Chapter 2: Shameless thieves

"Stealing a mana beast?"

A boy with striking grey hair and crystal clear sapphire blue eyes asked in curiosity as his body writhed with excitement, he was seated inside a carriage staring at the piece of parchment firmly held in his father's hands.

This was the first time he'd ever been on an expedition with both his mother and father and he wasn't about to waste any second of it, he'd made a vow to himself to soak up every ounce of information he could acquire.

"Mm, there's a rare mana beast being hunted in this area and its price tag is ridiculous"

A lean healthy-looking man with the same striking grey hair and brown eyes spoke with disbelief in his tone, he was staring at the contents of the parchment while constantly rubbing his chin as he read over the parchment at least three times over but not one part of it changed.

"I still can't believe it, there's either been a mistake with the price tag or some noble lost their prized pet"

Sitting right next to the man was a woman with deep raven hair and a mesmerizing pair of sapphire blue eyes, she had a warm cup of tea in hand with her eyes glued to the fire as she spoke.

"Either way, we'll still get paid and that's a plus on our side"

The man laughed before rolling the piece of parchment and throwing it into the flames, he'd already memorized the appearance of the mana beast that was supposedly being hunted for an extremely high price. It was basically a large wolf with deep black fur and red highlights, its eyes were crimson in colour and to top it all off it was the only mana beast within the region with such a description so identifying it wouldn't be hard.

"Che, it better be worth all of this trouble"

A boy with his back to the fire spoke in slight frustration since the family was going out of their way to chase down a mana beast in the middle of harsh winter, the cold was unbearable and the boy wasn't having any of it and had it not been for the fact that his little brother was present he would've stayed at home within the comfortable confines of their house.

The man only laughed and leaned back on the rolled fur blanket behind him, he was also a little frustrated at the lengths they had to go for this specific mission but the price tag was far too enticing for them to ignore. Fenril was a trustworthy dealer so the man had some trust for the creature's immense value, no matter how ridiculous it was.

"If we find no truth in the hunt then we'll back off immediately, if the wolf is actually worth that much then it wouldn't hurt to find it"

"Mhm, Mathew, Arthur, the both of you should head to sleep now since we'll be searching in a few hours"

Mathew who was seated in the carriage pouted but went to bed anyway, as long as he'd see something interesting he wasn't worried about bedtimes. He covered himself with a blanket and was about to go to sleep when a feeling of dread washed over him followed by a loud whistling noise coming from outside. Mathew looked out only to see both his parents and older brother already standing in defense while their eyes were glued to the sky.

"What's-"

Mathew didn't finish his words as he stared up at the night sky where a visible red ball of light was streaking across the starry night with blazing speed, it was going to land somewhere and somewhere close.

"A shooting star?!"

"No..that's a beast, a mana beast for sure"

Mathew's eyes widened but before he could question the statement his parents quickly boarded the front of the carriage where two large bird-like creatures had been sleeping, with a quick snap of a finger they woke up without an ounce of exhaustion in their eyes. Arthur jumped into the window of the carriage narrowly missing his brother before grabbing his wooden staff and cloak, a mask had been placed on the hood which he hurriedly pulled down to cover his face.

Mathew could only watch in awe as his parents followed suit and placed masks on their faces as well, they were pure black in colour and obstructed their voices when speaking.

"Let's move, Dixie, Dox!!"

The giant land birds screeched before sprinting full speed ahead, Arthur made sure to grab his brother's shoulders as the carriage shook aggressively from the speed at which they were going. Their eyes were on the red ball slowly descending to the ground like a meteorite, they had already confirmed it to be a beast but of what kind was a complete mystery to them.

All the family knew was that the beast was in a weakened state due to the mana fluctuations coming from its body so it'd be an easy catch no matter what it turned out to be, they were already struggling to find and capture the ridiculously priced wanted mana beast in the area and there was a possibility they wouldn't find it anyway so the chance to catch something else couldn't be ignored.

"It's going to land just a few meters from there, ready your weapon Arthur, Mathew make sure you're watching closely!!"

""Yes!!""

The two said in unison.

"And Olivia-"

"No need to state the obvious, it makes me look like an unreliable mother"

"R-right, then let's do it like usual!!"

"Of course"

Olivia readied a silver bow and quiver, knocking a single arrow onto the bow as it was only a matter of moments before the beast touched the ground. The family had kept a little bit of distance once they'd caught up with the falling beast in order to give themselves time to prepare for an attack.

BOOM!!

