When Michael stepped through the portal created by the sorceress named Melinda, he found himself in a cave. A musty earthy scent enveloped him, mingling with the cool, damp air that clung to the rocky walls. The sunlight was coming in through some cracks in the walls and the ceiling, but other than that, there weren’t any other sources of light.

When Michael’s eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness, he scanned the dimly lit space he’d found himself in. The cavern was cluttered with sleeping bags, wooden boxes, some supplies, and not much else.

That’s where you live, huh? Michael thought.

The other men who’d stepped through the portal now stood silently around the cavern. Michael wanted to ask them some questions but couldn’t. He wanted to walk around the room to look for something to kill Melinda with, but his body wouldn’t respond to the signals his brain was sending. When the sorceress used the magic of her staff on him, he’d seemed to lose control over his body and since then, could do only what he was told by her.

Then he felt a sudden headache. With each second, the pain worsened, and after a moment, it was all he could think about.

What the hell is happening to me?!

As soon as he thought that, he realized what was causing his headache. The sorceress still hadn’t stepped in through the portal she’d created, and that was the reason for his terrible headache. The spell the sorceress had used on him with her staff not only made him comply with all her orders but also caused him to experience awful headaches when he was too far away from her.

The pain in his head kept worsening. From the corner of his eye, he could see the other men were suffering from the same torment. Only he didn’t care about them at that moment. His own suffering was all he could think about.

Then the pain began to abate. Only then did he realize he was sitting on his heels, though he couldn’t remember dropping down to the floor. A second later, his headache disappeared without a trace. It was such a relief he wanted to laugh in happiness. Instead, he looked up and saw the sorceress who had just stepped through the portal. The magical gate behind her vanished after a second or two.

Melinda walked up to him and snarled, “Stand up, slave.”

Michael wanted to flip her the bird, but his body did what he was told instead. When he was on his feet, the sorceress stepped so close to him that the nipples on her full breasts almost touched his chest.

“Your friends killed three of my men,” she snarled at him, her face a ferocious mask.

You have nobody but yourself to blame for that, Michael thought. He wanted to say it in her face but wasn’t allowed to speak up. The spell she’d cast on him controlled most of his actions, exerting such control over his body that he wasn’t even able to show a hint of defiance.

Michael was pleased to see the sorceress in such a rage, though. He mentally praised Kirk and Nina. He was really glad his friends not only avoided being enslaved by her but even managed to piss her off. None of his thoughts or emotions registered on his face, though, because the spell controlled even his facial expressions.

“What should I do?” Melinda asked. “I know where they live. Maybe attack them tonight?”

Michael said nothing. Even if he wasn’t under the sorceress’s spell, he wouldn’t answer, because she wasn’t actually talking to him but rather was thinking out loud.

“No, no, no,” she continued to babble as she walked away from him and began to pace the cavern. “That would be a really bad idea. Their camp is well protected, and if I try to attack it now, I’ll lose even more of my slaves, and I can’t afford to lose any more of them. Maybe try to get to their camp before they do and set an ambush for them?”

The naked sorceress continued to pace the length of the cavern, talking to herself in a hushed voice.

“No, I can’t get there fast enough,” she babbled on. “My home is too far from their camp, and my teleportation spell allows me only to get home, not to some other places. So what to do? What to do? Wait for another opportunity to get the drop on them? No, I can’t wait that long. I want those two dipshits right fucking now. They have to pay for what they’ve done to me. But how do I get them without losing any more of my slaves? I can’t wait who knows how long before I’d get some advantage over them again. No, I need to act now. What should I do? What can I do?”

Listening to her whispering voice, Michael realized she was batshit crazy. He hadn’t noticed it before, but observing her from this close allowed him to become aware of this fact. And that scared him. It was hard to predict what such an insane person could do at the next moment.

Suddenly, Melinda exclaimed, “I know what I need to do.”

She turned to face Michael again, and when their eyes met, an ominous smile spread her full lips. He felt a chill creep down his spine. He didn’t like the way she looked at him. He didn’t like what he saw in her evil eyes at all. He wanted to bolt out of the cavern but couldn’t move at all. He mentally yelled at his legs to unfreeze and carry him out of the cave as fast as possible, but his body wouldn’t budge.

