On another side of the battlefield, Kato’s brother Rukidi was fighting against the sole lightning element assassin. This assassin who went by the title of [Thunderclap Chain] was called Jakuta. He was a man from the Oyo tribe that resided around River Oyo in Toro.

Unlike the other assassins, this man had taken off his disguise as soon as they were exposed. He did not wear any shirt or clothes to protect him from the rain. He only had a pair of red shorts that went up to his knees covered by a skirt made of thick animal hide. The hide and shorts were fastened to his waist by a belt made of huge colorful red and white beads that were the size of oranges.

He had a small sword, a club, and a short ax fastened on his waist. There were 2 things about Jakuta that would catch anyone’s eye. The first was the large fiery tattoo of a double-headed axe on his chest. This tattoo seemed to be filled with the fire and thunder elements. It was glowing bright orange in the dark night and faint electrical arcs could be seen moving around the tattoo.

However, the most noticeable thing was the huge drum on his back that was twice as large as an adult man. While one would expect the drum to dwarf Jakuta, he was not a small man as he stood at a height of about 7 feet tall. His dark skin that was shining in the rain and his rippling muscles that looked like steel cables made him appear like a divine messenger of the gods that descended onto the mortal world.

“Jakuta!”

“Look where you are now! Look how pitiful you have become; a mere slave to that old man Bemba. You should have taken my offer when you still had the chance.”

“Shame, shame, shame, shame.”

Rukidi shouted out these words to Jakuta. Just like any other ruler, Rukidi always had his eye on talented warriors. Jakuta had been one of them as his strength had granted him titles such as ‘the God of Thunder’ and the ‘Divine Envoy’. 10 years ago the Oyo tribe produced a formidable warrior.

This small tribe that was many times smaller than the Jemedari tribe had never produced a Crystal Warrior in almost half a century. Jakuta changed this history as he rose to the peak of Crystal Warriors in less than a decade. Naturally, Rukidi had tried to poach him from Toro and recruit him into his conquering army but this ended in Rukidi’s disappointment as Jakuta chose to remain loyal to his home country.

“You refused my deal and now you ended up as a prisoner.”

Hearing Rukidi continue to press on with his scathing words, Jakuta could not withstand it anymore. If someone said he had a good temper, they would be deceiving the world. This was a man who was once seen as the wrath of God manifested on the battlefield. As the rain continued falling, Jakuta did not hesitate to attack. He pulled out a short black sword from his side and with a wave of his arm the sword shot out a dozen electromagnetic thunder balls towards Rukidi.

Rukidi did not take these thunder balls seriously and let them envelope him; he was that confident of his defense. However, after coming in contact with him, they did not injure him at all.

At the same time, Jakuta shouted out the words he was suppressing all this time, “I can run from Toro, but where can my people hide? Huh? Rukidi, can you afford the blood of my people?” These words were uttered with such fury that a stream of fire spewed out from Jakuta’s mouth with each word and evaporated the water and falling rain ten meters around him. He then proceeded to raise his short sword which had already turned bright blue from the lightning running through it.

“Thunderfall!”

This was a terrifying technique! The clouds seemed to become even denser which further intensified the rain. Heavy cutting winds were pulled all the way from the great lake waters towards Sese. There seemed to be a giant storm’s eye in Sese.

Terrifying chains of lightning crisscrossed in these clouds before condensing together into a single bolt that seemed as if it could decimate all matter in its path. As Jakuta lowered his sword in the same manner as a king declaring an execution, the lightning was pulled down from the heavens at extreme speed. Rukidi finally understood the use of the thunder balls; their purpose was to attract the lightning to strike him. Once they merged into his body, even if he avoided the lightning bolt, it would still find him!

“Well played.” Despite the grave situation he said those words with a smile as the lightning bolt proceeded to strike him.

From the epicenter, a huge explosion erupted with the shockwave spreading all over Sese waking up many ordinary civilians who were asleep. If not for the protective magic circles curved in Kagona’s compound preventing the damage from spreading out, the collateral damage could have been much worse. Seeing the devastation from this attack, everyone couldn’t help but worry for Rukidi. There were still over a dozen people who were not engaged in a fight.

However, as the smoke cleared, Rukidi could be seen standing in the middle of a crater unharmed. Not even a speck of dust tainted his clothes. At his side, he had a medium-sized drum tied to his waist by a leather harness. This drum was crackling with electric light as if it had absorbed the attack.

Seeing the destruction, Rukidi knew that this compound could not withstand any more attacks of such a high level so he asked Jakuta to follow him into the sky. Although Jakuta was known to be quick to anger, he still flew into the sky after his opponent. Both of them could soar into the clouds freely as all warriors who had stepped into the Sky Body Realm or beyond could fly.

