Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Note: I apologize for no updates the last two days, I was honestly kinda depressed and just couldn't bring myself to write. I feel better now, no need to worry, but please do enjoy the chapter!

Nearly two hundred and fifty people were on board the Aranuvian fleet, and only twenty-three of them had made it out alive. One such person was the redhead sorceress and a handful of young men and women–none of whom could pose a real threat to the party or their ship. Even so, administering sedatives to their bodies, Linkle kept them tied up under the deck in a state of delirium.

Unaware of her intentions as of yet, Raven and the others remained upstairs. Not taking any chances, however, Raven had already used his gift to brainwash them so he could get them under control in an instant if needed. Soon enough, however, none of it would matter as Linkle began scribing a teleportation rune around the prisoners. Using the diluted liquid version of the same materials that she'd made the rings and necklace from, she was getting them ready to be teleported to Shamisha's workshop.

'You better not extract their hearts before I can test the nail's powers on them first.'

She hoped, taking a few steps away from the prisoners and letting the completed magic circle teleport them all. A flash of light bounced off her face–making her close her eyes and by the time they opened again, the prisoners were gone.

'Now to worry about these…'

Plucking the new necklaces out of the air, Linkle looked through them individually and kept reminding herself of the count. Five dark crystals made from the burnt nail residue as well as five clear crystals glittering like rainbows even in the darkness. One a poison and the other the cure, each powerful enough to create chaos or breathe life into the recently deceased.

"A lifeline and an arrow of silver…" Having already tested the dark crystals on Mel's arrows by lacing them with necrosis, Linkle wanted to know just how much chaos she could cause with them in hell. Squeezing her hand tight, she made the necklaces disappear once again. Hoping to share that power with the party once the problem with the Djinn was over, she wanted to keep the new equipment a secret for a while longer.

In the meantime, while she was getting herself ready to head upstairs, Raven and the others were cleaning up the remaining mess from their assault on the ships. In that, the first order of business came down to handling the witch hunter and that rifle Arche had stolen from her.

At first, nobody wanted to touch the vomit-drenched rifle that had come out of Arche's mouth, but after a thorough cleansing, Raven finally took it in his hands and started running his fingers along the runes carved across the rifle's surface. A spark burned his fingers for a moment, but moving his hand on the rifle again, he started taking it apart while the others watched him in silence–well, everyone except the Djinn siblings.

"What's so special about that toy anyways?" Jahandeer asked, his tone clearly mocking everyone.

"I'm quite positive…" Done disassembling the whole thing thanks to the blueprint he'd seen at the Enchanted wand, Raven set the gun's components across the table and turned his head up towards the spider queen. "I'm positive that this thing can kill us in one blow if we were to get hit."

Nodding at Arche, he ordered her to let the witch hunter out as well as her drake. And while she straightened her back to get them out, Raven turned his attention to the Djinn and said.

"Those runes–I'm not sure if you've fought any keepers, but they seem to generate the same form of concentrated corruption through them," bringing his burnt fingers up for him to see, he let him take a good look. "It sucked the residual corruption out of me like a magnet picking iron from sand, hence the burn."

"Where the hell did she get it from?" Mel mumbled in the background, her eyes fixed on the rifle parts scattered on the table made of darkness.

"We'll have to ask her that directly," turning back to Arche, Raven lifted his head to watch as the queen held her head straight up. Opening her mouth that split in four with spiders crawling out from every crevice, she reached down her own throat and plucked from her belly the bile-drenched witch hunter and her quivering drake.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Gross…" Heaved the elves, their lips curved downward with disgust.

However, their disgust didn't stop there. The moment Arche placed Choux and her drake on the deck, a vile stench assaulted everyone's nostrils.

"Ahh! What is that smell?!" Thankfully for them, just as Arche had placed the witch hunter on the deck, the witch emerged from the steps and walked up to the vile stench. Holding one hand forward and the other covering her mouth, she whispered a purification spell and in a matter of seconds both the bile and its stench disappeared in an instant.

Coughing on the ground Choux was beyond disoriented to know what was happening, as for her drake, it kept itself lowered while his body quivered in fear of the massive spider queen behind him. Covering his eyes with his wings, the drake remained low to the ground, but finally, as Choux sensed the witch in front of her, she raised her head and instantly tried to grab Linkle by her neck.

"Stay down!" However, a kick to the face by the witch made her reconsider her hastiness.

"UGHHH!" Even so, she growled and tried to push against Linkle's feet.

"That's enough…" Walking closer to the girl from behind, Raven bound her with chains that extended out of his hands. Pulling on them tight, he dragged Choux away. Then getting on his knees, he flipped her body for her to look at him in the face. "Enough struggling, it's time for some answers."

Extending his hand over Choux's face, Raven dug deep into her memories and unveiled everything that she was hiding behind that child-like innocent-looking face. And what he saw was far beyond what he could've expected…