Even with Accelerate increasing his speed, there was a significant distance between him and the monster, so he had a bit of time to assess his options. There was quite a lot to pick from.

Level 2 Spells:

Sigil Detonation: 1000 Aura

Earthen Armour: 1000 Aura

Scouring Steam: 1000 Aura

Ice Grasp: 1000 Aura

Illusory Clone: 1000 Aura

Astral Projection: 1000 Aura

Phantom Hand: 1000 Aura

Level 3 Spells:

Ice Breath: 2000 Aura

Thunderous Roar: 2000 Aura

Steel Skin: 2000 Aura

Air Bubble: 2000 Aura

Animate Blood: 2000 Aura

Dominate: 2000 Aura

Level 4 Spells:

Pyroclastic Lance: 4000 Aura

Tempest Sphere: 4000 Aura

Voltaic Chain: 4000 Aura

Earth Wave: 4000 Aura

Verdant Hell: 4000 Aura

Gravity Snare: 4000 Aura

Levitate Object: 4000 Aura

Vector Lash: 4000 Aura

Orbital Well: 4000 Aura

Mass Manipulation: 4000 Aura

Level 5 Spells:

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

And, of course, the latest addition to the Spell menus:

Level 6 Spells:

Pyromancy: 16000 Aura

Hydromancy: 16000 Aura

Geomancy: 16000 Aura

Aeromancy: 16000 Aura

Biomancy: 16000 Aura

Dragon Wings: 16000 Aura

Demon Claws: 16000 Aura

Shinigami Eyes: 16000 Aura

Basilisk Scales: 16000 Aura

Phantom Form: 16000 Aura

John took them in and dismissed them at a glance. Elemental manipulation and self-transformation weren't going to do much for him here, and each Spell would cost the entirety of his current Aura pool anyway.

The goal here was to create the most powerful Spell possible, with such a variety of effects packed in that something in it had to do serious damage to the enemy. If the Spell was versatile enough, surely it would cover one or more of the monster's weaknesses—assuming it had any. To that end, he quickly assessed his currently existing Spells, too.

Level 0:

Sparks

Purify Water

Level 2:

Mana Blade

Rest

Force Pull

Level 3:

Mana Sense

Soul Vision

Death Arrow

Level 4:

Fireball

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Heat Vision

Wind Shear

Force Push

Shadow Stream

Soul Drain

Summon Undead

Elemental Bullet

Level 5:

Hydro Stream

John's Elemental Bullet currently possessed effects of: Ice, Electricity, Light, Wind, and Embers. First, John unlocked Scouring Steam and immediately used Combine to add it to the Elemental Bullet for some extra heat in the Spell. Since Scouring Steam was only Level 2, it wasn't enough to upgrade the Level 4 Elemental Bullet to Level 5. That was fine, for now.

With 6000 Aura spent, he had 13000 left to play with. After this next step, he'd have to farm more, and there was only one monster in the vicinity to show off against. John grimaced at that. Hopefully, it being a red would give him a greater bonus; he'd already received 1000 Aura for just one lame quip that no one else had even been able to hear, so that was looking promising.

I really wish I could add Necrotise to the Elemental Bullet, he thought, keeping one eye on his menus as he continued to approach the fight. He'd covered well over a hundred metres in just five heartbeats, but still had only just crossed halfway to his destination. The monster hadn't engaged his comrades yet, but it was only a matter of time.

The problem with Necrotise was, it was now attached to his Soul Arrow, and he didn't want to lose that Spell to the Elemental Bullet—partially out of personal attachment to the Spell, but mainly because he liked having two varieties of ranged attack in his locker. But he also desperately needed the Bullet to have a corrosive effect of some kind.

Maybe Soul Drain? Or Summon Undead? But I have no idea how they'll perform when Combined.

Do I have a choice, though?

John decided that his choice didn't really matter, here. His goal was the most versatile Spell possible, and so far he'd pretty much covered all the Elements. He needed more abstract effects to cover his bases. The versatility of having two different types of ranged attack wouldn't count for much if he was too dead to take advantage of it.

Combined [Elemental Bullet] and [Death Arrow]

-5000 Aura

That brought the overall Spell, now named Ultimate Shot, up to Level 5, and with it came new knowledge injected into his brain. It seemed the Combined Spell had met its two primary component parts in the middle: now, instead of firing it like an arrow or a finger-gun, he would have to hold out his arm with his fingers splayed, and he would command it to launch a projectile as if from a wrist-mounted cannon by clenching his fingers into a fist. What form that projectile would take was hard to say, without seeing it.

So John decided to test it out.

He was about ten heartbeats in to Accelerate and rapidly closing in on the crab monster. Despite the other humans still attacking it in relative slow-motion, he could tell its attention was still primarily on him. Those hellfire eyes held a sparkle of amusement, he was sure of it.

As John raised his fist and activated his Spell, he dearly hoped he was about to wipe that look off its hideous face.

"Have this, you big bitch," he growled as a projectile shaped like a featherless crossbow bolt manifested above his hand, its point hovering between the knuckles of his middle and ring finger. It was a strange colour; black as midnight at first glance, but with an opalescent gleam of every colour on the spectrum, like oil. When it launched, those myriad colours immediately came to life.

