Chapter 24: Rivalry

Alan Stockholm was howling with laughter seeing his enemies retreating. The Mad Dogs, being led by Hugo, had lost their first attempt to take back the blocks the Skull gang had claimed. Originally it was just one block that the Skull occupied, but seeing that the Mad Dog's forces were thin, traveling in patrols of only two or three men, Alan had advanced deeper into their territory. By now Alan had tentatively captured five blocks so far.

Alan's forces, a total of seventy people, were now becoming too stretched out to patrol their newly captured territory. None of his men had been killed, but seven were badly injured in the initial skirmish and couldn't fight. They could, however, still serve as lookouts while they recovered on the top floors or roofs of nearby tall buildings.

Alan also still needed to convince other Hands from the Skull to join into the fight. He could probably convince a few of them, but the rest were likely going to follow the Head and aim for peaceful intentions. Some of those Hands might even try to force him to retreat from the boarders and give up the unsanctioned invasion. The thought of a potential backlash from his own side excited Alan rather than deter him. Also, if they did, he would have the chance to prove himself in a two-sided battle, which was totally exhilarating!

This is what had happened during the fight that day.

Hugo had come with one hundred and thirty gangsters to counter the small Skull invasion. Though even with so many people on his side, he couldn't break the Skull forces. They were just too crazy! Though both sides used nearly the same varieties of handheld weapons, it was the way in which the Skull gangsters attacked that was very unorthodox.

Previously Hugo's forces had at first marched along the streets openly. They did not see the Skull gangsters as a threat at the time. As they approached the area that had been taken over, six Skull members suddenly started to taunt them with rocks from further ahead in the road. Hugo, annoyed by the provocation, sent his troops to give chase, only to find that Skull reinforcements set this up as a trap and began attacking from houses on their flanks.

Reacting quickly, Hugo split and arrayed his men to deal with the attacks. After a brief scuffle the Mad Dogs were about to drive off Skull that numbered around twenty in all. However, Hugo’s plans were dashed when twenty more Skull gangsters sneakily crawled up out of the streets manholes to ambush them from behind. All Hugo’s men could do was form a circular defense in the street, unable to retreat.

Hugo, being a renowned Match Fighter himself, was able to singlehandedly fend off several Skull attackers easily with his bare hands. Together with two other Match Fighter ranked Mad Dogs, Hugo broke through the rear attacking Skull forces and opened an escape route for his men. Not wanting to be overrun themselves, the Skull backed off and let the larger force escape.

After retreating the way they had come and stopping a safe distance away from the Skull, Hugo did a quick count to find that three of his men had been killed and ten were missing. This initial loss made Hugo absolutely furious!

Frustrated, Hugo let out a yell as he punched out a car window. "I should have known it was a trap!"

"It's all right boss." A gangster wearing a blue bandana said calmly from nearby. "We'll get them next time. I didn't count that many of them."

Taking a deep breath, Hugo surveyed the situation they were in. He was a lieutenant of the Mad Dogs for a reason and that reason was coming up with a sound plan for any situation they were in. They had retreated two blocks away from where the fight took place. From the fight, Hugo, and the others with him, surmised that the initial Skull's forces were much smaller than the attack patrols claimed them to be. After giving this problem some thought he called over a skinny looking man loitering nearby.

"You can run fast, right?" Hugo asked with a serious expression.

"Yes sir, I can." The skinny man replied.

"Good. Go back to the compound and get Darius to come here with his men.” A smirk then spread across Hugo’s face. “Make sure you tell him to hurry too, because the ‘Bone Flayer’ is here."

"Get Darius, hurry, and Bone Flayer. Got it boss." The skinny man repeated with a nod. He then turned towards their base a took off at a quick jog.

Being a messenger was nothing new to most of the lower ranking gangsters. They didn't have the means to have cell phones for communication due to the lack of electricity. Meaning they could only use word of mouth or written letters as their only options for communication. Only Martinez and a few select Mad Dog lieutenants had any connections to the outside world. It wasn't ideal, but they made do with what limited resources they had.

Hugo then called to the other two Match Fighters that were with him. "Harry, you take thirty-five guys with you. Go right one block and get ready for my signal. George, you take thirty-five as well and go left one block. Don't attack until I give you the signal."

Both men nodded as Hugo continued.

"We probably can't beat them in a head-on fight. So, we need to be smart and use our numbers to our advantage. When I give either of you the signal, you are to attack straight down the street, but don't try to win or push them back. Just charge into them, hold your ground, and try to cause some damage to their forces. After a while you are to retreat. That is when I’ll send the next group in to attack. I too will be attacking in the same fashion. We will repeat these attacks and it will hopefully cause those mindless Skulls to wear themselves out trying to stop us. There really is no need for us to win right away, just slog things out until they exhaust themselves."

