A Bit Twisted

Turning around he stayed on guard against Tearia while he looked to see what she was talking about. "Check my back? Is this some kind of trick.." thinking that he scanned his robe and uniform trying to find anything yet nothing appeared. Right when he was about to give up though he spotted something that didn't seem to belong, slowly anger seeped into him as he registered what it was as a wave of embarrassment filled his soul. "A shoe print." Generally he was careful in his fights to never make mistakes or get dirty but it seemed he failed to do so this time around. While that wasn't a big deal to most people in fights to him it was crucial. Everything had to be perfect to him and mistakes or things that broke that rule had always annoyed him greatly ever since he was a kid.

However now in an arena full of strangers he had made a fool of himself. Even if they were a bunch of nobodies to him and worthless he still slipped up, that thought brought a large crack in his mask of calm. "Me? Not perfect? Missing attacks? Weaker then this pathetic excuse of a Transformation Stage? What a sick joke. I'm lin Strider, I don't make mistakes." Ever since childhood he had been praised non stop for his remarkable capabilities around him no matter what he did. Along with that praise he strived to further his skills in everything so he would keep receiving it. It felt good to him and helped fuel his fire to strive forward. He was built on the ground of perfection and praise.

Starting with his excellent skills in learning he started down the Astral Path and learned to fight with a sword. Compared to his peers and even some of the older kids he was exceptionally better then them. Eventually the confidence he gained from that started to stem into other things. Social skills, looks, Elemental mastery, hell even teaching. Anything he did went great, some might even say to well for someone of his age and skill. But none saw the work he put in behind the scenes. The struggles and the lengths he went to bend over backwards just to figure out every small thing. Failure was never an option and being surrounded by friends, teachers and parents who non stopped praised him he refused to let any of them down. He didn't want to lose their trust, love or friendship. He was happy plain and simple but somewhere along the way that got twisted. As the years went on Lin felt more pressure pile on top of his back as he began to feel more distant from the world and his emotions. He was surrounded by people but for some reason he started to feel lonely.

Especially when people started asking him for favours and tried to use him. Other kids would ask him to protect them or give them things while women started trying to get into his bed as he got older and even teachers started abusing his strength. However he took it all with a calm smile on his face never questioning or refusing their requests. With time he grew more distant as disgust for the people around him built up seeing how gross they seemed to be. They never thought for themselves and only ever wanted from him. "People are sickening." When that thought first occurred to him he had found his blade inside a young man's throat after dazing out of it but he didn't feel pity, remorse or any normal emotion he should have in that situation. He just felt disgusted looking at the face of the dead man as he slowly suffocated to death making weird sounds as he begged for his life with eyes until eventually he stopped moving completely.

From then on he changed completely on the inside while staying mostly the same on the outside. Except he came a lot more abusive to himself and the people around them when the world wasn't looking. The only thing that would set him off from then on was imperfection and most people around him knew that so they avoided making such a mistake unless they were stronger then him. Yet here he was surrounded by people he didn't know or care about exposing his imperfections for all of the world to see. It was unbecoming of him and extremely unsightly which pissed him off.

*Ring*

With a slight sound of ringing going off in his head he felt a headache coming on as he slowly turned around to see Tearia smiling at him like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"You....."

"Me? Are you upset?"

Mocking the man Tearia didn't care. She had found out what made him tick and she was going to use that to her advantage all she could.

"What's your name."

No longer calm his eyes turned slightly dark as some hair blocked half his face while he asked that question. He wanted to know the name of the person he was about to slice into pieces and feed to the muts. "Dignity? This competition? Appearances?" None of that mattered to him as this point. He just wanted to know the name of the person who managed to piss him off after such a long time.

"Hmmm..."

Staring at the face and noticing the slight changes around it she quietly thought to herself as silence stayed between them with no movements. "I guess he's done playing high and mighty. Good." Sighing she let out a sigh as she let out her voice with the least amount of emotions possible. To her, he was worthless and each second they fought he proved that. All he had was strength in her eyes to keep himself afloat and it was sad to look at.

"You can call me Tearia."

"Tearia eh? Well you can call me Lin. I hope you remember it well in the depths of whatever hell hole you get sent to."

With that he summoned another blade as the blood rushed to his head while he charged straight towards Tearia as fire started to blaze all around his body.