I cut him some slack, he's still a grown man past his prime walking among middle schoolers. Not high and mighty, more like… "been there, done that". If I had painfully extricated myself from a spiral of bullying without help from anyone, I'd also choose to be lone wolf until there were different people around me.
If he dies, it's for taunting a guy on edge. That moment, he acted like a middle schooler.