Professor Spire was a sick sick man. As if pairing him with the ONE person who'd managed to get into the school without being able to cast spells wasn't bad enough, the challenge their teacher had given them was next-to-impossible. The testy soulmage had thrown them into a disgusting, sticky, nasty forest with some evil unkillable monster.

One that could track them for miles, stood on all four of its legs a good 5 feet taller than either of them, and had the gentle temperament of ... well... Halter couldn't think of a good example, but it was extremely angry. It was the unthinkable fusion of a bear, badger, and a 10 foot gorilla. It stunk like a rotting corpse, and every time he destroyed it with hellfire or the imps he could summon as a warlock it simply reformed itself a few seconds later. His supposed "partner" had vanished only an hour into the chase. It was anyone's guess as to where she went. If she had run away, it didn't seem to keep the monster from hunting him first.

Halter was keeping ahead of the thing, barely. It had started off slowly enough, which had allowed him to lay a few markers across the forest that he could teleport to at any point using marker teleport, but his mana was running low. He only had maybe 3 or 4 teleports left, nevermind actually killing his pursuer.

Halter switched on demon sight allowing him to see through the thick foliage. The beast was lumbering straight at him, toppling trees as it charged. Demon sight saw through physical material and showed only each living thing's soul, although animal souls shone brighter than those of plants or other living creatures. In this thing's case, it showed him that pieces of its soul broke into strands that left the body, fraying at the ends and weaving themselves throughout the entire forest.

"Oh, come on, you can't be having trouble with that. It's got basically no defenses whatsoever!" a voice spoke to him in a raspy, accented tone. Aggrephol, the demon he had contracted, hovered just above and to the right of Halter.

"Well, if you have any bright ideas, I'd love to hear them!" Halter growled back.

"Simple, loosen my restrictions and let me take care of it," Aggrephol grinned, knowing full well that wasn't an option. As it was, he could only partially manifest himself, and only to Halter. Any more lenience to a greater demon and the effects could be disastrous, "Of course, barring that, since it seems to be connected to the forest in some way, you could try leaving the forest?"

Halter had already tried that, it seemed that the forest looped in on itself, so once you left south you'd end up in the north and vice-versa. Still, the idea seemed to be on the right track.

Halter reached his hand out and flexed at the bond he had created with the demonic planes to shape the spell he was casting, pulling power into his body to merge with his mana. Mana to give shape and context to the spell, and demon energy to fuel it. A few minor scrapes and bruises began to heal as he did so thanks to the reinforcing and regenerative properties of demonic energy. Once the energy had mixed with his mana, he released the mixture out through his hands and called the name of the spell he was casting, further shaping it with his intent.

"Brimstone,"

An area of the ground transformed into a patch of flaming, pitch-black rock. It wasn't much, but it weakened most creatures who walked over it, and most importantly was not part of the forest. Hopefully, if the creature was killed while on top of the brimstone, it would stay dead. Still, it was just a hunch, and a poorly informed one at that.

Halter hid in the foliage for whatever good it did. It seemed to track him regardless of how he hid his presence. In fact, he wasn't sure it even sensed as normal creatures did, perhaps using some type of soul-sense instead. He also began to ready a bolt of hellfire by drawing on demon energies again and mixing it with the rest of his mana.

If this didn't work, he was out of options.

The creature lumbered over the terrain and onto the brimstone, just as planned. Halter jumped out of the brush shouting, "Hellfire" at the top of his lungs while pointing his fingers at the thing's head.

A lance of fire shot out and blew the creature's head clean off. That wasn't enough to calm Halter's nerves though, and he kept an eye out with demon sight to ensure he wasn't celebrating prematurely.

The monster's soul hadn't left its body. Halter had no idea if that was normal or not, if he was honest with himself. He'd never killed anything larger than a cricket with demon sight up, much less something that was easily 20 times his own size. Thankfully, after some time, the edges of the corpse's soul seemed to fade and Halter relaxed a bit.

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He pulled out his contract with Aggrephol and set it out in front of him as he sat down. Although, technically illegal, it was rather common as a warlock to contract a greater demon. It took several years' worth of resources and a great deal of knowledge, but it was typically worth the effort as greater demon contracts typically included rights for summoning the majority of their minions, a few spells unique to that demon in particular, and the ability to metabolize their specific demon energies into mana given time.

