Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

"How did you even–" Staring at runes for a while, Erika was left quite surprised that a demi-human monster remembered its intricate structure. Even more surprised was Asmodia as the runes were ancient and an obvious heirloom to a family. "Let me write it down so I don\'t forget it."

"You sure you can place these around the premises undetected?" Having little grasp over runes, Raven was letting Erika handle the inscription as it fell into her expertise.

Shifting her gaze sideways at him, she scowled a little seemingly offended that he would even ask that question.

"Obviously, if a demi-human can remember it, I can inscribe it," puffing her cheeks, she brought her attention back to the runes. Writing it on her own hands, she slipped off of her bar stool and was ready to head off to the coliseum. "You\'ll owe me an apology after I\'m done~"

Leaving with a peck on Raven\'s cheeks, Erika drifted into the air in her crimson mist form. Raven stared at the spot where she\'d been for a while, but then, hearing Helga drunkenly mumble to herself, he turned back around and grabbed his glass of wine back in his hand. After only a few sips to calm his mind, Melicia moved in on Erika\'s spot and wrapped her arms around his sipping hand.

Rubbing her face against him longingly, she peered up at his face–her cheeks red with a crimson flush.

"Everything okay at the bastard\'s stronghold?" She asked, referring to the clones who\'d already been recalled by Raven.

"Yeah…" With a sigh, the mage twirled his wine, already wondering how he would face the tyrant tomorrow morning. "Isaac he wasn\'t any actual help, to be honest, but he did tell me his brother\'s strengths."

"Hmm? What about weaknesses?" Mel asked, her eyes furrowed with concern.

"The nun has granted him an armor that reflects all magic including those born of horrors or darkness," taking another light sip from his glass, he put a faint smile on his lips and turned his head to face Mel. "Then there\'s his skin and fur, both are resistant to slashes, blades and only affected by sheer force, and that too his body absorbs like thickened tree sap."

"That…doesn\'t sound too good if you\'re fighting him alone," Aria chimed in, her eyes fluttering with drowsiness.

"Maybe you can outmatch him in speed?" Amelia suggested from right beside Melicia.

Amedith and Liliyana were already asleep, as for the monster girls they didn\'t have enough battle experience to suggest anything. Even so, the constant back and forth went on for a while, until it was established that even in terms of speed, being a centaur Gara would have the upper hand.

"The Arachnes were already beating me in speed without help from the corrupt energy, so I doubt a creature of pure muscle that\'s built to race is gonna be any less swift," the more he spoke, the less gasp Raven could find in Gara\'s defenses except of course from what Isaac had suggested. "If his brother is truly to be tested, I need to make him rage and he might start losing focus.

That\'s the only weakness he has…"

Reminded of the fairy clone\'s body being invulnerable to Gara\'s blows, Raven quickly checked the darkened veins on his chest that still seemed to be swollen from the excess of power. The skin above those very veins was flaking off like burnt bark from a tree stump.

"That doesn\'t look too good," said Mino, her bubbly face contorting to the sight.

"I need more practice with it, but no way I can use corruption in the fight tomorrow," with his options dwindling more and more, Raven as well as his party knew that it was about to be a battle of pure strength. No magic, no tricks, just a lethal dance between the two judged entirely by their physical skills.

Or so they thought…

"Wh-why no…sab–no, stab, him in zhe back an-yways?" Drunk she may have been, but still, Helga\'s cutthroat attitude towards her enemies still didn\'t leave her side. And with everyone looking at her, she picked herself up from the counter and suggested to Raven with a hand pointed towards him.

"I-If anger is his poison, then anger him during the fight about something that he can\'t do anything about but rage and rage until you find a gap in his defenses?"

Growing more sober as she went on, the Valkyrie grabbed the mage by his collar and pulled him to her ears. Then whispering something in his ears, she let him go and laughed like a hyena.

"What did she say?" Mel asked Raven as he settled back into his seat after being let go by Helga.

His lips parted to answer, however, before he could speak a flash of blue light appeared right behind the party. It left them all blinded for a moment, then as it slowly dimmed down, they saw Linkle standing in front of them. Dressed in a sorceress gown with a netted veil covering her cleavage and a tall witch hat, she had a look of sheer focus, further accentuated by the briefcase in her hand.

"Alright, from next time, tell me before you dorks leave my shop!" She was obviously pissed about something but the party had no idea what.

Their confusion only grew more as she rushed to the table and set her briefcase on top of the counter. Opening it, the witch revealed a collection of bottles with a shimmering violet potion. They were all made from the fumes she\'d captured from the water being condensed until the gas turned into a liquid.

"The reason behind that queen\'s massive size, but before I hand these off to you," turning her attention to Raven, she faked a polite smile. "I need your help–actually call it a deal instead."

Shutting the briefcase, she was ready to negotiate not just for the potions in exchange for the cave\'s location, but also help to extract every ounce of material in that death trap of a dungeon.

\'Thankfully, I didn\'t bring the potion to reverse the effects of this one.\' Knowing there was a possibility of being declined, the witch had kept the reverse-engineered potion back in a secret place