As the fight battle between Rukidi and Jakuta continued in the sky, the assassin [Grand Mole] was tied up in a fight against 2 of Kisitu’s guards. As an Earth element expert, he utilized great attacks such as earth palm, earth dragon, earth drill, and earth twister to keep the 2 guards at bay but as the fight progressed he was the only one sweating. Even though he could form building sized earthen constructs he was the one being pushed back!

The main reason for this was that his opponents were a pair of twins who could control multiple knives. These 2 guards named Pepea and Kisu were collectively called the Flying Knives Twins. Seeing most of his attacks fail, [Grand Mole] proceeded to condense the ground hundreds of meters around the twins into a massive earth dragon. All the buildings in the compound apart from the central hut were dismantled to form the humongous dragon. With a roar, the dragon sped towards the twins as if to consume them.

“Haha, big brother, he is trying to use a little snake to scare us.” One of the twins laughed finding the situation comical. “Let’s show him.” After the elder brother’s response, the number of flying knives in the battlefield multiplied. Over 1,000 flying knives materialized out of thin air! As Ground Mole watched incredulously, these knives swiftly came together and bonded as if a puzzle before forming a silver-white Sword Dragon that was hundreds of meters tall easily matching his Earth Dragon.

As the two dragons clashed, endless winds erupted from their collision blowing away the rain. The initial clash destroyed the part of the earth dragon but Ground Mole did not worry as the dragon could swiftly repair itself with the earth element. However, after an extended clash, he noticed something he had failed to see before that shook him to the core.

“It’s an illusion! No, not the whole thing, only a part of it is an illusion.” He quickly flexed his mental power as if flexing his muscles to dispel the fog clouding his mind. The reality in front of him was that his opponents had somehow trapped him in an illusion. However, this illusion did not alter his perception to a great degree thus making it difficult to for him to sense the changes. The brothers only used the illusion to hide the extensive damage the earth dragon took and to conceal the true form of the sword dragon.

This sword dragon was not an autonomous technique but a whip. The twins controlled thousands of knives telekinetically to form the [Dragon Tail Whip] which the elder brother wielded in his right hand. The younger brother was focused on using his psychic abilities to maintain the psychic link with his older brother as well as set up minor illusions.

“Oh, big brother looks like he found out.” These 2 brothers were psychic experts who could also share their mind space through a psychic link to coordinate attacks and multiply their psychic abilities. They also had other abilities such as: minor mind reading to predict attacks, telepathy to share their plans without alerting the enemy, and minor illusion control. As Grand Mole looked at the twins, he found that the tail of the dragon was in the hands of one of them. This made it much more lethal than his earth dragon.

As the sword dragon also doubled as a whip, it could be controlled manually while also receiving a constant stream of energy injected into it.

“They played me!” Before he realized it, his earth dragon was already destroyed. He quickly put up a building-sized earth wall and prepared to escape by quickly diving into the ground. In an instant he had covered a hundred meters deep underground as if he was a mole. However, before he could burrow further, a great pressure came from behind him causing him to perspire despite the rain and cold.

The sword dragon had smashed his earth wall defense before following him deep underground while cutting apart the earth with slashes of sharp knife energy. Its might was unbelievable.

“Aaaaargh!”

A pitiful scream was heard from deep underground piercing through the rain all the way into the sky. The sword dragon had swallowed Grand Mole whole. He could not escape the dragon’s maw! As the dragon moved around in the rain, its body seemed to compress and decompress as blood flowed from the gaps in between the knives forming its jaw and neck.

Seeing this, everyone knew that Grand Mole who had mostly been known for his escape techniques was dead.

Apart from [Grand Mole], the last of the ‘Middle-men’ in the 12 Martyrs of Death assassin team was also embroiled in a risky battle. Standing opposite [Wind Walker Swift Gale] was Kato’s uncle, a Hidden Elder in the royal family called Ficho. The remnants of the royal family in Sese had their own hierarchy starting from Grand Matriarchs like Granny Kena, followed by Hidden Elders, Supreme Elders, Core Elders, and finally the Young Elders.

In terms of authority, Hidden Elders possessed the most power under the Matriarchs. However, their position was not acknowledged in the royal clan registry and all their meetings and plans had to be done in secret. All the Hidden Elders had to live in hiding as they were the secret weapons of the waning royal family.

Before rising to the position of a Hidden Elder, a Supreme Elder had to show outstanding strength and gain great accomplishments. They would then proceed to sever their ties with the mortal world by faking their deaths. This was a practice that Kato hated a lot as it signified their family’s weakness and decline.

“We are still weak. However, I promise you that I will let you see the light of day again in your lifetime. You will be able to go home with your head held up high and enjoy life with your family.” Remembering Kato’s promise to him, the Hidden Elder Ficho could not help but be impassioned as he clashed against the Wind Walker.

New Words

Pepea – Fly

Kisu – Knife

Jakuta – a deity that represented wrath

Rukidi – one of the early Kings of Bunyoro

Ficho – Hidden, something to be hidden