Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 99: Confronting The Horror

Waking up one after the other Mel and Raven were still left in a daze, and being the last one the horror had control of, Amedith was slowly coming to his senses. Circling his body outside the high priestess's tent, Helga had everyone stay behind her with nothing but an ice spear in her hand.

'The other two can't fight, I beat up the elf so she can't either, the minotaur girl is still missing, that only leaves Erika, but I doubt she'd be much help at all.' Going through her plans, she wondered if she should carry Amedith away so she could deal with the horror herself, however, given that there was very little time between the priestess healing their bodies and them waking up, she knew it wouldn't have been possible.

"Get his body as soon as you can, I'll deal with the monster!" She announced, and the other–though still a bit shaken tried to focus on Amedith to get him out at the first gap they came across.

With everything in place, the hero's grunts echoed under the rays of the setting sun. But then, as his eyes opened, a cloud of dark smoke was ejected through his gaping mouth. Wasting no time to let the horror escape, Helga hurled the ice spear through its mass. Freezing the monster the moment it stabbed it, the spear flew it back and pinned it to a tree.

Screeching incoherently, the frozen glob of dark clouds attempted to free itself. Encased in a hardened block of ice, the horror could not escape, especially since it lacked any real form other than gaseous in the material world.

"Help me pick him up," Erika muttered to the other two, both of them barely seemed conscious.

While they sluggishly walked over to get Amedith away from the action, Helga moved closer to the spear, stabbed through the horror's body. Freezing even the tree, the spear had completely blocked the smallest of cracks from letting the horror escape just yet.

"Now to end you, you fucking cricket!" Squeezing her fingers around the handle, Helga twisted it around. Tabbing it with the enchanted spear as it froze the monster further and further, Helga couldn't help but smile.

Screeching more and more like chalk on a blackboard, the monsters screamed in agony as its existence slowly began to fade. Yet showing it no mercy, Helga summoned yet another spear of the same elemental magic.

Using it to rampantly stab the horror while the other made sure the holes left behind were closed as quickly as possible, she began chipping at the creature as if she were chiseling stone for a sculpture.

"Awww, does that hurt?" Grinning with all her teeth visible, she laughed at its agony in the most mocking of voices.

Hearing Helga's laughs, Mel as well as Raven froze up for a moment. It reminded them of the horror's own laughter as it was trying to torture them. Though with her giving the monster a taste of its own medicine, their shock was quickly turned to anger and then to a sated smile.

Watching her torment it, chipping away at its frozen body, parting it limb by limb, the very sight of its agony was sweeter than any revenge.

"About to disappear, forever and ever~" Drawing the second spear out of its body, Helga turned her head to the icy blade. Then with a smirk, she glanced sideways at what was left of the horror's body. "Oh well, nothing of value was gained by your existence, thus nothing would be lost either."

Stabbing the horror with those words, Helga froze it completely before drawing out both spears. Falling to the ground, its body crumbled to pieces, and before long any proof of its existence was turned into char. Or maybe not all, as the scars and realization from the horror's actions still lingered in the trio's mind.

'It's gone?' And while the others were finally feeling better and getting ready to relax, sitting behind a pair of bushes, Mino still wasn't sure if she wanted to come out. So far she'd only been watching things unfold as she knew better than to expose herself to a creature that was likely to freak out on. 'Not like I could've helped, probably ended up becoming a victim of its tricks if anything.'

Beating herself with those thoughts, she was reminded of the kid–the kid whom she beat up into a pulp. It wasn't her fault, nor was there any way for her to know what would happen, and yet the events of that day just wouldn't let her rest.

'I should get back quickly, they should expect me to come back with some food anyway.' Getting off the ground, she began wandering into the forest with her head full of doubts.

In the meantime, finally being awake Amedith was left as confused as the other two. But that confusion was quickly replaced by shock when he noticed something off about Raven. A pool of blood had died off right under his eyes. Neither he nor Mel had any real injuries after being healed, and yet somehow, Raven's left eye was bleeding–Or so he thought.

"It's not my fault the creature had already consumed his eyes!" Rolling her eyes when questioned about it, Kara played out dramatics. "And don't you people dare back off on the payment just because he lost one, hell people lose more than just their eyes to those creatures! If anything you're fortunate! You should be–"

"Kara enough," shutting her down, Helga grabbed herself a chair and quickly sat down. Shifting her attention to Raven and the rest, she crossed her legs and leaned all the way back. "You made it easier for me to spy out that cricket so I'll spare you the complaints, but…"

Taking a deep breath she leaned forward on her knees and sighed.

"None of you are ready, so just turn back and hunt minotaurs or something," even before she'd said it, Helga knew the suggestion was bound to flicker some flames.

"The goddess, she wants us to continue–we'll find a wa–"

"Like hell, you will! look at yourself!" Cutting off Raven, Helga carelessly fanned her hand to the side. "Trained by some dead monk, the best you can hope to be is in town adventu–"

As fate would have it to cut sentences short, before Helga could finish, the entirety of the tent suddenly combusted into flames.