A few minutes had passed since Levi sent his bodyguard on a wild goose chase, and he was currently squatting behind some bushes with his eyes closed. The reason why was about to become apparent.
As Levi closed his eyes, memories of his fights with Ara and Tio flooded into his head.
The memories included times when he had activated Aether cloak in battle, and times when the Aether cloak came undone due to the unnecessary thoughts that popped up on his mind.
Reading through the book again, he had noticed a paragraph on Aether cloak which he had initially missed due to his excitment. In truth, Aether cloak was a technique that allowed one to hide their presence, but in return they would become more aware of their own existence leading to the surfacing of many irrelevant and unnecessary thoughts.
The technique was already a tricky one by itself, but adding on top the side effect rose the difficulty required to master to a nigh impossible level.
'the aether cloak is a very good ability on paper, but when being used by a newbie, it is quite bad as the side effect makes it quite impractical. If I want to make this into a proper battle skill, then I must be able to use this without dedicating much concentration to it. I need to make it like walking, running, frowning or any other action I could do on a whim, I need to better my handle over it, and what better way to do that than by hunting with it.' Levi thought.
Reducing the amount of concentration required for the skills activation was the only solutionhe could think of at the time.
After his introspection, he finalized his plan and focused his gaze on his targets. There were a few normal rabbits hopping around here and there, they were going to be the targets, the practice dummies. From the blood red shade of their irises, it would easy to discern that they were not normal rabbits.
'I apologize in advance for what I'm about to go to you. But would you all mind dying for me?' Levi thought.
'oh would you quit it with the overly sarcastic monologue. You don't give two sh*ts about those rabbits' lives do you?' Grim said.
'right again, my friend.' Levi chuckled for we time before finally deciding to get serious.
Aether passed through his aether structure and rose up from his body, he quickly started to compress the Aether closely to his skin whole also constricting it from entering his muscles and transforming into another thing, while also preventing it from bursting out and alerting the targets of his presence.
If the Compressed Aether burst out, then all of Levi's blood lust would not only be released abruptly, but also magnified to extents that even babies could feel a crawl on their skin. It was a very tricky technique.
'the activation part isn't too hard anymore, maintaining it is the real problem.' Levi thought as an outline of blue aura clung to his skin. Aether cloak had been fully activated without a hitch.
'aether skin fools most of their senses, except the sight. I need to keep out of his view unless it's game over.' Levi determined and moved.
He slowly emerged from the bushes and made his way to the unfortunate young rabbit that stood close by, it was completely oblivious to the existence of a predator, much more the predators intentions.
Levi gingerly moved towards the rabbit who had his back turned on him. He did his absolute best to suppress the unnecessary thoughts that surfaced, breaking a bit more than a few sweats in the process, and when he finally got close enough.....
'aaaaaand now!' Levi screamed inwardly and prounced in his target. He stretched out his hand towards his target, but just as he was about the catch it, the useless thoughts which he had been trying do hard to suppress assaulted him all at once.
'am I close enough for this.'
'i don't think I would reach it.'
'is my stance correct, I don't think I can make it.'
'no, I can make it. Or will I?'
'i wonder if the thing has a family.'
'uhhhh shut up, me!'
There were his thoughts and as such, their number increased and not even an entire second passed.
As a result of this, his aether cloak fell apart once again and a sdden burst of killing intent radiated from Levi. It took only a split second for the rabbit to discover Levi's existence and run away at full speeds with its tail between it's legs.
Even the other ones who hadn't yet noticed Levi's presence immediately turned tail and ran away as fast as their small legs could carry them.
"Aaargh!" Levi shouted out in frustration.
"What the heck is this even. It always happens at the critical moment, the moment that decides everything!" Levi didn't even bother lowering his voice. There was no point as all the animals in the area had cleared out. They were tremendously shocked by Levi's killing intent.
"Cr*p! Just what is it that I'm missing!" Levi yelled out.
'hmm. I think...maybe. just maybe that could be it. Oi Levi, I need you to do someore hunting. ASAP' Grim said.
"Eh? I was gonna, but why?" Levi asked. He didn't understand his partners intentions.
'good. I have a theory I want to test out.' Grim said.
Levi questioned further for more answers, but Grim just shrugged him off saying:
'don't worry. You will find out in due time.'
Levi decided not to pry any more and just went along with Grim's instructions.
——–
Else where, Swift and the other three scouts had returned. Each carrying a deer on their backs.
"Huh? Where did those two humans go?" He asked his followers and all three of then just nodded their heads in abject ignorance.
"I guess even you guys don't know." Swift said as the gears in his brain started turning.
'where the hell could those two be? Maybe they went back to the den or could they have gotten captured or killed? I hope not. The man can die, but his majesty would be very disappointed in me if I let the boy die.'
'i need to go back to the den and check for them, but the who will watch over these three. They will definitely get killed if that Alpha attacks. I swear I would not forgive them of any of the pack members die because of them.'
'uh. What to do in such a difficult situation. If I let these two go back on their own then there is still a chance that they might run into that demon bear, likewise if I let them stay and go by myself.'
