57 Jack Song

A fist slammed into Jack's left kidney. He almost doubled over, but the hunger and thirst kept him focused enough to move in close to his opponent and lock his hands on his skinny neck.

The middle-aged man kept punching his body, as Jack placed a leg behind the man's feet and used his bodyweight to bring them both to the ground.

Jack slammed onto the smaller man and started squeezing. A dozen seconds of frantic struggling later, Jack loosened his grip and stumbled back up to his feet.

The crowd around the ring gave out cheers and boos, depending on who they bet their money on.

Jack ignored them and used the corded rope to drag his weary body out of the bloody pit.

The officer in charge gave him a wide grin and nodded for the guards to take him back to his cage.

On the way back, they took him to a foul-smelling pit where he could do his business for the day.

Jack's red stream joined in with the rest of the filth in the pit. He felt no surprise at seeing it anymore; he hadn't felt surprised at much for a few weeks now.

When he finished, he listened to the guards' orders and walked towards the squat building where they kept the prisoners.

Once he got there, the guards opened his cage and Jack went in without protest. After locking him up, the guards took a different prisoner with them and left.

He sat down with his head bent and had a few bites of the stale bread that they gave him in the morning. He didn't want to overdo it, or the thirst would drive him mad until dusk when they came to water them for the night.

While chewing, he looked around the dark room. A lot of the once full cages now had no one in them.

Jack's eyes stopped on the man that taught him his first lesson in the pit and nodded his head.

When he swallowed his dry meal, Jack coughed a few times and asked "How much fight you got left in you, Mike?"

The man, Mike, studied Jack's battered face for a couple of seconds, before saying "More than you, Jack."

Jack gave him a bloody smile as he said "Wanna put some money on it?"

Mike's brows rose in slight surprise as he asked "What do you have in mind?"

Jack thought about it for a second, before saying "The first one that dies owes the survivor a thousand bucks."

Mike gave out a bark of laughter as he countered with "Why not make it a million?"

Jack nodded his head without hesitation as he confirmed with "Deal!"

A few people in the room chuckled at their antics, but most of them just tried to get as much rest as possible.

Even Jack and Mike hunkered down to rest after their short exchange.

As the Sun started setting, the two guards came back with a beaten-down man and unlocked Jack's cage to lead him to his last fight of the day.

Just as Jack straightened out to his full height, a loud siren started blasting out a warning cry.

Everyone froze for a second, and then one of the guards ran out to see what happened.

'That's an air raid siren.' Jack thought as he looked up at the low ceiling of the room. A second later, his eyes turned cold and he slammed his elbow into the face of the second guard.

The guard's nose broke with a satisfying *crunch* from the surprise attack. As he took a couple of steps back his finger squeezed on the trigger of his rifle by instinct and fired off a dozen rounds.

Jack followed the stumbling guard and tackled him to the ground. He ignored the burning pain in his side as he kept slamming his bloody fists in his face.

When the guard stopped moving, Jack took the rifle from his hands and turned towards the door.

A few seconds later, the other guard returned with an alarmed look on his face. He just opened his mouth to shout something, when a burst of rifle-fire shredded his torso.

Jack glanced down at his bleeding side but decided to ignore it as he started to rifle through the pockets of the dead guards.

When he found the keys to the cages, he turned to Mike's cage first and opened it after a few tries.

Jack's eyesight turned blurry as he handed the keys over to Mike and said "I guess you win."

With that, he crumpled to the floor and the world around him collapsed.

Jack felt horrible pain from both of his legs as he blinked his crusted-over eyes open with a soft groan.

"He's awake! Tanda's awake!" some bastard shouted as the stretcher on which Jack lay jolted and sent waves of pain running through his legs.

"Stop!" Jack growled through his gritted teeth.

A second later, the two carriers stopped moving and lowered the stretcher down on a patch of soft grass with great care.

Jack wiped away the grime from his eyes as he squinted at the bright-green canopy of a forest.

Soon, his view got blocked by the gathered grinning faces of his friends.

Jack scanned the happy faces with a practiced glance and croaked out "How many did we lose?"

The faces lost their mirth, and a solemn Kuang Bindun said "Eight, Bi Tuohui and Shen Saishuo among them."

