Payback (part 1)

The situation at hand was a long time coming.

The change in Theo's attitude was abrupt. And ever since his stand-off at the border of the library territory, he was free of bullies.

Not due to the sudden change of heart of those who liked to beat him up, though.

At first, they didn't dare to cross paths with him due to the shock his change caused further reinforced by Theo's official mission given by the elder of the division. As such, even once they got over the shock and opted to dismiss it as just a mere attempt at shaking them off… Theo's bullies couldn't cross him out of fear of the elder's retaliation.

The very reason why they were free to bully him in the past was the silent approval of the elder, after all.

But it has already been some time since the selection finished. And even though Theo continued to serve the elder by grooming his disciples… With each passing day, the fear of the elder retaliation, if they were to cross Theo, kept on decreasing.

Still, the main reason why Theo was relatively free of the shadows of his past was pretty straightforward.

He simply didn't enter the sect grounds!

Sure, he stepped inside when he went to exchange Veila's coins for resources… But his bullies had their own lives to take care of. It wasn't like they just stood guard to watch each of his moves so that they could jump him the moment he appeared vulnerable…

But now?

Be it luck or a premeditated scheme, they caught him right at the sect's outskirts. Even though they were all out in the open with not a single building in sight… They were in a place too remote for a random witness to just happen to walk by. And with the added benefit of all the people of authority of the sect being busy with the shift of the sect administration, it was high time for Theo's long overdue beating to commence.

"Are you just going to stand and do nothing?" Theo asked after letting the words of the leader of the four die out in the air.

He showed no fear on his face… since he saw no threat in those four.

'To think that my former self would allow this kind of people to bully him…' Theo thought, almost shaking his head in disappointment. 'Aren't they all mere second-stage cultivators? Even if it was four against one… what was there for me to fear back then?'

"Your lie could protect you only for so long, you damn rat," the leader of the four said as he took a step forward. There was a devilish grin on his face while sparks of extreme amusement jumped around in his eyes. "Now, no matter how hard you would like to run…"

"Run?" Theo cut the other guy, turning his head over to the side with a confused expression on his face. "Why should I run?" he then asked, genuinely concerned about the sanity of someone uttering this level of bullshit. "From whom should I run?"

The faces of Theo's bullies darkened.

They weren't used to him mocking them back. But they already made up their mind not to pay any attention to the abrupt change in Theo's attitude. And all the stress of life they had to bear… could only be vented out in the way they vented it out in the past.

"Some things really do change…" the leader of the four took another step forward and stood just a single step away from Theo. He raised his hand and reached out… only to put it down on Theo's shoulder in a patronizing gesture. "But some things, change does not," he said, giving Theo's shoulder two pats.

He then raised his hand for a third pat… But rather than gently bringing it down on Theo's shoulder, he swung it sideways, aiming right at the side of Theo's face!

Pac!

Theo hardly moved. He stood his ground while keeping the same confused expression on his face… and holding the other party's hand by its wrist, a mere inch away from his cheek.

The look of confusion slowly vanished from Theo's face, replaced by a look of guilt… and pity?

"I've warned you all the last time," Theo whispered, desperately trying to hide the sparks of joy from appearing in his eyes, hiding his true emotions behind a mask of solemn expression.

The young man then took a deep breath, ignoring the stunned expressions that appeared on the four faces in front of him.

"And I'm not the one to repeat myself."

Theo stopped the attempted slap with ease. The leader of the bullies moved so damn slowly that it would be a challenge for him not to react in a timely manner.

'That's strange,' Theo thought, pulling the other party's wrist away and paying no mind to the sudden look of pain that appeared on the guy's face when he twisted his hand in a way no human joints should ever twist. 'My physical stats are still the same,' he thought when the other party let out a pained groan.

Theo then reached out with his right hand before snapping it forward and punching the moronic bully right into the side of his stomach, a single inch below his ribs. A spleen strike, one that could easily blackout the minds of professional fighters when executed correctly. And when accounting for his newfound speed and strength…

Theo didn't even need to try all that hard.

"Kheee…!" the leader of the group didn't cough blood. He opened up his mouth wide and coughed up a whole bunch of saliva and air, the force of Theo's strike easily squeezing all the air out of his lungs.

He didn't cough blood, though. It was real life, not some sort of edgy story for kids that didn't know anything about human anatomy, after all.

