As I stood there surrounded by eight guys, I honestly didn't have a clue what they were gonna do. And there is no way this won't end up in a fight.

The conflict already reached a point where it is almost impossible for me to escape.

"Seems like you surrounded me, huh? I guess there are no cards for me to play with anymore.  I surrender."

"Hahaha! Fuck no! If we already reached this point, we are going to make sure that you won't leave without any consequences."

His voice was irritating for sure, his aggression and passion for this were quite amusing I guess.

And the fact that his lackeys are still loyal is pretty impressive to me.  And they were damn confident with this.

Also, I noticed that Ibuki joined us, making it eight guys and a girl, versus one regular and innocent student.

"Why consequences, Ryueen? I can't remember myself doing something actively against Class C. Are you imagining things, Ryueen?"

"Imaging things? It would be nice but for some reason, every time we got sabotaged, you were the closest around. And I have damn proof! The GPS history showed us that you were certainly sneaking around our class' teams, in the middle of the night..."

"Oh. Seems like I have made a mistake. I will be certainly more careful next time. Thank you for your information."

It wasn't a mistake. I just wanted to make sure he knows. It really would get boring if I left this island with not a single combat fight.

And this one is something I have waited for an eternity. Since I left the white room, I have been constantly refreshing my combat skills, pushing myself in secret.

And now? I am feeling a burning desire to have a huge brawl.

"Kukuku! Ya' think we are done already? Let's chat a little more! Lately, things felt certainly weird, like somebody was doing something in the shadows."

His smirk grew larger. His eyes sharpened, giving his long magenta-colored hair a more complimenting appearance.

Originally, I planned to stay neutral in conflicts on this island, regardless of what happens, I just wanted Class D to win, that's all. But now, it changed severely.

Now, I want to finally do something exciting. Messing myself against a whole class alone. Whilst other Class D members were resting, sleeping, and chatting, I was here, fighting an entire war all by myself.

"How come?"

"As you already know, I, Kakeru Ryueen, have created a situation in which Class B falls into a divided power dispute. And it worked quite well, rigging the votes in the beginning. Miraculously, all of a sudden, there was a clear result the other day. The entire class agreed out of the blue. And according to my sources, there was no money in the game. How did you do that?"

"Do what exactly?"

"Kukuku...still playing innocent, even after I have found you, gained a lot of information from you, and surrounded you with an entire squad!" He laughed comically, finding my words amusing as hell.

But then there was the others, not having a clue about what Ryueen was talking about. I can't blame them if it wasn't for my involvement, I would have been left confused as well.

"Well, let's see. There is a girl in Class B. Himeno Yuki was her name."

"Kukuku! A huge amount of Yuki's in this school. I have heard about her. So what?" He is damn right about that.

In our year alone we had two Yuki's. Then there is the white room Yuki, the waiter Yuki in the pallet, there is also second-year Yuki and Yukimura.

Well...He isn't a girl though...

"Originally she was on my sister's side. Suddenly, she switched sides. For a weird reason, and with a short but impactful speech, the entire class went on to agree with her."

"...So, you set her up to make your sister fail? Quite the amazing example of a brother that you are. Let me proceed with this. You probably talked her into that, making your sister lose on purpose, so there is no sibling beef because of school. With that, you eliminated your sister first, using Himeno, you tried to hide your own identity and distanced yourself from such allegations if they come up later."

He took a deep breath.

"You manipulated Himeno into dropping a perfect speech, your presence in the classroom was also not staged I assume. A bird told me that you were also in the room when the disaster happened."

"I was indeed present. You did great in figuring it out."

"But there is more to it than only Class B. How did you clear the problems in your class? And that quickly? Two days and you solved two massive problems, which normally would take a year to solve, you did in 48 hours."

"Simple. I did it myself. Ryueen. I don't like explaining things. Can we do that later?"

"Fuck yes! Once I am done with you, you gotta do a lot of yapping!"

Sigh...He doesn't understand. Does he?

