The shooter was in disbelief at the boy's words.
No matter how he looked at it, the boy didn't have a shred of supernatural power in his body.
Yet to be able to plan the creation of something so detestable…
It didn't matter anymore, he could always deal with the boy later, at this moment he needed to deal with the monster in front of him first.
Otherwise, there was no way anybody here would survive.
If he just left that thing alone who knows how many it will consume and how strong it would get.
Of course… he would also be answerable to his organization about the deaths of the new initiates.
So, there was no way he could avoid a fight with the abomination in front of him.
He stared at the boy, trying to see through him, but the boy just smiled back in response.
"Mr Shooooter~ Are you just going to let my gift steal all your prey?"
Seb stretched out each and every word, savouring the taste of each as they left his mouth.
"If you don't act fast… It might be too late."
It was as if the person had no regard for their own lives or of those around him.
While he had seen a lot of such people in his life before … this was the first time he had seen one on 'this' side, and so young at that.
He decided to just menacingly grin back at the boy, licking his lips in anticipation.
"Don't worry. Nobody steals my prey."
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
"As expected of you Mr Shooter. You didn't fall short of my expectations"
This kid…
He hated the feeling of being led around by the nose, but oh well.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
'How Troublesome…'
Even though the abomination looked scary, it wasn't impossible to take it down for him.
After all the bigger they get, the slower they are.
He threw his shotgun and bag of shells onto the ground before rushing forward to fight the abomination.
--------------------------------
Seb excitedly watched on as the shooter left behind the shotgun to deal with the abomination.
He glanced toward Josh and Anna who were shaking with fear as they failed to comprehend what was happening around them.
Their faces were pale and cold.
"Just go back into our classroom and hide there. I will take care of things from here on."
After saying that he stopped bothering about what the two did and carefully observed the fight.
Even though it wasn't something he could directly get involved in at his current level, it will help him learn a lot about what he might face when he gets to Purgatory.
Of course, that is IF he managed to clear this accursed tutorial.
The shooter teleported around as he kited the abomination, constantly throwing fireballs at it from his hands.
The monster on the other had no need to turn around, as it had eyes all over its body it just kept on shooting out tentacles of the sludge-like substance that held it together.
Sometimes they would be sharp spikes, shooting out at bullet speed aiming to incapacitate its opponent, other times they would be rope like projections aiming to either trip or bind the shooter.
While its appendages kept getting burnt off the abomination started to get more and more used to its own body.
Its attacks started to get faster and more accurate.
It analysed the shooter's attack pattern and would anticipate where he would teleport to.
While the shooter had no trouble absolutely steamrolling the abomination at the start he started to have more and more close calls.
He grunted as he used multiple shots of massive firepower to get rid of the appendages coiling around him.
The shooter started to sweat even more when he realised that his enemy was using his own fire against him.
The fire scorched the ground in various places raising the temperature to unbearable levels.
This led to a decrease in the ground he could step on and teleport to.
Unlike him, the abomination just stayed in its spot, not even bothering to move as it used it just used its multiple appendages.
Luckily, this situation didn't last for long.
As the shooter managed to burn more of the abomination's body mass, the number of appendages it could use was getting lesser.
The amalgamation had only one opponent so it couldn't get more nutrients to grow itself.
Feeling pressured it started to head towards one of the nearby classrooms but there was no way the teleporting pyromancer would let it happen.
The shooter kept teleporting into the abomination's way cutting off its retreat time and time again.
As the tides of battle started shifting in his favour, the shooter couldn't help but lick his lips in excitement.
Even though he tried to hide it, he relished the pleasure of taking down a challenging enemy.
The thrill was incomparable to just shooting down still targets.
"Burn to ashes. Resistance is futile."
Despite his inner thoughts, the shooter kept up his calm façade on the outside taunting the monster in the same detached voice which held zero fluctuations.
The abomination could only utter inhuman screeches in response.
Was it trying to use some sort of sonic or mental attack?
Unfortunately, those things seemed to have absolutely no effect on the shooter.
Finding itself on the verge of losing the amalgamation threw out 90% of its body to engulf the shooter while a small portion escaped in the opposite direction.
The black sludge with innumerable body parts suspended within it started to crawl around the body of the shooter, encasing it and slowly trying to digest him from the inside.
The mouths stuck onto it started to chant their spell all over again.
"JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!" "JOIN US!"
In an instant, the situation had been reversed.
