Chapter 128: Leader of the Four Gaurdian's Next Generation

"Priscilla Bright… Is that her?" Howard recalled hearing about the civilians she'd murdered on the news. She had killed over a hundred bounty hunters and a few of their family members that tried to apprehend her according to reports. "How-how much of what I heard about her on the news was true?"

"Everything is true, besides for the part about them being innocent cops." Priscilla turned around and revealed her insanely beautiful face to Howard. She had beautiful brown amber eyes with bleached blonde hair that had pink and blue highlights at the tips of her strands and a body that seemed to have perfect curves at every single area. Looking at her up and down, Howard noticed her clothes were completely black and not a single part of her arms or legs could be seen. She sighed and lifted up her black sleeve.

"They trapped me for six weeks in a log cabin and did experiments on me with various types of chemicals including an acid that left permanent burns on my arms and legs. I can't even look at myself in a mirror anymore."

"How did you escape?" Howard waddled his dark brow with curiosity. "What happened?"

"She got help from Indell," Reslan took a deep breath and slammed his hand down on the table. "They didn't plan on telling Annibell about her status, so they tried to hide her off site. Indell, Barabin's great grandson, found a way to hack into their security system and released her from their restraints."

"And then I got payback," Priscilla cracked her neck and pushed her chair closer to Howard. "They didn't like that I could dual wield," Priscilla held up both hands as a mixture of fire and ice began to spin in circles. "They had never seen a Horned like me before, so they wanted to kill me."

"The important thing to focus on now is the battle," Reslan cleared his throat and pointed at a large map that he'd carefully placed on the wall. It contained six key locations that he wanted to defend. According to their scouts, three of these would be invaded. "We-we are expecting three key areas to be attacked, and were hoping you and Priscilla could intercept one of the three and defeat them by yourself."

"I will take the north flank, and you two will both be responsible for killing 600 Jarkales by yourselves. You'll have to rely on speed and stealth. If they see you, they can probably one hit you if they combine all their attacks. Basically, we have to keep them from getting anywhere near the East Branch. Once they do, our defenses will break in under 20 minutes."

"Basically, we're going hunting," Priscilla said with a smile. "Sounds fun. I haven't had a guy working with me in a while. Howard, I hope you know I'm in charge. I'm 22. I don't care how strong you are, I make the decisions."

"She's roughly almost as strong as me Howard. She's in the A rank, and can use two elements. Unlike you, though, she trained both of them. We still don't even know what your second element is, nor how to train it."

"I like being in charge, but I'll let her have this one," Howard nodded his head. "When will we be leaving?"

"After you and Priscilla have a quick battle. She'd like to assess your strength, and I'd like to watch. Shall we go to the underground bunker and test it? I'm sure the Bermenthol would be happy to watch." Reslan felt alittle bit nervous, but tried his best to hide it from Howard. He anticipated that Howard would've maybe reached the C rank, but now felt his strength inching towards the A rank. However, the thing that made him nervous was it still wasn't enough. He expected Barabin, and Guardian Sally to be here to stop the Jarkales, not a bunch of kids.

"Now, please don't stare when I take off my shirt okay. My scars are so bad sometimes I don't sleep at night." Priscilla smiled and stood up before pointing at the door. 

She had originally wanted to be a gymnast and had spent her entire childhood going from gym to gym training with the best teachers before she turned into a Horned. They had predicted her to win the ultimate prize of the Salvory Town Youth Competition, but she ended up losing a battle to fate and grew horns on her 15th birthday. 

When she had been in competition, on television, horns sprouted from her head while she was doing her final routine to get the gold of the competition. Unfortunately, all she ended up getting was disgraced on national television and scoffed at by the world. She could still feel their stares transform from those of joy to those of fright in less than a second. When she landed after what she thought was a perfect flipping routine, she had turned to the judges to get her score and ended up getting arrested. Watching Howard walk forward, she crossed her arms and bit her pink lips before taking something out of her pocket.

"I-I don't know if I should use it against him. What do you think Reslan?"

"Don't hold back even one bit," Reslan walked out the hallway and struggled to duck his head underneath the fluorescent lights. It was hard for him to go in any building, even one built specifically for his large muscular frame. "He can absorb people's energy, and do other things we can't comprehend. The sooner you defeat him, the more he'll respect you as a leader."

"Hurry up, I can't wait to see you take your long sleeve shirt off!" Howard turned and smiled at Priscialla. She instantly blushed at his brazen and forward advance. 

"You-you'll-you'll only getting to see my arms, and that's it! Now follow after me you little monster!"

###

White Mist Nation Underground Stadium

Hundreds of small buildings made out of sand had shadows dancing from the flickering flames in the 100 by 100 meter underground bunker. 

A large square had been drawn in the sand with two spots for contestants in a battle, and a small set of bleachers behind them for any curious White Mist Nationalists. They sat in the bleachers with bated breath and felt their blood boil with excitement.

Howard smiled and watched Priscialla take off her black top and toss it to the side. Underneath, she had on a white tanktop with a small star shaped necklace. Her arms also had scars that looked like winding snakes down her left and white skin that somewhat mired her beautiful figure and features. However, Howard simply couldn't stop staring.

"Wow, you look even better with your shirt off!" Howard stepped back and began to activate his maximum strength. "However, I won't hold back because you're a pretty girl."

"I don't intend to hold back either. Thank you for the compliment, though," Priscilla blushed and stepped back, getting in a fighting posture Reslan called the Serpents Stance. With five years of experience fighting, she felt assured of her victory, and took in a deep breath as her upper body got set on fire and her lower body began to turn into an ice sculpture. "I-I'm a little bit different to fight than you might expect. You ready?"

"Start!" Reslan stomped on the floor. "Don't either of you hold anything back!"

###

Howard stepped off his back foot and activated King Fire Sprint before he seemed to travel endlessly forward. He traveled over 100 meters in an instant and activated the gauntlet of Fire King's Embrace in order to cut off Priscilla's escape.

A second later, his right hand cranked forward and shot at his maximum speed at Priscilla's frame. He expected her to duck, but instead saw her slowly lifting her hands to catch his fist.

"I'm stronger than I look."

"Who says it matters?" Priscilla smashed her hand against Howard's fist and sent his arm spinning around his body before she sent an uppercut right towards his jaw. A smirk appeared on the side of her face as three sharp icicles appeared against the flames on her right fist. They almost looked like frozen brass knuckles with sharp edges that could shatter almost any surface with a single hit. "You're a fool! Rushing it at top speed! Wrong move!"

"Heh, don't underestimate me!" Howard's body suffused with flames in response to Priscilla's attack. He instantly seemed to propel back slightly like a jet would from activating a blast of its thrusters. At the same time, he returned her right jab with five punches.

Swoosh!

Priscilla supplely bended to dodge, but soon felt sweat dripping off her forehead. He was much more impressive than she thought. He definitely already Mastered Ki Resonance. She hadn't managed to do that yet, and she was in the A rank! 

'Shit, he has more raw power than me! How long as this little monster been in the Furnace?' Priscilla created an ice shield with a gentle turn of her wrist and thrust herself forward at Howard in an attempt to grab his wrist. At the same time, a slight smile appeared on her face as Howard stepped back attempting to dodge.

'I found your weakness! DIE!"

"Enough, one of you just won!" Reslan screamed and stomped on the floor. "Both of you over here, right now!"