Chapter 35 Rumble in the Alley

“Hmmm? Hey! Judas! What’s taking you so long?”

Winston felt something was amiss when a chill crawled down his spine out of nowhere.

Thud!

Judas suddenly kneeled in front of Eznho without answering him.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two daggers flew from Eznho bringing cold glints that were aimed at Winston’s companions. One was Judas’ dagger and the other was the one Eznho used to stab Judas.

“Watch out!”

Winston was the first to react but it was too late, the dagger was too fast and the distance between them was only about ten meters. Two gurgling sounds were heard and two of his companions were holding their throat while a dagger was embedded in it.

“Bastard!”

Winston was furious at the turn of events and unsheathed his weapon. Together with the remaining one, they dashed forward and attacked Eznho. Eznho remained emotionless and brought out his two remaining daggers, he circulated his energy then prepared for combat.

Winston leaped and slashed his saber downwards while Eznho easily dodged by leaping sideways but was met by a horizontal slash from the other guy. Seeing the blade coming for him, he docked but a kick followed suit aiming for his head. He raised both of his hands and was sent tumbling backward and crashed into the wall.

“Hmph! Just because you cultivate doesn’t mean you can fight.”

Winston spoke in disdain while he prepared for another round. He saw that Eznho was a cultivator and probably was a bit stronger than him, but in terms of fighting experience, the boy he was fighting was lacking.

Eznho stood up and shook his painful arms, this was his first frontal combat and his lack of experience was showing up. He tried to calm down and analyzed the situation.

Giving no chance for Eznho to rest, Winston and his companion continued with the attack. Using his experience, he barraged the boy with attacks giving him no chance to counter-attack. Eznho was panting, his body was bruised while small cuts were all over his body. Despite that, he stood strong and his eyes were as cold as ever while looking at his enemies.

“Give it up kid, surrender and I’ll leave you with an intact corpse. I also promise not to bother with your companions anymore,”

Winston offered while trying to find a way to finish the battle. He did not expect the boy to be tenacious and nimble, all he could do was give him light wounds. Seeing that the boy did not intend to surrender, he dashed and continued with the attack.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Sparks flew and the sound of weapons colliding echoed in the alley while snow continued to fall throughout the city.

Enzho was sent tumbling again on the ground and nearly crashed against the wall after being kicked in the stomach. He wiped the blood from his lips and tried to regulate his breathing. Both parties were starting to feel the exhaustion,

Damn! What a pain in the ass!

Winston cursed in his mind while looking at the unwavering boy.

“Let’s finish this!”

He was already getting impatient and circulated his remaining energy at full force while his companion did the same thing. They dashed on opposite sides and tried to do a pincer attack. Eznho just stood there, his breath was stabilizing and his senses were heightened to its peak.

The duo reached him in no time slashing their blades horizontally at the same time. Winston aimed for his neck while the other one at the back of Eznho’s legs. The attack came fast and two blades were coming for Eznho’s life from opposite sides.

Despite that, Eznho remained standing there and observed every detail with his sharp cold eyes.

An opening!

He sensed that Winston’s blade was faster than the other one so he arched his body backward with great flexibility making the blade miss and was only centimeters away from the tip of his nose and cutting Eznho’s floating hair.

While Eznho was arching his back, both his hands landed on the ground and his legs started to go up to dodge the other blade making him do a handstand and narrowly dodging both attacks.

What?

Winston was shocked when he saw the boy’s flexibility and even have the guts to pull such a stunt. He was expecting the boy to leap that would leave himself open mid-air. Because of the attack’s momentum, they could not immediately retrieve their balance.

Seizing the opportunity, Eznho who was doing a handstand, twisted his body and kicked the duo hard making them stumble backward. He did not stop there and pushed his hands making him land on his feet then circulated his energy on his hands and feet.

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He threw the dagger towards the other man then followed-up immediately by dashing towards him and aiming to stab him.

­Clang!

Looking at the incoming dagger, the man did not yet regain his balance and could not dodge. All he could do was block it with his weapon. What he did not expect was the force behind the attack was so great that his hand went numb and nearly lost grip on his blade making his front unguarded for a moment.

Eznho did not give the man any chance to recover and immediately aimed to stab his heart.

Sssskkk!

With his front wide open, the dagger went straight to the man’s heart. His eyes were wide open and filled with disbelief, never in his wildest dream that he would die this way and even by a boy’s hand. The man’s life was snuffed out of him as he lifelessly fell down. Eznho pulled out his dagger and looked at Winston who was standing stiff opposite him.

Haaaa, Haaaa,

Eznho was running out of breath and energy, he could even barely support himself to stand straight. Winston, on the other hand, could not believe what happened, the events occurred too fast. He just barely regained his balance but his comrade was already dead.

Damn! What kind of little monster is he? But he is already out of energy, one more push and he is dead.

Fear was starting to build inside of him but he could also see that Eznho was hanging by a thread. He took a deep breath and dashed towards Eznho then slashed. Eznho barely dodged and leaped backward but he ended up banging against the wall.

Winston did not give him any chance and followed-up the attack with a stab.

Shhhkk!

