure it out.
General Awareness:
Name: Billabong
Activates: Taunt
"Calamari reject!" I coughed out, stifling a giggle. Whoa, bro can throw bars!
A wave of faint light burst out from Billabong, radiating outwards and reaching every floating eye in the vicinity, even the ones about to resume chasing Smiley. The eyes instantly turned a furious red, then rushed towards Billabong like enraged bees to a hive. A huge number of eyes glowed and beamed at him simultaneously. He braced himself, shielding against a barrage of lasers and explosions that erupted around him, splashing pebbles and dust, engulfing his location in a temporary, fiery fog.
"Raaaawwww!" Billabong roared, a primal sound that dissipated the smoke and dust around him. Undeterred, he continued his "Taunt" skill, launching into his next verse:
You a bouquet of eyeballs, emotionally unstable,
Tryna shoot beams but you droolin' on your own tentacle cable.
Flyin' big? Please—your whole species mid,
You ain't scary, you just look like sushi that never did.
Whoa, I love the taunt skill in this world already! I wished the floating eyes could talk, just so they could do their rebuttal. That would be hilarious.
Another wave of taunt light washed over the floating eyes, drawing them even faster to his location, like moths to a very angry, armored flame. "Now, Smiley!" he screamed.
"Bout time, big boy!" Smiley chirped, dangling upside down from a broken chandelier on the ceiling. He launched himself downward in a blur, hurtling towards Billabong, who was about to be completely overrun by the taunted floating eyes.
Billabong slammed his tower shield onto the ground, creating small cracks in the lab floor. "Ensnaring Light!" he bellowed. A blinding flash of light erupted from his shield, leaving behind glowing chains that anchored every taunted floating eye to the ground. A few still hovered, twitching, but they were mostly immobilized.
Then, SmileyX's blur emerged, angled perfectly where most of the entangled floating eyes were clustered. He was crouched, both weapons crossed in front of him, a searing red light dragging by his eyes.
Heightened Awareness:
Name: SmileyX
Attack: Flurry of the Grand Gladiator
Attack Direction: Marked with red line.
The red line extended to where Tinman—now Billabong—had so expertly entangled the taunted eyeballs. It was unbelievably fast. SmileyX spun into a whirlwind of blades, kicks, and maces, smashing, cutting, and kicking every single floating eye in a spinning fountain of monster goo. Just as he was about to collide with Billabong, his whirlwind of death stopped with a graceful step, which Tinman caught with his shield. The impact made Billabong stumble back with a skid before he regained balance and, with a powerful shove, pushed his tower shield where Smiley had used it to jump down.
Three remaining floating eyes, seemingly much smarter than their brethren, hesitantly moved away from the duo, retreating immediately.
"Still got it, Smiley!" Billabong shouted, raising a high-five.
"Same goes to you, big guy!" SmileyX replied, swatting his hand in a jolly, almost childlike glee.
These two are crazy strong, I said to myself, my eyes wide. That was some high-level combat I just witnessed. Record this, my gamer brain commanded. I also needed to hide better; my panic state was threatening to emerge once more, threatening to ruin my invisible spectator status.
Then, a truly colossal blast echoed from the entrance, rattling the entire lab. A confetti of large slabs of rocks, wood, and leaves rained down from above, dropping one after another and shaking the floor. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ground, eventually widening the hole through which the massive tree descended, almost comically.
The light source darkened like an eclipse, slowly getting unblocked as something huge descended. Then, a popping sound began, surfacing and getting louder and louder. There it was: the Ancient Labyrinth Beholder, slowly descending, popping more floating eyes from its grotesque mouth, which were instantly probed by its minions like satellites. Its three main eyes glistened with a chilling hatred. It was much larger, closer to the size of a grown elephant than anything I'd seen at the Manila Zoo, but instead of an elephant, it was three-eyed madness with tentacles curled and writhing as it descended.
"That's one big of an eye," Billabong swallowed, his tone no longer playful but trembling. "I mean, eyes," he corrected himself quickly, raising his tower shield from the ground and looking up. SmileyX, ever the showman, slashed his two weapons, splashing the remaining monster goo off them.
"Uwauu," the Beholder hissed, its voice echoing through the lab, sounding exactly as if it were saying, "Found you!"