Chapter 132: The Original Four Guardians

"He's not worth killing!" Howard lamented and grabbed Priscilla's wrist and tried to pull her back. "There is someone terrifying around here! I can sense it!"

"I don't care," Priscilla put her ice spear against Jerold's neck, and turned to look at Howard. "Wait, what do you mean sense it? Did you already master Ki Sensitivity?"

Priscilla had been trying to master Ki Sensitivity for months, but the skill seemed like an impossible hurdle to jump over that endlessly blocked her path. It was something that most normal students wound understand when they'd been in the A rank for a couple years, but she tried training it anyway because she had a lot of powerful previous generations to measure up to. Considering she was already in the A rank for a year, however, it was somewhat abnormal that she didn't know this skill. Even though she was twenty-two, she felt inferior to the previous Four Guardians. 

Stella, Barabin's wife, had reached the A rank and age 18, and the True S rank by 50. Priscilla had spent weeks learning about the previous generation of the Four Guardians. In total, since Demon King Earl, there had been 10 different Four Guardians in the course of 2000 years. 

Each generation of Four Guardians had at least two women and all of them were impressive. One of the original Four Guardian's named Orella had single handedly slayed a Varlen Army by herself, and died to protect Horned Nation. Priscilla, on the other hand, barely felt worthy of her shoes. Let alone the multiple abilities she left at the East Branch in the Four Guardians Shrine.

All her anger seemed to appear in her beautiful black pupils as she lifted up her arm and stabbed down with her spear.

Boom!

Howard kicked Jerold in the ribcage and caused him to roll away into a nearby mountain. Priscilla instantly turned towards Howard with such an intense craving for death that he could feel his skin crawl.

At the same time, a shadow that seemed to be the size of a mountain slowly neared them from a man in silver armor. Howard instantly pushed Priscilla behind his back before a gigantic black flame appeared around his body.

"I take it you two are Horned," General Lorklan laughed and clapped his hands. "Heh, fighting over whether or not to kill an enemy? How old are you two, teenagers?"

"Stand back. He's dangerous," Howard activated his Dream Ki and pushed Priscilla back. His black clothes started to flap in the wind while the rocky ground started to crack in every direction. "Priscilla, you should probably run. I can handle him."

"Are you an idiot? We'll fight him together," Priscilla's body instantly manifested ice and fire up both her left and right arm. Her beautiful black hair stirred in the wind while she also activated her maximum strength. "If I kill him first, you got to kill 4 more."

"You two are pathetic." General Lorklan sighed and walked over to Jerold. The moonlight glistened on his silver armor and painted the rocky tundra a strange, ominous hue. He sighed and leaned down in order to check Jerold's pulse. At the same time, Howard just froze. He felt his Ki increase for a brief moment. Even compared to Barabin, it was at least two times as strong. "Ugh, but I have to make sure this idiot stays alive. I-I'll let you leave. There is at least a 15 percent chance you'll kill him before you die. It's not worth it."

"We aren't leaving!" Priscilla rushed forward at her maximum speed. "You think we can't kill you!"

"Sorry, I made my decision already, scram," General Lorklan picked up Jerold and with one finger gently turned and swatted away Priscilla's fist. With another flick, Priscilla felt something crush into her gut and shot back like a missile in Howard's direction.

Boom!

Howard jumped to catch Priscilla in the air before a beam of light flashed and struck his arm. Rather than catching Priscilla, he spun in the air. Looking down at his hand, a small burn mark had appeared right in the center of his fist.

"Don't catch her, she deserves it," General Lorklan smiled before Priscilla burst into the side of the mountain. "Look, how about this? I'll fight you for a minute, and then I'm taking him to the infirmary. I already made up my mind. Jerold is more important than two people I killed tomorrow."

This seemed strange from General Lorklan, but remember that the Jarkales divided men into two groups, warriors and scholars. Scholars worked on plans for battles and also engaged in tactical warfare. For instance, one of his top tacticians had designed the plan to follow the White Mist through the Open Furnace. If he lost a single warrior, he could make it up in 20 years, but Jerold really was a once in a lifetime genius. He didn't have a hundred years to take over the Furance. So no matter how pathetic Jerold was in combat, he had to protect him.

