Akin's Oath

This is what it is like being in the field of battle alone, to feel the weight of despair drown your pain; to discover that to power you possess means nothing in the face of a powerful enemy. Bọlaji had once told him that during the course of a battle, a kind of madness invades the mind of a losing warrior telling him to surrender and beg for his life. That moment has finally come for him; the elder Jama is indeed at a different level compared to the fool Eti-aja.

Oluṣeyi searched through his memory again, working overtime to figure out the weakness of this formidable opponent. "What is his weakness?" He asked himself again. Then his memory started to play the entire battle from the beginning. Oluṣeyi felt his memory carry him back to the point where he almost drowned in a large bobble made entirely of water, he was able to switch out before anything serious happened. The Jama used his cursed speed to close the distance between them and then used an attack, which he called the diamond dust strike. An attack that did a lot of damage to Ṣeyi's tender skin; each particle of dust easily penetrated his tender skin, shredded his clothes and left him sprawled on the forest floor twenty feet away from his opponent. Ṣeyi tried to get up, forcing his aching muscles to obey his command as the elder Jama laughed at his weakness. The Ẹṣọ drew out four throwing knives from his pocket and launched the missiles at the evil assassin hoping to score a hit and buy some time. To Ṣeyi's astonishment, the sand of the earth moved, the sand formed a solid wall blocking Ṣeyi's flying projectiles and saving the laughing assassin the effort of evading such a feeble attack. Ṣeyi refused to be discouraged by the failure of his attack; instead, he jumped into the trees in an attempt to attack the Jama from his blind spot. It seems like the elder Jama can only use one covenant at a time, he observed and it seems like the flow of the attack is following a specific order. Then it hit him, the elder Jama had not fully mastered how to effectively use the soul Ida, this might come in as an advantage.

"Are you hiding?" The elder Jama taunted, "Come out and play"

"Ok," Ṣeyi replied, with a note of humour in his voice.

The next thing that happened, happened so fast that the Elder Jama very nearly didn't see it coming, still, the unusual attack scored; the Elder got struck by a stone at point-blank range. How did the stone reach him without his knowledge, is the boy using a special kind of chant? He wondered.

"You're going to feel that in the morning" Ṣeyi chuckled "Are you sure you are a well-established assassin?" He taunted to the Jama's displeasure.

"If I catch you I'm going to make your death a slow one," the Jama growled in rage

"That is 'IF YOU CATCH ME'" Ṣeyi gloated pleased that he now had a very good combat strategy.

The strategy is quite simple, Ṣeyi used his catapult to launch a stone at the elder Jama and then immediately switched it with a falling leaf closest to the Jamas head, hence scoring a perfect hit. Ṣeyi chuckled, why didn't he use this battle strategy in the first place? It is a pity that he can't use this method, continually, it seems he still needs to fully master the switching chant. As Ṣeyi prepared himself for another attack, he felt a sudden chill in his spine, and then the ground beneath his feet exploded. If he had not instinctively switched himself to a safer location, then the explosion would have claimed his leg or maybe his life. The only question that plagued his mind now was exactly what had he switched himself with; the explosion was so sudden that he did not have time to think. Ṣeyi felt another wave of explosions emerging from the earth, threatening to destroy the entire forest, this Jama has lost it. With each new shock wave, Ṣeyi was thrown about the place, if he had failed to activate his incision, then the natural fortification would not have protected him, he might have been knocked out.

"That is a stolen chant, stolen from the soul of one who knew the secret of Ṣango's stones" he remembered the Jama say.

