Ten Minutes Earlier

  Edge’s crew skulked within the shadows as the cacophony of combat reverberated down the tunnel.

  They were ready to charge in and ambush the Claws but forced themselves to wait until the monster made its appearance. Sasha held one of his hands, and Mel clasped the other. Both women squeezed tight whenever screams reached their ears, knowing that some of them were the death cries of their friends. Staying still was torture under the circumstance, but if they were to have any chance of winning this fight, they had to hold back for just a little bit longer.

  An agonizing five minutes later, it finally happened.

  Edge heard furious bleating coming from the other direction—an inhuman cry filled with hatred, which could only have emerged from the mouth of a monster. It was followed by horrified wailing that transitioned into wet gurgles before cutting off completely.

  A panicked Claw went running past the hunters’ position, racing to warn the jailbirds that they were under attack from the rear. Not long after, a group of warriors led by a short man covered in scars came sprinting the other way with their weapons at the ready.

  “That was Ripper,” Lillian whispered. “Which means Ella and Roth are still with the strike force. Let’s go. This is our chance to hit them from behind and make those bastards pay for what they’ve done.”

  After one final squeeze, Edge let go of his friends’ hands, and the crew stepped into the passageway, heading for the conflict ahead. As they had hoped, no more jailbirds were coming this direction, trusting Ripper to handle the monster while they focused on wiping out the expedition.

  An adrenaline-electrified sprint later, the hunters rounded a final bend, and the battlefield came into view. “Shit,” Sasha said, “they’ve already breached the base’s defenses. We need to make our move before it’s too late.”

  The crew began running to where a squad of jailbirds was standing beside the wreckage of a wall, guarding a thin woman with long blond hair. Intense flows of mana were coursing from her position, surging out from her core and into the base.

  “That’s Ella,” Mel said. “The fucker who teleported us into the grottos. She must be using her mind magic to mess with our people. This is a perfect chance to take her down before the Claws realize we’re here. Then we just have to kill Ripper and Roth, and our people should be able to handle the rest.”

  The crew brandished their weapons and charged, getting ready to let loose with their strongest skills. Edge activated Fear the Season’s passive effect and conjured a Warlord’s Mantle for everyone. Then he manifested Foebinder and pulled his naginata out of his vault.

  One of the convicts turned when she heard them coming, then did a double take when she realized it was a group of hunters instead of Ripper’s crew. Before the jailbird could sound the alarm, Edge cocked his polearm over his shoulder, infused it with Elemental Blade, and hurled the weapon like a javelin.

  The naginata went streaking through the air while billowing frost like the tail of a comet. The point caught the woman in the stomach and buried itself deep, freezing her organs and killing her within a matter of seconds.

  The rest of Ella’s crew realized something was wrong when the body hit the floor, but the women were already making their move. A warrior erupted into a pile of gore when Lilly hit him with Assassin’s Vortex. The shadowkiller followed up with Scattershot, blowing both arms off the Claw beside Ella before hunters began their final approach and Lilly had to circle around to clear her line of fire.

  Sasha set two convicts alight with Fire Breathing, then stabbed another from the front and back at the same time with Hidden Strike, comboing it with Flame Imbuement to turn the man into a screaming pillar of blaze. Meanwhile, Mel bisected one prisoner with Force Cleave. She Swapped out of the way of a spearpoint, Blocked a follow-up thrust, and cut a warrior’s hand off at the wrist.

  Edge didn’t get to watch the rest of their fight because he was focused on his own.

  He was heading straight for Ella, who was so focused on casting her spell that she hadn’t realized she was under attack. There were three more jailbirds guarding her position, but Edge only had eyes for the strike leader. He manifested his iceblade while closing the final few feet, scored a vicious Double Slash that sliced one Claw all the way down to the bone, then pushed his way past the two remaining guards.

  Thanks to his incredible Speed bonus, he almost cut Ella down before she had time to react. But at the last possible moment, she broke off the spell she was channeling and turned to face him with eyes wide with surprise.

  He didn’t think she would be able to dodge, but he had underestimated the woman’s combat experience. Before he landed a lethal blow, she rolled out of the way of his iceblade and then hit his crew with a spell.

  Sasha and Mel began to scream—trapped within some nightmarish vision. Lilly went pale as a sheet but didn’t lose her composure. The shadowkiller provided covering fire that kept the Claws from reaching the other women. Ella continued to backpedal as he advanced, maintaining her composure while staying just out of reach.

