Chapter 20: Caught in the act
Mr Stamps attacked.
Kieran's arms came upwards, slamming against the club. He gritted his teeth through the pain; yet, he did what was necessary. He jumped up and knocked his own body against Mr Stamp's. The man tripped off his feet, his body dropping hard against the wooden platform so much that he gasped out in pain and the club slipped from his hand.
Kieran breathed out at the same time Mr Stamps rose back. Actually, the lean thug was already rushing in to get Kieran down, but Mr Stamps told him to stay back.
"Stay out of this."
The man bowed, doing just that.
Mr Stamps and Kieran chuckled at each other. Mr Stamps said, though it would be foolish for anyone to take it as a compliment, "Ah... are you that strong, Mr Holland? Doing that when your hands are tied... or should I untie them?"
Kieran swallowed, keeping his eyes on the club no matter what.
"Dream on, fucker!" Mr Stamps groaned before rushing at Kieran for the fourth time. With a slight yell, Kieran bent beneath his lung and smashed his rigid shoulder against his hip.
That pushed him backwards five feet – it was the Duck Under the Box attack to begin with. To shove attackers backwards, but they could still continue fighting.
Mr Stamps did. One step closer to Kieran, he marked his shoulder with the club. Kieran felt that, yelping as he dropped to his knees again. But this time, Mr Stamps didn't give him breathing space.
He violently continued hitting Kieran, yelling and crying in anger when someone else should be doing that. Kieran didn't cry, but placed his focus on blocking his head no matter what. It was the rule of boxing – get your head hit and risk losing consciousness in the middle of a fight.