Chapter 50: Levi vs Stingers[4]

The stingers trembled in fear as they gazed submissively at Levi's imposing figure. They could not sense aether or anything of the sort, but they were still animals and as such, they still possessed the beastly instincts which were inherent to their race.

This human was not the same as before, he was currently not to be messed with!

As Levi's gaze swept across the battle field, his opponents' panic and unrest was all to apparent.The highly distressed looks on their faces caused the mischievous grin on Levi's face to do the impossible and widen even further.

Shifting his gaze from the stingers down to his hands, he clenched and unclenched his fists a number of times. He was trying to get a feel for his new found strength as throughout both his lives, he had only ever felt this powerful once before.

It was back then when he fought against the rebellious Aether, back then he felt overwhelmingly powerful. He truly believed that he could crush every and all of his opponents easily, without much effort. He felt absolute.

'So this is how it feels to be five times stronger exponentially...it feels awesome.' Levi thought as the aether clung to his skin perfectly, allowing a dark blue aura of power to hang around his being. What's more, he did not even have to put any effort into this as Grim perfectly handled everything for him.

He usually did not like feeling that he relied on someone else this much, but his bond with Grim had already gone beyond that stage. Besides, one who did not make use of everything within within their abilities to gain what they desired was either an unrivaled genius or a conceited fool.

It was a shame that no one else could sense aether, because Levi looked so damn cool right now.

'I don't wanna have to deal with you later so I would rather tell you this right now. You are still nowhere near the level which you are supposed to reach later on. In fact, you have yet to even begin learning shadow magic. So pull the brakes on those fantasies of yours will you?' Said the incorporeal consciousness. He was right.

Levi had merely just begun his journey to the top. He had experienced a good number of fights, considering the given time, but he was yet to even come close to any of the true power houses of this world. To even have a fighting chance against such individuals, he would require shadow magic, an art he had yet to even begin learning.

The fact that he had yet to even scratch the surface of his potential made him excited. His heart raced as he stared mischievously at his future victims. 

He took another step forward. The gesture was followed by an apparently horrified reaction from the stingers as they scrambled backwards—away from the human. It was as though they were all fighting against each other to not be in the front line when Levi attacked. But Levi had already resolved to kill them all off, so their actions mattered not.

The stingers, including Kadal, all kept their eyes locked on the human. They were waiting for him to make the first move. Hopefully, he would make a mistake and allow them a chance to escape—they thought. But of course, nothing ever goes as planned.

In an instant, Levi's figure disappeared. Seemingly blurring out of existence, but the stingers knew better than that as they immediately translated the occurence. Levi had moved, and very quickly at that.

They scrambled to get away. The where to, or the how did not matter in the slightest. All they wished for was to somehow escape their current predicament. Unfortunately though, they were not fast enough.

"Kiieiek!!"

"Kieeek!!"

Pained shrieks that sent shrills through even Kadal's spine soon resounded as two accursed stingers met their untimely end due to a powerful fist that carried impossible force, smashing through their fusion magic like it was some sort of expired wood.

Levi had commenced the carnage from the beasts in front of him. Advancing through the horde of beasts while dealing a barrage of lethal blows that reaped the lives of stingers left and right upon contact.

The species's amethyst blood splashed all over the battlefield each time Levi's attack connected, dyeing the earth beneath as well as Levi's clothes and face a bright and nauseatingly thick purple blood. But the latter did not mind this.

Who could blame him though? After all, he was having a whole lot of fun with all this. From the refreshing feeling of coming one step closer to completing his revenge each time he killed a stinger, to the deadly efficiency he managed to achieve while working in tandem with Grim, he literally had no choice but to feel awesome.

With Grim controlling the aether, he did not have to strain his mind too much by splitting his focus between the aether and the fight. Of course, he could easily use the 3% Aether skin with ease by now, but then his efficiency would not be as high as it is currently.

The two of them were in perfect sync as one dealt with the enemies in front, while the other provided the power as well as useful battle information; the proximity of the stingers, those who were trying to get away, and even the still conceited ones who were till trying to pull something by sneaking up from supposed blind spots. 

It was truly a wondrous sight. A fact that the creature who spectated in a visible horror from above could testify to. 

