Chapter 23 - Ethan And The Thief

"Ethan, don't! It's not safe! Oh my god…what should I do…" Alina mumbled to herself with a tearful voice as she quickly tried to think of a solution and decided to call the police for the sake of Ethan's safety.

"Hello! This is the police, right? Please help! My…"

Meanwhile, Ethan was busy chasing the thief wearing a beanie cap through the almost empty streets. Since it was a bit early in the morning, there weren't many people on the roads, and those who were walking by on the streets had baffled looks as they saw a young man chasing another man through the streets.

Ethan was only a few meters behind the thief and could hardly believe the fact that his aunt got robbed right beside him.

It was not as if he had not heard about thieves prowling through this city, but it was very rare, and he just couldn't believe his luck today.

Still, he was determined to get back that silver bracelet in the thief's hand no matter what.

The thief occasionally glanced behind to see if that boy was still chasing him and was frustrated to see that he was still on his tail, making him wonder how he was so fast.

There were some people ahead, and the thief grabbed them and pushed them in the way of the boy chasing him to slow him down.

However, Ethan reacted quickly as he dodged them and continued his chase. He even dodged garbage bins, cycles parked nearby, and even some other things the thief was trying to throw in his way.

"Fuck this kid!" The thief mumbled in an annoyed tone as he took a few turns and ran into an alley with Ethan on his tail.

However, the moment Ethan ran halfway through the alley, he stopped right when the thief also stopped running surprisingly.

The thief turned around and seemed to be a man in his mid-twenties with stubble and a pencil mustache.

"Kid, you will regret chasing me," He said as he took out a knife, and to Ethan's surprise, two other people dressed in rough-looking coats and pants came out from the sides, making Ethan realize that this was a trap. One of the men had a baseball in his hands, while the other had a metal rod in his hands.

The thief purposefully led him into an alley where his friends were probably waiting to beat him up and escape with the bracelet.

Ethan's eyes quickly searched around and saw a four-meter long metal chain with sufficient thickness lying on the side. He quickly bent his body and grabbed it as he wrapped it around one of his hands while staring at the three men before him.

"Heh, kid, do you really think that lousy chain is going to help you escape from us?" The thief in the middle asked, who seemed to be the leader of this group of three.

Ethan didn't get intimidated as he said with narrowed eyes, "Let's find out. Shall we?"

"Boys…Make sure he stays in the hospital for at least a week. That should teach this punk not to play hero with us," The leader scoffed as the other two men smiled and twirled their weapons as they rushed towards the boy.

Ethan's eyes focused on the man with the baseball in his hands who was the closest to him. He quickly unfurled the chain in his right hand as he focused on making it extend forward and wrap around the man's neck perfectly, taking him by surprise.

"Hrkk!" The man unconsciously dropped his baseball as he grabbed at the chain wrapped around his neck in desperation since it was slowly tightening around his neck somehow..

"Hey! Take this, you bitch!" The man holding the metal rod shouted as he tried to strike at Ethan's arm.

However, Ethan already saw him coming and immediately pulled the chain and pushed the man trapped within his chain onto the one holding the metal rod.

"Fuck!" The man with the metal rod didn't really expect Ethan to quickly react and have enough strength to make a grown-up man crash onto him.

However, the reality was unfortunate for him as he lost his balance and fell down with the man whose neck was wrapped in chains falling on top of him.

Ethan freed the chain from his neck as he looked at the leader with a smirk who had disbelief written all over his face seeing his two teammates lying on the ground, groaning with pain.

It was not as if they had never involved themselves in street fights due to their thieving activities. Then how could this young man who seemed to be not even a college senior easily take out two of his mates?

Still, even if he was feeling apprehensive about this boy now, he just couldn't let it show on his face as he brandished his small knife and said, "Boy, you better turn around and run away before things get messy. I ain't as easy as those two idiots on the ground. Do you really want me to puncture your stomach?" The thief tried to make his words and tone sound as intimidating as possible since it usually worked, especially against ordinary civilians.

However, Ethan twirled the chain in the air as he nodded, "I am afraid things are going to get messy…but for you!" Saying this, Ethan launched the other end of the chain into the air as it extended through the air in a straight line and wrapped around the thief's wrist with perfect accuracy.

"EH!" The thief was shocked to see how this boy threw one end of the chain through the air, traveling at least a few feet to reach him and even somehow making it wrap around his wrist. How could someone be so good at wrapping chains around people like this? Was this kid some kind of professional?

But he had no time to think about all these things as Ethan tugged hard at the chain, making the thief lose his balance as he fell forward, on the ground with one of his cheeks facing it, "Ugh!"

The thief lost grip of his knife involuntarily, and Ethan walked forward as he stepped on the man's back while searching his pockets for his aunt's silver bracelet.

"Found it!" Ethan's eyes lit up as he took out the silver bracelet with a happy smile while the thief was still groaning under his feet, feeling sore all over his joints because of falling hard on the ground.

He knew his mother told him to not use his powers, but this was not a situation he could dare take lightly, especially when these three had weapons, especially a knife. And just to be safe, he made sure to make it look like he was just extremely skillful with handling the chains and not something too shocking.

Otherwise, he could have just used his powers to pull the thief's knife towards him.

But suddenly, the thieves on the ground stopped moving as if their bodies got frozen, baffling Ethan, especially since he could even see their hands frozen in the air.

"Bravo, young man!"

"Eh!?"