By the time Ren got back to his cell, it was approaching curfew. He was whistling the same catchy tune that Olivia always whistled. Now he knew why that happy go lucky girl did it, when you were in a good mood it just felt right.
Ren was truly in a good mood, the happiest he had been since arriving in this place. In return for his services the boss had promised him a whopping 500 sparks a day, plus a hefty bonus when he dished out those special lessons. Simply put, he would never have to set foot in the mines again.
"Seems like you're in a good mood, something nice happen"
The rough voice of the headmaster came from the bottom bunk. He was wearing a pair of black framed glasses and was staring curiously at Ren
"You could say that."
Ren said cheerfully making the headmaster to chuckle.
"And here I was, prepared to give you a hint to speed up your progress, seems like I was worried for nothing."
He said while turning over and covering himself with the blanket. Ren stopped whistling abruptly and he quickly rushed over to the headmaster's side.
"Oh, great headmaster please impart your wisdom."
Ren pleaded, any hint no matter how small would give him a huge advantage, his little act made the headmaster grin.
"What a fool… I guess since you asked so pathetically, I might be willing to share the great knowledge my mind contains… That anklet aint as impressive as you think."
His words made Ren freeze, if his words held true then maybe breaking out wouldn't be so hard after all but first, he had to confirm, the Headmaster's hint was a little too vague for his liking.
"What did you mean by that… Hey"
But the headmaster did not answer, soon a loud snoring filled the cell. Ren yawned tiredly, it had been a long day after all. When he climbed into the bed, he decided he might as well test out the anklet.
He tried to summon his aether using his mental strength but as soon as he did an acute pain spread across his body causing him to yell out in pain.
"Quiet fool, people are trying to sleep here."
The headmaster shouted and almost immediately after the snoring resumed. Ren whimpered quietly till the pain faded but, in his mind, he was cursing at the Headmaster.
"Selective hearing much, you prick"
Ren cursed under his breath but he still learnt his lesson regarding his anklet. The device seemed to detect when the Aether in his pool was active and it would send a strong pulse of its own Aether into his body, sending his own into haywire.
Ren assumed it was similar to the Suffer-Ring in the sense that it charged itself from the Aether in his own body. Ren thought about it for a while, what the Headmaster said may just be a load of crap but it was worth a shot.
Throughout the night, muffled grunts of pain could be heard through Ren's cell.
***
"You look like shit lad"
The boss said when he saw the dark bag's under Ren's eyes. All of the members of the gang were gathered at the HQ under the boss's summons. They were sat around the meeting table and Ren stuck out like a sore thumb, when surrounded by the colossal bodies of the gang members.
"I had trouble sleeping."
Ren said while yawning, his whole body felt sore from his constant attempts to crack the anklet.
"Make sure you rest up. We might need to make use of your services later on."
The boss said, making Carlos frown. He was well aware of Ren's purpose in the gang, so the boss's words indicated that there was trouble.
"What's going on boss."
When Carlos asked the boss remained silent for a while, before gesturing to Nicolas who was sat next to him.
"Nicolas… You explain."
Nicolas quickly stood up and cleared his throat loudly.
"As you know a wide variety of people come into the casino to try their luck, some of them get real talkative making it really easy to collect info… now word in the prison is that the Moles and the Fire Fighters put aside their differences and formed an alliance."
All the gang members fell silent at the news, they all knew the implications of a successful alliance. After sensing the heavy atmosphere in the room, it was the boss who broke that silence.
"From your faces, I trust you all know what this means. We need to break this little alliance of theirs before the prison becomes a battle ground. Any ideas."
The massive Rose eagerly lifted her hand and waved it around frantically. The boss sighed in exasperation and let her speak.
"If them make problems, we make them go splat."
She said while slapping her palms together loudly with a devious smile on her face. The boss who wasn't expecting much to begin with, face palmed.
"Any good ideas."
He asked again while glancing around the room, this time it was Angel who stood up and thumped his chest.
"Why don't we invite them to the arena and duke it out with them."
He said while drawing his thumb across his neck with a blood thirsty expression on his face.
"I'm looking for something a little more subtle Angel. Sit down"
Angel shrugged his shoulders and sat back down while pouting. The boss looked around the room but no-one spoke up. When Ren saw this, he took the opportunity to score some brownie points.
"Just because they put their differences aside, doesn't mean they vanished… if we give them a little shove, they might just start fighting among themselves… and if we play are card's right, we might get control of the mines as a little bonus."
Ren said casually, his words made the boss's eyes light up and he slammed his palm on the table.
"Glad to see you're not a one trick pony. We'll go with this, any specifics."
