"What the hell am I supposed to be doing?" Dannep said to herself as she chased after the children.
It's not like it was any of her business or anything like that, in fact the only reason Dannep was doing this was for herself.
Dannep loves children because she sees herself in them, when she was happy, when she was only with her sisters and the others.
Before they abandoned her, before they left all the responsibilities to her alone, before Pamela's death.
Memories of the past flooded Dannep, recalling that very uncomfortable conversation when her sisters wanted to sell the church.
She sees in the children the little Dannep who was happy, that's why she's helping them, so they won't have those moments of suffering she had.
She was actually a bit scared of what was going to happen but she didn't stop, she was willing to help no matter the cost.
The thief turned into an alley and the children followed him, due to her physical condition Dannep got tired and had to finish approaching on foot.
As she entered the alley she saw that she had lost track of the children, but since there was only one path leading to another alley it wasn't too hard to find them again.
"Hey, give us back our money" said the boy in the center angrily.
"Yeah, it's ours, we earned it" replied the other girl beside him.
"You'd better get out of here before I do something to you brats, don't you know you should respect your elders?" the man replied mockingly.
"Fine, if that's how you want it, we won't let you escape from here., Mercy go find an officer, we'll hold him here"
The man's expression darkened, then he kicked the boy who was leaving.
Pam!
His body slammed against a wall, visibly affected.
"Mercy! You bastard!" shouted the boy in the center.
"You damn orphans, looks like I'll have to deal with you" the man said as he pulled out a knife from his pocket.
The children's expressions turned cold instantly, this man was going to kill them.
"Stop!"
But his movements were stopped by Dannep's voice as she entered the alley.
She was clearly scared and nervous, but she couldn't let them kill children in front of her.
"And who are you? Get out of here, doll, if you know what's good for you" the man said in response.
"I saw everything, I saw when you stole from them and I saw how you just threatened to kill them, I'll call an officer, so please turn yourself in, give the money back and leave" Dannep said nervously.
The children showed expressions of relief when they heard her speak, now they were with an adult, nothing could be done to them.
"Shit, really? Then I have to kill you too?" the man said in a dark tone
Dannep swallowed, she thought the threat would work, she wanted to leave and run but if she did the children would pay the price.
"You don't want to do this, please" Dannep spoke again.
"Of course I don't want to do it, but you're forcing me, these orphans are useless, their parents abandoned them, they don't need money. They should die, even their parents don't want them, why are they even alive"
The children's faces boiled with anger but mixed with sadness, what the man said was actually true.
"Last warning"
But for Dannep those words touched a sensitive spot, letting herself be carried by her emotions she pulled out her wand and pointed it at the man.
"What? A mage? You think you can scare me with that? If you use a wand it's because you're not very good at magic, so my knife will cut your throat first and you'll die, seriously don't you want to leave?"
The man wasn't intimidated and held the knife firmly with confidence, he was well informed on the subject.
Dannep didn't waste time and closed her eyes, starting to draw energy from her surroundings, due to the rich magical environment of Drakmorya it was quite easy.
"You bitch, if you do it I'll kill him!" the man said holding one of the children.
It seemed all his confidence in attacking Dannep was nothing but a vile bluff.
Dannep felt nervous, what should she do? she had to do something to help.
"Think Dannep, think, one second maybe it'll work" Dannep looked at her wand and lowered it.
Without closing her eyes she began to channel mana from the surroundings directly into the wand.
She didn't know if it would work, but she thought that by doing this the man wouldn't notice she was charging magic, even if it was just a theory she could feel a small amount of mana forming in her wand, even though it didn't feel like much it was enough for her to fire a shot from below.
The shot was small enough that a non-magical person wouldn't be able to see it, so it hit the man's hands making him drop the knife.
"Shit!"
After dropping the knife the boy bit him, freeing himself from his grip and leaving an opening for Dannep to attack.
Dannep closed her eyes and began to gather mana from her surroundings into her chest, she could feel everything even the energy coming from the children, but what she felt most was anger toward the man in front of her.
"I'm sorry to tell you, but an orphan did this to you" after saying those words a blast of mana shot toward the man who had no choice but to take it.
Pam!
The blast sent him straight into the wall, crashing into it, she had done it.
"Thank you miss, you're very strong" one of the children said happily.
"Yeah, I'll go get our money back" said another child as he approached the man.
Pam!
But in response a dull impact sound was heard and with it the child's body rolling backward.
Dannep looked at the man in confusion, he wasn't a magic user, he shouldn't be conscious.
"I, I, I—my head, ahhh!!!" the man started screaming as a purple mark formed on his neck, he held his head as if it hurt.
"Kill, kill, kill" the man shouted while looking at the group in front of him.
His eyes turned black, lit by purple pupils.
Suddenly his muscles and body began to grow uniformly, starting to mutate.
"Ahhh it hurts!!!" the man screamed as he slowly turned into a monster.
"Back!" Dannep shouted as she hugged the children, she had to protect them even if it cost her life.
"Kill, hurts, kill, ahh kill me, no, Scarlet don't do this to me!! kill" after those last words whatever the man was launched himself toward the group.
Dannep closed her eyes as she hugged the children.
Pam!
A dull impact sound hit the alley but didn't reach Dannep.
"Well, your mana is quite unique, I recognized it instantly, it's rude to leave a date like that"
To her surprise Seraphin was there.
"Here, go ahead and eat this" the woman said, handing Dannep a cotton candy and forming a warm smile.
"Let me handle this"