One day in middle school, I came home bruised. My father was extremely worried about me, I had gotten into a fight with a much older boy from high school. I won of course, but the fear of me getting into more fights got into my father.

  He taught me self defense, the basics, I'm not like some crazy martial artist in hiding. But one thing that was apparent was my inability to punch. To hit strong, deal damage, feel your knuckles press deep into the flesh.

  “You’ve relied on your height too much, if you ever come into a proper confrontation with someone bigger than you. Son, you need to learn how to punch properly.”

  The Minotaur is mostly disoriented by losing his tongue, in disbelief, he reaches to his mouth to feel the part he lost. Every movement of his, I have seen it, I know exactly what he's about to do. Seeing a move doesn't exactly mean I'm going to dodge it perfectly, but in this case, the Minotaur relies more on brute strength than attack speed, so I'm in the clear here.

  Jump into the air, not that high but enough for my purposes, grab the horns and cling. Put my legs together, straight, and ram my feet into the chest of the beast. Let go of horns, kick off and land on my feet, try to balance on the ground after that stunt.

  The Minotaur shouldn't be able to breathe for 2 or 3 seconds now, I should be able to do it now. “TAKUMI! NEED HELP?” Ryo shouts from behind, they realize what I'm doing. “BRASS KNUCKLES!” I yell out without facing them, my eyes on the monster before me.

  I charge forward, I am 6 foot, the Minotaur is 8. He has the advantage there, but his build is shaped like a triangle on tiny sticks, easy to imbalance. I tackle the bull, push him to the ground, its screams in confusion, I call out for backup “Aya! Use your Variant now!” Ryo takes more time to make more intricate objects, we need someone to keep the bull occupied.

  Aya takes Ryos sword and tosses it to me, before heading over and blasting the bull with invisible flying slashes. You could hear a metallic ‘Shing’ sound passing through the air before red streaks appeared on the Minotaur. It bellowed out in pain as it struggled to its knees, the thing is damn durable.

  “Careful, i'm going to take its legs, don't attack near there.” Aya’s slashes progressively get more inaccurate with time, I could get hurt if I'm not careful. I push forward again, cutting the tendon on the right leg, the Minotaur howls in pain. Good, the sword didn't break, circling the beast while it staggered on one leg, I struck again.

  Blood bursts out from the other leg, the Minotaur falls to the floor on his back, like a deer in a bear trap, it cries out. And yet, there is no one to save it. The blade is going to break with the next hit, I can already see the chips in it, I toss it to the side.

  I turn to see my allies, Aya can't use her Variant, taking her out of the fight for now, Ryo is done with the knuckles, he runs towards me and throws a small silver looking piece of metal in the air.

  The countless deaths of my own, begin to slowly fade from my vision. The strings slowly detach, I can feel the blood, adrenaline and sheer might coursing through my body. I catch and equip the metal knuckles, it's more basic than the kinds you would buy normally, but it will do the job just fine.

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  I stomp on the bellowing beast, its body jerks to the pain. I sit myself down on its chest and raise my right fist, the visions are mostly over, but I know what to do now, I can take the reins over from fate itself, and turn this ‘battle’ into a ‘hunt’.

  I smash my fist into its eye, Aya and Ryo do their best to keep its hands away from me, I keep punching. Blood flies from its face and begins to well up, I focus down the jaw, punch after punch, blow after blow, the screams get quieter.

  Time passes, I can only hear my own grunting and gritted teeth, rather than a slave to the future, I am now a slave to my rage. Blood on my face and clothes again, bull has stopped struggling, I keep on punching. This thing, has hurt me in so many futures, my head has been bashed in, chomped off... Its only fair I return the favor, ten times over- no, a hundred, maybe a thousand times..

  I can feel the messages, yet I'm not stopping. Aya and Ryo stare at me as I lash out on this corpse, unsure of what they are supposed to do maybe.

  Exhausted, I finally stop beating the dead Minotaur, its head bashed in and unrecognizable from a few moments ago. Before the next message can pop up, I pass out onto the floor, the last thing I could hear was my classmates screaming out my name, there seems to be more than just two.

  …In this black nothingness that could only be hypothesized to be my dreams, I stare at a screen in front of me

  This is going to take a while.