Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Like the many variations of mages, warriors had branching classes as well. From holy warriors like Amedith to undead lords like Murdok, every class was split by their contrasting abilities, as for the king of Aranuvia, was a known spirit warrior. Consuming the souls of his enemies, he'd grown more than anyone could hope for on this collection of islands.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Gathering riches as he did souls, Aran the Fifth–was beyond what one could consider a mortal. Possessing the strength of his enemies as well as their treasures, he was a monster amongst monsters with the sanity of a human. Carrying a giant sword twice his size, he was known to have brought down dragons, witches, and many tribes of monsters plaguing the islands. An exterminator of all that hindered the expanse of Aranuvia, he was a beast of burden who simply wouldn't let anything stop him in his path.

"And that is who he is," finishing up her explanation about the king of Aranuvia, Choux looked around the group gathered around the dying campfire. She'd expected them to grow concerned, however, to her surprise, they appeared to be focusing on something instead of letting the grand description of Aran affect them at all. "I've been working for him to hunt down witches since he found me and my brother. I did so because I believed he could help me revive my brother with one of his treasures."

As she added further, Linkle lifted her head and stared at the witch hunter for a while. Then as Choux noticed her gaze fixed on her, she finally decided to open her mouth and ask some questions about this treasure she was talking about.

"What kind of treasure is it?" Although reluctant at first, seeing everyone lifting their heads to stare at her, Choux decided to speak the truth after all.

"A…Necroflower, one of the generals under him said it can revive the dead–I've wanted to get my hands on it since," the mention of the treasure lit up everyone's eyes and turned them towards Linkle. The witch had already talked about the flower many times but nobody truly believed they could find one…before now that is.

Tilting her head and leaning on her knees, the witch continued to stare at Choux until she felt ready to pursue the matter further.

"And he has it in some treasury, you said?" A bit confused by the sudden change in the atmosphere around her, Choux looked around uncertain what to feel before quickly shifting her gaze back to Linkle.

"I-it's supposed to be there but I've never been inside. A steel dragon guards that room, nobody but Aran's allowed past her," the mention of a dragon reminded everyone of the frost drake, and to Raven and Aria, even of Helga's daughters.

"Are we talking half-dragon or a full-blooded creature?" Raven asked, trying to gather as much information as possible before having to inevitably face the creature.

"I…" Looking at Raven, the girl paused for a moment to think. However, having never seen that dragon herself, she couldn't answer with certainty. "I don't know exactly what she is."

"But you know it's a she, how?" Regalia asked, finally jumping into the conversation after an hour of silence.

Exchanging glances with her, Choux felt a lot more comfortable answering her questions than the rest of the gathered people.

"My dragon," looking to the skies, Choux brought everyone's attention to the monster girl soaring along the skies on Daema. "She laid him as an egg apparently, I'm not too sure though since I only received him as a cup because nobody else could handle his cold aura."

"Doesn't seem like Mino's affected by it either," Raven muttered.

"Could just be the fact that her body temperature is a lot higher than humans," Linkle replied right after.

"Forget the dragon, what's our next move?" Melicia questioned, bringing the conversation back to the topic on hand.

Your journey continues with empire

Between killing Aran, his dragon and getting Tariyaan off of their backs, the party had a lot on their table, and both tasks required a lot of preparations. One more than the other, but the preparations were required nonetheless, and the first topic that needed handling was figuring out on which side the witch hunter would stand.

"If we were to kill King Aran and get you that flower, would you be fighting against or with us?" Extending a hand towards Choux, Raven got her attention back on him and his question. "Are you loyal to him or were you only serving him to get that flower is what I'm essentially asking."

Staring blankly at him for a while, she didn't know how to answer the question. Never had her mind crossed that question, it wasn't even a question to her in fact. After all, Aran had saved her life so why wouldn't she be loyal to him? Except that it wasn't loyalty that she had but indifference to her circumstances, and the more she thought about Raven's question the closer she was getting to that reasoning.

"I don't care as long as long as I get the flower," she replied, still a bit uncertain as to how she was supposed to feel.

"Even if we don't get it or if we do, I might have another way to bring your brother back to life," jumping in on the conversation, Linkle showed Choux one of the life-giving necklaces before quickly making it disappear. "But only after you help us get that necroflower from him."

Trying to increase the chances of defeating Tariyaan, Linkle wanted that flower even if she had to use one of the life-giving necklaces. And by flashing it in front of Choux's eyes, she'd already drawn her in with the possibility that the revival of her brother was far closer than she could've ever expected.

"What is that?" Asked the fox girl about the necklace, her eyes glimmering with hope for once since leaving her home island.

"You'll find out as soon as we get that flower," replied Linkle, still holding the secret close to her heart.

And with that came the end of the night–at least for those gathered around the campfire, for the turmoil in Amedith's heart as well as the sisters had to be quenched one way or the other.