The gigantic amorphous slime turned its attention to the players. It lurched backwards, preparing for a leap forwards. Alan fired a couple of shots at the slime, but the laser bolts barely penetrated a couple of feet into the slime's body before dissolving.

“Well, that was my only offensive skill, so, um, I’ll leave the rest to you guys,” Void said nervously, backing up behind the group.

Alan glanced towards the others, who were resolutely staring at the slime, showing no sign of backing down.

Kitana held her katana before her as a visible blue flame condensed itself in an aura about her sword. The waves of energy surrounding the sword were so powerful they began to create pulsing waves of force that blew her hair and loose fitting robes backwards.

Meanwhile, Aurora pulled out the knife and wooden stake that Alan had seen her carrying when he first met her. She cut herself, and as her blood began to drip onto the stake it too began to gather power, a red aura glowing about it.

Meanwhile, the pulsing green veins of energy that swirled about Sidestep’s armor like miniature veins began glowing more brightly, condensing at Sidestep’s feet and hands.

Activate hypercognition, Eve commanded. Alan immediately did so.

Good, this is a great opportunity to give you an overview of the basic categories of psionic attacks and abilities. The abilities you see before you are an example of each category, almost as if someone wanted to conveniently explain things to you.

Um, right. Shouldn’t I be doing something to, like, help them?

There isn’t much you can do. Anyway, moving on. You see before you spiritual, blood and technological psionic abilities. These are the three main categories psionic abilities can be divided into.

Alan watched as the slime leapt forward in slow motion, continuing to listen to Eve’s explanation.

First you have the blue so called “spiritual” power that you see surrounding Kitana’s blade. Spiritual as in the power of one’s fighting spirit, not ‘ooooh there’s a scary ghost’ spirit. This is what most people think of when they think of psionic ability, a sort of magic that bends forces to the user's will. In the case of spiritual power, psionic energy is essentially the same thing as mana. All of Aurora’s attacks you’ve seen so far have been spiritually based. It is the most common form of psionic power, with about 75% of all psionic users using this type of ability.

Alan watched as Kitana took a step forward, and with a downward slash unleashed a magnificent arc of blue energy that cut through the slime’s membrane like butter. The energy continued travelling straight through the slime gelatin until it crashed into one of the three black nuclei. Alan saw a momentary shield arise in front of the nucleus, then break under the attack’s pressure. The nucleus flashed, from black to white to purple to blue before it finally exploded.

Eve continued the lecture, ignoring the awesome display of power.