The hot, stupid anger evaporated, leaving behind the cold, clean clarity of a solved problem. David watched her twitch on the floor, her body seizing as the demonic energy she'd tried to siphon from him ran wild in a system not built to contain it. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Should've stuck to leeching off the local wildlife.

  The plane was a cacophony of panic. People shouted, a meaningless wall of noise. Evans had a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back. Corbin was demanding answers. It was all just static.

  Inside David’s head, it was quiet. The facts arranged themselves with brutal efficiency.

  Start with what you know. She’s a necromancer. Not just a corpse-eater. A life-sucker. Theo said the big hob hit them with a weakness aura. But she was immune. Evans said she moved like me.

  A cold, sharp satisfaction cut through the remaining adrenaline. So I'm not just a paranoid asshole. I'm a correct paranoid asshole. The distinction was everything. His brain, with its inconvenient habit of sketching out worst-case scenarios on every available surface, had just produced a verified masterpiece. On Earth, it was considered a sickness. But in a place like this? It was a survival trait. Good to know it’s a feature not a bug.

  The theory he'd built in his head the moment Evans and Theo described the fight—that Mara's "immunity" was actually a predatory skill—was now a proven fact. The pieces solidified together. Unshakable. It wasn't the hob's aura. It was hers.

  He reconstructed the attack. Mara, waiting. Letting the hobs get close. Then flipping a switch—a wide-area field that sapped the strength, the will, the very fight out of everyone around her. A perfect debuff. It would have felt like a sudden, soul-deep exhaustion. Ideal for creating slow, panicked prey. And she, at the center of it all, would be untouched, maybe even getting a little top-up from each person in the net. She used them as bait and batteries. Henderson loses an arm, Theo gets his guts opened, and she’s just getting warmed up.

  The cold, ruthless efficiency of it was almost admirable.

  And then she tried the single-target version on me. He replayed the sensation. Her hand on his shoulder, then that sharp, greedy, insane pull. A direct pipeline from his life energy to hers. Fast. Focused. No collateral drain on Evans standing right there.

  So she can control it. She has a crowd-control setting and a precision kill setting. That’s stupidly overpowered.

  His mind mapped the potential. If the range weakens people, what’s the next tier? Puts them to sleep? Paralyzes them? And the single-target drain… can she do it from across a room? Does it just take mana, or can she steal strength? Speed? Could she just… turn a person off? Suck them dry to a husk in ten seconds flat?

  The potential was terrifying. And therefore, incredibly valuable.

  The math was a straightforward thing. Killing her was the obvious move. Quick, permanent. But it was also wasteful. It was like finding a loaded gun and throwing it in a lake instead of keeping it for the next monster. A tool this powerful, even a treacherous one, could be the difference between life and death later. Especially against something like the Ogre. Let her drain that thing while he stabbed it. It was a good plan. It just required making sure the gun was pointed away from him.

  He looked at Evans, whose face was a mask of strained authority.

  He looked down at Mara, who was twitching on the floor, her eyes wide with a terror that was part pain, part sheer panic at being discovered. He needed her to shut everyone else up, and he needed her to do it now. He leaned down, his voice a low, flat blade meant only for her. "You want to have a chat with them," David asked, "or should I?" The menace was a transaction. He offered her a choice, deal with him alone or be exposed to everyone.

  Her eyes, locked on his, understood the math instantly. Being at his mercy was preferable to being at the mercy of a panicked, betrayed mob.

  "Ok!" Mara gasped out, the words forced between clenched teeth. She looked past David at the ring of frightened faces. "I’ll—I won’t… talk."

  He felt a grim flicker of vindication. This wasn't his paranoia at play. This was pattern recognition. He couldn't trust anyone. Not Evans with his rulebook, not Corbin with his limp, not even Jamie with his wide-eyed enthusiasm. They were all just other people trying to stay alive. Mara was just more competent and more ruthless at it. She was, in her own way, honest.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  She was spasming harder now, a low groan escaping her lips. The healer, the one who’d been knitting Henderson’s arm back together, stumbled over, her face pale with exhaustion. She placed her hands on Mara’s arm, and that soft golden light flickered. Nothing happened. The energy clashed, Mara screamed as the two conflicting energies battled inside her, and the healing energy just slid off the corrosive demonic current inside Mara like water off a hot plate. Huh. So that’s a hard counter. Damn, does that mean she can’t heal me? If that were the case, then he needed to find someone with a fire skill to use as his personal lighter and healing fuel factory. My energy and the healer’s magic cancel out. Hers too, if she keeps a sliver of the energy without exploding. So if she’s hurt, I would be her only medic. That’s a useful lever, but unlikely—I’ll have to take the energy out if I don’t want her to die or grow a tail. David considered his options.

