His body felt lighter as the skill manifested itself into his mind, his movements faster.

Lance ran forward, dodging the monster's attacks. He ducked low, avoiding the monster's swing. He rolled across the ground, coming up on his feet.

The monster swung again, but Lance jumped aside. He punched his fist into its gut—once, twice, three times, and somehow, the monster fell over. Its limbs twitched for several seconds before going still. Lance let out a sigh of relief. Now he could focus on more pressing matters. Like escaping. Sophie stood next to him, watching the other monsters approach them like they were predators stalking their prey. Their eyes glowed red in the dim light. They growled and snarled at each other, clearly agitated by this new presence. The first one was now lying motionless in a corner of the room. That left two to deal with.

One of the creatures—the large black-furred creature—had been knocked unconscious by the combination of Lance's gunfire and his fists. However, the small white monkey-like thing didn't seem like it would go down easily.

Sophie glanced back at the civilians cowering in the corner.

"They're not going anywhere," she said. "We'll have to leave them behind."

"No, we can't!" Lance asserted. "They're innocent people."

"Then why haven't they done anything?" Sophie asked. "They should all have access to the System."

Lance thought for a moment. Maybe there was another explanation for their behavior? What if they had a mental block from accessing the System or something like that? They might be unable to even speak of the situation, if their abilities were odd enough. This could explain their odd demeanor. Or maybe they were just trying to survive; it was a plausible enough explanation for a lot of things these days. He wasn't sure how much of what he had seen today was real anymore. After all, it seemed like every moment brought new horrors than before. Why would this group of civilians know any different? If they were hiding out in an abandoned station like that, then they'd probably been living in fear for hours now, and perhaps they'd been too scared to interface with the System.

Lance reached out with his ability. He knew Mindread was on cooldown, but maybe, just maybe...

He detected the presence of both monsters, one of them unconscious but living and the other very much angry at them. That ability was still online, then.

Could he do anything else? Lance kept pushing, thinking about his abilities and soon...

[Unlock random Special Ability? Cost: 3 Skill Points (common), 27 Skill Points (uncommon), 81 Skill Points (rare), 243 Skill Points (epic), 729 skill points (legendary)...]

[Note: unlocking a random Special Ability now will disable your ability to purchase another Special Ability of the same level for 72 hours.]

he thought, selecting the 3 level.

The skill formed in his mind, and he pushed out, finding the two monster's minds vulnerable and open.

One second passed as he tried to focus his will through his eyes. Then, a wave of energy shot out of him toward the unconscious creature. Its body spasmed for several seconds before it went limp. The monkey-thing screeched in pain and scrambled backwards to its corner of the room where the rest of the civilians were hiding. It moved like it was going to attack one of them, but then Lance's skill hit a peak and it died too, freezing up into spasms.

[Enemy defeated!]

[Enemy defeated!]

[Mind Attack added to Special Abilities!]

[Special Abilities menu enhanced!]