A large explosion of dust and rubble covered the scenery in front of the family as the beast touched down on the ground, Olivia aimed as Arthur fired a wind spell to clear out most of the dust in front of them. The two birds screeched as they ran in the opposite direction of the dust giving Olivia time to take aim at the beast inside.

GROAA-

An arrow lodged itself into the creature's body as Olivia fired her arrow at the exact moment she caught sight of the beast, the creature glared at the location of its attacker but had no time for a counter as a rock spear smashed into its face sending the creature skidding a few meters from where it stood. Following up with this onslaught, Olivia knocked three arrows onto her bow as they glowed with different hues.

"Paul!!"

"On it!!"

A blaze of flames engulfed the creature as a fireball had struck it directly on its face causing blood to trickle from its forehead but the attack wasn't over, Paul stuck his sword into the ground and set it ablaze causing the ground to slowly grow red before a loud explosion occurred sending large chunks of rock, dust, and plants into the air.

Olivia fired her three arrows at the same time as the explosion, timing it perfectly enough to strike the decimated ground where the beast was only barely standing on and turn it into a writhing mess of black mud. Knowing this tactic well, Arthur raised his hands and commanded the large chunks of rock flying in the air before solidifying the muddy ground where the beast stood and trapping it in place.

He then sent the rocks flying in the beast's direction as it wouldn't be able to dodge or counter at this point.

BOOM!! BANG!!

A cry of pain could be heard as the creature was skewered from all angles by the countless rocks lodged into it, the creature was miraculously still standing with its body now drenched in its own blood from head to toe.

"Would you look at that, it kinda resembles the wolf we've been looking for"

Paul remarked while nonchalantly placing his blade over his shoulder, it was evident that he no longer considered the beast a threat.

"A flying wolf?"

"Well, what else would make it so exotic? Did you see how fast it was moving in the air?"

Olivia could only shake her head helplessly while the beast stared with vengeance in its eyes but it knew full well that the opponents in front of it were far too powerful to face in its current condition.

'I need a distraction!!'

The creature scanned its surroundings before locking gazes with a grey-haired boy eyeing it fearfully from behind a carriage window frame, the creature then eyed the three in front of it and gazed at the figures of Olivia and paul who were still speaking calmly as if not caring what the creature did at this point but this didn't annoy it as the creature noticed Olivia's clear sapphire blue eyes and Paul's striking grey hair.

It didn't take long till the creature put two and two together and concluded that the boy in the carriage was an offspring of Paul and Olivia, same went for Arthur but the creature found it impossible to face him in such a weakened state so it instead focused all its energy on the boy(Mathew) who was seated inside not knowing of the danger that had befallen him.

Opening its mouth the creature quickly began compressing demonic energy as a purple ball of light began forming in its mouth, it pointed its attack at Mathew whose eyes widened in shock and fear. Olivia quickly knocked an arrow onto her bow and fired without hesitation but the attack had already released itself in Mathews's direction, Paul attempted to use himself as a shield however the attack was far too fast to allow this.

""MATHEW!!""

Paul, Olivia, and Arthur shouted in unison as the attack drew nearer with every passing second till Mathew's entire vision was nearly bathed in purple, yet moments before the attack could hit him a flash of blinding purple light engulfed Mathew for a split second before disappearing completely.

The creature that was fighting with every fiber of its being to stay alive had finally passed out from its injuries and fell to the ground with a loud thud, the attack it had released earlier dispersed right as it had lost consciousness leaving Mathew unharmed.

Paul and Olivia sighed a breath of relief while Arthur only clenched his hands in frustration, both his parents had reacted with split-second precision to the sudden change of events while he could only gawk in fear as the attack headed straight for his little brother.

"What a tenacious little f*cker"

"Paul!!"

"A-Ahem, anyway I didn't expect such an attack from this thing. Was that part of its arsenal?"

Olivia sighed and shook her head while approaching the creature cautiously before pointing her arrow at a single horn on the left side of the beast's head.

"That's cause it's not the beast we're looking for, there was no horn in its description"

"Then a similar species of sorts? The appearance is pretty similar, a large wolf, red and black fur, maybe not the eyes and horn but most check out"

"There's supposed to be nothing in this area that resembles that thing so it can't be a similar species, they would've warned us to ensure we don't mistake the two"

Paul scratched his cheeks in embarrassment since that would've been the case if such a thing existed and he should've noted of that, the parchment with the mana beasts description had explicitly said that not a single beast in the area was supposed to resemble their target in any way shape or form, it even went as far as highlighting that in bold.

"Well, what should we do with it now?"

Arthur asked the two after calming himself from the frustration he felt before, he found his reaction pathetic but knew that sulking wouldn't solve the issue: only hard work would.

