Chapter 10: A Taste of Combat

Theo’s eyes leisurely scanned the surroundings.

The skinny thug with the blonde mohawk was currently lying on the floor, spasming like a drugged-up rabbit. At the same time, a few men slowly made their way towards him.

These men were all dressed in a similar fashion as the previous thug; loose pants, gold chains, and body ink. They were like cliché caricatures of the people they wanted to be. Still, it’s not like Theo didn’t understand. To normal people, thuggish-looking men like them really were quite frightening.

The ones that approached him consisted only of the guys that loitered around the front yard of the three-story house. Generally, they were the ones that actually saw what had transpired. The rest were either too far away to notice or were simply too inebriated to care.

In total, there were eight people.

Two guys smaller than him, five about the same size, and one really big dude that probably weighed three times as much as Theo. The big guy was mostly made out of fat rather than muscle. He jiggled every time he took a step forward, sort of like a humanoid cup of pudding.

Luckily for Theo, the big guy originally sat on the steps leading to the front door, so it’ll probably take a while for him to get here.

Theo showed no fear on his face. In fact, he felt rather relaxed.

Even though he lost all his strength and abilities, he did not consider himself completely helpless. At least not towards such a disorganized and unruly group of people. Although Theo was physically weak, he still possessed a wealth of experience, and a number of various techniques and fighting styles. The techniques that he talked about were the same ones that he had learned through the teachings of countless renowned masters. What’s more, those techniques were then further honed through twenty-five years’ worth of bloodshed and battle.

He suddenly recalled all the times he fought with his powers sealed, and of all the instances in which he faced off against those considerably stronger than him. Although he did not win every encounter, one thing that he always managed to accomplish was survive, which was a lot more than what most people could say for themselves. Theo survived because he was good at surviving. He survived because he was the hero.

He glanced back up at the approaching men.

“Shirley, take a step back.” He whispered quietly, before he took a step forward. Theo wanted to create as much distance from Shirley as possible. The next following minutes were going to be rather chaotic, and he didn’t want her to get caught up in the crossfire.

Theo did not wait for her to respond. Instead, he immediately turned towards the nearest thug. It was a skinhead with a black pistol tattoo inked onto his forehead. His build was somewhat similar to Theo’s, except his muscles were clearly more defined.

If there was one thing that Theo had to regretfully admit, then it would be the fact that the current him lacked any sort of muscle. This didn’t really come as much of a surprise; he spent the majority of his teenage years idling around the house, either watching tv or sitting in front of a computer monitor. With a lifestyle like that, what do you think would have happened?

Still, it would only pose a mild inconvenience. Muscles weren’t everything in a fight.

“Hey, who the hell are you?” The skinhead’s voice woke him up from his momentary stupor. “You just kicked our guy in the balls! That shit isn’t fair, man.” His rage-tinted words echoed through the night air.

Theo ignored him, and instead, began walking towards the skinhead. The skinhead was taken aback. He glared suspiciously at Theo. “What are you doing?” He questioned, but Theo did not answer. He maintained his calm demeanor and picked up the pace.

Soon, Theo was jogging through the street at a moderate pace, not too fast, but not too slow either. At this point, the thug was utterly confused. Seeing Theo rapidly approaching, he hesitated. He scrambled to a stop, before he hurriedly tried to pull something out from his back pocket.

Unfortunately, he was a step too slow.

He held a gleaming silver object in his hand, but before he could do anything with it, Theo abruptly accelerated and launched his first attack.

Using the full weight of his body, Theo struck out with an open palm. The blow landed accurately on the skinhead’s solar plexus. Even though Theo’s regular strength was abysmal compared to these thugs, one didn’t really need all that much power to incapacitate someone. What mattered most was accuracy. Plus, forward momentum was a scary thing. It was why bullets were so dangerous, despite being so small.

The skinhead was unprepared for such a vicious strike. He immediately crumbled to the pavement like a sack of wet rice. He clutched his chest in desperation and gasped for air like a drowning fish.

Theo wanted to make sure that the man was completely knocked out, so he kicked him a few times in the jaw for good measure. Within half a second, the thug was unconscious.

