Chapter 69

Diana was in her room in the Wayne Manor looking at a pircture of her and her late lover, Bruce Wayne. Then, she glanced at a small bottle that contained a strange glistening liquid on her desk.

"What would you have me do, Bruce?" She said, asking the image of Bruce Wayne. "I guess I'll just have to wait before I interfere."

-----

"We're here." The driver said to his two passengers.

Both of the young men got off the car.

"Thanks." Damian said to the driver before closing the door.

The two of them started walking towards the entrance of the boxing gym. Damian has always accompanied Nate from school until there for a whole week.

"You're really consistent, huh." Nate said.

"Why? Am I finally breaking your walls down?"

Nate scoffed. "Whatever."

Right when he was about to enter the gym, the coach confronted him.

The coach did not have a pleased expression.

"What's up?" Nate asked him.

"What's UP? I told you not to get into fights behind my back!" He held up a video of an underground boxing match showcasing Nate. It must have occured over the weekend.

"Wha- How did you-"

"Your friends sent me this video." The coach sighed and massaged his temple.

"Friends?" Nate furrowed his brows in confusion. Damian only lifted his brows but he immediately figured out who the coach was talking about.

"I only accepted you because your dad was a good friend of mine. Here." He handed a bag over to Nate. "These are all your things. Don't come back here again."

"Wait! Coach! We just really needed the money!"

"Then you should have come to me about it!" The coach rebutted. "Leave.... you don't trust me enough... and now you've broken my trust in you."

Bang!

The door was slammed shut on Nate's face.

Nate lifted his fist. He was planning to swing it like a hammer on the door, but instead, he did it gently as he began to fight his tears.

"What do you want to do now?" Damian asked.

"I'll get those bitches back." Nate replied before turning around and started walking.

Damian stared at Nate's back and made a wry smile. He fiddled with his smartwatch as he started following Nate.

He called the driver. "Go ahead without me. I'll be walking from here."

They walked until they reached the outside of an abandoned skatepark.

Thud.

Nate dropped his bag on the floor and opened it. He took out his handwraps and started taping them onto his hands and arms. "Why are you still here? I have no plans on protecting you while I fight."

"Look at this guy. Heh." Damian scoffed at him. "I don't need protection from anyone."

"Good." As he said that, he just finished up prepping himself and punched his palm multiple times.

He jumped up and down as he stretched his neck to limber up before he started walking into the skate park.

"How do you know they were here, anyway?"

"... I used to hang out with them."

"I want to follow up another question, but knowing you in the past couple of days, I feel like you'd refuse to answer anyway."

"Heh." He sniggered with a mischievous grin.

"Oh~ so you can smile."

As they entered the skate park, the group of bullies from their school came into view. They were lounging on the couches in the middle.

"HEY!" Nate shouted.

All of them looked at him and the leader stood up. "Well, look who it is. I guess you got kicked out from your gym."

"You assholes will regret what you did." Nate replied with a scowl.

"Ooh~ Acting tough just because you can box a little bit."

"Shut up and come at me."

"Beat them up." The leader ordered his lackeys.

Damian who was smiling earlier and was treating the events happening in front of him as entertainment, furrowed his brows. "What do you mean by "them"? I just came to watch."

"Heh. How oblivious can you be, rich kid."

"Goddammit." Damian clicked his tongue. It wasn't like he was gonna get hurt even if he doesn't fight back but he just found it as troublesome.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Nate glanced back at Damian.

"What are you talking about? Just go. I can handle myself."

Nate faced forward again and started dashing towards the two guys that also charged at him.

Right when they were about to clash, Nate slipped through their punches that seemed so slow in Nate's eyes and he maneuvered in between them to position himself behind them.

With no hesitation, he punched one of them on the back of the head and was instantly knocked out.

But it wasn't finished, the other one threw an elbow. Nate just leaned backwards a little bit and dodge it. He countered the elbow with an upper cut to the guy's chin. The guy that received the blow got dizzy and took multiple steps backwards as if he was going to fall, but the boy stood his ground.

There were six of them and now they're only four.

"What are you guys doing! Gang up on him!"

The other three started walking towards Nate and it was now a one versus four match.