Everyone fell silent for a few seconds, and then Ma Ruiman piped up with "But you avenged them all, Tanda." A few quick nods confirmed his statement.

'So the young man with the sword killed Bi Tuohui's squad.' Jack thought in a cold part of his mind as the rest of him spaced out for a while.

Almost a minute later his eyes refocused back on Ma Ruiman as he said "Call me Jack. That's my real name. Tanda was just something that my adoptive family named me. I'll respect them and take their last name, but in my original culture a person's name goes before his family name." He looked up at all of his friends as he concluded "From now on call me Jack Song."

Most of them looked down at him with confusion for a second, and Shi Furui finally asked what all of them wanted to know "Why tell us this now, Ta… Jack?"

With a tired sigh Jack looked up towards the tree canopy, but his eyes looked into the past as he said "I used the name Song Tanda as a cover so that I wouldn't attract too much attention in the Sect. Because of that eight of my friends died without even knowing the name of the person that brought them to their deaths." He focused his gaze back on Shi Furui and continued "I can't tell you some things about myself, yet. But I can at least tell you my real name."

Kuang Bindun's face turned dark as he admonished "What are you talking about? Without you, we would have all died in that wretched place anyway. At least we can die as free men now."

His statement gained a lot of nodding and statements of support from the rest.

Jack sighed after a few seconds of that and gave in to his friends "Fine, you've made your point." But he knew that his dreams wouldn't let him forget it, and he didn't mind.

His brow furrowed a second later as he asked "Why have all of you stopped everything to stare down at me? Go secure the perimeter! Haven't I taught you anything?"

Most of the men chuckled at his faux outrage and walked away to give him some privacy. Only Kuang Bindun and Shi Furui stayed. They sat down next to Jack's two sides and waited for his questions.

Jack released a long breath in response to a stab of pain from his legs. A few seconds later he looked to his two closest friends and said "Report."

Shi Furui and Kuang Bindun exchanged glances, and then Shi Furui started talking "After you passed out we rounded up all of the men and took care of the wounded. A few of us went up to the wall to finish off the still alive enemies and to watch the battle between the Undying Flame Mountain and the Slaughtering Sword School."

Kuang Bindun jumped in and continued "It looked close for a while, but in the end, the Slaughtering Sword School disciples didn't want to risk their lives to seize the victory. Kong Weilie and his men just had more to fight for so they managed to make the Slaughtering Sword School disciples run away in defeat."

Shi Furui added "After that, we joined up with Kong Weilie and ran away from the Sect as fast as possible."

Jack's face relaxed as he asked "How long was I out?"

His friends exchanged glances and Kuang Bindun said "This is the fourth day. We borrowed some special herbs from old Long and kept you asleep until we found a safe place to straighten your legs."

Shi Furui added with a frown "You have numerous breaks and fractures in both of your legs. I hope that the recovery method you got from the Martial Hall works as well as you said it does or you won't be able to walk for at least half a year."

Jack took in the news without a change in his expression; he knew what he risked when he used the Chaotic Hawk Assault. A few months of pain meant nothing when measured against the lives of his friends.

He nodded his head in acceptance and asked "Where are the Undying Flame Mountain disciples and the civilians now?" He couldn't hear any of the noises that hundreds of people would make if they just stayed at a spot.

Shi Furui hesitated, but a second later he straightened his back and said "I decided that we had better chances of survival if we split away from them. If the Slaughtering Sword School decides to pursue after they're done with the Sect, then they will go for the larger target."

Jack studied his friend's tense face for a few seconds before a smile spread across his face as he said "Good job, Furui. I would have done the same thing."

Kuang Bindun cleared his throat from the side as he added "Well, we did take old Long and his assistants, and Tan Boli and his family with us."

Jack's smile didn't disappear as they thought it would, he only gave out a light sigh and said "That's fine. They have their uses and we have enough supplies to support them."

They continued to talk about the small details of supplies and paths taken for the next fifteen minutes.

"Food's ready!" A woman's voice shouted out from the distance and interrupted their discussion.

Both Kuang Bindun and Shi Furui got to their feet in an instant and went to get some food for Jack.

He, on the other hand, closed his eyes in exhaustion and drifted off to sleep.