[Third Person's PoV]
Clark started to hyperventilate as he stared down at his hands, the crimson blood standing stark against his pale skin, dripping from his fingers like a leaky faucet. The scent of iron clung to his nostrils, thick and nauseating, blending with the foul, decaying stench of the beast standing before him. His chest rose and fell in rapid, heaving breaths, each inhale more strained than the last. The sound of his own breathing echoed in his ears, loud and erratic. His eyes trembled, struggling to focus, shaking with disbelief and fury at the scene unfolding.
A high-pitched ringing overtook his senses, growing louder with each passing second. His pupils dilated, then began to glow—first red, then his pupil shifting into a deep, radiant gold, glowing like twin suns rising. The skin around his eyes flushed hot, radiating with unstable energy. Veins bulged across his neck and forehead as he clenched his face in both hands, his fingers digging into his face. The golden orbs of power still blazed through the gaps in his fingers, pulsing with fury.
Then he screamed.
A sound far from human erupted from deep within him—a roar more beast than man, more pain than rage.
"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRHHHHHH!!!"
The world shook with his voice.
His body convulsed violently, vibrating from the power he unleashed. The very ground quaked beneath his feet. The walls of the house groaned as if caught in the middle of an earthquake, furniture toppled over, and tools clattered and crashed to the floor in a thunderous chorus. Dust rained from the rafters.
Heat exploded from his eyes in waves so intense that the blood on his face and hands instantly evaporated, leaving nothing behind. The air rippled around him, distorted by the overwhelming temperature.
---
Far away, nestled in a quiet shrine, Krypto lay curled on his small bed. His ears suddenly twitched upright. A low whimper escaped his throat as his head jerked toward the horizon. Something was wrong—terribly wrong.
Without hesitation, Krypto sprang to his feet and barked loudly, his voice echoing across the shrine. In a blur of motion, he leaped into the air, his crimson cape materializing and fluttering behind him.
---
Back in the collapsing house, the Oni towered above Clark. The demon's massive, muscular frame radiated with malice. Its eyes narrowed as it winced and covered its ears, Clark's roar still reverberating through the air.
"Too loud…" the Oni groaned in a guttural, ogre-like voice, staggering back a few steps. It glared down at Clark and squinted at the golden glow pouring from his eyes, noticing the flickers of solar energy crackling at the corners like unstable lightning.
Clark slowly lowered his hands from his face. Wisps of vapor rose from his eyes, and his jaw clenched tight with restrained fury. Each breath came as a labored growl. His muscles tensed like drawn wires, every fiber of his being thrumming with raw power.
The Oni chuckled and tilted its head, baring a row of jagged teeth.
"Keke… You're no little girl" it said mockingly, sniffing the air. "But you smell just as sweet... Delicious, even. Tell me, are you still pure? Or have you been... tainted?"
Clark's voice came out as a rasp, low and gravelly—almost demonic in its tone.
"Krypto…" he muttered, more to himself than the beast. "Protecting the people… is the last of my concerns right now. I'll leave that to you."
The Oni lunged forward and swung a massive fist down toward him, grinning with unhinged glee. Clark met the blow with his forearm, and the resulting shockwave rocked the entire house. Cracks split across the floor and walls, and chunks of the ceiling began to collapse. Debris rained around them like falling stars.
Clark's body trembled under the impact, but his expression shifted from wild fury to a chilling calm. The golden light in his eyes continued to spark and crackle.
"And you…" he said coldly, his voice like a death sentence. "I'll make your existence short. You'll find the hell that awaits you like heaven compared to what you're about to experience."
The Oni snarled, flames beginning to lick the edges of its wide mouth. Its horns pulsed with a deep red glow as it prepared to unleash its hellfire.
But before it could act, Clark moved.
With a roar, Clark tossed the Oni upward, launching the Oni through the ceiling. The roof shattered like glass, vaporized by the enormous beam of heat vision that burst from his eyes. The sky above was illuminated by a burning column of solar energy that pierced the heavens like a divine lance.
Outside, the people nearby stared in awe and terror at the pillar of fire. They shielded their eyes from the blinding light, unsure of what had just happened.
When the beam finally faded, the Oni reappeared in the sky. Its arms were crossed in a futile attempt to shield itself. Its body was blackened and blistered, skin charred and cracked. The flesh of its face had been completely burned away, revealing exposed muscle and bone. But already, it was healing. Flesh crawled back into place, the skin regenerating rapidly.
Oni were infamous for two things: their immense strength—and their near-invincible constitution. As demons born from hellfire, their resistance to heat and flame was unrivaled.
The sky cracked like thunder as Clark launched himself upward in pursuit. The house beneath exploded outward from the sheer force of his takeoff. Rubble and debris flew in all directions.
But just as the shattered pieces of wood and stone threatened to strike the bystanders, Krypto appeared. His arrival was a gust of salvation—a burst of wind so powerful that it blew the debris away harmlessly into the distance. He landed between the people and the carnage, standing firm.
In the sky above, Clark closed in.