The boss asked, making Ren scratch his chin and think for a bit.
"I'm still new here so I need some more information."
Ren responded after a short while, it was a good idea for him to know exactly what they were going up against. After hearing what Ren had to say, the boss waved his hand at Nicolas who got up and walked over to a cupboard.
After searching through them for a while, he placed a massive mountain of documents in front of Ren and gave him a thumbs up. The table began to creak under the weight of the stack.
"This much."
Ren asked with a glum expression. Nicolas just shrugged his shoulders in response.
"The gangs have been around for a long time you know."
CRASH
The meeting table couldn't handle the weight any longer and collapsed in on itself. Ren lowered his head and sighed, it looked like he was in for a long day.
***
A few hours later, Ren slumped back in his chair with a look of exhaustion on his face.
"Note to self, never get a desk job"
He thought to himself, wondering how all those officials put up with it. Despite his complaints he had still learnt some useful things. The boss seemed to think that this alliance was targeting him since the leader of the moles brother died at his orders, although that might be part of it, Ren felt like there was a bigger purpose to this alliance.
The Mole's top brass were shrouded in secrecy, while this had benefits when it came to safety, it also meant that there was no trust between the superiors and subordinates. This definitely made it tough to hire new recruits, people generally didn't appreciate taking orders from a faceless entity.
The moles were understaffed which caused problem's in managing the mines. This is where the fire fighters come in, a group of ridiculously strong rebels with no real leadership. A sharp sword without an owner.
It's not liked the Moles didn't have a leader, it's just that the leader was off his rocker. On paper the alliance made a lot of sense. The moles would wield the lethal sword that was the fire fighter's while polishing and maintaining it with their resources but what paper didn't take into consideration was the most important element… the human one.
Even if Ren sit back and did nothing, the animosity and past grudges amongst the gang members would create a large number of complications, this fragile alliance would collapse within the month. Although this was somewhat favourable to the bulls, it wasn't good enough for Ren. Sitting back and doing nothing wouldn't give them control of the mines.
Ren had thought about his escape for a while now and even though he had no plan in mind, he knew that the mines would be extremely helpful. Those crystals seemed to be the only thing those wardens cared about, so naturally they made for good leverage.
"hey lad, are you gonna stare at the ceiling all day."
The boss came over and stood over him. Ren wiped the sweat of his brow and gave him a tired look.
"The plan is simple, there's enough tension between the two gangs that a simple spark may cause an all-out inferno, The Moles have no trust in their leadership so it will be tough for them to extinguish those flames and when the smoke clears, we step in like heroes and push back the fire fighters and protect the moles. This will make taking over the mines a simple process."
Ren spoke freely, but his last words seem to allude to something. The boss patiently waited for him to finish while the other members of the gang began to gather around him.
"There's one issue, If the top brass of the moles survive it will all be for nothing, which is why we need to lure them out of whatever hole they're hiding in and squash them all at once."
Ren said opening the discussion to the others, it was at this point the boss started chuckling.
"Don't worry about that lad, didn't you say it yourself, the moles don't trust their leaders. When the fighting starts, the top brass only has one move left if they want to keep their gang alive. They have to come out and stop the fighting in person."
The boss said with a wide smile on his face. This was when the boss of the Black Bulls showed everyone why he was the gang's leader.
"Nicolas, you grab two of the newest casino workers and tell them to infiltrate the moles, they will be our spark, give them any rewards they ask for."
"Carlos keep your guys on standby, wait for the fight to break out and step in when the time is right, I'll leave the timing to you."
"Rose, and the three brothers. While we're out make sure this place runs smoothly. If people see less of us, they might get funny ideas so make your presence as known as possible, especially you Rose.
"Lad, you're with me, we're going to be the foot that squashes those bottom feeders."
The boss barked his orders, everyone listened to him respectfully and no one interrupted until he was finished
"Yes boss."
They all shouted in unison. Although the boss's competence filled everyone with confidence there was one exception… Ren. He wasn't the least bit happy to see this display of great leadership, the more respected the boss was, the harder it would be for him to push his own agenda.
***
The following day, deep within the mines.
"Are you two, listening to me"
A tall man shouted at two anxious looking teenage boys. The teenagers instantly stiffened their backs.
"Yes sir."
They both shouted in unison, causing the man to continue talking.
"As you know we don't get many new recruits but it's my duty as the head recruiter of the moles to… Hey where are you looking this time."
The man started shouting once he saw the two teenagers were distracted and looking elsewhere.
"Sorry about that sir… I've just never seen someone so big before, who is that."
One of the teenagers said, bringing the head recruiter attention to the huge body of a bald dark-skinned man, who dwarfed the rest of them. When the recruiter laid eyes on him there was an annoyed look on his face.
