Alley Fight
Why does Rika always start with that topic? I mean, I like talking about romance and shipping, but why does she always have to make it about me? I have only known her for six weeks, and she keeps bothering me about being single. Even though she has been single for years, though not for the effort of not trying, in her own words, her father is simply too scary, so most don’t even consider going after her anymore…
Of course, I don’t want to be lonely. But when I meet someone, I like to have it on my own terms.
I was so angry at Rika that I almost started to run until I stopped abruptly. There was a trickle of blood on the street. It led from a shady bar across the street into an alley. I could hear something heavy hitting the ground, followed by maniacal laughter. Someone was having the time of their lives.
Normally, I don’t like conflicts or stay away from them. I had believed myself to be weak and that getting involved would only make it worse. But ever since I came to this world, I have been trying to change that. In this Body, in this world, I’m no longer helpless—or so I hoped.
I steeled myself and inched closer to the alley. I could hear voices and creepy giggling, interrupted by repeated grunts and muffled screams.
The sight before me left me stunned. There were four people in the alley: a Hafling with the evilest grin I have ever seen, completely breaking the usually jolly stereotype of Halflings, a fat man with oily black hair and the face of a red-nosed Bulldog, a skinny guy whose face was distorted from acne and the blood coming from his broken nose making his face look like fresh meat, and Joel who was lying in the fetal position attempting to protect his head as the other three tried their best to hit the holes in his desperate defense.
“Stop!”
My shout was like a pin drop in the noisy alley. Two stopped their attack, while the Halfling only stopped after he noticed that the others had stopped kicking for some reason. Joel was trying his best to look up and get a glimpse of his savior.
But when the three attackers saw who it was, they laughed as if I had made the best Joke in all their lives. After half a minute of laughter, the Bulldog said,
“Look who came to help you. I guess we don’t even have to look for her.”
Look for me. What did he mean? Whatever, I had to stop them. Even though I don’t like Joel for Humiliating me, I don’t want him to die over it.
“If you keep going, he will die.”
But this seemed to only encourage them more. They started laughing even harder than before. The one with the broken nose even kicked Joel with all his strength instead and laughed so hard that his Nose blood splattered on the now unconcise Joel. His smile was red from blood. The Bulldog asked challengingly while walking towards me,
“Your point being?”
I couldn’t talk them out of it. I had to…
In the corner of my eye, I could see Rika approaching with a playful smile.
Fuck.
“Hey Ruby, where are you, star…” Before she could finish her sentence she stopped seeing the fear on my face.
“““Get them!”””
Rika looked around, hoping for someone to be around, but the streets were empty. The once lively street was completely deserted.
The Bulldog grabbed my arm roughly with fat, sweaty hands, almost as if he wanted to break it, breathing heavily like a pig. Rika screamed for help while picking up a stone from the side of the road, but before she could even attempt to throw it, Ruby’s attacker fell like a doll whose strings had been cut.
He fell face first, with stunned wide eyes that, for the first time, broke through his excess skin. As he fell, he broke his nose on the cobblestone, sprinkling blood over a nearby patch of Daisys.
Once again, there was silence, and before the other two even had a chance to understand what had happened, I had put my heel on his oily black head, declaring,
“If you don’t want to end up like him, leave.”.
I was lucky he wasn’t wearing gloves and touched my bare arm, or I would not have been able to pull this off. If you are wondering what I did, I simply used a bit of death magic to make him unconscious. Sounds terrifying, I know, but even Benjamin could fix that if he spent enough mana. Well, at least now he could, maybe...
The two men looked at each other, hesitating. Their friend fell without her even doing anything. They couldn’t understand what had happened. But not understanding something can’t stop these two Idiots. After some hesitation, they stepped forward, only for the tall one to be hit by a stone from Rika, right in his left eye. Now, there was even more blood on his face. He gave Rika a murderous stare and screamed while holding his crushed eye,
“Urgh, you fucking Bitch! I will kill you!”.
He sprinted towards Rika like a bull. Only to stop midair as if he had run into an invisible wall of bricks. But it wasn’t a wall of bricks. He had run face-first into a nearly transparent magic Shield I had put up, covering the shield with his blood before he fell to the side, sliding his face across the shield, leaving a red smear behind before hitting the cobblestone floor.
Seeing his two friends on the ground, the Halfling began to look for an escape. He tried to run away but got his ankle caught in Joel’s grip, who had just woken up. The Halfling tried to free his hairy foot from Joel’s grip, but it was hopeless. With his two friends, he could bully all the humans he liked, but on his own, he couldn’t win. Joel grinned from ear to ear, blood flowing from his skull. In a raspy voice, he asked,
“Where do you think you are going?”.
But Joel didn’t even wait for an answer. He took the Halfling in a chokehold, crushing his windpipe.
“Stop, don’t kill him. He is not worth getting into trouble for.”
Joel seemed torn for a moment, seriously thinking over whether or not he should strangle the little shit to death.
“Huh, fine. I won’t kill him. But don’t blame me if this comes back to bite you.”
But when Joel let go of the Halfling’s neck, the little imp had already passed out. Now, with all three attackers unconscious, it was time to explain. Rika approached us on tiptoes, her arms stretched in front of her, trying her best not to collide with my already dispelled magic shield, taking care not to step on any bodily fluids or bodies, and asked,
“Ruby, what was that? The big one fell over without you even doing anything, and the other guy collided with air?”
“I just used healing magic to make the bulldog unconscious, and the other one ran into a magic shield I had cast.”
“Bulldog? Magic shield?”
“Well, he looks like a bulldog with all the skin around his face. And a magic shield is an almost transparent barrier out of natural mana any magician can form if they know how.”
Rika looked at me as if I had told her the sun rose from the west but eventually just shrugged her shoulders in defeat. She turned towards Joel, hoping at least his explanation would make sense.
“Well, whatever. What even happened? Why were they attacking you?”
Joel flinched a bit as if dreading his answer.
“I uhm, you see, I was in my favorite bar when I overheard how these three planned to assault ehm…” Joel grew silent.
“Assault whom?”
“Well, uhm, you, Ruby.”
I was stunned. Today went well because they weren’t wearing gloves and didn’t know about the magic shield, but it could have been very different. I think I begin to understand why Women don’t like to go out alone at night. When I was a man, I never felt unsafe, even when I strolled through the city at night.
I shuddered in disgust. Just thinking about those three jumping at me made me reel in horror.
But there was something that almost surprised me more.
“You started a fight to protect me? Why?” at my question, Joel started to squirm around almost like a worm before kneeling in front of me. He took a deep breath and answered,
“Huff, Ruby, I’m Sorry. I’m Sorry for slapping you. I’m Sorry for Humiliating you, and I’m sorry that it took me this long to apologize.”.
This day really was full of surprises. Rika and I stared at each other in complete disbelief. We asked in unison,
““Are, are you really Joel?””
Joel looked at us with a hurt expression before glaring at us
“Hey?! What is that supposed to mean? Can’t you even appreciate an honest apology?”
Now that was the real Joel, Rika, and I remembered. After our faith in the Universe had been restored, we heard footsteps approaching our location. It seemed the Guards had finally arrived.