Chapter 46: Other threats.

Positioned on a hard wood tree with its vey lethal looking obsidian tail extended to where Levi's head had just been, was a stange creacture which resembled an unusual cross between an overgrown lizard and a similarly sized scorpion.

But anyone would be able to infer with but a single glance that this particlar beast was much more deadlier. Heck, the two could not even be compared to each other in that aspect!

'a mana beast.' said Grim.

'yeah.' Levi answered. He was totally unable to deal his usual retort to his partner as he was still in shock at the sudden and unexpeted nature of the attack. As well as his inability to sense said beast till the last minute, even with aether skin heightening his already great senses.

Without a doubt, the only reason why Levi still breathed was thanks to luck. A very unusual happening, considering his horrible affinity for the vague concept.

"an elder stinger....." Swift muttered with a low voice. Although his jaw was broken and he was unable to weild his powerful canivorous jaw like before, he was still able to speak. Of course, he could not shout or even speak too much, but this was enough for him at the moment.

"what?" Levi asked subconciously. He had in fact heard the wolf's words loud and clear. This was not something unusual considering the wolf was still on his back. 

Though due to the numeros broken bones which he now possesed, there was nothing to reign his limbs and neck in as they just dangled around like useless ornaments.

"But stingers never move by their lonesome, and if this one is here then...." Swift mttered behind Levi's ears. His words, as well as his tone sounded very suspicious as they instilled a mysterious foreboding in Levi's being.

 "what does that m- gasps."Levi's words were disrupted by a surprised gasp as he could only do so much to hide the shock he got from the sitation.

*Hiss!*Hiss!*Hiss!*

Several hissing noises resonated throughout the forest as Levi was not only forced to witness a relatively bizarre sight, but he was also trapped helplessly in the midst of it.

Unbeknownst to Levi, a significantly large group of the species which Swift had earlier referred to as 'stingers' had gathered around Levi and the hurricane wolf, effectively trapping them in an encirclement.

Levi whipped his head around in all directons to gain more data which he would use to properly assess the seemingly precarious situation, before coming to a very prompt conclusion.

'we are trapped.' He thought. It was obvious. 

Suddenly, Levi felt....quite, stupid.

He had been expressely told several times before the beginning of this expedition that there were other threats in the large Estian forest aside from the demon bear, but he still screwed up and let his guard down. 

He was extremely disappointed in himself, such an error was very unbecoming of him.

*HISS!!*

Levi's introspection was suddenly disrupted by a hissing noise from one of the stinger's, as the one who Swift referred to as the elder spoke.

It was quite easy to discern the elder from the rest of the group, as its scales looked much thicker than others. It's tail was a few inches longer and the difference in size was more significant than not.

"My brethren! Rejoice! For we have found our dinner!" Said the elder as it spoke to the other creatures and in response to his words, the other stingers burst into an excited cheer of hisses.

*Hiss*Hiss!*Hiss!*Hiss!*

A few of the stingers burst into an excited hissing, while a few others celebrated by jumping up and shaking their long protruded stinger around slowly. From Levi's perspective, the entire thing seemed even more absurd than usual.

"The wait was long, yes. But no longer shall we wait! No longer! Tonight, we feast like Kings!" The elder said, boosting the morale of its people even further.

His words prompted even more shouts, or more accurately, hisses from the crowd of beasts as a few celebrated more energetically. A few of them were already salivating as they fantasized the taste of their supposed meal.

Levi, who could understand Mana beast speech for some reason, was able to understand the situation going on. Normally, he would have mocked the Mana beasts internally as they were already celebrating when their meal had not even been confirmed, but this time was much different.

Levi wore a very worried expression as traces of the most primordial emotion; fear, could be noticed on his face. Levi was in no way a wuss, but he felt extraordinarily threatened by these stingers.

Not only had they managed to pull the wool over his eyes twice now, but their tails were a lot more dangerous than expected. The newly opened injury on the bridge of his nose was a proof of the fact.

A mere graze had opened a shallow wound from which blood gushed. Levi's aether skin had protected him from further damage, but the fact that the stinger had opened a wound on Levi's aether enhanced skin was a feat in and of itself. There was also really good chance that it was poisonous.

"hey, human." Swift called out to none other than Levi.

Expecting some helpful information or something along those lines from the wolf, Levi responded: "Yeah?" He answered positively, but what he was responded with was obviously not what he had in mind.

"I wanted to be the one to kill you, but I don't think that would be possible now." Said Swift in a low tone that most would consider a whisper. But it was still loud enough for Levi to pick up on it.

Sensing the underlying meaning behind the words, Levi suddenly felt irritated at the hurricane wolf. He said, "Seriously, are we still in that?"

"Do not dare think that just because you defeated me, everything is back to normal. I will never forgive you for what you have done!—ow!" Swift said, his broken jaw retaliated at his raising his voice.

"Urgh, for the last time, i–" Levi was about to say something, but was cut off by none other than his own partner.

'Levi! Forget about him you idiot, if you indulge him then this would go on until he is proven wrong. And right now, you have much much bigger fish to fry.' Grim advised.

'yeah....you are right.' Levi agreed after less than a second of thought.

Offering no more conversation towards the overly bloodthirsty wolf, Levi focused himself on the problem at hand.

The stingers were already slowly closing the radius of the circle which they had drew with Levi as the center point. Drawing nearer to him, stingers and mandibles bared, with each passing second.

There was no time for frivolous conversations and thoughts, Levi had to focus!

