Slipping into the increasingly familiar dilated time effect of Accelerate, John opened with a veritable storm of Ultimate Shots in a scatter gun approach. The headmaster had already displayed a contemptuous ease at deflecting one of the projectiles. Now, it was time to see how the monster fared against dozens.

The thunder sounded like the ominous chorus of a hundred demonic voices while he was under Accelerate's effects. Still, they zipped across the distance like a swarm of flies that moved arrow-straight, and in a blink they bore down on the headmaster. Its hellfire eyes narrowed to slits.

Honestly, he'd been expecting another show of insect athletics, allowing the giant mantis to dodge and parry its way through the attacks like it was nothing. Maybe even slash a few of them in half just to assert dominance.

Instead, it stood perfectly still and let them hit.

At this point, Ultimate Shot was an absurdly versatile Spell. Perhaps even to the point that it could be considered putting too many eggs in one basket. And that was before you even considered the fact it was a Level 6.

After announcing itself with a roar of thunder, it froze a circle of frost around its point of impact, and followed that up with a sudden growth of restricting plant life. Before either of those effects could finish forming, it started blighting that same spot with necrosis, deepening the damage further into the target's living matter. After those initial effects came the aspects that travelled around the shot rather than in it: the burning gale with its twisting winds that carried white-hot embers; a razor-thin bolt of lightning; a roiling tempest in miniature; a cloud of boiling hot steam that could scour skin off bone. And even after all that, the target still had to deal with a part of its soul being drained away, followed, at last, by the irritating little cherry on top: John could assign a direction, and his victim would abruptly be pulled in that direction like they'd been lassoed by an invisible rope.

With all those abilities, you had to think there would be something in there that would cover the weaknesses of pretty much any enemy one could encounter. And even if it didn't specifically hit a monster in the way it hurt most, the combined total of effects would surely deal catastrophic damage no matter the distance in power between them.

The headmaster stood perfectly still and let a hailstorm of Ultimate Shots strike its carapace dead on. The air filled with the roar of thunder and myriad other magical effects, combining with the tang-tang-tang of the projectiles striking the monster to form a chaotic backing track to John's opening attack. Steam, smoke, and dust billowed out from the impact, soon obscuring the monster's form. The monsters that had initially survived the eye's destruction were being blown away like detritus, and John ignored them.

Despite a suspicion niggling at the back of his mind, he kept going, firing and firing, never letting up for the entirety of Accelerate's effect. If the headmaster was going to let him get some hits in, he wasn't going to complain.

He was already resigned to the inevitable when Accelerate ended. He Flash Stepped back to give himself space, then waited for the dust to clear. To his surprise, when the headmaster cleared the area with a gust of wind summoned by a single slash of its sword arm, it wasn't completely unharmed.

Standing it nine feet tall, with its sword arms held at its sides, legs apart, back straight, and its triangular head dipped low, he had to admit it was a badass sight. He made a mental note to try that pose out later. For now, he was more focused on the hair-thin cracks that criss-crossed the monster's carapace like a spider's web. Its chitinous body was scuffed up with little hints of damage, whether it be the aftermath of burning, frost, necrosis, or something else. There was nothing there that would truly impede it, but considering he'd been expecting its form to be clean enough to see his reflection in just to flex on him, he'd take this as a win.

When the hellfire in its eyes blazed back to life and turned upon John, he had to admit this victory was bittersweet.

"Though it is not my duty to educate those who have already graduated, I feel obligated to give you some advice regardless," the monster hissed.

John's gaze darted around, searching for a way out of this. The world itself was shuddering as the portal world clearly wanted to collapse, and many of the monsters still sprawling on the ground were disintegrating even though they were clearly still alive—for a given sense of the word. He wasn't sure whether any of these things were alive by the traditional definition at all.

Even as he watched, though, he noticed reality stabilise, ever so slightly. He narrowed his eyes. Was holding this place together weakening it, ever so slightly? Or distracting it, at least? That was something he could exploit.

"What could I possibly learn from you, bug?" he drawled.

+200 Aura

The endgame here was to escape. He didn't need to defeat the headmaster, just get it to lose control of whatever it was using to stabilise this place.

"You should allow death to claim you now, while you still can," the headmaster said, gnashing its mandibles at him with hate filling its hellfire eyes. "You don't know how good you have it. A thousand millenniums of torment under my poison would be a mercy compared to what awaits you if you continue on this hopeless path."

John tilted his head. Interesting. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It is not the duty of an educator to tell a student what to think, or how, but to give them the tools to learn."

That didn't at all track with his experience of school, but whatever. "Educate me then, teach."

"Gladly," it growled, and then it was rushing him.

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It was halfway to him in the blink of an eye, but he'd been mentally prepared for a counterattack the moment he'd stopped firing Ultimate Shots at it. Teleportation ripped him away from the monster's path, transporting him laterally to its blind spot, where he immediately set about surrounding himself with Shadow Stream.

"The depths of your foolishness! I have no need to adhere to those nonsense priorities any longer, mongrel!"

He'd barely covered himself in shadows when the monster rushed at him again, and suddenly he was chaining Flash Steps together to buy himself some distance. The monster was unrelenting, chasing him down the moment he emerged, not even stopping to check the shadows he left behind as decoys for a second.

