Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

The battle had begun and the spectral ships were being boarded across Arche's arms, the queen was in pain, she was hurt beyond anything she'd been in a while. A finger was nothing when her whole body was being blasted by canons, the great sword of the king and the many arrows shot by the pirates that once stuck in her flesh turned into spectral skeletons.

She tried to swat them like bugs but her hands passed right through them, and thus the only thing she could do was provide a bridge for the soldiers to board into the ships and also clean up the skeleton off of her body they passed through that bridge. Letting out the spiders from her mouth she tried to help the automatons that constituted the bulk of their army, but their poison and bites were nearly ineffective to the skeletons and the undead, they were easily squashed and burned by the arrows and only caused more trouble for their allies.

"AEGHHH!" Getting struck in one of her eyes by the sword, Arche screamed yet again and plucked the sword out of the deep wound. However as she tried to hurl it back to the king, it lost the momentum she'd placed in the throw and landed in his hand safely. "YOU DAMNED BASTARD!"

Raising her free hand, she brought it down on the armored king–to her surprise and the surprise of plenty, he stopped her blow with his hands and with just a flick of a wrist tumbled Arche on her sides. Before what happened could register everyone's head, Choux who was already up in the sky took her aim and shot the rifle at the king. The shot of malice shooting out from the weapon stuck him like a ram and shattered even the astral ship's deck.

Smoke rose from the head vessel, all the while the automatons were drowning in the water or screaming as they fought the undead pirates, but as the smoke washed away, a moment of stillness took over the sea at the sight of the king casually climbed out of the hole in the ship's deck. No bruises, not even one had grazed his skin, and although his decorated dark armor was sizzling with burn, it didn't seem to affect him one bit.

"That's enough," wrapping his fingers around the sword's handle, Aran raised it high and the sword grew so tall it reached into the skies. Shadowed under its edge, Raven and the others quickly scattered off the island and took to the air with whomever could fly them. But it wasn't the island the king was aiming at, but rather the toppled queen laying in the ocean.

"SHIT!" Recognizing that last moment, Raven turned to Amedith and thankfully he seemed to have already gathered what was happening.

"DIED YOU MONSTER!" Flying right under the blade with Liliyana riding on Amedith's back as a fairy, the warrior held his shield under the sword while the king's scream toppled everyone still standing on their feet. Continue reading stories on empire

Lifting his shield to the cascading blade, Amedith defended the queen against a blade whose edge alone was more than twice his size. The moment the great sword ridden with green runes all over its spine came in contact with his holy shield, a ripple of energy burst from the strike and both Amedith and the blade were sent flying far away from each other.

Shooting through one of Arche's many spider legs in his trajectory, the ex-hero may have saved the queen but his body tore through one of her spider legs, as for the blade–it flew off the king's hands and spun through the air a few times before landing into the ocean. Everyone who was in the air was sent back from the ripple created by the blast as well, and only just recovering from it, the automatons continued their assault while Raven had another plan for the others.

"REGALIA GET THAT FUCKING SWORD!" Turning to Regalia whom he was holding by a dark flesh hand, Raven flung her towards the blade so she could get closer to the blade before the king completely recovered.

"AGHHH!" Although shocked and screaming after being flung through the air, just as she was about to land in the ocean, Regalia came back to her senses and summoned the tentacles from deep within the ocean to catch her and also drag the blade down into the hells.

"MONO COME WITH ME TO THE KING!" Looking at the queen flying beside him with what appeared to be mechanical wings protruding from her back, Raven motioned her to follow him, but before moving towards Aran, he looked at Mel and Aria being held by Will-O in her enlarged wisp form. "Aria handle the pirates, Mel–summon treants on that ship to subdue the king and also shoot that menace with exploding arrows!"

Quickly barking those orders, he shot his body towards Aran and Mono followed right behind him. Being the only ones left without orders, the monster girl and Linkle decided to follow him to the ship as well.

"Spirit Minotaur!" Conjuring a minotaur as large as the lighthouse, Mino helped carry everyone towards the ship. Riding on the beast while Raven and Mono just landed next to Aran, she had the minotaur charge like a bull towards the astral ships.

Jumping off the moment they were close to a ship, Aria was the first to get off and start picking the pirates who'd been shooting at Arche and the flying others. All the while, the spirit minotaur slammed through an astral ship and with its horn stuck in its hull began thrashing it into planks and bits. Being a beast of astral nature, the monster was far more efficient in thrashing the enemies than everyone else. And had it not been for the nature of the gauntlets, Aria's fists would've been ineffective against the pirates.

"Aris Magna!" Standing atop that beat and held by astral hands so she wouldn't fall, Linkle summoned lighting to strike down the astral ships.

'They keep fucking regenerating!'

However, no matter how much they kept damaging the ships and the undead aboard, the source of their power–the necro flower within Aran kept recovering them to full strength. Glancing over to Aran while a beam of Malice ran between her and the king to strike down another ship, Linkle couldn't help but wish.

'I really hope you can kill that guy before we run out of power.'

Held down by a handful of treants, Aran kept tearing their branches off of him and almost walked out of their grasp a few times. However, barely held back he glared at Raven with a menacing smile.

"You can't hold me for long! DO WHAT YOU NEED TO!" He screamed at the mage's face, but just as Raven conjured a blade to cut through Aran–Mel's summon could no longer be sustained. Charging at Raven while he was left shocked momentarily, Aran squeezed his fingers into a fist and swung it at his face. "YOU PREPARED WELL BUT NOT WELL ENOUGH!"

"Kaleidoscope!" Those out-of-place words uttered by Mono threw the king off and what happened next shattered him to the core.