Chapter 139: Converge

Aric was standing in the background as he watched everything unfold. He seemed to be confused as to why Hugh would be here.

They looked at each other, and Aric immediately understood why. Aric had it in his mind that Hugh came here to stop him from killing Maverick.

Aric frowned and turned around to leave. He wanted to disappear and search for Maverick before anyone stopped him.

Hugh saw Aric leave without saying anything. Hugh finally found Aric, and now was not the time for him to leave. He needed to explain to Aric that they both had the same mission in mind.

As Aric left the scene, Hugh stood up and tried to catch up to him. He ignored everyone that was looking at him and rushed out.

Serena tried to stop him from leaving by hiding his hands tighter, but Hugh finally got serious and used his real strength.

Hugh was able to escape from Serena's grasp without much trouble, much to her surprise. She could only watch as Hugh pushed the crowd away and left the scene.

In her mind, she was still speechless as to how Hugh was able to show a tremendous amount of strength. She had always thought that Hugh was a weak person.

That was also the reason why she chose Hugh to be her fake fiancé. Since Hugh was considered the weakest person in the class, she thought that it would gather more anger from her father.

She never thought that Hugh was a man with strength and resolution that she had never seen before. In that split moment, Serena decided to catch up to Hugh.

Serena picked up the laces of her dress as she ran out of the scene in pursuit of her fake fiancé. Everyone made way for Serena seeing that it would be more entertaining for everyone.

As Serena ran after Hugh, her father would also do the same. He stomped his feet as he raised his hand and reached out for Serena.

However, before he could do anything, he felt the cold touch of his wife. She had used some pressure in her touch which made him stop what he was doing.

"Let them go, dear," said Serena's mother with a calm but threatening voice. For everyone, it looked like she was consoling her husband, but her husband knew that he was being threatened.

Serena's father had a big sigh as he lowered his hand and let Serena walk away from everyone. Soon after, the life of the party returned and everyone got to their businesses.

Hugh ran after Aric in the distance until they reached a discrete place away from the party. The place was dim and there was hardly any furniture, just an empty desolate room.

Hugh looked around and realized that there was no one in the room. There were pillars installed in the room, which Hugh guessed to be Aric's hiding place.

Hugh slowly approached one of the pillars and looked behind it, only to see nothing there. There was no noise in the room, and Hugh could only hear his heartbeat.

Hugh continued to search the pillars for any sign of Aric, but he still could not find him. Then, out of nowhere, he suddenly heard a sharp noise.

*clunk*

The sound seemed to be a pebble hitting the ground. It quickly took Hugh's attention as he looked at where the noise originated.

He realized that the noise came from the door where he entered. His intuitions were telling him that someone was in the door, about to enter the place.

Hugh braced himself and activated his eagle eyes. With it, he would be able to see any threat before it came. He held his breath and became one with the darkness.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the room and got louder and louder with time. Then, the person finally showed itself at the door.

"Huff…huff," said the person who seemed exhausted from running. Hugh realized that it was a woman who's entered the place, and he also recognized the voice.

"Serena?" Hugh asked as he slightly let down his guard. He was confused as to why she would run after him.

"You…why did you have to run so far? Who are you chasing?" Serena said with a bit of an exasperated voice. She had both of her hands in her waist as if she was scolding Hugh.

Hugh walked towards her to tell her to leave. In that brief second, he let down his guard.

Serena then noticed that someone was behind Hugh, so she shouted, "watch out!"

The warning came too late as the ambush became successful. A black fire seemed to engulf Hugh and an arm punched towards Hugh's back.

Serena could not see who had attacked Hugh, but she knew that it was not a good person. Without any hesitation, she ran after Hugh with pink smoke coming out of her body.

Some of the smoke quickly got tea sorbet in her body, especially her legs, and it made her speed up. In just a moment, she was able to reach Hugh and attack the unknown assailant.

With her right fist, she performed a jab at the assailant. Her moves were quick and her power was overwhelming, but the assailant was able to intercept the punch.

The assailant guarded himself against Serena's attack and performed a counter-attack. However, it seemed that it was all in Serena's plan.

As soon as the assailant performed the counter-attack, she grabbed his guarding hand and used her full weight to toss the guy behind her. It was a grappling technique.

With her strength and her quickness, the assailant could not physically escape from her. A smile crept up on her face as she thought she had won.

However, the assailant did not give up easily. The man suddenly filled himself with black fire, which meant that Serena would also be affected.

Serena felt a cold heat in her hands. It gave her tremendous pain, and she knew that she would have more burns if she did not give up her grasp on the man.

Serena decided in a quick split-second as she let go of the man before the black fire spread in her whole body. She quickly patted down her dress to make sure that it was not affected.

The man performed a somersault and gave a perfect landing. Both of them stood down and looked at each other.

It was then that Serena finally saw who was her opponent.

"Aric?!" Serena exclaimed, completely confused about the situation.

She quickly let down her hands seeing that the assailant was not an enemy, but a classmate. She was relieved that it was only Aric, not an assassin sent by her dad.

However, Aric did not feel the same way. His eyes were filled with caution and distrust. He did not know who Serena was, so he did not stop his attacks.

Aric activated his black fire on both of his hands as he rushed towards Serena.

Serena furrowed her eyes as she saw Aric rush towards her. She was confused at why it seemed like Aric was hostile towards her even though she did not do anything against him.

Right before Aric reached the defenseless Serena, Hugh tackled Aric to the side.

"Hugh! Why aren't you dead?!" questioned Serena. She had witnessed Hugh being burned alive by the black fire, but Hugh was as good as ever. There were not any burns on his skin nor his clothes.

"Aric! She's not an enemy!" shouted Hugh as he ignored Serena and explained to Aric. He put his whole weight in subduing Aric and not letting him attack Serena.

It was at this moment that Serena had an idea as to why Aric was mad.

"Aric! I'm sorry but I don't love you. I can't marry you!" said Serena. It made both Hugh and Aric stop struggling and just look at her with speechless mouths.

It turned out that Serena thought Aric was mad because of the arranged marriage. It was a misunderstanding on both parts.

As Aric watched Serena, he understood that she was not an enemy. He stopped his struggle and just sat up on the ground and took a big breath.

"Don't stop me, Hugh," said Aric as he faced Hugh. He had a determined look on his face as he petitioned for Hugh to let Aric do what he wanted.

"Can you even do it? Do you even have the strength? It's incredibly impulsive," Hugh argued. Killing Maverick was all Aric ever wanted, but it was an impossible task.

"Impulsive is all I have! I have nothing else, no memory, no recollection, just pure hatred for Maverick!" shouted Aric. His face was red from anger and the veins of his forehead bulged.

"That doesn't mean you have to kill him right now. You have to prepare for these things and make sure you can kill him," said Hugh to persuade Aric.

"What's happening?" Serena blurted out as she was confused about the situation.