Ted’s insides twitched, but he had to be logical about this. The sheer brightness of the slaver’s Continuous Armor and Absorb effects was impossible to ignore—this was no mere apprentice.

If only he still had Dispel. Damn Death to hell.

Cara snarled, but she held herself back, her hand only resting on her bow.

For now, anyway. When this was done, she’d turn that anger on him, and he’d deserve it.

The wood elven slave’s screams intensified, while his eyes darted about wildly, begging to be saved.

Ted’s fists balled up. He couldn’t just stand here and do nothing, but there was no way he could break through the Absorb in time.

Unless… unless he didn’t have to.

He switched the Valbort Teleportation spell to a Projectile, pulled on his mana, and began weaving the blue magic in front of him.

A roar bellowed from the slaver. The Dark magic tendrils gripped the slave tighter, racing to finish their feast in time.

“Raka-fa ri!” Ted hurled the spell at the wood elven slave.

The bolt struck the slave in the chest. Blue magic swirled around him, teleporting him far away to the safety of Valbort and leaving the tendrils gripping thin air.

“You’ll pay for that,” hissed the slaver. His hands whirled in complex motion, tracing purple blackness through the air in front of him.

Heat flushed through Ted, and he readied a Protection/Touch/Absorb spell intended for Cara.

She launched a flurry of arrows, each pinging ineffectively off slaver’s powerful Armor effect.

Gramok’s greatsword crashed into the slaver’s neck. That at least knocked the bastard to the floor, even if his head remained attached to his body—and drew his focus onto Gramok.

Time for a change of plan. Ted touched his hand to Gramok’s back instead. “Nismaevka ri!”

The slaver cackled and hurled a purple-black bolt at Gramok. The Absorb effect shattered, and the spell passed straight through.

A chill ran down Ted’s spine. He couldn’t recognize the magic, but that couldn’t be good.

Cara tossed her bow aside and leaped onto the slaver. She pinned him down and stabbed at his face again and again, failing to even break his skin through his Armor effect.

Gramok turned on Ted in a jerky motion. His eyes glowed purple, even as their darkness sucked light into the abyss. He raised his greatsword in a shuddering motion and swung at Ted’s neck.

Ted leaped backward, wind dancing across his throat. That was too damned close. “Easy there, buddy.”

It didn’t help. Gramok’s face contorted in pain, but he lunged again all the same.

Ted stepped back—not far enough—and weaved a two-handed Barrier between them. The Barrier formed just in time to block Gramok’s strike, but even with both hands it nearly shattered.

Cara screamed and rolled away, clutching her arm to her bloodied chest. Her fight wasn’t going well either.

The world closed in around Ted’s chest. This was rapidly getting out of hand—he had to take Gramok out of the equation, and fast. Backing away as fast as he could, he began casting Blind.

Another roar bellowed from Gramok, and he swung his oversized sword at Ted’s face.

Ted ducked under it, the blade passing right in front of his face. Adrenaline pounding through him, he fired the Blind spell at Gramok and took off toward Cara, readying another Absorb.

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The slaver fired a flurry of black bolts at Cara. She nimbly dodged one, two, three, four bolts out of five.

The fifth and final bolt struck her in the chest. She staggered and dropped to her knees, struggling to breathe. Another hit would finish her off for sure.

Ted darted between them, shielding her with his back, and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Nismaevka ri!”

As the teal magic spread over her, a bolt prodded at his back, so weak that it didn’t even hurt.

Status effect received (Controlled)!

Mental intrusion detected.

Kill her. Then kill yourself.

Ice spread through Ted’s body. His arm drew his falchion.

Cara stared up at him with wide eyes. Her jaw trembled as she sputtered, unable to breathe.

Every fiber in his being strained against that dark compulsion forcing itself upon him, to no avail.

He placed the tip of his sword against her sternum.

Cara gasped for air and rolled away, flipping back onto her feet and firing off another pointless arrow at the slaver.

Status effect resisted (Controlled)!

Relief rushed through Ted. He dropped the falchion and turned, ready to end the bastard.

