He rose to his feet, and Erina felt herself backing away without any conscious thought. Goukei was at least seven feet tall, almost certainly more, and his muscled body was scaled to match. A solid brick wall would've looked less imposing. Calling him a giant almost felt like an understatement.

  Goukei took one step forward and Erina took several more back. She tossed an orb of light straight up and swung her arm, commanding it to split into two. She spun, willing those two into four, and then another movement for eight, again and again to a veritable cloud of sixty four.

  Erina finished with two fingers pointed at Goukei. All of the orbs ruptured in rapid succession, bombarding him from every direction in a semicircle like a firing squad.

  It didn't matter. The staff turned into a blender, whirling at blistering speeds as one beam after another deflected off it. Burn marks blasted themselves into the floor and walls, light after light broke and fell from the ceiling, but not a single laser reached Goukei.

  One foot in front of the other. He was getting closer at the same leisurely pace. Erina realized she was nearing the edge of the dance floor and circled around. Goukei watched her with that vicious smile, never picking up the pace.

  "Done warmin' up yet?" he taunted her.

  "Kuh…!" Erina flanked all the way around him, now backing the way she came, and he simply allowed her to do it. He hadn't even bothered to throw a single attack in return yet.

  Fine, then. She just had to make him regret that… somehow.

  The spear of light flashed into her hand just in time for Erina to hurl it at him. An array of spell circles formed as it left her hand, accelerating its speed to rocketing. Barely exerting any effort, Goukei spun his staff and perfectly intercepted the tip of the spear head-on.

  Erina's arm was still extended. Her hand closed into a fist, and the spear erupted into the myriad branches to split around the staff and perforate him.

  He merely let go of the staff and leaned aside, letting the branches of light erupt away behind his back. Goukei turned back and watched his staff go flying end over end, clattering away across the floor.

  A chance! Erina threw an orb to the side, readying her follow-up as she fired off another laser—

  And almost let her jaw drop as Goukei batted it aside bare-handed without looking.

  "That spear…" Goukei watched the branches fade away. He thought about it for a moment longer before dismissing it with a shrug. "Just a construct, huh? Shame." He turned back to her as the floor ruptured at his feet. His staff burst forth into his waiting hand, and he resumed his unstoppable march towards her. "Need to show a li'l more spirit than that, Erina-chan!"

  What kind of monster was he? Erina shook off her shock and focused. He was closing in again. With one movement after another, she commanded the orb to split and multiply again, this time splitting forwards instead of to the sides. Goukei was walking into the midst of an active minefield.

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  He didn't care in the slightest. His walk continued unabated, his staff flicking away whatever got in his path. That was where Erina wanted him. She readied the spear of light again, four spell circles appearing this time, and accelerated it, just as before. Rather than block head-on, Goukei struck it just below the head, pointing the tip away from him as energy coalesced in it, about to erupt—

  The fourth spell circle activated, and the spear was no longer flying off to the side. It was back to the moment Erina threw it.

  The spear exploded right then and there, filling the air in front of Erina with the branches of energy. The staff whirled, deflecting several branches away as Goukei twisted his body to let the rest pass harmlessly around him.

  Only now, while he was contorted and held in place by the tree of lasers, did the minefield activate proper. This time, Erina primed them to fire their beams simultaneously, bombarding Goukei from all directions.

  An fierce shockwave swept past Erina as her shots hit home, exploding into a cloud of thick smoke. That was it! Numerous direct hits confirmed!

  "Oi, Erina-chan!" Goukei's voice rang out loud and clear through the smoke, and Erina's heart sank. "Yer borin' me."

  He walked right through the smokescreen with his staff over his shoulder, exactly as nonchalant as ever. Only now, the manic smile was gone, replaced with flat disappointment. "If this is s'posed to be a joke, I ain't laughin'."

  There was no sign of meaningful damage. The first tendrils of dread crept into her chest. Erina began to raise her arm, mana flowing as she prepared another angle of attack.

  For one beat, her heart stopped.

  Goukei's foot touched the ground again, but the step sounded distant and muted. His expression was cold and disdainful. She could see every slight movement he made, the tensing of different muscles as they prepared to propel him forward into the next step. Her own body felt like it was moving through jelly.

  If her instincts were screaming at her before, they had a megaphone now. What had changed? Why did she so desperately want to drop everything she was doing and run as fast as her legs could take her?

  …Ah.

  Erina remembered now.

  This was it. This was the moment.

  As soon as her heart beat again, she was going to die.

  The gathering mana in her palm lost form and began to disperse as Erina pushed off with her legs. She knew how useless it was. She wasn't getting anywhere in time.

  But still, she moved. And for some reason, her stomach pitched, her balance tilted, as if she wasn't pushing off so much as falling sideways—

  The ground exploded where Goukei was standing as he kicked off so hard, the floor and its foundation were torn up from the earth. Erina felt his fist graze her shirt so horrifyingly close that his falling knuckle snagged and ripped the pin from her blazer.

  Goukei's wild swing shattered the floor where she was standing and everything else within several meters. The entire dance floor buckled under his might, several pieces of rubble flying to the ceiling and bringing the lights crashing down into the newly-formed crater in the earth. Erina yelped as the floor gave way under her, followed by the shockwave that kicked her into the air to crumple at the lip of the crater. Adrenaline racing through her veins, she scrabbled away, watching in terror as the demon in the skin of a human ripped its fist free of the stone.

  There was no doubt about it. Had she still been standing there, Goukei would've punched right through her mana shield and right through her—her stomach, her spine, and everything in his path reduced to red splatter.

  "Well, ain'tcha some swift li'l critter." The unhinged smile was back on his face as Goukei slung his staff over his shoulder and began marching out of the giant hole he'd left in the floor. "Maybe ya got some fight after all."