Melinda hit the goblin rushing at her with a bolt of electricity, sending the ugly little creature flying across the cavern. It hit the cave wall with such a fierce force that its spine snapped loudly. Melinda spun around, taking in the battle scene unfolding all around her.

Her men were battling hordes of goblins that were coming at them from every direction. They emerged from every opening and crack in the walls, armed with crudely made swords, axes, maces, and whatnot. Her men were armed with much better weapons than the goblins. Each of them had a longsword as well as some kind of ranged weapon – either a crossbow or a rifle. Those rifles were powered by magic, and they didn’t need any kind of ammunition. When the trigger of such a rifle was pulled, the gun created and fired a bullet-shaped magical projectile. For those rifles to work, they needed to be filled with magical energy, which Melinda always did before she and her men ventured into a dungeon.

However, despite being better equipped, her team was losing badly. This dungeon had turned out to be way more difficult than she’d expected. The dungeon was mostly populated by goblins, and while those small green monsters weren’t either strong or smart, there were so freaking many of them in this dungeon. She had already lost some of her men to these ugly evil creatures. Her team was now trapped in one of the huge caverns of the dungeon, with the horde of goblins coming at them from every direction. They had nowhere to retreat, and if she didn’t think of something fast, they would all get killed in the next several minutes. As Melinda swept her gaze around the cavern, looking at the horde of goblins surrounding her team, she realized there was only one thing she could do to save herself and maybe some of her slaves too.

She yelled at her men to come closer to her, and when they converged on her, she created a dome-shaped magical shield around them. Most of the goblins were outside the shield now, but a few others were close enough when Melinda used the spell, so they were now trapped inside the dome-shaped shield with her men. When those goblins realized they were cut off from the others, they hesitated for a moment as if they didn’t know what to do now. Then they raced toward Melinda, screaming in rage, trying to sound threatening, but their thin, high-pitched voices sounded pathetic instead. Before they could even reach Melinda, her men killed them with crossbows and rifles.

The rest of the goblins were outside the magical shield. The horde of small evil creatures surrounded it from every direction, but the translucent bluish wall didn’t let them get inside. The goblins smashed their crude weapons against the shield, but it held fast. Melinda knew that for the time being, she and her men were safe. The magical shield would stay up for some time, and nothing short of a powerful offensive spell would be able to break it.

She knew what she had to do next. Some time ago, she’d learned a spell that allowed her to summon a demon who could grant her a temporary but powerful spell of her choice if she honored him by performing a human sacrifice. Melinda didn’t really want to sacrifice one of her men. Not that she cared about them, though. It just was that the strength of her team had already been weakened because she’d lost some of them in this dungeon. However, whether she wanted to offer the demon a sacrifice or not, she had to do it in order to save herself and the rest of her gang.

Her men stood around her waiting for her orders. Melinda didn’t say anything to them. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Then she called the demon by his name.

Zeth’ranor, come to me, she said mentally.

As always, as soon as she pronounced the demon’s name in her mind, she felt a rush of cold air envelop her body, making her shiver. As usual, she was completely naked, and her skin was shimmering with the magical oil that covered every inch of her body. She couldn’t stop her nude body from trembling in cold and fear, feeling the presence of the evil demon behind her. She wanted to bolt away from him, but she forced herself to stay still.

She felt the demon’s scaly body press against hers from behind as his long rough arms wrapped around her torso. Melinda was petrified with horror even though it wasn’t the first time she’d summoned the demon. She couldn’t explain why, but the mere presence of the demon made her cower in fear. Knowing very well what kind of effect he had on her, the demon always touched her as if he wanted to instill even more horror in her.

Her men were watching her, but she knew that unlike her, they couldn’t see or hear the demon, or even sense his presence in any way. Zeth’ranor didn’t seem to have a physical body, yet somehow she could feel him as if he were a real person. He felt him wrap his rough arms tighter around her body, his touches cold against her naked skin.

Zeth’ranor ran a hand up her belly, its long clawed fingers scratching her skin almost painfully. The demon cupped one of her breasts, pinching her nipple. His other hand slid down her belly and spread the folds of her womanhood. She gasped when one of his fingers pressed against her love bud. He entered the center of her heat with the tip of his deathly cold finger. Another one joined the first, and together they moved deeper inside her. She trembled as the demon withdrew and inserted his ice-cold digits with long curved claws. With the fingers of his other hand, the demon continued to twist and pinch her nipple.

Despite being scared, she felt desire flooding her from his rough touches. Her full lips parted, and she moaned. Her men kept staring at her in silence. Melinda hated them seeing her like this, but there was nothing she could do about that.

The demon brought his face closer to her, and she felt his long tongue slide across her cheek, leaving a smear of saliva that burned her skin a little.

“So what do you want from me this time, Melinda?” She heard his hissing voice speaking into her ear.

“I—I wanna—Ah!”

The demon kept moving his long fingers in and out of her while massaging her love bud with his thumb and squeezing her breast with his other hand, making it hard for her to concentrate on speaking. She couldn’t grasp how his touches could feel so real if the demon didn’t have a physical body.

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She couldn’t stop from moaning in pleasure.

“What is it, Melinda?” The demon asked in a teasing voice. “I can’t hear you. You need to speak up.”

“Give me—some protective spell so I—could get out of the dungeon.”

“I see,” the demon said. “Looks like you have gotten yourself in a bit of a fix here, haven’t you, Melinda?”

She couldn’t reply; she could only moan louder and louder as the demon’s fingers dived deeper and deeper into her. She wished the demon would hurry up and let go of her so she could sacrifice one of her men and receive a reward from the demon.

Zeth’ranor was taking his time, though.

