The sheer absurdity of the creature struck John dumb for a few crucial moments. He stared at the ten-foot-tall stick bug, at its ridiculous, oversized name tag, and his battle-honed instincts screamed at him in a language of primal dread. He didn't need any magic to tell him what this was, but he checked anyway.

Soul Vision flared to life, painting the world in the familiar hues of power. The creature standing before them was a raging inferno of crimson. A red soul. A deep, bloody, terrifying red that pulsed with a malevolence so heavy it felt like a pressure against his eyes.

This was it. The boss. The final guardian of this grotesque little pocket dimension, like the headmaster or the crab. The portal's core had to be somewhere in that office, right behind it.

The tactical part of his brain, the calculating machine that had kept him alive this long, took over.

"It's a red," he said, his voice devoid of inflection. He didn't take his eyes off the creature, which had begun to sway slightly, pitching side to side as if dancing to the rhythm of the horrible music, watching them. "The portal core is in that room behind it. This is the boss."

He risked a quick glance at the others. Their faces were pale masks of shock and disbelief. "Here's the plan," he continued. "I'll draw its aggression. I can keep it occupied. The moment I have its full attention, the four of you run past it, get into that office, and destroy the core. Don't hesitate, don't look back. Just get it done."

It was the only logical course of action. He was the strongest, the most mobile. He was the only one with a realistic chance of surviving a one-on-one encounter with a red soul for more than a few seconds. Their best use was as a surgical strike team, aimed at the objective while he played the part of the sacrificial lamb. It was cold, it was efficient, and it was the best plan he could come up with.

"No," Lily said, her voice firm. She stepped up beside him, her crossbow held at the ready. "Absolutely not."

John blinked behind his sunglasses. "It's the most logical-"

"Fuck logic," Doug grunted, moving to John's other side, his fists clenched. "We're not leaving you to fight this thing alone. Not after last time. We're a team, kid. We fight together."

Jade didn't say anything, but she moved to stand with them, her Caustic Hand shimmering into existence beside her, her deadened gaze fixed on the monster.

Chester just nodded, lips trembling.

Their message was unanimous, and it was utterly baffling.

A strange, unfamiliar warmth bloomed in John's chest, a feeling so foreign it was almost painful. It was the echo of Lily's words in the café, the quiet understanding now made manifest in a suicidal act of solidarity. They were willing to stand with him, to fight a battle they almost certainly couldn't win, simply because they were a team. He felt a tightness in his throat, a prickling behind his eyes that had nothing to do with the distorted air. He swallowed it down, crushing the nascent emotion with the cold weight of Biomancy.

"Fine," he said, the word coming out rougher than he intended. "Your funeral." But the words felt hollow, a lie even to himself.

The stick bug, apparently named "YOUR DOOM," took a step forward as if it had been waiting for them to confer. Where before it had seemed jerky, uncoordinated, each subsequent movement seemed to gain more predatory grace. By the time it had crossed half the distance, it was like the monster had more FPS than the rest of reality, so much smoother than everything else that it looked disturbingly unnatural, even beyond the fact it was a giant fucking stickbug. When its tiny mouth moved, a smooth, preternaturally calm baritone crackled from the tannoy speakers all around them, as if it was the store's omnipresent announcer.

"Team," the voice began, oozing a nauseating corporate sincerity. "I'm seeing a lot of siloed thinking here. A distinct lack of synergy. Let's circle back and touch base on our core competencies. We need to leverage our assets and pivot towards a more results-driven paradigm. Remember, we're not just a team; we're a family. And here at Super-Duper Mart, family always hits their KPIs."

John stared. The creature took another step, its movements now unnervingly fluid for a creature made of sticks.

"I'm sensing some negative feedback in the workspace," the voice continued, its tone shifting to one of gentle concern. "Let's recontextualize this challenge as a growth opportunity. We need to incentivize a proactive, forward-thinking mindset. It's not about working harder; it's about working smarter. Let's all strive to be disruptors in this dynamic and fast-paced environment."

"What the hell is it talking about?" Doug muttered, squinting at the monster.

"It's the manager," Lily breathed, a note of horrified realisation in her voice.

For his part, John exploded into motion. Accelerate kicked in, and the world slowed to a crawl. Flash Step carried him across the intervening distance in an instant, and he appeared at the creature's side, his Aurora Blade a shimmering arc aimed at the joint of one of its impossibly long legs. He poured all of his Strength into the blow, hoping to shear through the limb with a single, decisive strike.

He was wrong.

The moment his blade was about to connect, the bug slid out of the way without any apparent effort, like it had been moved through an unseen force pulling on its body rather than any physical work. Its entire ten-foot frame shifted three feet to the left in an instant, leaving John's blade to slice through empty air.