A grimace twisted his lips. This was not good. He'd been overreliant in his match-ups against the headmaster so far, and now it was coming back to bite him. It made sense, on some level: while the shadows cut him off from view and, to some degree, dampened any kind of observation of his person through other means beyond vision, that didn't mean much if there were just a few spots of shadow lingering in the room, and one of them was more voluminous than the others. The headmaster wasn't stupid.

John wasn't stupid either. Not stupid enough to keep trying the same thing over and over and expect different results, at least.

The monster got closer with every Flash Step, as if it was getting a feel for the rhythm of his movements. Its hellfire eyes blazed, fixed on him with unerring focus. With his shadows rendering the world greyscale, the headmaster somehow looked even more menacing in an uncanny valley way, like a 21st century state of the art CGI horror monster in a 1920s black and white silent flick. He knew from the look in its eyes that it had every intention of preventing his escape. For what reason, he couldn't hope to guess. And didn't have time to speculate on.

Luckily, the situation was stressful enough that his heart was racing. The cooldown for Teleportation ran out in what felt like no time, and he metaphorically slammed his hand on the button. A 3-D schematic of his surroundings unfurled in his mind. He wasted no time with elaborate plans, transporting himself as far away from the headmaster as he could get.

Which, it turned out, was straight up. He had the wherewithal to put himself close to the cavern roof, at least. Slotting Aurora Blade, he slammed the sword into the rock to hold himself in place, then activated Accelerate and starting raining down Ultimate Shots from above, switching them out for his Lava Sphere here and there.

The battlefield below quickly descended into chaos. His projectiles had an utterly detrimental effect on the state of the already shabby battlefield, their myriad effects kicking up a storm of contrasting elements. In no time, fires burned, trees grew, clouds of steam and storm drifted.

Aura points started rolling in as his attacks tore the remaining monsters to shreds, but the headmaster weaved through the mayhem like a dancer, translating the vicious striking speed of a praying mantis into a beautifully graceful dexterity.

A thought occurred to John. I need a better area of effect Spell. Followed by another thought: Fuck it.

Unlocked Earthquake!

-32000 Aura

He was left with 'just' 9000, but that was fine. It was enough for another level up, if he needed the healing, at least.

Information flooded his mind, and the magical core in his navel pulsed with power. He frowned a bit as he examined the new Spell. It wasn't exactly what he would have wanted, but… It would do.

Waiting for Teleportation to come off cooldown was agonising; watching the headmaster steadily make its way to the wall of the cave, where he had no doubt it would easily climb up to him and force him to drop down, was even more so.

But then it was ready, and he slammed his fist into the roof with all his strength and a bit of help from Iron Fist. Rock and bone crunched alike, but his blow struck true, burying his arm in the stone halfway up to his elbow. Power flooded from his core and into his arm. It started to vibrate. Mildly at first, and then all at once with the tectonic power of a natural disaster. Rumbling filled the room. Cracks fissured through the rocks.

Down below, the headmaster stopped to stare at him. John smirked back. He couldn't resist.

+1000 Aura

"FOOLISHNESS!"

When the cavern collapsed, he was ready to teleport away, bringing himself a further hundred metres upwards into an adjacent cave. There were monsters in there waiting for him, but they seemed half-drunk, unfocused. He barely stopped to acknowledge their presence, blasting them away with Ultimate Shots since he no longer cared about subtlety or the structural integrity of the arena in the slightest. The ground rumbled beneath him. But not enough.

Once Teleportation was off cooldown once more, he repeated his previous action, slamming his fist down into the ground with all his strength and channelling Earthquake into the fissure he'd created. The cave shook. Rocks fell. He took that as his cue to teleport again.

When he next emerged, the place was shaking much more violently. But the fact it was shaking and not collapsing was unacceptable, so he repeated his trick.

Four more trips took him to the roof of the arena, and by that point the whole place was vibrating like it was inside a gargantuan snow globe being shaken about by an invisible giant. John clenched his fist, ready for one last Earthquake to cap off the performance, but instinct made him pause. He spun on his heel, ready to activate Accelerate and fight for his life at a moment's notice.

The headmaster was standing barely a couple of metres away. Close enough it could have reached him with those ridiculous sword arms, but out of John's own reach. An insurmountable advantage, and one it had given up, instead just watching him.

Its carapace was covered in a layer of dust, some of which had clearly seeped into the little cracks he'd made. If any further damage had been done by the progressively collapsing arena, he couldn't see it. There was no sign of any holes it could have come from. He hadn't even heard it move. For all he knew, it had been here before him, waiting, ready.

And yet, here he was, still alive. Moments ago, it had looked determined to ensure he never escaped this place.

"Perhaps you'll be different, but I doubt it," the headmaster said. Gone was the boom in its voice, save for that which inherently came from being such a large creature. It wasn't hissing, either. There was barely even hostility in its tone. "So many promising students pass through my halls, and I try my hardest to educate them. But I am only one being, and the system is vast. Still, it is my failure if any student of mine faces the world unprepared."

The world was trembling so violently it was hard to make out anything beyond the giant mantis. Behind it, the school was fading away. Even the burning sky was darkening.

John squinted at the giant insect. "What, exactly, are you trying to teach me?"

Its hellfire eyes narrowed to pinpricks. "The definition of futility."

Then it stabbed him in the stomach again.

You fucking dick, he screamed internally as the world faded to black and pain flooded his body once more.

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