My plan was to immediately grab a knife from my inventory and use the element of surprise to stab them.

Well, shit. Things didn't go as planned, but hey, at least I can laugh about it later, right?

As I materialized behind them, the pain from my wounds nearly caused me to crumple and lose consciousness, and I let out a gurgled, strident scream as blood sprayed from my mouth, shocking them both.

Fortunately, they froze from shock, giving me the chance to grab one by the neck, but I missed the other.

Instinctively, I activated my life-stealing skill, gradually feeling better and stronger as the struggling wieselman in my grasp only fueled my determination. With my right hand still around his neck, I conjured a claw on my left middle finger, a faster alternative to searching my inventory, and it proved highly effective in cutting his jugular.

Meanwhile, the other mage recovered from the shock and teleported a few meters away, likely out of pure panic, but at least he disengaged me. He sent a firebolt in my direction as he sought cover, but it only shook the dying wieselman in my grasp, while my wounds began to close, and my faltering mind started to recover.

As energy, power, and anger surged through my veins, I lifted my eyes to locate the second wieselman, while the one in my hands crumbled into dust.

"Wieselman, mage, level twenty-two," the identification spell confirmed.

I wondered if "wieselman" was the correct term or just a translation my brain understood. I wasn't entirely sure how the identification spell worked, but I suspected it relied on stored information, acting as a pattern recognition system and providing answers directly to my brain.

With my wounds healed and my power restored, I focused on the mage attempting to hide behind a stalagmite; however, his efforts were futile, as my life-draining ability didn't require visual contact, only mana contact, and he was within reach.

I felt my power reserves climbing as I charged toward him. He was in a complete state of panic and cast a fireblast, which only scorched the area around him as the stalagmite shielded me.

I spelled another claw on my right-hand middle finger, while my left hand was already around his neck, partially slicing it, around the stalagmite.

"Don't move, and you might live another second," I ordered, and to my surprise, he stopped struggling. I didn't realize they were so susceptible to mind control.

That sparked an idea. I turned back towards the trap room while I dragged the still-living wieselman by the neck. I sprinted towards the door with him in tow.

“Deactivate the trap,” I demanded, shaking him.

This mind control spell has a limited duration, depending on the spell's quality, power, and the difference between the caster and the target: basically, it is the spell's potency versus the target's resistance and resilience.

As the power difference between us wasn't significant, he might have resisted my command, but his poor state didn't help.

He deactivated the trap, still under the spell's influence, while blood ran down his neck.

His panicked eyes darted back and forth, indicating he was regaining composure and likely searching for the third member of his party.

As the door opened and the slab slowly began to rise back up, I started crawling toward her, dragging him behind me as I didn't want him to have the chance to restart the trap. It didn't require much effort from me, as the physical difference between us was similar to that between a gorilla and a human, with me being the gorilla.

I struggled to reach the catgirl as quickly as possible.

She was no longer conscious, but she must have still been alive as the summon didn't end. Placing my left hand on her, I transferred any available health points I could while anxiously monitoring the slowly retracting slab. It wasn't enough. She was still losing blood and remained unconscious. Once more, I drew life energy from the wieselman and pushed it into her.

This time, her wounds closed completely.

I released the wieselman to pick her up and realized that he had died in the process.

As I looked down at him, I noticed all my clothes and armor spread on the floor.

Damn shadowmelding spell seems to work only for my body and nothing else. I wonder how the red demon managed it? He didn't seem to lose his scraps or daggers. I'll need to ask him about that!

I didn't have time to dwell on this problem. I grasped the catgirl, careful not to stab her with my newly spelled claws, and hurried out of the trap. I didn't want to spend a second more under that spiked slab.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Once outside of the trap, I looked around, afraid that the hunter might come, but there was nobody in sight.

The catgirl was still unconscious, but she had a pulse, and her wounds were closed. I glanced again toward the trap room where my armor lay on the floor. I hesitated about whether to go pick it up or not.

Well, as long as the slab was still slowly rising, I figured the trap couldn't be activated again.

Despite knowing I could escape through shadowmeld, the memory of what had just happened was too vivid and painful for me to simply re-enter the trap. Only after gathering all my courage and willpower was I able to venture back in to retrieve my belongings from the floor, gather them into my inventory, and dash back out as fast as I could, with my heart pounding in my chest.

Once outside, I leaned against the wall to catch my breath and calm my racing heart.

Even though it was riddled with new holes, this armor was all I had. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to use it with my current low level, which was decreasing its efficiency.

As Cala, I might have been able to withstand the weight of the damn heavy slab on my shoulders or at least break those rods. Yeah, that should have worked.

