As Levi gazed at his opponents; the stingers who had now kicked the difficulty level of the already hard fight up by quite a few notches, he had only one thought.
'damn.'
*HISS*
loud and threatening hissing noises resounded as Levi cursed inwardly. He was more than justified for the act as the stingers' already hard shell obtained an extra level of earthern thickness and their long scorpion like stingers curved over their heads while pointing directly at their human target, with a tip that had also experienced an increment in lenght ansd sharpness, fully showcasing the imposing aura of their lethality.
Obviously, Levi could utterly crush these stingers individually, but their significantly large numbers made up for that. And complimented further by their fusion magic, it was not too much of a stretch to say that Levi did not have the upper hand in this situation.
Levi was also very wary about their elder as it's crimson eyes dangerously locked on to Levi's figure. It seemed to be studying the humans every movement, for now at least, as it had apparently not made any noticeable movements.
It was still perched on the tree. An occurence which Levi was still deeply confused about.
'it's goal is to secure food, then why has he not gone after Swift yet? I mean, the wolf is literally a sitting duck up there.' Levi thought confusedly.
'i can see that too. Could it be waiting for something, or i it just that clueless? The second one is highly unlikely. Damn, I hate having too little information about these type of things!' Grim yelled. Levi could feel his unmistakable frustration through their telepathic link.
Grim truly was a sucker for knowledge.
'well, he does not seem to be doing anything suspicious, so for now i think we should focus on the problem in front of us.' Levi said to his partner as he cracked his knuckles and prepared himself for battle.
'yeah. Let us do just that.' Grim responded positively, but Levi could easily discern from his mischievous tone that he was plotting something. Something incredibly devious.
'what are you plotting?' Levi could not help his curiosity, his desire to know was gnawing at him and he could hardly suppress it.
'never mind that....duck!' Grim screamed. As always, the best way to dodge a question one would rather not answer was to draw the asker's attention away.
Heeding Grim's warnings without so much as a single doubt, Levi bent his knees and squatted down at a speed which was only possible thanks to his enhanced physical capabilities.
*Fwoosh*
Levi heard the sound of something seemingly slicing through the air and raised his eyes to see that a stinger had just stabbed at him!
"che.." Clicking his tongue in a slight annoyance at the beast disrupting his telepathic conversation, Levi threw his palm out and grabbed the blackish brown head of the creature that had tried to murder him.
He then squeezed hard.
"kiiiek!!"
*Pop!*
The creatures pained shriek was followed by a popping noise as Levi practically busted the head of the beast.
Releasing his grip, Levi allowed the corpse of the creature to fall to the floor like the lifeless carcass that it was while it's purple coloured blood stained his arms as well as the earth beneath.
After doing so, he stared at his palms for a bit. He watched as the thick purple blood stuck to his skin like a magnet. His thoughts though were completely different from what any normal person would expect from a twelve year old boy.
'the fusion magic increased their defenses by a lot. I had to use close to my full strength just to crush it's head.' Levi reflected and made a mental note to himself. He seemed to have underestimated the defensive abilities of these creatures by quite a lot.
'two behind you, one in front of you and another at your left.' Grim promptly reported.
Levi did not waste anytime in taking action. Quickly moving his head to discern the one with closest proximity to himself.
'the one on the left.' Levi thought decisively and immediately moved.
*fwoosh*
Dodging the barrage of sting attacks from the stinger on the left, Levi made his way around the creature- to it's side and kicked it's ribs. Or at least, what was supposed to be its ribs. The only thing that was for certain was that, Levi performed the action without holding back.
*CRACK!*
The sound of bones breaking was heard as the victim flew upwards due to the force with it's mouth part gaped wide and its unusually long tongue sticking out. A smirk tugged Levi's lips as the creature fell before dying.
'another one down. If it continues this way, then i might actually win this.' Levi thought optimistically for the first time in a very long while.
He had just made the rookie mistake of believing that the state of the battlefield would not change. He had also temporarily forgotten about his terribly bad luck. But as always, life had it's own unique way of waking us back to reality.
*CHOMP!*
'Ugh!" Levi moaned in pain as he suddenly felt a sharp pain shoot up from his shoulder area, something incredibly sharp had just penetrated his enhanced skin!
