I quickly made my way towards the place where Annie was.

 "Stop this, or I will call the police." I heard her voice. It was shaky due to her being scared.

 "Hey cutie, we simply want to help you with groceries."

 "Yeah, we will even help you finish all of it."

 I heard the voices of the two thugs. I as well saw one of them reaching after her butt.

 "Hey! Leave her alone!" Walking between the two, I stopped them in their tracks. Now I stood beside Annie, shielding her from the two. Doing so, I sized them up.

 Both of them had large physiques. They looked more like bears than humans. They were taller than me by a head. Their bodies could barely be hugged by a single person. Both of them had sideburns and ugly faces. Their hands peeking through their coats were hairy. This cemented the image of bears. Both of them wore red snapback caps, bomber jackets, and loose baggy pants of red color.

 "And who are you? Hrrngh, ptooey." One of them spat on the ground. His face, growing gloomy after seeing me.

 "Erlig, we should call the police." I heard Annie's voice from behind and felt her tugging on my sleeve.

 "I will handle this." I turned around to reassure her and smiled. "You can go back home."

 "Home? Who said she can go home?"

 "Eyy, we helped her, walked her to home, and now some twat makes the call?"

 My head started hurting as I heard them talking.

 "I don't think my mother asked for your help?" I turned around and looked at the one who said this.

 "Eh, so you are a mommy boy? Listen well, go and play with your friends in a sandbox, while we will help your mother with some business." the guy who spat looked at me condescending. Then turning his gaze towards Annie, he smiled lasciviously.

 "No one will help her with anything. If you don't want to get into trouble because of sexual harassment, you should go away."

 ""Gaahahaha"" their answer was laugher. Their voices were really unpleasant.

 I held Annie by the shoulder and turned to walk away when one of them suddenly crossed our way.

 "Hey, who said you can walk away?" He issued an unintelligible guttural sound.

 I was getting tired of all this bullshit. Mara was supposed to take care of all of this, wasn't she?

 "And who said you can stop us?" I was still holding Annie close to me when the second guy tried to grab her hand.

 "HEY! Knock it off!" I caught his wrist as hard as I could. His expression quickly turned from the condescending one to an angry one. It wasn't as hard to hold him as I thought at first. Still, it wasn't as comfortable, holding him in such a position.

 "Let go of me, you shitty brat!" He managed to yank his hand away. Doing so, he rubbed his wrist, looking at me spitefully.

 "If you intend to block our pass and don't get away in ten seconds, we will call the police." I issued another warning.

 "Hey, who said you call the shots, huh? Dumb shithead."

 "You are fucking brave, huh? Protecting your mommy and shit. What about talking one on one, huh? Like men do?"

 I felt that my fuse was lit with these words.

 "Annie, call the police, please." As I turned to face her, she was already pale, and her breathing was erratic.

 "Huh? And what will the police do?"

 "Scold us as your mother scolds you?" Both of them chortled.

 "We give you one last warning, you brat. Piss off before it's too late!" Both of them clasped their fists and started warming up, trying to flex their muscles that were hidden by a large amount of fat.

 "Erlig, I will call the police now." Annie tried to find her phone while still holding plastic bags in her hands. One of the thugs reached towards her again, and I slapped his hand away. Glancing at Annie, she was even paler seeing them going after her for the nth time. I knew that we won't have enough time before the police come.

 Seeing that the passersby didn't bat an eye towards whatever happened here, I knew that there was no other way to quickly get Annie to safety. I could only count on myself.

 Sighing inwardly, I knew where this will lead me. "Both of you wanted to talk, right?"

 "Huh?"

 "So what?"

 "I will talk to you but not here." I glanced around and saw a deserted side street. "There." I pointed towards the side street with a notion of my head."

 "Brave momma boy, hehe. Alright, let's go and talk."

 Seeing them back down ever so slightly, I turned to Annie.

 "Annie, listen."

 "Uh?" She was still dazed. Her hands were trembling.

