"How dare you touch Damon's woman!" Ren roared, his voice echoing through the cleaning store. He grabbed Cassian by the collar and lifted him off the floor like he weighed nothing.
Cassian's legs dangled helplessly in the air as he tried to free himself. "Wait….wait… bro, calm down!"
Ren didn't calm down. Instead, he flung Cassian straight into a pile of metal buckets.
BANG!
The noise was loud enough to make the floor vibrate. Cassian groaned, clutching his head. "Damn it… the beating hasn't even started yet and I'm already bleeding? What kind of horror movie is this?"
He wasn't wrong. A thin line of blood ran down the side of his face, dripping onto his shirt. The hit must've been worse than he thought because his vision started to blur a little.
"Get your ass up!" Ren barked. "You have no idea what Damon told us to do to you."
Cassian was yanked up again, his knees wobbling under him. His body screamed in pain, but he forced a weak smile anyway. "Bro, seriously, it's all a misunderstanding. I didn't touch her or anything, I swear! I just asked her a question. That's it."
He raised his hands halfway in surrender, trying to reason with them. "I didn't even get close enough to breathe her air properly."
Ren sneered. "You're lying. Our scouts saw you. They said she hugged you."
Cassian blinked. "What…your scouts?" he coughed, completely dumbfounded. "You have people spying on her?" He waved his arms dramatically. "Are you all okay in the head? She caught me when I fainted, alright? I passed out! You think I had the strength to hug anyone?"
But Ren wasn't listening. He rolled up his sleeves slowly, the grin on his face pure trouble. Kerr grabbed Cassian from behind, holding him still like a sacrifice waiting for slaughter.
Cassian coughed again, trying to steady himself. "Do you people even hear yourselves? I told you before you threw me, she caught me. Caught. That's not hugging, that's called preventing a skull fracture!"
Luca chuckled from the corner. "Sounds like something a guilty man would say."
Cassian stared at them all, his patience thinning faster than his will to live. "Oh yeah? And what does an innocent man sound like? Because I can try that next."
The joke earned him a punch to the gut from Bren. He folded like paper, gasping for air. His ribs screamed, his stomach churned, but somehow he still found it in him to speak. "Okay… noted… no more jokes."
He spat to the side and saw blood. That was new. Great. He mentally added that to his list of problems, right next to 'constantly bullied by idiots' and 'may die before lunch.'
Truth was, Cassian wasn't even scared anymore. He was just tired. These four clowns didn't care about Damon's so-called woman or any misunderstanding. They just wanted an excuse to beat him senseless again.
He looked up at Ren through the haze of pain and smirked faintly. "You know, for a group of mages, you guys sure spend a lot of time acting like jealous exes. Shouldn't you be cultivating or something?"
Ren's grin faded, replaced by a glare sharp enough to cut through steel.
Cassian's thoughts were running wild now, but deep down, irritation boiled harder than fear. They weren't just beating him up for fun. They were trying to break him, make him believe he deserved it.
But he didn't. He knew he didn't.
These bastards weren't defending Damon's pride, they were enjoying his misery. Every hit, every insult, it wasn't about Harley at all. It was about power.
And as he stumbled back against the wall, his breath ragged, Cassian realized something that almost made him laugh.
They could beat him, bleed him, and throw him into every bucket in this damn store, but as long as he was still breathing… he'd never give them the satisfaction of seeing him beg again.
That faint smirk on his busted lips said it all.
They thought he was weak. But in that moment, Cassian was already thinking. One day, I'll pay every single one of you back. And I'll make it hurt.
"Get him!"