Before he could even process the failure, the monster's body blurred. Its entire form became a single, spinning cudgel, a brown-and-black whirlwind of sharp angles. It was as if an invisible giant was wielding the creature itself as a staff and twirling it around.

John barely had time to throw himself backwards even with Accelerate, the wind from the creature's spinning passage screaming past his face. He felt a sharp, cutting pain as dozens of tiny wind shears generated by the monster's sawblade velocity sliced through his clothes and bit into his skin.

He rolled to his feet, his heart hammering against his ribs. This thing wasn't just fast. It was on another level entirely. He didn't even want to imagine what kind of RPM that thing was hitting.

"Let's action that item!" the tannoy voice boomed cheerfully as the monster ceased its spin immediately, no need for steady deceleration. It was now standing between John and the rest of his team. Just like the headmaster, it was fast enough to make itself understandable to him even in his time dilation. Bolts were flying through the air, and it was swaying out of their way effortlessly without even looking, without even appearing to make any effort to move. When Jade's Caustic hand approached, it simply stabbed at the spectral spell with one of its antennae, causing it to pop like a bubble. "Time for some blue-sky thinking!"

The boss monster raised one of its forelimbs and slammed it into the ground. The entire floor of the supermarket buckled, a shockwave of force erupting outwards. The linoleum cracked and split, and the very ground beneath their feet shook as if in the grip of a violent earthquake. John stumbled, fighting to keep his balance, while he heard slow-mo cries of alarm from the others as they were thrown off their feet.

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

"It's time to operationalize our strategy!" the manager's voice declared.

John grit his teeth. With a silent command, he used Teleport, vanishing from his exposed position and reappearing back with the others, who were just scrambling back to their feet after the earthquake. He landed neatly between Lily and Doug, his sudden arrival making them both jump. With his heart hammering, he only needed to wait a subjective few seconds for Accelerate to run out.

"New plan," he grunted. "Melee is out. I'm going ranged."

He mentally scrolled through his formidable arsenal of projectile spells and picked out the first.

Mana gathered in his palm, coalescing into a bubbling orb of molten rock that rippled the air with its intense heat. With a grunt of effort, he hurled it like a baseball pitcher. The sphere flew through the air, a miniature sun arcing towards the monster.

The stick bug didn't even seem to register it as a threat. It took a single, contemptuously casual sidestep, its body moving with that unnatural smoothness. The Lava Sphere sailed past it and slammed into the 'Butchery & Betrayal' counter behind it. Upon impact, the sphere exploded, unleashing a tidal wave of molten rock that washed over the entire section, instantly melting the bone displays and filling the air with the smell of superheated calcium and burning flesh.

"It's crucial to remain agile," the manager's voice chirped from the tannoy, its tone infuriatingly placid. "We must be prepared to pivot our deliverables to avoid unforeseen market volatility."

John's jaw clenched. Fine. No more single shots. He would overwhelm it with sheer, destructive force.

Thrusting a hand towards the ceiling, John called down a Meteor Strike. A chunk of the roof, girders and all, tore itself loose and plummeted downwards as a chunk of rock called from beyond plunged through it, wreathed in abyssal flames. The monster simply slid aside, reappearing ten feet to the left as the makeshift meteor crashed into the floor with a deafening boom, sending shards of linoleum and concrete flying.

Not giving it a moment's rest, John thrust his other hand forward and activated Tornado. The air in the aisle began to swirl, picking up dust and debris, coalescing into a roaring funnel cloud that tore through the supermarket, ripping shelves from their moorings and sending cans of 'Canned Screams' flying like shrapnel. But it was useless. The monster was already outside the tornado's path, standing perfectly still, as if observing a particularly interesting weather phenomenon.

John grimaced. It had dodged everything. But he had another trick he reckoned would do a job.

He took a deep, shuddering breath. This one had been a bit problematic for entirely different reasons last time, and he mentally prepared his Outfits menu for the inevitably repairs he'd need.

The air he inhaled seemed to turn to fuel, and the heat built with terrifying speed, demanding release. When he opened his mouth, a focused jet of white-hot plasma so bright it bleached all colour from the world speared forth. It was the colour of a star's heart, a searing whiteness that consumed the very light and shadows in the aisle. The linoleum beneath the beam sublimated, vanishing in a puff of black smoke. The pools of monster blood on the floor flash-boiled, and the air itself screamed as it was superheated. It was a raw, untamed expression of absolute power, a river of destruction that tore through the supermarket.

+1000 Aura

The notification chimed in his mind, a reward for the sheer spectacle of the attack with witnesses to appreciate it. Then he felt a sudden, intense heat on his own chest. His eyes glanced down to see the collar of his reappropriated red jacket smouldering, the leather struggling against the sheer radiant energy of his own attack. Small, orange flames began to lick at the lapels.

