”Don’t worry, I’ll deal with these ones.” Belinda lifted her hands, and her body transformed again, becoming a writhing cloud of eerie black shadows. The cloud floated into the air and, moments later, flew toward the armed men.

I heard one of them shout a warning, then all three raised their rifles and began to fire into the nebulous black cloud that had been Belinda.

It was futile.

The cloud of black fog descended on them, and I heard them cry out as it smothered them. Their spells vanished among the writhing darkness before their bodies disappeared into the cloud. From inside, I heard them yelling in terror.

Their screams were short-lived. When the fog floated away from them, nothing but skeletons remained. Their spell-rifles lay in the road. Their skeletal remnants were crouched in position on their knees, clutching with bony hands at their faces. Armor, skin, and flesh had been stripped from their bones.

Belinda appeared once again, stepping out of the black cloud with a satisfied expression. The cloud dispersed, seeming to be drawn into her. I glanced at the look of satisfaction on the face of the tentacle-haired woman, and my stomach clenched tight with fear. Despite the fact that she was clearly on my side, I still felt afraid of her. Most Outworlders had a baseline power level that was higher than the average human, but I’d never seen cultivation of this level in action before. Sure, the Olympics had cultivators performing various feats and miracles, but nothing so violent as this.

Beneath my fear was another emotion, one that bubbled up to the surface of my mind: admiration. When a person opened their internal pathways to the wonders of cultivation, it became like a drug, and I was as susceptible to the thirst of power as anyone else. I couldn’t help thinking what I could do with power like that which Belinda wielded.

I’d probably think of things more useful to the world than stripping the skin, flesh, and clothing from people’s bones. That wasn’t to say there wasn’t something impressive about Belinda’s use of cultivation, but I preferred crafting or building things rather than destroying them.

As the last remnants of the cloud vanished, Belinda walked over and stood beside me, smiling.

Chapter 5

”That. . . that was incredible,” I said. ”And pretty fucking violent.”

Belinda shrugged noncommittally, but I caught a definite suggestion of pleasure in her face as she glanced away from me. She was pleased to have impressed me.

”It got the job done,” she said shortly, turning to Astrid. ”That brings my total up enough to give me a clear victory in our bet, I think, don’t you?”

Astrid cursed under her breath but fished out a green hundred dollar bill from somewhere in the cleavage of her jumpsuit. ”Here.”