62 One Track Mind

Hugh continued to pounce at Gaby while trying to strike her down with his fists.

The girl assumed that due to his position as the third best student of their class he would be hard to deal with, but she was having a surprisingly easy time evading his moves.

Compared to Kurt, Hugh was like someone moving in slow motion, and he was even easier to handle while she used her electrical powers to boost her body and increase her agility.

After dodging once, then twice, and finally a third time, and after succeeding in dodging a fourth attack, she took the opportunity to approach Hugh from behind and unleashed a blast of lightning straight towards his torso.

"Guaagh!!" the large red-haired lad cried while rolling on the ground.

"What the hell..." Gaby mumbled, staring at him and feeling confused as smoke continued to come out from her open palm, "This guy... Kinda sucks... Is he really amongst the top students?"

Saramin was watching the fight with complete calm and even though she could understand Gaby's sentiment, she couldn't share it, "Don't let your guard down... Hugh's true ability comes from his never-give-up attitude..."

"Is that so..." Gaby replied while assuming her battle stance again.

Hugh finished healing himself up once again and started another barrage of attacks.

A kick to the head, a punch to the shoulder, an attempt at grabbing her from behind, all ending up in failure and resulting in openings for Gaby to strike back with a lightning attack.

"GguuuuGH!!" he groaned again, but this time remaining standing still, "Not bad..."

"Not bad??" Gaby shouted, "Dude, you haven't landed a single hit on me and I have blasted you enough times already to even make ME feel sorry for you! I think we're way past just 'not bad' by this point... Just give up!"

"You kidding?? This is what I love! No way I'm stopping now!!" he shouted before running towards her again.

Gaby didn't even try to dodge it this time as he was just running in a straight line like a train. She simply raised her palms and blasted him away one more time.

"Nice!" he uttered as his healing flames kicked in again, "Very, very nice!!"

Even though his skin was filled with burns, smoke was coming out from his body, and most of his uniform, which was specially designed to sustain a dragon's power, was starting to get destroyed as well, Hugh just kept coming and laughing like a maniac.

"What in the world... This guy is creeping me out now..." Gaby whispered while starting to sweat.

Hugh once again started to unleash a wave of attacks at Gaby with his massive arms. The girl tried to dodge again but this time he ended up catching her by the leg and raised her body up.

"Hey!!"

"Ha! Got you now!" he claimed while holding her upside down.

Gaby just glared at him and turned on her energy cloak, making her whole body be covered in electricity.

Hugh felt immense pain invading his arm and was forced to release her, allowing the curly-haired lass to safely land on the ground and blast his face with an energy sphere.

The bulky teenager flinched for a second but just like before, he used his flames to recover and get back to normal.

"Ah! Now, this is getting really fun!!" he commented.

"Oh, man..." Gaby muttered while putting some distance from him and her, "Be it Saramin, Kurt, or you... The people from your family just keep finding new ways to piss me the hell off..."

Saramin raised her hand, "I would like to state that I take offense from being put in the same group as this moron!"

Gaby also raised her hand, "I would like to state that I don't care! Now shut up and let me focus!"

The girl was so concentrated that she didn't even realize while backing away from Hugh that she was now standing right in front of Leon.

"What the hell? You're still here?? Why didn't you run?" she complained while glaring daggers at the boy.

"I'm... I'm sorry! My legs were so tired... He forced me to stay in that position all day..."

"Oh, for crying out loud..." Gaby rolled her eyes before sighing and gazing at Hugh again, "What's your deal anyway? Aren't you too old to play bully? Just leave the poor kid alone."

"Play bully?" Hugh repeated while scratching his red hair, "I'm not playing anything! I'm just making some investments!"

"What...?"

Hugh cracked his knuckles and launched himself towards Gaby one more time.

The girl considered evading him again but since Leon was right behind her, if she got out of the way, he would end up getting hit instead, so she simply stood her ground and began to blast him with another electric sphere.

"Ugh!!" he cried while healing himself.

"What do you mean investments??"

"That's just what it is! You think I mess around with people just because I like it?"

"'Just because'? So you do like it..."

The lad began to move but Gaby started to unleash a storm of energy in order to push him back. Hugh crossed his arms in order to defend himself and kept walking through the blast with slow and heavy steps.

