A full-power Flesh Step took him behind the rock golem, and an Air Step carried him a good few metres into the air to get a look at the opening the monster had been guarding, from which the blues and greens were starting to rush in again. He flashed a single heartbeat of Mana Sense to get an idea of what was going on beyond that entrance, then narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

The corridor beyond was as wide as a regular bus, and it seemed to be packed shoulder-to-shoulder with monsters, but they weren't all pouring through at once. A few would rush forward at a time, but then the flow of monsters would come to a halt at some unseen signal. Why? The easiest explanation was there was another one of these strange rules in play, the ones that seemed to govern this place, making it a challenge rather than a desperate battle.

A quick check with Precognition confirmed his gamble wasn't going to be a deadly bust. As John's Air Step-assisted leap came to its apex and gravity began to reassert itself, he slotted Heat Vision and Fireball and let them both fly at the small entrance. If the monsters were going to funnel themselves into a choke point for him and wait for him to take advantage of it, he wasn't going to complain.

Flames erupted with a mighty roar. The monsters beyond the exit had been still and calm, but they awoke with screams and screeches and roars as the blaze quickly engulfed them. From the higher angle, he'd been able to launch his attacks a decent distance into the tunnel, so the fire wasn't confined merely to the entrance, either. The inferno wouldn't burn forever, but it would hopefully cut off monster reinforcements for a little while and give him time to work with.

Catfall helped John land deftly on his feet, and it was time to deal with the monsters already in the arena. After a quick flash of Soul Vision to check what he was facing, he threw himself into Accelerate and got to work. Keeping an eye on the position of the one-armed rock golem lumbering towards him, he rushed into the nearest monsters with Mana Blades akimbo.

Most of the blues were rat monsters and an array of giant insects, while the greens were more varied. He focused on the blues first, just to get them out of the way. They posed little threat in and of themselves, but he was wary of the possibility of getting bogged down at just the wrong moment. The biggest danger here was always going to be the rock golem catching him off guard.

Mana Blade sliced through rats and insects like it was nothing. Black blood sprayed. The monsters were simply too slow to defend themselves against him. A substantial portion didn't even see him coming, failing to even flinch before his magical swords cleaved apart their foul flesh. Despite the low individual Aura gains, each kill was viscerally satisfying. It felt like vengeance.

Accelerate was down to ten heartbeats by the time he was relatively sure he'd cleared out all the blues in the room, and the rock golem hadn't even thrown one of its attacks yet. He glared at it as he went for the nearest green. Had injuring it hindered its range? Or was it going for another trick, like the shockwave attack from earlier? Either way, he had to be careful.

The greens weren't so easily defeated as the blues. That wasn't to say it was hard, per se, just that it wasn't trivial.

There were five distinct types of green-souled monster left in the room, confirmed by Soul Vision.

The first were half a dozen man-sized squid things that swum through the air, but could only rise two metres or so above the ground. They squirted blobs of ink that acted like black paint released underwater, obstructing lines of sight all over the place. Luckily, the stuff was easily blown away by the wind aspect of Elemental Bullet, and the bullet itself handled the monsters well enough. They seemed especially weak to the electricity aspect. Little glass orbs full of roiling black liquid were left behind when their bodies decayed.

They distracted him long enough that the rock golem was able to get off an attack, throwing its remaining arm at him. John had been looking for it and was able to dart away. The golem didn't go for the follow-up sweep attack it had shown before, instead slowly reeling its arm back in.

Next on his priority list were three humanoid statues made of black marble with golden flecks. Furled wings were attached to their back, but they made no attempt to fly, instead moving like puppets on strings. Judging by the scythes they wielded and the hooded robes that hid their faces, he suspected they were meant to be angels of death, or something. He briefly found himself wondering if they were real statues from somewhere or had been completely generated by whatever was running this apocalypse, but dismissed the thought.

Their stone bodies were too strong to cut through with Mana Blade, but they were just as weak to the corrosive effect of his Death Arrows as the rock golem. More so, in fact, as they had less material to corrode. The first one he struck was split in half before crumbling entirely to dust. It left its scythe behind.

On a whim, John picked up the scythe just to test the weight of it. He immediately received 1000 Aura just for picking it up, and had to hold back a groan of mortification.

The blade was impossibly sharp, and allowed him to slice apart the next green monster with ease—a two-meter long snake with scales made of many different colours of stained-glass which dropped its crystal-clear fangs on death. The scythe was far more unwieldy than his Mana Blades, though, so he didn't think it would be a good long-term solution. He ended up putting it in his Inventory for later.

There were still plenty of enemies left when Accelerate ran out and dumped him back into regular time, and things did get a little dicey from there just from sheer enemy numbers. Precognition ensured nothing truly took him off guard, but being surrounded was still an unpleasant experience in general, especially when he had to keep an eye out for the golem chucking its giant rocky arms at him.