“Take off all your clothes,” she said to him.

Many questions bombarded his mind, but he couldn’t voice any of them. Instead, he began to strip, dropping one article of clothing to the cave floor after another until he stood stark naked before the sorceress. Michael felt ashamed, but he couldn’t even cover his private parts. Her eyes shamelessly ran up and down his body for a moment. The sorceress was naked too, but it didn’t seem to bother her at all.

What the fuck does she want from me? Michael thought with panic. What’s on her mind?

Whatever it was, it wasn’t a desire to lay him, that was for sure. He wasn’t the most attractive man among her gang members. Michael had been overweight when he came to this world. Since then he’d been putting most of his points into the Strength attribute. Some of his body fat had been replaced with solid muscle, but his physique remained a combination of fat and muscle. He was really strong, though.

Whatever was on the sorceress’s mind had nothing to do with sex, that was for sure. The sinister smile on her face didn’t promise anything good.

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Melinda spotted something at her feet and looked down. Michael followed her gaze and saw the photo of his family lying on the floor – it must’ve slipped from his pants pocket when he was undressing. Melinda bent down and picked up the picture. She examined it for a moment, then looked at him.

“Is this a pic of your family? How cute.”

Michael wanted to yell at her not to touch the photo, but his body refused to comply with his brain’s signals. Melinda watched him carefully. Even though he was silent and the expression on his face was blank, she seemed to somehow know what he was thinking. Her lips stretched into a wicked smile.

“Say goodbye to your family. You won’t have anything to help you remember them anymore.”

Her fingers burst into flames as she cast a spell. The picture she held in her burning hand immediately caught fire and was reduced to ash in mere seconds.

NO, Michael yelled mentally.

Melinda lowered her hand, still watching him in the eyes. Michael eyed her back with pure hatred in his gaze. He’d been keeping the picture all this time, taking care not to lose it and making sure not to let the elements damage it. And now the only reminder of his family was gone forever. He felt so bad he wanted to cry. The worst thing was that the only reason Melinda had burned the picture down was the desire to hurt him for no reason. It made him hate her even more.

He suddenly realized the other men were staring at her too with the same hatred in their eyes. They all probably had their own reasons to hate her, aside from having been enslaved by her.

The sorceress then stepped aside and pointed at the spot in the middle of the cavern. “Lie there on your back.”

Michael’s legs carried him where she’d indicated. He wanted to kick her, wanted to run away, or simply to stop, but his legs seemed to have a mind of their own. The floor at the center of the cavern was covered with some dark dry blotches. When Michael got closer to them, he realized it was dried-up blood. Somebody had been killed there.

Michael wanted to scream in horror as his body moved on its own volition, obediently doing Melinda’s bidding. He lay on the blood-covered floor, the hard surface digging into his back. The cave floor was cold and unpleasant. Sweating bullets, Michael lay motionlessly, staring up at the stalactites hanging from the ceiling and wondering what the sorceress was scheming.

“Zeth’ranor, come to me,” Melinda said with awe in her voice.

Immediately after that, Michael felt a sudden rush of cold air roll over him. He looked at the sorceress, wondering what the hell was happening. At first, he didn’t notice anything out of place. Then he saw her body tremble slightly as one of her full breasts got squeezed by some invisible force. The nipple looked like it was being pinched and twisted.

“Oh great Zeth’ranor,” she groaned, “please give me… the ability to fly…”

On the sorceress’s face was a mix of fear and pleasure. There was definitely some invincible person behind her who was roughly pawing her most private parts.

After a few seconds, the sorceress spoke again as if answering to somebody. “I need to be able to… fly faster… and higher… and to be stronger… I need to… I need… Oh yes… Yes…”

Michael saw the folds of her womanhood move apart as if someone was spreading it with their fingers. Her moans grew louder.

“I understand,” she gasped. “I will do as you say.”