This is not a situation that he created, he was just playing along with how I acted. Originally, people would think that he was the aggressor and I was the defender.

But in reality, our roles are swapped. He was just trying to answer with a strike every time I did something to them.

It's not special to think that I was the innocent one here. But I wasn't. He was trapped in the thought of me being not that strong, and just acting after somebody's orders. In this case, it's Horikita and Alya.

He didn't go after the source, instead, he went after me, but I wouldn't have allowed anybody to touch her.

"Ryueen. Please, my girlfriend would be worried if I got beaten up here. Could you maybe uhm...accept money?"

"Money doesn't change things in here! Today, in the darkness, you were trapped by us. Releasing you halfway through would be a brainless decision."

In this case, Ryueen, this exam is now taking a drastic turn, something that nobody could have predicted in any way.

"Then, have fun. I will try and maybe uhm...defend?"

Just as I gave them a green signal, Ryueen shot a glance at some random guy. The guy wasn't built like a brick, however, he seemed rather athletic.

Most of the time, athletic people have somewhat of a knowledge of fights, which areas to strike, and how fast they can move.

He hesitated at first but then built up confidence to get it over him.

After all, I wasn't the tankiest in here.

"I apologize but-" Just before he could say anything, I connected a weak punch to his nose, resulting in a nosebleed.

Well, I could have ended him a lot more efficiently but for some reason I thought of stretching this out a little, banging up a show.

"Ah, I apologize for that, my hand slipped a little."

"Fuck you-"

Just before he could continue swearing, I gave him an uppercut, not hard enough to knock him out in one blow, but the hit was a critical one for sure.

I am impressed that he still hasn't gone down yet, but apparently, I needed to do a lot more, and fighting eight people, including that clash of clans giant called Albert, is going to be draining me.

"Oh, it slipped again..."

Just before his first fist could even connect, he was pushed back with an oblique kick, followed by a low kick and then a normal left hook, sending him to the ground quickly.

The combo wasn't that much seen, but still is effective. You Shouldn't normally try oblique kicks in fights where you will win anyway, since such kicks could result in long-term knee damage.

One of the white room instructors had knee problems after four full-power knee kicks, making him somewhat of a problematic case, he could neither walk anymore nor sit straight anymore without any pain.

I am sorry, but somehow I am not.

"That was quite easier than I thought. I guess god gave me some temporary skills. Adrenaline is a pretty overpowered cheat code in a fight."

With that, a laugh followed, however, not only one guy charged at me but two at once. Both are from different directions. With quite the high-speed approaching me.

"Woah, two at once. Maybe that makes me waste a sweat..."

Just for your information, I didn't think I would have any problems fighting those two, but most of the time, I was trained to fight in a lightened room, but never in a dark forest.

However, it is a lot easier than I thought, also, if it gets a little harder than normal, I will just go on to use the nature around me as a weapon.

Rocks, Heavy sticks, slippery surfaces, all of those can play a high factor in combat, and I would need to also defend myself if they go on to rely on underhanded tactics.

Back to the fight.

The first guy from the southwest, charged at me at a speed of 17kph. Not too fast, but a rather chill running speed for this terrain.

And he went all in with a kick that was aimed at the back of my knee and the top of my calves. A really dangerous move for me, since the probability of injury here, is a lot bigger than I thought.

"Close call."  Two attacks at once, one aimed at my neck, and the other at my calf, neither connected.

A success in dodging, but attacking will be a lot harder with two to fight at once. So I went on and tried a rather safe but complicated method. Low kicks until they are injured to the point when I will have an easy way.

Kick after Kick, every single one connected critically.

Every single one getting painful.

One of them noticed the technique and went on close hand-to-hand combat, and well, he was insanely good in combat.

He was paying attention closely and sometimes he even dodged my hands and kicks.

But surprisingly, one time, he caught my entire kick.

"Haha! Check!" He shouted with an excited voice, normally, I would have no chance at this point, but people always forget that I have two feet.