The two Match Fighters smiled knowing that this plan was a reliable one. Hugo had given them similar attack pattern orders before, and he hadn’t steered them wrong yet.

Then George asked, "What if they try attacking us even after we retreat?"

Hugo nodded understandably as this was a fair question. "Simple: keep running and I'll send my men to attack them from behind, like they did to us just now. Then we can crush them in one go! However, I did call for more reinforcements, but hopefully it won't come to us having to rely on them for help."

The two guys had nothing else to say so Hugo sent them on their way to get in position. Fortunately for Hugo the town roads in this area were designed in uniform square blocks, making his plan very easy to implement. Soon the Mad Dog gangsters had spread out into their trident like line of attack. Seeing that everyone was ready, Hugo waved to Harry and Harry's forces charged forward.

…

Alan was watching the Mad Dogs as they ran away in disarray. He had perched himself on top of a three-story apartment building to get a better look at the battle ground. He had expected as much from these pathetic weaklings, as soon as they faced a difficult situation, they would always run. He couldn't understand how they had managed to become the strongest gang here in town.

As he was thinking to himself, another Skull member with him tapped his arm. "Bone Flayer, their forces are splitting up and forming ranks."

Alan took a closer look at the Mad Dogs and saw they were indeed splitting into three groups. "What are they up to?" He wondered to himself.

The two of them on the roof watched Mad Dogs carefully trying to figure out what their next move might be. Suddenly, the group on the Skull's left, or Hugo's right flank, started to charge down the middle of the street. They weren’t even trying to mask their movements. Alan was about to jump down and send his men to counter, but he noticed the other two Mad Dog groups didn't move. In fact, they didn't even look like they were going to attack. Some of them even were sitting on the ground relaxing.

"This is odd." Alan speculated whist pointing out the two Mad Dog groups that were not moving to the Finger ranked gangster with him. "Tell half of our men to go attack those coming at us. The rest are to get ready to fight the others if they attack and try to flank us."

The Finger nodded and dashed over to the ladder they had used to climb onto the roof. He slid down it quickly to relay the message. In a matter of moments, the half of the Skull's had set off to counterattack. Alan felt a sense of satisfaction seeing the Finger go. His men were always ready to fight and that is what he liked about them the most.

Alan watched as the two groups collided and fought, but not for very long or hard at all, and unexpectedly soon the Mad Dogs retreated. Alan frowned seeing this. Then he saw the Finger he sent earlier, was now waving up at him. Apparently, he was asking whether or not to chase after the retreating Mad Dogs. Alan felt that it was too risky to chase them, because he wasn't too sure of their intentions just yet. He then motioned for the Skull forces to hold position and the Finger gave a thumbs up in reply.

Just as he did this, the Mad Dog gangsters on Alan’s right started to charge similarly to the way the others had done. Seeing this, he leaned over the edge of the roof and called out for those waiting below to go counter. They quickly did as he said, for each gangster was already anticipating being in a fight and could hardly control their enthusiasm.

Alan looked cautiously at the Mad Dog group still waiting around in the center road ahead. They still hadn't moved one bit. Then checking on the Mad Dogs that had attacked first, he saw that they stopped running two blocks away and were catching their breath. By then the second fight was already taking place. Yet again only after a brief fight, the Mad Dogs ran away.

It was then Alan noticed that Hugo had reappeared at the front of the middle group of Mad Dogs and was apparently getting them read to attack next. Alan's first group had just come back from fighting off the left side’s attacking Mad Dogs and the others on the right hadn't gotten back yet. This time Alan decided that he himself would join in.

He was ready to pound some faces in to vent out some of his pent-up excitement. However, the chance never ended up coming. The middle Mad Dog group attacked, and Alan's forces countered the same as before, but by the time Alan joined in, the enemy had already retreated again!

"What are they doing?" Alan yelled in frustration. “This kind of attack is pointless. Where was the fun? The thrill of battle and putting your life at risk?”

…

Hugo's plan was going well. They repeated this kind of attack style several more times. He could see that each time they attacked that the Skull forces were getting tired from running up and down the three different streets in defense. So far it seemed that he would win the battle of attrition in the end.

Hugo chuckled to himself, "Good, good. Let's keep this up and by the time Darius gets here with the reinforcements, we can crush them quickly without making it seem that we needed reinforcements in the first place."

He waved to George again signaling that it was his turn and they advanced yet again on the tiring Skull forces. These shorter fights had been good for them. Unlike the ambush, they hadn't lost any men yet to serious injurie. Only a few had minor to moderate wounds, but Hugo had guessed that it wasn't the same for the Skull gang.

The battle of brains or brawn wouldn't last long, and he was winning. Hugo smirked and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "The boss will be surely pleased by this inevitable victory!"