'hmm....it would be a bit slower, but safer if we all stay here and search for them before returning to the den and checking for them there. I'll go with that one' Swift concluded and instructed his pack members.
He told them to spread out and search, but that they shouldn't stray too far away. He also instructed them to meet back up there in an hour, placing a lot of empahis on this particular request.
"Che...This is why I hate babysitting humans." Swift said, and begrudgingly walked in search of the lost humans.
——–
In an open field that was completely free of trees and the sort, Levi sat on the ground, looking depressed.
It was his third attempt, and he had just messed up yet another catch, and failed to achieve any progress in holding on to his concentration.
He had by now moved a good distance away from the area where Swift instructed them to stay as Levi had to walk a long distance to find another target each time his Aether cloak burst and scared away all the animals.
"Hey Grim. Any luck?" Levi asked. His partner had been oddly silent all the while, probably putting the finishing touches on his theory.
'yes. I think I've finally got it, the reason why you keep on messing up your hunts.'
"Oh? Please do tell." Levi said.
'Gladly.'
'you see, during the time when you were about to complete your hunts. At the moment of Truth, your concentration always falters due to the bubbling up of those irrelevant thoughts. But as I am sure that you are by now aware, those thoughts seem to resurface more easily at these moments of truths, and the reason for that is but a simple matter of composure.'
'composure?' Levi asked.
'exactly. I monitored your heart rates during this moment, and each time it always spiked as you were about to complete the mission. Your body gets too tensed at the critical moments and as a result, the unnecessary thoughts have an easier time resurafcing. Your own mentality is what is hindering your own growth.' Grim explained.
Levi kept silent for a while, contemplating Grim's words and he discovered that there was truth to them. He sought a solution.
"Ok.So how do I cure my problem?" Levi asked.
'i'm sorry, but I can't help you there.' Grim said.
"Huh?" Levi muttered as his eyes went wide with surprise.
"What does that mean?" Levi asked. He could not believe that even Grim was stumped on his problem.
'it means exactly what it is. I am your partner, a sentient self of the book of shadows. I do not require your existence to live, but it is much easier that way. I have no control over your body and I can't control any of your physical body processes even if you let me, at least not yet.' Grim said, but Levi still wasn't giving up.
"Still.....isn't there anything. Any advice you can give or something?" Levi asked, he was very desperate to find a solution to his problems.
'...all I can say is that your lack of composure stems from fear.'
'fear?'
"Fear of what?" Levi queried.
'that I cannot say.' Grim said and retreated to a corner of his own mind. A place where even Levi didn't have access to with the telepathic link.
'he is not yet aware of it, but I can still sense it through our telepathic link. This child is still afraid of aether itself. His experience with humans has taught him to never rely on anyone or anything lest he gets betrayed. This problem was solved after that time when he faced off against the uncontrollable aether,but the fear re rooted itself in hisbeing after he started frequently losing control of himself.'
'He still feels like aether would betray him and make him run mad. His OWN aether for that matter, but this is not something I can interfere with. My theory itself still had a few loop holes like what was the true cause of his madness and a few others so I can't say anything to him. He needs to figure this out on his own or else it would come back to bite him.'
'he said I'm afraid. Afraid if what exactly?' Levi thought.
'could it be the fear of killing. No, I don't feel anything when I attack to kill. I don't think I'd even hesitate to kill a human, much less an animal. But if it's not that, then what could it be?'
Levi contemplated. He sat quietly on the warm grass for almost an hour as the sun began to receed into the horizon.
The warm high noon breeze blew against his face and skin as he introspected. It was at that moment, that an epiphany came over him.
"I got it...."
".....oh and, it took you quite some time to find me." Levi said as he turned towards his eback ever so slightly.
A figure hidden in the leaves began to slowly emerge. As the figure drew closer, it's trade mark white fur brushed against the bushes making quite some noise. It did not seem to care though as Levi was already aware of his presence. The four limbs slowly came into light,allowing Levi to draw a perfect conclusion.
It was Swift.
The wolf was currently treading slowly towards Levi who still sat with his back turned, but a single glance was enough for Levi with his usual perceptive to notice that something was amiss.
'something is wrong.' Levi though as he proceeded to more closely study Swift's facial expression. There was an intense anger being radiated from his eyes.
It would have been a normal reaction. As he had probably been searching for Levi for quite some time, but Swift's eyes shone an incredible madness.
It was a mixture of anger, rage, worry, sadness and frustration. He looked like a not so mentally inclined serial killer.
"The others...." Swift said in a low tone.
"Excuse me?" Levi said. He couldn't pick up on the sound even with his naturally advanced senses.
"The others! Where are the other wolves!!" Swift yelled in an angered voice, akin to the road if a powerful beast.
A/N:
Hey guys, dream_101 here. I am really sorry about not posting any chaps yesterday. For some reason, I could not log into my webnovel account. But I have handled it and the second chap for missing yesterday's will follow sonn after this one.
Special thanks to my usuals; halis_eren_balaban and Epic_Buddie123 for the ps. If you want to join them in receiving my gratitude, then you can vote, comment and review.
Thank you, and expect the second chapter!!