Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

It was time for a battle. A dragon against a human with fae blood. In fiction, the answer would've been simple. No dragon could've lost against a human, but the human standing against Flitza had been an anomaly from the start. Taking out her burning blade, she points it towards his chest. In return, Raven held his arms outwards and took on his enhanced fae form.

Instead of a shadowed figure with no legs, he had turned his rogue power into a dark armor that enhanced his abilities. Like a dark knight, an air of mystique took over his surroundings, and the aura of corruption and darkness was mixed together to mask his form, to what appeared to be a portal peering into the abyss.

Silence followed as the dragoness's fingers twitched with anxiety. And much like a horror, Raven was feeding on her fear to power himself up further. It was then that the silence was broken by the descent of the Prince's bardic angels. Appearing through a golden portal from up above, they hovered over the battlefield with their instruments ready to enhance the warlord further.

"That god kept his word, huh? His angel did come to sing during our battles…" Aria murmured to herself, her eyes focusing on the cupids with their fingers itching to strike a beat.

A handful of full-size humanoids were present as well, but from their clasped hands, it was clear that they would play no instruments but rather sing a melody.

"What in the world?" Melenai was confused by the sight, and so was Meimei.

"Angel?" Glancing at the party yet again, the blacksmith mumbled. "Their god seems helpful, but…what are these people to have such strong backing?"

Taking the angels as Athenia's blessing instead of the Prince of Nile, the girl was misled by her own belief. Even so, as the dragoness in her distressed state charged at Raven, none of it mattered for the angels began singing and Raven leapt forward as well.

The melody was mournful, like a prayer during a eulogy. At first, the tone was unclear, but being a bard herself, at least Melenai knew what it meant. The others? It only took them a few seconds more as Raven slammed the dragoness's body into the ground with absolute darkness consuming everything on her body-even her armor and her weapon.

Hitting her head against the ground, the paladin heard her skull cracking from behind before she lost consciousness. The battle hadn't even begun, and it was over in half a second of Raven moving. The momentum from him grabbing her throat and slamming her to the ground was enough to shatter every bone in her resilient dragonic body.

"I was trying to hold back too…" Clicking his tongue as he stood up, Raven watched the corruption slowly consuming everything on the paladin's skin like a flame consuming kindling. Her tight-fitted breasts were the first to pop out free, and then her ribcage burst through her corset along with a belt that kept her healthy waist contained within.

Watching her lying bare on the ground while everyone else's vision was still blurred by the darkness exuding from within him, Raven took in the pleasant sight of her body, which was mostly a mix of human and dragonic with harpy legs. As her panties, made from what seemed to be her own scales, melted away, the warlord was surprised that the woman was like a lamia down there. With a vertical slit instead of one tucked between the legs.

'Does she have Lamian blood too?' He couldn't say for sure, but since the darkness was passing, he decided to throw a blanket made of darkness on top of her body to cover it.

Doing so, he turned back into his usual self and pulled out from within his palm the armor and the weapon the dragoness had been wearing. Throwing it next to the dragoness, he turned to Melenai and said.

"Clothe her before she wakes up, then come and meet me in that atelier again." Glancing over to his people while the other two were still shocked by what had happened, Raven gestured for them to follow him.

Planning to check the other two girls once they return, Raven wanted to use his mind-reading ability to know if they were also hiding something. Why exactly? Because a creature that's mixed with too many others is bound to pick up their good but also the worst traits. And to march with a dragoness in battle that couldn't fly because of the imbalance caused by her heavy upper body and hollow talons was, needless to say, far from ideal.

'The blacksmith is coming with us, apparently. I need to know more about her too before I march her into a battlefield.' Thankfully, despite her short height, Meimei was a mature Caladrius in her twenties. Not to mention, she did carry quite the weight on herself in all the right places. 'As for the advisor, I just don't trust her yet.'

While Raven was busy tussling with his own thoughts, Mel's belly grumbled hungrily out of nowhere. Squeezing her belly in embarrassment, she tried to hide her blush with a look of frustration on her face. Everyone glanced at her for just a second, but since they too were hungry, nobody tried to tease her about it.

"L-lets get this over with and return home for now…" Mel suggested, and everyone agreed.

Before going home, however, there was still much left to do. Getting their hands on a new weapon created by Meimei, heading back to the inn to pick up Monty and the slave girl. And lastly, a couple of new shop owners to visit that could help them tremendously on their journey.

A trader of trinkets and rare material, as well as a map maker and an information seller, both of whom had already been informed of their eventual visit. What would the party find at their shops? A bit of drama was already waiting, but what else could be there? Well, it had to wait as Raven was busy inspecting the girl's memories first and foremost.

'Let's hope there's nothing weird going on in their heads.' He said to himself while placing his hand on the advisor first.