I Was Careless-I Didn't Dodge

Botai-kun, or rather BON-kun, was an ultra-compact AS developed around the concept of an enhanced combat suit for the human body.

AS, short for "Armored mobile master-Slave system," commonly known as ARM SLAVE, was the collective term for a type of rather... unscientific humanoid robot Kraft had seen in his dreams.

From the fragments revealed in those dreams, Kraft learned that the world had special humans known as Listeners, who could inexplicably grasp certain black technologies beyond the scope of their own knowledge.

Didn't that sound a little like Kraft's dreams?

Most of the manufacturing techniques for AS units, as well as the λ-DRIVER system installed in them—which could convert a pilot's mental energy into weapon energy—had been developed from black technology the Listeners had "heard."

It was no less absurd than Kraft's dreams.

Since Kraft had even built Botai-kun, ordinary AS units naturally posed no challenge. But Tony Stark wore exoskeleton armor, so Kraft could hardly bring out those giant robots just to bully him. Besides, Kraft had stuffed Botai-kun with technologies from some of his other dreams, so even in a real fight, it would not fear those large mechs.

As for inventions similar to exoskeleton armor, aside from Botai-kun, Kraft had only built an Ultraman Armor. However, it would expose his body type, and it also placed high demands on the wearer's physique. In his dreams, those who wore that armor were either aliens or enhanced humans.

Although Kraft had no major problems controlling it with Angela and Haro's assistance, reaching the level displayed in his dreams was still quite difficult. So, until Kraft made up his mind to modify his own body, even if he had built that armor, he would not be able to bring out much of its true strength.

Then again, the appearance and design philosophy of the Ultraman Armor were actually rather similar to the suit Tony Stark wore. Both had an LED light on the chest, though the design of the face...

After taking a closer look at Tony Stark's mask, Kraft blurted out.

"Ben Boba?"

"FUMOFUMO?"

Kraft's mutter was converted by Botai-kun into that strange sound once again.

There was nothing Kraft could do about such an odd setting. Just like the illogical divine technologies in his dreams, no matter how much he tinkered with Botai-kun's vocal system, it could only produce the two sounds "FU" and "MO." And as soon as he turned off the voice conversion, Botai-kun would crash.

Fortunately, Kraft had no desire to talk to Tony Stark anyway, so he did not care whether he could speak.

But while he did not care, Tony Stark certainly had to.

"Wait! This weird thing is what you meant by a test? Are you serious?"

Kraft drew the stun baton equipped on Botai-kun, assumed a stance, and answered with his actions.

"Oh, come on! I don't have the time to play house with a kid!"

But Tony Stark had no intention of taking the bait. He shook his head, anger already rising in his heart. He felt that Red Queen's inventor was just playing him.

Seeing Tony Stark about to leave, Kraft decided to act directly. He shouted as a warning, then controlled Botai-kun to charge forward, swinging the stun baton in his hand straight at Tony Stark's head.

"FUMO! Take this!"

"Watch out, sir!"

With the speed Botai-kun burst forth with, Tony Stark had no time to react. So even though J.A.R.V.I.S. warned him in time, Stark still failed to block Kraft's attack. He had barely raised his arm when the stun baton had already struck him on the head.

"Bang—!"

With a crisp clang of metal, Tony Stark was sent flying by Kraft's blow.

"FUMOFUMOFU! That's for underestimating me!"

Kraft held up the stun baton in one hand, pointing it at the flying Tony Stark, while making a throat-slitting gesture near his neck with the other in provocation.

"All right, looks like I underestimated you..."

Stark shook his slightly dizzy head and climbed up from the ground.

That blow had not caused Stark much damage. Instead, that "bang" had left his head ringing.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., remind me to optimize the Iron Man suit's noise-filtering function once we get back."

"Certainly, sir."

"Now then, let's have some fun, kid!"

Stark raised his palm toward Kraft and said through gritted teeth.

"Don't go crying to your mommy if you lose!"

"FUMOFUMOMO! Who wins is still up in the air!"

Kraft gave Stark the middle finger, but Botai-kun only had a round, pudgy palm with no fingers, so his meaning failed to get across.

Of course, with Tony Stark's clever mind, he easily guessed what Kraft had been trying to gesture.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., adjust power output to fifteen percent... no, make it thirty. Children still need a proper lesson."

Both Botai-kun's appearance and those somewhat childish movements suggested that its pilot was not very old, so Stark did not intend to get too serious.

A flash of white light flickered in Mark II's palm, and it fired an arc pulse at Kraft.

Kraft reached behind him and pulled a miniature riot shield from Botai-kun's tactical vest. Then he used the enlarging lamp installed on Botai-kun to magnify it, planting it before himself to block Stark's arc pulse.

"Hey! Where did he pull that shield from?"

With Botai-kun's chubby hand blocking the view, Stark had not seen how the riot shield appeared. Even the cameras on the Iron Man suit had failed to capture the exact moment, though its enlargement process had still been recorded.

"The opponent appears to possess a method of enlarging and shrinking objects, sir."

"Enlarging and shrinking objects? I feel like I've heard of that technology somewhere before..."

Stark froze for a moment, but before he could recall anything, he saw that ridiculous-looking plush doll charging toward him with a baton in one hand and a shield in the other.

"What an impatient little kid."

Setting the matter aside for the moment, Stark controlled the Iron Man suit to fly into the air.

"Can you still hit me now?"

Stark had not seen any devices like jet nozzles on that soft, floppy doll. If it could not fly, then it would be nothing more than a target.

Tony Stark's face broke into the trademark grin of a bad uncle.

Unfortunately, his smile had not even lasted two seconds before his expression froze, because that ridiculous doll robot rose lightly into the air without using any sort of propulsion device.

"Antigravity device?!"

Too shocked, Tony Stark forgot to evade Kraft's attack for a moment. By the time he heard J.A.R.V.I.S.'s warning and tried to dodge, the stun baton in Kraft's hand had already smashed into Tony Stark's head.

"Bang—!"