"Abomination!" I spat those words like a certain elder vampire finding out his daughter lay with a werewolf.

  Big fan of the Underworld series, great movies, bit iffy on the prequel. At the moment before we were about to rumble, I strangely wondered if the vampires of this world were like the ones in that series. That thought ended as the abomination started charging like a boar on meth. Thinking quickly, I blanketed his vision with a black screen and hoped he didn't have other senses to rely on.

  "I just blinded him, hit him with the arrows." I commanded.

  Rak loosed a flurry of bolts; that magic repeating crossbow was freaking cool. Gave me series Van Helsing vibes, the Hugh Jackman one. Only this one was smaller, more like a crossbow pistol. I think he loosed ten bolts in quick succession, turning the blinded abomination into a pincushion.

  "Do those have poison on them?" I asked.

  "They do." He replied while reloading.

  Glancing back, I noticed him removing a small drum from the crossbow's shaft, just below and in front of the grip. With practiced ease, he replaced it like a gangster reloading his Glock, only he wasn't putting his weapon to the side. What a strange way to hold a gun.

  The bolts sticking out of its torso did not affect the abomination, which was frantically looking around after it had stopped in its tracks. With my enhanced vision, I noticed black veins pulsing from each wound, like a spider web drawing vile poison throughout its body. It didn't mind standing there until he finally dismissed the false notification. I could see his eyes lock onto us, and a bestial snarl escaped his cracked maw.

  I hit it again, blanketing its vision before sending two messages to Xyn and Marius at the speed of thought. Now used to my mode of communication, I saw Marius begin a spell song, somehow directing it in a tunnel-like fashion. I could barely hear the lyrics. That was new. His ghost saddled up beside me, with Xyn on my opposite side. All three of us had blades ready.

  Xyn was the first to reach the abomination, her speed outstripping mine by leaps and bounds. No idea how she was moving so fast; was it ghost power? She glided down the corridor, sword whirling like a hurricane as she began slicing the creature apart. Arms, legs, torso and head. Every part met cold steel as she twisted and spun. It was immaculate and refined, someone who had trained with a blade or just had a really useful spell. Confirmed by the faint traces of the system, but the rest was practically invisible... magic.

  After nearly ten seconds of slicing, she turned ethereal and leapt back. The abomination's claws sliced through the air at lightning speed, harmlessly passing through the retreating Xyn. Hit and run attacks with ghost powers, nice. With her slicing and dicing, I saw our ghostly companion jump in, hacking away like there was no tomorrow. He got in a few swings before the creature caught his weapon mid-strike and threw the ghost, still hanging on, across the room.

  Seeing that one of our helpers was down, I decided it was my turn. Raising a palm, I sent a force blast. The energy erupted from my fingertips and crashed into the creature like a jackhammer. Several concussive blasts followed, staggering the enemy. Taking this chance, I leapt into the fighting, making as many wounds as possible. My Aetherblade glided across its skin like a knife through butter, leaving stains of abstract art all over the place. With every wound that was inflicted, it became more and more noticeable... the lack of actual damage.

  Despite all of its wounds, it easily reached out with a claw. The talons scraped against my barrier, bouncing off my eyeballs. Yes, I saw it coming straight for my face, slicing across my vision, so close that I nearly flinched and fled away. But I trusted my skills and stayed true to the plan. Several crossbow bolts whizzed by, a few landing in its shoulder. Still, it made no reaction to the literal sharp implements.

  "Does this thing feel no pain!" I yelled, fearful that our attacks were useless.

  Then he swung his fist and struck me right in the face. Regardless of the barrier, I skidded back, kicking up dust like a terrible backwards skater. Getting my bearings, I looked back to see Xyn. It impaled her skull with another claw. Damn, having ghost powers is cool. But not for long as she jumped back, the ethereal aura flickered out and faded. Yep, she had a cooldown.

  "Are we even doing any damage?" Xyn called out.

  "I just did an inspect; its health went down a quarter. It's probably just immune to pain. Keep up the pressure."

  They all nodded, and what followed was a tiresome affair. He spent crossbow bolts like a machine gun; covering the abomination practically from head to toe. Marius blasted its brains with a few spell songs and had to summon his minions several times after its destruction. I lost count of how many times I force blasted this monster. Moderate power just staggered it, leaving a few openings to slice and dice. But eventually we brought it down; it just took a while with its insane durability. Its endurance attribute must be through the roof.

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  "Mother of god that was tiring." I glanced at my low stamina.

  Everyone was panting. The fight wasn't crazy; it was just so prolonged everyone was out of breath. Except for the guy who didn't breathe and Rak, who was chilling in the back line. I didn't blame him; his crossbow bolts were the key to slowly chipping away at the health. But it was Jeremy who became the MVP of the battle. He did that teleport thing of his, landing on the abomination's head and started clawing its eyes out. The distraction helped the three of us land the final blows, severing body parts and turning the creature into a heap of blood and viscera.