Wind howled around it in a vortex, carrying embers like it was being chased by fireflies. A bolt of lightning marked its passage as it tore through the air in the blink of any eye, slower than a bullet, but far faster than an arrow. Its other Combined effects weren't obvious until it hit its target.

The crab monster hadn't bothered to dodge, opting instead to watch the Ultimate Shot approach its eye with mild interest. It struck right in the middle of its eye and sunk straight in like it had melted right through the monster's metal skin. Immediately, a cloud of boiling steam erupted from the impact, and the electricity from the lightning bolt flowed over its body. At the same time, tiny crystals of ice radiated along out for a few metres. The embers hit shortly after the rest, propelled at enough speed by the wind vortex to puncture tiny holes in the monster's face. And while all this had been happening, a great flash of light had exploded right in front of the monster's eyes, and John had the distinct pleasure of seeing it reel back in shock.

"Weren't expecting that, were you, asshole?" John growled.

+1000 Aura

Nice, he thought, quips really are worth more against this thing, even while I'm moving too fast for the others to hear what I'm saying.

An extra thousand Aura put him at 9,000, which meant he could add another Spell to Ultimate Shot and still have enough left over to purchase another level for its healing if needed. John seized on the opportunity provided by the crab monster's brief disorientation.

Combined [Ultimate Shot] and [Soul Drain]

-5000 Aura

Ultimate Shot didn't change its name or provide him new information about its new function, so he decided to test it once again before the enemy could recover. This time, he didn't settle for only one shot. Shifting Ultimate Shot into both mental slots, he started firing with abandon, peppering the crab monster with his versatile projectiles.

Immediately, the addition became obvious, not that he could do much with it right now: that same number that had popped into his awareness whenever he used Soul Drain was now ticking up every time his Ultimate Shot struck the enemy. It was flinching back with every hit, gaining him half a dozen necromancy points at a time.

The possibility that he might be able to drain the entirety of the monster's soul and kill it that way was an enticing one, but he wasn't going to rely on it. Not when it was entirely possible this thing had thousands of soul points, and he was chipping away minute fractions of it. He needed even more.

Luckily, Accelerate was just about at its end.

Time to truly go all out on the Aura farming.

John made sure to position himself so his back was to his comrades when the time dilation Skill came to its end. He held his arms out in front of him, rattling off Ultimate Shots as fast as he could manage, and glanced over his shoulder as real time resumed, eyeing his comrades with the most casual expression he could muster, as if this red-souled monster was a mild inconvenience.

"Yo," he said. "I'm back."

+2000 Aura

It took a serious strength of will not to smirk when he saw that notification. Killing blues netted him not even half as much Aura as acting unconcerned in the presence of a red.

Doug scoffed. "Eyes forward, you mad bastard."

It was only when he heard various caw, tweets, and hoots of indignation that he remembered he'd brought passengers with him. The bird gang flapped off his shoulders, the crow and dove radiating disapproval while Polly and Zazu expressed their discontent considerably more explicitly.

"Punk ass bitch," came in a poor attempt at an America accent.

"Cock-juggling thundercunt," said a voice he was now certain came from Ryan Reynolds.

"Fuck you," added a drunk-sounding man's voice.

"Useless piece of shit," agreed the frustrated tone of a middle-aged woman.

Then they all flew away, alighting themselves among his other comrades.

"Ah, sorry about that," John said. "Forgot how fast I am, ya know?"

+2000 Aura

John turned his attention back to the monster to hide the manic glee that was steadily etching itself onto his face. In the course of that short exchange, he'd fired dozens of Ultimate Shots, and he found that the monster's front was now covered in damage. Crystals of frost covered much of its red surface, where much of the paint was flaking due to the scouring steam and howling wind, and it was pocked by burn marks from embers and lightning, along with spots of deathly black rot from his necrosis effect. It had even been forced to take a step back, disoriented by the flash bang effect.

"Do you like that, huh?" John called out, starting to jog to the side—both to hit it from a different angle, and to make sure the others weren't behind him. "You fucking punk. Think you can slap me and get away with it? Do you know who I am?"

+2000 Aura

But even as John called out his taunt, he held zero delusions that this state of affairs would last. He was straining his senses to their limits, eyes wide open, not daring to blink, relying on his Agility and Mind to alert him, and so he was ready when he spotted a change in the monster's demeanour. It barely twitched forward before he threw himself into Flash Step at maximum strength.

A blink later, he found himself dozens of metres away from the monster on its other side. Thunder echoed through the room, but it wasn't one of the monster's ear-splitting shouts. Instead, the sound came from the crab monster's claw, which was embedded in the ground where John had just been standing a moment before. It had created a small crater. Smashed rocks sprayed up into the air, and came back down like shrapnel, tinkling against the monster's metal hide.

"Missed me," John said casually.

+2000 Aura

The next instant, the monster was abruptly in a new position with no transition, as if it had teleported itself on the spot for the purpose of merely turning around. Now, it was facing him, its claws held out in front of it to point at John, mandibles writhing like snakes. Its hellfire eyes were arched like crescent moons with their points facing downwards. They were shaking ever so slightly. An up-and-down movement.

It was laughing.

John smirked back.

Then Accelerate's cooldown was over, and he started firing again.

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