Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 123: It’s Over, So Fast?

Breathing from every surface, gazing from every corner, stalking every moment, the horror of the cave wasnʼt a woman, but an endless loop of a structure that watched its prisonersʼ every moment. And the party of misfits arriving through her servantʼs portal were treated no differently.

Sheʼd watched them for two days at this point, and everything from the quarrels to the lovemaking and all that was left in between, sheʼd soaked it all like a sponge.

ʼA curious bunch for sure.ʼ She thought her eyes still glaring down at the party as they attempted to look for her. ʼToo bad theyʼre not gonna be alive for long.ʼ

Having trapped them in a castle of ice–something sheʼd decided on because of Helgaʼs spears, the horror flooded the room with cold air enough to freak out the very blood in everyoneʼs veins. Feeling their bodies stiffen up to the cold, and their eyes slowly losing their vision, Raven and his party were forced down onto their knees.

”AlʼFira!” Taking over Erika, the devilish Asmodia warmed up everyoneʼs body with a debuff cleansing spell. It made it so that the effect of the cold was near to non-existent against their skins.

Finally realizing what was going on, Helga gathered everyone behind her and had them form around in a circle to counter anything the surroundings threw at them. And in case the ground tried getting to them too, Asmodia laced it with liquid copper that bled out of her feet and quickly turned into solid metal.

ʼWhat the hell is happening?ʼ Surprised by Erikaʼs new powers, Raven was left quite confused, but given the circumstances, there was no way he could spare time to mull things over or ask her anything about them.

”Non-material entity, just like the mind horror, we need to destroy this place so we can force her true body to form up again!” Helga screamed as a smile crept up her lips.

For their first encounter with a keeper, it seemed the physical manifestation of the monster was in the form of a girl who was more than vulnerable, but the problem lay in forcing the entity back into that state once sheʼd turned into the very walls around them.

”Leave it to me!” Slamming her fists together, Aria fed the gauntlet more of her blood and rushed right over to the walls. ”Defend me Amedith!”

Calling out to the hero to protect her as she made the ice walls crumble, Aria as well as the others got to work in getting the very structure around them to crumble.

”You truly believe you could even dent–” Before the horror could finish her sentence, buffed by the gauntlets as well as Asmodiaʼs spell, Aria knocked out one of the ice walls in just a few hard punches. ”YOU MORONS!”

Growing spikes from every corner in its rage, the horror tried to tear through the party, but to her surprise, Amedithʼs shield managed to break every icicle that came their way.

ʼTwo more strikes before the absolute defense breaks…ʼ Knowing he could defend three attacks with his shield every day no matter the strength, Amedith really hoped that the others could bring the rest of the structure down before he ran out completely.

”UGGGHHHH!!!” Summoning a barrage of her elemental weapons, Helga hurled them to the walls until more and more of them began to shatter.

Assisting Helga with her task, Raven summoned a heavy throwing ball, and with just a few spins with the chain attached to it, he chucked it into the weapons to what remained of the ice structure.

”HERE I COME TOO!” With the spectral Minotaur punching through the ceiling, Mino crumbled the thing to dust with the help of yet another one of Asmodiaʼs speed buffs.

Losing more and more of her body, the horrorʼs mind began to race, it hadnʼt expected them to figure things out so quickly, and if they didnʼt leaving them to starve wouldʼve been a viable trick. But with most of her body gone, the raging horror was forced to let down the illusion of the ice dome. Instead, leaving them back on the rocky paths, she tried to fool them with more illusions.

Taking the form of Raven she tried to blend in and slice their throats, but the very first one to realize being Raven himself, he didnʼt even hesitate before pulling out the rifle and sniping her in the head. Being hit in the head unexpectedly, the horror was left stunned as her manipulation tactic failed even before it started.

Although sheʼd stalked the partyʼs every move, the fact that was making the situation slip out of her hand so quickly, was the fact that no matter what she did, they would show her no mercy and no time to react; for thatʼs the way theyʼd been trained by Helga.

”Ta~ Ta~” Before her mind settled from the shock, she felt a flurry of runes being etched into her back. Turning her head, she noticed the red-eyed priestess smiling at her for a moment before disappearing out of her sight the very next instant.

Moving in while she was left in a stunned state, Amedith shot his storm of the sword; Raven hurled his own set of darkness-made weapons at her, as for Mel the archer, she decided to use the very technique that sheʼd been tortured with by the mind horror, which was to make a tree sprout out of the womanʼs heart.

”AGGHHH! H UIGHNN!” Howling in agony as her body was torn from within and a tree sprouted from the wound, the horror clawed its own face until the pale blue hue turned red and fleshy.

To further her agony, once Amedith and Ravenʼs weapons were pinning her into the tree growing from within herself, Helga and Aria both moved in with explosive punches. Watching the entire party turning the shade into a bloody pulp, a smile tugged at Erikaʼs lips as she activated the runes sheʼd just etched on the shadeʼs broken back.

And the moment it happened, the horror lost all control of its body and began expanding like a balloon.

”Get away if you donʼt want dead rot on your face,” warned the priestess just moments before the horrorʼs body was blown to fucking smithereens. Had it been more cautious, more strategically sound, the shade may have stood a chance, but the very fall of its existence was running into a party trained by a holy war veteran.