URENMA (Journey To The River World) - Season 1 - Episode 9

Episode 6 years ago

URENMA (Journey To The River World) - Season 1 - Episode 9

☆☆

The atmosphere was tense; the crowd was terrified for Obinze. Some females admires covered their faces, they didn’t want to see Obinze beaten black and blue. Uzokwe a man of much anger was the first to attack Obinze. When Uzokwe menacingly drew closer, Obinze applied the Ife oko technique and slammed Uzokwe’s back on the ground. Like a cat Uzokwe bounced back to his feet and aimed for Obinze’s legs, swiftly he grabbed Obinze’s left leg. Obinze didn’t expect him to recover that quickly and so was caught unawares. When Ikemefuna saw that Uzokwe had gained an advantage over Obinze he ran to sweep off Obinze’s only leg on the ground. But alas, Ikemefuna could not move Obinze’s right leg. Obinze had it dug deep into the ground as he tried to maneover Uzokwe.

To wriggle out of his fix, Obinze did the unthinkable; he grabbed Ikemefuna, the reigning champion, by his waist and took him high into the air, while he resisted Uzokwe with only one foot he had on the ground. He swung Ikemefuna around and slammed him on Uzokwe’s back; even a deaf man would have heard the sound of snapping bones. The crowd shouted rapturously at the unbelievable slunt which Obinze pulled off. Both Uzokwe and Ikemefuna wailed in excruciating pain. Ikemefuna tried to spring to his feet but collapsed. Ezenwa, a very proud man then entered the fight. He had purposely allowed Ikemefuna and Uzokwe to wrestle against Obinze because he could not want to share the glory of defeating Obinze with them. Seeing Obinze had disarmed them, he saw it as his opportunity to take out Obinze and claim the glory to himself. But he was wrong, Obinze was not his ilk. No charm or voodoo could stop him, and not while Urenma watched the fight. Obinze threw himself at the oncoming Ezenwa and knocked him to the ground by crashing his forehead into his chest. He looked behind to make sure Uzokwe and Ikemefuna were still on the ground and then sat on Ezenwa and began to land his trademark punches on his face.

Some elders had to run into the wrestling ground to get Obinze off Ezenwa because they feared he was going to kill him.
Obinze turned and saw Ikemefuna hobbling on one foot; he ran to meet him and swept him off his foot. Ikemefuna was his prime target as the reigning champion. His intention was to humiliate him before all present.

While Ikemefun lay on the ground, Obinze began to slap his face rapidly with both hands. By now the crowd was beside itself with excitement, they were certain they had all seen what was, until that day, thought impossible. When he felt he had given Ikemefuna enough dosage of slaps he stood him to his feet and asked him to fight, lamely Ikemefuna attacked him; Obinze gave him no chance and knocked him down again seeing none of Uzokwe or Ezenwa was getting up, he sat comfortably on Ikemefuna and gave him a taste of his punches. Just four punches to his face, he heard Ikemefuna’s neck snap. Ikemefuna began to vomit blood and went into spasm. The crowd and the elders present were in shock, Ikemefuna was dying and they didn’t know what to do. Urenma ran into the wrestling ground and touched Ikemefuna. No one knew what she did when she touched Ikemefuna, as soon as her hand touched him, he stopped jerking and vomiting blood.

Had Urenma not used her power to heal him, he would have died that day on the wrestling ground. Obinze was not one to boast; he went to each of his three opponents and congratuled them before they were bore on Nkpoko to the local orthopedist. Back at the wrestling ground Obinze asked for more fight, instead of accepting his challenge, the other wrestlers came and knelt at his feets.
According to custom he poured sand on their backs as they lay on the ground and walked on their backs. That day Obinze ended that year’s wrestling festival prematurely. He had beaten the best wrestlers in the land and those left to fight him would not accept his challenge.
His kinsmen bore him on their shoulders to his father’s house and so from that day the legend of Obinze began.

The next day, in farms, in the streets and at the river, men, women and children sang, “Obinze has defeated the mighty, walked on the back of the weak and fearful and has shown why the finest woman in Ukeh chose him to be her lover”. While every one praised Obinze as a hero and sang his name, every night Urenma cried herself to sleep.
Her deep pain in her heart had made her stop her nightly visit to the river world. Her heart had become nit with Obinze’s heart; they were every day growing in love and everyone was expecting them to announce their wedding. It no doubt, would bring the high and mighty to Ukeh, but the problem was Uurenma was running out of time.