Chapter 49: Group Fight.

Alexander responded by raising his fist and smashing it into their face. His fist hit what should have been flesh but felt like rubber. The Small Boss’s nose caved in immediately, with black blood leaking from the injury.

He had caught the man by surprise. Then the punch knocked the Small Boss’s head back.

"You little shit. You’ll pay for that," they swore and cursed at him.

But Alexander didn’t allow them to retaliate. He jumped from his seat and struck the man again.

This time, the Small Boss was knocked to the ground. As they fell, Alexander followed and kept hitting them. He didn’t speak, and he didn’t let up for a moment.

Around him, the room fell into chaos. All the Small Bosses who had been shouting earlier took his action as a signal to escalate. They rushed forward to tackle the three of them.

Some had been arguing for fun, but when Alexander resorted to violence, they stood their ground with the group. They just couldn’t watch the new guys mess around without teaching them a lesson.

15 people rushed 3 targets. Robert and Barnabas stood up immediately to fight. It was as if they too had been waiting for this. Neither side gave in.

One of them shouted at Alexander, saying, "You rabid beast."

Then they kicked Alexander in the face.

Alexander felt his head ring loudly before another person struck him. Before he could react, they surrounded and overwhelmed him.

Five Small Bosses attacked a single flesh titan. Each was stronger, more experienced, and a better fighter. One of them could beat a flesh titan alone, so five at a time was overkill.

Alexander, Barnabas, and Robert didn’t stand a chance. The three were beaten until they couldn’t raise a hand to resist. That was because their arms were now broken.

But their arms weren’t the only things that had been damaged. Their skulls were fractured, their necks twisted unnaturally, bones in their arms and legs protruded awkwardly, ribs in their chests were exposed, and they were covered in blood from cuts all over their bodies.

After beating them, the Small Bosses walked away and left the second floor. Even those who hadn’t joined the fight left the scene so they wouldn’t be associated with it.

Within a few seconds, only the three flesh titans and one human girl remained at the scene. Of the four, the weakest was the only one who could still walk.

"That was stupid," the worm said to Alexander. "You shouldn’t have started a fight you couldn’t win."

"Now you’ve wasted a lot of energy. This is yesterday all over again."

Alexander coughed up some blood as he said, "I had to do it."

He heard the boiling argument, but he didn’t join in because he had more important things to do. He had a meal to finish, a worm to teach about farming, and zero fucks to give about his peers’ opinions.

He truly didn’t care what the other Small Bosses thought of him. And even if he had nothing else to do with his time, he still wouldn’t join the argument.

Unfortunately, by staying quiet and minding his business, he took on a few properties of easy prey. As predators, they didn’t miss his weakness. Since it was their instinct to attack the weakling first, they decided to target him first.

The Small Boss might not have known what they were doing or why they targeted him, but he knew. He knew why because it had happened to him many times.

He had been picked on back on Earth and here in the Obsidian Maw because he always liked to avoid confrontations. He didn’t want trouble, but trouble always came to him because he didn’t have what it took to resist.

So he said, "I know bullies. They like to pick on the weak. No amount of talking would have gotten me out of that situation."

"That black-skinned bastard wanted to pick on me and would have done so no matter how amiable I behaved. So we were going to fight anyway."

"Rather than let him get the drop on me, I decided to strike first. I knew I would lose, but I had to show him that he would pay for picking on me. I had to show them that I wouldn’t be easy to deal with, or they would pick on me every day."

"Most importantly, I had to fight because my days of being meek and bullied are over," he said, gritting his teeth through the pain.

"Fine, you had to fight. But be prepared to make up for this loss with a lot of food," the worm said, relenting.

"Why don’t you cut me some slack and ease off the hunger for today?" he asked with a grin.

"Never!" the worm said, hissing at him as if he just said something blasphemous. "You’re better off asking me to die."

Alexander wasn’t surprised by this response. He was already used to the gluttony worm’s bottom line, so he laughed after hearing the rejection.

But the worm didn’t think this was a laughing matter. It kept berating Alexander, saying, "What a stupid, stupid, stupid thing to say."

"What if I asked you to stop breathing for the day? How would you like that?"

"When you can stop breathing for a day, ask me again not to try to eat for a moment. What an idiot."

While the worm was giving him a talking-to, his broken body knitted itself back together. It was a slow, painful process, and his hunger grew with every moment it lasted, but he was glad for it.

As it happened, he was the first to be able to walk. The other two were still groaning and cursing their enemies while he stood up, walked over to his chair, and dropped his buttocks into it.

Then he buried his head into the incomplete sheep and resumed slurping it up like a drink, the most delicious drink that is.