Theo took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He could feel his heart palpitating from the physical exertion. He was not yet winded, but he could feel himself creeping up towards the wall. He shook his head and turned his attention over towards the seven remaining men.

For a while, they were momentarily stunned. The random youth took less than ten seconds to deal with one of their own. What’s more, it had been through a one-hit punch… something like that, it was something straight out of an action movie! To think that such a fantastical display of prowess was happening right before their very eyes… no, they shouldn’t be impressed, but rather, distressed!

Right, the remaining thugs felt seriously distressed!

After a short pause, they all exchanged glances, before they immediately sprinted towards the unknown youth.

Their mindset was simple. They planned to overpower this dangerous expert using a gang’s greatest advantage. What was a gang’s greatest advantage, you ask? It was the gangsters, of course! In any given fight, a gang’s number one tactic was always to gang up on people!

Seeing such a large force rapidly approach, even Theo felt a bit of pressure. Still, he did not panic.

The gangsters all came from different places and they all had different running speeds. Even if it was only a window of a few seconds, they wouldn’t all immediately arrive at the same time.

He suddenly bent down and removed the unconscious skinhead’s shoes. They looked fairly expensive, but Theo didn’t care. Without hesitation, he chucked both shoes towards the closest approaching thug.

One shoe sailed through the air, clearly aimed at the guy’s face. The thug, who from henceforth will be known as Thug Number Two, had clearly seen the projectile coming. He contemptuously sneered, and raised his arms before him, easily blocking the shoe. Unfortunately, because he had been so distracted by the first projectile, he had completely forgotten about the second shoe.

The second shoe was aimed at the ground directly in front of Thug Number Two. Number Two stepped on the shoe and lost his footing. A pop echoed through the street. He twisted his ankle and fell face first onto the hard concrete.

With Thug Number Two momentarily incapacitated, Theo immediately sprinted towards Thug Number Three. Three was a skinny man, considerably smaller than Theo, so he had even less of a reason to hesitate. Once he had shortened the distance, Theo leaped off the ground and gave unfortunate Number Three a flying knee kick to the gut.

The thug immediately doubled over, but before he fell, Theo caught him by the head and quickly followed up with another knee kick, this time aimed at his face.

A stream of blood flew through the air. Theo loosened his grip. Number Three fell to the ground with a face full of blood.

Theo breathed out a sigh. His heartbeat was beating wildly like a sonorous war drum. Sweat slickened his palms. I’ve only dealt with two people, but I’m already so tired. This body of mine really is too weak.

He unabashedly insulted himself, before he shook his head, and focused back on the rest of the gangsters.

By this point, aside from the limping Number Two and the straggling Big Eight, the rest of the group was more or less than two meters away from him. At first, Theo felt dejected. Handling four guys at the same time was bound to get bloody. Not that it wasn’t doable, but Theo certainly wouldn’t be walking out unscathed.

Suddenly, Theo’s expression brightened. His eyes landed on a metal pipe that one of the in-coming delinquents was wielding.

Theo was always a weapons type of guy. He found that his productivity really increased whenever he had something in his hands.

Barehanded, I could at most handle five people at once, but with a weapon, I’m confident enough to take on twenty.

He openly grinned, before he wasted no time and sprinted towards the thug with the metal pipe. The weaponized thug, who he henceforth dubbed as Thug Number Four, felt a bit dismayed.

Out of all the guys in the group, this crazy son of a bitch chose me! What the hell!? Doesn’t he see that I have a weapon? Usually, you’d leave me for last!

Number four angrily swung his pipe, hoping to teach this brat a lesson! Unfortunately, Theo had already anticipated that. He squatted his legs and ducked just in time. He then sprang to his feet with a jumping uppercut. The fist had been aimed directly at the man’s exposed armpit.

The metal pipe clattered to the floor. Theo happily picked it up. With a smile etched onto his face, he then tested out his new weapon on unfortunate Number Four. A few seconds later, Four’s bruised and battered body fell to the floor like a bag of potatoes.

