The first thing Gab did was ignore Evie and turn his attention to the blonde.
"Thank you for helping me. Without you, I probably would have died," Gab said with a smile.
"Don't mention it, boss," she replied.
"How many people did we lose in that attack," Gab asked while switching his gaze from the blonde to the one-eyed one.
"We lost about six men. Every dead one hurts, but we can be thankful that it was only six, and not more," the man answered while looking angrily at Evie.
Gab just nodded and then asked coldly, "Evie do you have something to say."
"yes-yes. Four of them died because of me since I couldn't control myself," she stammered and looked to the side.
Gab just swung his hand and slapped Evie hard.
"Why," Evie only whispered.
"You put not only me but the whole team in danger just because you couldn't control yourself. Six people are dead, and you ate every one of them. Instead of trying to apologize to anyone. You just remained silent. Normally you should be executed for such stupid behavior," Gab replied coldly.
"You're no better, Luke. I don't want to see such actions again," Gab commented with fury.
"And what if it does happen again," Luke mockingly responded.
"Then I'll kill you myself," Gab returned, pulling out his ax.
"I doubt it, and besides, you're not the one to decide that," Luke replied as he pulled out his spear.
The current situation angered Gab, and he was seen leaping towards Luke with both his axes, who calmly threw several bone spears. Gab automatically dodged them. When Gab got close to Luke, he swung his ax against Luke's skull.
Bone spikes shot out of Luke's body and pierced Gab's lower body in midair. "Give up, Luke. I won," were the words everyone in the cave could hear.
In front of everyone, they saw Luke standing still with Gab's ax pressed against his neck.
"What is the price for disobeying your words," Luke sighed.
"Your hand is the price for ignoring the leader's words," Gab replied coldly.
"Alright," Luke answered, slowly taking one of Gab's axes. Without blinking, he chopped off his left hand.
One could see him gritting his teeth, trying to suppress the pain.
"Well then, we've settled that too," Gab spoke as he began to limp towards a rock.
Only after he sat down did he call each member of the group over.
"From now on, I expect each of you to be loyal to our group. Anyone who ignores my words and puts the group at risk by their actions will lose a limb. Anyone who cannot keep up with us will be abandoned, from now on," Gab shouted as he stared coldly at each of the group members.
Evie just swallowed. She never expected Gab to be so cold, let alone give Luke the order to chop off his hand.
"Is that the Gab I knew? I always imagined him to be naive, wanting to play as group leader. Actually, I should be the one to lose my head," went through Evie's head.
Luke's hand stopped bleeding after a short while and a hand grew out. It was made of bones. At the same time, Luke's head was throbbing with veins.
The other three squad leaders under Gab just nodded.
All Gab had done was to remind everyone that his words were law and that anyone who put the team in danger or ignored his words would receive their rightful punishment.
"That should be enough to put the other three squad leaders at ease," Gab whispered to himself.
Luke handed out bone arrows to each archer. After he was done distributing arrows, Gab just called out, "We're moving on now," and everyone followed him silently.
Luckily for them, they only encountered 30 mutants on their journey, which they killed without breaking a sweat. At the same time, they united another group, which consisted of about 11 people to their group.
Unfortunately, the former leader of the group tried to take advantage of Gab's blonde subordinate.
"So, so, someone really has the nerve to give in to his urges in front of his leader in a dungeon where everyone is fighting for life and death," Gab exclaimed while cleaning his fingernails with a small knife made of bone.
Several men dragged a tightly bound man toward Gab.
"Please forgive me, oh great lord. It was never my intention...," pleaded the man who was about six feet tall.
"You will be the exemplar today for your former group members. Express your gratitude to your former leader. He has agreed to sacrifice himself for you because, without him, you wouldn't know what happens when you ignore the words of your new leader," Gab shouted with laughter at a campfire while all the group members gathered around him.
Luke silently handed Gab a bone spear, and Gab embedded each of the spikes into one of his limbs, and the man just cried out.
"Shut up," Gab uttered, and spat at him. He then had each of his limbs chopped off piece by piece. In the end, Gab gave the order to move on while leaving a bleeding man behind.
Gab's group encountered other smaller groups of people on their way. Although they still encountered mutants from time to time, they killed them all with a few shots from their bows.
In the end, Gab's new small army consisted of about 80 people. 30 archers, 20 crossbow users, and interestingly, he now had 10 mages who obeyed him. Unfortunately, there would have been 11 mages if one of them had not challenged his position as the new leader.
"I may not be a mage, but I'll chop your heads off faster than you can cast your spells," were the words that ran chills down each mage's spine.
In the end, the group reached the end of the first floor. There, two familiar people were waiting for Gab.
Odebus and the princess.
"A difficult decision, but Odebus has precedence," Gab muttered, kneeling before him with all his men.
Odebus nodded and continued to drink from his goblet, bored.
"You'll get twice as much time for the next corridor. I hope you won't disappoint me," were the only words that left Odebus' mouth.
Gab just nodded, and the cats jumped to them. Gab pressed his two cats against him. By now, they had reached a length of 30 centimeters.
A short time later, Gab knelt down to the princess, who only replied: "Here in the dungeon, we are at eye level. Sit down with me, honored leader. We should talk about our future cooperation."
The princess's army was now twice as large as Gab's small army.
It was only now that Gab realized that the princess's army had never needed the help of the three at the time, and had allowed themselves to be helped to see their hidden cards of the former trio.
Thx for the chapters!