Swift watched the entire fight go down in awe, as well as an unmistakable fear. His fear though stemmed from a single fact that he knew at the time.

'he was definitely not this strong at the beginning....' Swift contemplated inwardly.

 He had fought Levi just a few minutes before the fight, and although he knew that Levi could indeed be considered powerful, he was not this powerful.

His impeccably lethal strikes flowed perfectly into one another as he brutally laid waste to the mana beasts on the battlefield with a fear inducing efficiency. It was amazing, but immensely scary at the same time.

The fact that Levi could undergo such a tremendous evolution in the middle of such an intense battle spoke volumes of him. From that, one could infer that he was treating this fight as some sort of training which was merely more intense than usual.

He was growing. It was normal for people to adapt to their situation and evolve accordingly, getting stronger and growing in the process. But the rate at which Levi grew was far too quick, it was alarming.

'How did he even manage this in such a short period of time?.....At this level, maybe he can even challenge the leader.....oh what am I thinking, he could never reach HIS level, could he?' Swift debated inwardly. 

His narrow mind and train of thought was born from the fact that he had spent most of his days as a mana beast beside Raja. Being his right hand man, he had this inaccurate notion that nobody could beat his leader.....except of course, the demon bear.

'Well, one thing is for certain at least. This guy is truly a monster...I now see why master was so interested in him. With him by our side, maybe we could actually....win?' Swift thought as his gaze locked on Levi's nigh flawless movements, almost getting entranced by it. Each of his blows, released the highest possible output in a fluid chain like system.

The feat gave him hope. That maybe, just maybe, they would be able to defeat their long time enemy. But then Swift realized that he was getting carried away. He brought himself back and reprimanded himself for forgetting such an important thing. 

'No! He and his fellow human were responsible for the death of my brethren, I won't forgive him, even if he is an essential battle asset.' By this time, Swift had somehow convinced himself that Levi and John were the one's responsible for the cub's disappearance and possible death. It was evident by the matter-of-factly tone that clung to his words.

It only took about a minute more for Levi to clear the remaining enemies, leaving the battlefield littered in stinger corpses, both whole and amputated, as well as a few stray body parts from the amputated mana beasts. It was an utter mess, as if a hurricane had gone by.

All that was left was Kadal, but he was already in a half dead state as his body had been reduced to an extremely grotesque form. His mandibles had seemingly been plucked out of his mouth as purple blood oozed from the artificially made crevices. Two out of his four limbs had been amputated as the remaining two could not even be called limbs any more, his shell donned several cracks all over. Blood dripped from the smaller cracks as the larger ones revealed his extremely weak and tender bare skin that had a pinkish hue.

Not only was Kadal's body broken, but so was his mind. It was apparent due to the fact that he was currently begging for mercy as Levi held him from the neck, high above his head. His retched limbs dangled lifelessly in mid air and there was literally nothing he could do to escape his predicament.

Two minutes had not even gone by since then, but their positions had already been utterly switched. The occurence bore witness to the table turning capabilities of Levi's newfound might.

"ugh..p-p-please...mercy..." Despite his bloodied mouth region, Kadal still somehow managed to muster enough energy to utter his plea, in hopes of garnering some semblance of pity from the human. A pointless hope, but daring nonetheless.

Levi wholly ignored Kadal's words as he said nothing in response, just stared at him with a triumphant grin that struck terror into Kadal's being each time he set his eyes upon it. Unfortunately for the stinger, Levi had already decided his fate a long time ago.

Pulling his free arm backwards, he curled his hand into a ball shaped fist before tightening his grip on Kadal's neck. He was planning to finish the beast off with a single strike to the mid section, but he was not about to let a perfectly good chance like this one to slip from his hands and would not fail to leave behind a.....parting message of sorts.

"You asked that I forgive you....right?" Levi asked a question, to which Kadal nodded his head furiously in an affirmative response. He really did not want to die yet, it was quite unfortunate.

Receiving his response, Levi leveled his gaze to meet Kadal's terrified eyes. He opened his mouth to speak again. He asked yet another question. With his breath steady and even, and his tone supremely mischievous, he said:

"Why should I?"