Hell's Academy

Alenx seemed to blur over endless mountain peaks before he arrived at the destination he was seeking.

In an area in one of the lower parts of the Jarkalon Abyss, there was a large forest with trees that seemed to move from side to side as Alenx moved passed them. They were known as Grey Neck Trees, and were what caused the Grey Neck Nation to create their name.

Each Tree had roughly the strength of a warrior in the A rank, and could send out spikes made of Ki at any invaders that tried to steal the precious herbs and plants hidden in the forest. As for the one who controlled them, he was known as the Great Neck Tempest. 

The fact that the trees were moving meant that Alenx had gained the approval of the Tempest, which could only mean one thing.

Alenx was considered a member of the Great Neck Nation, and turning into a blur once more, he arrived at the entranceway to the city.

"So strange to be back here." Alenx walked passed the guards before they pointed him to a large tent flapping in the wind. "It's risky enough that I'm coming back here, but I got no choice. Mernan… In just a single day his strength will be back to the SSS rank! I must tell them to attack with all thier might immedaitely! Otherwise, my chance of taking over the Great Slavensen Nation is almost zero!"

Alenx had spent years doing everything he could to ruin Mernan's chances of recovering.

He was the reason he wasn't able to have any male children, and also the reason that he would've died in a few weeks. But even with all these things considered, all his plans were about to be destroyed because of Howard showing up. 

He was in the SS rank, and had almost completely understood Domain Ki and was very close to breaking through to the SSS rank. And yet… Howard, in one day, had awoken the nemesis of his people back on the track to his full strength!

All those years of treachery had just been sent flying out the window! He couldn't wait any longer! His Step father, the leader of the Great Neck Nation had to act now and kill Mernan while there was still time! As for Howard, he was already certain soon the Great Neck Nation would be the least of his troubles. After all, he was pretty certain that Howard was the one his father had been talking about.

The one that the Arthraku were about to do almost anything to kill!

He walked into the tent and sat down on a white chair around a table before he saw three women coming out from behind a set of tapestries that separated one room from the next. His father, probably, had probably just been alerted that his step son had arrived. The one he'd raised in secret for a few years while his mother from the Great Slavensen Nation did all she could to appease him.

"Son… You know you aren't allowed to be here," His father walked out from another part of the tent in an extremely beautiful white robe. He had black hair and rather hairy arms, but mostly looked like a handsome young man with hardly any imperfections on his skin.

This was the normal form of someone in the Great Neck Nation, which they referred to as their natural state, but they also had their warrior state, their defensive state, and their training states.

The natural state is when they looked like normal human beings, but in the three other states their hair would flourish all over their bodies and cause them to look like powerful beings. Alenx smiled when he saw his father walking into the room and did a slight bow. However, the next moment, his father's arm blurred and stopped an inch from his face.

"Uah! What are you doing here!" Janisel, his father said, "You know you can't risk being seen here! How many months did I spend training you out in the wilderness? Don't you remember! Never ever go back to your den when your prey is still alive!"

"Father, there has been a problem. Mernan will regain his full strength by tomorrow," Alenx said, completely unaware that Howard had also found another plant to speed up his healing process. This may turn out to be a key factor in what would happen in the future. "I came here knowing full well of your training. We've stalked tons of prey together. You taught me how to poison them, and you even saved my mother from certain death! Without you, she would've never gotten access to the plants in this forest. And yet, I had to come here and let you know! I had to risk my cover being blown, but I promise, no one saw me leave in this direction! I covered my back, and erased my tracks just like you taught me!"

Alenx looked up at his step father and gulped before the hair that was starting to grow on his arms shrunk back in place.

He sighed and reached down before he hugged his son. It had been a long time since he'd seen him after all, and had only received messages from him like they'd discussed. But he almost immediately understood why he'd come here, and nodded his head.

"Are you absolutely sure he will regain his strength?" Janisel hugged his son tighter before looking into his gorgeous eyes. The eyes he'd definitely gotten from his mother. "Because if that's the case, then what are you doing here! You could just poison him again! We spent all these years waiting for him to die! Why come here now."

"Because poison won't work anymore," Alenx said with a look of anguish. The Jade Stem Herb would pretty much cure any poison that afflicted him now that it had become his 10th plant! It made him so mad that Howard had found it, he wanted to crush him to pieces! "He has the Jade Stem Plant father, and tomorrow, he will finish refining it."

"Tonight then… It looks like he'll have to die," Janisel let go off his son and looked out at the full moon. A second later, he made a gesture and a soldier that was standing in the corner of the room nodded his head and walked off. Clearly, he was going to get their troops ready. "However, how could he have found one. We made sure to search for all of them in a 1000 kilometer radius. You, yourself, used your ability to help us find them!"

"It's because of someone named Howard that has arrived," Alenx eyes flared with anger as soon as he said that name. That little brat had ruined everything and he'd only known him for one day. "You must also kill him, and kill him fast. He has some strange ability, father… His strength is even higher than mine!"

"Then he will be our first target," Janisel walked over to a rack with shimmering armor and touched his hand to it. He smiled and looked back at Alenx. "You have no need to worry. My strength is well passed the entry level to the SSS rank. I'll kill him, and then this time you can save Lasinda properly. After all, who can turn down the hero that saved them hahaha!"

"Let's hope so," Alenx began to hear the troops screaming and getting ready for battle. "Because, for some reason, I can tell that if we don't do something about Howard now, he'll grow to become a monster we can't stop. However, shall we do what we discussed? Shall I get all his troops to leave the city?"

"Yes," Janisel smiled and nodded his head before pointed at a small platoon of Great Neck Warriors that had already formed a line outside of his tent. "Scratch yourself up a little bit, and then tell them you got attacked to the east of the city. We'll come in through the west."