Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

The same day as Maria began her training, Raven left for Linkle's shop to potentially meet up with her. But upon arriving he was met with the floating head of Vlad–seeing whom he was reminded of the horrors that he'd committed when alive.

"I'd kill you again if you weren't dead," Raven said to the floating head as he ventured deeper inside the Lifeclover. But of course, Linkle wasn't there, and so wasting no time, he clutched onto his teleportation necklace and concentrated on getting to her in Elenaris.

He expected to land in some room inside Mono's dark castle, a place where the witch was in charge of planning while the workers and the slave centaurians labored away in the cave. Unbeknownst to him, however, just hours ago the witch had stepped foot into the cave for the very first time. And just a few minutes before he teleported something strange began to transpire horror infested mine.

"What the hell was that?!" It was only the start of their mining and dark water collection and something peculiar trailed through the air and into the ears of the witch. A melody being sung by something distant yet its essence wrapped its arms around her shoulders.

"W-we don't know!" Yelped the leader of the excavation, a demi-human beaver clad in straw hide patched with centaurian leather in places.

Looking around at the slaves, the servants, and even the automaton machinery, Linkle was shocked to find them following the singing like mindless drones running into walls. Clashing their heads against the mineral-dense walls of the cave, they drew their blood and with enough tries the dark matter from their craniums.

"Fucking hells, and to think they were trained for weeks!" Stretching her arms forward, Linkle flung a line of threads coming out from between her fingers, Binding themselves around the bodies of those who hadn't died yet; she pulled them back until they were forced to plug their own ears. "Take these idiots out now, I'll see what the problem is."

Having caught the singing long before the rest, the contractor beaver had his ears covered already, but even so, the shouting command from Linkle right next to him was loud enough to pierce his ears.

"Ughhh…Another day wasted," he complained before taking the ends of the threads out of Linkle's hand and leading the work out from the cave.

"Be thankful your brain isn't splattered on these walls you bastard," Linkle said, glaring him down as he dragged the remaining servants behind him.

Watching over until the whole group was far away from the singing, Linkle decided to investigate herself exactly what was happening. Unaffected by the luring charm of the melody, she traced the mana in the air that led to the deaths of plenty in just a matter of few seconds.

'Damn it, why did it have to happen after that queen's help finally became useful?' Tired of waiting around doing nothing with a goldmine full of riches, it was needless to say getting on Linkle's nerves. And since a council ran Elenaris, she had to lobby through countless meetings and pitch her plans to demis, who knew nothing about magic-dense resources just sitting in the Arachne cave.

Mono, of course, was more than willing to help, but that didn't mean the council didn't at least try to make things hell for Linkle.

"Even that beaver wants a cut of what I make, this damned city is full of scoundrels..." Heaving a sigh, she washed away those distracting thoughts and instead focused on the singing again. But upon getting to its source that lay around a corner it disappeared suddenly.

A cluster of luminous blue water lilies laid before the witch. Floating over a small pond, they drifted along the water with their own reflection cast beneath them. Cautiously moving closer, Linkle noticed a pair of burning red eyes peering from deep within the pond.

For a moment it appeared like a fish and in the next, she saw a bustling city of gems infested by demons chipping away at what appeared to be a spire but was instead…

"My dress?" She muttered, but then as she shook her head before looking again, the dress was gone and so was the fish.

The lilies, however, began to chuckle. Shocking Linkle out of her trance, the floating flowers chuckled some more at the witch's misery.

"Fira..." Conjuring a ball of flame atop her finger, she stared at the flower, daring them to continue their mischief, but after a quick shriek of terror, they went quiet like children caught doing something devious by their parents. Leaning closer to the lilies, Linkle continued to stare at them for a while before giving them a warning.

"If you try anything like this again, if even one more of my men or women working here died, I'll not just pluck you or burn you, but also stick you up an orc's ass." Stay updated with m-v l|e'm,p y r

Taking their silence as agreement, Linkle stepped away from the pond. But right as she was about to leave, the wish decided to push further with something that had just popped up in her mind.

"Why don't you idiots draw the other horrors away from my group while we work? Do that and you'll keep that mermaid hiding in the pond satisfied and also prevent yourself from being burnt to a crisp." Although the lilies stayed quiet, the grumbling from underneath the pond at which they rested, ensured their compliance. "Good, now don't get in my way."

Done talking to the flowers and the mermaid lurking underneath, Linkle turned in the direction from which she'd come. Before she could even step one foot forward, the light from Raven teleporting near her nearly blinded her eyes.

'Why is he here?' Thought Linkle, covering her eyes with her hand. As the light eventually disappeared she moved them quickly but instead of Raven, she was met with something far more peculiar than the hero dropping on her from nowhere.

'What in the worlds?' Pounding on the glass-like surface of the pond, she felt the dark water crushing her from all around her. The light in her eyes and the air in her lungs, both were fleeing as the pressure continued to squish her organs. "UGHHHH! LET ME OUTT! BREEAK! BREAK DAMNN ITTTT!!"

As she continued to pound away, her mouth opened for a moment and the water flooded right like a parasite that had been looking for that very opportunity. Before long the elemental witch laid lifeless on the floor among many others, but even the mermaids, the lilies and even the dark water itself knew that that wasn't the end of her.