Demon hunt!
When Rhea looked at the hunt list, she luckily just happened to see a rich man's portrait at the very top of the task;
"Search and return the Aurius family treasure stolen by a black demon serpent. Rewarding a chest of gold."
Chest of gold!
That would be enough to get herself a beautiful house with servants, and a skilled chef! She could also get her mother out of that mansion! Rhea didn't even think twice before ripping off the hunt post to prevent another person from taking the task before her.
What was a serpent demon? Hmph, back then when she used to sneak out of the mansion, she'd helped an old man capture and kill a hundred years demon serpent! She could easily do the same now, all she needed was a sharp pitch fork!
But where was she going to get that from? Rhea thought for awhile, then went to borrow money from the person in charge of the hunt post, while promising to pay double after her hunt was successful and she received the reward.
She rushed to the forest where the serpent was said to be residing in to capture it, her main aim was to take it's gallbladder.
She originally thought this was an extremely easy task. But, what she met was totally unexpected.
For the past two days, Rhea had tirelessly wandered through the woods without encountering a single primate, let alone a notorious shapeshifting demon serpent. It was clear that the creature was certainly not in this forest. Rhea thought that, should the serpent possess even an ounce of intellect, it would abandon the forest in order to avoid the nearby village and further develop its nefarious abilities.
Despite her tireless efforts, Rhea's search proved to be useless, it had almost brought her to the brink of despair. After what had seemed like an eternity, she glanced up at the sun to see that it was already noon, again.
The loud growling of her empty stomach served as a harsh reminder of her inability to find what she had been looking for. Exhausted and disheartened, she slumped onto a nearby tree root and released an exasperated sigh.
Right now, the person she missed the most was her foster mother, Irene. She wondered how she must be doing without her in the mansion.
'mother don't worry, I will soon come back for you...'
At the moment when Rhea heaved another sigh, she felt the sudden shift of the "tree root" under her buttocks. To her astonishment, when she cast a deep frown and looked down, the sight she saw was that of a massive, slithery flesh unlike the rough coarseness that a tree root usually possesses.
She immediately realized it wasn't a tree root at all, but the damned demon serpent she'd been searching for two days!
The serpent's demonic aura filled the air intently. Rhea looked behind to be met by the serpent's raw black eyes staring back at her, she noticed how coarse and thick the serpent's body was, it could be comparable to a durable fire barrier.
At the sudden winding of the serpent's tail around her body, Rhea sprang up and laid her hands on her pitchfork. The serpent, aiming to seize the opportunity, opened its vast mouth to bite her, but instead, Rhea conjured her ice spikes with ease and shot them through the air. It turned chilly as the sharp ice spikes rushed towards its thick stomach, piercing the serpent sharply.
Rhea raised her arm and pierced her pitchfork down into the serpent's mouth. However, to her surprise, the demon serpent's mouth was large enough to swallow the whole of the pitchfork without any harm coming to it.
Rhea recoiled her arm quickly, otherwise, she would have lost it. She was fuming, "You're extremely impolite! That pitchfork was obtained on loan, you most spit it out!"
The demon serpent though could understand human words chose not to heed to Rhea's nonsense, it wrapped around her until it's entire body was exerting strength, it intended to squeeze the living soul out of her.
Rhea was already mad for losing her pitch fork and the damn thing wanted to squeeze her to death. She didn't avoid the serpent, because she wasn't called the ice devil for nothing! She pulled together her ice spikes and deeply exhaled as she used them to pierce the serpent's body. The creature trembled as the cold ice spikes passed through it's tough skin and it quickly released her.
The demon serpent suffered several injuries from the spikes that pierced it body, it randomly turned around a few times on the ground to find a direction to flee.
Rhea vaulted ahead and threw herself on it's back. She deathly gripped the serpent between her legs and held onto it's head. She gathered her ice spikes and ruthlessly thrashed it twice on its head, "Spit out my pitch fork right now!"
The poor demon serpent was suffering immensely, it lifted it's head intending to throw Rhea off, but it didn't succeed. Instead it's attempt made the annoyed Rhea thrash it with her spikes two more times. The serpent's throat pulsed twice, with a coughing sound, it spat out the pitch fork.
Rhea rolled off and quickly picked the weapon from the ground. The serpent seized the chance to flee, but Rhea was unexpectedly quick, she swiftly and violently whirled around, piercing the pitch fork through its thick scales and nailing its tail to the forest ground.
The serpent hissed towards the sky in pain, the sound caused a flock of birds on the trees to burst out.
Only then did Rhea release her temper, she stood up and brushed her clothes. She proudly walked towards the demon serpent that was curled up into a ball and looked down on it, she then said,
"Well, you should never mess with someone like me."