Blood spurted out, Winston was elated by the success of his attack but before he could celebrate a dagger came from below stabbing him from the chin with the pointed edge exiting on top of his head.

“How....”

The light in his eyes was fading but confusion could still be seen on his face. He let go of his blade and collapsed on the ground.

“Haaa, haaa, that was close,”

Eznho was panting while he let go of the enemy’s blade with his bloody hands. Turns out, before the blade could reach him, he moved his stomach sideways at a strange angle and grabbed the blade with his bare hand.

“Damn, haaa, haaa, aunt Minchin will surely get mad at me.”

He was smiling bitterly while he dragged himself and started to walk towards the inn while leaving dragging marks on his path. The battle took a toll on his body and he was barely hanging onto his consciousness.

.....

Eznho opened his eyes, the rays of the sunset was shining down his room. He covered his eyes and tried to observe his surrounding which looked familiar.

“I’m in my room?”

He narrowed his eyes and he saw two blurry figures. His vision slowly adjusted and he saw little Aiza with a worried face and teary eyes. The other one was his aunt who was pouting and glaring at him.

“Uhmmm, how did I get home?”

He smiled wryly and tried to smoothen things out.

“Are you feeling better?” Little Aiza asked with a worried tone.

“Hmph! Look at you, going out without saying anything and suddenly coming home with your body full of injuries. You’re gonna be the cause of my death.”

Before he could answer, Minchin spoke with an angry tone.

“I’m sorry aunt, I ran into some bad guys last night.”

Eznho answered with an apologetic look on his face.

“You’re lucky the guards recognized you when you collapsed in front of the inn.”

Minchin ignored him and maintained her stance.

“Aunt, you can get mad later on at big brother.” Little Aiza pleaded.

“You should get some more rest, the doctor said your injuries are not that serious and you only collapsed because of exhaustion.”

Minchin stood up and left leaving Eznho feeling guilty.

“Don’t worry big brother, aunt Minchin is just tired, she did not mean anything she said. In fact, she did not even sleep for a second and was by your side the whole time.”

He could not help but feel guilty towards his aunt but Little Aiza tried to comfort him with her words and fed Eznho with a bowl of porridge. Eznho wanted to feed himself but the little girl insisted which left him helpless.

“Thank you little Aiza you should also get some rest and we will talk tomorrow.”

Eznho forced a smile and patted the little girl’s head after he finished eating.

“Okay big brother, see you tomorrow. Rest properly and get well soon.”

Little Aiza stood up and left the room leaving Eznho alone who was sighing because of guilt.

He tried remembering but it only brought a headache, the last thing he could recall was his enemies falling and him trying to drag himself and get home. He was trying to get back to sleep when he heard a knock.

Knock! Knock!

“Come in,” He composed himself and looked towards the door.

“It’s me,” Budoy’s voice was coming from the outside and he came in with a guilty face.

“What is it?” Eznho was curious as to why Budoy was making such a face.

“Ho-how are you?” Budoy asked awkwardly.

“I’m fine, nothing too serious,” Eznho answered with a genuine smile.

“I am sorry, because of us this thing happened to you,”

Budoy bowed his head and felt ashamed while clenching his fists.

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Eznho asked with one of his brows raised.

“I know what happened, no need to hide it from me,”

Budoy spoke as he brought out a bank card and three clean daggers wrapped in a cloth which made Eznho almost jump out of his bed. He totally forgot about his bank card which would pose a big problem because it holds all of his savings.

“Where’d you get that?”

“After you were brought here, I knew you met trouble along the way so I tried to retrace your steps and found Judas’ body and the others. I saw his hand holding a bank card and I firmly believe that it was yours. As for the daggers, I bought them as a form of compensation so please take them.”

Budoy bowed with sincerity and respect while handing out the daggers and the bank card. Eznho accepted it without holding back and ruffled Budoy’s hair which made him blush in embarrassment.

“No worries, little brother, no big deal, I already consider you both as my siblings so it’s my job to protect you.”

Eznho smiled pleasantly and truly felt warm inside, despite them knowing each other for a short period of time, he became fond of the sibling and already considered them as his own family.

“Tha-thank you, big brother, I will go now and stop disturbing you.”

This time he called him big brother with sincerity but it still felt awkward for him so he left hurriedly to hide his embarrassment. It was his first time to feel that someone genuinely cared for them so his heart was truly touched. Eznho just watched him with a smile still hanging on his face.

I should head to the middle district tomorrow and try to acquire residency.

He thought to himself while thinking about the past events. If he could acquire a house in the middle district, it would be more secure and the people he cared about would be safer.

.....

The next day, Eznho woke up with full vigor, due to the medicines, no scar marks were left on his body. He also found out that the medicine and the doctor were paid by Budoy using his own money.

Eznho talked to his aunt and comforted her to lighten up her mood, of course, he had easily done that due to Minchin’s doting love for him. She did not even ask the details about what happened, she was satisfied as long as Eznho was safe. After that, she warned him not to easily get in trouble and avoid it if he can.

The four of them happily ate breakfast together and Eznho told them about his plan to go to the middle district. Minchin was still feeling uneasy so he urged him to go together with Budoy which he happily complied with.