As Dawn vanished, Shang could finally see the Serpent again.
It had been broken into two pieces, and it was falling towards the ground.
Just because someone was very powerful didn't mean that they didn't need their organs.
In fact, starting at the General Stage, the organs inside someone's body had already stopped their old functions and assumed new ones.
They were responsible for moving Mana around and generating life energy.
Without organs, someone's life energy would very quickly deteriorate until they died.
Even getting rid of just one organ already put a major dent in someone's ability to generate life energy.
With most of the Serpent's organs gone, it was already basically dead.
Beasts didn't have the luxury of quickly being able to recover parts of their bodies. They needed a bit of time to recover everything.
As the Serpent fell to the ground, Shang charged forward and put his arm on one of the halves, quickly regaining all his lost Mana and life energy.
A couple of seconds later, the cheering returned, and the corpse vanished.
Shang took a deep breath.
'The fight definitely hadn't been easy, but I won. The start was rough, but as soon as I managed to unleash New Moon, I gained control over the fight.'
'Sure enough, the Great Sword State is best for dealing with beasts.'
As Shang looked at the vanishing corpse, he thought about something he didn't like.
'Any random Late High Mage could have defeated this Serpent. I'm honestly not sure if I can win against an average Late High Mage at this point.'
'Additionally, a very talented Mid High Mage will very likely also win against the Serpent.'
'But my power has already made a great jump compared to the last trial.'
'Last time, level six in the Mage category had already ended my trial, but this time, I'm certain that I can reach level nine. With luck, I might even beat level eleven, but I'm honestly not sure.'
As the wheel returned, Shang fed more ore to Sword.
"Level 13: Weak Peak True Path Stage beast."
'Level 13 in the beast category, huh? Last time, I only barely beat level nine, but I got ten points due to the Ice King's sheer power.'
'This time, I'm already at level 13, and I doubt that I will lose against my next opponent.'
'Level 15 will be a complete impossibility. I'm certain that I can't even beat a single one of the beasts that can appear there.'
'Level 14 will be dependent on luck. If I get an all-around average beast, I will most likely win. If I get one that focuses on defense, I will probably also win. However, if I get one that specializes in speed, I will be helpless.'
Due to Dusk and the Great Sword State, Shang's preferred opponents were now beasts that focused on defense. In the past, these exact opponents had been his bane since he hadn't been powerful enough to even injure them.
Funny how things changed.
As the wheel finished spinning, Shang pulled his Colossal Sword up and readied himself for battle.
He always started in the Colossal Sword State unless the opponent wasn't in the least bit dangerous.
Shang's opponent was chosen, and he looked at the wheel.
The image made him raise an eyebrow.
It was a bowl of seared shrimp.
SHING!
At that moment, Shang's opponent appeared, and he wasn't really surprised.
It was a shrimp.
It was just a shrimp.
Sure, it was about 50-meters-long, but it was still just a normal shrimp.
There was nothing special about it except for its size.
'I guess these kinds of beasts are bottom-feeders in gigantic oceans, which is surprising considering that they are at the Peak True Path Stage.'
The jester lifted his hammer and hit the bell.
DING!
The shrimp's antennae moved around and pointed at Shang. Then, the shrimp turned to him.
BOOOOM!
And it exploded forward with terrifying speed.
Shang had already been prepared, but the shrimp's speed was still far higher than Shang's.
Sadly, Shang knew that the shrimp only counted as a slow beast within its level.
This was a Peak True Path Stage beast.
Its body was four levels above Shang's body, making the difference in speed absolutely ridiculous.
With his Blasts, Shang could move as fast as an average Mid True Path Stage beast, but a Peak True Path Stage beast, even a comparatively slow one, would be fast than Shang by multiple times.
Speed hadn't been a big factor in Shang's fight against the Serpent since it had barely moved, mostly standing its ground.
If Shang hadn't been prepared for such an explosion of speed, he would have been unable to react.
The shrimp reached Shang in what felt like an instant. To the current Shang, the shrimp's speed and a Mage's Mana Step felt equally fast.
Obviously, Mana Step was many times faster, but Shang couldn't think fast enough to feel the difference between the two.
It was like when someone spoke to someone else face-to-face.
One person would see the other one move their mouth and hear their voice at the same time, even though the speed of sound and the speed of light couldn't be compared.
But to the person, both things were so fast that they couldn't even feel the difference.
The same thing was true for Shang now.
As soon as Shang had seen even the slightest bit of movement coming from the shrimp, he had swung his Colossal Sword upwards, not knowing if it would connect or not.
But that didn't actually matter.
One of the shrimp's shears immediately went past Shang's Colossal Sword and went for his body.
WHOOOOM!
Then, the shears stopped, and Shang's body atrophied tremendously.
At the same time, a blinding light exploded out of his body, throwing the shrimp into absolute confusion.
Brilliance!
Shang had used up all of his life energy to stop the attack, including the additional life energy he had absorbed from the Serpent's corpse.
He couldn't be certain how powerful the enemy's attack or defenses would be, which was why he had simply unleashed everything at once to be sure.
As the shrimp's shear bounced to the side, all the light vanished and entered Shang's Colossal Sword, increasing its weight tremendously.
Then, the Colossal Sword swung down.
The shrimp counted as a weak beast, which meant that its battle instincts were terrible.
A smarter beast might have jumped back.
Black fire appeared on Shang's Colossal Sword…
And it connected with the shrimp's head!
Dusk!
CRAAAAAAAAACK!
The shrimp's head didn't explode. Obviously, its shell increased the shrimp's defenses to the point that it was probably about three times as durable as the hedgehog from earlier.
However, a fully-loaded Dusk still had terrifying power, and it broke past the shell.
The sword entered the shrimp's head, but it was stopped after cutting through half of it.
Even with a fully-powered Dusk, Shang couldn't bisect the enemy's head.
But it was enough.
Black fire exploded out of the cut Sword had left behind. It looked similar to a crack on a highly-pressurized pipe. Just like how the water would violently shoot out of the crack, the black fire shot out of the shrimp's head.
Naturally, the black fire had turned the insides of the shrimp's head into nothing but Mana.
BOOOM!
And the shrimp collapsed.