The serpent shuddered in pain, Rhea knelt down in front of it, "I'll be honest, I am not your enemy nor do I want to kill you. You stole something you shouldn't have, the Aurius family treasure, didn't you?" She demanded, "Give it back and I will let you go."
"Who the hell are you?" The demon serpent suddenly opened its mouth to ask, it was an unexpectedly pleasant male voice, deep and smooth, "Were you paid to catch me? I am willing to give four times the amount you were paid!"
Wh...what!
This demon serpent actually knew how to bribe! And it was...four times the amount the Aurius family were willing to pay! She could buy more than one house and she would become soo rich!
At the thought of it, Rhea started to waver. She was astonished, because it was said that demon shape shifter serpent's were the richest creatures. And this one could actually make her rich!
She wasn't considering the serpent's offer at all. Rather she was pondering on how much money would be left after buying a house. However, when she was using her poor math skills to figure it out, the demon serpent couldn't wait any longer.
He made a move, it's tail that was pinned with the pitch fork felt like it was being split into two. He suddenly whipped towards her, but Rhea's head was filled with swirling gold not noticing the serpent until she heard a whistling sound by her ear, before she could react, the serpent struck her, causing her to fall to the ground and hit her head hard on a rock. Blood oozed out of her wounds as she tried to regain her strength.
Even in a state of confusion and pain, Rhea noticed the serpent creeping towards her. It sunk its fangs into her neck, causing a shooting pain that spread throughout her body. Half of her body became numb, and she cursed the serpent, "Cheater! We were about to bargain on a deal!" With anger and determination, she summoned her powers and shot ice spikes at the serpent, hoping to strike back with equal force.
The serpent's tail suddenly froze as her ice pierced it's tail sharply, "Hell and damnation! Where did you get that ice power from?!" The serpent was already freezing, it began shivering like it was winter. The cold made the serpent hiss towards the sky again.
Rhea fell to the ground and spoke through clenched teeth, "If I live through this, I will kill you and take all your wealth!"
Immediately following her words, the serpent fled hastily for his life, disappearing into the woods without a trace.
Sure enough, a person shouldn't be greedy. Four times the reward was gone. Now the original reward might be gone as well.
Rhea's heart burst with heat. She covered her neck and used her ice to try to stop the blood, but it was unable to stop the serpent's poison from spreading to her body.
Not long, she felt her heart quickened like a horse galloping. Was she going to die? The poison made her whole body feel like it was heating up inside.
Ever since Rhea was a child, she never knew the feeling of heat until now. She felt unbelievably thirsty so much that she didn't care if movement would make the damn poison spread faster.
Rhea rapidly started walking to look for water. Was this what heat felt like? Her body temperature rose, she had been a cold blooded person, her skin was always cold. But now it was surprisingly burning. Even though her father had once locked her up in a fire cave as a punishment, she never felt the heat nor pain like this.
She didn't know how long nor far she staggered, but finally she saw a flowing river.
In a split second, the desire in her seemed to give her body strength. She hurriedly threw herself forward, but she forgot the stones by the river were covered in moist. It was incredibly slippery, her foot twisted, and she fell hard into the river.
The icy water didn't relive the dry heat inside of her, she lifted her head up to breathe. She felt like her eyes had been roasted by the heat inside to the point they couldn't see clearly anymore.
Her head was getting even more muddled. It seemed like she could even see and hear her birth mother saying: from now on she would be here with her, she didn't have to fear being humiliated by others again, didn't have to starve again, didn't have to be homeless and drift about.
She subconsciously touched her neck and grabbed the pendant around it. The pendant was made from the broken pieces of her mother's memory ball.
'mother, life has been really hard on me...I wish you were still alive.'
If her mother were alive, her father wouldn't have hated her this much. And perhaps she wouldn't be sent to the ugly general and ended up here feeling like she'd burn to death.
She also wouldn't be alone in this world. But here she was now...
Thrashed until her face bled, beaten and exhausted.
In her drifting state, countless thoughts flocked in her head, but the thoughts were ultimately interrupted by a few sentences spoken with a native accent.
"Look, it's that girl in the portraits all over the city eh!"
"Where at? The ugly general's run away wife."
"Yes, 'er she is the ugly general's wife! Let's take 'er back and take the reward from Mrs. Sabina and the blind grandmother of the ugly general!"
"Right on!"
Hold on! What portraits? ugly general? Was he looking for her?
Oh no!
Don't randomly make decisions for others! I am not married! She wanted to say, but they didn't wait for her to refute. The native people on the shore used their sticks to fish her out and prodded the wrong spot, they directly jabbed her on the head and she immediately fell unconsciousness.