Yells echoed in an empty dark street which usually saw little activity. Fists and kicks flew. Bones cracked. A mob more than sixty strong brawled with abandon. It started with insults and resulted in broken bones and bleeding wounds.

When the brawl reached full tilt, Duke arrived along with Shad and Torin. All three of them frowned at the sight. A vein thickened on Duke’s forehead to the point that it looked close to bursting when he saw the Butchers’ branch leader raging amongst the crowd and beating his men bloody while displaying crooked yellow teeth through a cheerful snarl. His wiry muscles rippled with every punch he threw, and his dark brown eyes glowed with an excited fervor.

“This doesn’t make any sense. He’s their only climber. Why are they causing trouble like this right now?” Torin thought aloud.

Ignoring the rhetorical question, Duke stomped forward and yelled in a deep booming voice, “Carlos, you bastard! What the hell are you doing?”

“Boss!” One of the Fallen Leaf members exclaimed while beating down a Butcher. “Guys, the boss is here! Let’s kick their asses!”

The twenty or so Fallen Leaf members who were still standing cheered and recklessly charged forward with increased morale.

“Haha! Guys, the Ogre and Weasel are here! Time to bail!” Carlos ordered in a similarly booming voice, though it didn’t echo off the walls like Duke’s did.

The Butcher members who were still standing all nodded and began their retreat as though everything had been planned beforehand. Duke’s fist burst sideways and cracked against a Butcher member’s temple, immediately knocking the guy unconscious as he strode forward without interruption.

“Oh, no you don’t, Carlos!” Duke yelled, even more veins popping out on his forehead. “I know you’re crazy, but you’re not an idiot. You’re not leaving ‘til you explain this!”

“Haha! How scary~! We can play next time!” Carlos sneered in response.

“Shad!”

Duke didn’t have to say anything else since Shad was already slithering through the crowd to help stop the guy. Seconds after Duke called his name, Shad’s figure blurred ahead of Carlos. A sharp kick collided against the ankle Carlos had just lifted off the ground. The guy looked down at Shad with a smirk. He stumbled, but didn’t fall.

“Sorry, Weasel, but today’s not a good day to play. Maybe next time,” Carlos playfully taunted. Then, his eye twitched, and he twisted away from the knife slicing toward the back of his knee. It had suddenly appeared from Shad’s sleeve without notice, but he still dodged it. Without hesitation, Carlos broke out into a full sprint and clicked his tongue. Then, he glanced back at Duke without paying much heed to Shad who was hot on his tail and called out, “Ey, big guy! I’ll come back for my guys, later, yeah? Don’t kill them, please? Hahahaha! It really has been too boring around here recently!”

With that final taunt, Duke calmed down enough to realize something didn’t feel right about this. He looked at Shad who also glanced back at him as though asking if he should still follow. Duke nodded, but he himself stopped pursuing Carlos.

“C’mere, guys,” Shad said in a subdued but sharp tone that reached the ears of everyone in the vicinity, “Let’s grill these bastards.”

The remaining Fallen Leaf members roared in agreement and followed along behind Shad. Duke and Torin, on the other hand, stayed behind. Duke glanced over the carnage that could be seen under the little amount of light coming from the nearby main street and frowned.

“Is something wrong, boss?” Torin asked.

“You didn’t notice?” Duke questioned in kind, raising a brow while helping one of his less injured men to his feet.

“You mean the fact that Carlos didn’t use his cleaver?”

“Yeah. It means he wasn’t serious about fighting us. It gives me a bad feeling, especially since the coliseum is only two days from now.”

“Now that you mention it…”

A small beep sounded from Duke’s wrist-com, interrupting their discussion. Upon reading the message, his face darkened to the point that he looked like he might kill someone.

“Torin.”

Oh, shit. It’s his quiet voice. Not good, Torin thought while pinching the bridge of his nose. Immediately, he replied, “What is it, boss?”

“Take care of things here. Call some guys over if you need. Send the rest to Red Street. Siamese Inn.”

“Got it.”

With that, Duke stormed off in a full sprint toward Red Street. Torin watched for a couple seconds before following his orders. The moment he opened the group chat for the upper members, he broke out into a cold sweat. Most of the recent messages voiced complaints or called for revenge. He finally figured out why something about this brawl had felt so wrong.

“What the hell? Are the Green Devils trying to start a war?”

* * *

Running onto Red Street from the side street he had been lured to, Duke gathered all the nearby Fallen Leaf members and charged toward the brothel area with them. The twenty or so people quickly reached the burning building. Dark red flames burned the wooden second floor to cinders. Smoke spread around the area beneath the foundation ceiling. Nearby people evacuated the premises in case the fire spread further.

Wondering if the perpetrators were still around, Duke turned away from the burning building and looked for any Green Devil members. Unfortunately, he didn’t find any to vent his rage on. All he could do was watch as his building burned to the ground, leaving only the brick and stone skeleton of it, not to mention the six smoldering corpses lying amidst the rubble. The disdainful gaze of the green goat skull painted on the building behind it glared down at all of them. The graffiti was an obvious taunt.

“I don’t get it. Why did those snakes do this? It doesn’t make any sense,” One of the men closest to Duke complained.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that they burned down our property and killed our men. If it’s war they want, it’s war they’ll get.”

“Yeah, let’s kill those bastards!”

The others roared their agreement. However, Duke stared at the rubble with furrowed brows and ground his teeth.

“Quiet,” Duke said, quickly shutting their mouths. “We’ll definitely bring a fight to them, but we can’t give up on the coliseum either. For now, gather the bodies. Before anything else, let’s bury these brothers.”

““Yes, boss!””

Once the rubble cooled enough, they gathered the bodies and transported them back to their headquarters deep in the dark areas of District 42. Along the way, Duke remained quiet while contemplating what happened today.

This definitely isn’t because of what Sigmarus has been up to, though they might have used that as an excuse. This didn’t seem like something Mason would do, either. Don’t tell me… Did Seth come back? Is it because of our old grudge?

Some painful memories slipped into the forefront of his mind, making him grimace. He pushed them back down and refocused on the current issue. Suddenly, he thought of something and checked his wrist-com. There were several messages, but none came from Sigmarus.

“...Did they go after him as well?” He wondered aloud. Just in case, he sent him a message, but there was no reply for several minutes. Feeling anxious for the new climber they had trained, he grabbed one of his men and asked, “Do you know that white-haired guy, Sigmarus?”

“Oh, the new climber guy? What about him?”

“Go to the gym. If he’s not there, check his apartment. I’ll give you the address. Let me know if you find him.”

“Got it, boss.”