He recalled his memories, it lasted in an instant. Viers’s third encounter with the trio has begun.

Finally, please let this be the last useless charade.

“Let's get to it then, unlike you three, I’m very busy.” Viers said nonchalantly.

“This is your last chance, apologize to Mirella.” James spoke.

“You still prattling about that? I thought this was no longer about her, I already placed your intelligence on the level of monkeys but to think I still overestimated your brainpower, it was quite a surprise you know?” Viers sighed mockingly.

“James, enough talk! Let’s get him!” Tej said impatiently.

“Humph, you will regret all you’ve done to us, come out!” James shouted.

Two guys appeared from behind Viers, they were rough looking and everything about them screamed thug to all who looked, they were in their mid-twenties. Viers was trapped with all five of them blocking his way.

So this is their chosen responds? Predictable, how simple the thought process of fifteen years old kids. Now comes the tricky part, I have to tread this carefully.

“Ah look, hired muscles, the three of you can't beat me so you added two more? So lame Classmate J, so lame.” Viers didn't seem panicked.

“They’re here to prevent your escape and what comes after, I will face you alone!” James stepped forward, he showed his right hand, there was a ring in his middle finger.

“New toy from mommy and daddy? I’m not impressed Classmate J, no creativity.”

“You won't be so smug after this, strike!”

From the ring, a lightning bolt charged at Viers. Viers furrowed his brows, the attack was fast, unlike true lightning that traveled at the speed of light but still too fast for Viers to dodge nonetheless. Viers could only stand and crossed his arms to block the incoming yellow bolt.

“Grk!”

Viers grunted, it didn't mangle his flesh, the damage wasn't severe but he was hurting quite a lot. The strike made Viers took two steps back, his arms were twitching and numb, he couldn’t keep them raised.

“Hah, liked that? There’s more! Strike!”

Viers didn't manage to block James’s second lightning bolt and it struck him right in the torso. He endured the pain, the attack power of J’s magic ring wasn't high, its main effect was to paralyze the target. Viers coped with the pain and kept standing.

“Hmph, tougher than I thought, all those fat protected you well. Can you still acting smug now?”

James was pleased, he felt that his humiliation was scrubbed and washed away.

“... Is that all you’ve got?”

Viers felt his muscles cramped, but he didn't show any fear or pain on his face. Viers’s response annoyed James, he approached the paralyzed Viers and grabbed his collar as he spoke the words that have been suppressed all this time.

“If you just be obedient and more humble from the start, none of this would’ve happened, know that all of this was caused by your arrogance! Humph!”

He punched Viers in the gut, Viers bent his body because of the hit’s effect. Before he could find his bearing James gave him a second punch to the same place.

“Ugh...”

He couldn't hold his groan from escaping his lips. Viers was breathing heavily and sweating bullets because of the pain. He held his hands from instinctively covering his pained stomach.

“Mere extra characters you said? Mere secondary characters? Unimportant? Inconsequential? A figment of your memory? Can extra character do this!”

James punched Viers in the face, straight in the nose with all his body weight put in the punch. Viers got thrown backward, his paralyzed feet cannot be forced to keep standing, blood flowed from his broken nose. James was looking at the sight of his bitter enemy downed on the ground, he felt euphoria and happiness swelling from his chest.

“Did you pass out? This isn't going to be over so easily, you hear me? Tej and Raymond still haven’t gotten their turns and mine wasn't over.”

James was grinning, Tej and Raymond were snickering, the thugs were silent and only kept watch of their fight.

Viers was looking at the morning sky while lying on the ground, he heard every word spouted by Classmate J. He rose his body even with pain from his gut and face. He stood up straight, put his hands on his pockets and looked at James straight in the eye. He replied to the handsome faced boy who currently wore savage smile.

“Naught but an itch.”

A few seconds passed in silence, then James clenched his fists.

“... You think your actions are cool? You think your words are cool? You are very annoying, you know that? You are just a pig, how dare you looked at me like an insect! Because of you, because you blabbered to the whole class… Mirella pitied me, she approached me and told me she’s grateful but I didn’t need to make you apologize to her. Do you know what it’s like? To have a girl you love looked at you like a wimp? She looked at me with pity, PITY! Damn you Viers! Damn you to HELL! Your every action and every word offend me… I want to see if you can still act like some bigshot after today, PIG!”

James continued his assault, his punches contained all the hate he felt for Viers. After James hit Viers for the fourth time, he spoke with a raspy voice to his assailant.

“No matter what you do to me, you will never get her attention, let alone her love. You are too pathetic Classmate J, too much like an insect. You can’t beat me in three versus one so you hired two more thugs and cried to mommy and daddy to get you a magic ring. Even if you win, beat me up and make me kneel before her, what will it prove? You think that girl will look and appreciate you like a hero?”

Viers spat out the blood in his mouth to the ground.

“You already realized don’t you, this is no longer about her, this is about salvaging your own ego. It was already so small and tiny before our first meeting, but it was broken to pieces by me and it became much smaller, the fact gnawed at you like maggot eating your flesh. You won’t be able to salvage this, you will spend the rest of your life haunted by the fact that you lost to me, FOREVER!”

“GAAAAAAHHHH!!!”

James was burning with hate, Viers took all his strike without defending himself. After a few minutes, James was feeling a bit tired and his fists were hurting, James let his friends had their turn. James used his magic ring three more times during the first three minutes then it broke. The abuse went on for fifteen minutes, Viers wasn’t able to keep standing after the first five.

It was a struggle for him to keep conscious, many times he almost passed out but he held on, Viers kept his right fist clenched the whole time. They spouted insult and taunted him many times, Viers kept passive. Under the rain of assault, he could hear their words only sparingly, the rest was unprocessable because of the punches and kicks.

In the end, Viers was lying on the ground, like someone lynched by a mob. His whole body was swollen, bloodied, and bruised all over. The three kids stared at him whilst standing, their breath was heavy and some injury on their fists caused by their own pummeling.

“That's enough guys, any more than this he could die. It's time to wrap it up, you two… do as we discussed.” James addressed his friends then the thugs. He stared at Viers and spat at him.

“Fat trash.”

“Not so mighty now aren’t you?” Tej also spat at him.

“This is the consequences of your actions.” Raymond said while shaking his head.

The trio left, their spirits were lifted from the heavy burden that they had to bear for a long time, they talked about Viers and let out some laughter as they went on their merry way. Slowly, the thugs approached Viers.

They broke spoiled and rotten eggs while standing, the smelly and gooey substance fell on Viers’s body. The thugs repeated this a few times and thoroughly smeared the inside of the eggs on all of his body.

They were not done, they emptied a sack of animal dung at him. The dung was not the dry kind, it was sticky and viscous. Fetid smell spread through the area, the thugs collected fresh dung from somewhere and poured it all on Viers. Viers was still conscious as they were doing this and he didn't resist nor reject, Viers maintained his silence not because he was unable but by his own choice. Viers felt something warm and wet showered on him… the thugs peed on him before they left.

Viers was lying on the ground and covered by filth, the unpleasant smell was inhaled by his bloody nose, he felt pain from all over his body and very much humiliated. At that very moment, only one thought was on his mind.

Just as planned.