It had only been a few hours since the confrontation between Kai and the humans yet, as the sun slowly started to descend in the sky, the fridged winds had already frozen the remains scattered across the mountainside.

Suddenly, loud thuds broke the desolate silence as men in black plate armour fell from the sky. Bending their knees to soften the impact, they instantly raised rifle-like weapons, coursing with energy, and scanned the surroundings before quickly moving to secure the area.

A large, box-like shape, shimmered into existence where they had jumped from, before slowly descending. Small, circular viewports littered the gun-metal grey surface, enchantment runes glowing in a white, flickering light.

The moment the box touched the ground, a couple of meters away from the furthest human remains, a ramp fell, slamming into the ground and kicking up snow and ice.

A large man, his muscular arms visible through his shirt-like armour, descended the ramp followed by two rows of well-ordered soldiers. Unlike those that had dropped from the sky and now patrolled the perimeter, they wore brown leather armour and carried swords and a few combat knifes at their waists. A few carried large boxes while others, see-through containers.

"Report," bellowed the man, yet it wasn't clear who to, as those behind him swarmed forward, unpacking weird devices as they started to analyse the area thoroughly.

The nearly-invisible crystal in his ear glowed slightly. "Twelve dead. Eleven identified as the owners of the life crystals that shattered. One turned to ash. Assumed to be the Evelin Mai, third line successor to the clan through the techs will need to confirm."

The report came from one of the black armoured soldiers, who had moved past the remains seemingly without looking, yet had been able to take in so much detail.

"Assassination?" the blond-haired, muscle-bound man frowned, flicking his wrist and sending those patrolling the area to scout further afield as more leather-clad soldiers emerged from the ship and replaced them.

This time, the crystal didn't light up as one of the investigators, brushing a powder into the air, turned her head and responded. "Natural Monster, between level fifteen to twenty, single core refinement, adolescent, male."

While one could be born a monster, it was exceedingly rare, and it was more common for them to evolve from beasts. An evolved monster, a creature that had gained ten levels of its beast core before condensing it into a first stage monster core, was much weaker, compared to its natural counterpart but still a deadly existence.

A creature's level was not indicative of its cultivation rank, and so both measurements were often used to gain a vague understanding of a beings strength.

The man's eyes narrowed, the fact that the successor was destroyed without even leaving an intact corpse, feeling too much like a clan feud than a random monster attack. "Bound?"

He suspected that it could be a bound monster that was commanded to make this look like a natural occurrence.

"Negative. The energy signatures display that not only is it unbound, but it hasn't even condensed the second level of its core," replied the woman, whose hands were still brushing the powder into the air, the dust seemingly sticking to something.

One advantage of a beast evolving into a monster was that it maintained the intelligence it had built up. A typical, natural monster with a single core was, at least to the current common sense, relatively stupid, relying on its instinct and inherited abilities and so the man didn't put any more thought into the attack being premeditated.

The man sighed, running his hand through his hair as he surveyed the devastation.

After most monster species had been hunted to near extinction, either to force into bonds, for research or just to decrease the risk to lower class citizens, it was rare to find one that didn't respect the new, unspoken natural order of the world.

Over time, most monsters had learnt that killing humans, especially in large numbers, was a very, very bad idea.

In an age were even commoners could operate enchanted or magical weaponry and owned life stones, magical artefacts that not only revealed the location of an individual but the status of their health, technology had surpassed natural ability for the majority of creatures.

While monsters, unlike the more passive beasts, still fought and killed humans, especially when they were threatened, it was always a risk that one of the humans had a substantial backing and that their deaths would bring disaster upon them.

While most with power wouldn't react if one of their subordinates were killed by a monster, acknowledging the subordinate had been too weak and that a beast or monster was just an evolved animal and beneath them, they often investigated in case there was foul play from their competitors and, as they were already there, would slaughter those responsible.

Over generations, this knowledge of this had started to be passed down in the stronger bloodlines and so, while the wilderness was still perilous, the days of monster hordes and death zones was long gone.

However, humanity had one extra trick, one that proved devastating to those that hunted them for their flesh.