"One down, three to go," Theo muttered softly as he let go of the bully's wrist, allowing him to fall down to the ground and desperately gasp for air.

A single strike was all it took to incapacitate the man. But with an entire stage of cultivation of difference between the two of them… what other result could anyone sane expect?

When the knees of the bully's leader struck the ground, all semblance of peace and order broke apart.

The three other bullies instantly jumped forth, more than willing to abuse their numerical advantage to take Theo down. They weren't the cream of the top of the division… but they still were cultivators, people who split their attention between cultivating and training martial arts, after all.

The female of the remaining trio jumped to the right.

Theo's eyes drew to her legs only for his eyebrows to move up by a single millimeter.

'A leftie?' he thought, noticing that she kicked the ground with the other leg that he would use in her place. And judging how her dominant leg was opposite to the norm, the same would likely apply to her hands.

The two of her companions took the center and Theo's left respectively, hoping to surround him in a flurry of strikes. When attacked from all sides, Theo was bound to show his back to at least one of them!

'They are not that stupid,' Theo thought, calmly taking half a step back, pulling his former oppressors in… Only to then end his feint, shift his weight, and make a tiny jump to his left.

The attacks of his bullies ended up just a single inch or two short, swinging a safe distance away from Theo's flesh. Yet, as they all committed to their charge, Theo had more than enough time to conclude his repositioning jump and stand his ground.

He didn't aim for any fancy techniques… simply because he knew of none. Even if his other self trained for most of his life… those techniques were just memories, not habits. And Theo had absolutely zero confidence that after a period of slacking and then getting beaten up, his body itself would remember a single hint of those techniques.

No, there was no need to go for anything fancy. So Theo simply reached out, grabbed the passing hand of the man who attacked from the left, and pulled.

It was that simple. And coupled with raising his leg and pointing his knee up a little bit…

Theo waited for a moment. He then felt the weight of one of his former oppressors pin itself on his knee, the soft insides of his belly squeezing when faced with the hard skin and bone of his leg.

'I could've aimed a bit lower,' Theo thought, only to rein the vicious part of his nature in.

There was no need to bluntly castrate the other party. In fact… Theo didn't even feel all that much animosity towards those fuckers at all!

'Sure, they used to beat my other self on a daily basis… but it's nothing but a memory now!' he thought, pushing his knee forth, more to force the lifeless body of his opponent out of the way rather than to add force to his attack. 'If I were to properly pay them back for what they did, pulling them apart would be the least of what I should do.'

But was it really worth it?

Was it worth it to get their lives on his hands over something that Theo didn't even remember properly?

No. They weren't worth it. Killing them wasn't worth it. Torturing them more than necessary wasn't worth it either. So, save for using them for practice and then maybe bullying them back a little… was there any need for Theo to care?

No. There wasn't. Because they weren't that man. The only man that Theo could actually remember.

And the only man that he swore not to forgive for the strike that practically caused his old self to die.

"Wha…?!" the remaining two of Theo's bullies nearly froze in place upon landing after their initial assault. The shock of seeing two of them dealt with in such an easy manner… was just too great.

The look on their faces changed. From the vicious wish to beat him up, they now realized they were the ones on the likely end of receiving a beating.

The two of them took a step back…

"Clara, run!" the remaining man shouted before launching a brave offensive, more than eager to buy his friend? Girlfriend? Fiance? To buy his whoever a few moments to escape from Theo's vengeance.

'What a simp,' Theo thought, not sparing the man a second look.

That guy couldn't know Theo didn't really care about them, after all. In his eyes, this was the day of retribution for all the vile acts they committed over the past two years!

The man, roughly the same age as Theo, launched his brave assault… Only for Theo to take three swift steps forward, appearing behind his back and leisurely sending his fist on a wide arc that ended up striking the back of the man's head.

Between the momentum of his attack and the sudden strike to his head, the young man had no chance to defend himself. Pushed in the same direction he was moving, he missed a step and fell face-first to the ground, eating the dirt like the proper disposable side character he was.

"Robert, no!" the girl, Clara, screamed out, a look of grief filling her face.

'So they really are a thing,' Theo thought, calmly taking two more steps forward and standing still right in front of the girl.

The terror quickly replaced the grief on Clara's face. Her body jerked to the side as she attempted to run…

Only for Theo's hand to root her in place once it gently landed on her shoulder.

"And where do you think you are going, sweetie?" he asked with a small smile on his face.