URENMA (Journey To The River World) - Season 1 - Episode 7

Episode 6 years ago

URENMA (Journey To The River World) - Season 1 - Episode 7

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When the signal came, he didn’t run towards his opponent to bring him down, he waited for him to come for him.
The young wrestler disdainfully sized up Obinze and spit in his direction before saying to him, “I will break your neck for what you did to my colleague you little dog. I hope you cooked for your grandmother, because when I break your neck there will be no one to prepare her food”.

Obinze didn’t reply him; he stood with his gaze fixed on his opponent. The young wrestler ran toward Obinze, his feet pounding the ground like an elephant and his eyes red shot. Obinze still didn’t move he waited for the perfect moment to act. The wrestler stretched his hands out to grab Obinze and Obinze skipped to his right side and landed a deafening slap to his face.

The young wrestler staggered and turned to face Obinze in anger; his lips were bleeding and the crowd was laughing at him. He felt a ringing sound in his left ear.
To save face, he threw himself at Obinze hoping to grab him and break him into two pieces, Obinze swiftly avoided him and grabbed him by the waist. Lifting him very high Obinze slammed him on the ground, one, two, three times and steadied him to his feet with his left hand and then crashed a monster slap into his face and released his hold on his opponent who fell to the ground. Obinze picked up his opponent and slammed him once more on the ground; the wrestler’s neck shifted, he broke bones in his arms and left leg, on the ground he could hardly scream loud enough. By this time the crowd was in awe of Obinze; Obinze’s kinsmen began to scream his name insanely and the crowd joined them.
Though it was time for Obinze to make way for others clans to fight, he felt reluctant to leave.

The crowd was shouting his name and it had gotten into his head. He fought hard to keep himself from crying openly; all his life he had been an object of ridicule and for once in his life his people and vistors to Ukeh were singing his name in praise. He stood his ground to take it all in.
While the elders waited for him to leave the wrestling ground, a jealous, fearsome wrestler who felt Obinze was beginning to take the shine off him and the more established wrestlers ran into the wrestling ground and scooped sand from the ground and held it in front of Obinze. That gesture meant he was challenging Obinze to a wrestling match. The crowd was afraid; they knew Ikeagu was a dangerous wrestler, in four different occasions he had won the wrestling championship. He always fought like a beast. Most people in the crowd didn’t want Obinze to accept his challenge; they were beginning to like him and didn’t want him out of the competition at the early stage.

Urenma’s parents prayed under their breath for Obinze to ignore him and walk away. However what the crowd didn’t know Ikeagu had picked the wrong time to challenge Obinze; he would live to rue his judgement. Obinze stepped forward and knocked off the sand in Ikeagu’s hand and stepped back. The crowd echoed the names of their gods in fear; some could be seen holding their breath in fear that Ikeagu was going to destroy Obinze. Ikeagu shouted like an animal and leapt forward like a cat, unlike how he acted in his previous fights, Obinze lunged forward, grabbed Ikeagu midair and suspended him high above himself and then slammed him on the ground with the agility of a lion and sat upon him and began to land punches on his face.
After a few rounds of punches which had disfigured Ikeagu’s face Obinze stood up and lifted him up for a second and crashed him on the ground and walked away. Ikeagu’s jaw bones were broken, his neck broken and his waist broken.
Obinze also knocked off several of his teeth and tore his forehead and ears open with his punches.

Then crowd was in absoluted shock of what they had witnessed; it wasn’t even a fight. It was an assault; Obinze had simply beaten up the feared Ikeagu like a child. As Obinze walked away, he had no smile on his face; his eyes seemed locked on events or perhaps thoughts far removed from the happenings at the village square. It was clear to all present that a new wrestling beast had been discovered on the wrestling sand of Ukeh land. Though there were many other wrestling matches that day, the one which dominated chatter till the next day was how Obinze beat Ikeagu up like a little boy.

That night Obinze spent a lot of time with Urenma in her father’s compound chatting about the wrestling and also the news of their love which had transformed Obinze into a village celebrity. He had not only shown them what he could do in the wrestling ground, he had also won the heart of the most beautiful woman in Ukeh and all the lands around it.