His cape flared behind him like wings. He reached the Oni just as it prepared a counterattack—and drove his fist into its chest force, the shockwave rippling across the clouds.
Clark could hear the Oni's bones breaking—cracking like dry branches—before rapidly repairing themselves with grotesque pops. Despite the grotesque sounds, the Oni's wide, unhinged smile never faded. It was a feral, twisted grin stretched across his monstrous face, even as he was sent flying across the sky, propelled by Clark's relentless pursuit.
Clark's eyes blazed like the morning sun breaking over the horizon, golden and unforgiving. With a surge of fury, he unleashed another scorching blast of heat vision. The concentrated beam struck the Oni square in the chest, searing through its flesh and knocking the beast downward like a meteor.
The Oni's body hit the street with a thunderous crash, dragging across the asphalt and carving a long, jagged trench in the road. Sparks and chunks of concrete flew in all directions as his massive frame gouged through the earth, leaving chaos in his wake.
Meanwhile, Krypto sped ahead at blinding velocity, darting through the chaos like a white comet. He carefully evacuated bystanders, nudging them out of harm's way or whisking them off the streets, his cape flaring behind him, helping him in his efforts.
The Oni, groaning and singed, slammed his heel into the ground and pushed himself upright again, his massive frame still burning with Clark's fury. Despite his grotesque injuries, he kept moving, raising his arms to shield himself from the unrelenting heat vision, though his hands blistered and smoked under the pressure.
Clark didn't give him time to recover. He landed, sliding across the ground in a streak of speed, sparks flying beneath his boots from sheer friction. With a battle cry, he unleashed a brutal uppercut. His golden bracers gleamed as they ignited with solar heat, and his punch landed with thunderous force.
The Oni crossed his thick forearms, bracing for the blow, but Clark's power still lifted him from the ground, sending him hurtling skyward again. Cars nearby were overturned from the sheer force, windows shattered in a domino effect, and streetlights trembled in place before collapsing.
Clark crouched briefly, then launched after him once more, the ground beneath him bursting like an impact crater as rubble and dust were propelled upward. He caught up in mid-air and drove another punch into the Oni's gut, sending him soaring over hills and rooftops, crashing through distant treetops and town outskirts.
But as Clark closed in for a third strike, he saw something—the demon's hands glowing with spiritual energy. A large weapon began to materialize in his grip. It was a Kanabo: a massive iron club lined with jagged spikes, its surface glowing with molten crimson fire. Dark-red flames licked the weapon's edge, and the sky seemed to darken around it.
The Oni snarled and swung the Kanabo in a wide arc. Clark instinctively formed a protective barrier of golden energy with his cape, but the sheer force cracked the shield before it dissolved back into red-hot particles. The Oni's club slammed into him, slowed only slightly by Clark's cape as it coiled to absorb some of the impact.
They both plummeted from the sky like twin stars falling to earth, crashing into a wide rice field below. The ground exploded in every direction, a mushroom cloud of dirt and water vapor rising into the air.
As the dust settled, Clark stood tall, his arms crossed above his head, holding off the descending Kanabo. Sparks flew from the grinding clash of sunstone metal against superhuman strength. The Oni towered above, pressing down with all his ogrish might, trying to crush Clark beneath him.
With a roar that rippled through the valley, Clark exploded upward with pure kinetic force, pushing the Oni back several feet. The ground cracked beneath the demon's heavy steps as he regained balance and charged forward again, red feet slamming into the earth like falling anvils.
Clark met the charge head-on. The two dissolved into a flurry of rapid blows—punches, blocks, parries—each impact louder than thunder, each shockwave strong enough to flatten trees and strip the earth. Clark's fury had overtaken his logic; he stopped defending and went on the offensive, attacking with animalistic rage.
Their battle was a blur, too fast for any normal human to track. The rice stalks around them flattened and disintegrated, caught in the deadly storm of their fight. Wind and debris spiraled outward in chaotic waves.
The Oni growled, then swung his Kanabo in a devastating arc, the spiked end crashing into Clark's cheek. Clark's head snapped to the side, spittle and blood flying, but he didn't fall. The Oni followed with a kick to Clark's chest. Clark grunted, crossing his arms just in time to absorb most of the blow, and skidded backward across the muddy field, digging trenches in the earth with his boots.
Then the Oni opened his jaws wide, revealing blackened fangs and a glowing throat. A torrent of hellish flame burst forth—dark red and seething, like magma brought to life. The flame raced across the field, scorching everything in its path.
Clark took a deep breath, his chest expanding before he exhaled a freezing blast of super-cooled air. His arctic breath collided with the inferno in a roaring explosion of thermal energy, sending steam and ice particles spiraling upward. The clash created a thick, opaque fog that blanketed the field in eerie silence.
Within the fog, only two things were visible—the Oni's glowing red demon eyes and twin horns, blazing like molten brands. And from the other end of the mist, Clark's eyes—gold and luminous, two suns cutting through the darkness, burning with righteous fury.
His chest rose and fell as he glared into the mist, heart pounding with fury, his fists clenched tightly at his sides.
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