2: Territory Scuffle

The Kingdom of Siana was split into six distinct "territories" that were than broken up into smaller "districts". Even though the kingdom itself was a matriarchy, the "territories" borders were decided by the its male population. Battles between gangs/groups of boys called "Territory Scuffles" reshaped Siana's unofficial map.

The borders of these territories have changed over the years but usually stay confined to their historical boundaries; North, east, south, and west. Recently however a new territory has come into play known as the "Southeast territory" run by the Rihey Gang, who split off from the south. However this is a tale for another time.

-

Back in the Northern district of Esidia, Werty and his two followers were searching each floor as they descended Esidia Tower. Back when the Esidia district was populated, this tower was used as a trading post. Most of the floors were setup for a private office setting. No cubicles, or lazily erect walls to serve as boundaries in the workplace, just dozens of small rooms.

Werty would guard the stairs as the other two would scour each empty room to see if their target was laying in wait to ambush them.

"Damn, this is so boring. Hey we're all cl-!"

"WE'RE ALL CLEAR CAP'T!" Dinn interrupted Nito. The two ran towards the captain who was waiting for them at the staircase. Nito was glaring at Dinn all the while.

"Kay boys! Let's move out!" Signalling the two, Werty lead them down the stairs to the next floor.

The ages of the three matched there heights; from tallest to shortest was oldest to youngest. Nito was the tallest and oldest of the three as he was 13 years old. Werty was one year younger but unlike the older skinny boy he was well built for his age. Dinn was the youngest of three and a new recruit to the Gino Gang.

Gino Gang was a group of boys founded long ago in Siana. At one point, more than a hundred years ago, they controlled most of Siana's territories. Eventually the group split off into smaller groups who fought against each other. Over time they were reduced to controlling only the north territory districts but this doesn't mean they were as small as these three people. On the contrary they were coming back stronger than ever. They currently have the most Generals of all the gangs in Siana and over 500 hundred following elite members alone.

To be recognized as a captain one needed to have at least subjugated one district and to rise to general four or more are needed under your control. Werty has two under him and is now moving in for his third. Werty was one of the gangs twenty captains and an up-and-comer who was hoping to become the thirteenth General.

Reaching the next floor Werty stood guard at the stairs as the two started searching.

"Fuck! There's so many rooms!" Kicking a decaying wooden door down, Nito peeked into the lightly lit room. As he sighed, he went ahead to the next one.

On the other side of the hall Dinn was hitting each door down with a scabbard half his height. He kept his sword sheathed but remained ready to draw at any moment. "Nito! You think the generals won't care that we ignored their warnings."

"I don't know and I don't really care. You scared or something?" Nito teased the nine year old.

Gripping on his sword, Dinn responded, "It's just that they always said that Esidia's off limits even though it's in the middle of our territory towards the east. On top of that there's only one guy here. It just seems suspicious."

"Little bitch," the older boy taunted.

"Seriously," the younger boy sighed as they turned a corner into another stretch of the empty hallway.

"They say there was some other guy who helped us out a long time ago take control of the east who was in charge here. You probably don't know since you're Southern born." Nito explained, "That guy's been gone for a while, I think he Phased, so now's the time."

Dinn reluctantly shook his head, "but doesn't it seem too easy."

"Paranoid brat," Nito snickered to himself. After reaching the last door to this floor Nito took in a long breath. "AL-!"

"WE'RE ALL CLEAR CAP'T"

"You fucking brat stop cu-!"

"Kay boys! Next floor!" Werty commanded as the other two followed their Captain's back. Nito started to grumble as they headed down the stairs. The whole way down Nito was grumbling to himself.

"Yes! Just an em-"

"Next floor boys!" Werty interrupted Nito's words of the obvious observation. This floor was just one completely empty and wide room. It must have been a makeshift auditorium or something of the sort.

"Interruptin' me an-"

A loud crashing noise coming from above them, stopped the group from heading down after they barely reached the hall-like room's entrance. Looking above himself and then to the floor in front of him, Werty let out a small smile.

"Aight boys! He's about a floor or two above us, so get ready! I'm gonna need one of you two to go up and lu-!"

"Aaaughhhhhh!" Werty couldn't finish his orders before Nito's angered cry filled the staircase as he stormed up the stairs. "Don't fuck with me~!"

'That's it this punk is dead.' As Nito neared the doorway to the floor Zayer was on, he was filled with an indescribable rage. Preparing his grey gauntlets he looked into the dimly lit hallway the door lead too.

A red haired figure was already dashing towards him, brandishing a metal rod.

'How'd he know I was coming!' Nito's rage was substituted with immense fear within moments. As if staring at a large beast he quickly reacted with his flight senses and bolted down the square spiraling staircase.

