“Ack!” Daggerless threw a man onto a chair and the man yelped in pain. He was badly beaten, with his face barely resembling a face. He lost a few of his teeth which might require him to get a set of dentures. Despite all that, he continued to spit at us.

“Ha! I’ll….gah….never give up! Bloody Rags rule!” He laughed. Daggerless grabbed him by the collar and raised a fist. The man panicked and struggled to pry Daggerless’ hand open but couldn’t do anything against his undead strength.

“I say we should chop him up and feed him to some hounds.” Maven took out her heavenium kitchen knife and started waving it in front of the man’s terrified face.

“I could use a new punching bag!” Daggerless clenched his fist.

“What do you say, Temp Boss?” They both said that line at the same time as they looked at me. What was with the ‘Temp Boss’ title?

Currently, I was in a room with the rest of the undead crew. Was this our room? Not really. While we were touring the castle town of Mierra, we were constantly attacked by these Bloody Rags fools so we decided to pay a visit to their hideout in Mierra. It didn’t take too long since my shadow fiends were excellent spies and trackers.

These fools were getting on my nerve. How dare they attack some of the elite of the elite of this world. However, I was to control my arrogance as instructed by our Boss. Humbleness was a key to peace of mind, or so he said. But then again he also said he didn’t like romance novels. Foolish choice, Boss.

“I say…..they are really getting on my nerves. The fools must be destroyed.” I pointed at the battered man as I sat on a comfortable chair which was probably used by the former head of this hideout.

“Destroy? So we kill them!” Maven raised her knife and Daggerless raised his fist even higher. I raised my hand quickly.

“Wait, you fools!” I stopped the two just before they could put two new holes in the man’s face. He was breathing heavily and was drenched in sweat.

“You idiots. You can’t just kill off a major organization and expect no long-term repercussions, barring the fact that there would just simply be a power vacuum, creating a massive war for control. Who do you think we are? Some kind of mindless heroes?” I started explaining to them. Daggerless and Maven looked at me like I was speaking to them in an entirely different language. Daggerless let go off the man, letting him plop onto the chair.

“So, what are we going to do then?” Daggerless asked.

“Simple. We make our own criminal gang. One that would control all other criminal elements in the entire continent. We could benefit greatly from this.” I chuckled at them as I raised a fist.

“Wait, would Boss approve of this?” Maven asked.

“Probably.” I shrugged. I looked over to the side and raised one of my hand. A black dog-like figure rose out of the floor and started sniffing the air.

“Shadow fiend. Sit,” I commanded and the dog obeyed. The first task was to obtain more information about any criminal elements in the town. In order to bring them all under our control, I had to know where they were first. I could only summon a few shadow fiends at a time, though.

“Wait! We forgot something important!” Daggerless shouted. What?! I had forgotten something that could have possibly jeopardize this entire plan? Impossible! I had planned for exactly 4 minutes and 12 seconds. That was 12 seconds more than I normally would. What did I miss? I had plans already made when the kingdom would intervene or meddle with my plan. What about the outer threats? I had a few plans already created in mind. Then what was it?

“What is it?” I gave up and decided to ask Daggerless.

“We forgot a name for our gang!” Daggerless answered. Ah. I see. Sigh.

“Alright, you low ranks think of a name.” I beckoned to the rest of the crew who were just standing around the room lazing around.

“Why can’t you think of the name, Beor? You’re the so-called ‘Temp Boss’ anyway,” One of the undead said. Well, it was true that I was currently the highest rank of the group, being the spymaster, but why did I have to think of something as trivial as this?

“How about the Shadows?” I asked.

“Seriously? Can you think of something less embarrassing?” Maven looked at me disappointed.

“What? Er….The Elusives?” I tried once again.

“Something not related to your obsession, perhaps?” Daggerless suggested.

“Then how about...YOU GUYS DECIDE?” I decided to just give up.

“Welp. Beor’s useless when it comes to names. Let’s just call ourselves the ‘Skeleton Crew’,” Daggerless suggested and the rest of the crew agreed on it. That was ironic coming from someone who called himself ‘Daggerless’.

“Now, let’s get down to our first task. Shadow fiend. Interrogate that man and torture him for answers as to locations of other gangs,” I ordered the dog and it leapt at the man. Ignoring the screams, I started to planning my next move.

The Skeleton Crew shall rise and subjugate the other foolish criminals under my foot in the name of Boss. This shall be glorious!

.

.

.

I was walking with my fellow associates down the usual alley as part of the routine patrol when we stumbled upon a group of unfamiliar fellows blocking our path. They were wearing simple clothing with white rags tied around their arms. Their ages looked to vary from teens to late adulthood and they had an assortment of weapons.

Unluckily for them, we were much better armed and trained. These people looked like greenhorns so beating the crap out of these punks would be no trouble for us.

“Oi, you’re blocking our way. In fact, you’re stepping on Venom Green territory. You’ll have to pay up if you want to escape out of this place with your lives,” I took out my sword and started to threaten them. The ragtags looked like they didn’t know what to do when one of them moved forward.

He looked like he was better armed and had a nice looking dagger on his belt. I couldn’t see what was inside his hood but it wouldn’t matter after I crack his skull open.

“What are you talking about? This is Skeleton Crew territory. How about YOU pay us and we’ll let you live?” Who did this cheeky bastard think he was? I charged him and he answered by quickly taking out his dagger.

