Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 51: The Hunt Begins! - Part 2

With a click of his fingers, Raven hastened his reflexes and turned to face his stalker. Holding his hand as if clutching a flintlock, he took a deep breath, his eyes focused on the shadow moving towards him. A flare of red flickered through the eyes of the vampire, but the moment it tried to rush the dark mage, an ear-piercing bang shot from Ravenʼs direction.

Realizing just in time what had happened, the monster dodged the dark-iron ball as it darted towards his body. Despite that, standing frozen in shock after dodging, he glanced at Raven with profound confusion.

ʼA rifle?!ʼ The click of the primitive gun ejecting a hollow shell, chilled the vampire down to the spine. A gun, a rifle, a weapon of war only ever used by a member of Nightsilverʼs party. Nobody in this world knew how to replicate it, and yet somehow, this dark mage had conjured a perfect replica of it?

”HOW?!” He screamed, his feet backing away on their own.

Pulling the lock back and loading another bullet, Raven lifted the rifle made of pure darkness to shoot the vampire once more.

”I happen to know someone who studied these relics,” reminded of Darius force-feeding all the information about the tool into his mind, Raven knew everything about the weapon to make it work through his conjuring magic. ”And you guys have pissed him off quite a lot.”

Hearing yet another click, the spy leaped towards Raven, but by the time he reached his body, a massive hole tore through his neck. The momentum of the bullet being reinforced with mana, sent him flying to the side with half of his neck missing.

ʼToo fucking easy, I donʼt like this weapon.ʼ Making the rifle disappear, Raven walked up to the dying vampire. Its vocals all thrashed, and its face half-missing, its eyes still glare at Raven with a harrowing look of hatred. ʼLetʼs test this out instead…ʼ

Taking the golden sword out of its decorated silver sheath, Raven held it high above the vampireʼs head before splitting its head in two. To his surprise, however, instead of letting the vampireʼs blood splatter all over the ground, the golden sword sucked the blood along its blade and formed a film of deep crimson on its surface.

”What the hell?” Drawing the blade back into both his hands, Raven crushed what remained of the snarling vampireʼs face and checked the blade a bit closer. ”Status.”

Being equipped with the weapon, he was able to bring up its stats, and to his further surprise, the regular stats of the weapon had doubled after sucking up the vampireʼs blood. However, right beneath that boost in damage and maneuverability was a countdown of three hours.

ʼNo explanation or nothing, just the goddessʼ style I suppose…ʼ Chalking things up to negligence by the goddess, he quickly sheathed the sword and continued his journey to the vampire lordʼs mansion.

In the meantime, backed into a corner by two vampiric spies, Amedith had his sword out, ready to deflect anything they could try. Being a defensive fighter, he watched their every move as they circled around him in the dark. Attacking them first did cross his mind, but sticking to his strength, he held his ground like a human shield.

”Blessed!” Letting go of his sword for a fraction of a second, he caught it quickly to enchant it with holy magic. Flipping it a circle from the hilt, he directed the blade towards the vamps, his feet sinking deeper into the pavement. ”Come on now, get me. Thatʼs why youʼre here, right? To kill me? Go ahead and try.”

Aggravating his opponent with mocking words, he forced them into action with their sharp knives glinting in mid-air. Moving his eyes left to right, he quickly took note of their speed and trajectory, before drawing his blade back for a wide swing.

”DIE!” Watching them closer and closer, Amedith sliced them by the torso in one fell swoop.

Even so, despite being torn in half, their upper body crashed against Amedithʼs body. Standing his ground still, unbothered by their last-ditch attempt to stab him, the hero let go of his sword and pulled them as well as their daggers off of his breastplate.

”Iʼm wearing armor underneath the leather you dipshits,” insulting them once more, he slammed their head together, resulting in a bloody mess where their brain splatter was melded together.

Letting their body fall onto the ground, the hero quickly picked up his sword and began walking in the direction of the mansion as well.

Left as the last, Mel was being chased by not one but a handful of vampires. At first, it had been a single one, but flying around through mid-air had garnered her the most attention out of all the others.

ʼDo I really have to use it again?ʼ Tired of running, she stopped flying and turned around on the spot. The vampires stopped with her, but reaching for their weapon that pause didnʼt last long. Rushing Mel from four different directions, they were trying to overwhelm her in every way. However, keeping her head on straight, she simply took a deep breath and reached back into her latent powers.

”Fuck you all!” Holding her hand stretched in front, a greenish magic circle sprang up at the end of her palm. Circling around with numerous archaic patterns, it managed to raise the vampireʼs attention as they tried to quickly dart backward. ”As if!”

Not letting them escape, Mel furthered her magic and shot through the circle an entanglement of thorny vines. Wrapping around the vampires, they squeezed them tight until their organs shot out of their every orifice.

ʼThere youʼve done it again, Melicia…ʼ Feeling a sting on her hand from the sudden outburst of mana, Mel jerked her hand back to her chest. With the magic undone, the flaccid bodies of the vamps fell to the pavement, and after watching that for a spell, Mel shook her head and made her way to the mansion as well.

ʼThis time we better not forgive another monster…ʼ Were her thoughts, agitated at the fact that she had to use those powers.