26 Escape from Umahia

Nnenna walked into the inn and proceeded straight to the first free person she saw in an apron. She was aware of the group following them surrounding the inn to ensure no gaps but he was only amused. After they had been assigned to a room with two beds on the third floor and paid for a week, Nnenna told her group to act naturally and that they would be leaving tonight.

So they spent the day seeing the city of Umahia and shopping.

...

Jide was watching Musa and elder Usman spar. Musa tended to still fight as an internal mage and used his new abilities to complement but his blackout and darkness cloak were not at effective against elder Usman's heat vision as Musa had not yet upgraded his darkness cloak to corrode heat. Thus the fight had quick dagger thrust and parryings with side-steps and dodges.

Elder Usman sent a low kick towards Musa as a feint, then stamped his foot down and shifted his weight to his left leg before slashing with his left dagger and following up with a thrust to the stomach with his right dagger.

However, Musa read the feint and ignored it, positioning himself to use his elbow guard to deflect the left hand and turned his body to the side to avoid thrust. Then, Musa rapidly spun behind Usman and executed a vicious backstab with his right dagger but elder Usman had already rolled forward.

Musa charged at elder Usman's rolling figure but the elder sprung up from his crouch and snapped out a quick back kick. Musa was cut unawares and hit squarely in the chest. But Usman was not finished. While still in the air he executed another kick with his other leg but Musa solidified the darkness energy in the air to absorb the kick as he backed up to recover. Just as the fight was about to continue, Hafis stormed in and charged up to Jide saying, "Hey kid, aren't you a warrior, come and spar with the men, no jumping around and hiding in the dark."

Jide just stared at him before responding, "Sure."

...

Back at the Workman's Rest, in a room on the third floor, Nnenna sat before Amaka and Obi and opened up to her friends. She told them how she had grown up as the only child of a successful merchant in a small town but was now an orphan now after a tragic night. However, it was on that day she meet her partner, Kayto; although he had to stay in the building for tamed beasts in the city she could still communicate with him through their mental link- so she would never be alone again.

"So that is my secret. I am an external mage and Kayto is not a tamed beast but a magical beast which I bound. My element is space."

Amaka had revealed different levels of shock and grief as she listened while Obi was forever stoic but still very interested.

"But...but...external mages...do they even exist?" Amaka asked.

"Ha ha how can you ask that when you have one before you." Nnenna responded.

The group absorbed the information in silence but soon an unusual situation occurred.

Obi, who rarely ever talked, said, "We will keep the faith you have put in us. I am a gravity Knight and I will protect you both."

"Huh you spoke Obi...oh yeah Nnenna we will...wow, gravity and space magic...I feel so ordinary." Amaka started excited but her voice trailed off in the end.

"You are anything but ordinary Amaka and Obi, you are full of surprises." Nnenna comforted and joked. "Anyway now we should order our dinner and pretend to go to bed then I will make a spatial tunnel out of this city and Kayto will meet up with us in the surrounding mountains after we have made some headway."

The group proceeded to do what Nnenna instructed and after night had settled in and most of the patrons of the inn had retired to bed, Nnenna concentrated and gathered the spatial energy in her body before forcing it out in a burst to break a spatial tunnel within the room. Then Nnenna and her friends grabbed all their things and moved into the tunnel that closed behind them.

...

Jide and Hafis faced each other on the sparring field.

This would be no practice fight.

Jide unsheathed his great sword and held it to his left side with his body slightly turned. Hafis carried his mace in his left hand and had equipped one of his throwing axe in his right. Even though, Hafis was ambidextrous, he was clearly taking this fight seriously as he wanted the addition power from his right hand in his throws. Hafis was a fire element internal mage like elder Usman but his ability was the burst ability which allowed him to increase his physical abilities to an extreme level for a brief period.

With a roar, Hafis forced the fire energy in his body to flow all around his body and felt a high that always made him feel superior to other mages. His power doubled and his speed and senses increased. Hafis, first threw the axes at Jide and charged at him while arming himself with another axe. Hafis had released the second axe before reaching Jide and moved to a two handed overhead grip of his mace.

However, Jide was already in the instant sync state so although Hafis was faster than him, due to the foreknowledge, he could not only tell what was going to happen but direct the flow of the battle. As the battle progressed, Hafis could not understand how someone with such a large weapon could keep up with his increased speed.

Jide pressured Hafis with large swings of his great sword while sidestepping or dodging to avoid his attacks. The fight became a battle of attrition as it would be decided by who lost the advantage of their ability first.

As the battle reached its climax, Hafis had gotten in close to Jide making his long weapon a disadvantage and unsheathed his final axe to give him multiple weapons. Suddenly, Hafis swung his mace to disarm Jide and moved in close to attack with his axe. But he slashed towards Jide's neck with a move that would be fatal even for an internal mage.

In an instant, blood splashed all over the sparring ground.