With a considerable head start Nito was only a few steps away from the floor his comrades lay waiting.

Directly behind him a brown cloaked figure landed after jumping down from the floor above grabbing on the stair's railing.

Nito couldn't feel his heartbeat beating out of control as he ran the fastest he ever did, but he felt his body quiver in fear as it pumped more blood to get him as far away as it could from this danger.

In a few yearlong seconds Nito made his way through the doorway into a large empty room. Unlike the floors above there were no smaller divides; it was as if this room was made just for battle.

In the middle of the room Nito could see his captain halfway across the room , locked and ready to snipe whoever came through.

Barely noticing, Nito then realized the shot had been fired and quickly turned his head to the left getting ready to dive away.

-

Directly behind him Zayer noticed the familiar shriek first with his ears and then with his eyes. The figure in front had ducked to the left giving Zayer barely anytime to react to an iron ball speeding towards him at deafening speeds.

The shot barely grazed him, as Zayer quickly drew his steel rod to offset the path of the ball to hit the wall on the left of the doorway. He was then blown back into the staircase after deflecting the lethal impact.

Zayer slouched with his back against the crumbling stairs railings as he sat himself up. Without giving much time to recuperate, someone followed him out and into the staircase a few seconds after he flew through.

'Shit,' he thought to himself as he noticed a sword reflecting the light from the empty room behind the figure similar to himself in size. The steel rod was bent in his hands and blood slowly started dripping from his forehead.

Zayer quickly braced himself positioning himself on one knee before making a quick hop forward.

"Aughh!"

The overhead strike from the blade was stopped midways after bent metal bar hit Dinn's hands sending the blade sliding away.

Within moments Zayer's fists connected with Dinn as he let loose a flurry of fast jabs.

-

Back in the large room a minute passed after Nito and Werty saw Dinn rush into the staircase. They couldn't quite make out what was happening because it was too dark in the staircase and the shot had kicked up a storm of dust gathered at the entrance.

As the dust finally began to settle a short shadowy figure was becoming more visible in the staircase

Dinn's sword shined in the darkened doorway for a second before it flashed as it's wielder burst into the room.

Trying his best Werty fired as many shots as he could at Zayer who was making his way along the wall. He was headed straight for Nito who was on the left side of the room halfway towards Werty.

'Does this kid think I'm stupid,' Werty quickly stopped firing and remained ready to shoot at any opening Zayer showed.

Having now regained himself Nito was prepared as Zayer approached him with his junior comrades sword.

The speeding Zayer jumped as he raised the sword up high and dropped a downwards slash towards Nito.

With his right hand ready Nito jumped towards Zayer and blocked the blade with his gauntlet protected hand. As the edge of the blade slid down his forearm letting loose a light show of sparks Nito reached out with his left hand.

He quickly tried to grab on the boy's cloak to pull Zayer in for a left hook but was surprised with a drop kick square to the chest.

Nito gasped for air as he flew backwards and the sword bounced off his right arm. Zayer was also left soaring in midair backwards after abruptly jumping off Nito's chest.

Landing on his side Zayer quickly bounced back up as Nito painfully grabbed coughed in pain after being winded.

x2

x2

Two lead balls decimated the floor Zayer landed on, cracking the dusty floor. Another array of shots raised a large storm of dust that had been gathering on the floor for over a century. This cover fire gave Nito the time to slowly back off a safe distance away.

Stopping every few moments to reload the ammo he held ready to load, Werty was preparing to fire more before he was interrupted by a small rock that grazed the side of his forehead. Sweat dripped down his back as the blood from a scratch ran down his face. Dropping all the ammo he held, leaving them to roll at his feet, Werty regained himself after the brief brush with death.

Straight ahead of him was Zayer brandishing a sword ready to impale him. He had no time to get ready to fire another shot. But a gentle smirk crept on his face.

"Bring it, BITCH!" He gripped the end of his giant slings long handle and unsheathed a broadsword about a quarter his height.

Zayer who kept charging paid it no mind and continued started speeding up even more towards the armed Werty.

As he drew in closer Zayer cocked the sword back preparing to swing from his side and Werty started to swing down from overhead.

As Werty leaped forward swinging down his blade an uneasy feeling flashed in Zayer. Werty was a little too far for his blade to reach him, even with the height difference. The attack was obviously going to miss.

Zayer prepared to respond but was momentarily disturbed by an awkward pulling force from behind him.

"Hu-!" Zayer couldn't even properly brace himself to pull from the tug on the end of the sword before he was sent flying forward by a powerful kick.

The unexpected kick forced him to let go of the sword's handle as Zayer was sent uncontrollably straight into the path of Werty's sword.

Chapter 2 END