Chapter 113: Ember

With the fire playing wildly around his hands, Hugh found a way to get through the boulder in front of him. He put his hand on the boulder and closed his eyes as he tried to concentrate even more.

He tended every part of his muscle, and his face showed the strain he was going through, but the fire flickered in and out of existence.

He had only gotten this power just recently, so he did not know how to use it. The fire that was in his hands was too weak to melt through the boulder that was preventing him from escaping.

With his life on the line and the pressure building around him, Hugh was stressed beyond belief. The ground around him continued to crack until there was only a little piece of land left that he could stand on.

He was running out of time, and he still could not control the fire properly. Then, the last piece of land that he was standing on started to crack under the constant earthquake in the room.

Hugh's feet were already slipping out of the foothold, but he tried to keep his balance by holding onto the boulder. Just in the nick of time, a sudden burst of memory flashed in his mind.

In his memory, he saw Aric controlling and practicing with his fire. He could feel every muscle that Aric twitched and every synapse that traveled through his mind.

With this information, Hugh knew exactly what to do to further intensify his fire. Hugh held the boulder with his two hands as he focused his strength on flexing his core.

As soon as those muscles were used, Hugh could feel a change in quality in his fire. The previous red fire had now become orange like the one that Aric had produced earlier.

The part of the boulder that Hugh was touching became brighter and brighter until it started to melt in his hands. The bright light continued to propagate in the boulder until more and more parts melted.

Hugh concentrated with the very last of his mental strengths to keep his fire going. The boulder continued to melt and give way, but Hugh was running out of time.

He saw that he was very close to melting the boulder, but he suddenly felt his foothold start to collapse. His feet started to fall along with his body

Finally, Hugh was able to melt the boulder until a large hole was in the middle. It was enough for Hugh to get through, but his body was already falling on the collapsed floor.

Hugh flailed his whole body in the air as he fell on the void of the floor. He waved his hands around to try and grab onto anything that could save him.

Just as his whole body was going to be enveloped in the dark void of the collapsed floor, Hugh's fingers grabbed onto the tiny ledge on the tunnel.

His hands were covered in his silver and brown armor, which gave him enough grip to keep himself on the edge. However, he could feel his grip slipping away from the edge.

His grip was only because of the tip of his fingers, so he could not gather enough strength to lift himself back up. He could feel the pavement on the ledge start to give way, so Hugh knew that he could not hold on any longer.

With one swift move, Hugh gathered every bit of strength in himself and transferred it onto his fingertips. With his grip, he launched himself up and pierced his hands onto the pavement.

With a greater grip onto the floor, Hugh was able to lift himself into the safe zone. He painted, exhausted from the tense and dangerous situation that he was in.

He could still feel the earthquake all around him, so Hugh knew that he should not stay here any longer. He turned around and started to run away towards the exit.

As he took the first step, he suddenly stopped and looked back into the dome. There, he could still see Aric amid the chaos of rubble all around him.

Then, a huge boulder came down from the ceiling and buried Aric underneath it. Hugh cringed away from the scene and slowly ran away towards the exit.m

He did not want to leave Aric's corpse like that, but he had to. He started to run away from the tunnel as he saw that it was starting to crumble as well.

Hugh reached the end of the tunnel and saw the strange mechanisms that he had seen earlier before. Now, those mechanisms seemed to have been destroyed and mutilated until it was no longer identifiable.

Smokes were enveloping the whole place, looking like it was ravaged by a raging fire. Ignoring those mysterious mechanisms, Hugh stepped out into the outside.

Hugh stepped foot onto the outside and the first thing he saw was the crowd of students all looking up. They seemed to be confused and scared at the same time with their fingers trembling and their bodies shivering.

There were not even many words spoken, just weird silence through the shock that came to their bodies. Some of them braced their friends as they tried to figure out what had happened.

Hugh looked up and saw something unbelievable. The previous blue and bright skies that covered the Central Area had now become violet.

The violet skies seemed to envelop the whole Central Area like it was a dome. The texture of the dome was made up of small box-shaped geometries that seemed to phase in and out of existence.

"The barriers are down!!!"

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The student council came inside the Central building that was in charge of the barrier of the Central Area. It was now in ruins, but they charged on. They entered the main room and saw the rubble that was caused by the earthquake.

They inspected the whole place and saw traces of fights inside. There was too much blood all over the place, but they did not see anything inside. They scoured the whole place and did not see anything suspicious; there was not a corpse inside.