The dragonfly launched into a spin, its massive wings creating gusts of wind that sent empty bottles and debris skittering across the sticky floor. The crowd of lesser monsters swayed and bobbed in worship of their groovy overlord.

  John's gaze flicked past the dancing abomination to Farah's body. He needed to get her out intact. No blasting his way through this one. No reckless Supernovas that might catch her in the crossfire. Which meant getting close, engaging this thing in direct combat, and hoping he could draw it away from her corpse long enough to make a move.

  It also meant, he realised with a strange mix of anticipation and dread, that he'd get to properly test himself against a red-souled monster. Every boss fight so far had been desperate improvisation, survival by the skin of his teeth, but he hadn’t actually engaged with any of the boss monsters since the stickbug.

  But now, after clearing out most of Watford, after pushing himself to new heights of power and accumulating more Aura than he'd ever thought possible, he could see where he actually stood.

  The thought sent a thrill through him that he immediately tried to suppress. This wasn't about ego. This was about Farah. About second chances. About proving he could be better than the asshole who'd left him to die in the school portal.

  John activated Accelerate, and the world slowed to a syrupy crawl. The dragonfly's movements became languid, its wings beating with dreamlike slowness. He crossed the distance in a Flash Step, Aurora Blade extending from his knuckles as he closed in, aiming a strike at the creature's thorax.

  The dragonfly swayed.

  Even in Accelerate's dilated timestream, the movement was smooth as silk, its body flowing out of John's strike path. The Aurora Blade carved through empty air where the monster had been a fraction of a second before.

  John twisted, following through with a backhand slash. Again, the dragonfly danced aside, its movements impossibly graceful for something its size. It was as if it could predict exactly where his blade would be, pivoting and spinning to avoid each strike by the narrowest of margins.

  "Ooh, baby's got some moves!" the dragonfly crooned, completing a pirouette that put it just out of John's reach. Why were these fucking boss monsters always fast enough to talk during Accelerate? "But you're too stiff, too rigid. Gotta loosen up, let the rhythm take you, you know?"

  John didn't bother responding. He launched another series of attacks, Accelerate making him a blur of motion, but the dragonfly matched him beat for beat. Every thrust, every slash, every desperate lunge found only air. The creature wasn't just fast, it was reading him, anticipating him, flowing around his with groovy dance moves. It even had the audacity to throw in the Disco Point with its spindly dragonfly legs.

  Alright. I’m still too far behind reds when it comes to close combat. Gotta upgrade Accelerate and pick up some more passive Skills.

  John feinted left, then Flash Stepped right, appearing at the dragonfly's flank with Aurora Blade already in motion. The creature's wing snapped out, impossibly fast, and caught the blade mid-swing. The impact sent a shock through John's arm, nearly jarring the weapon from his grip.

  Then the dragonfly's other wing came around in a devastating backhand.

  John barely got his arms up in time. The wing slammed into his hastily raised guard with the force of a freight train, launching him backwards through the air. He tumbled across the dancefloor, smashing through several of the lesser monsters that had been swaying to the music. They immediately turned on him, chittering and screeching.

  The crowd closed in, a writhing mass of mandibles and stingers. A beetle in platform shoes lunged for his throat. John caught it with one hand, Adamant Defence active, and crushed its head like an overripe grape. He Flash Stepped through the crowd, Aurora Blade carving a path of ichor and dismembered limbs.

  On the stage, the dragonfly continued its performance, spinning and gyrating like nothing had happened. "That's it, baby! Show 'em what you got! Work that floor!"

  The disco ball overhead caught the light and scattered it across the club in dizzying patterns. The bass thumped through the floorboards, making John's bones vibrate. He carved through another wave of insects, his blade singing a song of destruction, working his way back towards the stage.

  The portal core watched him from its perch above the stage, a massive eye suspended in translucent green. Its gaze was intent, focused, almost hungry in a way that made his skin crawl. It had been watching him since he'd entered the second half of the portal world, tracking his every move with disturbing interest.

  An idea formed.

  John raised his hand, channelling Ultimate Shot, and aimed directly at the portal core. The bolt of multicoloured energy coalesced above the back of his hand, elements swirling together into destructive harmony, then clenched his fist.

  Ultimate Shot roared out, and the dragonfly stopped dancing.

  "Whoa, whoa, WHOA!" Its voice had lost some of its laid-back affect. One wing snapped out, creating a shield of purple energy that intercepted the Ultimate Shot mid-flight. The spell detonated against the barrier in a spectacular explosion of light and fury, but the core remained untouched.

