The beast tamer gently set down his goblet. Raising one finger, he indicated everyone to wait while he finished swallowing and then clearing his throat. Finally, he spoke.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Zoe chuckled nervously. Slowly, she raised up one hand and held it out. The sword at her chin shifted slightly, but nobody moved to actually stop her. “Uh, hi. I’m Zoe.”

The beast tamer and presumed pirate captain eyed her hand as if it were a particularly lousy piece of fruit being offered. When he looked up, his confused expression seemed to say something like ‘what the hell am I supposed to do with that?’

“What the hell am I supposed to do with that?” He snorted. “That tells me nothing about who you are.” Raising his hands, he looked around the rest of the room. “I mean am I missing something? Do any of you have any idea who she is?”

“No, Captain,” four voices echoed in imperfect unison. Ah, so he actually is the captain. Good to know. “Why are you on my banquet table?” Picking up a smushed grape, the beast tamer eyed it skeptically before tossing it down onto the ground. “You smushed my grapes.”

While Zoe was by now a little off kilter from the pirate captain’s strange manner of speaking and his nonchalant attitude, she was quick enough to realize that she was absolutely in the lower position. A quick analyzing of the two others she could actually see confirmed that.

{Flame Brand - 64}

{Archmage - 89}

Yeah, this was bad. Zoe now knew all too well that there was likely only one way out — groveling. So she groveled.

“I’m sorry about your grapes, sir,” she said. It felt like a pretty ridiculous thing to lead with under the current circumstances, but again, she was at this man’s mercy. He seemed a little strange, but he was also the highest leveled person she had ever seen, and one of his subordinates was the second. Basically, it seemed like a pretty fucking good idea to humor him.

“I didn’t mean to make my entrance like this,” Zoe continued, “I didn’t intend to bother your banquet at all. I just misjudged some distances while swinging down into the camp.”

The captain waved his hand. “Have you any idea how hard it is to get grapes like these in a desert?” He sniffed. “Bah, of course you do. Well you’ve been honest so far, so consider your apology accepted.”

Zoe was about to nod, but then she remembered the sword at her throat. “Thank you,” she said instead.

Picking up a piece of toast, the captain took a bite. He asked his next question with his mouth full. “So what kind of entrance did you intend to make?”

“I was going to swing down to the ground dramatically and steal from your command room.”

While Zoe felt terribly stupid for admitting that so bluntly, she figured the truth was just as good as any lie she could convince him of. After all, it’s not like he would believe that she had fallen in by total accident.

“And kill my men.”

“Well, no, not actually —”

A hard slap across her face sent Zoe’s head spinning. Her vision blurred for a second before everything came back into focus.

“Don’t lie to me,” the captain said. Despite his sudden violence, he didn’t sound angry afterwards. “It’s unbecoming of a creature like you.”

That made Zoe’s insides squirm in discomfort. She did her best not to let it show, of course — but she wouldn’t be surprised if her nervousness became even more visible.

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“Is there anyone else with you?”

“No, I came alone.”

Another slap — harder this time. As Zoe blinked the tears out of her eyes, she realized blood was trickling down from her nose. She could taste it. Fucking hell, that’s one hell of a slap.

“Feel free to keep lying to me. I like it when your kind bleed.”

Still reeling from the hit, Zoe didn’t even have the wits to be horrified by what he had just said. No, the only thing on her mind was how the fuck does he know when I’m lying? That’s such bullshit… If he legitimately had a lie detecting ability, that was completely broken.

“I can sense the intention of any beast’s attempts at communication,” the captain explained, “though normally spirit beasts aren’t quite so sophisticated as to lie to protect their friends.” Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, he sat back and sighed. “Yes, I can feel that core thrumming within your bosom, little demoness.”

Zoe just stared. By this point she was at a complete loss for what to say. I fucking swear, this situation can’t get any worse.

A nearby explosion rocked the table. Zoe flinched, but the captain didn’t so much as twitch — his eyes were still boring into her. “Go deal with that,” he finally snapped at the flame brand, who nodded sharply and then left. “You too,” he said to the archmage, who did likewise.

Another explosion echoed within the caves. The beast tamer rolled his eyes. “Alright little demoness. I normally wouldn’t bother with one so weak, but I sense potential in you.” He raised his hand. “Don’t worry, I know you’ll come to love loving me.”

A wall of force slammed into Zoe’s spirit. She couldn’t tell if she had been thrown back physically as well — everything was focused on the syrupy thick blanket of mana coating her and rapidly suffusing her channels.

Fuck fuck fuck! It all happened quite fast, but whatever this was was definitely not good. As Zoe activated {Mana Manipulation} to try to fight off the crushing tide, she quickly made a resolution.

I’ll kill myself before I let this creep have me.

She wouldn’t hesitate to shatter her own core.

Unfortunately, such a drastic measure was looking increasingly likely. The syrupy mana was thoroughly stuck to her entire mana web, and her channels were already rapidly becoming truly soaked with it inside and out. It was even starting to bleed into the edges of her core.

{Mana Manipulation has leveled up! Mana Manipulation is now level 10.}

It wasn’t enough. It was like trying to use a spoon to paddle against a rushing waterfall. Zoe frantically ran through her other abilities. {Cleansing Hellfire}! {Spirit Enhancement}!

Her entire web caught fire. The flames took to the syrupy mana like ordinary fire to pine sap. Put simply, in a fraction of a second her entire core space was entirely engulfed in a raging inferno.

It wasn’t enough.

While it gave her a temporary respite, the blanket of mana was so thick that it began to smother out the flames just by sheer volume. And it was still coming. But that’s when {Spirit Enhancement} kicked in.

Lines of mana shot through her channels at practically the speed of light. They were lines stretching down the inside — not actually useful at present. But Zoe realized immediately what they could do.

Instead of using them as an internal skeleton of her spirit, she would turn them into an exoskeleton. Within seconds, the cords of demonic mana responded to her thoughts, peeling into thin tubes and wrapping around her stringy channels.

{Spirit Enhancement has gained multiple levels! Spirit Enhancement is now level 3.}

The blanket of syrupy mana was still pressing down on her, but it was now having a hard time seeping through her thin exoskeleton. Sure, her demonic mana was far less plentiful and weaker, but it was shaped with such density and precision that it created an excellent seal.

Combined with the effects of her {Cleansing Hellfire}, it was enough to stop the advance of the captain’s mana entirely — and even reverse it slightly.

Of course, the blanket was still crushing down on her spirit, preventing her from moving. Dimly aware of the physical world now, Zoe thought she could hear voices yelling.

She tried to sit up, but the tide crushed her back down. Fuck you. {Spirit Enhancement}!

Zoe knew she was burning through her own mana at a truly excessive rate, but she couldn’t be bothered to check it. She was simply determined to break through this.

Doubling her use of the {Spirit Enhancement} ability, she created a second skeleton, keeping this one internal. She then used the ability to leverage it, similar to how she puppeted herself with {Kinetic Enhancement}.

{Spirit Enhancement has leveled up! Spirit Enhancement is now level 4.}

Hell, why not use that ability as well?

{Kinetic Enhancement has leveled up! Kinetic Enhancement is now level 6.}

As her mana dipped below a quarter, Zoe rose to her feet and opened her eyes. The table wobbled, even as more explosions rang out behind her. She stared down at the captain, who looked up at her in amazement.

“How the hell?”

“Fuck,” Zoe snarled, “you.”

And then she lunged for his throat.