Defend him! These corrupt bastards have gone too far. (Warning, contains blood and )

Angry about his injustice you run forward and push one of the big guys away from Rey. No matter what their problem is, nobody deserves beaten like this.

“Do you lose your mind you stupid cow?” the corrupt guard yells at you.

He is angry but at least he let’s go of Rey. His partner also stops kicking the poor guy and they begin to circle and intimidate you. You feel like a deer among wolfs. One wrong step and you are done. These guys are nothing but bullies. And you have dealt with bullies before. You must stand up to them and make them clear you are no easy victim.

“Well, I must say, that’s kind of cute,” the second guard says and chuckles a little, “the little one tries to protect her lover.”

As soon as one of the guys tris to get behind you, you turn to the side and take a step back. So, you continue to face them. If one of them gets in your back or dead angle, you are in a huge disadvantage. But the corrupt guards continue. They even seem to consider this funny. They think they can scare you with this and stay in control. You let them their illusion.

“I can’t understand why a cute middle-class girl like you chooses a homeless gutter rat as her lover,” the guard you pushed growls aggressive, “but is don’t matter. We represent the law here and if you hinder us in our work, you get punished. I hope this piece of trash is worth it.”

“No, please,” Ray gasps on the ground and coughs some blood, “you can’t get yourself in danger. Not just for me.”

“Shut up, beggar,” the second guard yells sharp and tries to reach for your tits, “you know, girl, there might be a way we could …”

He doesn’t get any further. In the moment he reaches your boob you quickly turn and smash your fist with full **** in his face. The corrupt guars stumble backwards with a bloody nose. His partner seems shocked but not hesitates to attack you now.

“Big mistake, slut,” the first guard yells and reaches out to hit you.

You avoid the attack and deliver a strong kick to his stomach. The asshole has to take a step back and catch breath, which gives you the chance to focus on the other guy again. The tactic of these brutes is simple: Hitting you as powerful as possible to knock you to the ground. They are both much stronger than you. You have no doubt that one good hit would send you to the floor where they could easily overpower you.

You on the other hand are fast, agile and skilled in material arts. You work with tactic. You can’t block their attacks, but you can dodge or avoid them. And with quick kicks and hits to their weak points you keep them at distance. Their faces, jaws, sides and bellies are what you aim for. And over time your tactic pays off. After some moments the angry muscle heads took several small injuries and breath heavy. You are a little out of breath too but not as much as them and you are still unhurt.

Sadly, your enemies are not as stupid as you hoped. At least one of them is smart enough to notice after some time that their standard tactic is not working on you. He stops for a moment. His partner can recover from the punch in the ribs you just gave him. And then they attack together. Exactly what you tried to prevent. You can’t avoid both guys. You have no time to think. You just act out of instinct.

In the next moment you find yourself on the ground and everything circles. You taste blood and your lip pulses. One of the guys must have hit you in the face. You also hit one of them but not as hard as necessary. You know you have to get up quickly. You can’t lie here where you are an easy target. But you can’t get up. suddenly something very heavy presses down on your upper body. It is the foot of one of the guards. They both stand above you, one holds you down with his foot. Both look terrible. Several bruises and bloody noses. You put up a good fight. But it seems it was not enough. This only made them furious. Well you are not done either. You just have to get free somehow.

“You are dead, whore,” growls one of the corrupt guards, “this was your last mistake.”

The pressure on your lugs increases and you have trouble to breath. You need to find a way out or a distraction before these bastards break your ribs. But you are not strong enough to lift the goy over you.

“Hey, stop this,” Rey suddenly cries **** and “please let her go! You are only here for me. Let her go and we will leave for good.”

Instead of an answer, the guard, who is not pressing you down, turns around and hits Rey in the stomach without any warning. Rey, who is full of bruises and several bleeding wounds has already problems standing on his feet. The hit is too much for him and he immediately collapses again.

“Who asked for your opinion, beggar?” the guard yells and spits on the ground missing Rey very narrowly, “this was your chance to run, but I guess you are too stupid for this.”

Rey is hurt and can’t help you more, but he already did enough. The guard who pins you down is distracted for This is the chance you waited for. You have to use it. While one guard

“You fucking slut beg for pain,” he yells and lifts his feet to stomp on you with full ****.

The kick would likely be able to break your ribs, but you don’t let him get that far. With full **** you smash your foot between his legs. The corrupt guard gasps for air and bows forward. You got him good. He looks like he is about to cry and his foot is no longer on you. Quickly, before he can do anything, you jump back on your feet and use the swing to deliver a heavy uppercut to him. The huge bully falls over like a felled tree. On the ground he gasps for air and doesn’t moves. He is incapacitated.

His partner immediately leaves Rey obviously surprised that you are back on your feet. He looks at his partner who desperately clutches his balls and tries to crawl away from you. You are dirty, your lip has a small bloody crack and you breath heavy. But you are ready to continue. He on the other hand is hurt, exhausted and alone. Not ideal for a coward who only bullies weaker people. Even an idiot like him knows when his chances are bad.

