Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Libyan glared at the imps in front of her for a while, her senses tingling with a peculiar familiarity. Pushing her tongue out of her mouth, she tried to taste the hint of their bodies, and that was when she realised something crazy. And yet, staring at them still, she held her tongue, her eyes squinting.

"Do what you must then," looking away from the group of imps, she began slithering toward the hall's exit. Watching her closely until she was gone, the party ensured that she wasn't playing any tricks, but the moment she disappeared, another problem arose in their heads.

'Does she know?' Raven tried asking the others.

'Of course, she does.' Helga responded but was quickly contested by Mel.

'Then why didn't she stop us?'

'Nobody smart enough to see through his rouse would wanna serve under Tariyaan, I bet she feels the same.' Linkle concluded by proposing the most likely scenarios.

Staying in the corridor for a while longer, the party was sure that they weren't being followed before moving further into the castle. However, while Raven led the charge and Linkle and Mel stayed right behind him, Helga allowed the distance between them to grow, and before long, she was left behind a corner with none of them having noticed her absence yet.

Standing still at the other end of the wall from her companions, she turned around and stared at the hallowed presence of someone lingering about. As her eyes remained glued to the very same, the Lamia was forced to reveal herself by turning herself visible again.

"I've heard about you, Helga–the Valkyrie. Tariyaan spoke of you amongst many others blind enough to follow your gods in the last holy war." Libyan muttered, her cold gaze lingering on Helga.

Taking the imp mask off, the Valkyrie stood before her with Gungnir in hand. Glancing upwards at the much larger woman, she gave her a stern glare, and Libyan returned that right back.

"You know why I stopped, so why don't you answer me?"

"Because I want him dead too, why else?"

"And what's stopping you from doing it yourself?" To that, Libyan had no answer. Clicking her tongue, she donned a foul expression–one dripping scorn and anger for the woman in front.

"Just go before I change my mind," she replied, but Helga wasn't going to let such a delicate matter slide.

Holding Gugnir to the side, she made it disappear into her dimensional pocket. Taking out an enchanted ice spear instead, she directed it towards the lamia and declared.

"You'll answer, that's a promise from Helga Hawthorn," taking a step back, the Valkyrie readied her weapon to piece through the Lamia's leathery skin and scales. Smiling sadistically in response, Libyan got some distance as well.

Staring at each other, the two were just waiting for the other to land the first blow, and in their wait, Libyan smiled some more and absorbed all light around them into her shimmering scales. A suffocating darkness had taken over, but spreading her radiant wings, the Valkyrie kept herself from going completely blind. Even then, however, she could barely see a thing as Libyan's powers were still draining the light out of her wings as soon as they had spread out.

"Putting your life at risk for someone else again," a cackle echoed in the dark, and Helga skirted around, trying to follow the voice with her spear. Her senses, either masked by the darkness or overwhelmed by the echoing laughs, the Valkyrie remained at the tip of her toes, ready to attack at the slightest sight of motion. "Do you have nothing of yourself to fight for? Once it was the gods you followed, and now it's these cheap deals with a witch?"

"You don't need to concern yourself with what I choose to do, you devil," assuming that Libyan had turned part devil, Helga knew better than to give into her manipulative talk. "Why don't you show yourself? Wanna fight like a coward? Are you too scared of this old woman?"

"AhAhAHAAhAhAHA!" Laughter erupted in the darkness, Libyan was no stranger to Helga's age and yet, for some reason, her claiming to be an old woman struck her as hysterical. "An old woman doesn't kill lesser gods! If that's even true, that is."

Emerging from the darkness, her toothy grin smiled at the valkyrie. Wide as a crescent moon, her smile was made even creepier by the razor-sharp teeth flashing through the dark.

"Shall we play then?" She whispered, and the Valkyrie responded with a swing of her spear.

"Very fucking well!" Nearly grazing Libyan's eyes, Helga cursed under her breath for having missed her by a hair's breadth.

'Fucking hell, how long was it since I fought someone like her?' Feeling out of practice, Helga knew that if she wasn't careful, the devil being in her natural habitat, could overpower her easily–especially since she was being strengthened by Tariyaan, the ruling primordial of the third level of hell.

"Here I come~" Like a whip, Libyan's tail tore through the air, striking Helga in the head while she was left musing for just a second, the Lamia sent her flying with a sharp pain coursing through her head. The crashing sound in the dark altered everyone in the castle, even Raven and the others, but only the group heading for Tariyaan noticed her absence.

As the noise broke further and the crumbling of bricks could be heard, Libyan slithered closer to the Valkyrie, expecting to see her unconscious or at least greatly injured. However, arriving at the chipped wall, her eyes widened as there was no one there, and the Valkyrie was gone.

"Where did she go?!" Libyan shrieked but then came a light from right above her head.

Looking up, she was met with the sight of the Valkyrie, her fingers intertwined and ready to bash her skull in from above.

"AUGHHHH!" Hitting Libyan in the face while she was looking up, Helga broke her neck with the strike and the Lamia was slammed into the ground from the force of the strike. Her tail, her spine, and even her teeth were rattling from the blow, but that was far from enough to defeat a monster like her.

"YOU LITTLE!" Turning her broken neck towards her shoulders, she dug her teeth into her shoulders and began cannibalising herself. Tearing through the flesh, she gulped a chunk of her own meat whole.

Being healed from landing the blow on her enemy, Helga watched as the Lamia's body began healing as well. And although their methods were different and the lamia's shoulder didn't heal, everything else did, the two knew that they were a match–at least without the use of Gungnir…

"Bring it on then you snake."

"A bite, and your powers will be mine, just you wait!" Thus escalated their conflict, all the while, Raven and the rest couldn't stray from the plan and continued heading for Tariyan instead of Helping the Valkyrie.