"FWOOOSH!"
The moment the colossal fire claw made contact with his palm, an absolutely unbelievable scene unfolded. The attack did not explode. It did not push him back. It simply… stopped. The raging, destructive flames seemed to hit an invisible, immovable wall. They churned and roared, desperately trying to push forward, but they could not budge his hand by a single millimeter.
Levi's expression didn't change. He closed his fist.
"BANG!"
With a sound like a thousand sheets of glass shattering at once, the five-meter-long Inferno Tiger's Claw was crushed into a swirling vortex of scattered embers and harmless sparks, which dissipated into the air. He had extinguished Gerald's ultimate attack with his bare hand.
The entire clearing, the entire forest, fell into a profound, deathly silence. Every single student, from the hundred-strong mob to Rosè and even Gerald himself, stared with wide, disbelieving eyes. Their minds simply could not process what they had just witnessed.
Gerald was the first to snap out of it, his face a mask of pale, horrified shock. "H-how… How is that possible?!"
"Your fire is weak," Levi stated flatly, lowering his hand, which was completely unharmed, not even a singe mark on his skin. His S-rank physique, further enhanced by the Geo-Essence Spring, had granted him a level of durability that was simply on another plane of existence.
The other C-rank student, seeing Gerald's attack fail, let out a desperate battle cry and charged from the side. "Stone Fist Cannon!" His arm was instantly coated in a thick, dense layer of rock, and he punched forward, a shell of solid stone shooting towards Levi like a cannonball.
Levi didn't even look at him. He casually swung his arm in a backhanded motion.
"BAM!"
His hand connected with the stone cannonball in mid-air. The projectile didn't just stop; it exploded into a fine, grey dust. The shockwave from the impact traveled back up the student's arm, and with a series of sickening cracks, his entire arm, from the wrist to the shoulder, shattered into a mess of broken bone and mangled flesh. He let out a piercing scream and collapsed, clutching his ruined limb.
The dam of greed and mob mentality finally broke, replaced by a tidal wave of primal fear. This wasn't a boy. This was a monster in human skin.
"He's a demon! Kill him! Kill him now!" someone shrieked from the crowd, their greed overriding their fear. "There's a hundred of us! He can't fight us all!"
That single, desperate cry was all it took. The mob, blinded by the allure of the Heaven-grade serum, surged forward. A hundred students, unleashing a chaotic barrage of elemental attacks, weapon arts, and Astra Soul abilities, all converged on Levi's position.
It was a beautiful and terrifying sight. Fireballs, ice lances, wind blades, earth spikes, and glowing fists all flew through the air, a multi-colored storm of destruction that leveled the clearing, turning the ground into a cratered, smoking wasteland.
At the center of it all, Levi stood his ground. A low, guttural growl rumbled in his chest, and for the first time, he unleashed the true, unrestrained power of his physique.
"BOOM!!!"
A visible shockwave of pure, kinetic force erupted from his body. It was not an energy attack; it was the result of his `Divine Thunder Might` empowering his very cells, the air around him violently displaced by his sheer physical presence. The incoming barrage of attacks slammed into this invisible wall of force. The weaker E and D-rank abilities fizzled out on contact. Even the more powerful C-rank attacks were deflected, sent flying off in random directions to explode against trees and rocks at the edge of the clearing.
He was a fortress, an immovable object against an unstoppable force.
Then, the fortress attacked. He didn't use his cleaver. He didn't use his skills. He charged into the mob of a hundred students with nothing but his bare fists.
What followed was not a battle. It was a slaughter.
He moved like a phantom, his speed a blur that no one could track. His every punch, every kick, every elbow strike, was empowered by the thunderous force of his bloodline. A student who tried to block his punch saw his arms shatter and his entire chest cave in. Another who tried to attack him from behind was met with a back-kick that sent him flying thirty meters through the air to crash into a tree with a sickening crunch.
He was a meat grinder, a force of nature. He broke limbs, shattered bones, and crushed spirits with a brutal, terrifying efficiency. He didn't kill them, but he made sure that none of them would be finishing this trial. Within the span of a single, chaotic minute, the ground was littered with the groaning, broken bodies of over a hundred students.
Finally, only two people were left standing against him: Rosè and Gerald. Rosè's face was ashen, her cold composure completely gone, replaced by a wide-eyed terror.
Gerald, however, was trembling, not with fear, but with an , insane rage. His pride, his entire identity as a genius, had been utterly and completely shattered.
"I… I AM THE GENIUS!" he screamed, his voice cracking. "I AM THE ONE WITH THE B-RANK TALENT! YOU ARE NOTHING! TRASH! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!!!"
"I… I AM THE GENIUS!" Gerald screamed, his voice cracking. "I AM THE ONE WITH THE B-RANK TALENT! YOU ARE NOTHING! TRASH! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!!!"
All of his energy, converged into a single, final, desperate attack.
In that instant, a miniature, condensed sun of pure fire merged in front of him, its heat so intense it began to melt the grass ash, turning the ground into glowing magma.
Levi just sighed, a look of indifference on his face. He had seen this kind of arrogance before. The proudest one fall the hardest.
The air exploded and he vanished.
Before Gerald could even launch his attack, Levi reappeared directly in front of him, his speed was so fast it was as though he teleported.
He simply placed a single finger on Gerald's forehead.