  Edge was about to launch another attack when she turned her power on him, flaring her skill hard enough to overcome his resistance.

  One second, he was lining up a killing blow. The next, he found himself trapped within the worst moment of his life, staring up at his mother’s grief-shattered face as an AI messenger informed her that her husband and eldest son had died in a freak accident.

  No. Not again. He tried to turn away but found himself frozen in place—unable to do anything as the news hit his mother like a battle axe to the face.

  Edge was forced to relive the precise moment when her soul shattered into jagged pieces. He knew it was a crippling blow she would never recover from, leaving her addicted to simulations of the past—lost in memories of happier times when her family was whole and the future seemed bright.

  He had never felt so helpless. His mother didn’t seem to see or hear him, no matter how fervently he tried to comfort her. With that, time began moving at a faster rate, playing out the events of the following months.

  After the accident, his mother was a nervous wreck. She became addicted to drugs before switching to sims, leaving no one to help him process his own poignant grief. The AI overseeing the transport company sent some Credits in compensation, along with some low-grade counseling programs that only deepened her depression and heightened his burgeoning despair.

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  Edge soon found a digital coping mechanism of his own. He devoted every waking moment to the Prison World feeds, escaping the hell his life had become by watching those brave men and women face the dangers of a magical planet. He kept himself sane by the narrowest of margins, feeling a little emptier with every passing day until life itself became a chore. Not long after…

  “Edge. Snap out of it. This isn’t real. That woman has you in her power. Another few seconds, and she will drive her blade into your heart. Pull yourself together, my scion, and fight!”

  Skill-Eater’s roar reverberated from the depths of his soul, resounding across his inner world and the hidden recesses of his heart. When Edge heard those words and felt his core’s desperation, he realized what he was experiencing wasn’t real—just a ghost from his past conjured by Ella’s skill.

  He called upon every scrap of willpower he had, tearing her illusion from his mind until reality bled through. The instant he regained control over his body, he charged the elite mind manipulator, moving so fast the world was reduced to a streaking blur of color and motion.

  He Leapt over one convict while Foebinder dealt with another, landing in front of a horrified Ella. He tried to swing his iceblade, but she used a skill that made him lose control over his right arm and left leg.

  “Please don’t kill me. I’ll give you anything you want… do anything you want. Do you lust after one of those beauties fighting beside you? They can be yours forever—heart and soul. I know where treasure is buried. The secret stashes of hundreds of hunters.”

  Edge limped forward while balling his left hand into a fist. Every word that passed Ella’s lips was repugnant, even though he knew she was just trying to distract him. She ignited her core and started to speak, but he beat her to the punch. He opened his mouth and Roared, drowning out her words and infusing her with primal terror.

  He doubted the effect would last long given her stage, but he only needed to cross the final five feet between them.

  Before the woman could use any more mind-affecting magic, Edge punched her in the face, knocking her out cold. Now that Ella was susceptible to Extraction, he didn’t hesitate for a heartbeat. Whatever it felt like to have a skill ripped free from your core, he was utterly certain this woman deserved it. Not that he intended to leave her breathing long enough to suffer.

  The right chain of oblivion parted his wrist, and both of them lunged for the unconscious jailbird, working their way through the gaps in her armor and plunging into her core.

  He found himself standing in her central chamber, surrounded by a crowd. There were hundreds of people inside Ella’s core, and none of them had a face. Some were on the ground, groveling with their foreheads pressed against the floor. Somehow, he could tell that their minds had been shattered and their wills subsumed—overridden until nothing but the desire to serve and worship remained.

  Further out from the fawning ring of creepy faceless servants, people were being tortured in one dreadful manner or another. Their bodies were unharmed, but they shuddered in the throes of agony. He could sense that they were experiencing the worst moments of their lives—forced to live through anguish, humiliation, and heartbreak in an unending loop, wishing for a death that would never come.

  Attending to the tortured masses were the avatars of Ella’s powers, orchestrating this nightmarish scene with enthusiasm.

  Edge had never encountered such a sinister core or unnerving collection of skills—even while standing in the corrupted inner worlds of merciless monsters. It filled him with sorrow, shame, and revulsion that one of his own kind could be so cruel, so… evil.