"Checkmate"

And what could I possibly do?

Right.

A roundhouse kick with my left foot out of hell. Knocking him out in a single motion.

"Haven't seen that coming, have you?"

With that, two out of eight are gone. One was currently raining fists on me, not noticing that his guard on the solar plexus was low.

A normally taught person knows, that once the chance is there, you will take it and cause a direct knockout. But a strike with full force in that area was insanely dangerous for health reasons.

So I decided on another solution. As the opponent tried a right hook on me, his left side opened, allowing me an angular uppercut, straight from hell.

And it connected perfectly. The sound vibrated in my ears, but he stood there. At first, I thought that he would fall, but instead, he was still standing, in a fighting position, exhaling aggressively.

His stamina was drained to the point he was barely allowing himself to keep fighting. To avoid further trouble with this guy and attempted murder allegations if he died, I simply knocked him with a swift karate chop on the neck.

"That was a good one. Three down, five standing. Ryueen, you are unfazed? Even after seeing that I managed three at once?"

"Kukuku! I admit that I have underestimated you! But... Do you think that you will take the next five as lightly?"

"Precisely."

"Then..."

Suddenly a heavy kick to my side was connected, Ibuki? I didn't think she was gonna proceed to fight me, but damn, her momentum was crazy.

Hit after hit, all of them critical.

I even lost count, of five kicks to my left, and eight to my right. And there was no time for me to react since two other guys also charged at me.

Trying to get rid of Ibuki right now was nearly impossible. Three versus one, and she kept on going.

"I don't like you! You sound so fucking arrogant!"

As soon as she said that, I knocked the guy behind me out, a blow to his...private area was enough. And the other got humiliated with a kick to his face.

Ibuki dealt 99% of the damage until now. And well, I was close.

Close to surrendering. I never was trained to keep up an eight-against-one without rules, in such an environment, after 11 long days of stamina-draining.

Plus I have lost a lot of strength the longer the fight went.

So I decided to end Ibuki quickly. I lifted her by her hair, into the air, and in the middle of her fall to the ground, a brutal kick was aimed at her stomach.

Making her collapse to the ground.

The sharp soles of her boots scratched my left hand, letting blood come out.

"...Five guys and a girl were dealing more damage than them combined...You should've brought more girls, the guys in your class are weak."

"Kukuku! The hardest ones are about to come!"

Suddenly that giant came up to me, swinging fists like nothing else. I dodged them, and the sound they made in the air was terrifying.

A connected hit to my chin, and it's over. So I decided to keep care of this one, pushing him further to the back, and finally, landing the first fists on his solar plexus.

There are certain areas you simply cannot train to the point that you almost feel nothing. One of them is the solar plexus, and the other is a liver hook.

And I exploited my knowledge about his body. It rained punches right on these areas. Combos to his face and legs. And then he slipped to the ground, I used that chance and connected a kick right into his face.

And there it was. Just me and Ryueen.

Seven people were knocked out. All of them lying around me.

I wasn't scared at all. Not even a single glimpse of fear. But the same went for Ryueen. And he was confident.

Confident to the point he didn't see any problem with this situation.

Nobody would have acted this confidently, after seeing me smash seven people, one after another, without a drop of fear inside them.

Ryueen was different. After some research, I did before leaving for the cruise ship, he was well-known for being a problematic case in his school. There was never evidence of him getting into fights where he was at fault.

But he had almost 78 fights during his school time in middle school. That is a crazy statistic. Just let that sink in. And those are only reported cases, and he won every single one of those.

The dark number is I assume three times as huge. He loved fighting, and he still does. His cunningness is admirable.

And to me, he never did anything wrong. He is great at getting away with the hugest scandals. It just screams being a competent leader.

He is a leader, who knows what efficiency is, he knows what methods are available. And he is insanely good at setting up things and gaining control.

"One on One kukuku! That it came this far! Sadly, I need to announce to you that this will be the last stage of this fight. I will demolish you. And that is a fact."

