He activated [Mind Attack], reaching out for the enemies right in front of them, and he found... nothing.

The male growled, and then the air lit up with Special Abilities.

"Fuck you!" the monster shouted at Lance, swinging its hand downwards.

Lance dodged by moving sideways, but not quickly enough, and a powerful blast of wind hit the wall next to his face, blowing apart part of it like tissue paper.

<[Assess] says they're both level ten!> Jacob thought.

Lance needed that skill.

That might be why his Special Ability was failing, then. Their enemies were too high level.

Jacob stepped forward and slammed his fist into the man's side—it looked like he was hitting a solid rock—and the creature didn't even react: it kept glaring at him until he took another step backwards. That seemed to be all the provocation the monster had needed; it lunged towards them with its weapon raised while Jacob had to jump back in order to avoid getting sliced in two—or three—pieces. A sword made out of fire appeared in its hand as soon as it got close to Sophie and swung towards her head.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Lance dived to the left, avoiding being hit by a burning blade of pure flames by mere inches. He rolled away from the other enemy before standing up again to find himself in an empty hall with no sign of their opponents anywhere nearby.

he thought, looking around for any traces of where they'd disappeared to; if they were like the people outside, they could have teleported or something else along those lines, so it wouldn't necessarily leave a physical trace.

He tried reaching out, but he didn't look for minds--instead, he searched for the presences around him, the ability that had done this.

[Obtain Assess skill? Cost: 7 Skill Points. Prerequisite: Level 4]

Lance thought.

The skill flooded into his mind, and he found it waiting for him.

<[Assess],> he thought, and it activated.

[???-level skill used.]

"Where are we?" Jacob asked. "What was that?"

Sophie just shrugged—she looked like she was on the verge of tears—and then slowly moved down the hallway without saying anything else. The others followed her lead, nobody knowing what had just happened, and they kept moving forward until they finally reached another staircase going up again. They turned around only when they heard a loud noise from below them; there were voices echoing through the stairwell as if they were shouting at each other in a large room filled with echoes—but no matter how much they listened, they couldn't make out any of what they said.

They collectively decided to move on, and--thank God--it looked like this stairwell was the one that led to the surface.

It took another half an hour, but they finally emerged onto the streets of New York.

Except, this was no longer New York.

They stepped out into chaos, and Lance thought he could feel the mysterious presence of their savior ahead of them.