"I'm sure you heard by now but we're joining forces with the fire fighters… Geez what is the top brass thinking, teaming up with those lunatics."
He began shaking his head, the recruiter stared at the member of the fire fighter with a bitter expression on his face.
"When I was still a fresh face those fuckers shook me down for all my sparks, I literally had to beg someone to give me enough sparks to prevent a visit from those executioners, now they just roam around our territory like they own the place."
The recruiter rambled on. One of the teenagers put a hand on the recruiter's shoulder and looked him in the eyes.
"Sir, I don't know if it my place to talk… but you should remember that this is your turf and you're in charge here, don't let them walk all over you like that."
It was at this point the other teenager jumped in and added his piece.
"That's right, you're basically the head honcho here, I'm sure people looked at you with admiration but nowadays… word in the prison is that the head recruiter for the moles is just a pushover. I don't think that. You're a great man, but you need to prove that to make the others shut their mouths."
The two teenagers nodded their heads, the recruiter stood they're in silence for a while.
"Your right. I am great, I'm the one in charge here and I've had enough of their shit. I'm gonna make a stand… You with me."
The recruiter shouted while working himself up. The two teenagers looked at each other and then back at him.
"uhm… as much as we would love to help. I'm sure that you would send a better message if you did it alone."
One of the teenagers said, his partner added to his point.
"Yeah, when people look at you, they will be all like, yep that's the guy who sent those damn Fire Fighters packing all by himself."
The recruiter smiled and patted the two teenagers on the back.
"Yes, thank you for this, I'll take care of you both in the future."
The recruiter said while walking over to the bald man, when he looked back the two teenagers gave him a thumbs up.
SMACK.
After a few verbal exchanges, the bald man released a devastating right hook, sending the recruiter tumbling to the ground. After seeing this the two-teenager bumped fists and ran down the tunnel screaming.
"The Fire Fighters are beating up the recruiter."
"They said that all the moles are pushovers."
Their shouts echoed down the tunnel, reaching far into the mines.
"WHAT"
"I knew this would happen."
"Those goddamn lunatics are asking for it."
A huge commotion swept over the mines and fights started to break out all over the place.
***
At another location in the mines, the boss of the Black Bulls was waiting alongside Ren, he had shaved and tied back hair, making him look like a completely different person.
"You see that guy over there, he's the ambassador in charge of relaying the orders to the top brass, follow him and he will lead you right to them."
The boss pointed at a slender man with curly red hair leaning against the tunnel. Ren nodded his head in confirmation.
"When the fight breaks out, the members of the top brass will be forced to come out and assess the situation but the leader will stay put, he's cautious like that. I'll stay here and stop the top brass, I'll leave the leader to you. We clear"
"Crystal."
Ren replied casually. The boss smiled and handed him a black dagger that looked like it had been made from the head of a pickaxe, a frayed rope was wound tightly around the handle giving it a good grip, it was heavy, the weight was not balanced and the handle was too big for Ren's hand, but before all of that, it was sharp and that was what mattered the most.
A short while later a man delirious in panic rushed over to the ambassador and whispered something into his ears. The ambassador eyes opened wide in shock and ran off into one of the tunnels nearby.
Ren immediately took after him, tailing people was something he was good at due to his tutelage at the Linheart mansion. He kept the perfect distance between them, far enough to not raise suspicion and close enough to not lose track of him.
Ren followed him down the twisting tunnels like a wolf that caught the scent of blood. The constant change in directions would never be enough to throw him off the trail.
Ren turned the corner and realised he had been thrown off the trail, the ambassador had completely vanished without a trace. Despite this, Ren did not look disappointed at all. This was exactly what he had been waiting for.
The most likely reason that the ambassador had disappeared was that there was a hidden entrance nearby that led to the Mole HQ, instead of wasting his time searching for it, Ren hid himself behind a few empty barrels and waited patiently.
He didn't have to wait for long though, the top brass must have really gotten shaken up by the news because soon enough Ren heard a soft rumbling and a section of the tunnel wall slowly dropped down revealing a dark passage.
Four huge men with fierce aura's walked out of the passage alongside the ambassador, these men looked to be quite something, their bulging muscles and huge bodies made Ren wonder if the boss would be able to handle them alone.
Once they were out of sight the wall began to rise up again, prompting Ren to quickly make his way in to the passage before it was too late. Ren cautiously walked down the passage until he came across an iron door that was slightly ajar.
He knew that on the other side of that door would be his target, the leader of the moles. Ren took a deep breath and put his eye to the gap in the door, what he saw was another eye staring right back at him.
