Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

The sound of crunching leaves echoed through the dark. A horde of dark elves, weapons in hand, searched for a prisoner who'd barely escaped their grasp. Their voices screeched through the woods, trying to locate the young dark elf. She had fled a week ago, and yet their search continued every day.

They wanted to find her before returning to their clan, for if their leader knew that they'd let the girl escape, only the worst of fates awaited them.

'Just get away already!' Her body mimicking the surface of a tree trunk, the escapee managed to let the search party drift by before pulling herself off the trunk and spreading her parasitic wings. Sewn to her shoulder blades, the clear greenish film that looked like the massive wings of a fly, was how she'd managed to go unnoticed, by taking to the skies every time she was about to be caught.

The cricketing sound of the wings, however, often gave away her position and the parasitic nature of the wings had caused her back to turn translucent like clear jelly. The more she used the wings, the further the parasite grew, but without it, she would be an easy target for her hunters. And with it? They were an easier target for her to pick off one after the other.

Armed with a pair of rings with a razor-sharp wire held tight in between, she stalked her own hunter until she found a window and a clearing right above their heads to plant a quick escape. Flying towards them with her wings buzzing loudly, she alerted them all, but by the time they turned with horror in their eyes, she'd already flown over to one of them and ran the sharp wire through his neck.

Lifting the dark elf's body in the air as she picked him off the ground and by the time the others realized what was happening, their companion's detached head fell to the ground just seconds after his body.

'One more down!' A bit excited at the swift execution, the girl lost herself in her glee for a moment. Which in turn gave one of the hunters just enough time to shoot an arrow at her back.

"AHHHHHHAAAA!" Her wing was pinned to her back by the arrow, her body began to crash against the trees. Barely shielding her eyes and face, she managed to keep her head safe from trauma but her ribs and hips weren't so lucky. Crashing from one branch to the other, she fell face-first into a mud puddle while groaning in pain.

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The hunters were already on their way to capture her, and the girl knew it very well. Thus wasting no time, she plucked the arrow out of her back with a pained grunt before continuing to move towards the only nearby city.

'Elenaris…I need to get there…' Having heard of the king being so forgiving that he would bring the most hardened criminals to tears, she wanted to beg for his help despite what her people had done to his kingdom recently. 'I never wanted this, this alliance, the backstabbing, the murders, none of it!'

And so began the journey of the ex-chieftain's daughter to find help inside the city of progress. It would take her weeks before she even got to the city's walls, especially with the hunters right on her tail. And yet she would persevere and find her way in as a drifter cloaked in kobold hide to hide her identity.

Wandering the streets, she learned of the king's death–something that shattered all hope for her and turned her into a hopeless alcoholic. She wanted to return to her people, to those being misled by the self-appointed leaders, and yet all she saw in those choices was her eventual death and needless carnage.

'A month? Is that all I have before this parasite consumed me?' Consuming ale inside the bricks and cobbles, she tried to drown her pain as well as worries, but the loud pack of adventurers to her side wouldn't even let her have that peace. Glancing towards them, she decided to check them out quickly. 'Hmm? Is that the owner?'

Seeing Diane sitting on a silver-haired man's lap, her eyes squinted in confusion before they swiftly moved on to the others.

'And a d-devil?' Her eyelids stretching wider; her shock only grew at the cowgirl and the lamia sitting on the same conjoined table. Then there was another wolf-girl, her face planted against the table and a bottle of empty wine in her hand. Surrounded by plenty of other adventurers, she was obviously being hit on, however, brushing them all, she ordered more wine and downed it like water.

"Hey," calling out to a fellow adventurer with whom she'd been working with to earn some gold, the dark elf nudged her to look at the other party. "Who are they? Strange group of people, don't you think?"

"Hmm…" Taking a glance back from over her scheduler, the elven dwarf looked at the party before giving her an answer. "Oh them? They're supposed to be Aphordite's chosen, the ones to save this world again from the demon lord's revival. Heard they're pretty strong too, although some of the rumors are quite far-fetched."

"What rumors?" Curious about the group, the dark elf pushed further.

"Well," leaning closer to her on the table, the fair elf whispered. "They cleared a corrupted forest on their own apparently, plus that wolf-girl over there? She's supposed to be a royal guard, not sure why she's hanging out with them, but there are rumors that their party escaped the dark dungeons from under the noses of people like her."

Turning to the party again, the dark elf's curiosity only grew further. She wanted to know more and more, for she was growing desperate for hope in the dark tunnel she'd found herself in.

"How strong do you think they are?" She asked her party member again.

"If nothing else," stabbing into her food, the fair elf lifted it off the plate and pointed the fork to her. "They did come here from Athenia, from that plateau up in the sky, that alone is impressive on its own even if they did take the train halfway through their flight."

Piecing together every bit of information that she had, the dark elf's eyes kept staring at the group in front. If only she could convince them to help her, then perhaps she could see her people free of tyrannic rule before she dies.

"Lilith? You there?" Calling out to her friend, the dwarf poked her with the fork when she didn't listen.

"Ow!" Flinching into her seat, Lilith stared at her companion in anger. However, claming herself down, she decided to get up and retire to her room for the night instead of complaining. Before leaving, she looked at her friend again and said. "Hey Drew, I'm gonna leave tomorrow for my city, so I think it's best you find another companion."

"What?" Yelped the elven dwarf, but having more important matters to deal with, Lilith began climbing the stairs in hopes of finding out more about the party by sneaking into their rooms and looking at their equipment.

'I wanna ask for their help, but not before finding out if they can even survive the fights we might get in.' Although she was desperate, Lilith didn't want to risk anyone else's life unless they could survive the battles and have agreed to help her.

But to her slight misfortune, she'd chosen a day when the party was looking to relax; which more than often meant countless hours of mind-bending sex.