บท 72: Fall
With his armored fist, Hugh penetrated through the bark of the giant tree. The dented wall counted to be destroyed, and the splinters fell away from the hole.
Hugh did not stop with one punch as he continued to obliterate the wall and widen the hole on it. He did not forget to eat the rocks in his pockets as fuel to keep activating his armor.
He could feel the reverberations in the ground getting louder and louder, indicating that the squirrel was getting close to him.
The wall was now as big as him, but it was still small compared to the squirrel's size. Hugh was satisfied with this result.
After Hugh punched the wall and made the wall bigger, he turned around and looked at the squirrel coming towards him.
He picked up another rock in his pockets and chewed it like it was candy. He massaged his belly as if he was content with the food that he ate.
The squirrel could only look at the rocks inside Hugh's hands. It had been gathering those rocks for a long time, and it was guzzled down in Hugh's belly in a heartbeat.
It could not forgive this crime and was ready to deal out punishment towards Hugh. It did not notice the gaping hole behind Hugh and could only focus on Hugh's condescending face.
The squirrel was running on all fours with its tail slamming the ground rhythmically. It did not believe that Hugh would be able to dodge its attacks again.
It was stubborn in trying to kill Hugh by trampling him. The squirrel continued to run towards Hugh until it was only three meters away from Hugh.
Hugh did not move yet. He was waiting for the very last second until he dodged away for his plan to work successfully.
If he had dodged now, he would be able to avoid the squirrel's attack, but the squirrel would be able to stop itself from colliding with the hole in the wall.
He needed to wait for the very last second, even if it meant that he would have to sacrifice a part of his body. This was the only way he could defeat a C-rank creature by letting them plummet thousands of meters down the ground.
Hugh could feel the wind from the outside blow to his neck, making him have chills. He waited until the squirrel was only less than a meter away from him, then he activated his armor on his shoulder.
He tried to dodge out of the way, but because he did not use his armor on his leg, he was slow. Instead, he used his armor to protect his shoulder from colliding with the squirrel.
Even if he used his leg to dodge out of the way faster, he would still be hit by the squirrel's attack because the squirrel was only less than one meter away from him.
The squirrel's head crashed onto Hugh's shoulder and immediately dislocated it from his joints and cracked it. Hugh could feel the pain envelop his whole body as he was flung away from the squirrel.
He had sacrificed his shoulder for his plan, and it looked like it worked. The squirrel continued its momentum towards the hole in the wall.
After hitting Hugh, the squirrel finally realized that gaping hole in the wall. It tried to stop itself, but it was too late. The squirrel was too close to the border to try and decelerate its body.
*BOOM* *CRACK*
The squirrel's head struck the hole in the wall and continued to pierce through the bark. The wood started to give way under the squirrel's force and create a giant hole for the squirrel's whole body to go through.
The wooden walls continued to break until the squirrel's whole body was thrown outside due to its momentum.
Hugh turned his head towards the squirrel and smiled, content that his plan had worked.
The squirrel struggled to stop itself from falling by grabbing onto the ledge of the hole. It was holding on with one hand and its claws extended to create a better grip.
Hugh immediately stood up as he saw this unfold. Squirrels are natural tree climbers, and they could easily climb back up in this position.
Knowing this information, Hugh ignored the pain in his body and walked towards the squirrel. It was currently trying to push itself forward to climb the hole, and Hugh looked down on the struggling squirrel.
It continued to use its claws to climb up until its head was on the same level as Hugh. It was surprised to see that Hugh was standing there watching it.
Hugh activated his armor on his foot and gathered all the remaining strength in his body to kick the squirrel away. The squirrel saw this and weaved its head back to try and avoid Hugh's kick.
Without any hesitation, Hugh did a roundhouse kick towards the squirrel's head and launched the squirrel flying outwards.
The squirrel flailed its whole body in the air as it tried to grasp onto anything, but there was nothing around it. Hugh watched as the squirrel started to descend into the ground at breakneck speeds.
Hugh did not look down to see the result and just turned towards the room. It was now empty, and only the shreds of evidence of their fight remained.
He limped towards the pile of rocks in the ground, making sure not to move his arm and his shoulder too much. He reached the rocks and sat down without much energy left.
With his usable hand, he started to munch on the rocks as if it was the last thing he was to do. He could feel his power slowly coming back to him, but his exhaustion remained.
He had been awake for the whole day, and it was now time for him to sleep. After he had eaten all the rocks in the pile, his eyes got heavy, and he plopped into the ground.
As he was starting to lose his consciousness from sleep, he got a notification in his head.
'DAILY MISSION COMPLETE!'
'Armor upgraded!'
'Storage Pouch unlocked!'
————————
In a dark and moist room, Aric regained consciousness and looked around. He was at the same place that Maverick had left him.
The last thing he remembered was Maverick slicing off his head. He flinched his whole body as he remembered that scene. His arms were still restrained, but he had enough freedom to touch his neck.
With trembling hands, he touched his neck and tried to see if he had been decapitated. His hands touched every part of his neck, but he did not feel any signs of injury.
Maverick had pulled some stunt on him and made him believe that he was dead. He could never forgive his own father for doing this to him.
His anger turned into rage until his whole body burst into flames. He closed his eyes and felt the fire around his body. He noticed that his flames were burning hotter than ever, even though he had barely exerted his power.
His flames had improved from the torture his own father had inflicted on him. He remembered how his hand was disintegrated from the lava, the pain, and anguish that had caused him.
Even though the results he got were beyond what he expected, he could not feel anything but hatred for his father. He regretted ever coming here and letting Maverick torture him like this.
He wanted to get out from this hell hole. He flailed his whole body to try and get out from the shackles on his body even though he knew it would not do anything good.
Then, he heard footsteps coming towards him. These footsteps were engraved into his heart and caused him to have fear all over his body.
Maverick came out of the shadows with the same swagger and domineering aura that he had. He observed Aric with a smile on his face.
"See what happened? You improved."
Maverick's tone could have been mistaken as a parent proud of his child for achieving a milestone. Aric could not accept this kind of attitude from Maverick, so he glared at him and spat on the ground.
"You despise me, yet I made you improve. You should be grateful."
Maverick had his nose up in the air as he spoke to Aric. He seemed to be genuinely waiting for Aric to give him thanks.
Seeing that Aric was silent, Maverick continued to speak.
"The board members at the Blacklade academy have been getting anxious lately, and I need to quiet those thoughts. As for your thanks, you just need to do something for me, sabotage Wolrath Academy."
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