I never really confronted my bullies but there was one guy in particular I snapped on.
He was sooo annoying. He actually kinda scared me, gave off young serial killer in the making vibes.
He loved knives and he regularly got into fights, he tore up the seats on the bus with his knife. One time he was paired with me for no reason by the driver, and he cut the seat, and then he held the knife to my leg and said "what if I cut you?" something more but I can't remember since it was long ago. I said no awkwardly of course, and he just went back to whatever, but I was terrified.
A few years later and a few fights later, he was drinking, smoking, vaping, and getting doped up regularly at the bus stop, his parents didn't care.
He eventually killed our neighbor's chickens in the middle of the night, he got detained or something, came back to school later, and this is when it happened.
He has some shitty belt with metal things on it and he kept hitting me with it, at first I was meh about it but then he started pelting me. So for the first time in my life I stood up for myself. I told him "If you do that again I'll fucking kill you."
He laughed at me but he genuinely backed down, and I just sat down and the whole bus was silent for the rest of the ride.
He never bothered me again.
So my best advice, stick up for yourself, because no one else will.