Chapter 6: Dual Wielder

"Howard, I'm going to slap you if you don't wake up." Monica grinded her teeth hard while trying to walk around with Howard's hand still glued to her own. "You-you're unbelievable! I'm going to throw you in a few seconds!"

Yawn!

Howard opened his eyes only to find he'd somehow ended up outside. Letting go of his grip, he dropped on the floor and immediately jumped up to his feet.

"Sorry! I had a strange dream last night." Howard did a few pushups before flipping up to his feet. "I saw this strange one eyed monster that had hundreds of strange lizards behind it. I couldn't wake up no matter how hard I tried."

"Anyways, what's going on? Why do you look so agitated?" Howard got up and hopped over to Monica, noticing a few new people sitting with teacher Annibell. "Do you not like those people over there?"

"That's Una, and her team. She got sent on a mission a few days ago. Looks like something bad happened."

Monica sighed and pointed at the convenience store. "Anyways, I'm going to go get changed! Don't disturb them or do anything stupid while I'm gone! Ugh, also, don't tell anyone about that dream!"

"So mean," Howard complained and sat down on the floor, crossing his legs and staring up at the sky. "Ugh, it feels like it's going to rain today. Doesn't make any sense! If this is a Furnace, why does it feel like it's 50 degrees!"

Howard decided to do a few more pushups, feeling a strange sensation in his arms. Doing a hundred pushups easily, he looked at his arms and felt something had happened over night.

"Your body absorbed Ki when you sleep," Blake poked Howard from behind and sat down next to him. "You'll get stronger every time you go to sleep. How was it sleeping with Monica? Did anything happen?"

"I held her hand. That's about it," Howard sighed and turned to look at Blake. "She's really nice. What about you and Lera."

"She's like a sister. Why? Do you like her too?"

"I like girls a lot," Howard nodded his head. "Who do you like?"

"You see that girl over there, Una? I asked her out once and she punched me into a mountain." Blake laughed and then suddenly looked very serious. "She's been here much longer than us. Teacher Annibell creates classes depending on when students arrived. Since I arrived this year, I'm Una's junior. She's been here for four years."

"I see, sorry she hit you," Howard got up and gave him a thumbs up. He looked up and down at Una and couldn't help but notice her charming smile and the rest of her beautiful body. She had extremely attractive straight brown hair with an hour glass frame and was wearing a set of blue jeans with a white shirt. She looked like an angel sculpted from the finest jade, with beautiful curves causing him to have trouble averting his gaze. l "I'll get her to like you, promise. Vicky told me not a single girl can resist me!"

"Good luck." Blake patted him on the shoulders and laughed. He'd never seen someone with so much courage when it came to the opposite sex. Part of him wished he could be carefree like Howard. He even put on his nicest black jacket and combed his hair into a decent shape hoping that Una would take notice of him today, but she wouldn't stop looking at Howard. For some reason, it made him happy that she was at least looking at his general vicinity. "By the way, Howard... you make things more fun around here. Anyways, we should do some training. With your horns placement, I'm guessing you're good with fire right. Have you ever tried channeling anything else?"

"Horn… Placement? What does that mean?" Howard punched forward, causing his body to burn with a dark fire that seemed to melt the air. "When I first grew these horns, I did notice I couldn't burn myself no matter how hard I tried."

"Horn placement affects the frequency we can retrieve. Since my horn is on my back and placed down, I'm able to control Ki related to earth. However, your horn placement is perfect. It's on the top of your head. You might even be a dual wielder."

"I don't know. Where do we train?" Howard noticed Blake whispering to himself as he walked into the distance. He seemed perplexed, and walked over to a large building with two gargoyles. He sighed, and tapped one on the back, causing it to suddenly rise to its feet.

"Howard, I created this a few days ago. Waste of time, but it looks cool right?" Blake pointed at the gargoyles head before Howard carefully studied its figure. The gargoyles had large bat-like grey wings and two small pointed ears with slender grey legs and arms with a powerful torso. At his best guess, they seemed to be only a few centimeters shorter than him, but with twice as much mass due to their constitution.

Seeing Howard's surprised look as he studied the gargoyles, Blake tapped the nearest gargoyle in the head before a small compartment burst open along the side of its head. A second later, Blake pulled out a small gossamer crystal and gently tapped it as he started to configure the gargoyle. 

"Anyways, this crystal controls the gargoyle. I created it in my sleep. Pretty cool, right?"

"Uhm, yes, but what does it do?"

"KILL!" Blake pointed the gargoyle in Howards direction before it spun it nodded its head and slowly paced in Howard's direction. "Don't worry Howard. It just needs extra motivation to do things. By saying Kill, I really meant attack."

"Now DESTROY HIM AND TEAR HIM TO SHREDS!" Blake smiled and nodded his head. "Anyways, Howard, it should be easy for you to defeat. However, when you're fighting it, no fire! I want to see what frequencies you emit."

"You sure I can destroy it?" Howard pulled up his sleeves and leaned back, watching the gargoyle get close and closer to him. "I'm pretty strong! Aren't you going to be upset?"

"Nope, I can make hundreds of these a night," Blake tapped his head and yawned. "Makes me a little sleep deprived, but its worth it."

Swoosh!

Suddenly the gargoyle rushed forward at Howard at a fast speed and slashed forward with its claws. It had grey skin and two arms with a strangely humanoid head. It's eyes seemed lifeless, but its movements well coordinated. With another slash, Howard jumped into the air, and then pulled out the small trinket he had in his pocket.

Touching on the trinket, a sword grew in his hand that he brandished forward and slashed into the gargoyle's hand.

From the pressure, a large cloud of dust shot in every direction. The gargoyle shot back a few feet and slid its feet against the ground.

Standing back up, the gargoyle shot back in Howard's direction and slashed again with its claws. After dozens of slashes, it seemed like the gargoyle was completely outmatched by Howard. Stepping backward, Howard punched forward with his right fist, hitting the gargoyle square in the chest.

Boom!

Thousands of pieces of stone shot in every direction before Howard gulped and looked over at Blake. He had an extremely enraged expression on his face, staring strangely up in the sky as he kept muttering.

"Not good enough. It's not good enough. More. He needs more." Blake tilted his head to the side and with a deadpan look snapped his fingers. Dozens of gargoyles burst out of the nearby mountain and rushed towards Howard as Blake laughed.

"Remember, no fire. There is so much to learn! Kill him gargoyles! Kill him!"

"Ugh, boys," Monica walked outside of the convenience store in a pair of blue jeans with a white top on. Her black wings flapped several times while she rolled her head, watching Howard fight the gargoyles coming at him from all directions. "Boys and toys. You can't leave them alone for two seconds before they create some type of game!"

"Monica, Una here found something," Teacher Annibell called over to Monica, ignoring the fighting going on. "It's really big. You mind coming over to join us?"

"Sure," Monica grumbled and walked away from Howard, "Let them have all the fun."

Howard turned to Monica and blushed while seeing her new wardrobe before finding a fist had embedded into his chest. Finding himself flying into the air, he sighed before turning his leg and kicking a gargoyle meters away into a rock.

Bang!

Howard twisted in the air and stabbed forward with his sword, sending another three gargoyles flying before Blake held out his hand.

"Enough, stop the madness!" Blake calmed down and folded his arms behind his back. "I have something special to tell you about your abilities Howard. Come here and look at this."