A Journey from Bitterness to Truth (Matilda and Yvan) novel Chapter 676

"Don't play games you can't win, sweetheart. Play nice, and maybe I'll go easy on you."

Laughter echoed as the group of thugs closed in, with Matilda clenching her fists tight, her body shaking uncontrollably from fear. "Are you sure about that?"

In that moment, the thugs saw a desperate fire blazing in Matilda's eyes, threatening to consume her whole, almost burning her to ashes.

However, such a gaze no longer frightened them. With their numbers, the idea of being intimidated by a petite woman seemed laughable. Exchanging glances, they moved in to grab Matilda's limbs, prompting her to let out a scream and smash a wine bottle over one of their heads—

The crisp sound of shattering glass and the splatter of blood and alcohol painted the wall in a gruesome tableau.

"Back off!" Matilda's eyes were ablaze, wielding the broken bottle as a weapon. The first thug to approach her received a gory wound, drawing gasps from the bar's patrons.

"There's blood!"

"Good Lord, she's going for blood!"

"Don't come any closer!"

Feeling utterly alone and vulnerable, with no one to protect her, Matilda gripped the bottle like a cornered animal, her body shaking violently. The thugs, enraged by the sight of their wounded comrade, grew even more menacing. "She dares to fight back? Take her down!"

"Let's show this chick a lesson!"

As they pinned her down, tears streamed down Matilda's face, the humiliation too much to bear in such a public setting. Was there no law, no decency left?

Amid the chaos, a figure emerged, swiftly taking down the thug holding Matilda's hand with a painful grunt, sending him flying back as if kicked by a mule. In the blink of an eye, another attacker grasping her leg was struck in the abdomen, his neck twisted in a lethal maneuver that could have snapped it in two.