Chapter 242: Assassin's Demise Part I

Howard sighed and looked at Garsel who was still trembling from Howard's arrival. 

The horn had just been blown seriously less than a minute ago and a powerhouse was already standing in front of them. He could sense Howard's Ki and could tell it was immense, but just started trembling whenever he tried to say something. 

Looking into Howard's eyes, he saw Howard slightly smile before he turned abruptly to the side. "Take care of those Great Neck Warriors. However, as you've realized, this is most likely a diversion?"

"Yes," Garsel said, nodding his head with a look of disbelief still on his face. "However, your speed? It's as good as Mernan if not a little bit faster. What kind of ability is that you're using?"

"It's an ability that I learned from someone very important to me called Barabin," Howard sighed and shook his head as the two assassins began to approach him. He could tell Janx and Marxin were very strong, but wasn't afraid. After all, he wanted nothing more than to test his new strength. "Anyways, just so you know, Alenx is the one who blew the horn." Howard pointed over into the bushes in the distance, which immediately caused Alenx to back peddle in fear. "Remember that. I can imagine no one is going to believe me without you backing me up."

"Yes," Garsel looked over and nodded his head before he saw Alenx shoot up into the nearby mountains in an attempt to hide. "It makes sense. After all, his mother did disappear for a few years. Anyways, what are you going to do?"

Swoosh!

Howard shot like a missile towards the two Arthraku, causing all the soldier's uniforms to flap in the wind. 

Mitchen, who was already afraid to run in the opposite direction, suddenly felt terrified. He couldn't find the strength in himself to run, and yet he could tell he had to move now!

'Damn it! I'm going!' Mithcen started to run across the large plain while Howard's body began to glow with a terrifying black ki. He hadn't used Dark Ki in ages since he hadn't had any difficult opponents, and yet with these two he could tell he'd need to unleash every ounce of his strength.

Swoosh!

Activating Fire King Sprint, Howard looked like a dark bullet shooting forward at such a pace almost all the warriors behind him still couldn't believe what they were seeing. However, knowing full well his opponents were probably stronger than him, this isn't where he stopped. Soon, he activated both his Dream Ki and Silver Ki and shot even faster forward.

"That's not good," Janx looked over at his brother and activated one of his Authoritarians, the Six Horned Night Panther, one of his strongest Authoritarians. He almost instantly tripled in size before a dark ki started to spread out from his body. "That strength. He probably grew stronger since we heard about him three weeks ago."

"I told you we shouldn't have stopped at brothels along the way," Marxin said with a look of discontentment as he also activated an Authoritarian called the Seven Eyed Iguana. "This is ridiculous. I'm already using my third strongest Authoritarian and it's against a little brat. He has girlfriend right? Shall we kill them afterwards?"

"Eh, they're too far. Let's just wipe out that Nation,"  Janx laughed and pointed over at the Great Slavensen Nation. Clearly, his blood lust hadn't gotten any weaker after being imprisoned for 100 years, actually it had gotten manifold stronger. "I remember hearing they have good food to eat. Shall we have eat before we do it?"

Boom!

Howard, a second later after hearing them talk, appeared a few feet away from them causing a gigantic cloud of sand to shoot in the air. 

Yet the next moment, he did something both of the assassins could hardly have imagined. Suddenly, the Ki in his body seemed to surge to three times its normal amount. All their plans of defeating him easily, almost instantly changed.

"Fire King's Last Stand, First Level!"

"What the?" One of the assassins looked on in shock before he almost instantly activated another Authoritarian called the Great Siver Cougar. Janx, whose body was already rather huge, seemed to swell in size by almost 15 times.

He seemed to turn into a gigantic mountain of a being and yet Howard arrived in front of him almost instantly before he could move a single paw. He looked on in complete surprise while Howard activated Dark Oblivion and punched out with all his strength.

"You monsters will pay!" Howard screamed before he punched forward.

A Dark flame shot out of his body almost instantly and engulfed Janx who had barely had time to put up his shield. 

Taking a deep breath, Howard thrust back his arms and let out a sigh before he turned and looked at the other Authoritarian growling at him. This was definitely the right choice. He took a deep breath and activated Fire King's Last Stand's second level almost instantly. 

His only hope was scaring them away before they activated their domains! He knew if it got to that point it would be more than over!

"You are nuts, kid."  Marxin's fierce gaze only intensified as he looked at Howard's flickering eyes. Howard was not holding back anything and was already using the eyes of life and death. There was frankly not a single ability he was going to hold back. "However, I get what you're doing, and it's not going to work. You probably want to kill us as soon as possible. Because you're afraid we'll overpower you in the long run right?"

Howard shook his head, however, he was well aware that Marxin was right.

Those that had entered into the SSS rank, like the two Assassins in front of him, could use domain ki without dropping a single ounce of sweat. That was because domain ki turned a domain into pretty much a well of energy that never stopped giving. This provided for an extremely powerful defense that was almost impossible to breach if someone was at a similar strength for quite a while.

And yet, Howard didn't have that. He could maybe fight for two hours, three max, before he lost all his strength. 

He was also keenly aware that this was even shorter because of what Jenny had told him about Fire King's Last Stand. He could only use it up to the second level, and probably maximum could use it for five minutes. However, he was ready to make the first minute as meaningful as possible! He wanted to send a message, that no one could mess with him in the Jarkalon Abyss! Even the Arthraku should be wary of him!

Bang!

Howard activated Fire King's Sprint and surged with such fierce speed towards Marxin that the ground cracked beneath him. And yet, Marxin, seeing this, seemed to almost laugh at Howard. If there was one thing that him and his brother didn't lack it was speed.

"Foolish! With that kind of strength to you expect to hurt me?!" Marxin growled and revealed his large white canine teeth before he pushed off his hind legs and shot towards Howard. "Hahaha, me and my brother spent years looking for Authoritarians that kill the fastest! You will be dead in a second!"

###

The next moment, Howard punched out with all his might at Marxin without activating his Dream Ki or creating any diversions.

Using Dream Ki took a great deal of expenditure for him to use, and right now he only wanted to do one thing. He could tell that Marxin still underestimated him because he was still giving of the aura of someone in the S rank.

Basically, Howard may have strengthened his body, but only his external body and internal Ki was used to sense another person's rank. In many ways, Howard was lucky that he hadn't breached the SS rank fully. Marxin had no idea that he was facing someone with strength much greater then he realized.

'Foolish, I'm an Arthraku," Marxin said with disdain while a large black flame of Ki appeared around his body while he rushed forward in his cougar form. "You realize that I almost always kill my prey with one hit. It's why me and my brother prioritized Authoritarians related to Panthers or Cougars! Because they are silent and strong! You're about to find out!'

Marxin opened his mouth and let out such a fierce look through his sharp eyes that almost anyone would've fallen back in terror.

And yet, Howard, seeing him approaching him, simply smiled before he activated all 60 of his ki hearts at once to increase his strength. Suddenly, his strength which seemed rather impressive suddenly surged even more. 

Marxin, looking forward, felt beyond shocked before he tried to push his paw into the floor to dodge Howard's incoming attack. And yet, before he could, it was already too late. Howard's fist full of his Ki had already gone quite a few meters forward.

Boom!

Howard's fist almost immediately crashed into Marxin's ribcage and sent him shooting into the distance.