Chapter 157 - 156 - Breaking Point

"I'm not making this up, I'm genuinely in pain," Groaned Kiran, sitting down with a grimace. 

"You're really not bullshitting?" I inquired with a raised eyebrow. 

"I swear, I'm not. My right knee feels kinda-...ow!" He exclaimed as I tapped his knee with my knuckles, his right leg shuddering as a pained expression appeared on his face, before responding indignantly, "Did you really have to do that!?" 

Okay, he's definitely not making this up. 

"Sorry, just wanted to make sure...alright, go recover in a Healing Pod and then rest all day tomorrow. The day after tomorrow will be our last training session since the exams will begin the next day, make sure you're fully recovered by then," I instructed, as I helped him up.

"The 'rest all day' part was nice, but everything after that was disappointing to hear," He sighed wistfully, as he began to leave. 

Today's the 24th of October, three days before the upcoming batch of exams were to begin. The written exam will be on the 27th, the teamwork exam on the 28th, and then the combat exam with the temporary teams would take place on the 31st. 

It was currently around 7:30 PM, and I'd been in the middle of a training session with my temporary teammates, when Kiran suddenly called for a timeout and claimed that his knee was aching. At first, I thought he might just be trying to buy time or something, but no, it looks like he's genuinely strained it. 

It's most likely a torn muscle or something like that, nothing a Healing Pod can't fix. Now, then, what should I do? Go home? Or continue training alone with Bytra? On the one hand, I don't want to. But on the other hand, I also don't want to slack off on my training. 

"Alright, we're continuing as planned...just gotta figure out how to adjust the training for two people instead of three," I declared reluctantly, as Kiran left. 

"Um, actually...," Bytra began nervously, before trailing off in hesitation. 

"What is it? Go on, spit it out," I sighed in response. 

"Well, I, um...yesterday, I managed to finally trigger it. Manifestation Overdrive, I mean," She replied, averting her gaze. 

Huh? For real?

"Wait, what? Are you being serious?" I responded in surprise. 

"Y-yeah, I am." 

"Huh...mind showing me?" I inquired, my curiosity getting the better of me. 

"Um, sure...," She answered, before walking out to the middle of the space and letting out a slow exhale as she began channeling her XFE into the spot between her shoulder-blades, "<Manifestation Overdrive: Massive Thorn Whip Frenzy>!" 

Huh, that's kind of a mouthful...but pretty self-explanatory. Purple XFE engulfed her completely, before rapidly extending and expanding in the shape of a huge, thorny whip...it's width was about twice the width of her body, while it had a length of about thirty meters. 

And then, it began rapidly slamming onto the ground in random patterns and directions, but more notably, it was blindingly fast...holy crap, if that struck someone on the full, they'd be flattened completely. The floor here is heavily reinforced, but each strike from her oversized whip left dents in the smooth metal, and I think the entire building might be shaking a bit too. 

Her attack then ceased, a slightly worn out look on her face as the manifestation dissipated. I have to admit, that was impressive, the force and impact of each strike was immense, and there's barely a fraction of a second before the next strike, it's absolutely rapid. 

"W-well? What do you think, can we use this during the exam?" She asked me, as she walked back over. 

"That depends...what's the longest amount of time you can maintain it for, and how much XFE does it consume?" I inquired in response. 

"I'm not exactly sure, but...I think I used up about twenty percent just now," She replied uncertainly. 

Assuming that she's estimating correctly, then her Manifestation Overdrive costs two percent XFE per second, that attack lasted for about ten seconds total. 

"Can you trigger it with a hundred percent control?" I asked her. 

"Y-yeah, I think so." 

"Hm...in that case, we'll save it as a trump card, no point wasting it too early," I suggested, after mulling it over. 

She should also discuss this power with her permanent team, but that doesn't affect me, so I'm not going to say anything. I'll only give her advice if it benefits me, beyond that, I'm not going to help her. 

"Okay, I thought so too...what about during the teamwork exam, should I-?" She began to ask. 

"I don't care. What you do during the teamwork exam is of no concern to me, just make sure that you play your part during the combat exam, that's all I care about as far as you're concerned," I interrupted her icily. 

She was silent for a moment, before clenching her fists and meeting my gaze... 

"Oh, yeah...and what if I don't play my part?" She retorted defiantly. 

Huh? Where's this coming from? 

"If you've got something to say, then spit it out," I responded bluntly. 

"I...I don't like this. It's almost like you're treating me like a tool or weapon or something-," She began with a grimace. 

"It's not 'almost like', that's exactly what I'm doing. Seeing you as a person just pisses me off, so I'm only looking at you objectively...specifically, I picture your abilities as if they were video game stats. That makes it bearable. Right now, though, you're making that pretty difficult. Hope that clears things up for you," I cut her off coldly. 

