Even the level 3 Dao Heart that he was pretending to have was enough to block the attack of 10 units. But if he truly had this level of a Dao Heart, his mind would be preoccupied with defending against the mental suggestion and wouldn’t be able to defend against Slav’s subsequent attacks.
So it was reasonable that when Slav tossed out the grenade crafted with the Throwing Money Metac, he didn’t have enough mental power to jump away and dodge the grenade. All he could manage to do was to roar in defiance and rush headfirst at Slav.
The path he was taking to Slav meant that he would crash head-on into the grenade. But he didn’t stop because he was sure that the grenade wouldn’t be able to breach his defense.
The power of his body is at 1(Cultivation Rank) × (2(Body) + 2(Mind/Telekinesis) + 1(Body Lever) + 1(Living Armament Metac)) × 1(Skill), which is 6 units. This is about the same level of power as the Slav’s Throwing Money Metac attack, so he was able to confidently smash into the grenade.
The power of Slav’s grenade was at 1(Cultivation Rank) × ((2(Mind) + 1(Contract)) × 2.1(Throwing Money), which was at 6.3, so when the grenade exploded in his face, it was strong enough to push him back.
His shield took the brunt of the explosion, and his armor protected him from any shrapnel that bypassed the tower shield, so he was fine. But his tower shield had been cracked and couldn’t be used for the time being.
He quickly deactivated the Liquid Metal Metac responsible for the tower shield and activated another Liquid Metal Metac to replace it. Then he continued his rush towards Slav.
In response, Slav continued to throw grenades at him. Unfortunately for him, the power of the subsequent explosions couldn’t compare with the power of the first explosion.
The power of the Throwing Money Metac is not dependent on skill or Dao Heart like normal attacks. It is dependent on how much money Slav is willing to sacrifice to create the attack.
The problem is that it takes time to sacrifice money and create the attack. For the first attack, he had a lot of time to prepare, so he was able to create an attack that was three times stronger than what he should have been able to manage with his body alone.
However, as Loki rushed at him and got closer to him, he didn’t have time to sacrifice money, so his subsequent attacks were weaker. They were so weak that they didn’t constitute a threat to Loki. This made Slav flustered and desperate for a solution.
In his desperation, Slav decided to give up on the mental attack using the Money Speak attack so that he could have more room to use another Throwing Money Metac and double the pressure of the grenades on Loki.
He gave up on the Money Speak Metac because the maximum limit of Metacs that he can control at once is four.
He was already using the Contract Metac, Money Armor Metac, Money Speaks, and the Throwing Money Metac, which is a total of four. So, in order to double the number of Throwing Money Metacs he can use, he had to give up on the Money Speak attack.
This is clearly a bad idea because the power of the Money Speak attack is increasing over time as he spends money to raise it. As long as he can hold on for a while, he should be able to subjugate Loki’s mind with it.
In fact, he had the opportunity to wait because of the Money Armor Metac. Thanks to this Metac, he has nothing to fear from Loki in the short term.
Unfortunately for him, all he saw was that Loki was getting closer to him with a large sword, and he panicked. He forgot about his Money Armor Metac and made the bad choice of dropping the Money Speak Metac because of fear.
As a young master, he has never had any reason to fight for his life. In fact, he has never been in danger. Anytime he encountered something dangerous, especially during the initiation program, the first thing he did was to run away to his brothers for help, not to find a solution himself.
Despite his numerous victories earlier in the competition, he doesn’t have any experience fighting. Loki, on the other hand, has had numerous experiences fighting for his life. This showed in how they made decisions and executed them.
Loki was able to pretend to have reached his limit in the number of Metacs that he could control and in the level of his Dao Heart while simultaneously pressuring Slav. He was able to juggle these three things in a fight, while Slav foolishly gave up his best means of offense for a short-term increase in a Metac that he can only use to harass Loki.
Loki took the opportunity of this weakness to get close to Slav and began smashing his claymore against the golden shield around Slav. As he did so, he wished dearly that he could use his Sword Heart Metac and wasn’t restrained so much in the fight.
His attack against Slav failed to harm the young master because of the golden shield. In fact, the sword failed to touch the young master at all. But all the force of that attack still destabilized Slav and caused him to stumble.
It was how Loki’s shield had been able to block the brunt of the explosion, but he was still pushed back by the force of the explosion. The Money Armor Metac was able to block the attack at the cost of some money, but maybe it was because it was a mere rank 1 Metac, Slav still had to endure the force of the attack.
Slav couldn’t withstand the force of the first attack, so he stumbled. He was still dealing with the blow of the first attack when the second attack struck him. His posture was unstable, so the second attack knocked him to the ground.