Micky coughed, spat out more blood, and using the tree as support, slowly managed to stand up.
Pointing at Heidi, he roared, "Grab her for me. I will have her tonight. Go on, get her."
Dozens of gangsters instantly rushed at Heidi, but she seemed to have anticipated the attack and wasn't flustered at all. As she turned toward the men, they saw that a sword had appeared in her hand.
Alex nodded, smiling quietly to himself. He thought he had noticed that she had a concealed weapon, but he hadn't been able to investigate any further without arousing suspicion.
The sword flashed, and several strong men fell to the floor. They lay on the ground wailing and rolling in agony. Heidi's stony expression barely changed.
Standing in a fighting pose, Heidi looked like a natural fighter. With ease, she kept the rest of the gangsters away from her. One of the female horseback riding students looked at her with complete admiration in her eyes and couldn't help but clap her hands.
However, dozens more gangsters were waiting outside. As they rushed in, she fought each one bravely, but it was obvious that her strength was starting to diminish.
Debbie had been watching on anxiously. She thought These thugs must have no humanity to fight a young girl so ferociously. She was very afraid that Heidi would get hurt.
Alex, however, was still keeping his distance. If Debbie hadn't been there, he would have walked away. He was only a bit frustrated that his time with Debbie was being wasted. It seemed clear to him that Heidi was handling the situation perfectly fine on her own.
When the students realized that Heidi was still fighting all by herself, one of them said to his companions, "Why aren't we helping her? Come on, quickly, we have to do something."
When Heidi suddenly fell to the ground, the student couldn't stand by any longer. He roared and rushed over to her.
Another student also yelled and rushed into the fight. They couldn't stand to see the beautiful girl being hurt.
Finally, dozens of students seemed to overcome their fear and rushed over to help Heidi.
They had no martial arts skills but they were young and strong. They didn't know any proper moves or rules, but they weren't afraid to use any tactics they could think of. They jumped, bit, hit and kicked at the thugs. Slowly the gangsters fell to the ground. Some had been punched or kicked, and one had bite marks on his ears. Several were rolling on the ground, howling in pain.
Among the students, there were girls who joined in the fracas. In desperation, they joined the battle and their ferocity was enough to overwhelm their opponents.
The students seemed crazed with righteous anger, which gave them the upper hand, and soon the tide turned in their favor.
The riding yard was in utter chaos when some tourists arrived. They stood and watched the mayhem for a while before they finally figured out what was going on. Then they yelled and rushed forward to help the students.
Even the horses sensed the atmosphere and started to rear up, stamp their feet, and whinny, which all added to the chaos.
Although the strength of their opposition took them by surprise, the gangsters were practiced fighters. They soon calmed down and started to fight back, usually one of them easily beating three or four students at a time.
Luckily, however, more than twenty of the gangsters had already suffered serious injuries and were already lying on the ground. This left them at an extreme disadvantage in terms of numbers. For this reason, the students and tourists started to get the upper hand.
Micky felt dazed and confused. It took him a while to accept the fact that he had been beaten by a girl. He couldn't believe it.
When he looked at the scene around him, he saw that if the battle continued, most of the gang would be beaten. If things went too badly for them that day, the other gang members would then be useless in other, more important battles until they recovered. So he made a quick decision and yelled at the thugs, "Guys, give it up. Retreat, get out of here now."
The men that could still walk responded instantly to his command. They staggered up off the ground and ran out of the office.
The students and tourists had decisively won battle. Their incredible victory was so sudden that the crowd yelled and continued to attack the gangsters for a while. Finally, they realized that although the livery yard belonged to the gang, the thugs had deserted it.
Alex looked on with interest. He thought, It seems that even the most vicious opponent can be beaten by the underdog. The lesson here is don't give up and don't underestimate yourself.
But the gang was so quick to retreat that they left Micky, who was still contending with his broken leg, far behind them. Micky roared after the fleeing thugs, "Damn you all, wait for me! I'll kill you."
The crowd laughed uproariously as they watched Micky staggering away. A couple of the men were still hyped up and they shouted after him.
"Come back and fight," yelled one.
"Yeah, come back and show us what you're made of," roared another.
"They cheated me out of more than ten thousand dollars. I want to kill them," another said.
Everyone looked at each other. They were excited, and emotional, and felt incredibly proud of themselves. It was a wonderful feeling to have stood up to the bullies and fought them bravely. To have defeated them added the icing to the cake.
One of the students said excitedly, "What kind of gang did they think they were? They're more like a gang of senior citizens!" Before, he had been afraid to walk alone down a dark alley. But he had just beaten two of the gang members single-handedly and was feeling on top of the world.
Everyone looked at Heidi with admiration. The students felt that if it hadn't been for her, they could have lost everything to the gang.
Some of the students and tourists were also injured, but very few of them were seriously hurt. Most just had just cuts and scrapes.
One student was desperate to find out more about Heidi. He approached her and said, "Hey girl, you were incredible earlier, so brave. I watched you beat seven gang members alone. I really admire you. Please can you tell me your name?"
Heidi wiped the sweat off her face, smiled, and said, "Why do you want to know my name? We're not friends."
The student blushed with embarrassment and didn't know what to say.
"Don't be so sensitive. If you really want to know, I'll tell you. My name is Heidi, and my father's name is Dr. Benedict Reels. Don't ask me anything else. And don't call me girl, I'm a grown woman." Again, Heidi didn't want to be seen as a child.
The crowd had listened to the conversation and started laughing. They all found Heidi a bit odd and thought that it was weird that she was reluctant to reveal her name.
Heidi, however, thought that it was inappropriate to ask someone's name when they had only just met by chance.