Ṣeyi tried to move but failed, he had barely recovered from the last attack, and then the assassin struck again. Ṣeyi switched himself away from where he stood in a nick of time because where he once stood, was replaced by a large block of ice. Choosing to run for a while, Ṣeyi moved deeper into the forest in order to give his aching body some time to recover. To his surprise, the Jama followed showering down an endless barrage of rocks, the rocks were large enough to smash open his skull should they hit their mark. Ṣeyi managed to switch himself away from the attack outside the range of the stones. In an attempt to slow down the progress of the Jama, Ṣeyi threw several darts at his enemy, an effort that proved to be useless. Ṣeyi foolishly decided to use his prior strategy on the Jama again, hoping to land another direct hit; this decision had a fatal consequence. The Jama being more cautious than before elongated his Ida and scored a direct hit to Ṣeyi's horror, even though it wasn't a fatal blow, it did do some damage to both his confidence and his body. Logic told him only one thing 'run', Ṣeyi silently gave glory to God, grateful that the injury was not fatal and that the Jama's blade was not poisoned. He had spoken too soon because the elder Jama attacked again, and this time he attacked with flying blades, swords and knives; each weapon bound to its target. Luckily, Ṣeyi switched himself away from the receiving end of such a brutal attack, each projectile came in from every direction closing into its prey. Throughout the entire battle, the Elder Jama has been on the offensive and him on the defensive, "Gbabẹ!" Ṣeyi exclaimed in his exertion "He is winning". Ṣeyi finds it difficult to come up with a winning strategy while the Jama keeps the pressure mounted; the Jama definitely has the upper hand, unless something unexpected happens the Elder Jama is going to win this fight. On the bright side, he has figured out why his chant was not working well; the weakness of his chant is a delay of five seconds, in other words, he can only use switch once every five seconds. The waiting time is more than enough for the enemy to land a finishing blow.

"You must have noticed, boy," the Jama taunted, "the moment you decided to challenge me, you had walked into your death"

"Ean!" Ṣeyi mocked, as he started cleaning his nose "Have you finished displaying that useless power of yours"

The Jama filled with so much rage at Ṣeyi's impudence attacked again, but before his sword scored, a hit Ṣeyi vanished before his eyes replacing himself with a log of wood from one of the fallen trees. He screamed out in rage at seeing how the so-called weak Ẹṣọ was able to evade most of his more powerful attacks, then he used his sword to tear open the fabric of reality in preparation for a summoning ritual. Ṣeyi felt a little safe in his temporary hiding place beneath the ruins of two fallen trees, he needed time to regroup and come up with a new strategy but what kind of strategy can be used on one so powerful? Suddenly a black tentacle slithered into Ṣeyi's place of hiding and tied the helpless boy before he could even attempt to flee. The pain that followed was great, the monstrous tentacle smashed the helpless Ṣeyi through several branches paralysing him with blinding pain before it let go causing him great pain as he made impact with the solid ground. The tentacle attacked again with the full intent of crushing Ṣeyi in one mighty blow, he switched away at the last moment. Ṣeyi appeared standing on the branch of a great tree leaning against the trunk, this Jama is definitely going to kill me he thought in a dispirited tone, the tentacle found him almost immediately and attacked. The tentacle threw the helpless Ẹṣọ towards Akin's hiding place, unknown to both combatants the hunchback listened painfully to every word his best friend had to say.

We fight as One

"Akin," Ṣeyi said

"Yes," Akin replied

"Do you trust me?" Ṣeyi inquired

"With my life" Akin replied, "Ṣeyi, do you trust me" he inquired

"With my life" Ṣeyi replied

"We fight as one," they both said together

The elder Jama sensed that the two boys were about to attack, experience has taught him that an attack from two fronts, is far more effective than a full-frontal attack, now these boys have the advantage, better not to let his guard down. The Jama repeated the summoning ritual, using his Ida to rip open the fabric of reality, the Jama chanted in Yoruba calling forth the hunters of the black realm. What emerged from the rip in the fabric of reality were two gruesome monstrosities each seeming formidable, filled with a strange menacing aura. The two beasts assumed humanoid shapes, but were different where it seemed necessary; the two beings had the appearance of masquerades, meaning that their skin was covered in a strange cloth-like substance from crown to sole. The first one had long snake-like tentacles for arms while the second summon beast lacked the presence of frontal limbs, the rest of their physical features remain indescribable.

"Kill them," the Elder Jama commanded

Ṣeyi and Akin jumped away from the attacking beasts, evading the black tentacles of the first beast. Akin skilfully reached out and grabbed the black tentacles, proving that his strength was greater than that of the beast, as he grabbed the tentacles he used it to throw the monster across the forest in the direction of Ṣeyi's battle with the other fiend. Ṣeyi skilfully evaded the second beast, which seemed faster than the first one, the moment Ṣeyi noticed the tentacle monster coming his way he jumped towards the approaching monster and then switched himself with the second monster, at the moment of Impact. As the two monsters collided with each other there was a loud sonic boom, the entire environment trembled in despair and then the two beasts imploded; the two summoned beasts vanished into thin air without a trace and returned to the cursed realm from which they were summoned.

