I shot towards Bytra, activating my X-Blades as I did. She responded by flicking her wrist across and swinging her whip towards me, which I evaded and countered with a shot from one of my X-Blasters, aiming for her right shoulder...I don't want to teleport her out too quickly, after all.

She let out a cry of pain as it struck her, before gritting her teeth and pulling her arm back, the whip zipping back towards her. I sidestepped out of the way as I continued towards her, one of the thorns grazing my cheek as it whizzed past me...that's the first and only hit she'll land on me, I'm going to go all out now.

I put on a burst of speed and swiftly closed the gap, pretending to aim a shot at her knees, before leaping forward as I closed in on her and slammed my knee onto her face before she could react to my feint, a gasp of pain escaping her lips as blood poured out of her nostrils and she stumbled back unsteadily, falling onto her back with a groan, her Manifestation dissipating.

As I landed, I walked over and slammed my foot down onto the middle of her chest and eliciting a cry of pain from her, my years' worth of hatred for her starting to all rise up at once. I reached down and grabbed hold of her hair, lifting her up by it. She flinched as her gaze met mine, fear appearing in her eyes.

"P-please...stop i-it, j-just teleport m-me out already...," She pleaded weakly, tears welling up in her eyes as I scoffed at her begging, "Wh-why...are y-you doing th-?"

My rage peaked before she could even finish her question...

"Huh? Are you seriously asking me that? You...you have no idea how deeply I despise you, do you? I hate you, Bytra...I hate you so goddamn much, you deplorable fucking bitch. What you did to me...it may not have been that big a deal for you, but the sheer humiliation and despair I felt is still clearly etched in my memory, I've never even for a second forgotten about it," I remarked coldly, my voice trembling with rage, before I added with a slight, malicious smirk, "So, yeah...that's why I'm doing this."

I set my X-Blasters to short-range mode for minimum penetrative power and fired a shot at her midsection, as she screamed in pain and clutched her stomach, blood trickling out of her mouth as she went pale. It's not enough...I'm still not satisfied.

I wanted to inflict so much pain onto her that I was seeing red, all I could focus on was her. My body felt warm and I was sweating, the desire to inflict pain on her growing stronger and stronger...

I tossed her up and caught her ankle, before slamming her down onto the ground on her back, causing her to let out a hollow gasp of pain and cough out blood. I slammed my foot down on her chest and face a couple of times, leaving her on the verge of losing consciousness.

"I've had enough of you...," I remarked in an icy tone, combining my X-Blades to form the long and wide blade mode and raised it with the edge pointing straight down at her throat, before plunging it down towards her, "Now, die."

Before I could cut through her neck, she got teleported out, my blade piercing into the floor deeply...

I took a moment to catch my breath and calm down, before deactivating my X-Blades and putting the handles away, staring down at the small opening in the ground I'd created...for a moment there, I forgot that I was in a training exercise, I...I genuinely thought that I was going to kill her just then, and I only snapped out of it when she got teleported away.

That was-...I've...I've never lost self-control like that before-...actually, no, wait, it has happened once before...that time when I beat up those girls after they killed the class dog. If this had gone on any longer, I might have once again reached the point where my rage blinds me so much so that I don't even remember all the details of what I did.

I slapped the sides of my face to compose myself, taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling. I felt...a lot lighter, somehow. It was like I'd taken a weight off my shoulders, it reminded me of how I felt when I got to kill my father, and also the time I beat the shit out of Asshole...I just feel so much better.

"Hey, you've been rooted to one spot for a while, you good?" Suddenly came Mitchell's voice in my ear, startling me.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just...savoring this feeling of satisfaction and lost track of time, I guess," I replied with a quiet, wistful sigh, "I'll be on my way over in a second."

"...right."

I then tapped on my I-Watch and brought up the map...only one red blip left, and the three blue blips had it surrounded, while keeping their distance...time for me to fill the gap. So, yeah, my plan was to first split up and take out Andre, Makoto and Bytra, and then have all of us regroup and surround Asshole to really rub it in his face that his team was soundly and one-sidedly defeated by my team.