Ren fell backwards onto his rear in surprise, immediately afterwards the door swung open, revealing a tall muscular man with dark blue hair and deep turquoise eyes.
"You know I always told that prick to watch out for tails, but knowing how useless he was I decided to watch the passage every time he leaves."
The blue haired man, who shared a striking resemblance to Diego was immediately identified by Ren as the leader of the moles, after seeing that Ren wasn't making a squeak the leader sighed.
"You know this is where you usually introduce yourself."
He said casually. Ren stood up, now that he was exposed, there was nothing left to do but fight, he kept his dagger hidden on his waist, After seeing the man's cautious nature, it would probably best to leave some cards up his sleeve.
"My names Ren and I'm a teacher."
The leader of the moles looked confused by his words and Ren made use of this opportunity to charge at the man and deliver a swift kick, dangerously aimed at his special place.
THUD.
Before his attack reached Ren was sent flying by a casual shove. Ren managed to twist his body and he spun in the air, barely managing to land on his feet. It immediately struck him that a head on assault wasn't the way.
Ren had to get out of this cramped tunnel so he could make use of his advantage in agility. He eyed the large room behind the boss of the moles, that would probably be the best place to fight. Ren had no idea how he was going to get past the leader but the longer he waited, the more of a disadvantage he would have.
"Samiel, the pleasures all mine. You must belong to the Black Bulls huh… me and your boss go way back."
Samiel quickly deduced. It wasn't hard to figure out Ren's affiliation, Obviously Ren wasn't part of the Moles or firefighters and the daisies were all women, so it was a simple process of elimination.
Ren didn't look worried that his identity was exposed, instead he analysed his opponent. Despite what those huge muscles may suggest, Samiel seemed to be the cool and collected type. This made it hard to provoke him so Ren stalled.
"You know the boss."
Ren asked with a false curiosity. Samiel smiled at Ren.
"You sure talk a lot for an assassin… but fine I have time to kill anyway. Me and Pedro II joined th-"
"Wait what did you call him."
Ren exclaimed. Pedro II, wasn't that name freakishly similar to someone he knew. Pedro III had mentioned his father went to this prison. Was this a coincidence.
"It's rude to interrupt someone in the middle of a-"
Samiel didn't get to finish his sentence because Ren had once again interrupted him, this time with his fist.
Samiel calmly blocked the attack that was headed for his stomach with his palm. Ren felt like he was punching into a brick wall and his knuckles definitely felt the impact.
Once again Ren was pushed back by a mighty shove, this time he didn't manage to land on his feet but fell in a way that minimised the damage.
"Like I was saying, me and Pedro II joined the prison at the same time, we had quite the relationship but alas we ended up walking different paths… I mean he even killed my brother."
He said nostalgically, Ren who was desperately searching for a way to shake Samiel up finally had a clue about how to do it.
"The one who killed Diego was me, I finished him off with this very move."
Ren said while charging at Samiel with his hand behind his back. Judging from Samiel's surprised expression Ren could tell that he was surprised by his words. Since Samiel was a cautious person, Ren would use that against him.
When Ren got close to the startled Samiel, he whipped out his hand from behind his back. Samiel didn't block the attack this time due to Ren's word's and cautiously took a step back, not realising that it was a feint.
Seeing that Samiel had dodged in panic, Ren didn't follow through with his attack and simply side stepped past Samiel's massive body into the room behind him.
The room was a large open space filled with tables and couches, not at all different to the Black Bulls HQ. The perfect space for Ren to take advantage of his agility, while the furniture would just restrict the large figure of Samiel from moving around too much.
"So it was you."
Samiel said while glaring icily at Ren. He lifted a couch with ease and raised it high above his head.
"unlike me Diego was a good man. He was the kindest soul you would ever meet. He didn't deserve death but you… you deserve what's coming."
He shouted, while hurling the couch at Ren with a blistering pace.
CRASH.
Ren narrowly avoided the couch by diving out of the way and it slammed into the wall behind him breaking apart into hundreds of pieces.
"Fuck, I was so stupid."
Ren cursed, by shifting the fight into this room he had given Samiel access to dozens of potential projectiles.
"I bet he took pity on a kid like you… and that's when you killed him. That's what happened didn't it... Don't worry Diego, I'll send him to you real soon."
Samiel yelled with a crazed expression in his eyes. Furniture began to rain down on Ren who tried to dodge what he could.
SMACK.
The leg of a spinning chair hit him on the side, bringing Ren to the ground. Biting his lip to alleviate the pain, Ren quickly scrambled behind the larger bits of debris and hid himself from Samiel's line of sight.
