Flint swallowed hard, the sound grating in his own ears, the icy terror radiating from the pit paralyzing him.

He slowly, nervously, turned around, still clutching the unconscious Elena.

Standing upright in the center of the deep fissure he had created was Grey.

His posture was unnatural, rigid, his arms hanging low and loose, his body appearing as if held up by invisible, taut wires.

The transformation was absolute and horrifying.

Two huge, curved, dagger-like horns jutted viciously from Grey's temples, their surface appearing like polished bone.

His upper body was charred black; his shirt had been vaporized, leaving only tattered scraps clinging to his waist.

The essence of the change was in his aura and his eyes.

His pupils had turned a shade of pure, feral crimson, burning against the now abyssal black whites of his eyes.

Dark crimson aura steamed off his skin in thick, volatile clouds, making the air around him shimmer and distort.

His body was intensely hot; small, complex runes formed a circular pattern pulsing on his chest, and intricate lines of the same runes raced along his arms, down to his very fingertips, glowing with dark power.

This was not the Grey he knew. This was something unleashed.

Flint blinked, the shock momentarily causing him to lose focus. In that instant, Grey vanished.

He wasn't merely fast; he was gone. Flint's heart seized.

He could feel the overwhelming, molten presence of that killing intent behind him, but his enhanced reflexes were too slow. Before he could even begin to turn, a devastating impact slammed into his back.

A sharp, sickening cracking noise erupted from Flint's spine.

He was blasted forward at breakneck speed, the impact forcing the unconscious Elena off his shoulder. She fell heavily onto the churned earth.

Flint rolled uncontrollably across the ground, carving a long, deep scrape into the lawn.

Just as his body bounced off the earth to continue rolling, a crimson blur appeared directly underneath him.

Grey's legs were bent low, his right fist already earthed to the ground to gather momentum.

The fist swung upwards, a crimson aura uppercut that struck Flint squarely in the belly.

His body arched backward violently. He vomited another mouthful of blood into the night air as he was launched straight up toward the sky.

He was utterly helpless, his body now a mere projectile.

He couldn't breathe, couldn't think of a counter-attack. The moment he reached the apex of his ascent, Grey appeared again, this time hovering above him.

Grey's right leg rose up, his thigh touching his belly, his heel flaring brightly with crimson aura.

Then, with a furious, downward whip, he brought his leg down.

The heel struck Flint right on the spine. A sickening crack echoed, and Flint plummeted back toward the earth.

A massive cloud of dust and pulverized earth erupted as Flint caved into the ground, forming a new, far larger pit than the one Grey had just emerged from.

Flint lay sprawled, groaning, his crimson skin bruised black, coughing blood again and again, completely broken.

Just as he thought the brutal assault had ceased, his eyes snapped wide open, gripping with primal fear.

He lay helpless, sensing the approaching doom.

Above in the air, framed by the moonlight, descending below was Grey.

Both of his arms had unnaturally ballooned to twice their normal size.

The runic lines etched into his arms glowed with a frantic, blinding light.

Grey started punching down. Not just once, but in a furious, rhythmic frenzy, his massive arms pumping back and forth, throwing almost twenty hyper-speed punches.

Twenty humongous crimson aura fists rained down upon the mutant professor.

Flint felt death approaching, a cold certainty that this was the end.

He knew he had to evade, to run, to save his life, but his body refused to obey, pinned by the overwhelming pressure of this unleashed power.

It was as if Grey's punches were his final judgment, and he was forced to accept it.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The sounds of impact echoed through the night, shaking the very foundations of the Academy.

The ground heaved violently as a colossal cloud of pulverized dust and raw crimson aura surged into the sky.

The final reverberations of Grey's relentless assault faded, and the immense cloud of dust slowly began to settle back onto the ravaged academy grounds.

The scene revealed was one of absolute, terrifying destruction.

The pit Grey had created was now vast, ragged, and deep.

In the center lay the mangled form of the mutant professor.

Flint's body had been reduced to mincemeat, barely recognizable as human or something else.

The entire floor of the crater was grotesquely painted with his dark crimson blood.

Flint was croaking, a sickening, wet sound escaping his ruined throat.

He lifted a trembling hand slightly, his focus locked on the figure standing above the pit.

Grey remained standing, his massive, runic-veined arms deflated but still twitching. His posture was rigid and unnatural.

His face was utterly stoic, devoid of any discernible expression, his abyssal black and crimson eyes staring down at the dying professor, suggesting he was functioning on pure, terrifying instinct rather than conscious thought.

"T-True… d-demon… m-m-mons… ter…" Flint choked out, his last words an acknowledgment of the horror that had defeated him.

His body went instantly limp. He exhaled his final, ragged breath.

Immediately, the terrible transformation began to reverse.

Flint's skin, bone, and remaining mutant flesh started to disintegrate, rapidly crumbling into fine, black dust that rose and was carried away by the night wind.

Within moments, only a grotesque, partially charred skeleton with a few clinging strips of muscle remained in the bloody crater, a gruesome memorial to his ambition.

With the death of his enemy, the intense crimson steam pouring from Grey's body finally ceased.

The enormous horns retracted, pulling back into his temples without a trace.

His eyes, burning with demonic power moments before, flickered, the black and crimson fading.

His pupils rolled back.

The sheer exhaustion and the abrupt withdrawal of the forbidden power overwhelmed him.

Grey's rigid posture instantly collapsed. He fell backward with a heavy, unceremonious thump onto the edge of the crater, losing consciousness completely.

Silence descended upon the immediate battlefield, heavy and absolute.

The moonlit night turned calm, broken only by the distant sounds of roars and clashes, the echoes of the chaos Flint's ally had unleashed on the city.

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