Without warning, it thrust out an arm and flung itself through the air towards Ken with terrifying speed. He stumbled back in panic, his exhausted body screaming in protest as he turned to flee. But where could he go under that relentless grey sky? The shadowy demon was closing in, its terrible screams echoing across the barren flats.

Just as the shadowy creature was about to wrap its outstretched claws around Ken's throat, a blur of motion intercepted it. The elegantly dressed Azrael emerged from the grey mist, launching a swift punch that shook the demon-like creature like a thunderclap, sending it tumbling backward through the air.

“Interrupting my business I see!” Azrael smiled. “You’ll pay for this.”

Azrael stood tall beside the lad, calm eyes tracking his foe as it picked itself up with a twisted screech. “My bad! It’s not what I had in mind,” He told Ken as he softly patted the boy’s head. “Still, watch,”

Relaxed, Azrael then walked towards it.

Before it could recover, the creature spit and snarled, shooting toward the new opponent with uncanny speed. But where its prey had been stiff with fear, Azrael was liquid grace. He blocked, deflected, and evaded every blow with expert precision, circulating his foe with fluid footwork.

Realizing Azrael was beyond its grasp, madness took the creature. Ken looked on in horror as the thing's shape writhed, and from every pore black limbs tore free, lashing out assaults from every angle in a squirming cocoon of shadows. Still, Azrael artfully dodged each strike with serene precision while launching none of his own leaving not a scratch on his elegant suit.

Ken was transfixed by the display - their movements blurred into an elegant waltz. The speed at which they moved was unfathomable.

I shouldn’t be able to grasp their movements, yet I can! Ken was confused.

Then a booted heel caught the creature mid-flight, sending it skidding away in a spray of fickle lump. 

Rising, its shape began to melt and warp, knotting into a single aberrant form - a hellish blend, a twisted melange of shadow and flesh, ready to drown its foe in a tide of wrath. It then shot itself back at Azrael with startling speed and the melee restarted. Mid-fight, its muscles, and limbs flowed in a psychedelic blur as four thrashing limbs emerged, then eight, then more than Ken could count.

The writhing mass of limbs threw a raging barrage at the angel.

Azrael blocked and parried the onslaught with relaxed ease, barely acknowledging each strike that should have ripped flesh from bone. The creature's fury seemed to amuse rather than threaten.

In the chaos of flailing limbs, as the creature was about to throw one rough punch from one of its elongated arms, its knuckle just barely grazed the ground. At that instant, the rocky ground instantly broke into a swarming mist of decayed ruin and shadow.

And right before that punch could reach Azrael, he instantly vanished.

Azrael appeared beside Ken, swiftly grabbing the boy's left arm, and he vanished again. They reappeared miles away, on a large surface of rocky ground, bearing witness to the creature's destruction.

Cracks raced outwards from the point of impact like a spider's web as shadows seeped through every fissure. Within moments, the blight-like demolition had reduced the rocky ground and all its surrounding pits to shadow ruins for miles in every direction. Yet Azrael was smiling calmly as chaos erupted around him.

Ken did not even have a moment to lift his head and look at his savior, since with impossible haste, the aberration flung back towards its prey.

Carefree, Azrael let go of Ken’s arm and launched himself at the surging mass. The battle resumed with frenetic intensity. He flowed between wild blows with liquid grace, attacking from every angle. A snap kick here crumbled an elbow. A jaw jab there collapsed a flailing pair of claws. His fists and feet struck with pinpoint accuracy, each impact punctuated by an echoing crack.

But the creature instantly regenerated its wounds in a flash.

In the heat of the battle, the amalgamated horror widened its jaws, vomiting out a geyser of dark liquid. Azrael cartwheeled clear, letting the foul spray dissolve the ground behind him.

Yet in that split second, a shadowy tendril lashed out like a viper, snaring his ankle in a vice-like grip. Sensing softness, the creature attacked with a rough roar.

Unfazed, Azrael smiled. His next movement was a blur - a lightning-fast punch that hammered into the monster's gut with bone-shattering force. But where blood or guts should have spilled, a shadowy mass burst forth from its back, the mass was far greater than the body it housed - a roiling tidal wave of dark malevolence that threatened to engulf the battlefield.

That punch should’ve sent it flying, yet the beast didn’t even move an inch from where it stood!

Undeterred, Azrael flowed into motion. He pivoted on his trapped foot, his body blurred into one full spinning rotation as he guided himself one step behind the creature and extended his right arm to capture the shadowy mass that emerged out from the flesh.

His hand caught the darkness within an elegant grasp.

With careless ease, he brought the squirming mass before his stern gaze.  Through clenched fingers, black tendrils still tethered the black mass to the creature's ruined husk, wriggling like visceral umbilical cords.

With dwindling reserves, the creature threw all of its malformed bulk at the jailer in one final, desperate suicide charge. 

At the last instant, Azrael pivoted on his heel, redirecting his centrifugal spin as the body of the creature fell under his feet. As its essence collapsed beneath Azrael’s merciless grip, the creature let out an anguished shriek that chilled Ken to his core. Its malformed body sliced and twisted in violent contortions, limbs swinging amongst dissolving flesh.

Through tearing tendons and cracking bone, it fought against the crushing grip tearing away its essence from its body. But with each contraction, more of its rotting shell broke off in sloughing chunks of tar-like substance.

Azrael's intensely blue eyes bored into the shadow's writhing form. “Disgusting,” He remarked in a calm, amused tone.

Ken watched, transfixed, as Azrael's elegant fist enclosed the mass, squeezing with slow, inevitable force. Beneath his crushing grip, the shadow began to strain and spin, warping unnaturally through tremendous pressure.

A bestial scream pierced the air - a sound, unlike any, Ken had heard, filled with anguish and fury at the last wriggling links being torn from its body. The darkness pulsated madly, fighting to maintain integrity against its captor's control, but there would be no denial - not against this warrior.

Veins stood out on Azrael's arm as he squeezed even tighter, knuckles whitening with exertion, the mass began imploding upon itself, condensing into an ever-denser orb in Azrael's clenching hand. Still, his expression betrayed no strain, eyes alight with the pleasure of domination. 

With a wet, tortured slurping sound, the shadowy mass flowed from Azrael’s fingers in a tight spiral flow to go inside his body. With its essence absorbed, the creature let out one final roar of impotent rage before crumbling entirely. All that remained was a mound of featureless goo, deprived of the darkness that had animated it.

Moments passed in silence.

Azrael relaxed his fist, as the last remnants of shadow dissipated from his fingers. He then turned to look at the lump of goo the shadow had left. But it was no more, only the faintest traces of black ash remained scattered across the dark stone.

Chest heaving yet posture relaxed, Azrael regarded his handiwork with the faintest hint of satisfaction. “As payment, I’m gonna borrow your domain for a bit,” He spoke to the ash.

He turned to Ken with an appraising look, expression unreadable. “Not bad kid, you retained your sanity in its presence!” He grinned as he began walking away northwards. “Interesting!”

At that moment, shades from the black rocky ground began to sprout.