"What I like... What I truly, TRULY, like... Is the chance to go toe-to-toe with tough opponents!! Something I could never do in my old life in my old body! In this world! I can just go as wild as I want!" he screamed.

Gaby tried to increase her output but Hugh just kept coming.

"And you know what creates true strong opponents? Pain! Suffering! Misery!! Struggle! Getting beat up by life to a pulp until you're left gasping for air and falling into the deepest corner of the abyss, and then crawling back out from it after becoming stronger than ever!!"

"The hell are you talking about you lunatic??" Gaby questioned while trying to keep up her power but feeling her strength starting to decline. She was about to reach her limit.

"In my old life..." Hugh continued, "I met a guy who got into a car accident and ended up losing one of his legs... I thought for sure his life would be ruined... But you know what happened? The dude just learned how to live with it! He got hit by life and then just got back up again and hit life right back! He looked like a total badass!

This made me start to look at people that went through the same kind of things! Kids that were raised without parents! Husbands that lost their wives! Hostages that survived being captured by criminals!

Students that got bullied at school!

They all went through hell, but the ones that manage to survive it, they all were reborn bigger, better, and more awesome than ever!!"

Hugh finally began to open his arms after Gaby's beam started to reach an extremely weak state, almost to the point where it was disappearing, and began to push it back with his bare palms.

"Pain makes people strong! That's why I'm gonna hurt as many people as I can, and make them become stronger than ever so they can all fight me in the future!

Leon might look weak and frail now... But give it three of five years... After I'm done with him, he will develop so much hate towards me that he will do everything he can to become stronger! To become someone that can take me down! And the more I torment him, the bigger his motivation will be!!"

"You're crazy!!" Gaby screamed.

"AM I!!??" Hugh began to cover his arms with red scales and soon enough, his hands transformed into a pair of dragon claws, which he proceeded to use to completely disperse Gaby's energy blast.

"Shoot!" she gasped before falling on her knees, "I reached my limit?"

Hugh simply laughed at her, "See what I mean? You were thinking you got me all figured out and just kept assuming you were safe and sound! But every time I was hit, I carefully watched and thought about how to bring you down!

All I had to do was keep pushing and pushing until you tired yourself out!

I became stronger during our fight due to my pain!"

He then opened his palms and revealed all of his sharp claws as they reflected the light of the sun and almost blinded Gaby's eyes.

"Someone like you, who just enjoyed your place at the top..." he continued, "You don't know pain! You don't know the joy of getting stronger through your suffering!"

Gaby tried to cast her ability once again, but she realized too late that she was burned out from unleashing so much power at once.

"Now, here! Let me help you give your first step into becoming a better you!" Hugh declared while raising both of his claws.

Gaby closed her eyes and prepared to get slashed by him, but right as she was about to, another beam of energy of the size of a fridge blasted Hugh from behind and pushed him out from the roof.

"Waaaaaahhhhh! Ugh!!"

Making him land on the school's entrance.

Gaby and Leon watched as the tall boy crashed against the ground down below and then the two proceeded to turn around to stare at Saramin at the rooftop's entrance as she had her hand held up with smoke coming out from it from the blast she just released.

"Can we go now? I still need to talk with you..." she asked with the calmest tone in the world as if the entire battle from before didn't even happen.

"Ah... Right... Sure..." Gaby whispered while trying to stand up.

Leon just kept staring at the blasted Hugh on the ground with a body full of burn marks as a couple of students started to gather around him to see if he was okay.

"You better get out of here too by the way..." Sara suggested, "Despite what he says, getting beat up isn't gonna make you stronger, it will just make you get beat up."

"Ah... Y- Yes... Th- Thank you..."

"Don't mention it... Also, if you ask me, being smart is way more important than being strong anyway..." Sara finished saying as she helped Gaby walk out of the roof after using some healing flames she memorized from watching Hugh, "See you around, kid..."

"See you... Around..." Leon replied while waving at her.

He then began to think about what Hugh said regarding strength and what Sara said regarding being smart.

"Is it possible to be both...?" he muttered while staring at his own palm and starting to smile with an obsessive glare.