Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Of all the people to lead the charge against the elites and the raining angels, nobody had expected Frazer to be selected. However, seeing something in him–some change after the debacle in Eclanor, Raven had decided to leave him in charge of the elites and a handful of veteran soldiers.

No longer mind-controlled by some monster, the warrior’s senses were as sharp as a razor. Soaking in his surroundings, the burning buildings, the trajectory of the invisible projectiles, and the tactics being used by the enemies, he charged his fists with flames and chilling winds of magic and leapt forward while mentally relaying orders to everyone around him.

Josare–his slim girl companion followed close behind. However, despite being a blessed of Natura, she couldn’t make use of her magic thanks to the lack of fauna in the city of Alliance. Even so, taking the brunt of all projectiles with her body–soaking up any magical ones and dissolving arrows and throwing knives, she kept Frazer safe from harm with her body wrapped around him like a snake of some kind.

“Come on then! We can’t let those bastards show us up!” Charging towards a building with her massive axe drawn, Hilma urged Hayley to follow right behind. “WANNA HIDE DO YA?! LET ME FORCE YA OUT!”

Striking the supporting pillars of the house with a full force strike, Hilma let go of her axe, and it tore right through the building. The angelic choir seized the opportunity to raise the soldiers’ morale by singing of Hilma’s feats of strength, Victor’s glorious strike against the head of a giant angel, and Frazer’s bulldozing of visible enemies. And as their angelic words, accompanied by glory and instruments, fell onto the soldiers’ ears, it made them wonder.

‘Why can’t I do something like that? Hells! I will do something like that!’

“Hilma, here catch!” In the meantime, flying up high thanks to her automaton body and specterous soul, Hayley caught Hilma’s flying axe. Struggling with the massive thing despite having trained to work with a handful of other elite fighters, the spirit grunted while swinging the axe round and round before throwing it back. “G-gods that’s heavy!”

“Garrhhh!” A sharp cry of an enemy angel froze Hayley’s body with shock.

She tried to turn her head and look, but her body refused to move.

“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER!” Coming to her rescue was Amelia, swinging her morningstar right at the angel’s dainty head. Hearing its skull crack, the newly learned mage grabbed Hayley’s body and allowed her body to fall before breaking their fall with another gust of wind magic right under their feet. “Don’t get reckless now, we’re still in enemy territory.”

Slowly letting the Automaton back on her feet, Amelia heard a breathy word of thanks while her gaze had already turned to Ophelia. Looking into the sky, the centaurian had her bow drawn and a flaming magic arrow trained at numerous angels flying right in their direction. Honing her gaze and adjusting a little, Ophelia held her breath and finally let go–the first magic arrows of her making meant to kill someone.

The angels, however, saw the arrows from a mile away and simply turned their bodies away from their trajectory. Avoiding the strike…or so they thought.

“Five birds down.” Snapping her fingers right as the arrows were passing the angels’ bodies, Ophelia made the flaming arrows explode in their faces. The impact sent them flying into other angels and tall towers, disrupting the already chaotic assaulting line of the enemy.

“Oi! A little help here?!” Screaming from the opposite side of the chaos, Reina pushed another angel off her body before pinning it to the ground. Using nothing but her pure strength as a blacksmith to overpower it, she grabbed it by the neck with one hand and reached for her hammer. “How many of your feckers do I have to kill for you to realize that I’m not here to fight!”

Using her knee to rock the angel in the groin, Reina used the opportunity to free her hand from its neck and grab a nail from her waistbelt. Lining it up with the angel’s head, she wasted no time in hammering it. Nailing her tenth angel to the street, she kicked herself off the enemy and landed on her butt to rest.

“Gods forbid a woman wanna see a new port city!”

“Don’t sit there, you idiot,” rushing to get to her while on a Coppelicon, Linkle furrowed her brows at the smith. “Get on now! I will take you back to the port. Elana’s almost ready with her spell that’s gonna knock out everyone who’s left here. Without any magical protection, you’re gonna be the first to fall asleep.”

“Wha-what? Why didn’t she do that from the start?” Taking Linkle’s extended hand, Reina got herself on the back of the Coppelicon.

“A spell like that takes time and proximity,” pulling in the reins, the witch quickly made the bird turn around. “Why do you think we’re securing this area and containing it? So that she can finish the preparations, but also have enough leeway to escape before she actually casts the spell.”

Glancing over at Frazer, Amelia, Hayley, and the rest, Linkle gave them a brief nod and snapped the bird’s reins. “Good luck! I’ll tell Aradin to hold on until everyone’s out! Don’t try to be a hero and leave the fight against the goddess to the deranged!”

“Time to clean this place up!” Raising his voice, Frazer once again took charge of the soldiers. Directing them with the same precision as he had been in Eclanor while training the very same amateurs.

The rest of the group focused on keeping the angels from getting the upper hand, but with a near infinite flood of them pouring out of the portal–it was clear that they had to do what they could and start retreating before it’s too late. That decision would perhaps be the best decision they would ever make, for the goddess had her own plans, and Oruon, despite acting like he didn’t exist, had already made his move–something the soldiers would only realize once the army is in retreat.

Would it be too late by then? At least that was Oruon’s hope.