“You make a big mistake, whore,” the corrupt guard growls but keeps his distance, “I come back with reinforcements and then you are better gone or we beat the shit out of you.”

“I want to see you asking your colleagues for help against a girl half your age and size,” you reply amused, “run you coward rat take your buddy with you.”

The guard growls like an angry dog, but he knows you are out of his league at the moment. So all he can do is helping his defeated partner up and leave with an angry stare and the little rest of his pride. While turning to Rey you notice several people watched your fight. Some even made videos of it. They all quietly disappear when you look at them. You are indeed pissed that none of them decided to step in, call the police or at least just do nothing.

But you have more important things to do. Rey is still at the ground and from what you see he is seriously injured. Immediately you go to him and help him sit up. You sit beside him and start wiping off some blood with a handkerchief. To his luck the wounds are only superficial. Bruises, a black eye some minor lacerations. He will not suffer any permanent injuries. Still this must hurt like hell.

“This … this was amazing,” Rey says and tries to sound in a better condition than he is, “they were two and fucking huge. And you beat them like a material arts champion.”

“I had a lot of self-defense lessons in my old hometown,” you mumble, “and … I even have a black belt in karate. I guess my teachers can be proud. Listen, these two cowards will keep distance for now, but they will be back sooner or later. For the moment you should go to another place for your music. Do you have any other options?”

“Yes … yes, I will be fine,” Rey answers and sighs, “listen I … I own you more than I can ever repay. But I must ask you to never do this again. You can’t get in danger because of me. I don’t want you to get hurt or worse. And these guys are dangerous. Before today, I never thought they would go this far. Some insults, threats and thrown coffee cups are normal. But that they would really beat me until I need an ambulance is insane. This town gets worse every day.”

“Well, then you are lucky I’m finally here,” you say and give him a soft smile, “I don’t let someone brute assholes beat others for money or fun.”

“Ashley, there you are,” a voice you know suddenly says close by, “you didn’t answer my call. I’m looking … WHAT HE FUCK? What happened here?”

Eric is back and has been looking for you. But he immediately freaks out when he sees you injured, Rey’s wounds and the blood on the floor.

“Eric, you are back,” you say happy and get up, “don’t worry about me. It’s not bad. He got hit much worse and I …”

“I don’t care if it’s bad or not,” Eric interrupts horrified, “I told you to stay out of trouble. Why are you sitting here with this bleeding guy? Who is this? And what happened here?”

“Eric, listen,” you say and try to calm him down, “I know I promised to not cause any trouble, but Rey here got beaten up by some corrupt security guards from the mall. They would have beaten him much worse if I hadn’t stepped in. He is just a street musician who did nothing wrong. Some shop owners paid them only because he distracts the customers with his music. I couldn’t just stay and watch him getting beaten to hospital.”

“Yes, you could have,” Eric replies angry, “do you have the slightest Idea what your father will do when I bring you back with bruises and a thick lip? You could have called the police. Or just look away until I’m back.”

“The police would likely have been on their side,” Rey interrupts a little upset, “and who are you? are you her boyfriend? I understand you don’t want you girl get hurt, but she is fine. The other guys look much worse.”

“Eric is not my boyfriend,” you explain, “he is my bodyguard. I told you my father is quiet rich. And Eric, I’m sorry. I don’t want to put you in trouble and I didn’t think about this when I stepped in. But I couldn’t look away. I just couldn’t. And I will not in the future too.”

“Do you need an ambulance, Rey?” Eric asks finally and looks at Rey.

“I will survive,” Rey mumbles and carefully stands up, “but please don’t be mad at her. She only wanted to help and she even won against these thugs.”

“No offence buddy, but this is none of your business,” Eric says sharp and pushes you in the direction of the mall, “and you, wash your face and hands. With more luck then sense this is small enough so your old man will not notice. If not, we need a story. God, this can’t be real. I’m just two hours away and you get in a fight.”

You give Rey a sorry look before going. Eric directs you silent to the restrooms and you get in. You wash the blood from your hands and face. One girl who enters after you looks at you scared when she sees the red water but quickly hides in a cabin. You check yourself in the mirror. Your nose looks fine and the crack on your lip is small enough to not get noticed. You have some bruises on the chest and belly, but they are under your shirt. And your knuckles are red and swollen, but this will disappear soon.

“Ok, this is better,” Eric says still angry, “I take a longer route and give you some cooling packs from the first aid pack in the car. Maybe the swelling goes back before we arrive the mansion.”

“Eric, I’m really sorry,” you say sad, “I didn’t want you to get in trouble.”

“That will not help me,” Eric mumbles grumpy, “listen I left my post to help friends. If this becomes public, the boss will have my head. Literally. So, we will both stay absolutely quiet about this. And when somebody notice your lip, you will just say you had an accident in the fitness room at home. Just make up something, that does not involve me!”

“How is your friend?” you ask to change the topic, “could you help him?”

“He will survive, but is still an idiot,” Eric mumbles, “and now, if you don’t mind, I would prefer to stay quiet for a moment. Your father called me some minutes ago and demands both of us back in the mansion. I don’t know what has happened, but we better hurry.”