Chapter 8

Adrenaline must've kept him from registering the pain from that first kick landing as Gabriel was able to slide his feet on the ground, barely keeping himself from tipping over.

And for the first time in this fight, he registered another person. This time around, he delivered a right straight without so much as a thought, sending the boy spinning straight to the floor.

Turning towards the third goon, he only arrived soon enough to discover that a punch was coming his way.

Still, for a guy with his repertoire it was a simple thing to step out of its way as long as he had his full range of movement.

Emphasis being on the last part of that sentence as the acrobatic descent of the last kid to the asphalt could be contributed less towards the strength of Gabriel's punch and more towards the fact that he hadn't yet balanced himself after his kick.

Gabriel's punch had simply come at the right time and force to tip him over and poor Gabe had one-sidedly counted him out of the fight.

He figured that out a split second too late when he tried to side step and found the boy hugging onto his ankles.

And it took him a quarter of one to figure out he was most probably going to take a punch to the face.

The other quarter he was left with hardly gave him enough time to even pull his arms in to block it, and if he was an even slightly worse boxer it might've even been taken out from the fight then and there.

One of a boxer's best defenses was actually much closer to their face than their hands. That being the shoulder, which most pros could use to take the brunt of a punch by bringing it right up to the chin.

The angle it usually came in allowed it to shift the trajectory slightly upwards and with some control in the defender's posture, the left over force would glance harmlessly off his forehead.

The latter being a luxury Gabriel could not afford with the time he was given, he would simply have to settle with it landing square on his shoulder.

His feet had to scramble a little to keep him standing but it troubled him less than the stinging sensation that was left on his shoulder, the top knuckle of that punch had nicked his clavicle.

And if one were proficient in the understanding of pain, adrenaline did little to mitigate it when it came from the bone.

He retaliated for that punch with one of his own, but his left landed impotently on the boy's chest. It was originally meant for the chin, but his back leg was pulled by the boy on the ground, lowering it's tajectory and with it, any potential for damage in his fist.

The most prominent mark crossing his torso from the top of his left shoulder to the side of his right pec was the result of that. Being in somewhat of a split, the boy barely had to stretch his leg to knock the breath out of him.

And that was it.

Every blow that was inflicted after that was no longer a fight, it was just a beating.

The fourth boy didn't even need to join in taking him down as what little momentum he had at the start of it all had been wasted on all these little things.

He just needed to stand there as Kenny/Kevin who had long recovered from being stunned tackled Gabe straight to the ground.

He just needed to pretend he was going to join the fight the whole time and join in pummeling Gabe once he was mounted and could no longer retaliate.

---

Luckily for him, they weren't quite as motivated in punishing him once they got him down, else he'd sure as heck be spending more than another 40 minutes trying to rub out all the dents.

It took him alot of deep breaths and more sweat than his skinny little frame could afford but he was done.

But whereas he wasn't able to sleep because of the pain, he was now sticky from the cold sweats that came from this little activity, not exactly something that attracted the sandman.

So he twisted the shower tap ever so slightly so only a small line would drizzle down into the drain and waited until a slight fog began to rise in the room.

As the temperature began to prickle on his skin, he dipped his head into its stream. It was a while before he felt the burn on his scalp, the steamy little droplets taking their time cascading through his hair before they stung the skin of his face.

The pumping of blood into his temple felt exquisite.

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