’A little bit smaller... no need to wrap the entire arm... I just need something to pierce this bastard with, then I can destroy it with a little less force...’

As he stands face to face, avoiding the attacks of multiple Shadow Slimes, all while his melee attacks are gradually falling in terms of efficacy with the Amber Slimes defending the opening, Novus continues to challenge the limits of his current combat prowess, trying to improve upon all techniques he can utilize, making them cost less, even at the expense of reducing damage dealt.

Mana swirls around him before it revolved near his arms. This time, the Mana Blade does not coat the entirety of his arm but rather just his hand, allowing him to sustain it for a much longer time at the expense of much less Immortal Energy.

[Immortal Energy: 72/100]

[Immortal Energy: 71/100]

[Immortal Energy: 70/100]

He pierces through, the force from his thrust making it so that the Amber Slime’s inner body doesn’t quite reach his own, allowing him to pierce through its core and forcing its body to collapse.

Finally, he started seeing it again, a way for him to improve harvest even more as he continues to hold his ground against this endless horde of monstrosities all heading towards his direction, all out for his very head, each single slime that he had dealt with ease when facing him with a few numbers now being a threat as group upon group of them tires him out more and more.

The more exhausted he get, the harder it is for his techniques to keep up, Mana Blade becoming sloppier with each slash, each cleave and each thrust, Sensory Expansion becoming more and more overwhelming for his mind, and even just movement itself proving to be a struggle as he is reminded that even now that he is truly immortal, exhaustion is an enemy that he will never be able to get rid of.

Yet even then, what is supposed to be constant, the rapid decay of his combat prowess, is not happening right now.

As far as how it is going, however, it is truly not improving as well, but the mere fact that he can still keep up despite the constantly growing number of opponents, despite his constantly eroded mental and physical endurance, proves one certain thing.

That he’s growing, he’s mastering, he’s getting better at utilizing all the tools at his disposal.

And at a terrifyingly quick rate, at that.

The only issue is that mastery and strength don’t resolve the massive number of slimes this Beast Wave brought to his door; each slime he killed is only being replaced by three or four more.

’Fuck... this should be worse than fighting a Hydra...’ he joked to himself as he punched another Shadow Slime to oblivion once again, only for him to pick up three more paths of attack aimed at his neck, forcing him to dodge forward, as there is nowhere else safer to move to.

Safer is a relative word, of course, as right in this path, an Amber Slime moving at the speed of a cannonball, weighing far heavier, approaches him in a straight path, forcing him to grit his teeth as he crossed his arms in front of him, reinforcing his entire body with mana as he braced for the incoming impact.

’Goddamnit... right now??’ planting his feet solid on the ground and shifting his weight downwards as he meets the Amber Slime in a contest of strength, he felt his hair stand on its end as he saw something from his side.

A huge, restricting wall for a path of attack.

Something that he had just become familiar with previously.

Normally, he could’ve dodged it without any problem on his part; however, right now that he is locked in a struggle against the Amber Slime in front of him, he couldn’t back down, as he knows that it will spell his immediate demise, yet by not backing down, it is basically what is going to happen as well.

"Hahaha!!! Fine by me!! Die!!" left without any choice, mana surged from the air towards his arms, his entire forearms being coated by mana before it started to revolve, the layer only supposed to be protecting him now can be treated as a weapon of destruction as well.

[Immortal Energy: 66/200] 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

[Immortal Energy: 62/200]

He slashed down, two arms utilizing Mana Blade, making his consumption is far greater than normal; however, the short moment it saved him, compared to dealing with it like how he normally does, grants him enough time to respond to what is possibly the greatest threat to him right now.

His legs explode in speed, tanking through all the hits waiting in front of him as he bridged the distance between himself and the source of that wall-like path of attack, the mana wrapping around his hand now shifting into normal as he knows that it is better to deal with this creature with a punch than slashing through its acidic body.

And it worked, as soon as his punch landed, he watched as the core inside of this azure slime collapsed into smithereens, his body reacting without him telling, as it is already familiar with the threat that comes after, the explosion after that slime’s death, quite possibly something that is even more dangerous than its main means of attack.

The plan is solid, get out of the azure slime’s explosion radius before it can bloat and explode; however, things don’t always go according to plan, and this is one such moment.

From his sides, two Amber Slimes dash with tremendous speed, forcing him to accelerate even more in order to avoid being squashed into two by these two approaching forces, but the future does seem to have a completely different plan for him.

Perhaps it was because it was truly one terrifyingly hidden surprise, or perhaps it was because the exhaustion was gradually starting to show, but Novus was too preoccupied with the two attacking from his side that he failed to notice another Amber Slime rushing from behind him, and the moment he managed to, it was already too late.

The force from his own speed, paired with the force coming from the Amber Slime attacking behind him, sent his body into a violent shock as he stopped mid dash, hitting a solid surface as this Amber Slime chose to reinforce its external shell rather than its internal one, causing its target to feel hit by not one, not two, but rather a horde of bull all at the same time.

"Gahhk... cough..." ribs broken, spinal column bent, a bit of paralysis hitting him as his own spines collapsed and tore under the pressure of the attack that hit him, but he kept his eyes open, the fiery spirit ignited, not being diminished in the least; in fact, it appears that it only grows stronger with each passing moment.

[Immortal Energy:32/200]

Despite the paralysis being shorter, not even a moment, the experience truly made him fear it as he felt not pain, but rather, an inexplicable bone-chilling cold along with the dreadful sensation, or rather, lack of sensation from all over his body, something that he truly wished he would never experience again.

As soon as he recovered control over his own body, the azure slime’s body exploded.

The worst part of it is that he is still in its range.