Brute-forcing a trap is the dumbest solution unless you're too lazy to check and many levels above the trap's own. But I was sure that if I were Cala, I wouldn't have fallen for the trap; she would have sensed it.

Besides, in that case, Alice would have been with me. Rarely did I do anything without her, and this wouldn't have happened with Alice present: she was always more cautious than I was and warned me about traps. Suddenly, I felt how much I missed Alice, how much I missed my friends.

This demon thing was so exhausting and lonely. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I might have started crying like a fountain, but then I heard the catgirl stirring. That reminded me where I was and what was happening. I wiped the tears from my eyes.

"Damn," I muttered to myself, "this is no time for melancholy, Lores. The third wieselman, the hunter, is still around."

I approached the catgirl as she opened her eyes.

"Am I... dead? ... alive?" she blabbered.

Her wounds were closed, and she was no longer bleeding; however, she had lost a lot of blood. It was a wonder that she was conscious, but I could do nothing more for her.

Placing a hand on her shoulder, I reassured her, "You are safe here. Try to recover. I need to take care of the last of them, and then we can talk."

She glanced at me, trying to digest what I said, and then her head fell to the side, probably from exhaustion. Thinking that I heard some noise from the tunnel ahead, I transformed into vapors, shadowmelding as I advanced carefully through the cavern, jumping from shadow to shadow within my mana domain's limits.

It didn't take long to locate the hunter hiding in a corner. Did he realize his two partners had been killed, or was he planning to ambush them? That would be double treachery, but I didn't know for sure. He seemed very alert, so I advanced very carefully, taking a wide berth around him, moving slowly, and looking for ways to remain well camouflaged within the cavern's confines. I took my time, and now, I hesitated at the last part.

A couple of times, he had glanced in my direction, and once, he even shot an arrow. It didn't hurt; I didn't even feel it, but I gathered all my "clouds" behind a stalagmite. I don't think he realized that he had hit me, but that hit did make me much more careful. Could I be hurt in this form? I wasn't sure, but I thought it was possible. Being invulnerable would be too great a cheat! Also, it was disturbing to see that he could somehow locate my position when I got closer.

Then I heard movement, and I saw her, the catgirl, coming closer.

"This damn stupid catgirl is going to get killed!" - I thought.

I had no responsibility for her except for the sensation that came with the summon. The red demon had said that there was some kind of implicit contract in these dungeon summonings, but at the moment, I didn't feel compelled to do anything.

"Irowics, Irowics!" she said as she approached.

She looked better, probably having drunk some healing potion, but she was still very weakened.

"Meowra!" he yelled. "Are you OK? Come closer! What's happening?" he asked while staying put and picking up his crossbow.

As she came closer and would soon be in his line of sight, I moved fast, approaching him.

"Irowics," she said, hurrying up, almost running towards him.

He pointed and would have shot her were I not already on him. With two fast strokes, I cut his jugular with my claws the moment I materialized behind him.

His gurgled yell mixed with her desperate scream.

"No!!!" she yelled. "What are you doing, you crazy demon! Dismiss, dismiss, dismiss!" she screamed until she remembered what she had to do and cut my summoning link just as I was trying to explain to her that I had just saved her life.

I only caught a glimpse of her running towards the wieselman with a healing potion in her hand, and the next moment, I found myself back in the cabin.

Standing on the bed, I attempted to jump towards her to stop her, but I was no longer in that world. Instead, I collided with the beam above, hitting it squarely with my horns. One of my horns became deeply embedded in the beam, forcing my head into an inclined position and increasing the strain on my neck. With my horns lodged and my feet dangling above the bed, I remained suspended by my neck. Desperately, I kicked with my legs, flinging the bedding away in a frantic attempt to free myself.

For a moment, I feared my neck might break from the strain. I attempted to pull my head down, but the horns remained stuck. Eventually, I had to push against the beam with my hands to free them, causing me to fall hard on my ass as the bed protested with a loud cracking noise.

Looking around the darkened room, I realized there was no danger, no trap, no wieselman, and no catgirl present.

Goddamn, that catgirl is dumber than a bag of potatoes. Can't believe I even wasted my time on her.

Climbing out of bed, feeling humiliated by the incident with my horns, I walked barefoot to the window, tears streaming down my face.

The night sky was clear, with the half-moon casting a gentle glow over the dark forest. To the east, the sky brightened with the approaching dawn. Standing there for some time, I tried to process what had happened, wiping my tears and waiting to see if the catgirl would summon me again.

But nothing happened.

As fatigue overtook me, I returned to bed after about half an hour.