Hell's Academy

"Buah!"

He screamed at the top of his lungs before he turned into a line of light. The next moment, at this time, the cloud of smoke cleared around Janx. He looked at Howard like he was a monster and turned to look at his brother's soaring body.

Boom!

A second later, an entire mountain almost a kilometer away shattered. Janx was beyond terrified of Howard's strength. Even if he activated his domain, if that kid hit him, he really could die! He hadn't been waiting 100 years to get killed by some brat! This strength was simply 5 times higher than he imagined.

"Take this! Smoke Death Fire!" Janx opened his mouth and sent out a gigantic wave of energy towards Howard that also happened to be in the same direction of the soldiers behind him.

Seeing this, Howard sighed and opened out both his hands before a gigantic wall of Fire appeared in front of him. He could tell what Janx was trying to do, but wouldn't dare stop him. It was very clear he was trying to run away, yet he welcomed it.

"I'm glad… If I had to fight them for two more minutes, I might have been killed," Howard deactivated Fire King's Last Stand before a gigantic explosion shot up behind him. 

Almost instantly, a hole the size of backwards mountain ripped through the land and split out in all directions. 

It was a powerful blast, but clearly it was a desperate one. The next moment, he turned and saw that the two Arthraku had decided to flee. He smiled, and wiped the blood off his chin as it slowly drizzled outwards. Though he hadn't done much, he could tell that Fire King's Last Stand was still something he shouldn't use very often.

The Silver Flame on his body dissipated before he took a single step forward towards the Great Neck Warriors who were still frozen in place. Yet the next moment, the all almost instantly turned and ran in the opposite direction! 

"Let's get out of here!"

"He's a freak! I'm not dying just for a stupid diversion!" The many Great Neck Warriors all muttered before they turned tail and rushed into the trees. Their shock wsa almost as great as the warriors who had just started to prepare to fight them. That battle between Howard and the two assassins. It had happened in the span of less than a minute. No one had dared to fight in that time! After all, Howards' strength was simply too perplexing and domineering.

"Wooh! I don't think I can fight for a few days," Howard wiped the blood off his mouth and laughed.

The soldiers, who hadn't been sure what to say, couldn't help but start breaking out in laughs. And yet the commanding officer, Garsel, was beyond afraid. If two Arthraku had attacked Howard at the same time as the Great Neck Warriors, did they broker some kind of deal. He instantly looked back at his soldiers with a passion burning in his eyes. They needed to do whatever they could to stop the Great Neck Warriors attack from succeeding!

"All 10 of you that are in the S rank, get behind me!" Garsel shouted at the top of his lungs. "The rest of you in the A rank or below, stay here and defend this place till your last breath! As for Howard, one of you help him get back to the city! Can't you all tell what he just did?"

"What did he do?" A soldier named Maxin said, laughing and smiling. "And what are you so worried about? With Howard here, there is no way we can lose?!"

"He's right," Howard jogged in their direction with a smile appearing on his face. "Haha! All I was trying to do was scare them away. Luckily, it worked! They shouldn't be back for a long time haha! However, my strength now is pretty much shot. I mean… We all would've die if I didn't scare them away."

"What do you mean?" Maxin looked somewhat perplexed at Howard. "How could anyone stand a chance against you? Even Mernan would have trouble fighting you, right?"

"I-I can't tell you anymore," Howard pointed at the city. "However, I'll at least go with you all to make sure that I can be around to scare the crap out of whomever dared attack you! Now let's go!"

###

In the Great Slavensen Nation, there were five different areas that other Nations would often invade.

These were called the Five Slavensen Mountain passes. 

The five mountain passes included one in the east that Howard had fought the Arthraku at, and there was also one in the west that Mernan had gone to almost immediately after the horn was blown. He knew something wasn't right almost immediately based on the timing of the attack. Someone from his own forces must have told the Great Neck Nation about his rather sudden recovery.

He went at his fastest speed to the West Gate which was also the easiest to reach for the Great Neck Warriors from their territory. It was almost too obvious to figure out what they were trying to do, but he was worried about his current strength they would succeed. With a single wrong move, he could be killed by Janisen from Great Wolf Nation if he activated the full strength of his SSS rank high domain. And the last thing he wanted to do was die after he finally recovered!  He wanted to see his daughter get married! He wanted to finally expand the land of the Great Slavensen Nation to a higher part of the Jarkalon Abyss! Yet, right now, he knew if he had to use his domain for more than three minutes, he'd die! Considering most SSS rank warriors could use domains for dozens of days, this could not have come at a worse time!

There was also a rather significant problem that he had to consider. Should he risk attacking S rank warriors which was generally prohibited for someone with his strength. As soon as he did, he'd have to be willing to die. He had to make up his mind now. Rushing forward, he couldn't help but deliberate over and over again. Was it worth risking his life to save his Nation? Would Howard be able to stop the invasion if he didn't succeed? And also, how insane was it to put so much pressure on such a young teenager! He shrugged his shoulders and passed over his palace as he continued forward. 

'If the Great Neck Warriors are attacking now,' Mernan thought while he passed the round dome buildings of his people silently in the middle of the night.  ',,,It most likely also means that they've been aware that I was poisoned for all these years.'

'I did almost everything I could to hide it,' Mernan kept thinking as he passed the various markets and herbology buildings that were almost everywhere near the West Mountain Pass. 'Could it be. One of my top advisors let the secret out that I was sick to try and curry favor with the Great Neck People? However, who would do that? Why would they do that? I'm nice to everyone, and even promised them promotions when I died.'

Mernan stopped thinking about it and surged faster forward before he heard the first clanging of weapons.

