Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

"UGHHH!" Avarice screeched as the darkness nearly stabbed through her core. However, forcing the wound to close she crushed the darkness into bits.

Fuming in anger, she didn't waste a moment before rushing towards Raven–the only one who'd directly attacked her so far. But before she could land a hit her legs were shackled by darkness and the momentum from her body made her fall forward on her face.

"AEGIIISSSSS!" Tired of being flung around, Avarice finally activated her defensive shield.

Taking a few steps back as they continued to encircle her, the rest of the party was ready to intercept her at any moment. Amedith had his shield up, Mel had her explosive arrows ready so that they would explode at the moment of contact so the damage couldn't be reflected.

Aria was also ready to just throw some punches with no special abilities for Avarice to copy, and Erika was already busy planting runes on the ground while appearing and disappearing into thin air.

As long as Avarice's focus was on Raven, things were bound to go smoothly. And with Regalia finally joining in, the room for any mistakes in the party's actions was shut even tighter. Even so, breaking out of the shackles, Avarice tried to throw the dark blades at Raven, but before they even left her hands, Mel blasted her hand into bits with the explosives.

"HHHHHHAAA! FUCKK!" Stepping sideways from the impact, Avarice could feel the burn on her hand, and though she managed to heal the wound in a matter of seconds, the fact that Aegis did deploy but couldn't save her from the explosive impact–sowed the seeds of fear in her heart.

'No! No! No! These bastards can't defeat me!' She thought right before getting hit in the face with yet another explosive arrow. Once again, Aegis deployed and tried to reflect the damage back to the attacker, but the very impact set the explosive off and shattered the left side of Avarice's face into bits.

Left even more stunned as her prosthetic eye flopped to the ground, the options inside Avarice's head were getting slimmer and slimmer. But then, sensing Raven rushing in her direction again, she felt like time had slowed down as her body inched toward death.

The rush of her final moment heightened her senses, so much so that in a second's time she both healed her body and sucked every ounce of mana in the air as well as plundered it through everyone else's body.

'What the–' Feeling light-headed as his strength was stripped away, Raven's eyes grew fuzzy but he managed to back away from the mono-doll before she could retaliate. Even his vision through the mana-fused eyes was flickering like a candle flame, and from a quick look around it seemed like everyone except Aria was suffering from similar effects.

Their legs gave in and their minds were low on sugar, which in turn made their fingers jitter and their body so tired that they couldn't lift a finger. Had it only been a loss of mana perhaps they would've been able to fight against the doll, but the aggressive nature plunder from their bodies had tired every fiber in their muscles.

"G-Godammit!" Regalia yelled, barely holding onto consciousness while watching the mono-doll getting up on her feet. The next thing she felt was a spike of darkness emerge from under her and puncture a giant hole through her belly. "GRHHH!"

'T-this bitch!' Thinking she was taking revenge for what happened in the barracks, Regalia clung to life so she could watch the automaton crumble to her fist. However, unable to lift a finger, she couldn't help but just lay there and listen to the sound of Avarice's footsteps creeping closer and closer to her body.

"You…people really thought you could just kill me, a b-battle model mono…" Although she tried to be intimidating, her slurred speech and flickering eyes gave away her true condition. And even if they were all on the floor powerless, she was far from capable of finishing them at the moment.

Especially since a non-magic user was heading for her head.

"That's exactly right!" Coming down on Avarice from above, Aria slammed her fist right into her cranium. The force of which shattered the doll's legs as well as cracked her skull like a broken egg.

Laying on the ground with her eyes flickering about, Avarice knew that she was done, but she didn't wanna be the only one to die. Thus, concentrating all the mana inside her core she was ready to explode her body into a massive bomb. Stripping away all that she could from the surroundings, her chest began to glow with a silver orb of light confining all that power.

The pull of mana from her was so strong that even Aria who didn't use it all, could feel her body gravitating towards her, almost as if she was turning into a magnet for people. The others couldn't even lift a finger or attempt to move away, their bodies were being dragged closer and closer towards that inevitable bomb.

But then it happened, making Avarice's last moments nothing but a useless struggle.

"Protocol Actuating: Mono Aurarelia…" Those words uttered by her became her last memories, and not just for herself, but also in the mind of her creator.

Letting go of the mana being confined in her chest, the sorceress lay on the ground just soaking in her revival. She could once again feel her arms, her fingers, and that beating heart inside the ironcore that had kept her soul alive for so long.

'What the fuck happened?' Confused by the sudden changes and the return of mana in their surroundings, every single one of the party members was confused, especially those who could actually use magic.

"Ahhh…" Healing her shattered legs, Mono picked herself up while scratching the back of her head. "This moron should've tried getting a boyfriend or a hobby before any of this."

Despite the changes, however, since none of them knew what was happening, they picked themselves up and got ready to fight the mother of automatons.