Paul and Olivia glanced at Arthur and gave him a gaze that said "You should already know by now" as the two summoned a pair of ropes in their hands and began tying the wolf up, however after they'd securely tied the one-horned wolf in place its body suddenly set itself ablaze in a dazzling display of crimson flames.

The two were taken aback and grabbed their weapons firmly but what happened next only made their eyes glint with greed, after the flames had settled it wasn't a massive wolf in front of them anymore but a child that looked barely over the age of eleven. Her hair was a bright magenta that reached her shoulders while her skin was dyed red in her blood however the less injured parts of her showed pale but not ghastly skin that if washed to show its full glory would perfectly accentuate her already eye-catching hair, she wore what could only be described as a pillowcase as a dress and was tattered and torn on the edges showing its age and poor quality.

If it wasn't for the distinct horn on the left side of her head then one could've easily mistaken her for a lost child.

Arthur and Mathew watched this transformation with shock and awe; they'd never seen a mana beast with a human form since it was an ability only held by extremely strong mana beasts usually ranking in the Hydra class. Meeting a mana beast of such caliber would be a pipe dream for the two boys so they never once thought or even dreamed of such an encounter yet right in front of them was a mana beast that had transformed into a human, and a pretty one at that.

However, Olivia and Paul didn't share this expression of awe and shock, instead, their eyes were brimming with greed as their thoughts wandered to the ridiculous amount of cash they'd make by selling the little girl in front of them. The two had even given each other a quick nod before readjusting the ropes to fit the new size.

"Mom…Dad, You're not actually planning to kidnap a child right?"

*Cough*

"A-Arthur, you've got to understand that the life of a thief is often filled with many morally conflicting decisions and in times like that we always look at the price rather than our morales"

Said Olivia while re-tying the furthest rope so it firmly tied the girl's legs together.

"Right!! Besides this isn't a little girl, it's a..mana beast,..yeah!!"

The two shameless parents nodded in agreement but Arthur was having none of it, he'd, of course, accepted the life of thievery but there were boundaries that he was not going to cross, and kidnapping little children was one of them. Regardless of the fact that it was indeed a mana beast that had nearly killed his brother, the appearance it had now was one that he couldn't overlook.

Arthur had read books about mana beasts with the ability to transform into humans and found that a mana beasts human form didn't shy away from the actual physical age of the mana beast, if the mana beast was twenty, a hundred, or even a thousand years old then their human form would be no older than a young healthy adult, however, a mana beast from eighteen and younger would have relatively young bodies befitting of their age.

This told Arthur that the mana beast in front of him was no older than eleven and was merely a terrified child that they'd attacked and bullied, it was already in a mortally wounded state and had lost consciousness yet they were planning to kidnap it when it wasn't even a part of their hunt? Arthur couldn't allow this and stepped forward to stop the shameless act his parents were committing.

"Arthur dear, please move"

"It's not even what we came looking for so let's just leave it alone"

"Regardless of that fact, we should try and make money at every possible opportunity"

Olivia nodded to Pauls's brilliant excuse as the two kept tying away.

"Tsk, what about the parents? This is clearly the child of some beast around here and the earlier wounds probably mean it was being chased and had already been in battle, what if the parent or the dangerous people chasing this thing come looking for us?"

Mathew nodded to Arthurs brilliant argument as the two parents contemplated before clicking their tongues and letting go of the ropes in their hands.

"Fine, fine we'll leave it be"

"Thank you, I was honestly worried"

"No worries, we'll be leaving now"

The two parents whistled happily while making their way towards the carriage with beaming expressions, Arthur was pleased with this outcome and looked back at the mana beast to give it a wave goodbye but his face stiffened when he saw both his parents ropes still tying the little girl up.

"Mom…Dad"

The two slowly turned around with shock on their face as they performed the poorest form of acting that Arthur had ever seen.

"Oh~, rope just what are you doing?!"

"Exactly!! We never told you two to keep tying the beast up!!"

A vein could visibly be seen forming on Arthur's head as he was well aware both his parents possessed enchanted ropes that listened to their every command.

"I know you told them to keep tying it up"

"Arthur!! Are you accusing us of lying?!"

"Shame on you, calling your own parents liars is quite the grave sin, Arthur"

"They listen to everything you two-"

"Ah, ah, into the carriage Arthur, it's clear the two ropes are no longer listening to us and there's nothing we can do"

"Mhm, this is also punishment for calling me and your father liars, now go!!"

Arthur's mouth opened to voice another complaint but the two parents were adamant that he leave, he begrudgingly relented and walked back to the carriage with clear annoyance plastered over his face.