I Own the Evolution Domain

’Tsk... I messed up...’ feeling the stinging, amplified pain from his left arm barely dangling on his shoulders, Novus clicked his tongue as he was reminded that his current opponents are no normal elites, but rather mages who are qualified enough to work as the limbs of the academy when dealing with external matters such as this exam.

It isn’t only his left arm, but also his right eye is caught by the onslaught of spells passing through his disabling, his eyelids are closed- no, forced closed as it was scorched by an intense flame, half of his face burnt from that spell alone causing his lips to twitch in a mix of annoyance and pain.

"H-He’s bleeding!!" some of the mages, seeing his current bloodied state, couldn’t help but shout to raise morale, urgency still rushing all across their body even then, prompting them to create magic circles once again.

This time, no longer to incapacitate nor to capture, but to finish everything instead.

After all, the ability to cancel magic alone, even with the inconsistency shown with their previous exchange, is an ability that will be, no, that is already a threat to them, forcing them to abandon studying such a fine specimen alive as they raised their priorities to completely eliminating him instead.

Spells began raining on the young man once more, his debilitated arm making it so that it is harder for him to sever more spells, resulting in him being hit by even more.

"Don’t stop!!" the attacking mages continue, some of them shouting as spell after spell rains on their target’s location without end.

’Off... something is off...’

Meanwhile, the more experienced mages thought to themselves as they watched this one-sided fight, recalling the report on how the strongest of them, Gallad, was defeated by an anonymous figure who came to help the remaining students and staff in the middle of their capture.

’Is he not the one who defeated Gallad?’

The other veteran thought to herself as she also observed the battlefield, a crimson magic circle appearing on her palm as her intuition screamed at her about something that was off about the intruder; however, what she was witnessing right now proved otherwise.

’What the hell is wrong with—’

[Immortal Energy: 1116/1166]

Before the two mages could even finish their thoughts, their skin began to crawl as they witnessed the aftermath of the continuous barrage of magic, the remains of what was once a man standing there without faltering, flesh and bones out in the air as blood oozed, creating a puddle beneath him.

It is, in fact, something so repugnant that some with weaker stomachs might want to vomit; however, it is not the thing that made their skin crawl.

Muscles twitched as it connected, the bones once exposed being covered by the flesh once more before skin began growing back. From the skin, the hair began to grow; the once charred, unidentifiable ’corpse’ returned to its peak state as his talent, along with Immortal Energy, began doing its job.

’Tsk... that fucking hurts...’ he thought to himself as his head rang from the amplified pain that the previous spell damage made him feel, his jaws locked as he gritted his teeth, bearing with it for a couple of moments before his body began calming down, his senses returning and making him realize a small problem.

’Quite cold...’ unlike his battle with Gallad, where he can still at least protect his body by creating a thin coating of mana outside his body, the spells that hit him don’t give him the time to create said barrier at all, causing all articles of clothing he was previously wearing to be torn down to shreds.

Shame began creeping up his being, forcing him to move fast, dashing towards one of the mages he had previously incapacitated to grab their robe, in one swift, efficient motion, immediately donning it upon himself without any hesitation at all.

To him, it was sheerly out of shame; however, to his enemies, to the rogue mages, it appeared nothing like that and more of a provocation instead, his action of still finding it in himself to ’play around’ in the middle of such a serious fight, causing each and every single mage standing against him to boil in anger, no, wrath.

"Die!!"

"Burn!!"

"Kill him!!"

Despite their standing as veterans who had already seen parts of the world before they worked for the academy, these elite mages couldn’t help but want to vent the anger in their hearts, watching how he acts, magic circles forming on their palms, some on their staves or staffs, as they prepare to give their opponent a bigger blow.

Novus exhaled, pushing more mana towards his blade, causing it to extend its reach before diverting some towards his legs, allowing him to cross the distance between himself and the mages in front.

It doesn’t even take him a moment to bridge the gap between himself and his targets, magic circles collapsing as he swung his blade within their midst, the fact that he is among them now making it difficult for the less experienced mages to target him without hitting their allies as well.

Ironically, moving within the enemy group gave him far more freedom and ease of movement compared to when he was fighting against them at a distance, reminding him once again of the fact that right now, with how he is developing, his combat style is already far removed from how normal mages fight.

Each swing displays ruthless, surgical precision as Mana Blade continues passing through several spines, and with mana being infused into his targets’ systems, they fell to the ground without any resistance at all, his attacks leaving only a trace of a wound on their back, something so insignificant that barely anyone noticed at all.

"Mana shield!! Raise up mana shields!!" some of the ones who noticed this immediately warned their allies, a faint azure hue surrounding their being as mana wraps around their body in a spherical form, preventing any malicious invasion of mana inside their body, rendering the side effects of Mana Blade useless.

Although that doesn’t mean the blade made of mana itself became useless in front of the shields.

Novus relaxed his senses, utilizing the basic version, or rather, the shallower version of Sensory Expansion instead, nodes and lattices disappearing from his sight as the paths returned overlaid on his vision once more, a smile appearing on his face as he began utilizing it in ways that he never did before.

A straight line was directed right at him as the spell was locked onto his current location, prompting him to look at the urgent expression on the caster’s face, that faint smile on his face messing with the caster all the more, who put more strength into his own spell than he meant.

A beam of flame began piercing through the air, reaching Novus in no time at all and eventually piercing through his body as well.

"I got him—"

[Immortal Energy: 1106/1166]

Before the caster could even celebrate his spell’s brutal hit, the hole created by the beam of flame was covered by recovering flesh in a matter of moments, the target still smiling, seemingly gratefully, before turning around, no longer paying attention to the one who dealt the wounds.

The reason?

That same spell broke a mana barrier of one of them, the mage’s broken barrier deeming them their aggressor’s next target to neutralize.