Taunt

Aric looked towards Hugh's defensive position, and his eyes grew red from anger. His eyes were moist, either from pain or anger.

Aric brought down his feet and crashed them towards Hugh's undefended body. He could feel the bones cracking inside Hugh's body and the squishy fat that was prevalent in Hugh.

He continued to kick, boot, and trample on Hugh with his fire foot. With every attack, Hugh's body trembled in pain, but he endured the attacks, even if his body was now covered in burns and bruises.

Aric wanted to continue to beat up Hugh, but his vision keeps on changing. Every time he would step on Hugh, all he could see was his father's face.

He did not know why he was seeing this, but he wanted to get rid of it. With all this anger inside of him, he transferred all of them onto Hugh.

With every step, he would get angrier and angrier, but he did not know the reason. His eyes were moist, and he could barely see his surroundings.

With his blurry vision, he looked towards Hugh, who had blood and bruises all over him. As he looked at the blurry version of Hugh, it all suddenly clicked for Aric.

Aric was seeing his younger version of himself onto Hugh. This was the exact position he would use to protect himself from Maverick's torture.

Aric would try and protect his face and sacrifice his body, just so that he would last longer. He remembered all of the pain and anguish that he felt as he stared at the cold hard ground.

Even though he had experienced this multiple times, it never got any easier. All of his experience piled up and made the situation even worse.

*kick*

He remembered the time when his father would mercilessly beat him up because he was late for a few minutes.

*kick*

He remembered the time when Maverick would dismantle his every limb, just so that Aric would know where to aim for the critical spots in a person.

*kick*

He remembered when Maverick would make him experience and relive every day with dread and misery paved with blood.

*kick*

Aric slowly relented on his kicks as he snapped out of his stupor. His vision was not back in reality, and he had been kicking Hugh all of this time.

He looked at his own hands and saw the creases and scars in his hands. There was a pool of blood underneath Hugh, and it took Aric's attention.

Aric looked down and saw his reflection in that pool of blood. Only, it was not the face that he knew for all of his life, but the person that caused him misery. It was Maverick's face.

This realization was like a bucket of cold water poured into his face. He quickly stepped back away from Hugh as he realized that he had become the very thing he hated.

He closed his eyes and centered himself. His wild and bellowing fire that was going all over the place, had now become more mellow and controlled.

Aric took a deep breath and opened his eyes. His previous look of anger and resentment had been gone, and it was now as clear as day.

He looked towards Hugh and shouted towards him.

"Stand up, Hugh! Where did all that bravado go?! Are you that weak?! Show me your true self!!!!"

Although Aric's words were hateful and resentful, Aric's face was strangely clear. Even though Aric's face conveyed anger, there was a sort of purity in his face.

Hugh felt the pain all over his body, and he almost became numb from it. He tried to stand up, but his arms were destroyed from Aric's kicks. He realized that his forearms were broken.

With the rest of his strengths and his adrenaline fueling him up, Hugh stood up with his two legs. It took a lot out of him just to balance himself, but thankfully, Aric gave him the chance to recover.

"You act like you're strong, but you will never be. You will always be the weak and pudgy self that you were before!"

Aric displayed a taunting smile towards Hugh. He wanted to rile Hugh up, and it seemed to have worked. Even though his hands were in pain, Hugh balled up his fists in anger.

"Shut up, Aric! I don't need to prove myself to you."

Hugh decided to humor Aric's taunts. He did not act immediately because he knew that he would lose. With his armor still on cooldown, any fight that broke out would result in his loss.

Instead, Hugh decided to talk with Aric and wait for the time to pass by until his armor was off cooldown.

"Hehehe...you have confidence now? You? What right do you have?! You are as lazy as you were before!"

Hugh gritted his teeth as he heard Aric's insults. Even though he was restraining himself, he still felt the urge to fight Aric. With his mental strength still on board, Hugh was able to stop himself.

"What? No response? That hit too close to home?!"

Aric continued to taunt Hugh as if Aric wanted Hugh to initiate the fight. Whatever the words that Aric threw towards him, Hugh was able to fend them off and stay cool.

"Where's your transformation now? Bring it out, I dare you!"

Hugh continued to be silent because he knew that Aric just wanted to get a reaction out of him. He knew that he would lose the battle once he gets riled up.

He did not know why Aric wanted to get him mad, but he knew that he should not fall into his traps.

"You know that you can't win without it, right? What are you waiting for, your armor? I assume that you are now D-rank, which is why you were able to beat me last time. Now that I also ranked up, I will win the fight. In similar ranks, the person with the better talent wins."