He was right! Someone really was attacking the Great Slavensen Nation. His domain Ki surged around him before thousands of leaves began to appear one after the other around his body. He was not going to let whomever was attacking off the hook! Even if he had to die, he was going to die with dignity!

Boom!

At this time, the attack from Howard's last attack against the assassins surged outwards and shook the buildings in the area, causing Mernan to have to stop in midair. He looked back and saw a large cloud of dust shooting up into the night sky before he immediately trembled.

'That attack. If Howard used that, even with my domain would I have lived?' Mernan felt a powerful force push him back and pushed his hand down into the ground to slow himself down. The force from that attack was probably strong enough that not a single soul in the entire village was probably still awake. 'What a monster. With strength like that, not only is he welcome into the family, but I might have to give him two daughters, hahaha!'

Mernan sighed and wiped the sweat off his head before he turned and saw the Great Neck Warriors surging over the Mountain Pass towards the west outpost. The defensive array which looked like a transparent blanket getting pounded by countless ki attacks, flickered over and over again as thousands of attacks hit against it… Yet This was extremely good news! No one in the SSS rank had yet appeared, or else the barrier would have been destroyed! 

He instantly realized something!

Whomever told about his recovery, probably didn't realize that he'd regained nearly his full strength! He suddenly realized that he should have no problem attacking the SS rank soldiers. 

It was hard to explain this decision, yet he was sure it was the right one to make. 

After being alive for hundred years, somethings just clicked sometimes and you had to go along with it.

"I'll kill as many as I can as quickly as they can so whomever's waiting in the shadows knows I've recovered most of my strength," Mernan activated his domain ki and pointed his hand forward. The next moment, the entire world seemed to turn green before his domain ki surged forward.

The incoming troops which had been expecting an easy battle, looked forward in shock. 

Almost instantly, every single soldier that had been attacking the array from the Great Slavensen Nation activated Ki shields around their bodies while they tried to figure out what to do next. This was supposed to be an easy battle, and yet in a second that all changed.

"That's high class domain ki!"

"What the hell? Commander! Protect us!" Three S rank Grey Neck Warriors screamed before the attack from Mernan hit their shields. 

A second later, a large cloud of dust appeared along with a wave of blood that shot through the air. This was not what anyone expected! This was supposed to be an easy battle.

"Has he recovered?" Janisen sighed and stepped forward before he tossed off his black cloak. Almost instantly, his muscular body swarmed with hair while more and more of his warriors shouted in agony. He turned to look at one of his generals and then watched a leaf from Mernan's domain shoot by him. Holding up his hand, he caught the leaf in the air and almost instantly crushed it. The anger on his face could not be hidden very easily. In fact, his rage was beginning to cause the ground beneath him to crack. "I heard from Alenx that he needed 2 days to fully recover. This is his Domain Ki? He couldn't use this without recovering almost all of his strength! And that bastard has the audacity to use it against my soldiers! Who the hell is he trying to piss off!"

Just like in the lower parts of the Furnace, it was generally against the rules for someone in the SSS rank to attack someone beneath the SS rank. There was simply many reasons for this. For one, it was to protect the younger generation and to remind the older generation to behave.

The Arthraku, and pretty much every nation with SSS rank warriors would enforce this for many reasons. There had been simply too many SSS rank warriors that wiped out entire nations, and ravaged entire flocks of women. Basically, if they didn't do something about it every time it happened, there was a chance the entire younger generation could be killed. This was obviously not worth the risk! And yet, Janisen was certain that Mernan was fine disobeying these orders for some reason. Could it be? That his strength wasn't fully back in the SSS rank yet?

'No way. This is actually the worse case scenario,' Janisen heard several of his troops scream out before thousands of leaves from Mernan's domain crashed into them. Blood shot into the air while countless blood curdling screams blasted outwards in every direction. "Tell everyone to retreat now! If I'm right, he might have gotten just enough strength to detonate his domain! He might be planning to take us all down with him! I repeat, retreat now!"

"What?" His commander, named Nansil looked at Janisen with disbelief ridden on his face. "But doesn't that mean he's almost fully recovered. I thought that Alenx said he'd need 2 days to at least get most of his strength back."

"Looks like my stepson was duped," Janisen held out his hand before his domain ki activated, causing thousands of sharp spikes to appear in the air that surged forward. "I know it doesn't make sense to you now, Nansil, but you have to learn how to think like your enemy," Janisen stepped forward and patted his lietenant on the back as his black hair blew in the wind. "And this enemy is willing to piss off the entire world right now to keep us from invading. I thought he'd surrender immediately and let us take him away before he got strong. Unfortunately, someone will have to pay for this," Janisen signaled to another lieutenant to have his troops flee as blood spread through the air. 

Janisen sighed and took a step forward before he saw Mernan staring at him in the distance. A white energy was beginning to appear around him, which was a sign of Domain Detonation! He smirked and then turned his back to Mernan before he jumped into the air. Clearly, all his thoughts about what Mernan intended were right. It was just a shame that he could do nothing about it. He sighed and as he jumped in the air decided to say one thing to Mernan. He needed him to know that he'd be back.

"You may have won this battle, but I'll win the war," Janisen mouthed before he jumped into the darkness of the night and almost instantly faded away.  His muscular body disappeared into the shroud of darkness a second later, yet his words remained. 

Mernan knew those thoughts would play in his head over and over again over the course of the next few days. 

'Just great,' Mernan said with discontent as he stared up at the Great Neck Warriors vanishing into the darkness of the night. "My daughter brings home an excellent son in law and ten minutes later I found out I have a traitor in my ranks. God, what will happen next? Will I find out she's already pregnant!"