Chapter 76: Pinpoint

"Stay in your human forms." Barabin took a deep breath, feeling the earth Ki around him. "Attack me only once each." Barabin nodded his head, pointing at Bersax, "After you each attack me once, then we can begin sparring."

"There is no need," Bersax's body suddenly seemed to stretch in every direction, creating a large shadow that covered the desert-like floor underneath the setting sun. In a second, he'd grown 3 meters tall. "All I need to know is you can defend an attack from the Jarkalez. Why would I let you have all my secrets, Horned? Without that boy's aura around, I'm starting to disdain you."

"Stay calm," Korlen pushed Bersax back, and suddenly summoned a massive black fire around his body. "He's helping us. He's not the Aresoul that killed one of your children, no the Varlen bastard that tried to ensnare your wife."

'He might as well be," Bersax spit on the floor, shaking his head as he looked up at his beautiful daughter on the top of the cliff, peering over with Howard next to his side. "The Aresoul and the Horned have the same scent. If they started hunting us together in a few years, I wouldn't be surprised."

"I promise I've never killed a single Authoritarian," Barabin's fangs suddenly appeared on the side of his mouth. He tore his brown jacket off his body, and tossed it to the side, before he stepped back and created a series of earth ki swords. "However, if you don't take me seriously, I might end up doing so today."

"Oh, he's a fanged, one." Bersax laughed, "He kills his own kind, hahaha! What are you a pacifist? Did you drink too much blood and it went to your head?"

"I'm coming," Korlen's arm turned black before his arm transformed to three times it size. Turning off his back foot, he seemed to create a massive whirlwind that struck at Barabin's very being. His black hair spun around his head, his pale muscles tensing to the limit, before a black flame came out of Korlen's hand.

Boom!

The earth seemed to get split in two directions before a gigantic shield of earth appeared out of the ground. Barabin, dropping back on one knee, bit his tongue before his own blood dripped down his lips to his partially torn white shirt.

"Not bad. How does that compare to the Zarkales strongest attack?"

"When all ten of them attack you at once, it's about three times the force."

"Then all three of you attack me together," Barabin stepped off the floor, suddenly feeling a rage burning inside of him that spread through his body. He had stop challenging himself for the last hundred years, and hadn't had the desire to get stronger since fighting Necrolith. Since then, however, every day he asked Harley and Reece for a single drop of blood.

He couldn't take losing himself to those insane feelings again, the ones that turned him to something worse than a monster. However, he couldn't not get stronger either. By using just a little amount of blood everyday, he nourished his flesh and became comfortable with the feeling of wanting blood. He still thought about Harley's tiny neck, and her 1.6 meter tall body that he wanted to gently grasp and drain until it became pallid and supple. However, even with those thoughts, seeing Howard push himself to a place of insanity to protect Monica got to him.

'I should have reached the peak of the A rank,' Barabin watched Bersax, Korlen and another 1.7 meter tall Authoritarian with tall Blue Hair that spread all the way down his back. He had on a white tunic that seemed from an ancient era, but with a set of jean pants that he must have gotten from a Ki Storm. 'However, Howard, there is things much stronger than even in the S rank in the Furnace. Things that even your nightmares would run away from!'

"Hurry up and attack!' Barabin pushed his hands together, causing the entire earth around him to enter into his grasp. To be more precise, the cracked sandstone beneath his body began to start to tremble, the rocks bounced and ricocheted off the floor, while his muscles started to bulge. "Hurry up and attack me together! Make sure it's stronger than the worst the Jarkales can do."

Barabin smiled, looking up at Howard with a smile on his face. He wanted to show Howard that even if he had gotten strong quickly his teacher was still years away from being in his grasp. Howard had come so far so quickly since the day he entered the Furnace and joined Horned Nation. He'd gone from the F rank to the D rank in less than two months, and had even seen a Night Lord.

He'd even found a girlfriend and apparently the two of them already made out in front of the girls in the West Branch on the 3rd floor. "Howard," Barabin screamed, "You must always challenge yourself! Don't be like your teacher and slack off for a hundred years!"

"Yes teacher!" Howard smiled, watching with anticipation and eagerness. "However, be careful! You're starting to act like me!"

'Idiot, I wish. I couldn't just hang around three girls or my wife Sally would have my head,' Barabin laughed, holding out his hands and starting to feel hundreds of defensive walls that he could erect. "Now attack me! Stop showboating, and go for it!"

"It's done," Korlen sighed, his black hand growing five times before three streams of black flame burst forward and fused in the air together. A large python seemed to coalesce in the air before it disappeared quickly into the clouds and dove toward the floor!

Bersax laughed, and caused the wind around him to crack before a gigantic gale seemed to turn into a strange, flickering sword. Looking like he had just caused a tornado of endless might to appear on his fist, he spun and slashed the wind towards Barabin. To the side of his attack, a pillar of flames shot foward, and sooned fused with the wind, causing an explosion to appear in the sky that instantly breached Barabin's space.

A hundred walls shot up in front of him, getting strengthened by his Ki, before they bifurcated into earth like spines that shattered the pillar of black flames above. Gently touching the ground, Barabin watched his sweat drip down onto his pale hands before a few droplets of his blood joined them.

Feeling his power waning, he sighed, looking up at the endless amount of rocks and debris that had begun falling towards his body.

"I was wrong. He's not an idiot, he's suicidal," Bersax laughed, clapping his hands together and jumping over to Barabin's side. "Screw it, you're insane. I'll be your friend. As long as you let that little brat come beat up my daughter!"

"I'm honored," Barabin smiled, grabbing Bersax's hand. "However, you all weren't even using your Authoritarian bodies. I'm only alive because your weaker in these forms."

'We're also faster, and harder to hit," Korlen opened up a small canteen of it and tossed it at Barabin. "You're going to have to handle at least 20 of those attacks, or else the Jarkales will probably notice Howard. You think you can do it?"

Of course, Barabin had no choice to admit that those attacks were hard to ward off, however, could the Jarkales really hit four moving targets?

Barabin remembered the Jarkales coming to the East branch's main gate like it was yesterday. They tried to storm the entrance to the branch using a primitive log in the middle of the night. Reslan had been out walking at the time, and had only just entered into the B rank. Yet, by himself, without Sally around to help him, he ignited all of them into flames before they could attack.

In the morning, in the main hall when a few of the youngest students at the time had prepared breakfast, Reslan had brought in a few bodies asking what kind of zombies he'd found. It wasn't until a week later that Sally identified them as the Jarkales after looking through some ancient maps from the original Four Guardians and the founders.

"Ugh, I can handle it. However, why do you need an Earth User to stop their attacks. I don't understand?"

"It's because it's harder to see behind walls." Bersax sighed, shaking his head. "They are so good at aiming from far away that they can pinpoint an apple from 100 miles, and all ten of them can hit it. The only thing that can keep them from hitting that apple is covering it up. You're going to have to make a lot of walls hahahaha!"

"Well then, Let's get going," Barabin smiled, holding up his thumb. "However, what the hell was in this canteen? Why do I feel so weird?"