  When the smoke cleared, the dragonfly's posture had changed. It stood straighter, its movements less fluid, less performative. "That's not cool, man. Not cool at all. You don't go after the heart of the groove, dig? That's just... that's bad vibes."

  John Flash Stepped closer, weaving between the enraged insects that tried to swarm him. He fired another Ultimate Shot at the core, forcing the dragonfly to intercept again. This time he could see the strain in its movements, the way its wings trembled slightly after blocking the attack.

  So you do care about protecting it. Just like the headmaster. Just like all the others.

  It was strange, really. Boss monsters seemed to have a genuine emotional investment in defending their portal cores, going beyond simple programming or instinct. The headmaster had held the school portal open even after the core's destruction. The dragonfly was abandoning its playful persona, actual anger creeping into its voice.

  Why? What were these creatures? The monsters in general, even. They gave souls when they died, and they were evidently the same souls that fed the portal cores. Were they creations of the cores? Extensions of them? Or were they something else entirely, beings bound to serve a system they hadn't chosen?

  John had spent so much time thinking about the system itself, analysing its mechanics and theorising on its deeper motivations, but he'd given surprisingly little thought to the monsters. They were just obstacles, sources of Aura and souls, things to be killed. But watching the dragonfly's wings quiver with barely suppressed rage as it defended the core, he couldn't help but wonder.

  A beam of purple light lanced past his head, close enough to singe his hair.

  Right. Focus on the fight, John.

  The dragonfly had stopped dancing entirely. Its wings spread wide, and suddenly the club was filled with light that drowned out the strobing disco lights, focused beams of energy erupting from the dragonfly’s wings in a dazzling display. Each beam was a different colour, and John's instincts screamed at him to avoid them all.

  He Flash Stepped left, and a blue beam carved through the space he'd just occupied. Where it struck the floor, frost spread in concentric patterns, freezing several insects solid mid-stride. A red beam sliced overhead, and the air along its path combusted into flame. A green beam caught one of the lesser monsters in the chest, and its body began to dissolve, flesh sloughing off bone like melting wax.

  Fuck.

  John dove into the crowd of monsters, using them as cover. The dragonfly continued its assault, beams of kaleidoscopic death crisscrossing the dance floor. Many of its own ostensible minions fell to friendly fire, but it didn't seem to care. Its focus was entirely on John, its bulbous eyes tracking him through the chaos.

  As he moved, John found his thoughts returning to the boss monsters. The headmaster, ranting about eternal suffering and the hopelessness of John's path. The stick insect, with its almost desperate attempts to keep Chester away from corrupting the core. And now this dragonfly, dropping its cheerful 70s persona in favour of genuine fury.

  They weren't just defending the cores because it was their role. There was something more there, something almost... afraid? Desperate?

  The system gave souls for killing monsters. Souls fed the portal cores. But where did the souls come from? Were the monsters themselves soul-constructs, created by the cores and doomed to return to them upon death? Were the cores some kind of cosmic battery, powered by death and suffering?

  And if that's true, what does that make me? Just another cog in the machine, farming souls to feed the cycle.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  A golden beam nearly took his head off, and John swore, abandoning his musings once more. The dragonfly was getting more aggressive, its attacks more frantic. Good. Frantic meant mistakes. Mistakes meant openings.

  But John was done with this. He'd gotten what he needed, confirmation that he could hold his own against a red soul without getting completely outclassed, at least for a while. The dragonfly was faster and more skilled than he'd anticipated, but it wasn't insurmountable. The gap was so close to closing, he was sure it wouldn’t take much of a leap to cross it.

  More importantly, he needed to finish this and get back to cleaning up Watford. Every minute spent here was another minute that survivors might be suffering in the death game, another minute that monsters might be spawning from portals he hadn't destroyed yet.

  He made his decision.

  John Flash Stepped towards the stage, Aurora Blade raised as if for another attack against the portal core. The dragonfly leaped up, prepared to intercept. At the last second, John activated Teleport, blinking out of existence and reappearing behind the creature, right next to Farah's corpse.

  He grabbed her body and yanked it into his Inventory.

  +1 Human Corpse

  The notification was accompanied by a wave of nausea as he saw the menu. Four corpses now. Four people reduced to inventory items, stacked like objects in a video game. Curtis. Marian. Claire. Farah. The casual dehumanisation of it made his stomach turn still made his stomach turn.