He looked down. He saw a sizeable stinger head with its powerful mandibles stuck in Levi's flesh!
Instinctively, he grabbed the beast by his head and swiftly separated its mandibles from his skin before tossing it away and into the distance. But the damage had already been done.
'shit.' Levi cussed in his mind as he sized up the damage that had been done to him. it was a significantly deep bite wound!
"Why you..." Levi said as he was about to just charge straight at the beast who had injured him in rage, but his plans were practically stopped in their tracks.
*STAB!*
Yet another shot of pain erupted as Levi felt an object with a pointed tip pierce through the upper part of his left thigh.
"fuck!" This time, Levi could not help but curse aloud as the pain assaulted him.Yes, he had a high tolerance to pain for his age, but it did not mean that he enjoyed being subjected to it. In fact, no one did. Except of course for those crazed masochists who undoubtedly had more than a few screws loose.
Twisting his torso, Levi threw his arms at the creature's stinger. Picking it up with both hands, he exerted much of his strength before ripping it apart completely.
*RIP!*
"Kiiiek!"
A ripping noise sounded as Levi ruthlessly tore through the beasts' muscles before savagely pulling out the sting that impaled his thigh then tossing it aside.
Although it had just gotten an undoubtedly important part of it's bodily structure ruthlessly amputated, it was not dead yet. It just squirmed on the ground in a rather disturbing fashion while amethyst blood oozed from its wound.
Throwing his body forward in an attempt to finalize the beast's papers to the after life, Levi suddenly got attacked from his side.
He tried to act, but the stingers would not give him a chance as they relentlessly attacked the human from all sides. It was the swarming tactic!
The swarming tactic. A supremely cowardly but effective method of attack as it allowed even the weakest of individuals to overpower a much stronger one by ganging up on them with their numbers and subjecting the victim to a barrage of attacks in several directions.
Levi was cornered. He felt his skin getting stabbed and bitten from all sides. He tried to retaliate somewhat by throwing punches and kicks in random directions, but to no avail as his attacks always came up short and met with thin air, resulting in even more wounds as the stingers knew how to take advantage of openings.
'ugh...they are good at this, but....' Levi still had one more trick up his sleeve.
Temporarily disabling his aether skin, Levi used the basic aether technique which was without a doubt made for this sort of scenario.
Gathering a sizeable amount of Aether from his core, Levi pushed it to the edge of his skin then applied pressure before allowing it to burst out in an omnidirectional wave of pure power.
*BOOM!*
Naturally, the aether wave was much stronger from the last time he used it as he had increased the level of his core. The explosion of aether had managed to completely daze the stingers who were in close proximity to him, but the ones a bit farther away were only pushed back and suffered a slight case of dizziness.
It was not much, but definitely more than enough for the opportunistic Levi to take action.
Reactivating aether skin, Levi stepped on the head of the beast which he had amputated. Fortunately or unfortunately, the creature was still in close proximity to him.
Applying force in the downward direction, he maliciously murdered the creature by squashing its head. He then concentrated the aether to his skin, causing his epidermis to grow much stronger and durable.
'take out the head and the rest of the body parts are as good as dead.' Levi had this thought as he swiftly dashed forward. And much like a wild boar he charged into and through the horde of stingers before quickly making his way towards the elder stinger who still had not moved
The beast did not move. It did not even flinch or bat an eye as its gaze was still locked onto the human charging at it. Levi got a very unsettling feeling at this as his gut warned him deeply against advancing forward, but he did not stop.
thirty meters...
twenty....
ten.....
five....
Levi closed the distance in a few short seconds as all of his focus was directed towards the opponent in front of him. He was watching. He exerted his superhuman observational skills to the limit as he remained vigilant of the beast's every movement.
But then, something....or someone, to be more exact, interrupted him.
"NOOO! STOPPP!....COUGH!" Swift shouted from the top the tree, straining his vocal chords immensely as he even coughed out blood!
"What?" Levi unknowingly uttered as the sudden shout from the wounded wolf disrupted his focus, causing him to shift his gaze towards the beast on the branch.
'what could that be.....oh shit!' Levi thought as he finally put two and two together, but by then it was already too late.