Heh, fast, but not fast enough. Just as I was in front of him, I crouched and stepped to his sides, dodging his dagger thrust. I grabbed his arm and bent it in a way it shouldn’t bend. I rolled backwards, making some space between me and him. It wasn’t that I expected an attack, I just wanted to see him scream in agony. I stood there waiting.

…

…

“Well?” I asked.

“Well, what?” He asked back.

“Scream or something!” I answered.

“Why would I do that?” He tilted his head at me like I was deranged and needed help. No, no. There must be a mistake here. YOU are the who clearly needed help here.

“Look at your arm! It’s broken!” I pointed.

“Ah, yeah. So it seems. Wow.” He looked at it like it was just an everyday occurrence to him. What was with this man?!

He grabbed the arm and casually fixed it into place like it was nothing. He stretched his arm a bit then started to run forward.

“Fellas, beat the shit out of this guy!” I barked orders at the rest of my associates. It wasn’t like this was a duel!

One of my thugs raised his mace and swung diagonally, aiming for the hooded man’s head. However, with his free hand, the hooded man swung upwards at the thug’s jaw, knocking him out immediately.

Another thug rushed forward and tried to jab him with a dagger. The hooded man thrust his dagger directly at the thug’s and the two weapons collided. The thug’s dagger shattered with the impact. The hooded man elbowed the thug’s undefended face and he also went down.

The last of my thugs moved forward with an axe and was careful about the hooded man. Noticing that the hooded man was distracted by the thug, I started creeping behind the hooded man. He was defenseless! I dashed forward and was about to stab him when…

.

.

.

“Well. Good job,” I remarked as I moved through the crowd of thugs towards Daggerless. He was fighting some thugs when the rest of the ragtag ruffian crewmembers snuck behind the thugs and smacked them at the back of their heads.

“If our sources are correct, this gang’s headquarters is just a few buildings away,” Daggerless noted. I looked at the crowd of ruffians behind me. They were recruited from gangs we had beaten or just hired off the street. Well, we had only been operating for a few days so this much is already impressive. It would take much time to create a disciplined private army so for my first few moves, a bunch of vagabonds was sufficient.

“Try not to get so much attention, though,” I warned Daggerless. Supposedly, the Skeleton Crew was just another criminal syndicate with a mysterious council at its head. The rest of the day-to-day job were done by the non-undead crewmembers since we wanted to reduce the risk of being caught.

“Let’s move,” I ordered and the entire group moved down the alley and into a dark street. We could see the Venom Green’s headquarters which was just an ordinary building. We saw that there were some guards at the entrance so I whistled then waited.

There, a carriage moved in front of the entrance and its windows were opened. Bolts started firing from the carriage before speeding off. The bolts killed a few of the guards at the entrance and the people start to panic.

“It’s a ride-by! We’re under attack!” One of the guards cried. Excellent, the show was about to start. With another whistle, the attack started. Mobs of ruffians with all types of weapons and gear started flooding into the building from all directions.

I strode into the building, watching people fighting and dying everywhere. Maven, who had lead half of the army here, and Daggerless moved to my sides, defending me from any enemy thugs. I calmly climbed the stairs while the chaos ensued, seemingly dodging flying arrows and bolts as I walked up stairs.

At the highest floor, crewmembers were trying to fight into a hall but were blocked by men with plate armor and steel weapons. When I arrived, they made way for me. I walked towards the plated men and ignored them.

“You dog! Nobody gets past...Augh?!” Maven and Daggerless stabbed each one of them before they could finish their sentences. Heavenium and mithril weapons could pierce through steel armor without problem so these people were hopeless. In front of us was a steel door which lead towards the main room of the enemy boss. Daggerless ran in front of it and kicked it hard, letting the door fly into the room, knocking down a few guards.

A lightning bolt was sent towards us but I grabbed it and threw it back at the enemy mage. Fools. The boss of the Venom Greens, who was standing in the middle of the room, had a sour face and was looking enraged. He was a bearded middle aged man wearing a long green coat. On his hand was a high quality rapier which I noticed was made of mithril.

I walked past him and sat down on his comfortable chair as mobs of crewmembers swarmed into the room, surrounding the fools that opposed me.

“So. Let’s make this quick. Surrender or die,” I demanded.

“Neve-” Daggerless stabbed the boss in the throat and took his rapier. He never saw it coming. The rest of the enemy thugs dropped their weapons and got on their knees.

“Shame. Now then...You. You’re now the boss here. What do you say? Surrender or die?” I moved my sight to the next person who had plated armor.

“Please, good sir! I have a family! I have a-...”

“That’s not a surrender. Kill him,” I ordered.

“Wait a minute. I just realized, Beor.” Daggerless walked next to me.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Are we the bad guys?” Daggerless asked.

“Are we? Who knows. There’s no good guys or bad guys in this world.” I shrugged and went back to the plated man, “Now as I was saying, do you surrender or would you like to die?”

“I surrender! I surrender! We’ll do anything you say!” The man begged.

“Excellent. You’re now in charge of this place. Everyone pack up, we’re leaving.” I got up and started to leave.

“Eh? That’s it?” The man who was now in charge of this place asked.

“Yes. You answer to me from now on. Have a nice day.” I left the room with the rest of the crewmembers. I was simply trying to bring all of the gangs under my rule, not annihilate them. I needed people to keep my pawns in line while I plan a grander scheme.

“Alright, Temp Boss. That should be one of the first major gang we subjugated on Mierra. What do we do after we take over Mierra?” Maven asked.

“Hmm...after that? We’ll go hit the Bloody Rags at their heart - at the capital of Angolia,” I answered as I started laughing maniacally.