“Jesus Christ!” Jonas gagged as he watched Johnson spit a bloody ear onto the ground, and the two of them began kicking that screaming gangster until he fell silent. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Now they won’t hear us coming!” Johnson laughed maniacally as his Sin Scars glowed brighter than Jonas had ever seen them. The duo pounded knuckles, and Jonas smiled because his good friend was okay.

"Let's clean this shit up. We need to take out everyone here and make our way back to the training room. Then, we take over that room, gather our forces, and decide what to do next."

"Fuck yeah. I don't know where Ahmed and the others are, but it doesn't matter. I'm in it until the end, brother."

However, not everyone was happy with Jonas' sudden appearance, and it seemed a bout of grimaces and smiles had grown from the faces of all the brawling slaves, fighters, and guards.

“Ariel, you son of a bitch!” Jed, the guard on Yuki’s payroll, saw Jonas and began fuming. “They’ll fucking tear your ass for this!”

Jed swung his iron rod, and Jonas ducked underneath and responded by kneeing his opponent in the stomach so hard that he bent over and puked his breakfast all over the ground. Jonas punched the side of Jed's chin, and the gangster fell unconscious.

“Jonas!” Theo cried. “Get me the fuck out of here!” Jonas turned to find that someone had shoved Theo into a cage and knocked it over on its door, which prevented him from escaping.

“Christ, this is heavy,” Jonas’ muscles inflated as he lifted the cage and stood it back upright. “I don’t have the fucking key!” However, he recalled the last time he broke the lock on a cage using True Sin. "Okay, hold on."

Jonas slit his finger against a sharp edge of the cage, and then he pressed the bleeding tip against the keyhole of the padlock.

"What are you doing?"

"Hold on, I need to concentrate," Jonas let the blood drip inside and held the lock tightly in his grip. 'Break,' he channeled his Sin Scars, and he imagined the blood was corroding the locking mechanism, rendering it useless. Jonas heard a faint creaking noise and pulled the lock with all his might. There was a snapping sound, and he pulled the lock right off.

"How the hell did you do that?" Jonas opened the cage door and tossed the lock to Theo, who caught it and examined the inside. "You melted the internal mechanism. It looks like you filled it with acid."

"I'm pretty great, I know," Jonas flashed a grin.

“Watch out!” Theo yelled, but Jonas reacted too slowly. An iron rod crashed against the side of his skull, and he saw bright stars light up his vision. It felt like his legs might give out, and he would fall unconscious, but he willed himself to stay upright, turned around, and glared daggers at a gangster who looked like he had just seen a ghost. Jonas jumped and superman-punched the guard into a coma.

"Goddammit, that fucking hurt," Jonas gingerly touched his skull and saw that blood had covered his fingers. 'Heal,' he put pressure on the wound, and within seconds it sewed itself back shut, though the pain was still tormenting his brain.

Jonas had performed four types of True Sin in less than two hours, and each time he did helped grow his confidence and made him feel like an elite Sinner. If he continued to develop like this, neither Garth nor Howard Hurts would be his match.

"You're okay, big guy!" Theo clapped Jonas on the shoulder and packed the broken padlock into his right fist. "Thanks for the save. Let's finish this up!" Theo saw a guard beating one of his fellow slaves and ran over to help.

Most Hurts' gangsters were capable of Sin, though their talent was the same as the average gladiator. However, even armed with iron rods, the guards began to lose the battle, and Jonas watched their numbers dwindle as more slaves joined the fight while Johnson, himself, and a handful of blue-collar fighters continued to knock them unconscious.

“What are you two doing?” Jonas yelled at two slaves standing with their backs against the wall. “Do you want freedom or not?” They gulped and gave each other hesitant looks.

"What should we do? We can't fight."

"You don't have to fight. Grab keys from the unconscious guards and be sure all your fellow slaves are free. Then I want you all to take the guards and lock them in the cages. Let's see how they like it for a change," the two slaves nodded and pelted off to do as Jonas had told them. Eventually, the sound of fighting died out as they defeated the last guards.