 I clasped her shoulders lightly and looked into her eyes. Waiting for the moment when she will focus on me.

 "Annie, I will go and talk those guys out of whatever they want to do." She blinked. "You heard this, right?"

 "Ye-yes." She nodded.

 "You don't need to worry, just go home, and I will be there in a few minutes, okay?"

 "Yes." her eyes were focused on me as she said this.

 "Good, now go." she looked at me for some time but ultimately trotted away, glancing back every so often.

 The front door of our apartment building was near, and I hoped she would get there in time.

 "You should know that you left us in a bad mood, you twat." As we stood in the alleyway, the thugs tried to loom over me and intimidate me with all their might.

 "Yeah, we don't like it when our good intentions aren't rewarded properly."

 "And if they aren't rewarded…" The thug smiled wryly.

 "We like to do bad things." They once again cracked their knuckles.

 If this situation turns out ugly, I can always run away. I simply need to stall some time for Annie to get back home. "You know, I'm a trained fighter, an athlete."

 "'Huh?""

 "I said, I'm a professional fighter. Maybe, it will be better to do these 'bad things' somewhere else?"

 "Gahaha, you think you can scare us like that, you fucking pussy?"

 "You cost us a good fuck, don't think you can go unscathed."

 Why the fuck do I always attract this kind of person? I sighed and dropped my bag down on the snowy road.

 "You know, I trained so that I will be able to stand my ground against the likes of you."

 "Trained? Trained in bullshiting?"

 "Gahahaha."

 "You know, we can still talk? How about you go and find a different target? I don't know, is there so little girls out there?"

 "Gaahahaha, you chickened out?"

 "You bitch-ass pussy, stop talking. If you want to go away unscathed, you should either bring your mother's ass back here or pay for our labor. Protecting a single woman in these streets ain't easy, you know?

 I felt the fuse that they ignited ending as my temples throbbed. Their faces overlayed with Reid's face.

 "Fine. You wanted to talk one on one, right? Or are you afraid of the 'fucking pussy?'" I spread my hands. The bag on my shoulder fell down.

 "You said what?" One of them had a dumb expression as he clearly didn't understand what I meant.

 "I said to come at me! You fat fuck!"

 The very next moment, their faces distorted. Both of them had a grimace of fury and anger. This duo previously circled me around. Due to their bodies being big while the alleyway was narrow, they couldn't make their moves.

 In the end, one of them stepped back. He walked slightly away to guard this alleyway and to send away random passersby. Not like anyone will come into this narrow alley. The one in front of me had a vicious grin.

 Winding up, he launched a wide swing at me. But I had no intentions of simply letting him hit me. Looking at his wide swing, I felt as if I entered a different state of mind. I let my pent-up rage and frustration flow freely.

 It was a slow arching punch, and I easily dodged it by ducking. There was no place for me to back down as behind me was a stone wall.

 Which meant I can only go forward. With my body still aligned with the ground, I dashed forward and grabbed his leg.

 "Hugh?"

 I heard him issuing a strange sound while I, in turn, exerted all the strengths I could muster.

 "UUGH!" Lifting his foot and moving it forward, he started tilting backward. As he tried to regain his balance, he jumped clumsily. Feeling this, I changed my position.

 Still holding his leg, I swept his second leg and pushed on his fat stomach. With a look of surprise on his face, he fell down on the ground.

 He was still lying on his back, amazed by what just happened while I was standing over his body. Not knowing what was the best choice right now, I suddenly had a fleeting thought.

 Mara promised to sort this out, right?

 Remembering Mara and seeing the guy on the ground, I quickly sprang sideways and arched my leg backward.

 "THWACK!"

 Setting up a wide arc, I soccer kicked him right onto the side of his face when he tried to stand up. Eating the full force of the soccer kick, he fell back down.

 I looked at him for only a second when I glanced sideways, looking for his friend. Seeing him standing slightly in the distance, he was dazed, looking at his friend lying on the ground.

 "UUUUAAGH!" Finally, everything clicked in his brain as he rushed toward me with a loud roar.

