Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

An hour before the lantern-lit beauty sailed from the dark sand bay, a mule-drawn wagon arrived at the party's camp. Bells tied to its feet, the animal marched with a jingle, ensuring everyone around it knew of its master's presence.

"Kara…" Raven heaved, seeing the dark figure of the priestess faintly illuminated by moonlight.

Slowly turning to look at him standing on top of the ship, the dark elf mischievously smiled and fluttered her fingers in a greeting. Reeling her mule to a stop, she beckoned him closer so they could talk.

"Who is that exactly?" Asked Regalia, standing beside Raven with her hands folded.

Staring at Kara still, Raven whispered a response.

"Not another passenger I hope," glancing sideways at Regalia, he tried to hint at how he felt about her tagging along, but even though the wolf-girl already knew, she stared back at him with an insistent gaze that spelt…

'We've talked about this already.' With Regalia not budging an inch about the matter, Raven turned his attention back to Kara. Spanning dark wings, he quickly flew over to the elf and in the meantime, the others slowly became aware of her presence as well.

"What is it?" Raven asked the moment he walked up to her.

A bit taken aback by the unexpected harshness of his tone, Kara's eyes frowned for a moment before slowly easing up. Slipping off the side of the wagon, she set her on the dark sand, which in turn illuminated it with a light blue hue. As curious as Raven was about how she managed to do that, he kept himself focused on the most important matter first.

"I'm here to check up on you and your party, your goddess demands it," she responded with a just as snarky smile as before.

"What goddess? Aphrodite's dead and you're no priestess of Athenia," Raven retorted.

Fanning her hand with a roll of her eyes, Kara scoffed then chuckled before finally looking into Raven's eyes.

"Just because she's dead doesn't mean my task is over, I need to guide you on your path so you can save her daughter's body from being corrupted," the mention of Nerva meant nothing to Raven and his companions for they were not the least made aware of the true nature of the world they lived in.

"Again, why are you here? And this time speak something coherent," Raven demanded, glaring into Kara's dark eyes.

The priestess glared back, a bit bothered by the way she'd been treated so far.

"I'm here to tell you something since you seem to be ignorant about it!" Yelling at him, Kara placed her hands on her hips and pushed closer to Raven's face, even going so far as to stand on her toes and scrunch her nose to look more intimidating.

"Your goddess is not welcome on the land of other gods, Elenaris was an exception and since her chosen had died just a few days earlier to your arrival there was nobody present to challenge you!"

Taking a step away from the barking priestess, Raven could hear in the background the sound of approaching steps cutting through water. Mel, Aria, Regalia, and the others, everyone but the monster girls who were inside the gem, were rushing towards Raven unsure about what the hell the two were yelling about.

Noticing the approaching group as well, Kara set herself back down and let them gather by Raven's side before continuing her rant.

"You're not the only heroes of this world, there are many more parties, many more chosen by the other gods that are just like you!" As obvious as it may have been, the entire party was struck with surprise. Wide eyes they stared at the priestess, unsure about how to feel about the news she'd revealed. Pointing at their leader–Raven, Kara moved closer to him again.

"Every god wants to win over followers and if their chosen are the ones to save this world from the demon lord, then guess who the people will folk over to?"

Kara didn't even have to say anything and the party knew exactly what she meant. If they were the ones to save the world, then Athenia would rule the hearts of the people, but if it was not them but some other god's chosen, then the same faith would belong to someone else.

"Athenia warned us about other god's faithful challenging us before…" Erika muttered, her hand squeezing her chest tight with angst.

"Shit, could she not have been more clear?" Aria complained before being angrily nudged on the shoulder by Erika. "What the hell?!"

"Calm down! Both of you," interjecting before the fight escalated, Raven placed his thumb under his chin and quickly went over the implication that carried along with the new revelation. "That means everywhere we go, we won't just have horrors to handle but the other party of heroes too?"

Lifting his head to look at Kara, he was met with a devious smirk.

"Obviously, and if I'm not wrong, that goddess of yours is recruiting other gods.

I doubt it'd be easy to convince them to join her side after beating up their chosen warriors." Kara was right and they all knew it well, but having come so far after wasting so much of their time, they couldn't wait any longer and thus an hour from the priestess's arrival, the ship began to sail with the only thing that had changed being, one more passenger along with her animal.

The monster girls to the original party, as well as Maria, Moxy, even Regalia, Linkle and the priestess, the group seemed to be growing at an alarmingly high rate. Thankfully, however, the two-day journey would lighten their burden as Kara was only hitching a ride to that island. Despite that, the concern around the ship refused to lighten.

Discover hidden stories at empire

Another party led by a hero was probably waiting for them at this port city. Will they listen to reason or desire simply to fight? Remained to be seen, but even before that the captain of the ship had another cause for concern.

'Fuck me, I hope she'd not there…' For once in her life Reina prayed to the goddess, she wasn't afraid of this person that she might meet on this island, but was rather embarrassed about the story they would tell to the hero's party.

Note: For people saying that the stealing part of the title was no longer viable, don't worry more heroes are coming! XD