  His Inventory was well over halfway full now, and a significant part of that was the goddamn corpses stored in some magical compartment in his soul.

  Later. Process it later.

  John Flash Stepped away, putting distance between himself and the enraged boss. He raised his hand towards the portal core, not bothering with subtlety anymore. He played his fingers to activate the Spell, then clenched them into a fist.

  The dragonfly tried to intercept, but it was too late.

  The world turned white.

  When the light faded, the portal core was gone, consumed entirely by the Supernova's fury. The dragonfly stood on the stage, its wings singed and smoking, staring at the empty space where the core had been.

  John waited for the portal world to collapse, for reality to start unravelling as it had in every other portal he'd destroyed in Watford. The music had stopped playing. The lights had gone dead. The world was wavering at the edges, fissures opening up in the walls, floor, and ceiling, and many of the little decorations in the place were dissolving into dust.

  But it wasn’t collapsing.

  John grimaced, turning his gaze to the dragonfly once more.

  Its wings were spread wide, beating so fast they were nearly invisible. Its entire body glowed with an eerie light, and reality itself seemed to bend around it. The boss monster was doing what the Headmaster had done, somehow holding the portal world together through sheer force of will, refusing to let it collapse even after the core's destruction.

  But unlike the Headmaster, which had seemed coldly angry, the Disco Boss looked desperate.

  "You... you destroyed it," the dragonfly said, and all the groovy affect was completely gone now. Its voice was strained, almost breaking. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Do you have ANY IDEA?"

  It shrieked the last words, the sound so loud and piercing that John had to resist the urge to cover his ears. The air felt wrong, charged with tension like the moment before a lightning strike.

  John could feel the portal world's desire to collapse, the fundamental wrongness of its continued existence without a core to anchor it.

  "I'm giving you one chance to let this place collapse," John said, his voice level despite the unease crawling up his spine. "Stand down, and you can die quick."

  +1000 Aura

  The dragonfly laughed, a broken, bitter sound. "Die quick? DIE QUICK?" Energy crackled along the edge of its wings. "You think death is the worst thing that can happen? You think I fear it?"

  It launched itself at John with terrifying speed, all pretence of dance and grace abandoned in favour of furious violence. John barely Flash Stepped clear, the creature's insectoid legs scoring deep gouges in the floor where he'd been standing.

  "You have no idea what you're part of!" the dragonfly screamed, its voice shrill with rage. "No idea what's coming! And when it arrives, when you finally understand what you've been feeding, you'll beg for the mercy of what I could have done to you here!"

  John activated Accelerate and met the creature head-on. This time there was no testing, no holding back. He poured everything he had into the fight, his most powerful Spells striking in combinations too fast for a mundane eye to follow.

  The dragonfly matched him blow for blow, its wings creating barriers of energy, blasting lasers at his Spells, disrupting them, countering them, and he did the same as at its Spells. They were locked into a dance of death, matching power for power, blow for blow.

  He was really going toe to toe with a red-souled monster. Neither defeating it outright nor being blown away by its overwhelming power.

  The realisation put a smile on his face, even despite the deadly circumstances.

  +1000 Aura

  The nightclub was tearing itself apart around them. The floor cracked and buckled. The walls rippled like water. Reality itself was straining under the weight of the dragonfly's will, fighting to collapse while the boss monster held it together through desperate fury. But its concentration was wavering as it fought him, and the end of this small world was becoming increasingly inevitable.

  John Teleported above the creature and unleashed Gravity Bomb. The spell crushed inwards with incredible force, driving the dragonfly to its knees. Then it erupted back outwards, cratering the dance floor beneath it and dashing much of the remaining parts of the club into an aching black abyss beyond.

  Before it could recover, John followed up with Tsunami, his wave of water slamming into the creature and sending it tumbling across the ruined dance floor. Much of the water draining through the increasingly wide holes in the floor, however, and it soon escaped.

  The dragonfly surged back to its feet, water streaming from its wings. "POINTLESS!" it shrieked. "All of this is pointless! Don't you understand? We're all just—"

  John hit it with Vacuum, the spell ripping the air from the space around the creature's head. The dragonfly staggered, its voice cutting off mid-sentence. John pressed the advantage, Flash Stepping close and driving Aurora Blade into the joint where wing met thorax.

