“Coach” sprinted at me with a stunning burst of previously unseen speed, both of its clawed hands outstretched and poised to cut me into tiny pieces.

With little time to react, and mainly acting on instinct, I put up two chromatic shields at once in an effort to block and deflect the oncoming attack. The effect was unfortunately middling, the barriers did buy a few brief moments to jump clear of the oncoming danger, but a few brief moments was all the extra shield managed to do for me.

The increased cost of spamming two shields almost simultaneously was substantial though. This made it not a very cost-effective strategy, and not one I could keep up for all that long.

We both jumped and dashed about the classroom that was crowded with desks, knocking them about like they were inflatable props with the might of our physical attacks and spells. I did my best to steer the raging monster away from the direction of my two friends, but even they struggled to dodge and avoid the flying pieces of furniture darting about the room.

“Gahh!” Beth exclaimed after a part of a chair grazed across her forehead.

“Beth, watch out!” I loudly shouted while doing my best to still keep my attention on the large meaty claws continuously trying to cut me into small bloody pieces. “You need to leave right now, it's too dangerous here for you.”

“I’m not going to just run away and leave you to get yourself killed!” She shot back.

“Fricking damn it Beth!” I swore at her in frustration while being pushed more and more to my limit by the unending ferocious attacks of a monster way too strong for me to handle. “You staying here is what’s going to get me killed.”

“We’ll meet up in the hallway outside the cafeteria.” Mira shouted while grabbing the dragging an angry and protesting Beth along with her.

“Kay.” I barely managed to shout while becoming more and more out of breath from hopping, ducking, jumping, and dodging all the attacks and debris coming at me. My shields only afforded me a slim chance to try and dodge. They didn’t come close at all to guaranteeing it, unfortunately.

I needed to hold out for a little while longer until I knew they had gotten a decent distance away. Then I needed to get the frick out of this confined space myself. Tanking all these attacks was rapidly depleting my mana and stamina, and staying in this classroom was a death trap for me.

Trying to talk with this thing had been a good way to buy time before now, but looking into its eyes I could still see the fury burning brightly. Because of that I seriously doubted it was in much of a mood for just hanging around and chatting right now.

Ducking under yet another fist delayed for but a moment but multiple layers of shield, and dodging another swipe with a quick use of dark wind, I kept myself perilously on a knife’s edge between life and death for what felt like an eternity.

Once I was nearly out of mana, I cast and angled a dark wind spell at my feet so that it launched me straight at and out the doorway and into the hall. Tumbling and somewhat gracefully turning it into a roll, I got back to my feet and started sprinting down the hallway and away from the classroom.

Also, I headed in the exact opposite direction of where Mira shouted to meet up. Not that it was likely, but I hoped desperately to try and lose the “Coach” monster in the long winding school hallways. Saving that, I at least wanted to buy my two friends more time. Ideally, they would come to their senses and find a way to leave the building, but I had a strong feeling that wouldn’t end up being the case.

Another reason I was trying to lead the rampaging beast on a meandering route, was that I hoped it would give me some much-needed recoup some mana and time to think without having to dodge life-ending claw attacks every half second.

Fortunately, it seemed to be working so far. The Alchemical Horror was indeed chasing after me, and despite the impressive bursts of speed it could put on, its normal pace of running wasn’t much different than mine. That combined with its large size, let me gain some ground by cutting through the more confined and tight spaces around the school. I went through locker rooms, slid underneath tables in staff rooms, and dumped the contents of storage closets out to create an obstacle. Anything and everything to buy myself even a second of extra time to get ahead, and keep this fricking thing occupied.

Having looped most of the way around the other side of the school, I finally made my way to the pre-planned rendezvous where I was meant to meet up with the others. To my slight surprise, Beth was waiting there, but now with Mira.

The trio of Jackie, Letitia, and Niki were standing there impatiently waiting alongside her. Part of me was comforted to see them, knowing they were alive and well. Another was gravely disappointed that they hadn’t managed to find a way out yet and leave.

“Where’s Mira, also it’s still chasing me!” I yelled at the cluster of girls. “Anyone find a way out yet! Anything!”

“No, all the exits are sealed!” Beth shouted back at my quickly approaching form.

“None of the phones work either.” Niki yelled while holding up her phone while, I assume, pointing at the lack of bars at the top of the display.

“So why are you all just standing here then?!” I screamed while rapidly whipping my head back to look behind me for a super quick second. “And where is Mira?”

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“She’s busy.” Beth said with an out-of-place smile.

“What do you mean-” I started to say before Jackie cut me off.

“We have a plan, just follow Beth here and lead it to where she takes you.” Jackie yelled in a relatively calm voice and then led Niki, and Letitia off into the cafeteria.

Not having a clue what that meant, but not being in a position to argue, I planned to do exactly as instructed.

After catching my breath for barely more than a few seconds, the monster rounded a corner and seemed to almost mindlessly charge straight for me. Its eyes were still smoldering with equal parts hatred and fury.

