No hesitation, Levi zoned out the noises and focused mostly on the illuminating chaotic frequencies in his vision.
He neither panicked nor went overboard with his abilities... when he said that Yanhuan could never defeat him, no matter what he tried, Levi wasn’t counting on his powerful arsenal of abilities. He trusted that his skills as a fighter were more than enough to put someone like Yanhuan in his place.
And thus, even when everyone believed that he was losing control of the battle, Levi saw it as nothing more than training for the real horrors awaiting him.
’Here they come...’
Under the stunned looks of the watchers, Levi moved like he was evading attacks from ghosts... He stepped, twisted, leaned, jumped, and even dashed for a brief moment before sliding with his face almost touching the ground.
His movement was as fluid as liquid, and as flexible as a cat... appearing like he was doing a solo dance without music on.
But in the eyes of Wei-Lan, Dominic, Yanhuan, and the rest of the Daywalkers, with an actual sense of what’s going on? His movements left them utterly shaken, unable to blink away.
"Impossible..."
Wei-Lan stood from his chair, his face displaying nothing but disbelief... even Dominic, who was considering saving Levi from the entrapment before a spatial blade claimed his life, was forced to remain in his place.
"Can he see them? How... how can someone blind see this far ahead? Does he already possess Dimensional Sense?" He murmured, stunned.
Their reaction was understandable... they knew that spatial energy, or anything related to it, could not be perceived without its appropriate sense... it was none other than Dimensional Sense.
A sense so rare that not even Yanhuan, Wei-Lan, and other spatial elementalists had access to it. It was considered a dream of many to unlock a mutation related to it, but unfortunately, only a special few entities were gifted such a hidden sense.
Unbeknownst to their thoughts, Levi felt like he was moving through a spatial storm... he was narrowly avoiding cuts that would have torn him apart.
Slowly, but surely... the rest of the watchers began to understand the severity of the situation after noticing the arena’s floor being carved by tens of invisible blades!
’Keep your head in the game... use every possible muscle in your body... failure means death.’
Levi kept repeating this in his mind over and over again while evading the spatial blades without relying on anything but his body’s newfound flexibility, his weapon’s mastery, and his reading of the surrounding frequencies.
Slice! Slice! Slice!...
A spatial blade passed where his head had been a heartbeat earlier... another skimmed past his ribs, close enough to raise goosebumps. Yet, Levi merely spun his staff and slammed it into space.
Boom!
A spatial blade shattered against the indestructible shaft, the impact sending a violent spatial shockwave through the arena, affecting the rest of the blades.
Levi moved again, blocking another blade, then ducking low as a third sliced overhead... each collision echoed like thunder, spatial booms stacking over one another as Levi balanced between defense and evasion!
"..."
"..."
"..."
The arena fell into stunned silence... even the citizens felt their heartbeats increase rapidly at the sight of Levi defying what was believed to be a Death Trap.
No one was stupid enough to dare pull off the same stunt as Levi, understanding that spatial blades weren’t to be f*cked with!
After all, they weren’t a construct of Yanhuan’s abilities... they were a natural byproduct. If there was one law that needed to be respected at all times, it was: Never f*ck with nature.
Yet, Levi was doing exactly this for the sake of nothing but training his reflexes and survivability against a genuine natural threat that was hard to find.
In his eyes, it was simply one of the best training opportunities with just the right amount of risk involved.
Meanwhile, the slight smug victorious smile on Yanhuan’s face slowly faded away as he watched Levi making an absolute fool of his perfect Death Trap that no one had yet survived.
In almost an instant, his head snapped in the direction of his father.
When he saw the astonishment on his father’s face directed at Levi instead of him, he felt his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach.
A sudden realization hit him harder than any strike... the pain, the forced unnatural evolution, and the torture he endured for acknowledgment meant nothing to his father.
’Dad... was all of my effort for naught? Am I forever destined to be looked at with disappointment and disdain by you... When will it ever be enough to make you look at me like that?’
His eyes turned watery, but no one saw it, for their attention was exclusively directed at Levi, who was putting on a silent show like no other. Even his own father and teammates weren’t looking at him.
Meanwhile, when he looked in the direction of Arthur, Jasmine, Shia, and the rest of Levi’s teammates, he saw their true emotions fully displayed on their faces.
They cheered on Levi, but at the same time, all of them showed genuine concern for his well-being... he could tell that all they wanted from him was to be safe.
As for him? He killed off his future, his personality, his appearance, his emotions, his everything... all for the sake of being shown a tint of love from his father.
And yet... nothing.
’Ah... to be loved unconditionally... what a feeling that must be.’
Yanhuan tried to crack a bitter smile, but even his face failed him... for he no longer could smile.
’Yanhuan... It’s never too late to do as I told you.’
His contracted Nightcrawler whispered in his mind, wishing to help his partner find his own path instead of remaining a puppet under his father’s strings.
As his lifelong partner, he always tried to advise him to forsake his family and seek his own journey, away from his father’s obsessive control.
But alas... if it were so easy to cut those strings, life would have been much simpler for many abused kind souls.
Yanhuan was raised by his father alone... he had no mother, and so... he had to fight to gain any speck of genuine affection from his father at a very early age.
Although he was eighteen years old now... his father’s poisonous mindset had already sunk too deep into his soul, heart, and mind.
His life, as he remembered it, was always like this... a never-ending chase for a single phrase: I am proud of you.
Even after everything that happened, Yanhuan still refused to cut the chase short... because it was the only reason he was living for.
Others could afford to have aspirations and dreams, but in the case of Yanhuan? All he ever wanted in life was the approval of his father, because he had never gotten it once after everything he had done for him.
And he wasn’t going to stop now after getting this close.
Crack...
No one heard it, not even Yanhuan... but something fractured deep within his mind and heart. The obsession with his father’s validation had broken him at last...
’Sorry partner... but I will make him see me even if it kills me!’
As this insane thought coursed through his mind, blue smoke erupted in front of Yanhuan, manifesting into a small wall.
"Levi!! It’s either you or me!!!"