"One minute. Yes or no? Otherwise, I can kill that girl, and you can use your Dream Ki to kill him. You'll probably escape, but tomorrow will just go better for me because of it."

"You have to die!" Howard stepped off his back foot and used King Fire Sprint to bridge the distance between them. At the same time, he activated Fire King's Embrace behind General Lorklan to try and cut off his escape routes. 

Howard wanted to use all his strength in a single attack to kill General Lorklan, so his body began to glow white as his Dark Ki and Dream Ki fused to the maximum. He shot back his arm and a large cloud of strange white flames formed a gigantic python that soon shot forward.

"DIE! For everyone I love, die now you monster!" 

Boom!

Howard turned his fist and caused the air to crack from the power of his energy. He focused his full attention on General Lorklan's pale skin and tensing brow. With his brown hair floating behind him in the wind, he looked surprisingly untense in front of the massive attack. Hoewver, for some reason, eh didn't move. He simply watched Howard's attack come towards him.

"Not bad, but bad form," General Lorklan slightly stepped off his back foot and tilted his neck 90 degrees to the side. "Hoh, you must be him. Howard, right?"

Boom!

Howard's attack shot passed General Lorklan and then instantly destroyed the mountain behind him. However, this wasn't just any normal attack. Three strange white halos appeared behind General Lorklan before three more massive snakes made out of Ki shot towards him at the same time.

"He won't notice! There is no way he's met the Varlen before!" Howard smiled and spun in the air before he seemed to split into ten different versions of himself. Ten fists attacked General Lorklan from all directions and at the same time the three swellings of Ki came at him! There was no route to escape! Thus, Howard didn't hold anything back! He unleashed all his remaining Dark Ki in this one attack!

"I give your efforts a 1 / 10. It's a shame," General Lorklan quickly raised his hand and pushed forward with his five fingers extended. A swelling of Ki birthed in his hands that instantly split into ten laser focused beams that rocketed out in all directions.

Though it seemed like this might take a long time, it happened the instant Howard attacked. Howard could only see a flash before he felt his chin raise up into the air.

Boom!

General Lorklan reached forward and grabbed Howard's black cape in the air and smiled before he gently spun with Howard in his grasp. Like a bullet, Howard shot right towards Priscilla, who had only started to get off the ground.

Boom!

Howard crashed into Priscilla's body and burst into the side of the mountain. Dozens of rocks flew into the air as their two bodies seemed to flatten together like pancakes. Granules of sand from the shattered rock fell down on their bodies as both of them screamed in pain. Howard could feel his arm had rocketed out of his socket. Even in his wildest dreams, he didn't imagine the General would be this powerful.

'I-I have to get Founder Arista. He-he's too dangerous!' Howard struggled to free himself from the rubble but felt like he'd been trapped in a large well with infinite walls. "I-I can't let him escape!"

Howard pushed aside a few rocks and watched General Lorklan gently pick up Jerold from the ground. He instantly began to burn with a powerful flame. All of his energy surged as he put all of his focus into his Ki.

'I-I still have Fire King's Last Stand! If I kill him now, the battle will be over!"

"Don't-don't do that," General Lorklan sighed and put Jerold's body down. His nonchalant expression immediately turned serious while his two amber eyes slowly started to suffuse with Ki. "The Ki Cells in your body are all going to get destroyed. Here, let me help you."

"You're going to pay!" Howard's horns began to grow on the top of his forehead while his teeth cut into the side of his lips. His chin even seemed to sharpen while the throbbing muscles underneath his armor started to harden. "I-I'm going to make you pay for all the people you'll kill and will kill! You-you're a monster! You must die no matter what?"

"Who says I have to let you power up," General Lorklan's hand seemed to move so fast Howard could hardly see the blur. 

Boom!

The next moment, Howard felt his body collapsing towards the floor. A line of white light went out the back of his head before he collapsed into a pool of his own blood. 

"You-you Horned reincarnate if I don't chop off your head. Consider it a favor for not killing Jarold," General Lorklan sighed and walked back towards the camp. "Now, what the hell am I going to do to discipline this idiot? He lost against a rock!"