27 A notice goes out across Oshodi Kingdom

Unexpectedly, at the end of the fight, the one bleeding was not Jide but Hafis.

Apparently, Jide had seen enough of the future and knew that Hafis energy burst was about to run out. So he did what he was born to do and read the exact time limit of the burst ability and delayed just long enough.

Jide knew that Hafis was going to disarm him so he sacrificed his great sword, throwing it from his hand but in such a way as to intercept Hafis final charge. On seeing the massive great sword coming towards him, Hafis channel his fire energy for one last push and smashed his mace against the base of the sword's blade.

However, Jide had used that distraction to get into Hafis blind spot on his left and with perfect timing, quick deflected Hafis' arm with the throwing axe before unsheathing his dagger and slashing Hafis across the ribs. It was the same place Musa had stabbed in the Challenge by Blood and even though the wound was healed, the skin was still tender.

Jide backed away from the injured Hafis and relaxed into a neutral stance as he felt he had done enough but Hafis wanted to continue the fight despite the wound as his opponent was now only equipped with a dagger.

"That is enough." elder Ladidi said.

It was then that Hafis noticed they had an audience. Most of the elders were here present as well as many of his subordinate warriors. Even some of the clan head's personal guards were in attendance so Hafis was sure that the clan head would hear about the results of the fight. At first, Hafis felt ashamed but soon that shame turned into rage and he left the sparring ground with a unresolved emotions, first amongst them, hatred for Musa and Jide.

Elder Ladidi stared after Hafis for a while before approaching Jide.

"You are a very skilled warrior with the great sword for your age but your movement technique needs refinement even though you seem to be able to read your opponent effectively. However, I suspect you don't know any unarmed combat techniques. I offer to teach you if you are willing to swear and oath to the clan." she said.

"Thank you but my destiny is different." Jide responded.

"Hmm...very well. I will not force you. But I will be interested in sparring with you...not what you did with Hafis...I will like to test this perception of yours." elder Ladidi added.

"I look forward to it honourable elder." Jide replied. Then he retrieved his great sword and went back to join Musa and elder Usman who had also been watching the fight.

...

Amaka was so amazed by the spatial tunnel but equally frightened by the spatial cracks that appeared and disappeared as they progressed down the tunnel. She was in awe of her friend who could make this tunnels and travel great distances in an instance.

And apparently, Nnenna was a lot more proficient in manipulating the spatial tunnels than that night in her room in Mushin as she could pick a certain direction and even create portal gates to view the outside world before crossing over.

Nnenna continued drawing on her internal spatial energy and using it to interact with the spatial energy in the tunnel to extend the tunnel further.

When she was certain they had cross out of Umahia and covered a reasonable distance, she started looking through small gates to determine if it was safe and isolated outside as she didn't want to escape only to have some strangers notice their appearance.

Finally the appeared in the woods in the outskirt of a little town that was about the size of Mushin. They decided to make camp there and Nnenna instructed Kayto to teleport to her location once it was close to day break.

...

Captain Lawal had a problem.

He was a captain of the secret corps tasked with following a group of supposed tourist to Oshodi Kingdom which consisted of a man, two women and a massive beast.

At first the mission seemed like a waste of time as there did not appear to be anything special about the group. In fact, they had not even seemed to notice they were being followed which was a sixth sense that most trained professionals develop.

However, as they followed their targets to the city of Umahia, the noticed that the man in full body armour with a tower shield on his back had superhuman strength due to an incident at the gate.

Therefore, they began to suspect that the group was a team of Knights and he was already contemplating a request for two Knights within the guard of Umahia to be reassigned to his party in the interim as he suspected that he could not handle the situation if his assumptions were correct.

Unfortunately for Captain Lawal, before he could even request for help or take any action, he was informed by a member of his squad that the tamed beast they were watching had disappeared from it pen.

Initially, Captain Lawal did not want to blow his cover in the event that it was only the tamed beast that was missing. But as the day went by and there was no sign from the room in the Workman's Rest, he became worried and other one of his subordinates to infiltrate the room in disguise.

To their shock and horror, there was nobody in the room and in fact the beds didn't look like anyone had slept there.

Captain Lawal couldn't imagine anyone escaping from the fortified city of Umahia so he revealed his identity to the commander of the guards at this city and had them organise a search of the city under a false pretense.

However, they were in for more surprises as there was no sign of the man and two women as well.

It was then that Captain Lawal had to make a tough decision and use the highest means of communication in the Kingdom to send a notice to the military HQ about the disappearance of the supposed spies. What was most distressing was that if they could escape from the fortress city of Umahia, then which city in the Kingdom could he safely say was secure.