"Is that so? Well, I don't accept that," She shot back. 

"I don't see how that's my problem," I shrugged in response. 

"Oh, but it is...you can't pass the exam if you have an uncooperative teammate," She snapped in reply. 

She's really starting to piss me off... 

"I don't think you know what you're saying. Do you really think that threatening me is a good idea?" I inquired blankly. 

"Maybe not...but if you're just gonna treat me like a tool, I won't cooperate," She responded firmly. 

"I don't know where this came from all of a sudden, but-." 

"It's not sudden at all! I just didn't say anything till now because I was conflicted, and felt bad about what happened between us in the past but...that's just it, it was in the past, I apologized and-!" She exclaimed indignantly. 

"Yeah, well, I never accepted that apology. What are you even complaining about, it's not like I'm mistreating you or anything," I countered with a glare.

"Maybe not, but it doesn't feel good...I really screwed you over back then, and you don't have to forgive me for it, but still, if you really want me to cooperate during the exam, stop treating me like a tool! Just now, when I told you that I figured out Manifestation Overdrive, that was the first time where it actually felt like you were talking to me as a person. That's when I realized just how much the way you've been treating me has been bothering me, and I couldn't stay silent any longer, I've reached my breaking point!" She yelled, stepping closer defiantly. 

"Wow...it's not often I'm this tempted to punch someone in the face. So let me get this straight, unless I act all nice and friendly, you're gonna get in my way?" I inquired icily, as I felt a murderous intent rising...she flinched as she met my gaze, but stood her ground... 

"I didn't say that you have to be nice, just treat me like a person...in other words, look me in the eye when you talk to me, stop looking at my forehead whenever you address me!" 

Oh...she noticed that. Maybe forehead was too high, maybe I should have focused on the spot between her eyebrows instead... 

"And another thing," She continued with a frown, "Stop addressing me with 'you' and 'hey', I have a name! Obviously, you don't have to say it every time, but I can tell that you're deliberately avoiding saying it at all!" 

"That's a tough ask, I think I'd rather eat shards of glass...oh, I've got a solution, how about I call you Bitch instead?" I responded dryly.

"Wha-...! You know what, if anything, I have more reason to hold a grudge against you than you do against me!" She declared angrily. 

"I'm sorry, what?" I scoffed in disbelief. 

"You more than made up for what I did to you when you beat the shit out of me, maybe you could argue that what I did to you was worse, but not by much...you broke several of my bones that day, you dick!" She snapped, grabbing my collar. 

"Yeah, I did, and I enjoyed it immensely, you bitch!" I retorted venemously, hitting her hand away. 

"And wasn't that enough for you!? Didn't that get you enough satisfaction to make up for what happened!?" She exclaimed furiously. 

"No, not really. It's not like that erased what happened back then," I pointed out icily. 

"Maybe so, but continuing to treat me the way you do would make you no better than Tairo and I were back then-!" She began to respond. 

"Ohh, don't you even dare compare me to the two of you pieces of sh-!" I interrupted, as I felt a twinge of anger. 

"The fact that I screwed you over doesn't change the fact that you're being a major asshole right now!" She argued with a fierce glare. 

"Yeah, well, I never claimed to have the moral high ground, I just hate you, simple as that!" I countered bluntly. 

"Dick!"

"Bitch!" 

This carried on for about an hour longer, the argument getting nowhere, as we just continued yelling at each other. At one point, she slapped me, to which I countered by punching her square on the nose and breaking it, but even then, neither of us stopped yelling. 

In hindsight, we're lucky that these training rooms are soundproofed. In the end, we only stopped once we were both too hoarse to keep yelling, sitting down on the floor while facing away from each other, seething. 

"I'm...not...giving up. Not until you agree to-," She began with a slight wheeze, as she wiped away the blood running down from her broken nose. 

"Alright, fine, you win...I'll stop treating you like a tool, but I'm not going to be nice by any stretch of the imagination, in fact, I'm going to be a total douch3 to you. And I'll mostly be addressing you using 'bitch', 'cunt', etcetera. Take it or leave it," I offered generously. 

"Why, you-...hmph, fine, whatever! But just so you know, I'll be addressing you using 'dick', 'asshole', 'bastard', etcetera!" She responded, mimicking my tone and response. 

"Want me to break your nose? Oh, never mind, I already did," I countered dryly. 

"How about I crush your balls, huh?" 

"Watch it, push your luck and I will kill you, that's not a bluff," I warned her...I really wasn't bluffing, I was highly tempted to put her in a vegitative state right now... 

"Wow, you're sooo edgy, I'm really scared," She replied sarcastically. 

"...bitch."

"Dick."

"Fuck you."

"Right back at you." 

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