Nathan arrived at the alleyway and saw the thugs laughing and joking away. He heaved a sigh of relief as he saw nothing had been done to Neo, or else.

“You’re back!” The leader stood up and asked Nathan to hand over the cigarettes.

Nathan refused, saying that he’ll give the cigarettes once his brother is released. The leader laughed at Nathan’s deal.

“Who are you?” The leader sneered at him before going back to his seat.

“You are not on top in this conversation,” The leader said as he patted Neo’s head.

Nathan gave up, he was still thinking that this can be resolved swiftly, but it turns out it was just his stupid naivete.

Nathan tossed what he had just bought, he didn’t take a step forward.

“You’re really something,” The leader said as he instructed one of his men to get the pack of cigarettes and divide it amongst themselves. His subordinates obliged.

As each and every one of the thugs lit their cigarettes, Nathan asked if they could go now. The leader and the rest didn’t mind him as they continued what they were doing.

Nathan had enough, although it was reasonable to wait for the cops to arrive, based on the reactions of the passerby, the possibility that the store owner would call the police is, he couldn’t just leave the fate of his brother on a wishful thinking.

“I called the cops,” Nathan said as all the thugs looked at him in shock.

“What did you say?” One of the men asked.

“You think we’re scared of them? This is a lawless place even with the government, you can’t threaten us with that.” The leader reasoned.

“This is how you threaten someone.” The leader said as he grabbed the neck of Neo. Nathan doesn’t know what the leader will do but he knows it’s not something delightful, he screamed, “No!”

It was late though as the cigarette had already landed on the nape of Neo; it happened so fast.

Neo screamed so hard, the bystanders walking in the streets closed their eyes and pretended they didn’t hear a scream. The leader on the other hand laughed at the squirming Neo, and so did the rest of his goons, except for Iain who smiled and only laughed when someone was looking at him.

Nathan’s expression dropped as Neo lost consciousness.

“Oh look, the boy’s mad,” A goon by the side of Nathan joked as he pointed at the latter.

It was a bad move though as Nathan grabbed the pointing finger and broke it, the scream of the said man alerted the whole gang. It shocked them.

Nathan didn’t stop there to give the man’s jaw a knee blow, now that is what’s called squirming in pain.

After kicking the said man lying on the ground he proceeded to walk towards the rest of the gang.

The leader watched as 5 of his men ran towards Nathan to return a blow.

They all threw jabs at Nathan which the latter evaded perfectly and used the force against them. One by one, all of them fall to the ground from a punch in the solar plexus.

The men on the ground can’t believe what’s happening, Nathan’s punch felt like a cannonball. It was pretty evident that none of the men that attacked Nathan knew any martial arts or any defending technique. All their attacks were random and didn't have any power, they also don’t know any weak points of the human body thus they don’t know that they will feel more pain when they are hit on them.

They were a gang but their sole strength is from their leader, they don’t have the physical capability to hold a match with someone who knows how to fight, nor the capacity to receive blows from one, it was a whole new world for them.

Nathan didn’t finish with just respective punches on their solar plexus; a kick on their head and dislocated legs also landed on them.

Their gang doesn’t have many members, only four are left including the leader and Iain.

The leader stood up and said while clapping, “You must’ve trained martial arts or something and thought you’ll be enough to take care of us huh?”

“I have studied taekwondo and karate since childhood, let’s do this as both martial artists.” The leader said as he took a stride and went directly towards Nathan.

Nathan parried him but the leader continued his barrage. These go on for a few seconds before the leader notices something.

The more they continue, the more perfect the parry and counterattack of Nathan is becoming. Impossible.

He couldn’t believe it; at the start he was the one winning with his techniques and also a bigger body than Nathan. It should’ve been impossible for Nathan to change the tide of the battle.

Nathan used the opportunity to land a strike on the leader who was lost in his thoughts.

Nathan spitted on the leader’s face, as the latter tried to regain composure, Nathan delivered a stab choke on the leader’s neck. He also positioned himself to counter the gravity of the leader and made the latter seem to flip on mid-air.

The remaining men of the gang were shocked by what happened to their leader.

As the leader flipped to the ground, Nathan delivered a finishing punch on the leader’s face, smacking a tooth of his mouth and also dislocating his jaw. Blood came out of the leader’s mouth as he coughed up.

The two goons aside from Iain, instinctively attacked seemingly unprotected Nathan, but their action just hastened their doom. Nathan was able to easily handle them and left them unconscious on the ground.

With blood on his hands, Nathan stared at his brother before coldly looking at Iain.

Iain knew he was going to be in a world of pain. He said in a hurry, “I’m a medical student, I’ll owe you a favor and help you three times if you let me go unharmed today, please!”

Nathan walked towards their direction; this scared the s**t out of Iain.

Iain said as he closed his eyes, “Look, I didn’t touch your brother or anything, so please!”