"Me?" James mouthed, pointing at himself in abject terror.

Pausing, the Specter stared at James in confusion, shook its head, then pointed again, more emphatically, at Tom. James mouthed the words, "Oh, sorry, my bad" before putting up both hands apologetically and stepping out of the way so Tom was the center of focus.

"Really?" Was all Tom said as he rolled his eyes and then took a fighting stance.

Equipping his greatsword from his inventory, he dashed forward slashing horizontally at the Specter. It simply remained motionless as it watched Tom charge and attack. The blade of the weapon passed harmlessly through the body of the Specter.

It grinned wickedly at him as it turned and reached out a hand to put on his shoulder. Icy tendrils coursed through Tom's shoulder and down his arm, and he yelled as he yanked himself away from the creature's touch. As soon as he was released from the touch, the pain stopped. Looking at his health bar, he noticed he was now at ninety percent of his health.

"Holy shit that sucks! Don't let it touch you! It drains your health from its touch!" Tom called out to the others. "And apparently weapons can't hurt it, so light him up with spells!"

Curling his hand into the spell form for Eldritch Blast, a green fire ignited in his hand and he flung it at the Specter. Ghastly screaming came from the Specter as the green flame hit it and it began to let out a high-pitched keening sound. Everyone began covering their ears and most fell to their knees in pain at the sound.

Finally, the sound stopped and the Specter flew toward a woman on the sidewalk and grabbed both of their shoulders. The woman screamed in agony as grey tendrils began to grow from where the Specter touched her and down both arms. It opened its mouth wide, far wider than a human should be able to open their mouth, and the sound of a massive inhalation began as light formed in the woman's chest and began to travel up toward her mouth.

Four bolts of purple energy hit the Specter one right after the other, forcing it to stop what it was doing, drop the woman, and knocking it to the ground. It began the high-pitched keening again after being attacked forcing everyone to grab their ears again.

Tom had enough at this point and stored his greatsword in his inventory.

"That's it, I've been wanting to try this for a while so it's time to fuck some shit up!" Tom yelled standing to his feet, blood beginning to drip from his ears.

Holding both hands up at chest level, he focused and a purple ball of energy appeared in each hand. He then turned his palms to face each other and began to force the balls of energy together. His muscles bulged as the force from the two spells fought to stay separate. The glow from the purple energy began to flow down his arms and across his body. Soon his whole body was encased in a purple glow as he struggled to make the balls meet, each one trying to repel the other like magnets facing the same polar direction.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa," Tom began low and then got louder as he pressed harder and harder. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

With the final yell, the two balls merged, forming a single large ball of purple energy with a shining core. Tom moved his right foot forward and placed both hands, one on top of the orb and one beneath it, down next to his right hip.

"I've always wanted to do this..." Tom spoke quietly as he smiled evilly at the Specter who had turned to see what he was doing. "FINAL....FLAAAAAAASH!!!!!"

With this last yell, Tom moved his hands forward with the heels of his hands touching and shot the ball of energy directly at the Specter. A purple beam followed the ball of energy back to his hands and the ball of energy impacted the creature in the stomach. It bent in half around the beam as it tried to stay in one place until the light got brighter and brighter as Tom poured more and more mana into the spell.

Suddenly, purple light erupted from the back of the Specter, and the beam shot through and into a building behind the monster. It screamed in agony, forcing everyone but Tom to their knees again. When the beam ended and the light went out, the Specter stood there for a moment with a gaping hole in its chest before exploding into tiny blue glowing particles.

"Ho-ly shit," James said after the Specter exploded. "Careful where you go flashing those balls Vegeta, you'll put someone's eye out."

Skill Acquired - Spell Weaving

Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill Spell Weaving. You can now create your own spells from your knowledge of magic. Continue to learn more about the world of magic manipulation to further your abilities!

New Spell - Final Flash

You have created a new spell. This spell will now be a part of your repertoire and allow you to cast it at will.

Spell: Final Flash

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Mana Cost: 200 MP

Attack: 500-525 damage

Range: 300 feet

Casting Time: 20 seconds

Cool Down: 30 seconds

Special Ability: Imbue - allows the caster to feed additional mana into the spell to increase its damage output.

"That wasn't exactly what I was going for, but I'll take it!" Tom shouted excitedly.

"What wasn't?" Derek asked.

"I was just trying to dual cast into a more powerful version of the spell, but instead I created a whole new spell. Wish I could have named it something else though." Tom replied, slightly disappointed in the name.

"You can create your own spells?" James asked, immediately interested.

"Appears so. Though you have to know about magical theory it seems, so I must have just gotten lucky." Tom admitted.