"Now, Akin attack!" Ṣeyi prompted

Without a single moment of hesitation, Akin jumped towards the Elder Jama fully prepared to strike a vicious blow. The Elder Jama laughed at such foolishness, he had too much time to prepare for such an obvious attack.

"Diamond dust strike" the Jama voiced calmly intending to kill the hunchback in one strike. The concentrated attack hit home dividing the rock that replaced Akin at the last moment into two equal parts to the Jama's shock, then each of the two pieces of the rock changed into Akin and Ṣeyi and they both drove their fist into the Jama's face at the same time sending the evil assassin sailing through the trees.

"Double switch!" Ṣeyi said to himself, nodding in an understanding tone "How ignorant of me" Ṣeyi thought, glad that he knew the reason why it is difficult to use the switch as often as possible. All chants are given a natural time limit, a time limit that changes depending on the level of the chant and the amount of power it feeds on. The Switch is a chant that feeds on very little Agbara so the natural time limit for the chant is 5 seconds, therefore, if he intends to use the chant continuously in battle all he has to do is to be specific with the number of times he wishes to use the chant within that five seconds. The natural time limit is put in place divinely to prevent Ẹṣọs from using too much Agbara during a fight.

"I am going to cut you into a thousand pieces," the angry Jama roared

"Akin" Ṣeyi commanded, "Attack from the left" Akin acknowledged with a nod and then rushed to carry out Ṣeyi's order

Akin dashed towards the Jama's left side while Ṣeyi attacked from the right, the Elder Jama decided to concentrate all his efforts on killing Ṣeyi since he was the one coming up with the combat strategy. If the Jama can kill Ṣeyi quickly then it would be easier to finish off the hunchback without any trouble, as soon as Ṣeyi came close enough to strike the Jama immediately countered with a killing blow, unfortunately, Ṣeyi replaced himself with a stone at the last moment. The soul Ida smashed the stone into a thousand pieces, leaving him wide open for an attack, Akin came in and landed a solid blow in the Jama's gut forcing him into a K position. To the Jama's dismay, Ṣeyi appeared beneath him dealing a solid blow to his jaw disorientating the powerful assassin, then Akin jumped in again taking advantage of the Jama's temporary weakness to deal a couple of more blows. By the time the two boys had ended their full offensive assault, the Elder Jama had become a bloody pulp.

"As I said," Ṣeyi gloated, "I am too much"

The assassin had had enough, he replied the only way he knew how by using the power of his enchanted Ida. The attack was instantaneous, the Jama's blade simply exploded into a large stream of fire, burning the forest and consuming everything in sight including his two opponents. Every green thing in that section of the forest was burnt to ashes, Ṣeyi instinctively switched himself and his best friend to a safer location to escape the flames of the Jama's rage.

"Die! Die" the wrathful Jama screamed

As the Jama's rage abated his Agbara diminished, purely for self-preservative reasons the Jama ceased his attack completely convinced that the two boys were now as good as dead. The Elder Jama looked at the destruction he had caused and smiled, to go through so much trouble just to get rid of two troublesome boys. The result had already been decided, once he has been paid to end the life of someone, he always delivers. Akin's death is fated, no one escapes his blade; "no one ever escapes the blade of the elder Jama" he pronounced loudly.

"So that's it" Ṣeyi exclaimed

"What!" The Jama cried out in despair, the two boys assumed to be dead, stood twenty feet away unharmed by the fire.