Theo turned around, just in time to see the rest of the cavalry arrive. Three people. This time, he did not hesitate. He took a step forward and proceeded to dominate the three misfits using the same sword technique that he had used to slay that mature beauty that once ruled over more than half of Mistelhan. After a few seconds, a chorus of groans echoed around him.

Number Five, Number Six, and Number Seven were all sprawled on the ground, bruises clearly visible on their necks, chests, and arms.

“Aaargh!” Just then, a roar echoed through the streets.

Ah, just on time. Theo turned towards the noise.

An injured Number Two suddenly came hobbling forward. The man was missing a front tooth, while a rather ugly bruise covered the majority of his left eye.

A fall to the face really can cause quite a bit of damage… Theo mused to himself, as he easily received Number Two’s rage-induced attack. Due to the bruise in his eye, Number Two didn’t clearly see the way Theo beat up three of his friends using a half meter metal pipe. If he had, then he certainly wouldn’t have been so zealous in his approach.

Unfortunately, it was too late for regrets. Number Two, who had hoped to make his triumphant return, was instead, beaten black and blue like a stray cur.

Theo rested the metal pipe over his shoulders and took a deep breath. His hands trembled, his face flushed, while his chest heaved heavily. He could taste the blood in his throat. Theo had overexerted himself.

Still, he wasn’t finished just yet. A cool expression replaced the haggard one on his face, before he turned around and swaggered towards the remaining thug. Thug Number Eight, or simply Big Eight, was by far the largest gangster that he had seen today. The man was big, but his expression wasn’t very intimidating. In fact, he looked quite hesitant, his gaze constantly flickering towards the bodies sprawled on the ground.

As for Theo, he was inwardly delighted. He found big beefy guys like this to be the easiest types to handle, especially when they were all weight and no muscle.

Big Eight gulped down a mouthful of saliva, before he let out a roar and charged forward.

He tried to grab Theo in a bear hug, but Theo easily avoided. With a swift turn, he circled around the delinquent’s back, before he struck out with the pipe. The cold metal accurately hit the back of his knee. Theo did not wait before he aimed at the other knee. The towering mountain of a man sank to the floor, his knees hitting the rough pavement with a thud.

Like this, Theo was now a head taller than the man. He leisurely circled back to the front, before he aimed the pipe at the thug’s head as if he were a batter wielding a bat.

At this point, Big Eight did not even bother to resist. He had a thoroughly pitiful expression smeared on his face.

“Ah, big bro, please not so hard. I have weak bones.” The big guy looked at him with what could only be described as puppy dog eyes.

An odd smile floated to Theo’s lips. This guy’s trying to be all cute all of a sudden. Theo considered for a moment, before he shrugged his shoulders. I’ll at least try to get you with one hit.

With that, he swung with all his might. Unfortunately, although Eight’s bones were indeed fragile, he had quite a resistant layer of fat protecting him. It took Theo a few more swings before he finally managed to knock him out.

A few seconds later, Theo leaned back and let out a sigh. “Sorry bro, I really did try. You were just too tough.”

He spoke casually to the man on the floor, but nobody responded. Number eight’s face was black and blue. It bloated to the point where it was almost unrecognizable. Theo apologized once more, before he turned around and walked back over to Shirley. Along the way, he threw the blood-stained pipe away. It clattered loudly onto the side of the road.

“Alright Shirley, let’s go,” Theo spoke, as he grabbed onto her shoulders and pushed her forward.

“Ah, is it over? Can I look now?” She asked worriedly.

Theo looked around his surroundings. After seeing all the fallen bodies, he shook his head. “It might not be the best time for you to look. Just wait until I say so, okay?”

“Okay, but what were you doing?” She paused for a moment, “Also, why do you sound so out of breath?”

“Like I said, it was skinship! Just some healthy skinship between men.” He shamelessly responded as he guided Shirley forward.

Theo did not consider what sort of implications his words possessed, but Shirley clearly felt that there was something off about the whole thing.

Skinship between men… Theo being out of breath… all the groaning coming from the background…

She thought about peeking for a moment but ultimately decided against it. Somethings were better left in the dark. She shook her head and quietly followed Theo out of the busy street.