Chapter 196: Howard's Gamble

Howard's body seemed to contain enough strength to shatter dozens of mountains with one fist.

However, the most terrifying thing about him right now had to be the lack of fear in his eyes. 

When most people were in a situation of life or death, they would either react in one of two ways. One, they'd either feel extremely terrified, or courageous enough to fight back. However, Howard seemed to react a third way, he seemed to completely let go of any restraints that he'd been allowing to hold him back.

Whether it was Dark Ki, Silver Ki, Dream Ki, or his Fire Ki, he was using all of them at the same time. When he trained with Demon King Earl, he learned the importance of swapping between different types of Ki to save strength. Yet, right now, he wasn't doing that. He was literally trying to kill Kasten as fast as possible. Even if it meant all of his exploding, he wasn't going to let Reslan and Annibell died! Why did he train so hard otherwise!

'This isn't good." Kasten ducked and dodged a right fist so fast from Howard that three Aresoul behind him got sent flying away. "He's gotten too close! I can't attack him at full strength without killing the Aresoul men around me!"

Boom!

In a second, the Aresoul Magicians behind Kasten trembled while they realized four more C ranked Aresoul Magicians had just been slaughtered. Even Kreal, who was nearby, had some cuts on his arm. He looked over at his General, laying knocked over on the ground next to Reslan's body. Was he really scared? That kid was just Howard! He was barely in the A rank a few months ago.

"I'll kill him. It's the least I can do for him being responsible for killing my son," Kreal walked over to Reslan and instantly created a sword from a doorway behind him. He was in the S rank as an Aresoul and had 10 weapons doors. A weapons door was pretty much a special summoning door that the Aresoul used to store higher density Ki.

There were many different types of Ki that the Aresoul used to create weapons. Whereas people like Howard just had to sense types of Ki, and instantly knew which type to create weapons with. Remember, for the Aresoul it was much harder for them to decipher the unique qualities of Ki, and as such, one way around this was making a special doorway for each type of Ki.

At this moment, a sword appeared in Kreal's hand while he walked step by step, closer and closer to Reslan. Annibell instantly jumped in front of him and pleaded on her knees. However, Kreal didn't care! With the Ki Handcuffs on her, the once mighty Guardian Annibell was now a fly he could swat away.

"Move!" Kreal smacked Annibell in the side of the face before she burst in the other direction. He smiled and walked up to Reslan, and without a second thought raised the blade in the air.

Howard, seeing this, once again felt his strength surge. If there was a 9th array for Fire King's Last Stand, right now he would've activated it. His entire body, glowing with silver and dark Ki, started to seem to swell and get more muscular. His eyes, completely silver now, made him look like an extremely strange being about to slaughter everything in his path.

"Stop it!" Kasten screamed at Kreal. "If you kill him, All of us might die! I'm having a hard enough time blocking his attacks now! And he's either smart, or extremely lucky! He's staying so close to me that I can't activate one of my more powerful doors!"

One of the things about the Aresoul is that they pretty much relied on ranged attacks in most battles. When the Archelon Zombies had been attacking them, only less than one percent got close enough to hurt them, and the Horned and Varlen were more than enough to deal with them. 

Yet Howard, Howard instantly bridged the gap towards Kasten, and then instantly increased his strength. This was what Kasten meant by he was either incredibly smart or incredibly lucky! Kasten had many skills he could use to keep the distance from Howard, however, they were hard to use when he was getting attacked.

He activated Light Flash to try and get some distance from Howard, however, the next moment, Howard was already on top of him.

5 doors appeared behind Kasten and shot out dozens of blasts only for Howard to dodge them with ten different forms made out of Dream Ki. In this enraged state, Howard seemed almost as honed as a thousand year fighter! Something didn't make sense!

"Is-is he using Emperor's Ki to channel someone's fighting style?" Kasten dodged and spun a kick into Howard's ripcage before rushing as far away from his troops as he could. "Is-is he channeling Harkel? Is that where that bizarre style is from?"