Pushing aether out from his core and out of his body, Levi inferred that the stingers had much blunter instincts than the wolfs as they showed no visible reaction to Levi's sudden use of aether.

'they can not sense aether....good to know.' Levi said as a smile tugged his lips. He observed his situation a bit before making a decision.

'first thing is first. Get rid of the extra baggage.' Levi thought as he squatted while focusing all the aether to his leg muscles.

His irises moved as he searched for an appropriate landing zone, before they stopped on the branch of a tall pine tree.

'there!' he thought. The decisive thought was nigh instantaneously followed by a wide burst of power as Levi musterred all the strength in his enhanced legs to perform a superhuman feat.

"Hup!"

*Fwoosh!*

A sound akin to the rippling and tearing of the air itself was heard as Levi jumped upwards. Shattering the records of his former world, Levi managed to achieve a vertical of nearly four fucking meters!

Landing just two branches below his intended spot, Levi thought with a scoff: 'che...not strong enough yet.' It seemed that he had severely over estimated his own capabilities as he was about to enter self deprecating mode again.

'hey, you don't have neither the time nor the leisure to start kicking yourself in the stomach!' Grim pointed out rather rudely. His timely intervention had successfully drawn Levi out of his depressing reverie and diverted his attention back to the precarious situation in front of them.

'you are right.' Levi responded affirmatively as he suddenly felt thankful for Grim's entire existence. No doubt, the latter was definitely doing a lot for him.

"This should be high enough. Although not as much as I would love, the weight and sturdiness of this branch should suffice." Levi muttered under his breath as he cautiously offloaded the wolf on his back, ensuring that his back leaned on the stem of the tree while the rest of his body was balanced properly to prevent him tipping over and falling to the ground at a height from which he would surely lose his life.

*Hiss!*Hiss!*

Hearing numerous hissing noises, Levi looked down intuitively and noticed that the impatient stingers had begun climbing the trees! It was not a strange happening though as they possesed the feet of the arboreal species known as lizards.

"Phoo." Blowing out, Levi dispersed the pressure as he prepared to jump off of the branch and down to the horde of beasts that congregated around the lower stem of the pine tree.

"Levi. Before you go, just be aware that the elder is a D-rank that should be nearly as strong as me while the rest are just fodder E-ranks. The only other thing you have to watch out for is their number and resilience." Swift said with a strained voice. 

"Oh? So you can actually be useful? I did not know." Levi said while letting out a sarcastic shrug.

"Bastard...I am only doing this to survive..." Swift said as he tried to dismissively turn his head....but he could not.

"Is that so." Levi replied, the sarcasm practically oozed from his tone, before he turned away. He saw the stingers that had climbed a good ways up the tree and were by now dangerously close to his location.

*Whoosh!*

Levi jumped off of the branch. He could not use too much force for fear of the branch breaking completely so he had no other choice than to rely on the provisions of gravity.

*Boom!*

*Crunch!*

A boom, followed by the scrunching noise of bones shattering was heard as Levi accompanied by his entire body weight crashed into the hard back shell of a rather unfortunate stinger drawing a pained shriek from it.

"Kiiek!" The beast shreiked as a purplish liquid which Levi identified as the beast's blood sprayed out and the creature breathed it's last.

The elder as well as the other stingers watched as their brethren died before he could even begin to think about retaliation.

"You! Kill him!!" The elder roared and his underlings immediately complied as they also bore a great malice at the one who had murdered one of their own. The thirty plus stingers immediately rushed towards Levi, their stings and powerful mandibles maliciously bared.

'good. I successfully drew their attention away from that wolf, and I also escaped their encirclement.' Levi thought as he dodged the bite of one of the beast's who lunged at him, before throwing a punch to where he could only assume to be it's ribs.

*Crunch*

Yet another crunching noise resounded as Levi felt the slightest resistance from the hard outer shell of the beast. But it was barely significant as Levi's attack served instant death to it's victim.

"Kiiek!!" A battle cry resounded as Levi caught sight of a stinger that was trying to get the drop on him from behind. 

He did not dodge. Instead he spun, before delivering a back heel to the stinger who had tried to sneak up on him from behind, destroying it's jaw and killing it off completely.

Next, he grabbed the scorpion like tail of another stinger lifted it off the ground with the aid of his superhuman strength. Swinging the beast like some sort of flexible bat, he smashed the beast's skull into that of another creature of its own kind. Cracking both their skulls and simultaneously reaping both their lives.

When he did this, he saw the purple substance leaking out of the dead creature's head but he did not relent. Still using the same beast, he swung hard and made use of it's hard back to bash two other stingers who had fearlessly made their approach. Sending them both flying and shrieking in pain.

Dashig forward, Levi discarded his makeshift weapon before using a powerful punch to the side of the head to kill a stinger that foolishly charged straight at him, then using a round house kick to severly injure a rather unfortunate one that just happened to be in his range.

'hmph. This is way too easy.' Levi thought, but would immediately regret it as he soon realized that he had just jinxed himself. But unfortunately for him, time could not be turned back.

"My brethren! Do not just blindly attack. Magic! Use your magic!" The elder ordered his subordinates.

Following their elders words, the stingers shook their heads as if they had just achieved some sort of profound enlightenment.

Signs of Mana usage became visible as the stingers who were naturally inclined to Earth magic started using their magic.

Their already hard shell obtained am extra defensive dark brown layer as they used the first stage of fusion magic—aura.