Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 50: The Hunt Begins! - Part 1

By the time the sun began to set, the preparations for the hunt had finally concluded. Everyone was ready to march on and get rid of the vampiric menace, all under the leadership of the dark mage, Raven. Having prepped by visiting the Enchanted Wand, and the Lifeclover as well, he was more than ready to lead though there was one thing that needed to be done.

"Finally, I'm back in my skin…" Being handed her chainmail tunic and the tough leather armor she'd taken off of a dead adventurer's body, the minotaur queen, Mino beamed brighter than ever. "The only thing remaining is my crown."

"Forget the crown, I need you to stay focused," having assessed Mino's powers, Raven was trying to figure out how to make use of her in their team composition. Only minutes were left before the entire group was meant to leave the Boortooth, and before that, he had to figure it out.

'A spirit mage, huh…Maybe?' After going through one idea after the other he'd finally arrived at one that made some sense to him.

"Let's go, I'll explain what you need to do on our way to the vampire's mansion," putting up his own equipment quickly, Raven led the queen outside.

Ready to face the vampire with new equipment as well as waist belts partially filled with potions bought from the Lifeclover, the entire group pumped themselves up as they made their way toward the mansion. At the very edge between the lower and upper city, the vampire lived as a false duke commanding a handful of vampires that hunted prey for him.

Ideally, something like this would've been an official job by the kingdom, however, the involvement of the king flushed that possibility.

'Been a while since we all were so focused on doing something…' Looking around at his companions walking alongside him, Raven felt a sense of deja vu hit him for a moment. It was long ago, at the very start being selected by the goddess that they filled with joy while also being focused on the task at hand. 'Then what went wrong?'

The answer was clear, being shackled by praises and never leaving the kingdom to grow themselves as people. But that was about to change, because not long after this was over, a long journey awaited them all.

"Someone's watching us…" Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Raven whispered just low enough that only his companions could hear.

Darting their gazes at him from the side, they all waited for him to report further. Being the dark mage, detection, deception, and swift execution of monsters was his task, and in that, nobody questioned his judgment.

"Split inside the bazaar and circle back at the mansion, take care of the stalker if you need to," quickly absorbing the minotaur queen back into the bracelet, Raven pulled his hood up his head and redirected their route through the late-night bazaar.

After just a few turns, the group was breezing in through a horde of people, all wandering the streets looking at lantern-lit stalls. The sounds, the chatter, and the hollering by the vendors masked them effectively, and yet blending in amongst civilians wasn't limited just to sound.

Their equipment make them stick out like a sore thumb, and so ignoring those distracting the sweet odor of food, they scattered into dark alleys–a tactic that needed no discussion.

"Who do you think it is, Melicia?" Talking to herself as she often did during tense situations, Mel dashed through the puddles and shadows while reaching back into her quiver. Stopping with a slide at a dead end, she glanced up at the building blocking her path. "Doesn't matter, time to make use of those enchanted arrows."

Taking out an arrow of transportation, engraved with archaic runes, she strung it tight against her bowstring and shot it onto the tiled roof. Being warped through planes Mel lost her sense of direction for a moment, but the second she came to she was standing on the roof where the arrow had landed, and by her feet it lay, broken in two.

"Good thing it worked," whirling her fingers in the air, she flicked it down to her feet to infuse her soles with the wind magic. ""

'One…Two…' Sliding her left leg as far back as she could, she leaned her body forward and took a deep breath. 'Three!'

The moment she bolted forward, her senses were heightened, and just inches behind her she sensed a pair of eyes looking right at her back. Thankfully, for her, her magic helped her not only leap from roof to roof but also walk through air as if she was dashing on solid ground.

'Maybe changing equipment wasn't a good idea when we're going against an unknown enemy?' Feeling a bit stiff with the reptilian hide retraining her movement, she knew her body wasn't moving at its full potential. And the effect of it was? 'They're still following me…I need to lose them somehow.'

Trying to lose her stalker, Mel decided to take a little detour to test the limits of her enemy before trying to confront them. On her detour jumping roof to roof and nimbly gliding through the air, she noticed Aria's new hellflames gloves sparking out in the distance.

'A barbarian for a reason…' She thought, applauded by the fact that her companions were facing them head-on in an alley.

"Come on, you son of fucking cunts. I'll melt your faces off," having ran towards a dead end on intention, Aria brushed her gloves together with her eyes locked into those ruby pearls glaring right at her. Made of pure salamander hide and infused with runic magic, every brush of her knuckles illuminated the entire alley with flying hellflame sparks.

For a spell, the cloaked vampire spy kept glaring at her from a distance, but out of nowhere, the two rushed towards each other as if they both knew it was time.

'What was that?!' Hearing a massive blast around the corner, Erika's eyes turned to the sound. Rising from between one of the alleys was a dark cloud of smoke with a flicker of flames sparking about.

"A-Aria?" She thought, but the sound of a switchblade being unfolded forced her to focus back on her herself.

"A priestess?" Slowly approaching into an awfully suspect spot for the priestess to stop running, the cloaked vampire spy licked the edge of his knife with a smirk. "I wonder what you'll taste like."

To his surprise, however, it wasn't Erika that had been cornered but the other way around. Stepping closer and closer without any caution, the vampire activated a magical trap laid down by the priestess. Illuminating in a blinding magic circle right below its feet, a look of horror flashed in the spy's eyes.

However, before he could react, a pillar of pure light extruding from the ground sundered his body into a handful of dust.

'Was that an overkill?' Thought the priestess, watching the pillar standing tall by the smoke stacks. Either way, she knew it was time for her to stick to the plan and reach the mansion before anyone else found her.