I watched the thorg glare down at me. I didn’t move; I kept sitting in the same spot and turned my head sideways to look past him to watch the damned shoot magic at the specter.

  Fire, wind, ice, and stones impacted the specter. The specter slid back a few inches.

  It screamed its wordless scream and began gathering fire in its bony hands.

  The thorg gave me one last look and turned around to run off.

  He needed to hurry and assist his allies. Otherwise, the damned wouldn’t be able to contain the specter.

  I bit down on the mana crystal back in my mouth and chewed with loud crunches. I needed more mana.

  The upcoming fight was going to take a lot out of me and I needed to prepare for it.

  “Grek, do you have more crystals?”

  Grek took out a thin one from that bottomless belt pouch of his and handed it to me.

  Grek was slowly becoming my favorite person. After Saha, that is. Working with him was just so easy.

  I didn’t understand why people didn’t want more people that could read minds.

  “I cannot read your mind, Your Highness.” Grek shook his head.

  “I read your emotions, your expressions, and your body language.”

  I gave the mouth a doubtful expression and looked at the thin crystal in my hand.

  Grek sighed and looked around at the hall that had turned into a war zone.

  He took out two new mana crystals from his belt pouch and tossed them down at the cushioned seat next to me.

  And he wanted me to believe that he didn’t read minds?

  Grek began speaking in a whisper. “By Starbright’s stars. These damned and thorgs really hate death casters, don’t they?”

  “They are immortals. After everything they have done to damn their soul, they are bound to hate anything that can kill them,” I responded in a whisper of mine.

  “Your Highness, then shouldn’t you shoot your death bolts at them?”

  “No.”

  “But…”

  “Grek, a good hunter needs to know what a prey can do before he hunts,” I explained.

  Grek nodded in understanding and smiled at me.

  “Yes?”

  “Your Highness. You might not be very good at insults, but how you handled the thorgs was better than an insult.”

  “Yes, but a purpose of an insult is to make an enemy act. Here I didn’t want the enemy to fight. Two very different things.”

  We stopped to watch the specter surrounded by the damned impale one with the leftovers of the steel door.

  The thorg reached the fight and tried to save the damned woman.

  He had to jump back when the specter opened its mouth and vomited fire on the damned woman’s head.

  “That makes it five damned now. Your Highness, your plan is working really well.”

  “We got lucky,” I responded while turning around and looking in the other direction to look at One Ear.

  The man began to grow taller. His whole body widened horizontally.

  Hair erupted out of his pores and his clothes tore off his body.

  In seconds, the man had transformed into a bear with spikes protruding from his neck. The thorg charged at his foe.

  With a roar, he slashed out with a red paw. The specter staggered under the weight of the blow.

  One of the one-eared bear's arms didn’t work. It flopped uselessly on his side.

  There was no visible damage to the limb, but my death bolt had done its damage and now the thorg's arm hung from its socket lifelessly.

  “So, do you still want me to teach you how to insult the enemy?” Grek asked and then cringed at the sight of a damned flying into a wall while on fire.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  He hit the wall and turned into chunky black powder.

  Now there were four damned left in the fight.

  “Yes.” I looked at Bony Eyes turn into a bear just like his one-eared friend.

  The bear with bones around its eyes pointed at the damned and three of them disengaged to run and assist One Ear.

  Bony Eyes didn’t stop and threw his mace at the first specter. The specter brought its arms up to defend.

  The mace impacted the specter with a thud. The specter flew back and hit the wall.

  The bear charged and slashed out with red claws. The specter blocked one arm.

  The other one left three wide grooves on its torso. The bear wasn’t done. The bones on its eyes glowed.

  The bear headbutted the specter.

  The specter howled in pain and anger. It opened its mouth and blue fire erupted out its gullet.

  The thorg jumped out of the way. The damned behind it wasn’t so lucky. He fell screaming and burning.

  Now, there were only three of them.

  “One usually insults the enemy's mother or sister,” Grek stated distractedly.

  It took me a moment to figure out what Grek was saying. The insults. Right.

  The bone-eyed bear growled and closed the distance with the specter once again. This time its claws slashed down.

  Aiming at the specter’s damaged head. The specter brought up his hands and blocked the blow with bony blue fire ones.

  The forces collided and the specter was thrown to its knees.

  The thorg jumped back before the fire could catch on him and rolled back to his feet.

  I frowned. “But I don’t know their mother or sisters.”

  The bear dropped to all four of its feet and rushed the specter once again.

  “Then you make something up, Your Highness.” Grek tightened his hand on his sword.

  The first specter was losing and Grek was starting to tense up.

  He didn’t know that a third specter had joined the battle on One Ear's side.

  And One Ear was backing up, trying to avoid soul fire from both of them.

  The three damned from the first fight rushed to the one-eared bear’s side.

