Chapter 131: Nucleus

Marshal's body was wrangled beyond repair, but it was as functional as it was before. The invader inside Marshal's body was using it like it was a thing that could be discarded.

Hugh opened his eagle eyes and started to search every part of Marshal's body. He was looking for any signs of the nucleus.

Hugh did not know what it looked like, but he knew that the invader would protect it with its life. Right now, Hugh could not see anything wrong with Marshal.

The headless body of Marshal started to move and attack Hugh. The air around him froze and affected the floor and the ceiling.

It did not take long for a giant icicle to appear out of nowhere and was directed right at Hugh. It was unnerving to see a headless body fight with him, but Hugh had to focus on the task at hand.

Without any warning, the icicle launched towards Hugh with top speeds. Hugh could see the attack like it was in slow motion, so he would be able to dodge it.

Since the icicle was large, Hugh could not simply move his head away. He had to move his whole body if he were to avoid the icicle.

Just as Hugh started to step away from the icicle, he suddenly felt a strong resistance in his one foot. Hugh looked down and realized that Marshal's dismembered arm was keeping him in place.

Hugh tried to get out of the grip, but it was frozen in place. The time passed and Hugh did not have any more time to completely dodge away from the icicle.

Faced with this predicament, Hugh decided to use his fire. He raised his hands and conjured a large ball of fire that was similar in size to the icicle.

Hugh launched it right before the icicle reached him, and fortunately for Hugh, it was enough heat to disintegrate the icicle into vapor.

Steam started to rise from the collision of the two contrasting elements. Hugh's eyesight was blocked by all the steam in front of him, so he could not see what was going on.

However, even without his eyes, Hugh could fight properly. Since his eyesight was useless in the wall of steam in front of him, Hugh decided to close his eyes which would enhance his other senses.

Feeling every movement and beat of action around him, Hugh was able to guess where Marshal's beheaded body was attacking from.

Without any warning, five small icicles surrounded him and cornered him. Hugh was not given any space to dodge the attacks, so he would have to take the attack by hand.

With two of his hands, Hugh caught two consecutive icicles right in front of him. With his fire, he was able to evaporate it into nothing.

There were three icicles left, so Hugh used his two feet to kick the two icicles coming from his side. It was able to redirect the icicle away from him.

However, there was still one icicle left that was right behind him. Hugh had no choice but to endure the attack and hope that it would not injure him much.

Hugh started to flex his back muscles to their hardest so that he had a good defense. Then, he started to gather all of his fire in his back to support the defense.

The icicle hit his back, and it was only able to penetrate his skin a few millimeters until it broke off and disintegrated into a million particles of gas.

Being able to defend against five attacks coming from different angles was a hard task to do. Marshal was more than surprised when he saw this, especially how useless his icicles were against Hugh's muscles.

Hugh waved both of his hands and he was able to disperse the smoke of steam in front of him. Khristine looked around and saw that Marshal's beheaded body was still standing in place.

Marshal did not waste any more time in attacking Hugh with multiple icicles. Hugh was then busy with his defense against these icicles to deal with Marshal himself.

As Hugh was deflecting the icicles, he realized that he had been in transformation for too long. He guessed that he would not have enough time to kill the invader if he were to keep defending like this.

Then, a light bulb idea brightened up in his head. Marshal had been deliberately occupying him with ineffective icicles. It almost seemed as if Marshal was afraid of Hugh discovering something.

Then, he realized that he could not see Marshal's head anywhere. Ever since he had beheaded Marshal, it had disappeared from his sight.

A slight smile appeared on Hugh's face as he got a revelation. He realized that the nucleus was probably hidden somewhere in Marshal's head.

Marshal was too protective of his head, and it lead to Hugh discovering his secret.

"Gaaaahhhh!!!"

Hugh roared in place as he summoned a wall of fire around his skin to get rid of the pesky icicles that were attacking him.

Then, Hugh did not waste any more time as he sprinted away from Marshal. Hugh had acted fast and without any indication, so he took Marshal off guard.

Hugh sprinted right behind a small mound of soil and peeked right into it. There, he saw Marshal's head peeking at him like a lost kid.

There was despair and fear written all over Marshal's face as he realized that Hugh knows where the nucleus was. He tried to summon the body towards Hugh to try and stop him, but he was too late.

Hugh picked up the defenseless head like it was taking candy from a baby. Then, with his two hands, he opened up Marshal's jaws as he tried to search for the nucleus.

Hugh peeked inside Marshal's mouth and saw a pearl-like object hanging around Marshal's uvula. Hugh did not wait any more time as he tried to pick it off like a ripe fruit.

Marshal's headless body reached Hugh right in time before Hugh plucked the nucleus off. He tried to pull Hugh's hands away from his head, and he was successful in prying it off.

Hugh thought he was successful in stopping Hugh, but right in Hugh's two fingers was a pearl-like object.

Marshal's body froze in place for a second and fell to the ground like it was a piece of object. There was no sort of movement on the headless body anymore.

Hugh looked at the nucleus with wonder in his eyes. He was intrigued by it, as well as this desire to eat it. However, before he could even contemplate consuming it, Hugh's transformation took to a close.

Hugh's body started to deflate like a balloon. Instead of the fit and muscular body that he had, he was now as thin as a stick.

Hugh immediately felt a tinge of burning hunger that overcame every sense he had. He started to heave in place as he got more and more hungry as time passed.

In his quest to satiate his hunger, Hugh suddenly smelled a leafy green substance all around him. It smelled like he was in a field of recently cut grass.

He started to sniff the air, and he was not able to pinpoint the smell. The scent was overwhelming as if he was bathing in the substance.

Then, he looked down and realized where the smell came from. It was the small mounds in the ground. Hugh guessed that these mounds were the eggs that the invader was trying to hatch.

As soon as he thought of the idea, he could not reject it. Hugh started to dig around the area as he consumed the eggs for his sustenance.

As soon as he took a bite, a refreshing and cool scent lingered around. The taste was subtle, but it kept Hugh coming for more.

As Hugh consumed the thousands of eggs around him, his previously deflated physique started to bubble up. He was now the same obese self that he usually was.

When Hugh came to his senses, he saw the thousands of digging sites that he had done. Hugh did not feel guilt at all about eating all of the eggs since he did not want another invader to roam the schools.

Then, he remembered that he still had the nucleus in his hands. He started to inspect the nucleus with his eagle eyes to make sure that he knew what it was.

However, before he could take a closer look, he suddenly felt a notification from his system.

+++++++++++++

Urgent Mission

- consume the nucleus to complete the mission.

+++++++++++++

Hugh got this notification from his system that made him want to consume the nucleus as soon as possible. It was as if the system was telling him to do it now or else something bad would happen.

Realizing the urgency, Hugh quickly swallowed the nucleus without any hesitation. The nucleus slid down his throat without any problems.

*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*

"Impressive. Dealing with an invader yourself? Definitely impressive."