It was a good thing he'd anticipated this. The flames vanished as the threads knitted themselves back together instantly. He quickly smoothed down the front of his jacket, hoping no one had noticed his near-humiliating wardrobe malfunction, their attention riveted by his impressive attack.

Dragon Breath, finally, got a new reaction.

For the first time, the stick bug seemed threatened. It didn't merely slide aside like an invisible giant was moving its body for it. It threw itself backwards with a frantic burst of speed, its limbs scrabbling as it desperately tried to evade the beam, far slower than it had shown before. The edge of the Dragon Breath caught one of its legs, and the chitin sizzled and blackened instantly, a puff of acrid smoke rising from the point of contact. The monster let out a high-pitched, chittering shriek of pure rage, its corporate persona vanishing completely.

It had been forced to move. It had been hurt. And now, its bulbous, black eyes were fixed on John with an aura of murderous intent. Ignoring the others completely, it launched its counterattack.

It whipped around in an arc that was too fast to follow with his eyes. It wasn't its limbs that attacked, but its entire length, a solid rod of chitin that slammed into John's side with the force of a freight train. It might as well have teleported.

The air was driven from his lungs in a painful gasp. He felt his ribs crack under the impact, and the world dissolved into a spinning vortex of pain and flickering lights as he was sent flying through the air. He crashed through a display with a splintering crunch of bone and metal, landing in a heap amidst a shower of what looked like powdered dust and shattered jars.

Pain, sharp and blinding, flared through his entire body. He tried to push himself up, but his arms trembled, and a wave of dizziness washed over him.

Through the ringing in his ears, he heard the sound of Lily's crossbow and the roar of Doug's challenge. He forced his head up, his vision swimming. He saw Doug, his body wreathed in some kind of steamy haze, charging the monster head-on. Lily was firing a volley of explosive bolts that detonated against its carapace in showers of sparks and fire, their impacts doing little more than annoying it. Jade's golden projection was a blur of motion, lancing out iwith three blades at once, trying to find a weak point in the creature's defences as it casually swayed out of the way of their attacks. Chester was cowering by one of the shelves, his head swivelling back and forth between John and the monster.

They were fighting for him.

A surge of pure panic shot through him, sharper than any pain. It was a feeling he hadn't experienced with this kind of intensity before. It wasn't the fear of his own death; that was a familiar, background hum.

They're valuable assets, the calculating part of his brain screamed at him. Their support increases Aura gains exponentially. Their loss would be a significant tactical disadvantage.

It was a flimsy shield, but it was the only one he had. He clung to the selfish logic, using it to fuel his rage. He couldn't lose his Aura farm. He wouldn't.

He pushed himself to his feet, gritting his teeth against the screaming protest of his broken ribs. Biomancy wouldn't be enough for this. Not in a useful timeframe, anyway.

Increased Vitality Level 7 -> Level 8

-12800 Aura

Ecstasy flooded his body as the the healing effect of upping a level knitted the battered body back together with a euphoric lurch.

The stickbug swatted Doug away like a fly, sending him crashing into a nearby shelf. It ignored Lily's bolts and Jade's machete, turning its attention to John once more. He readied himself, Flash Step and Teleport each on a hair trigger, ready for anything.

Then Chester took the stage.

From the back of the group, where he had been since the fight began, Chester took a shuddering step forward. His face was a mess of tears and sweat, his body trembling so violently it was a miracle he could even stand. But his eyes, wide with terror, were also filled with a desperate kind of resolve that John found all too familiar.

"Hey!" he screamed, his voice a cracking squeak. "Over here, you big, stupid bug!"

He threw his hands forward, and a column of radiant light erupted from his body, a beacon of concentrated holiness in the bloody aisle. It was his taunt, his ultimate attention-grabbing spell, an act of bravery born from the depths of his own perceived cowardice.

The effect was immediate and absolute.

The red-souled monster's head snapped towards Chester. Every iota of its being, every fibre of its murderous intent, focused on the new, shining target. It didn't run, it didn't lunge. It simply crossed the distance between them in a single, instantaneous blur of motion that was faster than anything John had ever seen, if it could even be categorised as something he'd 'seen' at all.

There was no complex attack, no spinning or ground slam. Just a contemptuous slap from one of its forelimbs. Instead of reducing him to a red mist, however, it wrapped around him like a lasso, lifted him up, and threw him casually over the its shoulder.

Chester's light winked out. His scream was cut short as he was launched along the aisle, a ragdoll cartwheeling through the air. He flew through the double doors of the management office and disappeared into the red-tinged darkness beyond with a sickening crash. The doors swung shut behind him, creaking on their hinges.

Silence descended upon the aisle, broken only by the crackling of the tannoy, which, after a moment's pause, cheerfully announced, "Let's strive to eliminate redundancies in the workforce."

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