Not that he had much to do. The orc slave had their chain wrapped around the slaver’s throat, while the two human slaves held his hands and the high elf held cloth over his mouth. Several of the slaver’s fingers were very broken, and what little struggle he was putting up was quickly fading away.

Ted glanced at Cara. If she wasn’t okay, she was hiding it well behind a veil of anger as she fired off arrow after arrow at the slaver’s chest, each glancing off the Armor spell.

Gramok, meanwhile, was still taking wild swings at thin air. Even with his low Mental Resistance, he’d be back to usual soon enough.

The slaver went limp, but the orc slave didn’t let go. He held tight, keeping the flow of blood to the bastard’s brain cut off.

Good riddance.

Gramok roared and drove his sword into the grass. Screaming up at the sky, he pounded his chest again and again. He was back, and not a happy camper.

With the slaver well on his way to certain death, Ted had a loose end to clean up. He cast Levitate upon himself and took off after the fleeing thug. They couldn’t afford any witnesses reporting this.

Between the thug’s breaks to cry and the flat terrain, it didn’t take long to catch up. As he approached, Ted hit the thug with a stunning bolt, dropping him to the ground.

Pitiful.

Ted landed and disarmed the thug. They needed him alive, for now, at least. “How do you remove their collars?”

The thug sat up and let out a guttural chuckle, devoid of any hope. “You’d know that if those robes were yours.”

“Answer the question.”

“Or what?” The thug spat in Ted’s general direction. “You’re not letting me live, are you, Edwin?”

Fire flickered in Ted’s gut. “What did you call me?”

Silence came back.

Whatever. “Tell me how to remove the collars, and I’ll let you go.”

“Oh, come off it. We both know how this ends. My name’s Max, and I ain’t telling you shit.”

Ted swallowed hard. Letting the thug—Max—go wasn’t on the cards.

So what? That whip of his wasn’t just for show. He deserved to die, or worse.

That didn’t leave Ted with any leverage, though, and leaving those magical collars on the slaves was likely a death sentence for them. They had to be removed, and the quicker the better.

That meant getting Max to talk.

Ted took a long, deep breath, and his left fist clenched tight. There was only one way forward. “You’re right. I can’t let you go. So, tell me what I need, and I’ll kill you—right now.”

Time ticked by in silence.

The tension in Ted’s chest grew with each passing second. All Max had to do was talk, and this would all be over.

After a minute that felt like an hour, Max slowly shook his head. “No. I can’t. I have a family.”

“Your family aren’t here.”

“Good.”

With his left hand, Ted grabbed Max by the throat and pulled him up to his feet. “Last chance.”

The thug spat in Ted’s face. “Fuck you, traitor.”

Ted’s insides burned. No slaver had any right to complain the moment the boot was on the other foot. “Fine. Remember—I gave you a choice.”

Replicating the slaver-mage’s spell—aided by the knowledge he’d gleaned from the Zelnari crystal—Ted sent dark tendrils shooting into the thug’s chest and neck.

The screams began immediately, as did the trickle of spirit.

Glorious, glorious spirit. Every pulse of darkness was its own rush of ecstasy.

Dark magic skill increased 0 → 1!

The screaming was a little loud, but it was music to Ted’s soul, filling a void inside him that he didn’t even know he’d needed.

Magic truly was incredible.

“Stop! Please, stop!” The words were half-screamed, half-sobbed.

Ted laughed. So much for caring about his family. “Tell me what I want to know, and this will all end.”

“Roka’al Nor’ak! Whisper that.”

“To release the collars?”

The pathetic evil creature nodded, unable to even speak coherently to its superior.

“Thank you,” Ted said, smirking as he kept going. No way was he going to walk away from a sweet, delicious stream of spirit, let alone an entire soul.

The evil thug screamed and cried and begged, like this wasn’t exactly what he deserved. Like this wasn’t the most incredible experience in two worlds.

All too soon, his worthless life gave way and was transformed into Ted’s first soul.

Spirit: 12/100

Souls: 1/1

Such majestic power—and it was all his, waiting to be spent.

“Ted…” Cara’s voice came from behind him, dripping with an utterly needless concern. “What in the Deep-Forest did you do?”