"YOU WILL PAY!" Howard's fist burst forward with an intense flame before ten more Aresoul Magicians got sent flying into the air." YOU WILL ALL PAY! Death is cheap, but your deeds were not!"

"Hmph, you surprised me enough," Kasten instantly activated Light Flash 5 times in a row. This time, he was able to get 1000 meters away from Howard, which bought him 5 seconds. He smiled, and then realized Howard wasn't charging at him. Summoning over 120 doors behind him, Kasten could only look on in horror! How smart was this kid? Did he let him get away only to dash at Kreal!

"Kreal, I told you to get away from Reslan!" Kasten sent out thousands of blasts at Howard that snacked into several hundred Dream Ki versions of Howard. At the same time, Kreal seemed to not be listening, he hoisted a blade into the air and slashed down at Reslan's neck. The madness in his eyes was palpable.

"Payback! Payback for all you've done, Reslan! Take this!"

"You-you bastard!" Howard watched Kreal's Ki sword pierce through Reslan's neck and get a few inches in before his arm flashed forward. The next second, Kreal could only turn in horror while a massive force traveled into his gut.

Three Aresoul Magicinas behind him, watched their black capes shoot off their bodies while they tried their hardest to protect Kreal. However, all their Ki, seemed to instantly dissipate. One, a soldier int eh A rank, even went flying from Howard's intense blast.

The next moment, Kreal looked down only to find his abdomen had been dented in. His head, falling onto Howard's shoulder, instantly seemed to pale. Had he made a mistake?

"Stop!" Kasten kicked Kreal in the side of the head before he got sent flying into the distance. "Reslan, and Annibell will be safe till the end of the battle! Now leave the Aresoul alone."

"You've already killed 50! Kill one more, and we can take this fight to the East Branch. You-you have yet to learn the rules of higher Ki engagement, but if you want, two can play this game!"

"HEHE, you're weakness is showing," Howard pointed at all the Aresoul Magicians in front of him, and suddenly a massive Fire Ki seemed to start to swell beneath them. "Shall I kill them all, or are you going to leave my teachers alone! Now, you have 5 seconds! 5 seconds to leave!"

"I agree with him," Harkel suddenly appeared like a flash of light, before thousands of arms from his Ghost Domain started to sprout in every direction. "However, Howard, you have to stop using that form! Soon, you'll lose all rationality! You need to stop."

"Hoh, he does know you," Kasten shook his head, "Hmph, we've already won, Howard. You're already lost to the madness of your strength. I'm leaving, but your teacher, Reslan. Is 99 percent dead. What you did today was foolish, and in the future, you will learn a lesson from those stronger than you! Even if you suppressed me today, tomorrow, there will be consequences! After all, that form, that power, you can only use it what? Maximum three times your entire life."

"Shut up! All of you shut up! They are living, or your dead! Now leave!" Howard's Silver and Dark Ki flames shot up intot he air before his power once again soared. "Do I see you still here? Go now!"

"Fine, we're leaving," Kasten shook his head, "However, Harkel, just a warning, your student here just got the attention of everyone in the Furnace. He'll be dead if he doesn't learn to behave."

"He apologizes," Harkel bowed his head to Kasten, "Now, like he said, please leave," Harkel instantly appeared over by Howard and instantly slapped him in the face."Now calm down you little monster! You have no idea how many people you're pssing off."

"I-I feel tired," Howard smiled before he began to fall towards Harkel's shoulder. "Hehe, now my teachers can be proud of me. I-I did it."

"All you did was weaken yourself for the next two weeks, and you only have two weeks after that until your great grandfather needs you to save him," Harkel picked Howard up and turned looking at the Aresoul retreating. "However, I'm proud of you kid. That was definitely the right decision. Now, shall I heal this teacher of yours and return us back to Jarlon Valley. I have a bad feeling about how Oclen was acting. Luckily, I'm not dumb enough to fall for such a simple trap."