Jake's unnecessary theatrics wasted enough time for James to get himself together and off the floor.

He even had enough time to borrow the Asteri, which resulted in one of Jake's legs being pinned to the ground and receiving a kick in the face shortly afterwards.

The high priest wasn't fazed too much as he simply grabbed the lamppost stuck into his thigh and shattered it with his bare hands, which disintegrated shortly afterwards.

The ensuing fistfight, while clearly one sided in the preacher' favour, was drawn out enough for Peter to get down from the fountain and reach Rose and for the rest of the team to show up.

Their arrival was announced by a gunshot, followed by terrified screams.

Jake's unknown companion could be seen holding his arm, which had a sizable hole in it, while being swarmed by the entire mortuary. The scene quickly turned quite gruesome but no one really cared about it.

Anthony interrupted the brawl by throwing a well-aimed bone sword then went to help out his brother.

Meanwhile, Peter was thinking about what to do with Rose. Her throat was crushed and although she could barely remain conscious it was obvious she would suffocate if nothing was done to help her. He tried to give her some of the blood left in the fountain but he didn't have high hopes about it working. After all, he was the one who took away the miracle.

As expected the blood did nothing and Rose had to spit it out so she wouldn't be dying even faster than she already was.

Peter knew one method that was guaranteed to save her but he felt a little uncomfortable using it.

"I can save you but if I do that you will be stuck with me until either one of us dies. That's the only thing I can think of that would help but I need your approval to do it."

Rose opened her mouth to say something but no sound was coming out. In the end she gave a nod of acknowledgement. Since that was the best agreement he was going to get, he went ahead and used the ability he recently regained the use of.

[Monster in the dark used.]

[Creating familiar: Shadow Beast]

This was the first time the ability has been used properly and it certainly would have been a sight to behold if anyone present had the luxury of looking at it for more than a second.

They were too preoccupied with trying to avoid certain death. Anthony made an admirable effort to take hits instead of the others, getting a number of injuries in the process that would have been lethal for anyone else, but he was too slow and too weak to achieve much else.

With the three adults fighting Jake at the same time they barely managed to achieve a standstill. James, who was the strongest among them, was able to fight for a short while but even he couldn't afford to take a direct hit.

They got to rest for a bit when the earth manipulator finally died and Sarah's zombies could focus on the other target. They didn't achieve much as their strength was comparable more to their master's than their living selves but they managed to buy a minute or two.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

As the sea of corpses started to thin out, a line of darkness could be seen moving from the side of the room towards the bloodied preacher.

This phenomenon was caused by Rose who has been surrounded by a thick layer of shadows since she became a familiar and seemed to have regrown her missing leg as well.

[Name: Rose Leijona]

[Stamina: 78%]

[Strength: 3.34]

[Agility: 3.34]

[Endurance: 3.34]

[Stamina: 3.34]

[Intelligence: 1.15]

[Magic: 1.67]

[Abilities: Heart of night LV2, Shadow form LV1]

She leapt at Jake who easily stopped her by grabbing by her neck once more. However, before he could do anything with his advantageous position, Rose used her new leg to kick him.

Then instead of what realistically should have happened, which was the attack being stopped on contact simply because of their difference in physique, the shadowy leg simply phased through his entire torso and came out on the other side.

Even though he didn't have any visible injuries, Jake started to convulse in pain like he had his insides torn out. Unfortunately, his sorry state didn't stop him from fighting so he punched Rose, sending her flying and making her embedded into the stone wall of the chamber.

[Stamina: 28%]

Now injured, tired and in pain, Jake realized he had to go all out unless he wanted to die. His body became completely enveloped in the red lines that signified the use of his ability. He started proactively attacking everyone around him with continually rising power.

[Warning: A nearby entity has risen from class 22 to class 23!]

[Warning: A nearby entity has risen from class 23 to class 24!]

[Warning: A nearby entity …]

While all of that was happening, Peter made an important discovery. Jake couldn't actually see him. He has been using the Shadow body for a while by that point and he already knew that the clergyman was one of the few rare people whose entity and blessing classes had a significant difference between them, but this was the first time he could actually see it having an effect.

He thought that if the normally quite limited shadows had an effect on him then there was something else that should work. So he carefully walked up behind the rampaging high priest and touched his back.

[Successfully absorbed class 6 Absorption blessing.]

[Result: All physical attributes +0.05, MGC +0.00, EXP +60]

[Absorb ability is being upgraded.]

When someone had their ability absorbed by Peter they would retain their physical strength for a while but they would immediately lose the use of whatever abilities they had. So even if the preacher remained powerful for the rest of the fight, he at least wouldn't be getting any stronger.

There were some messages left but he couldn't read them because Jake finally noticed him and threw a punch at him. Peter had enough time to summon one of the broken halves of the Asteri and although it predictably shattered to even smaller pieces, it did protect him just enough so only his arm would break.

[Health: 74%]

The force of the hit sent him flying right into Rose who managed to get out of the wall since then. Being pushed away turned out to be a blessing in disguise as they could hear Helen's shout just as they got on their feet.

"Everyone get away from him! Our backup has arrived!"

The moment she finished speaking the ground beneath Jake shattered and he fell on his knees seemingly powerless to stop what was happening to him. Even though everyone else was away from the point of impact, they all felt the crushing power affect them.

[Warning Class 32 entity detected!]

"Looks like I arrived just in time. But I have to say, I really expected you to do better Mr. Williams."