The glass snakes were most numerous at maybe twenty or so, and they were accompanied by living shadows that took on the silhouettes of horned devil things and strange figures made up of living thread that wielded needles and scissors as their weapons. The former were blown apart by the Light Burst aspect of Elemental Bullet and left behind obsidian shards that turned his own form shadowy when held. The latter made good kindling for pretty much any Spell that involved fire and dropped thimbles containing long strands of thread he didn't know what to do with.

He was starting to form a picture of what truly differentiated the different rankings of monster: blues were just creatures that shouldn't be able to exist by the conventional laws of physics and biology. Animals that were too big or had too many limbs, or creatures made of materials that shouldn't be able to move, for example.

Greens, on the other hand, possessed magical gimmicks of some description, be it an innate skill or an item of some kind. The skeleton monster had been able to throw its hand. The mummies had possessed animated bandages. There had even been a pink slime that puppeted a suit of armour and wielded a sword, and a pale alligator that teleported through puddles.

The line between greens and yellows was a little murkier. He'd only really done battle with two yellows so far, and they'd both been formidable; neither encounter would have gone well without the ability to heal himself by levelling up. Perhaps that was just it. They were simply far more dangerous in terms of the power they wielded.

When all the blues and greens were dead and only the yellow was left, John couldn't help thinking that the lumbering rock golem was more dangerous than all the mobs he'd just slain combined.

Alright then, John thought, glancing between the approaching golem before him and his comrades.

He'd ended up between the golem and the burning exit behind him, while the others were still at the far end of the arena on the other side of the golem. Its gait looked unbalanced. Every step seemed to leave it swaying too far to one side. That was greatly slowing down its pace in chasing after him, and it hadn't been a fast monster to begin with, aside from its signature arm-throwing attack. Lacking an arm was evidently throwing off its equilibrium.

He didn't want to let his guard down, since there was always a chance it could pull out another unexpected ability like the shockwave. At the same time, he couldn't do the pragmatic thing and just blitz it with Death Arrows, since he needed the others to get XP from it.

I'm pretty confident I can kill this thing. But I need to draw it out long enough for the others to get points from it. Have they attacked it yet?

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He hadn't noticed any hint that the yellow monster's aggro had been drawn away, and he'd been watching it diligently even while taking out the adds. It certainly seemed to only care about him, right now. There was a chance they'd been attacking it from behind, and he just hadn't seen it?

Grimacing, John threw himself into a Flash Step to take him past the rock golem again, then dove into Accelerate the moment he emerged. Looking back as he ran, he saw multiple little chips and dents in the rock golem's stone head, as well as hints of scorching and decay on its torso that presumably came from Lily and Jade respectively.

He reached the others with eighteen heartbeats to spare and assessed them. Lily appeared to be healed, presumably from scoring a bunch of free headshots on a superior monster, and she was crouched over Chester with her hands on his shoulders. The muscular young man still had his eyes scrunched closed in pain, grasping his right arm that was bent the wrong way at the elbow. John winced in sympathy at the sight, but still felt a tinge of frustration; Chester's Spell appeared to be flickering on and off, and that evidently wasn't enough. It wasn't even drawing the golem's attention.

Jade had a look of grim determination on her face, glaring at the rock golem. Sweat beaded her brow as she reached out her left hand, her caustic red hand just beginning to emerge as John arrived near to them. Doug didn't appear to have even made an attempt to launch an attack. His eyes were still bleary and unfocused and the grime covering him hadn't budged, but the wounds on his body had visibly closed up since John had last gotten a close look. A healing ability, evidently. Reversing time on himself, maybe?

Alissa noticed John's arrival, giving him a grim frown in slow motion.

To his surprise, the birds were faring much better. There was a moment of confusion when he realised he couldn't see the crow anywhere, only to look up and find it in the air, leaking copious amounts of oily darkness from its feathers, making it look like a floating wraith spewing a shadow waterfall. Beneath the crow, the dove was on its feet, too, and it was flapping its wings over Polly and Zazu, creating motes of white light that sunk into the parrots' feathers and seemed to brighten the colour of their plumage with every one.

John took this all in in a single heartbeat. It appeared some progress had been made, and Jade and Doug would get through this eventually. Chester was the real problem here, among the humans.

Figuring he had time to work with, John moved to Chester and did his best to massage the guy's broken arm without gripping too strongly. Level 5 First Aid was supernatural but not miraculous; after a single heartbeat of trying, it was clear something more potent would be needed to ease the pain. Like, say, a level up. But it didn't look like Chester was in any state of mind to take action on that front.

John grimaced. He was ticking down towards fifteen heartbeats. He couldn't linger here long. Eyeing the rock golem, he briefly assessed the new Spells he'd unlocked.

Level 6 Spells:

Hydro Stream: 8000 Aura

Plasma Beam: 8000 Aura

Tornado: 8000 Aura

Meteor Strike: 8000 Aura

Dragon Breath: 8000 Aura

Winter Wolf: 8000 Aura

Flame Falcon: 8000 Aura

Grove Guardian: 8000 Aura

Iron Lion: 8000 Aura

Ghost Spider: 8000 Aura

With his current Aura sitting at 14,800 after the major outlay he'd spent on First Aid, none of those Spells stood out to him as immediately worth it, though they all sounded generally useful at first glance. He didn't have the time to theorise what exactly they'd do right now, beyond the latter five all being summons.

