Chapter 15: Mana beast[2].

As the bear like mana beast raised it's arm, mana moved from its body and fire began to gather around it's hands. Levi could sense the mana gathering as well as his impending doom, there was no way to escape.

'there is no safe escape route, but if I can distract it's attention then maybe I can make a run for it....'. Levi reasoned.

'you will need a proper distraction though'. Grim said. Levi thought about this words for a moment before an idea clicked in his head. His face turned dubious as a mischievous smile found it's way to his face. Grim could sense that whatever Levi had come up with, it was not going to end well....for him at least.

'w-what are you thinking about?.....'. Grim asked.

'there's no point explaining it in this internal monologue, you can read my mind'. Levi said, the evil smile still plastered on his face as his hand reached into his bag.

At this point, grim had gone through Levi's mind and immediately shouted, 'No!'. But Levi wasn't going to take a no for an answer.

'fortunately or unfortunately, you have no say in this'. Levi said with a mind shrug as he pulled out the shadow grimoire from his bag.

'don't you dare! Do you even realize just how big a sin to the shadow arts this?! Do you?! Huh?!'. Grim was screaming, whatever he had seen in Levi's mind couldn't have been good.

Levi totally ignored him and turned his gaze to the beast in front of him. He held the shadow grimoire in his left hand and suddenly started passing large amounts of aether into it, he poured all that he had left into it.

The aether passed through his pores and wrapped around the shadow grimoire. The aether would dissipate into the atmosphere though so he had to act fast. As he pushed out more aether, he felt a drain on his core and a not so small fatigue welled up.

Te beast tilted it's head ever so slightly at Levi's strange actions, it couldn't sense aether but it definitely had very good instincts.

"you said that I didn't have any proper offensive spell....well you're wrong....." Levi said out loud.

'no! No! Please don't do this'. Grim pleaded. He had gone from yelling to straight out begging.

"Witness my self made shadow spell: aether projectile!" Levi shouted as he threw the shadow grimoire straight at the mana beast. The creature easily dodged the projectile but it's curiosity couldn't help but linger on the shadow grimoire which was now laying powerlessly on the ground.

The aether energy settled around it for some time, before it started dissipating. The beast turned towards it and smelt the book while making a confused expression.

'ugh...' Grim groaned as the beast growled at him. It's bad breath assaulting Grim's imaginary nostrils.

The beast studied Grim for a few more seconds before it lost interest. It turned away from him and back to his prey, but unfortunately there was a problem with that as Levi was now gone..

Mana beasts were curious existences, after all it was their curiosity that led them to discovering mana. Levi had read about it in a certain book, he had no way of knowing whether it was true or not so this was in its own way a gamble.

"Huff...huff..." Levi breathed heavily as he ran through the woods. He was going in the wrong direction and his stamina was decreasing, but he was running for his life so those things hardly mattered.

Levi didn't bother watching out for trees or obstacles, he knew that the mana beast was right on his tails so he had no time to worry about such things. He fell and picked himself up, sustaining quite a few injuries in the process.

Levi ran and ran and ran, until he finally started running out of gas. His mind was still strong and his will to run away unwavering, but his body was failing him.

'Screw my laziness goddamnit....ugh, so much for not losing as long as I have aether!' Levi yelled in his mind.

He felt his pace decrease as fatigue caught up to him, his movements slowed down as his body deeply protested against moving onwards. He switched gears from running to jogging to walking to half crawling, as he couldn't move without support from trees.

'this...this should be enough...right?'. Levi thought as his stamina hit rock bottom.

His thoughts were immediately interuppted by the presence of the mana beast resurfacing. He could feel the beast getting closer and closer, he needed to get away. He needed to hide.

'i can't allow Grim's sacrifice to go to waste....' he thought. The pressure from the mana beast was getting closer, and his ears were even able to pick up on the slightest sound of footsteps.

He continued half- crawling for a few more minutes until he could no longer move. He collapsed.

'i'm spent'. Levi thought as he lay unmoving on the floor. The mana beast was getting closer and Levi's inevitable end was approaching.

'this is it I guess....I'm sorry Grim..' Levi thought as he closed his eyes. The bear like mana beast had finally caught up and was no less than a few meters away. There was no escaping now.....or so he thought.

*Fwoosh*

The sound of a sharp breeze was heard as Levi's body suddenly mounted on something.

'Huh? What going on?' Levi thought as he opened his eyes to determine his situation, but all that greeted him was the sight of his body moving further away from the ground and his predator. The corner of his eyes also sighted a white furry tail.

Powerful winds blew against his face as he seemed to be manuvering through the air. His mount was quite skillfull in wind magic, whoever or whatever it was.

The sight of the large mana beast roaring violently filled his sight as he continued 'moving through the air', it's deadly fangs were bared as Levi escaped. For whatever reason, the mana beast was suddenly pissed.

'haha...eat that, you damn bear!' he thought as his mount escaped, fully disappearing from the bear's line of sight.

They didn't stop moving though until they approached a cave. Levi's mount landed on the ground. The mount seemed to be a four legged creature. It walked, with Levi still strewn across it's back to the inside of the cave where it dropped Levi on the cold ground.

By now, Levi was only half conscious as his eyes faced the dark cave's ceiling. He was fighting to keep himself awake, so that he could determine his actual situation. He wanted to see the faces of his benefactors, but he currently did not have enough strength to sit up.

As time passed, more and more of his 'benefactors' entered the room. It was there that Levi determined that they were all not human as they all had four dog like legs and very non human like features.

He became alerted and drew upon strength from the deepest depths of his being. He sat up and was totally flabergasred at the true identities of his benefactors.

'holy sh*t! Mana beasts?!' he inwardly screamed as he looked at the room full of wolf like mana beasts.

The wolves were a few times larger than normal, but they weren't up to the size of an average human, they had immaculate white fur and green eyes.

At this point, Levi had suppressed any urge to pass out. He was on edge and his senses were on high alert.

'not only are they large in number, I let them surround me! Damn it, I have to get outta here!' Levi thought as his eyes once again searched for an escape route to no avail.

'sh*t! Maybe I can escape if I use another aether burst?..no they would definitely catch up to me, and there's still that bear thing roaming around outside'. Such were Levi's thoughts at the moment. His expression outside was calm, but internally he was in a frenzy.

The room was noisy as the wolves were busy murmuring in their language. But all that came to an end as a certain existence entered the room.

Levi was pulled out of his thoughts by the emergence of a presence which was similar to the bear's.

'what's going on?' Levi asked himself.

His question was soon answered as the crowd opened up to a path. Treading majestically on said path was the creature responsible for the dominating aura in the room.

The creature was a wolf just like his brethren, but it's white fur shone more immaculately than any of the others and it also had streaks of black. It's eyes were a deep green that radiated intensity and regal, it had a green coloured crystalline stone implanted on it's chest that signified it's position. He was undoubtedly the alpha of the pack.

'this guy is definitely the boss around here'. Levi quite easily determined.

The beast walked up to where Levi sat and stood right before him. The beast looked down on him with it's powerful eyes before it opened it's mouth....to speak?!

A/N:

Specia thanks once again to my very consistent and loyal supporter, halis_eren_balaban and ujuozee for the power stones. Thanks guys, hope that you continue to support this series.