Then she yelped in pleasure, her body shuddered, her knees bent at the knees, and she dropped to the floor. Whoever had been manhandling her from behind was gone now. Melinda sat on her haunches for a few seconds. Then she stood up and looked down at Michael with a cold determination on her face. She held her hand out to the nearest man and said, “Gimme your dagger.”

The man pulled a dagger from its sheath strapped around his calf and handed the weapon to the sorceress. On the man’s face was an expression of terrified anticipation. He clearly knew what was going to happen next. Holding the dagger in her hand, she stepped to Michael lying on the cave floor. He could see that the inner sides of her thighs glistened with the juices flowing freely from her womanhood.

Her gaze ran down his body, lingering on his crotch. “Oh my. Our little show got you all excited, huh?”

Michael realized he had a half-erection. The sorceress switched the dagger to her left hand. With her right one, she reached between her legs, soaking her hand with her juices. She then sat on her haunches next to Michael’s lying form and took his half-rigid manhood in her slick hand, caressing it. Even though he didn’t want to, he felt himself growing hard upon her gentle strokes. He couldn’t help but grunt in pleasure despite the dire situation he was in.

“So I decided to attack your friends at their camp tonight,” Melinda said, looking him in the eyes as her slick hand continued to slide up and down his now fully erect shaft. “I will be granted the ability to fly, but to get that gift, I first have to sacrifice you to the demon named Zeth’ranor. Unfortunately for you, the last time I had to ask for his help, I was surrounded by a horde of goblins in a dungeon. The sacrifices I perform for Zeth’ranor are usually quite bloody and brutal, but that one time, Zeth’ranor allowed me to simply kill my victim, for I had no time to perform the usual brutal killing. So Zeth’ranor just told me that I had to make up for that now, which means that you’re going to die in a very gruesome way.”

Melinda was speaking in a soft voice with a kind smile on her lips that didn’t match the cruel look in her eyes at all. Her hand continued to stroke his manhood, but it suddenly slipped out of her grip.

“Huh?”

She looked at his flaccid penis that had shrunk back to half erection. “What I just said caused you to lose sexual excitement, eh? That’s okay.”

She wiped her hand off on his protruding belly and switched the dagger to her now dry right hand. “Let’s begin, shall we?”

All Michael could do was watch in horror as the sorceress touched the sharp edge of her blade to his flesh.

For the next hour, the sorceress cut and sliced his flesh, drawing blood and eliciting grunts of pain from Michael. When he was profusely bleeding from multiple wounds, she drenched her hands in his blood and used it to draw a circle around him as well as some arcane symbols along the bloody curve.

“Oh great Zeth’ranor, please accept this sacrifice and grant me my wish,” she half-sang.

She then dragged the blade across his throat. Almost immediately after that, she dropped the dagger and emitted a surprised cry. She jumped to her feet and took a few steps backward. As Michael was gurgling and gasping, blood bubbling out of his mouth, Melinda’s body smeared with his blood began to change. There was the crack of breaking bones and the tearing sounds of rupturing flesh as her body was transforming into something else. Huge bat-like wings sprouted from her back and her hands and feet elongated into claws. After just a few seconds, the transformation was complete. Spreading her enormous wings, she stepped closer to dying Michael. Her legs had changed too, bending backward like a dog’s. Her face was now elongated, having turned into an animal-like snout filled with rows of pointed teeth. She looked absolutely terrifying, hardly resembling a human being anymore.

“That’s… amazing,” she pronounced slowly. The changed anatomy of her body made it harder for her to speak. “I love… my new… body.”

Michael tried to say something, but all that escaped his lips was more gurgling and bubbles of blood.

“Your friends… are gonna… die tonight.”

Michael suddenly realized he had control over his body again as if the sorceress’s magical staff knew he was dying and there was no reason to keep him under its control anymore.

“No,” he managed to crock. “You’ll never get them. They are too tough for you, bitch.”

“Oh, don’t you worry… I will get them,” the sorceress hissed down at him. “They don’t know… what’s coming.”

Michael wanted to insult her more, but no more words came – only more blood trickled from his mouth.

“Your friends are going… to suffer,” the sorceress hissed at Michael just before he finally died.