39 Escape

For some unknown reason, Ubong felt a strong sense of danger. She instinctively harnessed the light energy flowing through her body and magnified her light eyes ability. Suddenly, she noticed a blur in the shape of a man that she could only make out now because he was in her peripheral vision. However, he was too close for her to use her bow, so she screamed, "Pattern 4."

Moments later, blood splashed on the floor.

...

Musa was completely lost in his wrath as all he could think about was killing the hateful woman who had shot elder Usman. But even in his emotional state, Musa's training still conditioned him to avoid a head-on approach; as such he rushed to the woman in the white flowing robes with the longbow from the opposite side of the man in armour with multiple javelins strapped to his back and a spear in his hands.

He felt he was being overly cautious as he noticed that neither of the two had noticed his presence even though it looked as if the woman could still see despite his blackout ability. However, as Musa closed in on his target, he couldn't resist leaking some killing intent and everything changed.

...

Chijioke was lost in this darkness wondering why all the lights in a hallway leading to the throne room would be so dark but he assumed that it must be a defense mechanism of an assassin clan... unfortunately for them, Ubong was here beside him so he was not worried. Just as he was about to ask her what was happening, he heard her scream 'Pattern 4' and reacted instinctively.

Pattern 4 was the fourth style of the soaring dragon spear art and Chijioke who had been drilled since childhood in his family's style reacted immediately swinging his spear around himself with immense centrifugal force.

Meanwhile, Ubong who knew what was going to happen had already thrown her body backward in a roll. Musa was too fixated on his target and attempted to follow her with his strike but soon his sense of danger triggered and he tried to pull back but it was already too late.

A sharp pain tore into the side of Musa's face and continued to destroy both of his eyes rubbing Musa of his first ability dark sight. As Musa felt the pain of loss, his weakness to fear started up again but luckily, he was no longer alone.

...

Obi had noticed that it was easier to ignore Tunde's persuasion when he increased his weight and so he had been expended a lot of energy, both physical and gravitational, to increase his weight but carry his body so as to not be noticed. Thankfully, the new Sabi Sect's base was underground and so the hard rock soil would not reveal anything.

At first, he had been excited at the chance to find out more about his old home and any possible family but he soon realized that Tunde was as slippery as an eel never divulging anything and Obi suspected it was not as a means to hide information but from a lack of knowledge. However, Obi still maintained his stoic manner as Nnenna had already communicated to him that they would leave this night. In fact, they had only stayed this long to humor Amaka.

...

"Ha ha ha... it is good that you were skilled at sneak attacks and evasion but what will you do if you don't succeed immediately and can't escape. But now, even with just this few days of training with the rapier you can now drift in and out of awareness while fighting... ha ha ha... with three ...no two more years, I could make you into one of the deadliest fighters." Amaka said as she hugged a beaming Amina.

They had just returned to the improvised dinning hall of the new sect after a training session that Amaka knew would be their last. Although, Nnenna did not want to reveal the fact that they were leaving, Amaka wanted to give Amina a hint in case she wants to leave with them, however it seemed the little girl had not noticed at all. Just as Amaka was planning to push a little further, Nnenna rushed into the dinning hall and signaled to Amaka one word in their hunter sign language, 'trouble'.

...

Lola was finally pleased that this wretched mission was over. She had been spying on this lame excuse for a sect for over five years! Five years and nothing worthwhile had happened except for petty theft and useless Tunde thinking his words were gold. Admittedly, his ability was useful but he was such a spineless coward with delusions of grandeur that he was comfortable being the king of this mud hill.

But everything changed when Obi returned.

Now, she had made a meritorious contributions to her clan and even though she was not one of the 'blessed' Knights, she would be rewarded handsomely. It seems the Patriarch was a man of vision; even though all the major clans and sects had mostly abandoned their investigation of the new Sabi Sect as the joke it was, he had taking a risk on the chance that someone useful might return. And he was right.

Therefore, Lola had immediately contacted her clan by messenger bird and now the sect's underground lair was already surrounded with all the emergency escape routes watched. They would likely be closing the net now as she had noticed their subtle signs. It would only be a matter of time before they bagged the big fish.

...

Nnenna barged into Tunde's office were Obi was with Amaka and Amina behind her cutting Tunde off mid-sentence.

Tunde looked to the intrusion with a frown that was quickly replaced with a condescending smile. He was preparing to use his ability to make them leave but Nnenna stream-rolled over him.

"Obi, it is time to go. I am sorry to tell you but your old sect is gone and this new one will not survive the night."

Tunde was furious at the sound of this and manipulated the sound energy to induce fear before howling, "How dare you!"

Tunde was expect everyone to quiver in fear, even including his own guards only because he lacked fine control, but was surprised when it was only his own guards that were affected. He could understand Obi resisting but he was clueless as to how the others were alright. Unknown to him, Nnenna had been working on creating barriers with space elements and while she could not yet use it in battle, she could still isolate the vibrations from Tunde's persuasion.

Nnenna frown at Tunde for a minute but soon sighed and said, "I am giving you a chance to save as many of your people as you can. This place is surrounded and the people outside have secured all your secret tunnels. You need to escape now before they act."