Jack frowned when he saw Patty brush off his drop shot like it was nothing. Then, he had the nerve to say that he would take all three of them at the same time! His face turned beet red at the shame and embarrassment that happened once again. Patty got lucky again! His attack must have been too weak and all the force was dispersed because he was too far away from Patty.
"Come on, man. Don't embarrass us!"
"Finish your turn, man. I can't wait to punch him in the face."
The other two lackeys also felt that Jack somehow botched his attack and weakened it by accident. They didn't think that Patty was just that strong. Because, how could he be that strong? He was just a lazy bum who never showed any talent in martial arts. While they were busy doing excruciating practice in the dojo, Patty was in his home just lazing around and watching television. There was no way that Patty was strong. They refuse to believe it.
"Don't get cocky, bastard. Just wait till I show you how fragile that face of yours is!"
But Patty simply just held out his hand and gestured for him to come. If there was one thing that Patty was really talented at, then it was taunting people. Even when he doesn't mean it, his laziness somehow offends people and makes them angry at him. This time, Patty used that to his advantage to make Jack come to him so he didn't have to walk.
Intentionally or not, taunting Jack to come to him was the right choice. After all, it was obvious that the counter to his long-ranged attacks was through close-ranged battles or melees.
Jack's solution to this counter was to make sure that his opponent never got close enough to fight at close range. So, he would spam long-ranged attacks at his opponent to make them keep their distance. This would have been difficult for a normal person to defend against that attack. Fortunately for Patty, he cultivated his body to superhuman levels thanks to his Yi Power.
But, they were still at a stalemate. Patty needed to get close to Jack to deal with him once and for all. Unfortunately, Patty was too lazy for that. So, the best solution then was to taunt Jack and make him come to Patty on his own.
Of course, Jack wasn't that foolish. Instead, he walked closer to Patty just enough to make sure that his next attack would be powerful without losing any of its strength as it traveled through the air. Not only that, he used the cement rubble from the wall to construct his drop shot, which was much stronger than plain soil. And if he used his Teqx powers on it, the resulting ball would be several times stronger than that of steel.
"Eat this!" Jack buried his feet on the debris and wreckage on the wall, his face contorting as he did so. This was the first time he tried his power on a material much stronger than soil, so he felt a lot of resistance that almost broke his ankle.
The ball of cement curled up within itself multiple times as it became denser and denser. And as Jack used his dominant foot to kick it, its speed picked up and flew through the air as if it weighed as light as an inflated ball.
It wheezed through the air and headed straight for his face. Because he was so close, Jack was able to aim directly for Patty's face and destroy that lazy look on his face. It really irritated Jack seeing Patty look like that. Patty wasn't supposed to look indifferent to the danger that Jack posed, it was supposed to be the opposite. Jack should be feeling calm and relaxed while Patty was worrying for his life. But instead, Jack's face was colored red with shame and embarrassment.
But instead of dodging, Patty simply just raised his hand and let the ball of cement crash to his palm. The resulting contact left an explosion of dust that obscured what happened to Patty.
"See, that's what happens to bastards like you!" Jack shouted.
But as the dust cloud cleared, they could see a silhouette of a man standing still, like nothing happened to him. His hand didn't have a scratch on it, not even a cut. This stupefied Jack as he was sure that his attack would finally work on Patty. He even thought that it would knock him out. It never even occurred to him that Patty would just brush off his strongest attack like it was nothing!
"Look what you did…I'll have to put this through the washing machine two times to get rid of this…"
Patty didn't even care about the attack. He only cared that he would have put more effort in cleaning his uniform. He would have to spend an additional minute in the laundry room, which was taking too much time from his relaxing time.
"..he….hehe…he" Grammo couldn't help but laugh when he saw this. He had a feeling that Patty was much stronger than he seemed, and now it looked like he was proven right. Patty was too relaxed when he dealt with that Fiend back in the festival. It turned out that he probably could have killed the Fiend if he wanted to. But he didn't. He guessed that Patty was being just lazy again.
In truth, Patty didn't have the strength back then. But Grammo didn't know that. He thought that Patty was originally this strong, but just didn't show it. This was because no one could improve their strength by this much in such a short amount of time.
"Is..this…what…you want..me…to see?" he was feeling elated at the karma these people were getting. Seeing Patty brush off their strongest attacks felt really good to see and gave him relief at all the suffering and torment they put him through.
Ryan just shrugged. "Just wait till I get a turn. That Jack is much weaker than we thought. If he can't even deal with small fry like Patty, then he doesn't deserve to be in our group."
Grammo shook his head. He couldn't believe how much these guys were in denial. Patty was clearly much stronger than Jack, so much so that his strongest attack actually did nothing to him. But somehow, these guys don't believe what they see. They kept giving out excuses about Jack, but never acknowledging Patty's true strength.
"Can't….you…see?" Grammo muttered as he looked Ryan in the eye. "He's strong…you're…weak."
Ryan slapped Grammo as hard as he could. "Don't get cocky. Remember, your life is in our hands. I could kill you if I wanted to. And don't think Patty's just going to be dealing with us. You see Griff? He's so much stronger than us. He can flick his fingers and Patty will be flying through the wall again!"
But despite saying that, he still looked at Jack and signaled for him to be serious. Unfortunately, Jack was already serious. He already used his strongest attack and even moved closer to Patty, but nothing worked. Attacking Patty felt like throwing a rock at a mountain and expecting it to cause a landslide. It just seemed impossible.
Jack looked at Griff. He always warned them not to underestimate Patty, but they never took him seriously. They thought he was just joking. But now that he was facing Patty, he finally understood why Griff used all kinds of extreme measures to deal with Patty. And the worst part was that it didn't work. Patty was still alive somehow, and he was looking to avenge.
He took a deep breath and calmed himself. He reminded himself that Griff was just behind him, and he would be the one to finish off Patty. He was the only one who had transcendent strength that could make a mountain break into two.
And if everything still didn't work, they still had the Fiendish Armament as a last resort.
He was now resolved to throw everything he had to fight Patty. He knew that he couldn't knock down Patty, he wasn't looking to. His job now was to exhaust Patty and make sure that he wasn't at his strongest when he faced Griff.
Now that he knew what to do, Jack finally decided to use his ultimate attack. This idea came from his ability to make any material into a ball when he kicked it. This happens because a strange power from his Teqx molds this material and condenses it into something he can kick. Now, what would happen if he used this on a human? Wasn't human flesh also a material? He didn't know what would happen because he never tried this before.
Jack rushed towards Patty and raised his dominant leg to the side. He didn't care if Patty could see his attack, everything would still work even if Patty blocked his attack with his hand.
And even without his time slow, Patty could see what Jack's trying to do. He didn't even raise his hand to block it. He simply took it head on. Every part of his body was 40 times stronger than a person, so his head wasn't weaker than his arm. So, there was no need to use his hand to block it.
As Jack's shin landed on Patty's temple, a weird prismatic aura suddenly sparked on the point of impact. Then, Patty saw this pop up on his system screen;
[SSS+class skill Gluttonous Adephagia activated]