16 Greetings from the family

Jide finished his sword routine with his great sword balanced vertically before him and the broadside of the sword facing forward. The sword was heavy for anyone who was not a mage and had been picked up along the way on their journey. It had only one sharp edge that covered to a point at the tip and the sword, when strapped diagonally onto its short sheath at his back, ran from his ankles to his shoulder with its hilt stretching from his shoulder to well above his head. As such the great sword had to be sheathed horizontally and left to settle afterwards, a task that took Jide a long time to master smoothly.

Ever since that night when Jide's time ability had helped him synchronise present and future, Jide had always practiced with a sword that was at the limits of the weight he could endure and had called that ability time sync. But he was not able to control it at will as it only happened when he managed to lock in the transition period between a far-off vision and his present awareness. In addition, it was only beneficial if the vision involved Jide, himself, practicing a skill or activity which he could mimic. However, Jide was not discouraged as he had merged his short-term visions control with his time sync ability to create his trump card, which created an ability he found easier to use.

Jide turned to Musa and said, "Musa come and spar with me. I want to practice my instant sync ability."

"Ha ha ha. I am not sparring with you when you are using that cheat ability" Musa replied as Jide's questions brought him out of his heavy thoughts.

"Huh...a real mage actually talking about cheat skills. Considering your abilities I should be the one to complain. But I guess we can't only reveal what you are until we are stronger and have more backing..."

Just as Jide said this, a four man team of black leather armoured assassins scaled the fence and rushed a them. One person detached from the group and attacked Jide while the other three threw a smoke powder at Musa and rushed in once it detonated.

Jide's assailant was expecting to easily dispatch Jide as he opened with a flying shriuken and moved in close with twin daggers.

Although Musa had warned Jide that his family was likely to attack in order to kidnap Musa and so he should hide the fact that he was an internal mage as much as possible, Jide figured that no one would be the wise if he used his instant sync ability.

Time seemed to slow down for Jide until everything stopped. The dust in the air, the smoke spreading around Musa, the assailant coming towards him lead by the flying shriuken, everything seemed to freeze as Jide activated his ability. He could feel the time energy flowing in his boy and focus on his mind and them in the space of less than a millisecond, Jide saw the next five minutes of the future.

...

"Nnenna, Nnenna. I can't believe you are already a silver level hunter and your not even 16 years old yet...Ah ah I wish I was a beast tamer as well."

"Its not only because I am a beast tamer, Amaka. It is also because of master teaching me survival skills and archery." Nnenna smiled mischievously at the tall dark-skinned girl, who had short blond hair and carried a crossbow and rapier, in front of her. Amaka, who was an apothecary/healer in the mercenary guild, was also required to know how to defend herself and as most healers were beast tamers for their own protection, she was thus envious of Nnenna. However, Amaka was deadly with her crossbow and easily the finest with a rapier in the entire mercenary guild of Omole.

There were many different roles under the mercenary guild that were usually stand alone organisations in other countries because of the small number of qualified participants in the State of Ife. Omole was not a trade or information hub if you didn't count the business in monster parts but all the wanderers that could defend themselves or adventurers looking for an epic tale or warriors down on their luck, all seemed to find their way to Omole.

As such the city was a wild one and a bit lawless; even though the high walls and strong internal force kept the monsters at bay, care must be taken with the monsters in human skin. As such, almost everyone in Omole had some source of strength or backing.

Nnenna and Amaka had just returned to their own backer, one of the master hunters of Omole. Master hunter Nkeiru was a small woman that looked to be in her fifties but don't let her appearance deceive you. Although she only looked like someone's strong but firm grandmother, except for the gruesome scar across her face that destroyed her left eye, she was easily the deadliest archer in the State of Ife and some of the surrounding States. She was the leader of the Night Owls group and was partial to disadvantaged girls in Omole. That didn't mean there were no men in her hunter's group, evidenced by Obi who was waiting for Amaka and Nnenna outside.

Obi looked at Nnenna expectantly.

"Yes I passed, I am now a silver level hunter." Nnenna answered with a smile then continued, "Is master in, I need to talk to her?"

Obi nodded and turned around to lead the way to her master. Nnenna was a bit apprehensive as she didn't feel like she had repaid Nkeiru's kindness for taking her in but she would still have to tell her benefactor she was leaving...and may even be taking a few others.

...

Abdul could not believe what was happening to him.

He was a trained assassin with over 20 years experience ever since he turned 12 year old but the man in front of him was beyond anything he had ever experienced.

He had started off by throwing a flying shriuken as a feint and quickly utilized the shadow waltz technique to get behind his prey. Although he looked big and his great sword was massive there was still something youthful in his eyes so Abdul was not concerned. He layered multiple attacks in an aggressive offence to finish his prey quickly, making sure that his twin daggers always went for a vital area and struck from a blind spot.

However, it was as if the man had eyes all over his body. With the slight of movements, despite appearing so average, he was able to evade all of Abdul's attacks until Abdul felt a heavy blade press against his neck. Knowing that he would not survive, Abdul was at least relieved that his distraction had bought enough time for the others to kill or kidnap Musa depending on his skills.

But when the dust settled, Abdul could not believe what he saw.

...

Musa had been at home in the darkness created by the smoke powder but his assailants had added a neurotoxin to the powder and had attacked him three against one because they knew he was a dark element aspected mage. Unfortunately for them, Musa was now an external mage so he used the darkness element to corrode the neurotoxin then cloaked himself with the darkness cloak. The three assailants were shocked when they could not sense his presence and even more so when attacks came at them from the darkness.

Before the smoke had cleared, Musa had knocked out the two of the three assailant and subdued the third.

Musa smiled to the only conscious assailant remaining and said to him, "Now now is that anyway to greet family."