The Warriors of Oduduwa 2, The Crowned Hunter.

If there is anything that ẹṣọs hated the most, its witches, some of the vilest witches in the world can be found in Yoruba land and they come in all shapes and sizes with their unique features, the forest watches, the spirit witches, the witches of darkness, the vulture witches and so on. Each of these witches had been in existence since the beginning, hidden within the shadows of the forest (both the enchanted and the evil forest) and they
e all equally dangerous. The witches have the bad habit of drinking the blood of innocent youth and eating the flesh of newborn babies, while some are graceful and fair blessed with the beauty of the gods others are hideous, ugly beyond human comprehension. Ẹṣọs are usually advised to avoid witches majorly because all witches are either motivated by vengeance or simply kill members of their own families to quench their insatiable thirst for blood.

Any family affected by the curse of a witch need only seek advice from the local Ifa priest on how to handle the situation or the Priest identifies the witch in question and gives firm information about how to purge the witch, involving the Ewọ (forbidden), once the witch is exposed to her Ewọ she confesses to all the evils she has done and then dies.

But for a witch to commit a crime of this magnitude seems unthinkable, why would the witches abandon their quest for greed to pursue a lust for power?

Ade and his two companions ventured through the trees, hoping for a sign that would lead them to their goal or at least for something out of the ordinary to happen and it did. After a 3-day journey, Ade detected the aroma of rotting corpses. The smell led them to a small hamlet not very far from the borders of Akija village. The hamlet had about 15 houses and from all indications, it had been turned into a shadow of its formal self, the hamlet was completely destroyed, some of the huts were still burning with strange blue flames. There were bloodstains all over the place and the ground was cluttered with the corpses of the dead of both men and animals. Osi-Alara picked up a dead infant to examine its body carefully; most of the childs vital organs were missing, including the heart, eyes and left hand.

”Witches, ” he said in disgust ”the only ones who think the youthful flesh of a human being is sweet ”

”Curse them! ” Babalakan growled, ”eating children and they call themselves women, I should… ”

”Shush! I can sense something ” Ade said, cautioning his friends. They were silent for a while and thats when they heard it, the sound of crunching

”Someones still here ” Ade whispered

The hunter and the two ẹṣọs cautiously approached the source of the sound they were receiving. They had not gone too far when they encountered exactly what they were looking for, a witch!

Osi-Alara was surprised, what he had expected to see was an ugly witch with a few missing teeth and perhaps a beard, maybe some large tribal marks to disfigure her face. Instead, what he found was a young maiden with flawless ebony skin, sharp, but beautiful eyes in a black wrapper that she tied around her waist beginning from her armpit down to the ground. Babalakan describes her as a beauty worthy of a god and a curse to man. What ruined the wonderful sights is a horror that marred her beauty, she was just finishing her meal a 3 moon old baby with a Calabash filled with blood, repulsive! The bloodstains around her chicks and on her chin made the very vision of a nightmare.

The slight sensation of fear washed through his entire being, as a boy he was thought that an Ẹṣọs source of power comes from the herbalists, Babalawos, the priest, the divine entities, and sometimes even the witches. he grew up believing that an Ẹṣọ would never be able to overpower such a powerful phenomenon until now, theres always a first time for everything. Ade was living proof of that, Ade had once told him that every new generation of Ẹṣọs are usually born stronger than the previous generation, then Babalakan would laugh at the idea until Ade had proven his point by citing an example ”Why do you think I gave your son an incision to make his body weaker instead of stronger? ”

Since then Babalakan understood that the nature of a seed is to grow into a tree one day its mother would hide beneath branches.

Ade walked boldly towards the witch without exposing a single sign of fear, completely egged on by his burning emotion.

”Why did you destroy this village, ” he demanded, ”this place was not your domain, we are not in the evil forest ”

”Why, ” she taunted, exposing her evil grin ”what happens to the 3 fools who think themselves brave enough to walk into a witches trap ”

”These were innocent people ” Ade continued angrily, from all indications he seemed to be more interested in the condition of the village rather than his own life

”Where are the stones? ” Osi-Alara demanded

”Safe ” the witch replied, as she licked the bloodstains on her cheeks as well as her bloody fingers ”but soon the ẹṣọs that hunt will be the ones who are being hunted ”

That exact moment Ade who seemed to be the most alert of the 3 Warriors pushed Osi-Alara away from a sudden attack, a venomous chant that would have turned a man into dust. Witches had the ability to use Agbara without chanting a single spell or incantation, how Ade was able to predict the upcoming attack remains a mystery. The witch wasn daunted by the failure of her previous attack, she instantly screamed at the top of her lungs to induce a new attack, the ground exploded with fire almost consuming both Ade and Osi-Alara while Babalakan was held spellbound by the bloodthirsty witch. His fully developed muscles had failed him.

”I call upon the 4 winds of the air, by the virtue of our covenant answer my call ” Ade chanted, even though the witch had an advantage Ade had no plans of dying today ”as the air moves through the blood of all living things so shall the air within you obey my commands ”

A violent wind suddenly forced its way into the scene, forcing the witch to recoil Babalakan was instantly released from the witches hold on him as the wind blew in his favour, he wasted no time on dwelling on the matter. He attacked with abandon, unfortunately, he was cut short, even before he could land a blow, a rock spirit in human form emerged from the soil to oppose him. Babalakan attacked with all his strength the same way the rock spirit attacked. Its a good thing that he had been fortified because if he had let his guard down for even a moment, hed be dead.

