One man in particular with a wide gash on his cheek takes the lead in front of his group and leads the rest of them up to me. With the way he’s holding his head up high as if he’s looking down on me and with how his eyes seem to contain boundless joy, it’s pretty clear he doesn’t think much of me. Can’t say I blame him. When his group comes within a few feet of me, the brothers step in front of me and block them from approaching any closer.

Although I can’t see Jonas’s face, I can picture the nasty scowl on it just by hearing how he’s forcing his voice to be gruff as he snarls at them, “Who the fuck do you nitwits think you are? You think any ol’ body can just walk up to the Boss here like he’s some common street vendor? It’d be in your best interest to turn the fuck around and walk away. I don’t care if you’re vipers or wolves up top, but down here? You’re nothing but a handful of worms to me.”

Jonathan is nodding vigorously right beside him and I can picture the sneer on his face as well. I have to say, I’m impressed. I wasn’t expecting much out of them from how we first met but they’ve proven themselves to be helpful hands over these past few weeks. I honestly couldn’t ask for better underlings.

The man with the injured cheek smiles widely and takes a step toward the brothers, readying himself for a fight. Instantly, the brothers take a step backwards at the same time. The man with the injured cheek’s foot pauses midair as confusion spreads across his face. After he recovers from his stupefaction, he takes another step forward and the brothers immediately take another step back. Sigh, I started complimenting them too soon.

Walking up to the two brothers, I pat them on their shoulders and say with exasperation, “Alright, you two did good enough. I’ll take over from here.” Hearing my words, joy blossoms on their faces and the two rats scurry behind me for cover. Walking toward the man with the cut on his cheek, I stop when I’m five feet away from him and stare at him with an expressionless face.

Seeing me unwilling to speak first, he snorts and says, “How did a shrimp like you become the head honcho around here? Whatever, me and my boys here will be taking this place over starting today. Go ahead and show me which one of these rundown holes you’re sleeping in. That’ll be mine from now on.”

I don’t respond to his provocation and continue staring at him without a word or a change in my expression. Seeing me ignore him, he starts getting fed up and shouts, “Hey! Didn’t you hear what I just said? Is this kid dumb and deaf?”

Angered by my unresponsiveness, he walks up and reaches out his right hand to grab ahold of my shirt. Now it’s time to play. Dodging to his right side, I grab onto his wrist with my right hand and forcibly pull him forward. As he’s stumbling, caught off guard by my sudden attack, I slam my left fist into his jaw and he crumbles to his knees.

He’s still awake but he’s seriously dazed and confused. When he realizes what I just did, he tries to stand back up but his legs are still wobbly and he falls backwards, landing on his ass. Seeing me looking down at him with a grin on my face, he grows furious and turns to his group, screaming, “The fuck are you idiots waiting for!? Kick his ass!”

The remaining five start moving before he even finishes his words. All of them rush at me at the same time without any planning or strategy, expecting to overwhelm me with their numbers. Admittedly, if they did this when I first got here, in all likelihood I’d be getting my ass kicked this morning. But I’ve changed a lot since getting here and such a crude way of fighting isn’t enough to beat me anymore.

Running up to them as they’re running at me, I swerve toward the left at the last moment and use the one I’m targeting to block off the rest from reaching me. My first target swings his fist at my face with everything he has which I duck under. When I stand back up, I use that momentum to smash my fist right beneath his chin before turning around and running away. Glancing back, my first target is flat on his back, completely out cold.

The remaining four are stunned by what just happened and freeze in their tracks. Before they get a chance to regroup and coordinate, I start dashing at them again. My second target tries to back away from me while wildly swinging his fist through the air. Catching his wrist, I pull him towards me while throwing a hook at his ear. The blow stuns him as he cries out in pain.

He tries to pull his wrist out of my grasp which I oblige and let go of before shoving him backwards with both hands, his body colliding with the person behind him. Seeing how both of them fell to the ground and how tangled up their limbs are, I quickly turned around only to see a fist flying at my face. Fuck, I knew I wouldn’t get out of this unscathed. Gritting my teeth, I lower my forehead to receive the blow. It’s painful but that definitely could’ve been worse.

Before he can back away, I kick at his left leg with my right using all my bodyweight and the blow surprises him, his leg flying out from under him as he starts falling forward. Stepping out of his way, I grab the back of his head and slam his face into the ground, shoving his head deeper into the dirt as payback. All of a sudden, I hear something whistling through the air toward my head and I raise both arms to intercept it, the force from the blow knocking me to the ground. As I land in the dirt, my left hand instinctively grabs a handful of dirt and immediately tosses it at the face of the person who just kicked me.

He cries out in pain and doubles over, trying to get the dirt out of his eyes. Scrambling back to my feet, I run over to him and grab both sides of his head with my hands and drive my knee into his face with everything I can muster. He yelps out in pain and lands on the ground with a thud when I let go of his head. Whipping my head around, I search for the two I knocked over earlier.

