"Have you ever been in a fight before babe, where you had to hit the person?" Ace asked her.
She shook her head no.
"I didn't think so," he said breathing out heavily and running his hand through his hair.
"Okay, well the most important thing is to make sure you don't get hurt," he said. "The first and best thing you should do is yell like crazy, don't stop until the bastard fucks off again. He'll probably try and grab you. Hey Eyeball," he said, "try and grab my arm."
He lunged forward but as he was doing this Ace stepped backwards.
"See it's simple, and it's instinctive, just get out of the way. The guy is grabbing at the area where you are, if you move he'll miss you. Simple right? Here give it a go."
He reached out to grab her arm but she stepped backwards.
"Perfect babe," he said, "but the guy will probably do it out of nowhere so you gotta be quick to react. Now if he misses you with the first arm he might try and go for you with the other, so when you step backwards don't go directly back, try and go in the direction of the arm he's using already. Then you turn around and you run, okay?"
"Okay," she said nervously, this was all sounding a little scary.
"If he does get you babe, you gotta keep on yelling, never stop, it'll put him off and better yet someone might hear you and come help you out. If he tries to shut you up by putting his hand over your mouth you bit down and you bite down hard, Okay?"
"Okay," she said, that didn't sound that difficult.
"I know it will be scary once he he grabs you but don't try to just pull away, you probably won't be as strong as he is so all he'll do is try and get a stronger grip on you. Don't try to punch him for the same reason, you just won't be strong enough babe. You can get him better with other ways but if you do try to punch him, go for the throat, it'll hurt the most and you'll probable surprise him enough to get away."
Laura rubbed her throat, just thinking about getting punched in the throat was bad enough.
"What's better is to make you hand flat like this," he said demonstrating, "and then just slamming your hand into his throat but it's risky, he might catch your hand before you make contact and twist your arm. Now if that happens you get your foot and you kick him in the balls hard as you can. It will hurt him like hell but if he's attacking you he fucking deserves it."
"I know if I can do any of this," she said, "it sounds hard."
"Hopefully you never have to," he said, "but I'm not taking any goddam chances. You can do it if you have to right?"
"I guess," she said uncertainly.
"That's my girl," he said hugging her quickly. "Okay, now if he still is holding you too close to kick his balls, try going for his kneecaps, you might get lucky and they give out but it'll hurt anyway whatever happens. Use whatever you need to, scratch him, bite him, pinch him, stamp on his toes, pull his ear, poke him in the eyes, spit at him, choke him if you can grip his neck, fight as dirty as possible."
"Is that how you fight?" she asked, she always just thought people punched each other when they fought. This was sounding very unpleasant.
"If I need to," he said winking at her.
"Nobody fights as dirty as a Cobra," Eyeball cackled.
"Isn't that bad?" she asked.
"It's nowhere near as bad as attacking you in the first place babe," he said getting back on topic. Now, worst case scenario, just throw all your weight against him and drag him to the floor. I don't really like this because it puts you in such a bad position but he might loosen his grip on you just enough for you to get away. If you cant get away try to grab a handful of dirt and throw it in his eyes, he won't be able to see and he'll hopefully be surprised enough to let you go. But this is an absolute last resort. It's better if you stay on your feet," he scratched his head and turned to Eyeball, "Can you think of anything else?"
"What if they have a weapon man?" Eyeball pointed out.
"Oh shit," Ace said, this hadn't even occurred to him. How would she ever be able to fight off a weapon. He knew from experience that these were much tougher fights.
"Well usually when the guy has a weapon one of his hands is already distracted, just do the same thing, step back if you can when he tries to grab you. If he does get you, just do your best to avoid whatever he has and get out of his grip, everything I just told you." He went quiet for a minute, "the idea of her getting attacked by a weapon was really unsettling him, "most of all babe you just don't give up until you've gotten away. Keep fighting against him, don't let him.." he trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
"It's too bad you don't have a brother?" Eyeball piped up, noticing Ace was looking pissed again. "You probably would've learned to fight when you were a little kid."
"If she had a brother, he probably would have murdered me by now," Ace said grabbing her around the waist and pulling her against him again.
"Same goes for if she had a father," Eyeball mouthed to Ace so Laura wouldn't hear.
He smirked and picked her up. "I hope I didn't scare you babe but I don't want anything like this to happen to you again. And," he added, "if anything at all ever happens to you please don't wait until a couple of weeks have passed before you tell me."
"I promise," she said kissing him quickly, "can we go inside again? I'm cold."