Ade took advantage of the time Babalakan used to distract the witch to lunch an air chant at her, hoping to knock her out in a single blow, the wind chant though potent the witch proved to be a far more formidable opponent than Ade had expected. she simply batted the chant as one would swat a fly. Ade was dumbfounded, how could she have been able to nullify one of his best chants.

The moments hesitation nearly proved to be Ades undoing good thing Osi-Alara stood nearby, the counter chant would have split Ade in two. Thus Babalakan succeeded in smashing the rock spirit asunder through brute strength, to his amazement the rock spirit hadn been as strong as he had earlier assumed, and now the witch.

The witch instantly vanished the moment Babalakan reached her and before he could respond to his warrior instincts the witch reappeared right behind him and lightly touched his left shoulder in a moment the chant was sealed Babalakan felt the burning sensation of molten magma flushing through his entire body and he groaned in pain, it was against the customs of the Oye tribe to cry in front of your enemies.

Osi-Alara took the opportunity to immobilize the witch by using the legacy of chant of his tribe the joint paralysis attack, unfortunately, she had expected that attack as well and with her other hand, she held Osi-Alara spellbound. This left her open to attack from a third party, giving Ade the advantage of attacking from behind an opportunity he intended not to waste. Ade threw his cutlass at the witch being careful not to charge it with too much Agbara after all they need her alive, to his dismay the blade bounced off her fortified skin once again proving that Ade had underestimated his opponent. The attack luckily wasn useless, it served as a means of distraction which caused the witch to unconsciously release her two captives. Babalakan instantly kicked the witch in the face, hoping to knock her out in one hit

”Yeeee! ” The witch screamed as she fell backwards to the ground

”Ade! ” Osi-Alara exclaimed while panting ”remind me again why we
e not using our full strength on her? ” He growled ”why don we just kill her ”

”I agree with you Osi-Alara ” Babalakan shouted ”is it because she is a woman? Or is it because she is beautiful? Because you
e the only one who wants her alive ”

”No, on both counts ” Ade responded ”its because of the 1000 strings in bet money, and we need to find out where the mythical stone of our village is, she is our only source of information ”

”Oh ho!! ” Both Babalakan and Osi-Alara exclaimed in the Acknowledgement

”Bang!! ” The witch stroke again catching the both of them off guard

The balls of evil light, exploded between the two Esos, sending them both spinning through the air, Osi-Alara nearly dislocated his right arm in the fall. Babalakan landed several feets away and almost had himself knocked unconscious. Ade the only one able to evade the attack replied with a counterattack of his own.

”Foolish Ẹṣọ ” the witch growled, her face was twisted with rage revealing nothing of the beauty she had once exhibited when they first saw her,

”Do you think you have any hope of defeating me?

I am the shadow of the forest

The great aro who gives the gift of blindness

And blesses children with death

I thirst for the blood of both the guilty and the innocent alike

And will never be sated

I am the ageless form of the forest

And my beauty can charm the gods

Only a fool walks into the den of the forest witch ” she chanted

”If we
e to beat her without killing her we must fight as one ” Ade shouted hoping his two companions were listening. Ade had analysed the situation and concluded that the only way for them to win is if they take her down with a well-planned attack

”Babalakan use your superior fortifications to its highest level to get close to her ” Osi-Alara ordered, ”Ade use your wind covenant to hold her down, and Ill use my scorpion sting to knock her out ”

”Good plan! ” Ade observed, and then he instantly began to chant

”Can the winds blow in all 4 directions at the same time?

Can the air be separated from the winds?

Can the living be separated from the air they breathe?

For, within the air there is life

And within the air, there is the absence of life Death

I command the air to give you the blessing of death ”

In response to Ades chanting the witch found it difficult to breathe, it seemed like the air no longer had any interest in passing through her windpipe, Babalakan attacked from another angle and this time he has no intention of holding back, he had been enraged by the witches previous attack, without any air to breathe and with a large bulk of a man approaching the witch realized that the odds were against her so she desperately threw as many kinds of chants as possible at Babalakan in hope that it would slow him down if not stop him altogether. To her absolute shock, all the chants bounced off his fortified skin harmlessly. The Oye tribe was renowned for their high level of defensive power which gave them the ability to resist the deadliest of weapons, because of their lack of a covenant all the Agbara produced is fed directly into the flesh. This makes them likened to an unstoppable juggernaut, no full-blooded Ẹṣọ can face a member of the Oye tribe without receiving deathly wounds. As Babalakan reached the witch he landed 2 vicious blows to her midsection knocking the air out of her before pushing her towards Osi-Alara who was impatiently waiting to make his move.

”Scorpions sting, ” he chanted

Striking first her spine that way her central nervous system would fail to perform the necessary reflexes to protect her. Then he attacked her jaw, her elbows, her wrists, her knees, her shoulders and every other joint in the body. Finally, he attacked her heart to slow down its beat, the witch blacked out immediately

”Joint paralysis ” Osi-Alara whispered in Yoruba. This was the legacy chant of the Alaramide tribe and the gift of the scorpion covenant.

Ade and Babalakan stood in awe of Osi-Alaras potent attack, they were impressed.