Ultimately, he had to face the fact that he had to take the risk of drawing the battle out to buy time for his comrades to heal themselves. It was going to be a matter of slowly weakening the rock golem, while keeping the entrance sealed off with flames so more blues and greens couldn't come flooding in.

Grumbling under his breath, he started back towards the rock golem, loosing Death Arrows along the way. Wary of causing another shockwave, he aimed for the more substantial parts of the monster's segmented rock limbs, keeping away from the chains as best he could. If he could steadily melt away all the rock, he'd leave it largely powerless to do damage.

The golem was starting to flinch with every hit, and he could see the blighting effect of his arrows start to creep into the chains between each segment of rock. He changed course, aiming mostly for its legs. If he could bring it down and render it immobile, that would be ideal for the others.

Part of him railed against the idea of going so far out of his way for them, after he'd been increasingly left out, but he quashed that bitter, spiteful voice. Thinking that way helped no one.

Two Death Arrows impacted each of the monster's feet. Spheres of black decay spread through the rock, and it swayed, off balance. John took the opportunity to dash past it and launch some more Fireballs towards the exit. The flames reared up, seeming to form a solid wall that spread metres down the bus-sized corridor, and he figured that was good enough for now.

By the time he returned his attention to the rock golem, it was in the process of pivoting its upper body in his direction. The tell-tale sign it was about to launch an attack. But something didn't feel right.

Thus far, John had only been using Precognition outside of Accelerate just for redundancy's sake. Now, he activated it, and was glad he had. His eyes went wide, and he rushed to leap upwards with Air Step.

Sure enough, its upper body snapped around at impossible speed, but it didn't merely launch its arm in a straight line at the spot John had been standing in. Somehow, it had contorted itself in such a way that it had essentially turned its arm into a whip. One segment of its arm had gone metres to John's right, while another had gone metres to John's left. The chain somehow seemed to undulate like a snake between them. If he had tried to dodge to either side, he would've been in big trouble.

Catfall kicked in, and he landed on his feet, immediately throwing himself into a Flash Step that took him into the monster's blind spot. Can't get cocky, he reminded himself. Maybe that's the difference between greens and yellows, beyond sheer strength or power: they're smarter.

He couldn't remember if the bat monster had done anything particularly tricky. Didn't matter. Focus.

The elaborate manoeuvre had left the golem vulnerable as it had to take much longer to reel in its arm. John seized the opportunity, loosing dozens of Death Arrows at its legs. He saw Jade's caustic hand finally reach the monster's head and grip onto it. At such a long distance, the Spell was only a few times larger than a regular hand. Her storm of blades followed, though, combining with the hand with great timing to do considerably increased damage.

John started moving back towards his comrades, using Eagle Eye to assess the damage, dearly fucking hoping that they were sorted out. Doug looked almost better, some hint of sharpness returned to his gaze. He was treated to the strange sight of a level up healing in action as Jade's visible scrapes and bruises abruptly vanished with absolutely zero fanfare. It was like some higher being had snapped its fingers and, just like that, they were gone, skin left unblemished.

That just left Chester, still sprawled on the floor with Lily leaning over him, whispering encouragements. John grit his teeth. There was no more time for this shit. After what the rock golem had just pulled, he didn't want to take the risk of seeing what else it had in its locker.

Fuck this.

John darted back towards the monster, placing himself at the very back of the arena, where he could feel the flames he'd started at the exit at his back. There, he did away with Death Arrow and started firing Elemental Bullets with both hands instead, aiming mostly at its torso and head. The damage was minimal, practically nothing. But he wasn't aiming to hurt it here, just draw it closer. He kept it up until Accelerate ran out, then didn't dare stand around any longer. It was about three quarters of the way through the room, and he hoped that would be enough.

A Flash Step transported him to the other side of the monster again, and he spun on the spot, running backwards towards the others, shooting Death Arrows with abandon as he went. Each one struck at the monster's lower half, aiming for the chains between its torso and legs. It tried to lash out at him, but he'd had Precognition on a hair trigger, waiting for it to act, and he was able to Air Step away again, still loosing arrows in midair.

Its right leg caved in first. The chain blackened and withered, then gained that telltale green aura. This time, the chains didn't pull apart two links from tension. Instead, the weight atop them crumbled down as several links decayed at once under John's Death Arrow assault. It could no longer support the weight above it with whatever magic was in the chains, and the monster pitched to one side, falling. The shockwave ripped out, but it was blunted by the monster's bulk falling on top of it, and he was confident he'd pulled it far enough away that the force wouldn't have exacerbated Chester's injuries anyway.

As soon as he saw that, John activated Accelerate and sprinted back to the other side of the arena. He skidded to a stop at Chester's side, unceremoniously shoved Lily out of the way, then grabbed the younger man and threw him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Then, he ran back towards the rock golem.

Chester was going to fucking level up whether he liked it or not.

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