Yeah, strategically speaking, it wasn't the most efficient approach, I definitely let my personal feelings influence my decision-making, but hey, the others agreed to go with it, so it's all good. Well, anyway, I should get going already...I should be able to get into position within a couple of minutes...let's go do this, shall we?

...

It didn't take me very long at all to get in position, so that we had Asshole surrounded on all sides...the question now is, when do we jump him? I checked the map and scanned the area...oh, he's headed for a spot where four paths intersect, perfect!

"Time to get closer, everyone...see the spot up ahead in the direction he's going in, each of you needs to go through one of the four paths that lead to that spot...Seila, you're right behind him, so you just keep following him along the same path. Mitchell, you're the closest to the left path, so that's yours. Katie, take the right. I'll take the path that's right ahead of him," I suggested, as I began making my way to intercept him.

"Okay, I got it," Replied Seila affirmatively.

"Me too," Added Katie.

"Ditto. Gotta say, you sure are putting some effort into handing Tairo a humiliating defeat," Remarked Mitchell dryly.

"Why just look to do the bare minimum in defeating the enemy when you can inflict some psychological damage with just a little bit of extra effort, making our victory all the more comprehensive?" I replied with a shrug.

"That's not a bad explanation, but I don't buy it."

"Oh...well, I don't care."

"Rude."

"Well, to be fair, I probably wouldn't have used this strategy against the other team," I admitted sheepishly, before adding as I glanced at the map again, "Alright, time to get in place, and after that, we'll move in to corner him on my signal."

I then continued on to get in place to intercept Asshole, taking one of my X-Blade handles in my hand and adjusting my X-Blasters as I made my way along the maze. Okay, I'm almost there, and the others were already in good positions, each of them about a hundred meters away from him.

At the rate that Asshole is moving, he'll be at the spot where the four paths intersect in about a minute or so, I'd estimate...it's now or never, time to set this up and take him down.

"Mitchell, Katie, time for you two to move in closer, Seila, you get closer too but make sure to keep enough distance so that he doesn't notice you."

All three replied affirmatively, and the blips indicating their positions began moving faster, the one behind Asshole slowing down after a short burst of speed, maintaining a distance. I reached the spot where the route I was using opened up into a four-way cross path and hid along the shadow of the wall.

I glanced at my holoscreen one more time before turning it off...Katie and Mitchell are almost in position, and Asshole should come into view within a few seconds now. This'll be a nice follow-up to the beatdown I gave him not too long ago. Okay, I think I see him in the distance, my eyes had gotten pretty accustomed to these dimly lit surroundings...though the way these walls absorbed all sound was more than a little disconcerting, I couldn't hear his footsteps at all.

A few seconds later, I finally caught sight of him, as he stepped out of the path directly across the one I'd used and into the intersection, tapping his earpiece communicator with a frown. Heh, try all you like, you're not going to get any reply from the other end, I can assure you of that much.

"Time to move in," I remarked with a smirk, tapping on my communicator to inform the others as I stepped out of the shadows.

"It's about time I ran into someone...tch, but it's just the fucking Dud, this should be an easy win," He sneered condescendingly.

"Are you retarded or something? What, did I hit you so hard last time that you forgot that I beat the crap out of you with total domination? Eh, whatever, I'll just be nice and remind you. Oh, and it's not just me...look around, Asshole," I replied in an equally condescending tone.

The other three then stepped out from either side of and behind him, activating their Manifestations as they did...

"!"

"."

"."

"Wha-...damn it, what are the others doing!? Fucking useless," He growled, as he looked around with an expression of growing panic.

"Blaming your teammates is such a beta-male move," Remarked Mitchell with a wry smile.

"Can we attack him now?" Inquired Katie with her usual lack of emotion.

"Yeah, I suppose we should," I replied with a smirk, "Alright, then, guys...let's crush this son of a bitch."

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