The Green Willow

Allow yourself to be like a willow tree that is easy to bend but not easy to break. Otherwise, you will be the next oak tree who will rend while fighting the wind..........

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It was midnight and Roveign city was surely silent, but only on the surface. The core of it was filled with lights and shouts! The only fighting arena of the city, used by the underworld goons to show off their mighty bodies once in a while, was engulfed in cheers. A certain name could be heard in the sea of screams. 

“Howard!!!!!!!! Beat his ass!!!!!!!”

The man was huffing in sweat by clenching his fists in front of his face. Sweat dripped from the edge of his face and his rough brown face was sparkling in the dazzling lowlights. He turned back to look at the person who caught his attention, mostly distracting him! Seeing a woman shouting like a crazy person, his face covered in disgust. He turned his face away after giving a cold glare at her, “BITCH!!” He spat aside.

“KYAAAAAAA!!!! He looked at me!!!!!!”The women shouted crazily as well as ignoring his glare.

Howard despised three things in life the most. The woman was one of them! For him, they were nothing but just some bitches in heat who craved sex and money!!  As for the place he grew up in, Howard’s thinking wasn’t fully wrong since the place was the darkest part of Roveign city. The underworld where drug dealings, kidnapping for money, prostitution, racketeering, internet fraud, smuggling, entryism, extortion, loan sharking, human trafficking, money laundering, robbery, Terrorism, bootlegging, arms trafficking, gambling, bribery, skimming, murder and forgery Allies, these were the common criminal activities there. Not to mention these were the meanings of living for underworld bosses of Roveign city. Being the Don of them, Howard couldn’t skip those rules either.

Barely trying to live, Howard tried his best to avoid nuisances. No bad reputation among the underworld bosses made him rise to the throne of the Underworld Don sooner than anyone expected. However, he didn’t lack in any way either. His solid body which was like a rock in others’ vision and the ability to move a whole gang alone was the real deal for him to be respected among the big bosses. Rather than respect, he was a terror for them. 

Back to the fight, Howard’s opponent was observing him. He was waiting for the finest opportunity for an opening. Cause he knew that the man in front of him could take his life right on the spot if he had made one big mistake. So, no loopholes were accepted. His face was already beaten to a pulp and seeing his girlfriend screaming for Howard when he should be the one in his place made it clearer that his face lost its beautiful shape! And he might have lost his girlfriend on the way.

Howard was waiting for his opponent to make the first move, but watching him standing was the last thing he could expect at that time. He was losing his patience and was about to rush to him and hit him hard on his face. 

“Big bro!” Howard looked back following the soft voice. A boy with a slender figure was staring at him intensely. Suddenly The boy smiled brightly in return, “NOW!!” 

Howard grinned at him and bent down to dodge his opponent’s only chance! In return, he hit him hard with a feisty punch on his ribs. Blood gushed out from his mouth and coloured the floor red. As if that would have made Howard less angry at the person who tried to hit him from behind! He kept hitting the man with several strong punches with his bare hands, no gloves at all! It could be guessed that Howard’s rock-like hands broke many ribs of that man seeing the whole gallery gone to silence from the sounds of bones breaking.

“OOPS! Now he has done it!” The boy sighed and kept watching Howard punching the man as if he was his punching bag. There was anger in those burning ember eyes of Howard. They were declaring, “No mercy!!” Even the rookie goon who was playing the role of a referee ran away from the arena long ago. There’s now left a beast and his prey. 

“Shit!” The boy jumped inside the barrier of ropes and rushed to Howard, trying his hardest to pull him aside. 

“Calm down, bro! You are about to kill that guy!!” 

“ Let me go, Neo!!!” 

Howard was struggling in that boy, Neo’s arms. Neo could barely keep up with his muscled, huge and bulky body. It was like he wasn’t pulling Howard away, but Howard was the one who was pulling Neo towards the almost dead man. Seeing no other options, he signalled some other men standing aside. They nodded and took the injured man away from Howard’s sight. 

People started leaving the place with heavy hearts since the fight didn’t end properly and they lost money from both sides. There was a rule in this arena that if nobody had won the match then betting money from both sides would end up in the Bet Master’s pocket, who worked for Howard. And winning in that arena meant embracing one’s grave.

Neo got some punches in return while trying to hold Howard back, “Big broooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop, will ya? You’ve been beating me this far!!”

Howard stopped struggling and turned back. He tightly held Neo’s face in his grip and kept checking his face and body thoroughly. “Where are ya hurt, buddy?”

“Blo...blothel..will ya let mah face go?”

“Oh!” Howard instantly let go of Neo who started to touch his soft face confirming it to be in intact shape.

Howard softly gazed at his hands. They were a bit painful. But it was nothing compared to the pain he had to endure since childhood. Neo grabbed a situation of his own as soon as he saw Howard gazing at his hands deeply, “Bro! You have to give me mah share!”

“What share?” If a glare could kill somebody, then Neo would have died right there!

“Ehe...hehe hehe...you know? The share for giving a hand to ya earlier….”

“Don’t remember!”

“Whaaaaa……? What?!” Neo followed Howard as he tried to walk away from the place. “Big bro! Wait for me…..”

Howard kept brushing his ears, “SHUT THE HOLE, YOU DICKHEAD!!”

Neo halted for a bit, seeing Howard angry, but soon got comfortable as he saw the other boys from Howard’s group start following him. “He might be scary sometimes! Heh!” Waiting for a while, Neo chased after the gang.