The shooter winced in pain as he was slowly starting to get overwhelmed.
His movements became slower, and his flames started to sputter out.
No matter what sort of sorcery he was using to produce the flames it had to eventually run out.
Soon the entire body of the shooter was wrapped within the black sludge as it started to compress and get pressed down.
'How anti-climactic…'
Seb couldn't help but feel a little dissatisfied.
The being that had given him countless nightmares, was getting cornered so easily!
Was this the same person he had deemed 'impossible' to kill?
What a letdown!
His disappointment didn't last for long as a strong stench of burning started to fill the hallways.
Splash! Splutter!
With an intense burst of flames all around his body, the shooter had managed to throw off all of the sludge encasing him.
The pieces splattered all around the floor around him as the sludge started to evaporate.
All that was left were bits of the dead bodies that had once been absorbed into the abomination.
Eyeballs, fingers, intestines, brain matter and all sorts of stuff that should stay under the human skin now lay out in the open.
The shooter ignored the gruesome scene around him and teleported in quick succession towards the fleeing abomination.
It wasn't right to call it an abomination anymore though, now it looked like some sort of superior revenant or Frankenstein monster.
Made from the best parts of all the body parts it had consumed, its new body was faster, stronger, and smarter than all its previous versions.
The thing came to a stop as the shooter teleported right in front of it.
It opened its mouth and even managed to spew out a few garbled words.
"You… weak… fire's … out"
The shooter frowned a little upon hearing that.
Yes, he had overworked the skill and could no longer use his flames for a while, his opponent had also seemingly grown stronger.
However, it was nothing to be worried about.
How was it possible for him not to have any other cards hidden up his sleeve.
And the monster… if it was as strong as it looked, it wouldn't have tried to run.
The shooter teleported right in front of the beast punching it right in the throat.
The beast used its enhanced agility to dodge the attack and instead used its claws to swipe at the shooter.
The two of them turned into blurs as they fought back and forth throughout the corridors, scraping up the walls in the process.
They scratched and they punched, they kicked and they bit.
Every part of their bodies held deadly killing intent, having long surpassed all human limits.
The sounds of painful grunts, shrill shrieks, claws tearing flesh, and flesh hitting flesh was all that could be made out.
The two shadows eventually came to a stop.
The shooter was holding the creature up by its neck and in his other hand was coated with blue flames, different from his usual yellow.
"Any last words…"
In the end, the creature's body had been formed from scraps and had way too little stamina.
Although it was able to put a fight at the start, it was nothing but a glass cannon that shattered after firing.
Seeing the creature just grunt in response, the shooter proceeded to punch it with his flame coated hand.
The flames started to spread within its body slowly disintegrating its existence from within.
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
"I almost thought you would lose back then… you never fail to disappoint me do you, Mr Shooter"
The shooter ignored Seb's words and just slowly watched the monster disintegrate before him.
After he was sure that there was no way it could survive, he threw the remains on the floor before turning around to stare at Seb.
"Kid… I must say… I am impressed. Tell me who sent you here?"
Seb just smiled sarcastically in response.
"There's no need to waste your time guessing. I am a student here."
The shooter couldn't help but feel astonished again.
There's no way a simple high schooler could have enough knowledge or resourcefulness to do something like this, not unless…
"Are you sure you can waste your energy on me?"
"What do you mean…"
"You should look behind you…"
Just as Seb's words came out the shooter could feel a spike of pain rise up from his chest.
He turned down to see a spike-like appendage sticking out of it, having missed his heart by mere millimetres.
The appendage immediately pulled itself back out.
The shooter looked behind him to see the monster give one last disdainful smirk in his direction before completely turning into ashes.
'Haha … it got me...'
In the end, he had forgotten that under its new body was still the black sludge he had dealt with earlier.
'No… it was all because the kid in front of him had distracted him at the last minute…"
The shooter couldn't help but come to this horrible realization as his body slumped down to the floor.
Did the kid in front of him really plan everything out?
If that was true it was really terrifying…
His body had been completely drained by this point.
He didn't even have the energy to perform a single teleportation.
He was already giving his all just to mend the wound in his chest.
Sebastian sniggered at the sight before him.
The pathetic sight of the shooter squirming on the ground brought him immense satisfaction.
It was time to end this nightmare once and for all.
Sebastian knelt down in front of the shooter and pointed the barrel of his own shotgun at him.
"So… Mr Shooter."
"Any last words~"