A Tale of Five Bandits - Episode 22

 

The masked man descended the podium, jinking his way through the hectic square. A villager lobbed a rake at him. He caught the rake midair, executed a pirouette and threw the rake back at the villager. The villager collapsed with the rake poking out from his throat.

The masked man stood at a distance studying Sewa’s movements, “Not bad but put more strength in your arms”, he said to her, “Put your waist in your swings. Bend your knees when you move . Yes, that’s better... very impressive”. He commended her.

Sewa raised her eyebrow confused and irritated because she knew his tips were helpful and she found herself following his advice. 
She fixed her sword at him threateningly “It’s your turn now”.

“You are outmatched here. I am not your mate”, the masked man calmly stated.

“We will see”, Sewa yelled as she lunged at him. She thrust and jabbed at him but failed to hit her mark as he danced gracefully away from her attacks with his hands still clasped behind his back. She poked at his sides and slashed diagonally but he sidestepped her assaults with ease. She began to pant tiredly as she felt her body become fatigued and weary

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/a-tale-of-five-bandits

. She gripped her sword tightly and snarled at him. She sprinted, moving faster than ever as she swung sideways aiming for his neck but he ducked her attack. She tried to kick him but he rolled away. Before he could stand, she dashed to meet him with her sword raised high over her head. Before she could bring the blade down, his hand struck like lightning. She staggered back not knowing what hit her. All she knew was that her nose was broken and spewing blood.

Duro circled the masked man and tried to stab him from behind but the masked man sidestepped effortlessly like he had eyes behind his head.  He seized Duro’s wrist and smoothly drove his palm backwards, breaking his bone in his wrist. Duro whimpered in pain.
“You are not so smart”, the masked man said calmly. He then gripped the broken wrist tightly, turned it with the palm facing upward and palmed Duro’s elbow and in one sudden move, raised his elbow high and simultaneously forced Duro’s forearm down. His arm snapped like a dry stick. Duro’s scream could be heard even above the turmoil. All eyes fell on the masked man clutching a badly twisted hand of a man crying on the ground.

“Now be a good boy and go to sleep”, he said to an agonized Duro who passed out from the pain.

Sewa felt her heart squeeze at the sight of Duro’s disfigured hand. She snarled and bared her teeth at the masked man. She clutched her dagger and heaved it at the masked man’s right shoulder, “He will dodge to the left. They always fell for it”, she thought to herself.

Even as the dagger still flew midair, she was already on her feet getting into position as she poured her weight behind one last swing. She was going to end him with a decapitation and his severed head will taste the sole of her foot before she charred it to ashes. She could see it now and she would make sure of it.

         
Summoning all of her strength into her arms and waist, she swung her sword as the masked man sidestepped to the left away from the dagger, just as she predicted.

Once again, disbelief and shock displaced hope and expectancy as the masked man clapped her sword mid-air, bringing it to a halt just a few inches from his neck.

“Is that the best you can do?” the masked man asked calmly “I thought I would be more entertained”.

He pulled a dazed Sewa and head-butted her face. He held on to a stumbling Sewa and rammed his fist into her face. Sewa collapsed to the floor stunned as blood mixed with tears smeared her face.

Sewa found herself shrinking away from him, terrified of the man before her. She was gripped by horror and panic so much that she wished the earth would open up and swallow her rather than letting this monster touch her again.

The masked man unsheathed his sword. The lethal weapon beamed under the intense sunlight that radiated across the blade. Sewa stared at the tip of the blade and thought she heard it craving for her blood. She backed away till she saw that she could retreat no more for behind her were a pile of corpses blocking her path. Sewa looked petrified as the masked man stopped two feet away from her and raised his blade high “Is this is how I die?”, she thought.
Just before the blade came down, an arrow whizzed through the air and bounced off the masked man’s chest.

Read " Resuscitated Hope " by the same author ( Obinna Tony )

. He remained unfazed and unconcerned, his gaze only remaining on Sewa. 
Monifa watched in shock and disbelief as the masked man stood unscathed by her arrow. She grabbed a spear from one of the dead warriors and sprinted in Sewa’s direction.

Sewa shivered as she felt the eyes behind the masked pierce into her soul. She watched as the masked man lowered his arm and sheathed his blade.

“Know that you live to see tomorrow because I allowed it”, he whispered to her, “When I want you dead, it will be so”. He crouched beside her and caressed her cheek “I have something you want, Adesewa. Someone you have always hoped to see deep down within you. Come to me for only I can offer you this gift. I will call to you by midnight and you will come because I want you to. And you will come alone”.

He stood erect and looked down on a terrorized Sewa. He glanced to his left and saw Monifa holding a spear with trembling hands, “If you come any further, you will die”, he said to her coolly.

He walked away and disappeared amidst the partakers of the concluding battle. Monifa squatted beside an enervated Sewa who sat stupefied staring into empty space. Goke scrambled to the side of an unconscious Duro and carried him quickly to the herbalist. 
In later years, the people of Aleshinloye would talk about the day five heroic warriors saved their village from ruin but to the bandits themselves, that day would forever hold a gloomy memory in which they suffered complete and total defeat.