Chapter 45: Mood killer?

*Back to our MC... finally*

As Levi directed his unwavering gaze towards the angered hurricane wolf that growled and prowled a few meters away across from him, he could not help but notice that deep rooted malice which the beast possessed towards his kind. 

His eyes still maintained their green hue but even then, they still managed to manifest a tinge of bloodlusted red which merged perfectly with his viscously bared teeth to produce an immensely menacing visage.

For whatever reason, Swift bore a great malice towards the human kind and that hatred had fully erupted into a maddening rage under the guise of the cubs disappearing.

Levi was not a saint, it was a statement which had by now been cemented as a fact going off of his behaviour from the very start, and as such he would not sit still while the hurricane wolf used him as a human punching bag to let of his built up steam.

He could tolerate Swift's irritable attitude and demeanor towards him, but what he would not accept was getting beat up for a sin which he did not even know about, much less commit. If Swift so wished to sour their relationship with meaningless violence, then he would respond in kind.

"Growl...die. All of you humans should just die!" Swift roared, and as if sensing his unbridled anger, the wind responded by wrapping itself around his claws. Heightening and sharpening it's already lethal specs to the utmost limits as he lunged straight at the human. Only one thought hovered in his mind as he attacked.

'kill.'

Swift charged straight at Levi as the wind Mana which had wrapped itself around his deadly claws rippled violently and the wolf's eyes made him seem as though he wanted nothing more in the world than to just rip Levi up, limb from limb.

This time though, Levi was fully prepared and even expected the attack as he had already strengthened his body using aether skin. 

He felt the characteristic threefold increase in his physical stats as he assumed a proper battle stance with his arms stretched forward in a receiving or welcoming fashion.

"Growl.." Levi heard Swift's vicious growl once more as he grabbed the latter by the forelimbs before tossing him to the ground in a manner which resembled a technique from one of the more popular martial arts styles back on earth— judo. 

The action looked so fluid and seamless that one would be forced to believe that Levi was actually a professional judo practioner. But it was actually due to his heightened physical capabilities, as well as his tremendously sharpened battle senses.

Spinning his torso to face where Swift was currently sprawled on the ground, Levi concentrated his aether to his fists in an action which only took a little more than half a second, before throwing an aether infused fist towards the hurricane wolf at tremendous speeds. 

Unfortunately for the wolf, the time wasted in reorientation had delayed his reaction speed, creating a breif lag which led up to him receiving the full brunt of Levi's powerful attack in it's entirety.

*BAM!*

"Kuak!" Swift spat blood as the tremendous force of Levi's fist crashed into his strenum, nearly crippling his innards from the single blow as his fusion spell instantly dispersed.

Drawing his fist back then throwing it downwards at high speeds, Levi was about to deal yet another great blow to the very same location which he had landed the previous one— Swift's mid section. But then his fist stopped right in front of the targeted location as a thought flashed into his mind.

'if I land this, he might die.' Levi reasoned.

He would by all means retaliate against the hurricane wolf if need be, but he did not want to go as far as actually killing one as it might sour, if not completely sever his healthy relationship with Raja. 

Such was the root of his last minute hesitations, but it only took a few very short moments for a solution to flash into his mind.

'i don't need to beat him up too much, I will just cripple him temporarily. He can heal up later at the den.' no sooner had he concluded like this than he acted. Suddenly changing the trajectory of his attack would greatly reduce its intial momentum and force, but such things mattered not as the power his fists now weilded was more than enough to accomplish the task at hand.

"Rargh!" Levi let out a brief battle cry as he shifted the direction of his punch, directing it towards Swift's right fore limb instead and destroying it upon impact.

*SNAP!*

"Hoooowl!" Swift howled as a great pain shot through his body from the wounded spot when the fist collided with his dormant limbs, destroying it and partially crippling him. 

He let out pained whimpers as his eyes trembled violently as a result of the pain, but his expression soon reverted from pained to pissed as he made use of his left forelimb to claw at Levi's face.

*Slice!*

Swift's supremely sharp claws easily penetrated Levi's unprotected skin, slicing through it and opening a shallow cut on his left cheek, before he realized and jumped backwards to create distance.

Touching the cheek wound with two fingers, Levi felt the cut before bringing those very same fingers closer to his face. He was bleeding, but he did not mind it as the pain was little more than completely negligible.

In a swift fashion, Levi reverted his aether skin back to enhance all parts of his body instead of just his fists. The power he formerly felt in his hands reduced significantly, but it was in no way weak as he still possessed enough strength to compete with the wolf.

Swift had trouble getting himself up as the pain from the stomach was already immense, but when added up with that of the broken limb was a bit too much for the D-rank Mana beast to handle. 

He struggled to drag himself back up to a proper fighting posture, but the loss of an important limb greatly impeded his movements, making this an impossible feat. Or at least it would have been, if magic did not exist.

Wind gathered around Swift's broken limb and wrapped it, providing an adequate enough support to his shattered bones. He was able to stand up straight, and possibly even move around easily, but it obviously did not come without it's disadvantages.

Due to the fact that a fusion magic spell at the assimilation level was being cast, the time speed and efficiency of all Swift's other spell would undoubtedly reduce by a considerable margin. His natural superior speed would also be greatly impeded as he would require a good amount of time to acquaint himself to his new makeshift Mana made prosthetics.