  People were closing in, their fear turning to a confused urgency. This was the moment. David knelt beside her, blocking their view with his body. He leaned in close, his voice a low murmur meant only for her. "You’ve got two choices. You can let this energy turn you into a puddle, or you can tell them everything’s fine and I’ll see what I can do."

  Her eyes, wide with terror and pain, locked onto his. He could see the frantic calculation in them, the search for an angle. He’d just given it to her.

  "Stop! It's fine!" Mara gasped out, the words forced between clenched teeth. She looked past David at the ring of frightened faces. "He's... helping. David knows how to fix this." The lie was desperate, pathetic, and bought them exactly what they both needed: a little time and space. “It’s a… curse.”

  The crowd hesitated, confused. The healer looked to Evans, who gave a slow, uncertain nod. They backed away, creating a small bubble of relative quiet.

  Okay. So she’s not completely stupid.

  An idea, one he’d been floating since he first learned to circulate the energy in his own body, clicked into place. If he could move it through himself like blood, and he could pull it from others… why couldn’t he push it? Why couldn’t he control it in someone else?

  He placed a hand on her shoulder again, ignoring her flinch. He focused, not on pulling, but on pushing. He willed the demonic energy inside him to extend, to bridge the gap into her. He started the circulation, the same tedious circuit he practiced every day: down the legs, up the spine. But this time, the path led into her.

  She spasmed violently, gritting her teeth so hard he heard them creak. Too rough. He eased back, engaging [Calm Mind]. The world sharpened. He could feel the raging storm of energy inside her, a wild, destructive river. He wasn't trying to add to it. Not yet. He was trying to build banks for it. To give it a path.

  He began again, with a delicate, precise touch. He created a loop. The energy would flow from him, into her arm, down through her torso, and then, carefully, he’d pull it back, completing the circuit. He was giving her chaotic energy a road to follow. Creating a single body between them for the energy to flow through. He eased the thrashing energy, slowing its rage.

  Her spasms lessened. The violent jerking became a tremble. He had a thought, a dangerous one. What if he didn’t just guide it, but concentrated it? Kept it slow, steady, but fed her more? Handle the energy so delicately it doesn’t immediately destroy her? He pushed a focused stream of energy not just through her limbs, but toward the center of her chest, where her own power seemed to pool.

  For a second, nothing. Then, he felt it. A connection. A feedback loop. His energy, his control, was now intertwined with the very source of her power. He could feel her trying to pull away, to break the circuit, but he held it fast. It was like holding a live wire. He realized with a cold jolt that by finely controlling the flow, he could influence her movements. A little more pressure here, a constriction there, and her arm twitched. But this time it wasn’t a spasm. An obedience.

  He had built a cage out of her own power.

  [New Skill: Infernal Thrall]

  The notification was simple. Unquestionable. Absolute.

  Mara gasped, staring into space, reading something David couldn’t see. Her eyes wide with a new, deeper horror. She understood. The fight went out of her. "What do you want?" she whispered, the words ragged.

  David maintained the circulation, the energy flowing between them like a shared, poisoned bloodstream. "There is one thing that matters to me," he said, his voice conversational, almost quiet. "My life. You use your skills like an idiot again, and I’ll consider that a direct threat. And I deal with threats."

  He hesitated, then pushed further. He engaged [Energy Affinity], [Demonic Energy Mastery], and [Battle Sense] in tandem, layering them over [Calm Mind]. His perception exploded into a web of energy and probability. He slowly lifted his palm an inch from her shoulder, his very being centered on the tether between them.

  The connection held. A visible, faintly shimmering thread of corrosive purple energy bridged the gap between his hand and her skin. The circuit was now self-sustaining.

  He could feel her, a constant, humming presence in the back of his mind. A tool. A weapon. A walking battery.

  He was glad it worked. The other option would have been much messier.

  He looked down at her, at this new piece of equipment he’d just acquired. Okay. Let’s see what you can do.