"Stuff them in cages!" Johnson laughed gleefully. "Throw away the keys!"

"No slave gets left behind," Jonas scanned the room to see the result of the brawl. There were a dozen slaves, three blue-collar fighters, Theo and Johnson, and they all remained upright and conscious.

"Listen up, everyone!" Jonas raised his voice, so all could hear. "If you haven't guessed already, this is a prison break and your best chance at escaping this place. If you want to stay behind and be a slave forever—be my guest. If not, listen to my commands, and I'll do my best to make sure you leave this place alive."

"We're all with you, Jonas," Theo spoke for the slaves. "What's next?"

"Johnson and I are going to head back and help the others. You three fighters," Jonas pointed to the blue-collar gladiators. "Help them lock up all the guards. Be sure to wake up the unconscious slaves and meet us back in the training room. No man left behind, got it?" The three gladiators nodded their heads.

"Theo, I need you to help everything go off without a problem. Grab their iron rods and keys, and take their Hell phones too. We don't want them contacting anyone for help."

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"You heard the boss!" Theo beckoned a few of his friends. "Grab the keys, grab the rods and the phones, and stuff these bastards into cages. No slave gets left behind!"

"Good," Jonas nodded his head and took a deep breath. "Johnson, let's do this."

"Simon better not have let me down," Johnson cracked his neck and followed Jonas out of the storage room, down the hallway, and back into the training room. When the remaining guards saw top-five Jonas Ariel return unscathed, they panicked because they knew things were bad.

"Retreat!" One of the gang captains shouted. "Head for the door, retreat!"

“Ralph!” Jonas yelled. “Help Simon block the door! Nobody escapes!” Ralph charged toward that screaming guard and began fighting him. While Jonas, Johnson, and Pete sprinted to the door to stop the rest from escaping and alerting the rest of the complex.

Ralph knocked the guard captain unconscious, and the remainder panicked as they abandoned their fellows and sprinted for the door.

“Not happening,” Ralph grabbed two guards by their necks, bashed their skulls together, and tossed them aside. Unfortunately for the gangbangers, Jonas' riot outnumbered the members who had reached the door. Simon had a small pile of bodies built up around him, and it was apparent that he took his role as gatekeeper very seriously.

The cleanup of the remaining guards didn’t take long, and Jonas watched the slaves and fighters disarm the guards and beat them senseless with their iron rods.

“Enough!” Jonas yelled. "Grab their phones and smash them! We don't want the rest of the complex alerted that there's a fucking riot going on underneath their noses. Simon, how long has it been since the riot began?"

"No longer than fifteen minutes," he channeled his cloud-shaped Sin Scars and began snapping a hell phone in half. "There's got to be over thirty unconscious guards. That means there aren't many left in the rest of the gang. Probably a few in the barracks, working out, or guarding the exits."

"Good!" Jonas exhaled another deep breath. "We've got five minutes to finish. Disarm the guards, grab our fellows, and then move out!"

It seemed the rest of the fighters had no qualms with taking Jonas' orders, even those who had formerly belonged to Wolf's gang. With dozens of people working together, it took only a few minutes to accomplish all the tasks. Just as Jonas and the rest were finishing up, Theo, the three blue-collar fighters, and all the surviving slaves came out from the hall and into the training room.

"Good work!" Jonas clapped Theo on the shoulder. "How did it all go?"

"Everything went fine," Theo sighed. "Unfortunately, we lost a few slaves, but we grabbed everything you requested and stuffed all the guards into the cages. That felt wonderful to do, by the way."

"Their sacrifice won't be in vain," Jonas felt his stomach grow numb with pain. The guards had been much more heavy-handed against the rebelling slaves, who didn't have any Sin to protect themselves. "Pass the remaining hell phones around. I'll give a few final notices and then move to the next phase," Theo nodded.

