There was probably something in this world known as too much pride, but having grown up with such prideful characters, you really couldn't have blamed the Fire Dragon Slayer for believing that haughtiness was normal. At the heart of it though, Houren, in this current state was nothing more than a man suffering from extreme introversion; he could handle those aforementioned prideful characters with the utmost of grace on a consistent basis but it went without saying that, as a man who was inclined to be introverted, he needed time to recharge his batteries and really just hang out and be by himself. That was probably the reason why he liked to train by himself, to head to the East Forest where nobody was around so he could really just get all of this frustration out of him by unleashing his spells at their maximum power in the open plains or something. Occasionally, a vulcan would come and disturb him, but the Fire Dragon Slayer often just made incredibly short work of them and sent them packing. Once he did that to the alpha male in a pack of vulcans, the rest of them wouldn't dare disturb him - hell, he was almost like a vulcan boss, and if the thought of being a vulcan boss didn't disgust him to the core, he'd probably have relished in it. He let out a bitter laugh as he entered his usual abode, a fairly isolated part of East Forest that wasn't really populated by anything living. It used to have its own residents, of course, but after seeing a single one of Houren's solo training sessions, they immediately relocated - that was probably smart of them, in hindsight.

It wasn't as though there was an immediate threat to the country or the guild right now, but they'd be damned if they thought the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail was going to wait until a threat showed up before he actually started to train hard. No, he knew better than anyone else that by then it would all be too late. He needed to get more powerful now, so that when the threat actually did show up he would be ready. "The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war. Who's the wise guy that said something like that?" the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail scanned in his head for the man who uttered that, but nobody really came to mind. He supposed it didn't really matter anyway, as he allowed all the mana to flow to his hands, and he released them at a single moment, the force actually propelling him off the ground and scorching anything that was beneath him; of course, since the Fire Dragon Slayer was naturally immune to fire, he was completely unscathed. It had been a while since he had been able to do this without having to restrain himself, so it honestly felt pretty good, much better than he initially thought it would feel like.

A-rank spell 502/1600
S-rank spell 0/3200

It felt pretty great to be able to release all his magical energy in one place like he was currently doing. That was probably because he generally wasn't allowed to do stuff like that, especially in team fights. His Fire Dragon Slayer magic was capable of doing some serious damage to his enemies, but that went for the friends as well - in other words, Houren represented Fairy Tail perfectly in the way that he often caused collateral damage when he fought, and that included potentially hurting his own comrades. Of course, none of this was ever intentional and now that the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail was actively aware of his own shortcomings, he made it a habit of his to actually restrain himself when fighting. He didn't really let loose unless there was really no one in the vicinity, otherwise he'd do his best to hold back so that he would not harm his friends. Of course, this meant that his damage output would be reduced severely, but hey, even a Houren with heavily reduced damage output was incredibly useful in battle and there was a bunch of guys who could attest to that. Hell, even now, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail believed he could have taken Cell if Kazumi's unconscious body had not been there.

The Fire Dragon Slayer went to one of the old trees that he often practiced his hitting on, remembering the words that Kazuki spoke to him all that time ago. He had said something along the lines of all living things having spirits inside of them, and if you thought like that, then you'd sometimes end up feeling really guilty when you hit trees to try and increase your strength. The Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail wasn't really thinking about the well being of the tree in front of him when he let loose on it though, outstretching his arm as far back as it could go for maximum damage. His magical damage output would be heavily reduced due to the fact that he was a user of an incredibly explosive magic, but at the very least, he could train his fists to that he could wipe the floor with his opponents without even needing to resort to magic.

There was always the strategy where he could use his flames to augment his fists and increase his power; that didn't do much collateral damage, but at the same time, it wasn't the way the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail liked to fight. After he finished training his fists, he looked over in the distance and saw a vulcan staring at him angrily. It looked like this vulcan might have claimed this territory as his own while Houren was gone, and was now angry that a human had come to disturb him. That honestly put a smirk on the Fire Dragon Slayer's face; he genuinely thought it was cute that there was a single ape in this forest that didn't know who he was, and what he was capable of.

A-rank spell 1013/1600
S-rank spell 0/3200

This vulcan was certainly a fiery one that wasn't going to take anything lying down. As soon as the Fire Dragon Slayer made eye contact with the damned beast, he had already sprung with the intention of taking the Fire Dragon Slayer's head clean off, but of course, it went without saying that such a feat was much easier said than done. Using his agile reflexes, the Fairy Tail mage stepped out of the beast's way, opened his mouth and unleashed a fiery maelstrom on the creature, causing him to shriek so loudly that Houren wondered if the people in Magnolia didn't hear it. It would have been bad if they did, since technically, Houren was in the wrong here since these lands have belonged to the vulcans since god knows how long. Still, the Fire Dragon Slayer considered this place to be his secret spot for training and he wasn't going to let some ape take that away from him. Sure, he had been gone a while with that request for Cecilia and whatnot, but that didn't give the vulcan the right to take away his territory while he was gone.

Well, technically it did, but the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail was back now, and he was all ready to take back what belonged to him. The fire spell seemed to be doing its job, but Houren knew that that wouldn't be enough if he really wanted to take this vulcan down. After all, these guys were known for their insane endurance, they were incredibly durable but not very smart at all. Well, it was obvious that they weren't too smart. If they were, they wouldn't have had the gall to challenge a man like Houren Vanadis in the first place, but the very fact that they did showed to the Fire Dragon Slayer that they were dumb, and if you were dumb, it didn't matter how strong you were. The Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail dashed forward, landing a solid punch into the vulcan's chest, and then another and another and another until he was sure that the vulcan was barely fading in and out of consciousness.

When the creature reached the point where he wasn't even reacting to the fact that he was still being burnt to a crisp, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail knew that the creature would fall if he was so much as touched and that is exactly what the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail did to him. Instead of whacking him or using another spell with a throwback effect, the Fire Dragon Slayer merely outstretched his index finger and poked at the vulcan, and just as he expected, the vulcan immediately fell to the ground, burnt but clearly alive and probably completely regretting his actions. Well, that was fine too.

With his strength, the Fire Dragon Slayer picked up the creature and lifted him up from the ground, not an easy feat by any means but one that just so happened to be possible for the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail who was no stranger to immense weight training to increase one's muscle man. With one hoof, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail threw the vulcan away, slinging him away and into the forest where hopefully he would run into his fellow vulcans, and he would advise them to stay away from the Fire Dragon Slayer's training ground. That would be the best case scenario for everyone involved. Wiping his hands of the sweat, Houren went back to his regular training.

A-rank spell 1600/1600


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