"Well, damn. I don't know anything about magic." James pouted sourly.

"Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me you just created a new spell? By shoving two pieces of extremely volatile magic together and flinging it at a monster?!" Bob moved through the crowd of people calling for Tom. When he reached him, Bob looked up at him expectantly.

"Um...yes?" Tom replied confused as to why Bob appeared to be angry.

"You are messing with forces that you have no idea what they are capable of," Bob huffed, putting his hands on his hips. "Magic is unstable at the best of times, then you go and take two opposing forces, not meant to be interacting, and literally cram them inside of each other. You are extremely lucky that it didn't just explode when they came into contact with each other!"

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?" Tom asked indignant at being called out and chastised like a child.

"You've never seen depictions of magic attacks hitting each other and causing explosions? In movies, or TV shows? That should have given you pause at least." Bob continued. "You could have killed yourself and half the people here with that if it had gone wrong."

"Well...I did not know that. How could I have known that? How do you know that?" Tom sputtered.

"The info download from the machine remember? I know a lot more than I should about the System." Bob replied pointing at his head as he spoke.

"Right, right. Okay, what should I do about it then?" Tom asked, not exactly sure what Bob was wanting from him.

"Just promise me that you won't mess with spells again until we get a chance to talk about this new skill. Please?" Bob begged him.

"Of course. Yeah, yeah I'll just use regular spells until we can talk." Tom assured him.

"Thank you. Now...carry on with what you were doing." Bob said awkwardly as he began to back away.

"Right! John! Where are you?" Tom called out as he searched the sea of faces around them.

"Here, Tom," John called from the steps of the courthouse.

"How is everyone?" Tom asked, the concern evident on his face.

"It seems like everyone is okay. That thing had a weird fixation with you. It didn't go near anyone else." John puzzled over the odd behavior.

"I saw it point at me. I just assumed it was because I was someone who looked fightable." Tom replied trying to come up with a reason he would be targeted.

"With everyone else wearing adventuring gear as well? Unlikely." John scoffed. "I'd watch myself for a while going forward."

"He's right," Bob said, stepping forward again.

"What do you know about this?" Tom asked, looking worried now.

"I know that was a Specter. And those creatures are only created when someone has a tremendous amount of hate in their soul for someone." Bob began, looking incredibly serious. "They are the result of magic escaping someone in the most vile way imaginable and it is unconsciously controlled by the person with the hate. If they realize that they are the cause then they can unleash unimaginably vile creatures to go after the one they loathe."

"So, you mean to tell me that someone hates me so much that they created a monster and sent it after me, but they likely have no idea that they did it?" Tom asked, looking incredulously at Bob.

"That's the gist of it," Bob replied. "You have to be careful and we will need to figure out who the culprit is at some point."

"Someone who hates me. I wonder if..." Tom began to ponder but was interrupted by someone running up to the team.

"Sir!" The security guard yelled while clearly struggling to breathe from running.

"What is it?" John asked as he turned and looked concerned at the guard.

"Monsters are coming. We need to get ready to repel them." The guard straightened and saluted after being addressed.

"Sorry, Tom, I'll have to catch up with you later. We need to handle this issue." John said turning to follow the guard.

"Do you need help?" Tom asked him as he was leaving.

"Nope. If we can't handle this then we should just leave. You all get ready to head out and we will handle this issue." John said over his shoulder without turning as he waved one hand.

"Alright then. You know where we'll be if you need us." Tom replied and turned to his team to check on the preparations to leave. "Guess we can just move on then. How are we on getting going?"

"Almost ready. I'm sure we will be off within the hour." Derek replied.

"Awesome. Let's see where we can help then." Tom offered as he started walking toward the lots where the vehicles had been parked.

Everyone continued getting people ready to leave and making sure vehicles were all prepared for driving. The sound of gunfire and explosions from spells could be heard along with the ringing of steal and the screams of creatures dying off in the distance. When John returned about twenty minutes later, blood was spattered on his face and hands. He smiled at Tom and the others. Tom smiled back, understanding that the joy was not from killing, but from the fact that they had been able to defend themselves without the need for Tom and his team to intervene. It came from knowing they were going to be okay without them.

"It looks like they are going to be alright after all," Tom commented to Derek.

"Yeah, I think we can rest easier knowing they have taken the right steps to protect themselves," Derek replied still watching as people were loaded onto buses and vans.

Once everyone had been loaded and the new people accounted for by both John and his assistant, Tom and his team moved to load up as well. Just as they had gotten loaded into the vehicle, James suddenly yelled from the back seat.

"Oh, god! Wait!!!"