The Moon Thief

Heinald put the body of the lifeform he had killed in a sack and pulled it out of the sewer. He had many questions in his mind and he was trying to find answers to these questions.

"How many of this creature were there?"

"Could there be other creatures similar to this creature?"

"Did the shadows the townspeople see belong to these creatures?"

According to Heinald, although this creature was quite aggressive, it was not strong enough to kill a Level 2 Ainsar and a group of ten Level 1 Ainsars.

Hoping to find the answers to his questions as soon as possible, he came out of the sewer and went to the old man named Anford, who owned a potion shop in the town.

***

"W-What is that!?" The old man's eyes widened.

Heinald had briefly told him what had happened. Since this old man was the only Level 1 Ainsar in town, he had come to him.

"Maybe this creature is responsible for the missing Ainsars in the town, but not the missing Ainsars…" Heinald scratched his chin, "Unless he has a horde."

"Horde…" The old man swallowed.

"Looks like I'll have to do some research in the Poplar Wind Forest…" Heinald sighed. To him, if there were more of this creature, that forest was the only place big enough for them all to hide.

Heinald left his shop after telling the old man to wander the streets of the town and come to him if anything strange happened.

Of course, he didn't trust him completely, maybe it was all the result of this old man's experiment gone wrong. He didn't think this would happen though, he had seen the discomfort in the old man's eyes.

Heinald went to his dragon waiting outside town and flew with him into the middle of the forest.

"Down!" Heinald said in his mind.

Revakender descended and landed in the middle of the forest. The surrounding trees were completely toppled.

Heinald waved his hand and created a ring of fire.

*Grrkaha!* Strange howls began to rise from the surroundings.

It was completely dark, but he could still see a few hundred yards. He saw a few figures running among the trees ahead, but could not understand their shapes.

Flames began to rise from Revakender's stomach, and he soon unleashed a fire blast.

Fire waves move forward at great speed and engulfed the hundreds of trees in front.

"This…" Heinald saw two creatures on fire and began to examine them. They looked very similar to the strange life form he had killed.

With their cries of pain, strange howls began to rise from the entire forest. In some areas, trees were falling and the ground was shaking slightly.

"I have to be careful!" Heinald had a serious expression on his face. He had already predicted that these creatures were in large numbers and that they might be hiding in this forest.

However, these numbers might have somehow killed the group of Level 1 Ainsars due to their large, but a Level 2 Ainsar could break these creatures like a stick.

He thought there was something else behind this that he didn't know about, so he wasn't comfortable with it.

"Fire Vines!" Heinald cast a spell as he saw the group of creatures running towards him from his right side.

Burning vines rose from the ground and engulfed the entire group of creatures. The creatures began to be scorched by the fire of these vines and cried out in pain.

Meanwhile, several creatures attacked Revakender, but with his single claw attack, they flew tens of meters and his limbs were smashed.

Heinald and Revakender had killed hundreds of these creatures over the course of about half an hour.

"Where did all these creatures come from?" His expression was quite ugly as Heinald asked himself this question. He was now sure that there was something else behind this event.

"Goaarrgh!" Heinald heard a roar that shook the entire forest. According to his calculations, this roar came from a few miles away, but it was quite fierce.

"Revakender, rise to the sky and do nothing until I give orders!" Heinald commanded the Spirit Companion in his mind. Although he was quite a powerful beast, he was still a baby after all, and he wouldn't want him to get hurt.

The dragon flapped his wings and rose out of the forest into the sky.

The trees in the place where the roar came from were being thrown around and the ground was shaking as if there was an earthquake.

Whatever that thing was, it was running towards him at full speed!

Embers and Narox appeared in Heinald's hands, waiting for what was approaching.

A creature about ten meters tall emerged from the trees and stood in front of him.

This creature was similar in body to the creatures he had killed, but there were still many distinct differences.

This creature had three eyes and two mouths. It had a total of four horns sticking out from the side of its head and had eight legs. On the back of its body, it had a tail like the tail of a scorpion.

However, instead of a pin at the tip of its tail, it had a scissor-like pincer.

The body of this creature had a metallic appearance, as if it were completely made of iron. Although the structure of the teeth in his mouth was the same as the creatures he had killed before, they were much larger and much sharper.

Like the others, no energy waves were emanating from this creature.

"You're so ugly... what are you?" Heinald muttered as he stared at the creature.

The creature suddenly rushed towards him and opened its mouth wide.

Heinald immediately cast his spell, Whisper of the Wind, and began to glide around the creature.

He quickly headed behind its and swung both of his swords.

As the swords moved towards the creature's back, the creature suddenly swung its tail towards the swords.

*Clang!* Heinald performed a cross slash and the creature made a fierce pincer attack. When the swords and the pincer collided, there was the sound of two steels colliding.

However, the power contained in this creature's pincer was too much.

Heinald's swords flew around, and he himself flew hundreds of meters through dozens of trees.

When he finally stopped, his arms were shaking in pain.

"Almost tore my arms off!" Heinald looked fearfully at his trembling arms.

This beast was undoubtedly the most physically powerful thing he had ever encountered. He had fought many Magical Beasts before, but he had never seen one like this.

"I can't match him physically!" A cold glint passed through Heinald's eyes.

Heinald immediately got up from the ground and determined the creature's position.

The creature was running towards him again.

"Divine Chaos!" Heinald shouted out.

The creature, which was running at full speed, was struck by the energy field that suddenly appeared around it and was thrown back, losing its balance. Lightning bolts danced above him, and for seconds, lightning streaks struck it one after the other.

The entire forest was shaking, all the trees in the immediate vicinity were falling due to the shock explosions. Fierce lightning streaks were breaking even the ground, lifting tons of soil into the air.

Deafening thunder and cries of pain echoed throughout the forest for seconds.

At the same time, the Apprentice Ainsars outside the town were frightened by the mighty lightning bolts rising from the forest. The cries of pain and howls rising from the forest left them in a very difficult psychological situation.

They were just Apprentice Ainsars and had never seen a spell cast by a Level 2 Ainsar. Even those two Apprentice Ainsars guarding the entrance of the town had not even seen an elemental spell cast by a Level 1 Ainsar.

However, they were now witnessing a High Rank spell cast by a Level 2 Ainsar, and it naturally scared them to death.