With the aid of a bonded creature, enhancing a human's abilities tenfold, even if the beast was weaker, humans had learnt how to track a creature by its aura.

The most notable aura hunters where those that hunted man-eaters.

While eating a human, especially one with high cultivation, would provide tremendous benefits, the beast or monster that did would develop a unique aura.

In the past, this bloodthirsty, blood-chilling aura was used as a weapon against humans and a display of power to those of its kind, but in the current era, it enabled hunting parties to quickly track down and eliminate threats before they grew too powerful.

Looking at the remains, the muscled man analysed the scene himself, being a veteran of many rapid response missions, this view, while extremely violent, wasn't new to him.

"All were given a quick, somewhat clean death. However, it seems a few were injured in the initial confrontation and could only watch their end near," spoke a man into a weird yellow stone that was recording his voice as well as transmitting it to the Captain and the crew still aboard the ship. "None of them were consumed, indicating that this wasn't a man-eater. However it looks like one of the victims had a bonded beast. Lack of remains indicates it was not so fortunate."

The Captain whistled in amazement, wondering how such a weak, low-level individual managed to get a bonded beast. A few hundred years ago it became law that only those who could not form a humanoid body could be bonded, those that could, gained fundamental rights that enabled them to live relatively fear free.

As long as they didn't break any laws and paid taxes.

As only humans and their subspecies had this basic form from birth, it was still possible, especially in the wild to find young creatures and bond with them before they developed the ability but it was challenging and rare.

If one gained the ability to take on a human form after being bonded, it was considered due to the human's input, and as such, they remained a slave in all but name.

There were a few farms specialised in rearing such animals for the market, however having the ability to control their reproductive organs, there were very few creatures that were willing to produce offspring to be sold off, even under duress.

Because of this, having a bonded creature was considered exceptionally lucky and, even with all the benefits that came with them, luxurious. Only those high ranking figures in prominent families had one. The Clan Head was the only one the man knew of who had two and even then, they were of low quality.

This was the same for the Captain's bonded, who he called on to reveal herself.

White mist floated from his chest, through his armour, and towards the ground where it initially took on the form of a red-furred fox before growing into a small, straight-backed woman.

One of the nearby soldiers, as if he had been expecting this development, opened his pack and threw a robe-like top to her.

The woman, who still had fox ears and a black spot at the tip of her nose, winked at the solider before attempting to sexily put the clothing on.

However the solider and everyone else looked away, some chuckling at the fox's antics.

"Helen!" The captain shook his head. "Why do you always insist on transforming into your human form in front on others?"

The fox, who now was dressed, if you excluded her bare feet, turned around and revealed a mischievous grin. "Because you haven't touched me since you got that insufferable human spouse. Even a beast has needs, and if you don't want me, I am sure others do."

Helen crossed her arms and pouted, her head tilted to the side as she watched the Captin intensely.

The Captain's professional exterior cracked only for a moment before he sighed and shook his head.

Helen's face fell, realising her bonded wasn't going to rise to the bait and entertain her. "Fine~ What do you want, oh frigid master."

One of the soldiers snorted, but quickly put his head down and continued to work as the Captain gave him a death glare.

"Fine the one responsible for this, but keep your distance and let me know through the link. Its a high-level monster so under no circumstances are you to engage. Do you understand?" responded the Captain in an authoritative voice.

"Find a monster, tail it, let you know, don't pick a fight. Got it," said Helen as she turned, her from shrinking as she jumped out of her robe, her foxes body small enough to fit through the opening for the head.

After shaking, her red fur not far off the frozen blood scattered around; she took a deep sniff before trotting across the slope seemingly at a leisurely pace.

"Mischievous little fox." The Captain shook his head, a warm, parental look appearing in his hazel eyes as a smile appeared on his face before he turned around moved toward each group of investigators, putting the pieces of the puzzle together to work out what had happened.

Where the woman who offered the report early was kneeling, what appeared to be a reptilian leg, five sharp claws digging into the snow, had started to form from the dust that stuck to the air as if it was a solid surface. As she continued to work, her insides squirmed uncomfortably, her ability in the mystic arts telling her that she wanted absolutely nothing to do with a creature that owned such a deadly looking appendage.