Its funny, the one time in my life that I engaged in behaviour which could be considered bullying, it did involve intimidation and terror of people I didnt like, I had a pretty sophisticated reasoning for behaving that way and the people who where my target did quite a bit to prove themselves a legit target, they where anti-social and scumbags pretty much.
I even fought with some of the harder elements which where pretty peripheral to my world but which their worlds intersected with, until it became too much, I remember the final fight, one of their asshole "champions" who used to beat on them as much as anyone else and who'd been involved in breaking and entering, intimidation of local girls who where in fear of him possibly becoming a rapist or something, he was too big and too strong for me to defeat.
Also, I had matured and totally changed social scene by that stage, I met lots of good people who didnt resolve disagrements with violence, who wherent cruel or interested in tearing people down for their own amusement. I knew that like a snake sheds its skin I'd changed from my formerly tougher, desensitised self, on a conscious and unconscious level I wasnt prepared to return to my earlier self to see off this one opponent.
Times where difficult for a while after that but the guy moved away, I've heard since he's still a thug, responsible for a lot of scum bag behaviour and likely will end up on the authorities radar, I know he's not forgotten about me and bares a grudge. Years after that incident I saw him in a train station and he pretty much humiliated a conductor but in a bizarre way it was like a challenge to me, pretty sure that was his motivation.
I can testify that if you're in the position of being a bully that there's two things which are true, you could experience an elevated sense of esteem, its because you're not afraid of anyone or anything, but its not the same as esteem because you feel something particularly good about yourself or you've accomplished something.
The other thing is that most bullies have been bullied themselves or are being bullied, Eric Fromm's authoritarian personality perfectly describes bullies, the kiss up and piss down mentality, they'll always have a higher authority that they are kow towing to and subordinates they'll despise. I'd experienced bullying and decided that on my own patch I'd not endure it, so I fought and over came my opponents but it called for a perpetual struggle that would have locked me into sort of personality structure I didnt want.