  He wasn’t the type of person who spent much time dealing with existential questions like good and evil. But whatever you wanted to call it, he understood why Ella had been banished to the planet where they sent the worst of the worst. No matter what fate she met at the hands of her fellow convicts, it was a mercy compared to what she did to her victims.

  Looking across the twisted contents of her central chamber, he knew this repugnant panorama of domination was her core truth and guiding principle, manipulating everyone she met to get what she wanted. Edge was certain this was a symbolic representation of her actual deeds, reducing people to mindless slaves and groveling thralls. Destroying their lives and crushing their spirits for her amusement. If the Claws’ strike leaders are this vile, it’s no wonder One-Eye wants to kill them all.

  Many of the skills in here were Rare and all of them were high ranked. He could steal any of them if he wanted.

  But he could sense their mind-altering magic only worked on humans—not monsters and beasts—and the thought of using them on another person made him physically ill. Besides, Edge wanted powers that would let him battle formidable enemies and protect his friends, not bend others to his will.

  He almost left Ella’s core then and there—ready to deliver the killing blow.

  But then he spotted one skill hiding in the corner, adverting its gaze from the contents of Ella’s inner world. It took the form of a floating brain protected by a transparent forcefield, and unlike her other powers, it didn’t fill him with revulsion. Acting on instinct, he asked the chains to wait and walked over to the avatar, addressing a skill for the first time before he tried to steal it.

  “Hi. My name is Edge. You don’t seem like you want to be here, so I was wondering if you would like to join me and my friends instead.” The avatar turned when it heard his voice, cowering like an abused animal. He felt sorry for it, so he kept his tone gentle as he continued.

  “Not everyone is like Ella. My inner world is a fun, welcoming place, and everyone who lives there is chill. Why don’t you come with me and leave this horror show behind you forever?” To his surprise, it worked. The brain stopped shaking, then bobbed in what felt like acquiescence.

  “Okay, guys.” He gestured to the chains. “Be gentle with this one—it’s coming of its own free will.” The chains of oblivion wrapped themselves around the avatar with surprising tenderness and pulled the skill of Ella’s core. When they dropped it into Edge mouth, the power dissolved on its own instead of fighting back.

  It slid across his palate before diving down his throat. This skill tasted like an unassailable bulwark that stood within his own mind. Like knowing exactly who he was, and which thoughts were his own—no matter what forces tried to muddle the matter.

  It also tasted a bit like almond and lemons.

  You have extracted the skill: Mental Fortress

  (Rare, Rank 1).

  Since this skill entered your core willingly, digestion will not require additional time and is already complete.

  Would you like to slot Mental Fortress now?

  “Yes, please.” That’s new. I had no idea skills could willingly be Extracted—although I doubt it will come into play very often. Mental Fortress is going to come in handy. I should advance it to rank two soon. While he was thinking the matter through, the floating brain bonded with an empty skill socket.

  It seemed ecstatic when the other avatars came racing over to meet their new friend, welcoming Fortress to his collection. Developing a bond with this one should be easy. It really wants to be here.

  Now that he slotted the skill, Edge experienced a brief vision that provided some information about how it worked. Mental Fortress was a Disruption-based power that only affected specific frequencies of magic. While its mana cost was high for a passive skill, it provided a potent layer of protection against any magic attempting to influence his mental state, emotions, or sensory perceptions. It also shielded him from powers that tried to read his mind directly—although it wouldn’t work on something that functioned by interpreting his body language, tone, or biorhythms.

  Skill-Eater was still awake, and its hunger was infectious, steeping his consciousness with a nearly irresistible urge to devour every Rare skill in sight. He almost gave in before reminding the big guy Roth had some juicy powers too and there was only one charge left on Extraction.

  Skill-Eater gluttony had been aroused, and it was eager to feed, but with another tempting banquet of skills lying just beyond the ruined wall, it was willing to wait a few minutes before enjoying its next meal.

  Since he was in the middle of a battle, Edge bid farewell to his avatars and popped back into his body. He hadn’t stolen any of the woman’s mind manipulation powers, and there was no way he was letting her live long enough to use them again.

  Ella had raised her arms in front of her, eyes wide with horror from the rough Extraction. The power restraining his body had vanished, and before she could ignite her core or say another word, he Double Slashed with his iceblade, flaring the skill as hard as he could. He cut through both arms and her torso in turn—blood freezing before it hit the ground.

  Her body slid apart half a heartbeat later, taking one of the Claws’ elites out of the fight.