"Dammit he's crazy."
Ren thought to himself, it seemed that his provocation had been a little too effective. He had severely underestimated Samiel's feelings for his brother.
Ren took out his dagger and glanced at it. This was his only chance at victory, but he had to get close to use it. Ren desperately searched the room for something useful but all he could see was some rope and the smashed-up furniture.
SLAM.
A small table crashed violently into the debris Ren was hiding behind, kicking up a large cloud of dust in the process.
"There's no use in hiding, accept your death like a man."
Samiel roared loudly. He was standing in front of the door, the only exit to the room. Ren had nowhere to run.
BOOM.
CRASH.
SLAM.
Samiel continued to hurl objects across the room, kicking up large clouds of dust with each impact. When the dust cleared slightly, he saw the blurry figure of a small child.
"Got you."
He shouted, picking up a large sofa with ease. He raised it above his head and just as he was about to throw it, he felt something heavy and warm drop onto his shoulders.
"No… I got you."
SLASH.
A stark-naked Ren who had been hiding on the sofa when it was picked up, jumped onto Samiel's broad shoulders and slashed his dagger across his neck, thick red blood began to gush out of the wound at an alarming rate.
The figure that Samiel had seen in the dust cloud was just a dummy Ren had made by stuffing his clothes with debris and tying it all together with the rope he found.
Ren jumped of the shoulders and watched samiel's body collapse to the floor with a loud thud. He was desperately clutching at his neck while trying his best to breathe.
Ren who was still naked at this point, continued to watch him bleed out for a while from a safe distance. When he was sure that Samiel had been weakened to the point that he couldn't fight back walked over and sunk the dagger into his chest, penetrating into samiel's heart.
***
"So, your back lad, how did it go."
The boss asked once he caught sight of the fully clothed Ren limping out of the tunnel. However, Ren didn't answer him immediately, instead he was staring with wide eyes at the five corpses by the boss's feet. They were lying in a pool of dark red blood and all five of them were sent to meet their maker by a single clean cut across their necks, while the boss looked exactly the same as when Ren had left.
"Lad, the leader of the moles?"
The boss urged, once he saw Ren had fallen silent.
"Uhm… yes, he's dead."
Ren replied once he regained his wits, the boss laughed heartily and gave Ren a firm slap on the back.
"Good, that's what I like to hear. Carlos should have cleaned up by now… why don't we pay him a visit."
The two of them walked over to the main atrium in the mines, Carlos had already finished business and had gathered the remaining members of the moles.
"Ah boss, shrimp, you're back."
Carlos rushed over to greet him once they entered the atrium, all the exhausted beat-up faces of the Moles looked over once they realised that the boss of the Black Bulls himself had shown up.
"Good work Carlos I'll take things from here."
The boss said while swaggering his way over to the front of the crowd and clearing his throat loudly.
"I have some bad news to tell you lot. As soon as we heard that fighting broke out, we rushed over here as fast as possible, we made it in time to save you, but unfortunately we were too late to save your leaders."
Commotion broke out as soon as he finished his sentence, the Moles weren't exactly sad that they had lost their faceless leaders but now that they lost their backing, they had no idea what was going to happen to them. Seeing that the crowd was starting to panic, the boss raised his hand to make them quieten down.
"Look, I know your worried but all is not lost. Work for us at the Black Bulls, we have more than enough sparks to keep you all satisfied and all you have to do is continue what you did before. Together we will get through this. Unlike your leaders before, I'm not afraid to show my face, you can come to mee if you have any issues and I promise I will treat you like one of my own gang members."
Discussions once again broke out in the atrium as the Moles began to figure out what was in their best interests. Once the boss noticed that he had got them interested, he decided that it was time to seal the deal.
"We at the Black Bulls have a dream, while those lunatic Fire Fighters cling on to the naïve dream of breaking out of the prison, we think differently. Outside those walls we would only be oppressed by the kingdom who sent us here, where as inside these walls we are free. Our dream is to turn this prison from a hell into a heaven and the first step is to destroy those Fire Fighter's and trample on their naïve dreams."
Cheers filled the atrium as the moles started celebrating, after today they wished for nothing more than to destroy the Fire fighters and if they could get paid while doing that… then the choice was obvious.
At the other end of the atrium Carlos was grinning ear to ear.
"What fool's, we got them hook line and sinker."
But Ren who was beside him wasn't in a good mood, he was staring at the boss with cold murderous eyes, before Carlos noticed this Ren's killing intent faded.
"Yes… yes we did."
Ren spoke before turning around and walking away. Ren now knew that as long as his dear boss was alive, he would never see the open skies again. This man had to die and there were no two ways about it.