"I'll handle the new kid." The leader of the bullies said with a devilish grin.

An amused Damian started laughing. "Hahaha! Oh my! I haven't heard anything funnier than that." He said as he wiped his tears of laughter.

"Laugh all you want..." The boy said as he started to approach Damian

He took out a piece of stick from his pocket and flicked it to reveal its true form. It was a collapsible baton.

Damian just watched him come with a leisurely smile.

Nate had no leeway to worry about Damian anymore because now he was surrounded on all four sides. He has no choice but to trust Damian's words about not needing any help and focus all his training and combine it with his experience in street fighting to overcome these four.

"You guys had no right to do what you did. I went easy on you all long enough."

Seeing, what Nate showcased earlier, the four are now aware that they wouldn't be able to beat Nate in skill and so they will have to try and beat him with their numbers.

On the other side, The leader of the bully group is now within an arms reach from Damian. "Scared?" He taunted.

"No. Are you?"

"I really hate people like you, growing up in powerful families and acting like they're the shit." He scowled at Damian.

"You shouldn't have ruined Nate's reputation with his teacher. You just eliminated his only weakness. Now that he doesn't have to follow his teacher's rule of no fighting outside the sport, he's become free to do anything he seems fit. You've unleashed a beast upon yourselves."

"You should probably worry about yourself more right now."

"Worry about myself from what? You? Even if you replaced that stick in your hand with an edged steel, that man over there would still be stronger." Damian said, pointing at Nate who was currently fighting multiple people at the same time.

He took some hits, normally, but he already downed another one of them and his opponents are now just three.

He was weaving and bobbing skillfully around the three of them and was even attacking parts of the body that would normally be illegal in a boxing match.

The leader of the bullies that was in front of Damian started sweating on his forehead.

"Do you understand what I'm saying now?"

"Tsk!" He clenched his baton and glared at Damian. "Even if he somehow defeats us, I'd still be satisfied if I get you before he gets to me."

Once again, Damian laughed. "Haaa..." He sighed. "This conversation is pointless. Just go ahead and try attacking me."

"Raaaa!!!!" He charged at Damian with his weapon and slashed at him with an exagerrated manner.

In Damian's eyes, it was too slow and full of openings.

He dodged the baton and carefully patted his opponent's thighs, stomach, then his hand ended up landing on his neck.

It happened in a matter of a second while he was swinging his weapon. He felt Damian touch the parts of his body, no, he was made to feel them to get him to understand that if Damian wanted to hurt him, he would have done so already.

"Do you understand now? How pointless this is?" Damian said with his hand still on the leader's neck.

"Kugh!" He reached for Damian's hand that was on his neck with his empty hand. His plan was to catch him so he wouldn't be able to dodge his baton.

But Damian saw through him and just pushed him from the back. Creating some distance in between them once again.

The leader's complacent expression started to crumble in contrast with Damian's who still had a faint amused smile on.

"I'll play with you until he's finished over there." Damian said with a peaceful expression.

----

In the end, the little gang of delinquents got defeated by Nate Murtaugh. He didn't even have any problem with dealing with the leader because he was already exhausted trying to hit Damian.

Both Damian and Nate looked down at the uconscious young man on the floor in front of them.

"He kept attacking me even when he was already exhausted... I don't understand why he didn't give up until the end..." Damian furrowed his brows.

Nate just smirked. "He's like that. He's probably doing this because he couldn't accept that our friendship was over ever since I started a new path to walk on. He was pressuring me to join back in with the gang. This was all bound to happen sooner or later anyway even if they didn't sent coach that clip."

"You guys were real comrades, huh."

"Yeah..." Nate frowned.

"What do we do now?"

"We?" Nate turned to him with his brows furrowed. "I'm going home."

"Then, I'll accompany you there."

"I don't need that."

"You're bruised and exhausted." Damian crossed his arms and made a smug smile. "At this time when it's getting dark when the crime rate is going up, you need somebody with you."

Nate has a bruise on his face and probably a few more on his body.

"Tsk. Do what you want." Nate wiped the blood from his mouth and started walking.

"You can just say yes, you bastard." Damian sniggered.