His massive arms strained, muscles bulging as he tried to force the hammer down, but it didn't move. Not even a fraction of an inch.

Jack's red eyes stared up at him through the helmet's visor.

A cold stare burrowed into his soul.

"I was going to take it easy on you both," Jack said, his voice carrying across the silent arena with the flat finality of a judge pronouncing a sentence.

There was something in his tone, a razor's edge of annoyance that cut through his usual emotionless delivery. "Not anymore."

Then Jack kicked Vox im the gut sending him back a few meters.

The hammer flew backward as if Vox had been holding a toy instead of a weapon forged in hellfire.

The massive demon stumbled, his balance shattered by the sudden reversal of force.

Jack's other hand reached behind his back and gripped Korr's wrist. The Deathfrost Demon's eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen.

Jack yanked.

The frost-tipped claws tore free from his back with a wet sound that made several demons in the crowd flinch.

Blood should have poured from the wounds, but Jack's armor drank it immediately, the black and crimson plates seeming to pulse with darker energy.

Korr tried to pull away, his survival instincts screaming at him to create distance. But Jack's grip was as hard as iron.

The snap echoed across the training yard like a gunshot.

Korr's arm bent at an angle that shouldn't exist, the bone breaking so completely that fragments pressed against the skin from the inside.

The Deathfrost Demon's scream tore through the arena, high and ragged with agony that transcended physical pain.

Jack released him and Korr collapsed, cradling his ruined arm, his pale face going even whiter as shock began to set in.

He activated Abyssal Steps and reality folded.

Jack reappeared at the arena's edge, right where the crowd pressed closest to the boundary. Demons scrambled backward, their instincts recognizing a predator in their midst even if their minds hadn't caught up yet.

Jack's transformed claws extended fully, the black scales rippling across both arms like a living shadow.

He moved laterally along the crowd's edge, his claws held out at chest height.

The blades carved through the air just inches from the nearest demons' faces, close enough that several felt the wind of their passage.

But Jack wasn't targeting them.

As he moved, his claws scraped against exposed skin. Each contact drew blood, tiny amounts from dozens of demons in the span of heartbeats.

Drops and smears painted his claws crimson as he completed his circuit.

The black and crimson plates absorbed the blood like a sponge drinking water.

The liquid disappeared into the metal, and immediately, veins of bright red light began spreading across Jack's armor in geometric patterns.

They pulsed with each heartbeat, growing brighter, more intense, until Jack's entire form seemed to glow with internal fire.

[Blood Feast will explode in five seconds]

The crowd stared, dozens of demons touching their minor wounds, trying to understand what had just happened.

Why had he drawn their blood? What had he done with it?

Jack didn't give them time to figure it out.

He activated Abyssal Steps again, reappearing directly in front of Korr. The Deathfrost Demon was still on the ground, still clutching his shattered arm, his pale eyes unfocused with pain.

Jack leaned down, bringing his helmet close to Korr's face.

"Boo."

The word came out as barely a whisper, intimate and cold, carrying weight far beyond its simple syllable.

Korr's eyes focused. He saw Jack's red eyes through the visor and saw the pulsing red veins covering the armor.

[Status Effect Applied: FEAR]

[Target: Korr]

[Effect: Target takes 30% increased damage from all sources]

Terror crashed over Korr's mind. His remaining hand scrambling against the ice as he tried to push himself backward, away from those eyes that promised nothing but death.

"No," Korr gasped, the word breaking into fragments. "No, please, I yield! I YIELD!"

He tried to stand, his legs shaking so badly they could barely support his weight. His broken arm hung useless at his side, but he didn't care.

Every instinct he possessed screamed at him to run, to get away from this demon.

Korr turned and stumbled toward the arena's edge, his movements were desperate and uncoordinated.

Jack's arms wrapped around him from behind.

A bear hug lifted Korr off his feet, pinning his arms to his sides with crushing force. The Deathfrost Demon thrashed, his intact arm beating uselessly against Jack's grip, his legs kicking at air.

"Let me go!" Korr's voice climbed toward hysteria. "LET ME GO!"

Jack said nothing. He just held on, his armored form unmoving as a statue while Korr struggled.

The red veins across Jack's armor began pulsing faster. Brighter. The light intensified until it hurt to look at directly.

It seemed like Jack's entire body was about to ignite.

The explosion erupted from Jack's armor in a sphere of hellfire that consumed everything within ten meters.

The blast was deafening, a crack of thunder that shook the floor and sent demons scrambling backward.

[Hellfire Detonation: ACTIVATED]

[Damage Dealt: 7,373]

Flames roared outward in a perfect sphere, red, gold and white at their core.

The heat was so intense that nearby ice pillars began to melt, water streaming down their sides in rivers.

Korr's scream cut off abruptly, swallowed by the flames.

Smoke billowed upward, thick and black, obscuring the center of the arena.

The crowd fell silent, staring at the roiling cloud, trying to see through it.

Inside the smoke, hidden from view, Jack activated Infernal Conversion. His stats shifted, magic flowing into strength, his body beginning its transformation.

Black scales erupted across his skin, spreading from his hands up his arms, across his chest, covering every inch of his armor.

His face elongated slightly, features becoming more predatory. His armor seemed to merge with the scales, becoming part of him.

[Infernal Conversion: ACTIVATED]

[Duration: 60 seconds]

Jack looked down at Korr. The Deathfrost Demon was still alive, somehow, his body charred and broken, his breathing coming in ragged gasps that bubbled with blood. The hellfire explosion had cooked him from the outside in, but his will to survive had kept his heart beating.

Jack grabbed Korr's head with both clawed hands.

The Deathfrost Demon's eyes opened, focusing on Jack's transformed face with the glazed confusion of someone too far gone to understand what they were seeing.

Then Jack twisted his hands.

CRACK!!!!

The snap was clean, carrying a note of absolute finality that even the crowd outside the smoke could hear.

Korr's body went limp immediately, his pale eyes staring at nothing.

[Korr | Deathfrost Demon: DEFEATED]

Jack dropped the corpse and straightened, his transformed body standing nearly seven feet tall now, every inch of him covered in black scales.

Through the smoke, he could see shapes moving. Vox, charging forward with his hammer raised, hoping to catch Jack while he was supposedly vulnerable in the aftermath of the explosion.

The massive demon swung blindly into the smoke, his hammer carving through the black clouds with hellfire trailing behind it.

The weapon connected with something solid.

But it wasn't Jack.

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