  The creature screamed, a sound of pure anguish that he wasn’t sure was even a reaction to physical pain. It grabbed John with one of its forelegs and hurled him across the club. He crashed through the bar, bottles exploding around him in a cascade of glass and alcohol.

  John pushed himself to his feet, wiping blood from his lip. His injuries were minor enough that Cellular Regeneration would handle them, but he was running out of time. The portal world was vibrating now, reality fraying at the edges. He could see the walls becoming translucent, revealing more and more of the formless void beyond.

  He didn’t want to see what would happen if he was still inside the portal world when it finished disintegrating. The void beyond did not look appealing.

  John activated every buff he had, Accelerate, Adamant Defence, all his passive Skills pushing his body beyond its normal limits. He charged the dragonfly, who met him with equal fury. They collided in the centre of the ruined dance floor, and the world erupted into chaos.

  Supernova. The dragonfly's wings created a shield, but John was already moving, Teleporting behind it to strike at its exposed back.

  Tsunami. The wave crashed over both of them, but John's Aurora Blade found its mark, carving deep into the creature's thorax.

  Gravity Bomb. The dragonfly was driven down, legs buckling under the immense pressure.

  Vacuum. More air ripped away, leaving the creature gasping.

  Back and forth they went, trading blows that would have killed lesser beings instantly. John's jacket was shredded, forcing him to keep his Outfits tab open constantly, not willing to risk the total destruction of his edgy new ensemble.

  His skin was soon covered in cuts and bruises despite his defences, Cellular Regeneration working overtime with Biomancy. He refused to use a level up on cuts and scrapes. Meanwhile, the dragonfly was missing chunks of its carapace, one wing hanging at an odd angle, ichor leaking from dozens of wounds. It had regeneration of its own, but it was decelerating its efforts as the monster poured more effort into killing him.

  The nightclub was barely recognisable now. The dance floor was cratered and scorched where it even still existed, patches having fallen away into gaping darkness. The stage had collapsed entirely, and beyond it was only void. The disco ball hung by a single thread from the one small section of roof that still dubiously existed, casting fractured light across the destruction.

  And still the portal world refused to collapse, held together by the dragonfly's desperate will.

  Finally, after what felt like hours but was probably only minutes, the dragonfly's attacks began to slow. Its movements became sluggish, its once-fluid grace replaced by jerky, desperate swipes. John saw his opening and took it, summoning his scythe and driving it through the creature's thorax with all his strength.

  The dragonfly staggered backwards and collapsed among the ruins of the stage. John stood over it, blade at the ready, but the creature wasn't getting back up. Its wings twitched feebly, bulbous eyes dimming.

  And then, to John's complete surprise, it began to sob.

  The sound was wrong, coming from an insect's body, a wet, hitching noise. The dragonfly curled in on itself, legs drawing up protectively, as if it could somehow shield itself from the reality of its defeat.

  "It's all... it's all so pointless," it whispered, its voice barely audible. "Everything. All of it. We dance and we fight and we die, and for what? For what?"

  John kept his blade raised, wary of tricks, but the creature seemed genuinely broken. "What are you talking about?"

  The dragonfly's head lifted slightly, fixing him with one enormous eye. Tears, if such creatures could cry, might have fallen from those alien eyes. But they couldn't, and so it simply stared at him with an expression of such despair that John almost felt sorry for it.

  "You think you're winning," the dragonfly said softly. "But you're just feeding it. Every soul you collect, every core you destroy, it all feeds the same hunger."

  "What hunger?" John demanded. "What are you talking about?"

  The dragonfly laughed again, a broken sound. "Do you know what the worst thing I could do to you is?" It didn't wait for an answer. "The worst thing I could do... is let you go. Let you keep doing what you're doing. Let you keep winning, keep growing stronger, keep feeding that insatiable appetite."

  Its gaze burned into John. "When you finally understand what you've been part of, when you see what your 'victories' have built... you'll wish you'd died here in this ridiculous farce of a place. You'll wish I'd torn you apart instead of letting you walk away."

  "You're not making any sense," John said, but there was doubt creeping into his voice.

  "I hope..." the dragonfly whispered, its voice fading, "I hope you at least make them work for it."

  The world finally collapsed.

  John felt the familiar sensation of being forcibly ejected from a portal world, reality bending and twisting as the pocket dimension finally unravelled. For a split second he saw the dragonfly's face one last time, those bulbous eyes still filled with that terrible, knowing grief.

  Then he was tumbling through the air and hitting the floor of the ruined nightclub in the real world.