"Your weakness," Ṣeyi replied, "I almost gave myself a headache trying to figure it out, I am such a fool. Gbabe! To imagine that your weakness was right there before me, hidden in plain sight and I didn't see it"

"I have no weaknesses, I am the Elder Jama, the crown of all assassins; the one who kills at a cost, nothing can take me down" the assassin replied

"It seems like you think that you are the god of death" Ṣeyi chuckled, "you are not the god of death you're just a man who enjoys killing, today is the day when faith deals out your punishment"

The two boys attacked again, Ṣeyi knew that the Elder Jama lacked the ability to use the flaming attack again; such a powerful chant requires a massive amount of Agbara and the Jama had used up a great deal of his own during the previous attack, which is why such an attack can only be used once during a battle. As the Jama brought down his Ida to unleash a lightning attack nothing happened, then he forced more Agbara into his Ida hoping to force his hunchback opponent away with the stones of Ṣango but to his shock, nothing happened. Akin scored three powerful blows to the already bloody Jama then he sent him flying through the air.

"This is impossible," the Jama uttered in disbelief, why did his soul Ida fail him twice? The assassin raised his sword hand to see if the chant of his blade needed to be renewed and to his absolute disappointment instead of seeing the soul Ida, he found himself holding a stick.

"You always used that Ida of yours to inflict damage," Ṣeyi grinned, "To be honest, I don't think you have any real power, all your power comes from that sword. Nothing I can't handle with a simple switch"

"Give me back my weapon," the assassin demanded.

"So you can kill us with it? No!" Ṣeyi gloated

"This isn't fair, fight me with honour and give me my weapon" the elder Jama demanded

"What isn't fair is when 5 heavily armed assassins visit a village to kill a helpless boy" Ṣeyi mocked, "But who am I to judge"

"Curse you!" the Jama growled

"If I give you back your weapon, then I'm a fool" Ṣeyi replied, "Akin let's finish this"

"Ok Ṣeyi," Akin replied with a smile

The assassin braced himself for the oncoming attack, but without his Ida, he was nothing but a naked, defenceless cat. Akin scored a few more blows knocking the assassin unconscious, and then the hunchback picked the helpless Jama up from the ground and tossed him as far as his oversized arms can throw, the unconscious Jama landed three feet away from the Balogun who had just arrived in time to witness the final scenes of the battle.

The Balogun signed in relief to see the two boys alive and fighting, though Ṣeyi can be seen covered in wounds and Akin a little worse for wares; it is good to see them both in high spirits. The two boys have proven themselves to be true Ẹṣọs of Ilu-inọ village. It is good that the four Jagunas of Ilu-ina had accompanied her on this rescue mission because they would never have believed that Ṣeyi or Akin could have pulled it off, now they must be regretting not recruiting these young talents.

The clouds blocking the sun drifted away, allowing the rays of light passage through the forest canopy bathing the two friends in heavenly light as they stood in the ruins of the aftermath of the battle.

"Ṣeyi, you came back for me," Akin said

"That is what friends are for" Ṣeyi replied, "You're my brother, I will never abandon you" Now Akin had a look of chagrin in his eyes, regretting everything he ever said to his best friend.

"I swear Ṣeyi, I will always be your friend," he vowed, "I swear Ṣeyi I will never think evil about you again, I will always trust you and I swear to always fight by your side. Ṣeyi please forgive me," he wept

"Apology accepted," Ṣeyi smiled "Let's just forget that we ever argued"

"Thank you Ṣeyi," Akin said, throwing his arms around his best friend "Even if it means my life I will defend you"

"I know Akin, because you know I'd do the same for you" Ṣeyi responded

Bojubọle the silent eagle flew out from within the leaves of the trees to land on one of the burnt tree branches closest to the two friends, as it landed on a nearby tree, the bird screeched in Ṣeyi's direction. The two boys smiled at the mysterious bird understandingly.

"Let's go back to the village," the Balogun commanded as she observed the amount of destruction done to the environment, "I am sure you both are exhausted from your ordeal with that Jama"

The two boys looked at the Balogun happily, and stumbled up to greet her; finally, the strain of fighting a prolonged battle was beginning to take effect. The Balogun summoned the healer to take care of the two boys and assigned the Elder Jama to the custody of the Ọtun and Osi-Balogun

Ṣeyi felt completely whole again, now that the bond between himself and Akin was that much stronger, as he smiled into the sunlight, he whispered a silent prayer of thanks to God for protecting his best friend. This is a moment of victory, he thought, a moment of victory not because he has defeated the Elder Jama; it is a victory because he has Akin's trust once more.