"This is it. Do you really think this is going to work?" one of the thugs asked.
"Of course. I wouldn't be here if I didn't. Now hurry and ax through this rotting door," the Bishop commanded. Then he found a small boulder to sit on and waited while the thugs and Danny went to work.
Bishop Welffing was all sweaty, so he pulled off his hood and tried to catch his breath. His curly, dirty blonde hair stuck to his head. The robes, which usually hung loose on him, clung to his skin. The frigid rock beneath him was very hard and pushed uncomfortably against his ample posterior. Trying not to think of his unending discomfort, the Bishop thumbed the ring on his right hand and watched his underlings. With his left hand, he felt the large pouch that hung at his side. Tracing the outline of the book within, made him feel a little better.
Timothy Grug was cursing because one of the ancient torch holders next to the fortress' door had fallen as he'd attempted to place a torch into it. They were enchanted torches that only lit when placed into a torch holder. So, Grug ended up shoving the pointed iron bottom of the torch holder into the ground and placing the torch into it. Then he grabbed his ax and began hacking away at the door with Zuck, who hadn't had a problem with his torch. Danny was still trying to get a good hold on his ax.
The Bishop stared uneasily at Grug.
He had a wide chest and huge arms. His legs were twiggy, but his fists were massive. It was said that one punch from him could kill a man. For this reason, he liked to be called One Punch.
One Punch was balding, so he grew what little hair he did have really long and combed it over the bald spot. He never shaved his face so that scruffy dark hair covered it. Furthermore, the man never smiled unless he was getting ready to kill someone. When he did smile, it revealed a bunch of yellow, rotting teeth and a horrific stench.
"What a filthy man! I can't believe I have lowered myself to hire such a man . . . monster," the Bishop thought to himself.
At this moment, the burly man had actually managed to get an ax entirely through to the other side of the massive, five foot thick, wooden door of the fortress. It was only a small slit in the door, no bigger than the ax blade at this point.
"I'm amazed he could get the ax through so quickly," thought Bishop Welffing in amazement. The Bishop was sure not more than an hour had passed since he'd ordered the underlings to get to work. "I guess the magic of the fortress has depleted over its years of abandonment." He smiled and looked at Wilhelm Zuck.
Zuck wasn't as fast as One Punch was. He took his time chopping at the door, and now he aimed at the hole One Punch had made rather than continuing where he'd started chopping.
The Bishop knew when he'd hired Zuck, that he was not a trustworthy man, but he could also tell that Zuck's greed ruled him. As long as the Bishop paid the price, Zuck would go along with what the Bishop planned.
Unlike, One Punch, Zuck did not use his hands in battle. Instead, he showed a unique ingenuity for constructing and using weaponry. Zuck knew how to make especially good projectile weapons, and he loved to experiment with certain types of poisons in order to enhance their effectiveness.
The Bishop shuddered at the thought of dying a slow agonizing death by poison. Shaking the thought out of his head, he shifted his focus to Danny.
Danny was about to collapse from overexertion, but he continued to try his best to ax at the door. The truth was, Danny hadn't made a dent. He wasn't strong enough to lift the ax, let alone swing it with any force. The poor boy had been trying to do as his Bishop had ordered, but he'd failed miserably. The twelve-year-old lay crumpled on the ground, pinned under the wooden hilt of the ax.
"Daniel!" The Bishop gasped as he leapt up from the rock he'd found to sit on. He ran to the boy's aid. "Oh child. I may have been mistaken when I brought you along, but I couldn't bear to leave you behind. Who would tend to me if you weren't around . . . certainly not these two."
The thugs stopped axing and looked at each other before they turned to watch the Bishop struggle to lift the ax off of Danny. Zuck smiled. One Punch grunted. Both thugs were sweating heavily and the "crack" in the door had only widened to a slit the size of a man's arm. They took the chance to put down their axes.
"Maybe ya should just drag the baby boy away from this door. He's jus' gettin' in our way anyways," Zuck said as he grinned.
"Silence Zuck. You've been entirely too insolent since I hired you. I'm paying you enough to buy some respect."
The Bishop gave Wilhelm Zuck an angry, yet authoritative look. He had managed to get the ax off of Danny, and the boy was coming to.
"Eminence. I . . . I'm sorry."
"It's all right Daniel. The Lord only asks us to try."
"The lord only ask us ta try," Zuck mocked in a low voice.
One Punch gave them all a sneer.
"Bishop. When are you paying us the rest of our money?" One Punch asked.
The Bishop pretended not to hear. He was too busy pulling Danny to his feet to bother with thugs.
"Hey. Old man. I wanna know when we gettin' paid too," Zuck added.
"After we get the treasure from within this fortress. I've told you that several times."
"I've been thinking, Bishop. What's to say that there is really a treasure in there? And if there is, what's to say we need you anymore," One Punch said. The side of his mouth was beginning to turn up in a half grin.