"You know, don't you?"

"Hahaha! Let's speak about that another day. I need to have fun right now!"

He charged at me, at a high speed and dangerously wide posture.

An insanely fast and strong fist. And one thing was certain. He was unpredictable because he wasn't trained.

But I think, even though he wasn't trained, he was way more experienced than all of those whom I fought just a few minutes ago.

He picked up a unique fighting style in street fights, optimizing it after every fight, perfecting his style, and using the best attributes of his body. Knowing what he can bring, and knowing what he shouldn't try.

Each of his attacks was effective and strong. Yet, every single one of them was countered by me, and well as of now, it was just action-reaction.

Nothing more. But from an outsider's perspective, our close-hand combat was unique and legendary.

Honestly, I think I am having an insane amount of fun here. He is truly a good opponent. Maybe not the strongest, but the best one to fight against.

Ryueen truly deserves his role in Class C. He is undeniably, the best leader that any class of our year possesses. If it wasn't for my existence, Class C would have dominated this exam.

"It's not that I am fearless! But Suou! This is great Hahahah! I am loving every second of it! Keep it going! Beat me! Prove your levels to me! Live up to your expectations!"

He shouted during our fight, taking blows midway through his chat.

"I lost a lot of fights! I lost more than I have won. But this is truly an amazing one! I missed those types of fights! You can win now,  but what about tomorrow, the day after? The week after? The month after?"

He isn't lying. I assume he got those allies by forcing them, by fighting against them. He probably picked a fight daily, until they broke and he finally won over them, even if he lost every fight physically.

"Heck! Even I don't know when there will be a time when the class you think is invincible, Suou, will finally face a reality in which they lose!"

A reality in which I lose?

"Why?"

"Suou, your class is only living on your name! But once the advantage of having an unspoken monster in their class disappears, the chaos will start! And I will make sure of that reality!"

He rammed me, pushing me against a tree, trying to choke me. However, I was trained in such situations.

"Kujou, Horikita, Hirata, Kushida! What are they to you? And what are you to them?"

Friends? Allies? I don't know myself. Do they even know the work I was doing in the background? Who knows?

"Your class isn't appreciating your work! You are denying everything, even though I caught you! You have no confidence and no pride behind your stoic facade!"

I know.

However, this was enough. I threw him to the ground, my fists raining on his face. Demolishing him with the last drop of stamina left inside of me.

"Go on! You love it! Winning! You are winning!"

He shouted whilst being punched several times.

Ryueen knew that he couldn't win this fight anymore. But it was entertaining for sure.

A fight, which we both lost.

I even lost count of the punches that I took and that I gave.

We were fighting for 27 minutes. They at least had a lower time of impact than me.

"Your win is close! Now or never!"

"What in humanities name are you talking about? I don't think I will lose this fight, I was sure of winning. I just never wanted it to happen. Why did you try?"

I didn't leave him a single second to answer.

"It was stupid to start fighting me Ryueen if you didn't start by causing problems in Class B, I wouldn't have done anything. It was all in your name. You didn't need to come here with 8 people. You could have just come here all alone, the results are the same."

As the realization hit him, I continued:

"My intentions weren't to win. Or to participate in the special exams actively. You just chose a bad approach for me. You could have started with Sakayanagi, Katsuragi, Ichinose, and the others. But you went on to fight the final boss directly without doing any quests before."

My fists were raining on him, his face swollen entirely and his watch beeping due to his health dropping and emergency systems activating.

It was calling for help.

"Next time, you should collect experience with the others and build up a strong punching group, which can defeat me. Instead of falling directly into my trap. I was never dancing on the palm of your hand. You were dancing to mine. I sabotaged your class."

I stopped with the fists and he just looked at me in horror.

"I am not the villain in this story. People misunderstood me and my intentions. From an outsider's perspective, you would be the bad guy. But in reality... I am the villain which needs to be removed as quickly as possible."

And with the final punches, my strength was