The Mafia Empire

61  Chapter 61 The War Cry

  Many of the older men were visibly excited, especially when they saw the lumber axe in Wood's hand. Their blood seemed to boil in that moment. Whether seated or lying down, everyone stood up and gathered around him. They said nothing, simply surrounding Wood in silence, looking at him with eyes full of trust and admiration.

  In that moment, Wood felt something he had almost forgotten during his "gentlemanly life"—a feeling of pure power!

  "Boss, what do we do now?" asked Jim, a short, stocky man wearing a brown waistcoat. His belly looked as if it were stuffed with a bag of flour, and a greasy sheen of sweat covered his bald head. Jim was once one of Wood's most relied-upon subordinates and was known in the city of Ternell as "The Meat Grinder."

  Jim now ran a pet store, dealing primarily in pet food and fierce dogs.

  His pet shop was one of the places Wood's crew had used for disposing of bodies. They would quietly kill their enemies and send the bodies to Jim's shop. Jim would take the knives his father had given him, with the hope that he would become a skilled chef, and carve the bodies into tiny pieces. After adding a few ingredients and dehydrating them, he turned them into thumb-sized chunks of meat, which he mixed into other pet food and sold to the pets of Ternell City.

  His business had once thrived, but as Wood's status rose, his pet store had fallen into near bankruptcy, with few customers.

  Wood's gaze swept over each of the men's faces, finally resting on Jim. "First, find out how many of them there are, who they are, their names, and what social connections they have. Find their hideouts, and then give them a big surprise."

  Jim's wife was from the Guar people, and he could use her connections to investigate them more thoroughly and accurately.

  "Robin, go retrieve our things from the western suburbs. We need them now!"

  Robin, a tall, skinny man in his forties with a sallow complexion, grinned widely, showing his teeth. He raised his hand in a salute, one used by soldiers of the Star Empire. "Yes, boss. By tomorrow, you'll see those beauties!"

  "Jiji, take two people with you tomorrow and withdraw 100,000 dollars for me—in five-dollar denominations!"

  Jiji was a short, muscular man with sharp features and broad shoulders. He had once been an athlete before the war and other events led to the disbanding of the sports clubs in Ternell City. Left without a livelihood, he turned to underground fighting. Before being recruited by Wood, Jiji had already killed three men in the ring and was known as "Claw Jiji."

  He had been Wood's bodyguard for a long time, sharing meals and even staying in the same house.

  As Wood assigned tasks, the once-feared figures of Ternell City felt a surge of untamed power coursing through them. Perhaps, thanks to this matter, their time would come again.

  Having arranged everything, Wood was brimming with confidence.

  He had money, enough to tempt many gangs to his side.

  He had connections, wide ranging, even to the point of being on brotherly terms with the police chief.

  How could he possibly lose?

...

  "He's definitely going to lose!" At the same time, in a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city, Julian declared this in front of many people.

  Both Graf and Dave were surprised, though they had maintained their composure since last night. After all, their opponent was none other than the infamous "Wood the Axeman," a name these young men had grown up hearing about. There was an instinctive, subconscious fear of such a legendary figure.

  Julian knew this, and he needed to lift their spirits, to make them understand that they weren't facing some terrifying beast, but simply another human being like them.

  "I'm not saying this for no reason," Julian said, standing confidently before the group, as if their opponent were just a petty thug. "First, he's in the light, and we're hiding in the shadows."

  The youths widened their eyes, staring at Julian. They needed something to convince them, and they also craved victory. They all knew that if they lost, some of them might die, and the rest would have to leave Ternell City, wandering aimlessly, possibly never returning.

  Never underestimate the memory of these 'previously gang bosses.'—if they hate something, they will remember it for a lifetime."

  But if they won, they would change the entire situation in Ternell City. They would become "respectable people" in the eyes of others, and their words would carry weight within their families. They would also change their family's circumstances, improve the living conditions, let their siblings wear new clothes, and even send them to school.

  Most importantly, they would change their own destinies.

  Win or lose, this was a battle where everything was at stake. So, they needed to hear something that would uplift them, make them go all out before the war broke out—not just sit somewhere, waiting for death.

  Looking at the eager eyes before him, Julian smiled easily. In a relaxed tone, he said, "Look, we all know his name is Wood, and we also know his nickname is 'Wood The Axeman.' We also know the name of his previouse Gang 'The Woodsmen', We know he lives at 93 Wheat Fragrance Gardens, and we know his office is on the third floor of 93 Coastal Avenue. We know he has many underlings, like Robin and Jiji, and we've found out almost all his details.

  "But," Julian's tone shifted, becoming slightly more intense, "what does he know about us? He doesn't know I'm called Julian, he doesn't know that this beast like guy is called Graf, nor does he know that this pretty boy, who looks better than any girl, is called Dave.

  "So, how can he defeat us? Is he going to shoot into the air?"

  This remark made many of the youths laugh. "Shoot" could mean a bullet, or something else entirely—it was an unhealthy double entendre, but it worked well with this group of thugs teenage boys

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