The transformation that had overtaken Sylvester was terrifying, nauseating, and rapid to a degree that challenged the laws of nature and magic alike. The forbidden compound he had swallowed was not merely a stimulant, it was a concentrated curse tearing the soul to feed the body.
Within counted seconds, Sylvester's magical rank leaped from its modest, stagnant B+, piercing the barrier of A− with violence, then continuing its mad and turbulent ascent until it brushed the threshold of the terrifying rank A.
This ascent was neither natural nor stable, it resembled the explosion of a magical reactor inside his deteriorating body. A black, viscous, toxic aura erupted from his pores, resembling smoke rising from burning corpses.
This turbulent aura found insufficient space to expand freely because of the transparent Void Cage with which Lumia had enclosed the balcony.
As a result, the black aura rebounded upon itself and condensed, filling the isolated dome's space with a suffocating atmospheric pressure that began to compete with and smother Dex's blue flames that had commanded the space moments before.
The man once called Sylvester Williams, Dex's uncle and the city's elegant financial administrator, no longer existed.
He was no longer human by any measure. He had become a raging beast, a personified nightmare: his body swelled beyond two and a half meters, and his skin tore to reveal from beneath it black muscles saturated with corrupted mana.
His wide mouth, which had lost its lips, dripped acidic green saliva that fell on the marble floor and produced a hissing sound and immediate small craters.
As for his hands, their fingers had elongated to end in black, twisted claws, sharp as guillotine blades, dripping concentrated, lethal mana.
"Power, absolute power!"
The abomination growled in a distorted, rough, overlapping voice, as though several demonic throats were speaking simultaneously.
His mind was sinking rapidly into the swamp of madness imposed by the compound, his memories, his political plans, and even his fear of death, all dissolved. Nothing remained but one primal and violent instinct: destruction and the crushing of whatever stood before him.
"I will tear you apart, you wretch!"
The moment he finished his growl, the abomination Sylvester vanished from his spot. He did not run, he launched at an explosive speed that shattered the sound barrier inside the small dome.
The force of his feet alone was sufficient to shatter the marble paving and create a deep, black-glowing fissure in the floor where he had been standing.
The speed was enormous, blind, and far faster, by multiples, than Dex's analytical mind had anticipated. Before Dex could even blink, the abomination's hideous face was directly before his, and the black claws were descending toward his neck with the intention of severing his head from his body in a single blow.
By pure instinct driven by the phoenix mana that had sensed the lethal danger, Dex raised his blue fire sword with both hands, adopting a complete defensive blocking posture.
KLAAAAANG!
It was not the sound of mana colliding with mana, it sounded like a mountain of pure iron striking a fragile anvil. The physical force carried by Sylvester's claws was overwhelming, savage, and impossible to resist.
Though the blue fire sword held and did not break, thanks to the purity of Dex's mana, the kinetic force of the blow transferred entirely to the young man's body.
Dex was hurled backward with cannon-blast force. He retreated ten meters, his feet sliding and gouging two parallel trenches in the luxurious marble in a desperate attempt to stop.
His back struck the transparent void wall that Lumia had created, producing a violent concussion in his internal organs. He dropped to one knee, a thin thread of crimson blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Both arms that had been gripping the sword went completely numb for a moment, as though a lightning bolt had struck their nerves.
"This is horrifying, he is far too fast..." Dex whispered between his gasping breaths, his eyes narrowing with intense focus as he tracked the beast preparing for another assault.
"And his physical power surpasses rank A knights, terrifying force driven by the burning of Life Force, but he, he fights without a mind."
The abomination Sylvester gave him no opportunity to catch his breath or restore the mana balance in his core. The beast attacked again, but this time not with a single blow, but with a mad and continuous barrage of random strikes.
"Die! Die! Die, you wretch! Dissolve!"
Sylvester was fighting like a wounded, cornered predator, relying entirely on instinct, absolute violence, and unimaginable speed. He swung his claws right and left, striking from above and below, with no combat pattern, no sword art, no fighting technique of the kind that noble families train in.
Every swing of his claws through the air released a spray of black poison and rotting mana. This spray was not merely offensive energy, it was a corrosive substance dissolving everything it touched.
When the spray collided with Dex's defensive flames, it produced an irritating buzzing sound, as though water were being poured onto boiling oil, and the blue flames retreated and partially extinguished under the weight of the dense poison.
Dex found himself suddenly in a purely defensive position, completely cornered in the dome's corner. He was incapable of launching any counterattack, his entire concentration was directed at surviving the next second.
He began employing the [Shadow Step] skill, blending it with the lightness and speed of the phoenix bird.
He evaded the lethal blows with astonishing agility, ducking beneath a right claw, leaping backward to dodge a kick that shattered the stone railing, and tilting his torso by mere millimeters to avoid acidic spitting that nearly blinded his eyes.
But the pressure was enormous. Sylvester's aura was consuming oxygen and choking Dex's flames. In one moment, due to the density of the attacks, Sylvester's black claw managed to breach Dex's defenses slightly, tearing his shirt at the left shoulder and inflicting three surface wounds.
The moment the black poison touched his blood, Dex felt unbearable pain, as though live embers had been embedded in his flesh. The poison began attempting to seep into his veins to corrupt his core.
Dex bit his own lips until they bled, and forced the blue mana in his body to concentrate at his shoulder, burning the poison from inside his wound to prevent its spread. This cost him excruciating physical pain and a significant drain on his magical energy.
"If this continues, he will drain me completely," Dex thought, his mind working at lightning speed amid the storm of death. "I cannot match him in brute force or physical speed as long as the compound courses through his veins.
He is like a devastating hurricane. But the hurricane is blind, the forbidden compound grants him energy that surpasses imagination, yet it robs him of strategic thinking and tactical awareness. He is nothing but a mass of muscles and angry corrupted mana.
This is his only weakness, I must stop trying to resist the hurricane, and begin directing it."
Dex drew a deep breath, amid the battle's smoke and toxins, and decided to change the rules of the game. He had understood that victory lay not in a stronger blow, but in a calmer mind.