 I took some distance from the fallen man so that I would be able to maneuver. There was not much place for a left-right movement. I at least needed to be able to back down.

 The second bear-man run past me, and I barely evaded the thug's half-hug half-ram move. Turning around, I even managed to kick him in the calf.

 "Ugh!" stopping from the pain, he turned around and started swinging his log-like arms left and right.

 Ducking her and there, shuffling, I evaded his every strike. Every time I saw an opening, I launched a kick towards his calves or thighs.

 This went on for some time. The thug was going forward, swinging wildly, as if he was a windmill. It would probably continue for some time, yet he finally couldn't handle the pain. With the last kick to his calf, I saw him going down. His leg went numb, so he started leaning forward.

 Without a proper foothold, he couldn't make a powerful enough punch, so I stepped forward.

 Remembering the harsh lesson, I tucked my fingers.

 "THWAP!"

 "UGH!"

 With great momentum, I struck the underside of his chin with the base of my palm. The force was enough for him to stagger backward even though his knees buckled forward. However, there was no way I would let him go after this.

 "SLAP!"

 "SLAP!"

 "THWAP!"

 "THWACK!"

 I slapped his fat cheeks, struck him in the middle of his face once more. It all ended with the palm strike to the side of his chin. He wasn't able to hold all this punishment and fell down.

 It turned out they only had their sizes to intimidate others.

 Looking at his bloodied face, I saw my hands were covered in blood as well. I remember the last time I ambushed those two thugs that went after Jet. I felt excited and shocked. I've feared that something might've happened to me.

 But right now, my emotions were somewhat easier to decipher, yet much more complex. From venting my pent-up feelings, I felt a dark pleasure rising up.

 Walking towards my bag, I caught a glimpse of a person with my side vision.

 Turning around, I broke into a sweat as I saw Annie peaking over from the large trash bin.

 I hurriedly took my bag and went over to her.

 "Annie, why haven't you got home?" My voice quaked.

 "I was worried that something might happen to you, so I called the police and went to look for you… You... What have you done, Erlig?" she looked me into the eyes, her pupils radiating accusation.

 "I…" 

 "What will happen if you get injured? Is this the reason you wanted to learn how to fight?" She looked at me as if I was a different person.

 "No, it's…Um..." I stalled for the time when an excuse came to my mind, "You know? Yes! I wanted to learn how to fight to protect you."

 "Me?" If she was flabbergasted before, now she was completely lost.

 "Yes, I train to be able to protect you. You are my mother, and I won't let any hoodlums touch you so casually." As I said this, I steeled my expression to sound more convincing.

 There were a whole lot of emotions showing on her face. She was happy and then she was shy, she was surprised and even angry. All these emotions mixed together, making her overload.

 "They harassed you, insulted me and you. Those thugs, they came after me first. It was all self-defense."

 "I-I…" she didn't know what to say and finally closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she opened them again. "Thank you, Erlig." She was still scared and lost. But she found strength in her to give a gentle smile. "I'm happy that you see me as your mother after so long… But I don't want you to hurt yourself because of me." She looked sad when she said this.

 "But I'm not hurt." I waved my hands left and right and jumped up and down a couple of times. "See? Perfectly fine."

 "And what about your hand?"

 "This?" I looked at my palm, but since I struck them with my palm and legs, there was almost no damage.

 "It's covered in blood." she bit her lip.

 "Oh, this? This is their blood." I beamed at her, but after a few seconds, I understood that it wasn't appropriate. "Ehem, I mean, I'm really uninjured."

 "I should still check it out at home." Her voice finally gained that little bit of confidence she always had before.

 "Alright, let's go home, and you can do whatever you want."

 "But what about the police?" She looked troubled.

 I didn't know how it actually worked, so I had only one proposition. After all, the thugs might suddenly wake up. "Can't we wait for the police to come back home?"

 She furrowed her eyebrows and then nodded slightly. "Let's do it like this."

 "Good." I nodded. "I will help you, but first. I will need to make a call."