“Alright come on, just stay right behind me.” Beth shouted as she charged after the others into the cafeteria.

Not needing further prompting, I did just that. Keeping right on her heels, we both ran past the long rows of tables in the cafeteria proper and headed straight for the back, toward the doorway and the entrance to the kitchen, the domain of the lunch ladies.

Shoulder tackling the, thankfully, complaint door, Beth led me back into an area of the school I’d never actually been to before. Not really having the time to sightsee, I followed right behind her as we passed various metal tables and kitchen appliances.

“Is it behind us?” Beth shouted desperately, her eyes still glued forward.

“Yeah, it should be here any sec-”

I didn’t need to finish as the hulking skinless monstrosity also careened through the now barely attached doors and slammed into the opposite wall in a poorly made attempt to stop its momentum.

“Awesome, just stay close, and do what I do.” Beth instructed as she rushed towards another exit leading to another part of the back area of the kitchen.

Before Beth, myself, or the monster could reach the door though, Jackie, Letitia, and Niki all popped out of various hiding places. Large mittens were on each of their hands as they started chucking large steaming pots of what must be oil when it made contact with the thing we used to know as Coach Philip, it started screeching in excruciating pain at the sizzling liquid now coating its exposed flesh.

Doing what I was told, I kept right behind Beth as she led me out the other door and into another prep area. After making her way to the other side of a large metal table, she finally came to a halt and looked back at the door we came in anxiously.

Not a second later, the Jackie trio came running in at full speed as well, rushing around to wait beside us behind the metal prep table.

“Where is she?” Jackie loudly demanded of Beth.

“She said she’d be here.” Beth forcefully retorted, but worry was also readily apparent on her face as she said it.

“Well she’s n-” Jackie started to say before a different door than the one we came in swung open and the slightly panicked and out-of-breath form of Mira came rushing over to stand beside us.

“I’m here!” Mira shouted at us breathlessly.

Mira hadn’t arrived empty-handed, in her hands she was carrying a small plastic tub. More interestingly though, inside this tub was a small collection of glass flasks, likely taken from some science classrooms. What was different about these particular flasks though was that each was topped with a large wad of cloth and filled with some kind of liquid.

“Are those…?” I asked in mild bewilderment, but before anyone could answer, the monstrous horror chasing us crashed in through the door from the room it had just been writhing around in pain in earlier.

Taking a moment's pause to look around at us, it hesitated, only briefly, to take in the sight of all of us. Much of the mindless rage seemed to have left its eyes now as it looked around at us. The marks of the scolding hot oil on its flesh were clearly visible, but it was obviously still able and very willing to keep up the fight.

“Here.” Mira said, quickly handing out bottles to each of us with their tops already lit somehow.

She worked fast.

Not having any time to waste, Beth screamed at the top of her lungs. “Throw!”

Doing as instructed, the six of us each threw a glass bottle at the monster before it had another chance to charge us again.

The beast wasn’t stupid though, it could see the series of flaming objects flying in the air toward it. Futilely, it tried to jump back behind the door to use it as cover, but the distance between it and the flying flaming bottles was too short for it to fully escape in time.

*Crash* *Crash* *Crash*

Each of the bottles impacted on or near the red fleshy monster as it tried to make its retreat. Erupting in a large conflagration, its scream renewed as it writhed and rolled around on the ground in the doorway between the two rooms.

Not super inclined to stick around next to a raging fire in the middle of an enclosed space, the others grabbed onto me and led us back out into the cafeteria.

“W-we did it right?” Beth asked slightly out of breath, but with a big smile on her face.

“It must have worked. Even if he’s hopped up on some crazy new drug or something, no way anyone could survive being lit on fire like that.” Niki reasoned while also making little effort to contain her own wide and happy grin.

“No. It’s still alive.” Mira said simply, her expression much more neutral and restrained as she looked back at the area we had just left.

“You’re kidding?” Beth said in disbelief.

“There’s no way.” Niki said incredulously.

“Are you sure?” Letitia asked, seeming like she was on the edge of having a panic attack at any moment.

“Knock it off.” Jackie said sharply, purposefully ignoring the glare Beth gave her in response. “Explain.”

“Well…” Mira said while giving me a knowing look. “It… he is likely pretty hurt from all that, but I seriously doubt it was enough to kill him.”

“How sure?” I asked before Jackie could.

“Very.” Mira replied without hesitation.

“Frick.” I said while looking down forlornly at my feet. “We can’t stay here then, and we need another plan.”

“Walk and talk then.” Jackie instructed as she started marching out of the cafeteria at a hurried pace.

Following behind her, my mind raced with options now. My mind had been so focused on just using my personal magic powers, that I failed to consider any other options.

In my defense, I was very distracted by that constant effort to avoid near-death claw swipes, but now though. Now the ideas were starting to percolate much more rapidly.

“Alright. Here’s what we need to do.” I said in a commanding voice. Strange behavior for me, but it seemed to get their attention.