  They swung their swords with elemental attacks. Stone and ice staggered one of the specters.

  The other one was slammed back by the one-eared bear.

  I continued in the same calm tone, “But if it is not true, then why is it insulting?”

  Grek didn’t respond. He was too involved in the fight taking place in front of him.

  He held his sheathed sword with a white-knuckled grip.

  “Your Highness, it looks like the specter is losing. Shouldn’t we do something now?” Grek asked while looking at the state of the specter.

  “Not yet, Grek.” I shook my head. “Let the other specters thin out the damned ranks some more.”

  Just as I finished my words, the two specters acted together and threw balls of soul fire.

  Two of the damned were caught off guard. They went up in flames, falling to their knees while their souls ignited and were consumed.

  The last one and the thorg jumped out of the way.

  And just like that, there was only one damned left.

  The last damned looked around. The one-eared bear growled something at him.

  The damned nodded and ran back towards the thorg that was winning.

  “What is he doing?”

  “He is going to try to help finish the first specter so that Bony Eyes can assist One Ear,” I answered while doing a quick calculation.

  Bony Eyes raised both of his arms. His paws glowed red.

  The specter saw the blow coming and blazed with blue fire. Bony Eyes began to strike down.

  The specter raised its arms.

  I created a thin needle of ice in my palm and flicked it.

  Straight into the ankle of the running damned. The damned stumbled and fell.

  Right into the legs of the bone-eyed bear. The bear stumbled sideways just as he brought down his paws.

  Fire and force met. For a moment everything stood still and then with a loud whoosh fire hit the bear’s face.

  Without the ability to jump back, all the thorg could do was turn its head away. It wasn’t enough.

  First the damned and then Bony Eyes' face caught fire. The bear roared in pain.

  He dropped to the floor and rolled on the ground.

  With glowing palms the bear began to rip chunks out of its face, leaving blackened bones in place of flesh and blood.

  Grek gave me an accusing look.

  I looked away. At a wall. It suddenly looked very interesting.

  So interesting that I asked, “What is this empty hall, anyway?”

  “It used to be a ballroom, Your Highness.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t understand the idea of dancing.”

  “People find it fun,” Grek stated stiffly.

  I looked at the punisher and asked, “Are you going to be terse with me now?”

  “Why? Because a handful of minutes ago you said we weren’t going to do anything?”

  “Oh, look. The third specter is moving to confront Bony Eyes.” I quickly changed the topic.

  One Ear was on his knees now. One of his legs was a charred mess.

  His breaths came in hard and heavy. One of the specters was not looking so good either.

  Just like the first specter, it was leaking wisps of essence from slashes all over its body.

  On the other side of the room, Bony Eyes stumbled to his feet. Half of his face was gone.

  And one side of his jaw was hanging loose. Tied together with thin strands of flesh.

  “By the stars, they are durable,” Grek muttered.

  I looked at the third specter. This one was relatively unscathed. Only one of its arms was damaged.

  “Not durable enough,” I said softly and urged the thorgs to do better. “Come on, get up and fight, you doomed scum.”

  Grek looked at me. “Are you rooting for the demon worshipers, Your Highness?”

  “Uh...” I blinked and muttered. “No. Yes. No. You know I want them to injure each other.”

  Grek chuckled. “I know what you are planning, Your Highness.”

  I grumbled. “Don’t laugh, Mouth. If nothing changes, we will have to...”

  I stopped mid-sentence. Because just then, the relatively unharmed specter stopped its slow methodical march and turned.

  It looked from the thorg ready to confront it, to me.

  Its menacing gaze locked onto me and it saw my soul digest the last bit of essence I had taken from the specters.

  “Oh. No. No. Please no?” Grek started muttering under his breath.

  I grunted in pain. My essence pool had just filled up to the brim and my soul pulled me down into the turbulent dark waters.

  I barely had seconds, but I had done this before and knew what needed to be done.

  I collected myself into a ball and used my essence knife to carve out a seal in a rapid series of slashes on my soul.

  I was thrown out of the dark waters in a violent turbulent wave.

  It carried me up and ejected me back into my body.

  It was like these waters were someone’s domain and they didn’t want me here.

  It took me a moment to collect myself. By the time I had, the specter had turned fully to look at me.

  “I shouldn’t have laughed. Did it hear me? It heard me. Didn’t it?”

  Grek was panicking and hadn’t noticed me stumble, or maybe my body hadn’t stumbled.

  Whatever the case, Grek continued to speak under his breath. Grek began to reach into his belt pouch.

  “Grek,” I muttered and shook my head.

  “Run, Your Highness?” Grek stopped drawing out his artifacts and asked hopefully.

  “Not this time.” I shook my head and drew the sword my sister had handed to me not so long ago.

  I cracked my neck and smiled. “This time, I fight.”