Going back to a few moments before Novus decides to risk his own body tanking the hesitant Shadow Slime’s attack in exchange for a great opportunity to deal damage to so much more, he already foresees his next course of action that will lead to the greatest yield possible.

Hence why, as he dashes towards the weakest link amongst the Shadow Slimes, he not only wills mana onto his legs but towards both his arms as well, the one he is preparing to tank the hit barely getting any attention from him at all, as more than half of the mana he gathers runs towards his other hand.

There is no Mana Blade, no normal reinforcement, only a ball of mana that continues to grow in size as time passes, only for his will to forcefully compress it once more, reducing its size, but only making it ever-so-brighter than before.

And then the moment came.

He grits his teeth as be braced for impact, his mind confident that his reinforced arm can tank whatever it is that this Shadow Slime is going to throw his way, and it does happen, its body lodged on his arm, his being creating space just enough for him to launch his true attack.

The fireball was thrown into the air, not burning anything in its path, as its heat is completely constrained by the layer of mana stabilizing it.

There is nothing that can stop him from throwing that fireball towards the group of Shadow Slime that attempts their best to bridge the gap between them and him.

In terms of sustained speed, the Shadow Slime stands way above Novus’ own league; however, when it comes to explosive use of speed, he still has a massive edge above them, meaning that the gap he created within that short time will not be all too easy for the Shadow Slimes to cross at all.

The fireball hit one of them.

Despite being invisible, it shows as the unorthodox fireball bounced off something in the air, causing the stabilizing shell to collapse under the sudden external stimuli, melting into pure mana that feeds the greedy, unstable core even more.

It only took a singular moment for the shell to collapse and get absorbed by the main explosive, which immediately trembled upon being unleashed, a threat to anyone’s life, only flashing for a brief second before it finally happened.

The ground trembled, grass burned to dust, and the earth scorched as magic exploded in earnest, multiple notifications of the slimes he had killed ringing inside Novus’ head, yet he just maintained his cool, knowing full well that while his attack was successful, how much he had killed was far lacking compared to how much he wanted to harvest from this torture of a challenge.

He has no time to waste, within seconds right after the explosion, he prompts his body to move once more, his senses laying upon his vision the paths of attack once more, still as solid and dangerous as before, however, way easier to deal with now as the number of Shadow Slimes in his immediate vicinity was significantly reduced by his spell.

’It’s a bit blurry... is it because of the spell? Damn... not only Immortal Energy, I have to conserve mental power as well?’ feeling like the paths of attack are not as clear as it was before, he couldn’t help but remark to himself as he moved to avoid the most dangerous ones, his body continuing to bleed more and more as he avoided attacks.

Left, right, forward, backward.

He dances with each slash and each thrust without stop, each movement taking more and more toll not only from his body but from his mind as well, the overwhelming number of enemies out for his head forcing him to truly understand something that he thought he already understood before.

Fighting against a great number of enemies is way more taxing than fighting against a small group.

Once again, he dodged, a shallow wound appearing on his left shoulder as he did so, blood coming out of it before True Immortal Blood starts kicking the process of its restoration, each damaged part healing bit by bit and allowing him to push himself just a little bit more.

An attack came from above him, he steps forward, then from the left, he leans in, then right in front of him.

’Shit...’ as he saw something when avoiding that attack coming in front, he couldn’t help but curse, looking at the path of attack that just manifested right in front of his torso, an attack threatening to cleave him into two, should he not do something about it.

Defending is impossible, as he already has his hands full punching away other approaching Shadow Slimes with the right and creating a fireball on the left.

Dodging is also improbable, as it is only a mere moment before the attack comes to cleanly sever his body into two.

Hence why he picked the next best decision instantaneously, not moving his entire body away, as he knows full well that it will take his legs some time before he can explode, forcing himself to shift his body’s weight, causing him to lean to the side as the attack came.

It rushed towards his brain, a great pain that made the corner of his lips twitch and forced his teeth to grit even harder than before, as layer upon layer of pain continued to hit his mind without end. The only thing that was preventing him from shedding a tear was the thought that clouded vision would only serve to worsen his combat prowess further.

Despite the utmost effort on his part, he was still cleaved in two by the attack.

[Immortal Energy: 77/200]

It wasn’t all that bad, though, as instead of having his upper and lower body being separated into two, it is just one of his legs that was severed cleanly, causing him to lose a bit of balance as it happens, recovering it just in time to dodge another incoming attack as he was finally forced to utilize Immortal Energy to accelerate the severed leg’s regeneration.

[Immortal Energy: 73/200]

"Kuk..haha...hahaha!! That’s all you got??" a slash with his right hand, now armed with Mana Blade, cut three attacking Shadow Slimes in clean halves, causing him to laugh as he managed to compress mana into a volatile fireball once again, his free arm already prepared to throw it in the distance.

Another explosion descends upon the waves of Shadow Slimes, and yet another wave of notification rang in his mind, the paths of attack becoming fainter once again as he looks at them, seeing the reduced number of paths making him smile instead of frowning, his entire being turning more and more exhausted by the passing moments.

"Hiss.... Huuh..." with his back now slightly slouching from the creeping exhaustion, he took a long, deep breath to reset himself once more, the fierce light in his eyes never fading in the slightest as he just takes a look at the path with pure focus, thinking of nothing else but taking as much slime lives as he can.

’Danger.’

His instincts told him, but he already saw the path that brought danger upon himself, allowing him to avoid the threat and dash towards another Shadow Slime that had its guard down yet again.

But his attack doesn’t hit.

"Hahaha... quite a bit late, aren’t you?" he talks despite knowing well that the slime in front of him will not be able to comprehend his words, his fist just barely stopping before it hits the soft cushion in front of it, a soft cushion that devours all force that comes in contact with it.

The Amber Slimes reached the battlefield as well.