Unfortunately, Halter just happened to have summoned one of the very few greater demons that had both no minions and no unique spells. The only real benefit Aggrephol gave was the energy metabolization, and even that was more finicky than other demons. He had to wait until there were no enemies nearby or the energy would leap out of him and splash uncontrolled on whatever was attacking him.

He did come with plenty of cons, however. He apparently felt the need to constantly snark on literally anything Halter did. Most greater demons would have better things to do than harass their contractors 24/7, but noooo. That would be too much of a luxury. No wonder the contract had been suspiciously cheap.

Halter closed his eyes to focus, and started pulling out Aggrephol's energies to start metabolizing them.

"You better be getting that contract out to work on it," Aggrephol warned.

"That's... kind of out-of-character for you. Usually, you don't make threats. Usually, you just-"

"HALTER! Now! Change the contract now! QUICK!" there was some panic to his voice.

What could he possibly be on about? HE certainly wasn't in any danger, as his true body was somewhere in the demonic planes.

"Agg, what-"

The demon interrupted, distressed, "Halter, change the terms immediately, or- just- BEHIND YOU, MORON!"

Halter leapt out of his position, just barely avoiding a swipe to the head, catching it to the chest instead. The force knocked him across the air a good distance before slamming him into a tree. He could tell that he had several broken ribs and a deep cut that went all the way across his chest. He could see the gash from where his head was positioned. Shock had set in holding back the pain, and it was likely only remnants of demonic energy that kept him alive for the moment, although even that was leaving him as it began to seek out his attacker.

By reflex he began calling more demon energy that wasn't from Aggrephol, before realizing he was out of mana and that he should probably have been moving out of the way of the monster's next swipe. Which nailed him in the chest again. The reinforcement from the demon energies making it somehow survivable.

His vision was blurring, but he could see his previously absentee partner appear out of nowhere and kick the creature aside, the sheer force of the impact knocking the almost multi-ton behemoth into the air for a brief moment. The beast recovered, annoyed but lacking any real damage due to its properties. Halter's partner didn't seem perturbed, and simply kept up the offensive.

It was weird that she could hit that hard. He was fairly certain that she wasn't able to cast spells, but apparently not? Maybe he was delirious from loss of blood.

"Halter! The contract! Change the contract!" Aggrephol had somehow moved the paper of their contract and was waving to him with a concerned expression.

"What changes... do I need to make?" Halter could tell he was dying, and while his partner was doing her best, he doubted she could simply kill the thing or she would've likely done so from the outset.

"Right... hang on..." Aggrephol seemed to have to think for a bit, "The contractor will be able to cast summon avatar out of the demon's energies. The avatar brought forth by this spell will be limited by the contractor's will and abilities."

"That doesn't...?" Summon avatar was a spell for summoning a God's powers, not a demon's.

"I know. I'm weird. Just do the thing and not die! Ok!?" the demon was practically shoving the paper into Halter's hands.

Meanwhile, the beast was gaining ground towards him, despite the occasional blow that would knock off entire portions of its body.

Halter sighed, then winced in pain. It took quite a bit of effort to move his arm, but he was eventually able to dip his finger in the blood from his chest wound. Aggrephol muttered something he didn't catch and moved to support his hand. The demon energies within Halter mixed somewhat with Aggrephol's manifestation, another thing Halter didn't know was possible. His hand felt significantly lighter though, so he was able to finish writing both sentences into the contract. They were probably misspelled and illegible, but it should still work. Nearly all magics worked through intention, so contracts likely worked that way, too.

Halter drew in Aggrephol's energy as best he could. The way the statement had been worded made him think that he'd be able to cast it using only the demon's energy, so he simply released the energy as he drew it in, calling out, "Summon avatar,"

Aggrephol's form solidified in a flash of red light. It wasn't too noticeable to Halter, but clearly it had some effect as both active combatants, who had gotten uncomfortably close as the fight had drawn on, shuddered when the demon appeared. There was a sharpness to the air now.

Agg turned towards the monster and shot forward faster than Halter could track. Halter flicked on demon sight and watched as the great demon reached its hand into the creature and ripped its soul out. He looked back at Halter, grinned, and ate the soul. The monster collapsed into a pile on the ground.

That was all Halter could see before he slipped out of consciousness.