'he may have found a way around your earlier game plan, but the situation is still salvageable. He already has a high level spell activated so all his future ones as well as his signature high speed would most definitely take a hit. You can capitalize on this.' Grim, who had been quiet for quite some time now, imputed.

'i know.' Levi responded simply as he dubiously eyed Swift's other limbs while trying to come to a conclusion on which particular one he would target next.

 A rookie mistake actually as Swift's animal instincts had allowed him pick up on the former's gaze and by extension, his intentions.

"Growl..grrr." Swift growled viciously as he felt somewhat threatened by the look in Levi's eyes.

It was obvious to any casual or professional observer that Levi had the upper hand in this battle. Based solely off of pure power, Swift was not a match for Levi. It was an expected outcome, seeing as his power had increased exponentially by three fold!

'left hind leg.' Levi made his decision. He moved.

*Fwoosh!*

The sound was heard as Levi's body swiftly moved around Swift's static figure while maintaining a set distance at a speed which was not possible for even the most extensively trained adults, much less his age group.

He circled around Swift, but the latter's cautious gaze never left him even when he was moving at such high velocity.

Suddenly, Levi stopped running. Then he repositioned himself to face Swift's side before charging forward once again. Turning around in a manner beffiting of his name, Swift tried to cast a spell. But he found his endeavours much more difficult than he would have imagined.

He wanted to conjure up some normal wind blades. But he found out that if he did so, his prosthetics would come undone, so he had to settle for something less complex than a compressed crescent of wind.

He actually decided on a wind barrier, but he had already wasted far too much time as he was forced to receive an upper cut to the jaw by his opponent.

*BAM!*

Immediately the hit connected, Swift's body flew up a good meter off from the ground and Levi promptly grabbed his left hind limb before applying all the pressure he could muster from his now greatly enhanced muscles.

*SNAP!*

Again, the sound of breaking bones resonated throughout the woods as Levi had successfully accomplished his objective. From the pain of the two broken limbs, to his inadequate mastery of assimilation to cater for two destroyed limbs, Swift was essentially crippled.

Levi had won the fight.

Realizing that his opponent was down and out for the count, a wide grin spread across Levi's face. He was ecstatic.

Who wouldn't be? After all, this was actually his first REAL fight with a considerable knowledge of aether.....and he had won!

'finally, my losing streak is over!' Levi celebrated internally at his breaking free of what could only be called a losing syndrome. But at the time, he could never realize that he had just jinxed himself.

'hurray. Good for you. But you should really start heading back to the den, night is already approaching and that Alpha bastard could be anywhere. I don't need to tell you what would happen if we ran into him once again right?' Grim said. His words, although true, instantly murdered the joyous atmosphere around Levi.

'urgh, you are such a buzz kill Grim, you know that?' Levi asked as he got to work and hoisted the crippled wolf on his back. He immediately regretted his decisions as Swift viciously clawed at his back and neck when Levi tried to carry him.

"Ow." Levi moaned and instantly dropped Swift off his back, causing the wolf to hit the ground with a loud 'thud!' as he could not actually do anything.

'i wonder how a cat would have reacted in this scenario.....oh, never mind that. I need to take some preventive measures against this guy's wildness.' Levi thought as he used aether skin to focus on just his fists. 

What followed next was a very....sadistic display.

*SNAP!*

*SNAP!*

*SNAP!*

The very disturbing sound of bones breaking echoed throughout the woods as Levi mercilessly destroyed Swift's remaining limbs, as well as his jaw to prevent him from biting.

Hoisting the wolf up for a second time, Levi was pleased to discover that he did not offer any form of resistance unlike last time....not like he even could anyways. He began walking.

'yeah. So, where was I?...oh yeah, grim you are a fucking mood killer!' Levi continued the idle chatter which he had engaged with his incorporeal partner.

'oh I'm sorry. Forgive me for worrying about m–our lives. And even then, you are the least qualified person on the planet to call another person a mood killer. Have you heard yourself speak before? You sound like a whiny middle aged salary man!' Grim retorted.

The two engaged in a completely silent idle banter as no one else could ever intrude their conversation. But due to this fact, the two had temporarily let their guards down. A mistake which they would very soon come to regret.

Levi continued walking back in the direction of the den while engaging his partner in a lively and entirely private conversation. But then a slight, almost negligible, sound of a breaking twig drew his attention back to reality and towards the direction from which the sound had originated. That purely coincidental occurrence would be what saved his life that day.

Fwoosh~!

Levi moved. In a motion that was purely instinctual, Levi managed to move his body just in time before a previously invisible stinger appeared exactly where his neck had been.

Jumping away from the location of the attack once more for safe measure, Levi whipped his head towards where the stinger had come from and was forced to stare pop-eyed at the creature that currently clinged to the bark of a hard wood tree.

Clinging to the hard stem of a tree like the arboreal predator that it was, was a creature who looked like a cross between a lizard and a scorpion. 

It possessed thick dark purple scales as well as a lizard like head that donned a sizeable horn at the centre. Its mouth resembled that of a scorpion as two large mandibles graced its edges while the rest of it was lined with short razor sharp teeth. 

It was a four legged beast that possessed a tail which coiled and protruded into an obsidian stinger, instead of the usual long one. 

'mana beast?' Levi

asked, even though he already knew the answer. It was obvious.

'yeah.'