“I know a spell that you might like. It’s pretty powerful, and in exchange for it, I would normally have you perform a quite bloody and brutal sacrifice. But seeing as you don’t have time for that right now, a regular sacrifice will suffice.”

“I will do as you say,” she gasped.

“Can’t wait,” the demon replied and then suddenly disappeared.

Melinda immediately felt that she was no longer being touched, and the air didn’t feel chilly anymore. She was breathing heavily, feeling weak in her knees. The demon had her all worked up but left her unsatisfied and wanting more. But that was fine. She had much more important business to take care of right now. She looked sternly at her men, then pointed at one of them.

“You,” she said, “come to me.”

Out of her men, that one seemed to be the weakest. Besides, one of his arms was so severely wounded that he could hardly use it now. He wasn’t much of a help to the team, so she decided it would be him whom she would offer as a sacrifice to Zeth’ranor.

On the man’s face appeared a terrified expression – he knew what was going to happen to him. Yet he couldn’t resist – Melinda’s enslaving staff kept him under control. The sorceresses had him lie down on the cave floor. She then quickly looked around. The magical shield was thinning out, slowly but gradually disappearing. It wouldn’t be long before it vanished completely, and then the horde of goblins would rush toward her from every direction. She had to hurry. Melinda glanced at the other men who watched her with pure hatred in their eyes. They knew what she was going to do to one of them but couldn’t do anything about it. The evil magic of the enslaving staff she always gripped tightly in her left hand kept them obedient.

Melinda returned her attention to the man lying on the floor who was looking up at the cave ceiling with horror in his eyes. The sorceress dropped to her haunches before the man’s supine form and pulled a dagger from its sheath on his hip. She wasted no time severing his carotid arteries, causing blood to gush from the wounds. She dropped the dagger and drenched her free hand in the man’s blood. She then began to draw a circle around the lying man and scribble arcane symbols along the curve of the circle. By the time she finished, most of her body was smeared in gore, but she didn’t care one bit about the way she looked. Neither was she bothered by the metallic stench filling her nostrils.

Surprisingly, the man was still alive. Ignoring the gurgling sounds he was making, Melinda picked up the dagger again and pronounced, “Oh great Zeth’ranor, please accept this sacrifice and grant me my wish.”

She then brought the dagger down, slicing the blade between the man’s ribs and pushing it deep into his flesh. The victim’s eyes opened wide, he gasped for the last time, and then his body went rigid. Immediately after that, the arcane symbols Melinda had drawn in his blood on the cave floor flashed with bright light, and the sorceress felt magical energy flow into her gore-smeared body.

A text notification appeared in her vision, telling her that she’d just received a new spell. She quickly called up her stats to read the description of the spell. She learned that the spell would inflict burning damage to any living creature that would get within a few feet of her. She’d never used such a spell before, so she couldn’t tell from her personal experience how useful this spell was. Yet he trusted the demon completely because all the temporary spells he’d gifted her before had always been extremely powerful.

Dropping the blood-smeared dagger, Melinda stood up and cast a levitation spell that allowed her to glide a few inches over the ground at pretty good speed. She looked at her men and said, “Follow me and try not to lag behind. Anyone who will fail to keep pace with me will be left behind.”

She then consulted the map and turned to face the direction where the exit from the dungeon was. She took a deep breath and deactivated the magical shield. For a second, the horde of goblins continued to stay still – they hadn’t expected the shield to suddenly disappear. As for Melinda, she was already flying toward them, and before any of them could react, she reached the first ones in line. Some kind of orange-glowing aura surrounded the sorceress, and the nearest goblins screamed in agony. They didn’t burst into flames, but their flesh melted like hot wax, flaking off their bones.

They died in mere seconds, and the rest of the terrified goblins stumbled away from the sorceress, fighting among themselves. Melinda continued to fly across the cavern, carving a path through the horde of goblins. At some point, she heard one of her men scream in pain. She glanced over her shoulder and saw him fall to the ground, half his body scorched black as if he’d stumbled into a very hot fire. He collapsed to the floor, still screaming in pain. There was nothing she could do for him, but she shouted for the rest of her men not to get too close to her.

For the next half an hour, she navigated her way through the tunnels and caverns of the dungeon until she finally reached the exit. She burst out of the dungeon into the night forest. The moon hovered high above the trees, bathing everything in silver light. She turned around to face the entrance to the dungeon. A few seconds later, one of her men burst outside. Then another one. Then a few others. Melinda watched the dark entrance for a few more minutes, but no more of her men emerged.

“That’s all that survived?” she asked no one in particular.

Only a handful of her men had managed to get out of the dungeon alive. That was a bit of a shock to her. She hadn’t expected to lose so many of her men.

“Dammit,” she muttered.

The manpower of her team had been significantly decreased. She couldn’t help but be bothered by it. She needed to find new people to enslave. But where to find them? The forest was huge, and it might take her weeks to find more men to enslave. She thought for a moment and then remembered the camp she’d discovered some time ago where four persons lived. What were their names again? It took her a moment to remember their names – Kirk, Michael, Kwan, and Nina. It was high time she’d added three of them to her team. Maybe she would enslave the girl as well. Why the hell not? She seemed to be quite an experienced mage and therefore would be a great addition to her team.

However, she had to be smart about that. She couldn’t just attack them out of nowhere. Their camp was well protected, surrounded by tall pointed logs and having several guard towers. A direct attack on their camp would definitely result in even more of her men getting killed. She needed to avoid that. After giving the matter some thought, she decided she would be spying on them all the time from now on, waiting for the right moment to attack. It would be suicide to attack them while they were inside the camp. Instead, she would wait until they left it for whatever reason to attack them in the open.

The sorceress smiled. The fate of those four people was sealed. They just didn’t know it yet.