  "Must have had high endurance and some pain immunity skills." I suggested.

  "Definitely, I have never fought a monster that can take so many hits and keep going." Xyn gasped, trying to regain her energy.

  "Abominations come in many forms. I'd say they stitched this one together from monsters with high defence." Rak explained, kicking a severed arm.

  "Yeah, that was tough; we need a heaver hitter. I will work on getting a skill with more power behind it."

  "That blasting skill was pretty effective; it only staggered the monster, but gave us the time to strike." Xyn came in with the positive reinforcement.

  "How did your animal teleport? I didn't sense any magic?" Rak came up beside me, scrutinising Jeremy.

  "I have a name, asshole." Jeremy shot back.

  The towering gargoyle just grunted, glaring down at a creature so small it was practically nonexistent. Locking eyes, the two had a mini-standoff, neither blinking. Then suddenly, Jeremy vanished; his presence ceased to exist in a single nanosecond. No showy teleportation effect, nothing like Nightcrawler or the dudes from Jumper. Just now you see me and now you don't, because I don't exist. A moment later, Jeremy started existing again, atop an angry gargoyle's head.

  "Get off me!" Rak threw his hands up and tried to batter away the intruder of his headspace.

  "The name is Jeremy, you prick."

  "He is way more talkative nowadays; I'm not sure if that's a good thing." I muttered half to myself.

  "It is good, oh how I have always wondered what holding a conversation with a cat would be like. What secrets do they hold?" Marius grinned.

  "When did you think that?"

  "Oh, the moment I laid eyes on the majestic feline."

  "Yeah, the little bastard has that effect on people... hey Jer, stop playing around; we have more monsters to kill."

  With that dealt with, we moved on, cautiously travelling deeper into this mad world. None of us had gained a level, but given how high-levelled that creature was, the next monster should tip us over. Keeping my senses on alert, I pondered developing a high-powered skill. Something with way more punch. My current idea was to combine kinetic strike and force blast. Like a concentrated force blast, something that drops a ton of power into a single spot.

  Hey Jen, can you calculate how much power I would need to pierce through highly durable, attribute-enhanced skin? She didn't answer for a bit before I amended the statement. Use that abomination as an example. Finally, a got a musical answer: elevator thinking music. And after about a minute, I got a notification.

  [Force Strike (Advanced). A long-range, highly concentrated force attack, employing both accuracy and power. Cost: Variable.]

  Looking over the suggested skill, I could develop it for the next battle, at least a prototype. I already had the bare bones of the skill. I had already refined Kinetic Strike to apply force energy at a single point. Focusing on power and knockback, I made Force Blast. Jenny is suggesting the cost would be variable, which means I would need to dump system energy into the attack. Theoretically, it could be as powerful and damaging as I required.

  As we walked, I kept an eye out, while my mind churned with skill creation. Jenny did most of the heavy lifting. I wasn't able to focus entirely on developing this power. So relied on her expertise. Still, all she could create was a framework. I needed to do some tests to really cement the skill on my character sheet. And luckily, a few volunteers arrived.

  They were abominations; it said so after a quick inspection. Only they were around level fifteen. I would guess that they were made similarly because they practically mirrored the last abomination we met, and we could use them as suitable test subjects. Although it was kind of unfair to send the higher-level one first. But perhaps these level fifteens were just slow and got left behind.

  "Form up, same strategy as before." I always wanted to say that.

  They heeded my orders, and I was proud of myself. I actually felt like a leader. Crossbow bolts flew in the next moment, and a crazy ghost charged like he was ready for war. Xyn followed behind, ready to slice and dice. I stayed put and quickly concentrated on the leftmost abomination. Raising my left palm, I willed force to gather within my reach, harnessing the energy and narrowing it down to a point. Performing the same function as the kinetic strike skill.

  Only this time I pumped a crapton of system energy into the attack. The skill not yet formed was pretty unstable, but I wanted to see what the prototype could do. Narrowing my gaze to slits, I aimed for the abomination's chest. Holding on until the very last moment as swirling energy threatened to break free and tear my hand apart. Once Xyn jumped out of the way, I loosed the attack.

  And then it happened, whistling down the hallway, zooming past a confused ghost and colliding with its intended target. His chest pulverised and gaped, cracking bone and tearing skin. Not a neat little bullet hole but a massive chasm of blood and sinew. The abomination looked down at the hole in its chest and fell back, lifeless.

  The attack's speed and strength confounded me, and I blinked rapidly. Combining these two skills was a brilliant idea. I profusely thanked Jenny for her work and quickly raised my other palm, dumped a similar amount of system energy into the other palm and laid another abomination to waste.

  "What was that?" Xyn turned around, confounded.

  "Systemology, hell yeah!"

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