Atomic Mage by Garrett Carter (short books for teens txt) 📕

unbothered expression on his face in the physical world,

"well how about a penny for your thoughts."

Cade achieved that mental dead zone quickly before he moved into the dwarf's mind finding a slight resistance at his intrusion.

Some sort of mental shield he guessed as he slipped through it with the effort of walking through a summer breeze.

A loud blustery voice met him as he viewed the mental landscape he found himself in.

"Who do you be to intrude on my mind like you belong here."

Cade felt a tickling in his mind suddenly that had nothing to do with his powers.

With a reflexive wave of a mental hand, he blew the questing presence away like a leaf in the breeze.

Fear flooded the dwarf's mental landscape, Cade assumed the questing presence had come from old black beard over here.

Not trying to get into a mental one way battle with the dwarf at the moment he exited the mental landscape that was to his surprise returning to its previous calm state at an alarming rate.

"Gonna have to watch that one if I don't just kill him." He cautioned himself.

Cade looked to the lizard man with a shrug.

This one was going to die regardless of anything else, and dove in.

A dark mental landscape met him draped in shadows and dark as a moonless night.

He felt the lizard's mind casting about for a way out of this situation.

Cade grinned at the futility of the action, he was dead he just didn't know it yet.

Hopping out of the dead man's mind he took a look at the last man in the crew, well the last alive one he noted as he glanced at the black-skinned corpse.

Looking at chain guy he dove in and felt another mental shield in place.

"Well what do we have here" Cade said to himself as he examined the mental shield with interest.

It wasn't any more effective than the dwarfs but orders of magnitude more intricate.

Running a mental hand along the surface of the shield he felt another mental attack, he almost missed it due to the more subtle touch than the dwarfs figurative bashing at the gates.

Having more of an idea of what to look for this time instead of waving it off with a mental hand he grasped it firmly with a mental hand.

Feeling a struggle in his mental grasp he chuckled to himself at the familiar feeling of startled fear from his earlier training at the river.

"This one is going to be full of information for me, let's get rid of his buddies first".

Leaving what he assumed was the wizard's mind Cade took a look at his prisoners.

A wide array of expressions met him as he used his real eyes again in what felt like days.

Complete and total terror on the tanned human, the same composed bored expression from the dwarf as if he hadn't just been about to soil his britches a few minutes ago.

Krub had a toothy snarl with hackles raised pointed Cades' way, with a tinge of pain tossed in courtesy of his broken ribs.

He gave Krub a squeeze hoping to hear him squeak like a dog toy, slight disappointed grew on his face as Krub only let out a groan through his snarling muzzle.

Cade looked at the soon to be dead lizard man seeing his eyes shifting from Krubs pained groan back to him.

The wizard could wait he decided after tying off the wizard's restraints to the house's power supply and letting him fall unceremoniously to the ground.

Speaking into all their minds he told them how fucked they were, and without further ado dived into their minds one at a time searching through their mental landscapes for a way to access their memories.

Killing all of the would-be slavers wasn't an issue for him, any info he could glean from them would be a plus though.

One of the first things he discovered was the name of the world he found himself on, Curset.

He next scoured their minds for his location, some random river in a kingdom called Dejot on the southern part of the continent of Zeme he found himself on.

Along the way, he discovered the location of their camp, where they a scouting party had gone out to collect more slaves from the tribes of beastkin people located in the vast jungle.

Finishing his inquiry, these men, he used the word loosely with this group rapist and murders all, were of no use to Cade any longer.

Giving the human, dwarf, and bear a quickish death by mashing their brains to a paste, he let their bodies drop to the rocky beach.

Looking to the lizard man Cade spoke into his mind simply saying, "that knife was a mistake."

Pointing to the hole in the right side of his shirt he saw the lizard man's eyes grow wide, well wider after he saw the gruesome bloody eyes, noses, and ears of his departed friends.

"How would you like to die" asked Cade into the dead man's mind as he returned to the dark landscape.

"In my bed of old age" the lizard man quietly replied.

Cade laughed out loud on the dark dreary mental plane. "Well, that's not going to happen, so any other suggestions?".

"None that I think would save me." Came the morose reply.

Cade thought over what to do with the lizard man, the dive into his memories showing him that mercy wasn't something he could give the reprehensible being.

A few that stood out were the savage rape and murder of a human female