I found both of them trying to sneak up behind me and when we made eye contact, the surprise and fear in their eyes was palpable. By this point, my breathing’s a little rough and my wounds are starting to hurt but I can tell this is almost over. Seeing how neither of the remaining two are willing to approach me, I start walking towards them but for every step forward I take, they take a step back. Rolling my eyes, I shout, “Jonas! Jonathan!”

The two brothers tackle the remaining two from behind and take them to the ground. As they’re struggling to get themselves free, I get a running start and kick one on the side of his face. The devastating blow instantly knocks him out and his body lands on the ground, limp. It takes a moment for Jonathan to realize the person he’s desperately wrestling with is already unconscious. When he sees me and finds out the person he’s on top of is out cold, he gives me a thumbs up which only makes me sigh.

After taking care of the final survivor with a well placed elbow, I have the brothers gather all six men and toss them together into one pile. The one with the cut cheek was still awake but his knees were still shaky which gave the brothers a chance to vent their feelings towards him for embarrassing them earlier. Once all of them were piled on top of each other, I climbed on top of them to wait for them to wake up. As I was taking the chance to rest, Hawthorne walked over with a grin on his face.

“Seems like you learned a thing or two, huh?”

Rolling my eyes at him, I reply, “It’s hard not to when I had nothing better to do.”

“What are you planning for the new arrivals?”

“I’ll get them to wise up once they’re awake. We’ll need all the hands we can get if we want to escape from here.”

“Alright, I’ll leave it up to you.”

With that, Hawthorne walked away from my lumpy throne and went to get food from the wooden lift. During our fight, the lift ascended back up to the wooden platform above us and descended once again filled with food and water. It looks like there’s an additional sack half filled with bread to account for the newcomers. At least they’re not starving us down here.

Looking up at the sky, the wooden platform spanning across The Pit’s open air fills my vision. That has to be my target, right? Only one person can make The Climb at once and Hawthorne said on average, it would take an hour for someone to climb from the bottom level to the surface. Let’s say I force everyone down here to climb up and assume they all survive and make it within an average timeframe. It’ll take about 40 hours… well, 46 if I include the dumbasses below me. I’d need to fight off the entirety of The Fold for 46 hours if I want any help up there and that’s not happening.

With the lift, I can bring up at least 15 people at once and that’ll give me a fighting chance to make this all work. The problem is, I can’t let anyone else climb up after me before starting my rebellion. I’ve already told those I’ve given knives to, to stop anyone who wants to make The Climb after me and prevent them from going up. My plans can’t leak but at the same time I need a few people to know what I’m planning, otherwise I won’t receive any help when it starts. Fuck, this has gotten really convuluted with all the different moving parts.

If any of those individual parts fails, then I guess I just die. Shaking my head to clear away the thoughts, I realize I’m getting ahead of myself. Perhaps I’ll die climbing up and I don’t need to worry about all this bullshit. Wouldn’t that be nice?

As I’m sorting through all the ideas in my head, the brothers hand me two pieces of bread and a shoddy clay mug filled with water. I feel more civilized drinking from a cup instead of drinking straight from the communal wooden ladle everyone else uses but the odd earthy taste coming from my water makes me think civilization isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Apparently the Savior left behind a lot of earthen utensils he made with his magic down here when he left and he probably drank from this very cup in the past. I wonder what sort of person he is.

As I’m pondering while nibbling on my bread, my throne shifts below me and starts to grow restless as the man with the cut cheeks stirs awake. Seeing me sitting on his back, he freezes and remains still. Judging by his downcast expression, it looks like he’s accepted his place down here. Smiling, I break off a piece of my bread and stuff it into his mouth as he grunts in surprise.

When he looks up at me in confusion, I explain with a wide grin, “Someone told me a while ago, The Pit isn’t a place for the weak. The strong take what they want from those weaker than them and if you’re too weak to protect it, then did it rightfully belong to you in the first place? But it’s also the obligation of the strong to protect and look after the weak as long as the weak follows the strong’s every word. Understand?”

After a moment of silence, the man with the cut cheek slowly nods. My smile growing wider, I say with a laugh, “Good! We’re all in agreement then. Tell me, what’s your name?”

“My name’s Uda, Boss.”

“Boss! I like that. Tell me Uda, what brings you to our little paradise down here?” Seeing him hesitant to speak, I continue with, “Every. Word.”

Frightened by my threatening tone, he spills it all, saying, “My boys and I were captured while we were scouting out The Fold’s stronghold. The gang I’m a part of, The Plainheart Vipers, are at war with The Fold and we were sent to check out a weak spot in the stronghold’s walls. When we were leaving, we ran across one of their hunting parties and well, you know the rest.”

My ears perk up as his words and I ask with interest, “A weak spot? Tell me more.”