"Okay, gather around," Jonas cracked his knuckles and waited for his crew, the slaves, and the fighters. Altogether, there must have been over forty people on their side. "First, does anyone know why the other top-fives didn't show up?"

"Not at all. I'm guessing Xiao Lin or Garth ratted us out," said Johnson.

"That wouldn't make any sense, though," Simon interjected. "If they ratted us out, why wouldn't they stop the riot before it began?"

"I agree with Simon," said Ralph. "Something strange is going on."

"They may all be with Howard and Thomas right now," Pete crossed his arms. "Maybe he brought them to the VIP lounge to show off the strength of the Hurts gang to the other gang leaders?"

"That's very reasonable," Jonas nodded. "That would explain why Xiao Lin came to get Ahmed. Let's assume Pete's hypothesis is correct. It means the plan is still good, and the gang leadership is unaware. The escape plan remains the same: make our way to the entrance hall and wait for them to open the door."

"Sounds good, bro," Jaden popped into view and pounded knuckles with Jonas. "We should get moving. We want to make it to the entrance hall before Howard and company show up."

"I'm getting the fuck out of here. You can decide whether you follow me," then Jonas turned and opened the door. Not a single person remained behind, and Jonas was about to lead them down the hall when he heard some yelling from the back of the group.

“Ralph, let go of me!” Jonas weaved through traffic and found that Ralph had picked a person up by the scruff of their neck and was dangling them in the air.

“Ah,” said Jonas. “Terry Coleman, did you want to escape with us?”

Jonas had never forgotten about the backstabbing incident that almost caused his death. However, he had never planned on killing Terry Coleman, who suffered beatings every day from the fighters who wanted to stay on Jonas' good side. Terry had lived a miserable existence since he chose the wrong team, and not killing him was probably a much worse fate.

“Jonas,” Terry was bleeding from the head. “I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but I was never part of Wolf’s group. It was a mistake! I'm sorry! I had no choice because he made me stab you. He threatened me!” He pleaded with a panicked voice and stared teary-eyed at Jonas.

“No choice?” Jonas grimaced. “How can you say that with a straight face? You could have been honest with me, and my crew would have protected you. Terry, you had a choice, and you chose wrong,” Terry Coleman’s expression turned ugly as he realized things weren’t about to go easy for him.

“Jonas," his voice cracked. "You’re a forgiving guy, aren’t you? You forgave Pete, you forgave Ralph. I’m sorry, I’m sorry for what I did. Please forgive me!”

“I forgive you,” Jonas nodded. He received strange looks from all his friends who were watching.

“Put me down,” Terry yelled at Ralph. “Please,” he quickly added.

“Put him down, Ralph," Jonas crossed his arms. “But make sure you put him back where he belongs," Ralph seemed to understand.

“W-what?” Terry Coleman’s eyes bulged as Ralph threw him back into the fight pits, and he yelped as he hit the stone floor and slid a distance. “Jonas!” Terry screamed as he clambered to his feet; however, the last thing he saw was Jonas’ indifferent expression while closing the door.

“I forgive you,” said Jonas. “That doesn’t mean you can escape with us,” Terry watched as the wooden doors were closed, and he ran as quickly as he could to try and pry them open, but they wouldn't budge. Ralph had already locked them from the other side.”

“Jonas!” Terry screamed.“Jonas, please!” He felt absolute terror as tears leaked from his green eyes while hate and regret filled his heart. He turned his head and watched as a few of the gangsters began to wake up from unconsciousness, and when they saw Terry, they gave him evil glares.

On the other side of the door, Jonas sighed as he prepared to lead the riot into the main entrance and prepare for the final assault.

“I thought you were about to let him come,” said Johnson.“I would've slapped the shit out of you.”

“Let him escape with us?” Jonas gazed at the banging wooden door with a complicated expression. They could still hear Terry's muffled screams. “I don’t think we could trust him with our backs turned, do you?”

“Nope,” said Simon. “What now?”

"Let's try and make it to the entrance hall. Howard should be returning from the arena at any minute now. Then we make our final stand."