The Legend of Hombarume (Legends Series, #1)

79.

Revai was watching it all happen from a short distance away and he was nothing short of flabbergasted by what he was seeing. He was helping out Mhangura by fetching water and watering some of the plants that were in abundance around the compound and as he was just finishing up, he realized something was happening between the two people who had been sitting and talking all this while close to Mhangura's hut.

Tensions seemed to be heightened, something that was synonymous with Hombarume nowadays, but he was dying to hear what the reason for the commotion was this time for it to just escalate to heights that he hadn't even imagined possible. At first he thought his eyes were deceiving him, then everything spiraled.

At first, Hombarume had Mhangura in a chokehold, and Revai was about to quickly intervene to diffuse the situation, but it seemed like Mhangura did not need the help after all. He swiftly broke free from Hombarume's grip with a force that was unrecognizable. Revai had watched him fight before, enough times to know what he could do but it was never anything of this nature, it was never this unusual. He did not see Mhangura touch Hombarume, or shove him, but the hunter was sent reeling through the air and landed in the perch of one of the mango trees adjacent to the huts.

Mhangura turned towards him for a brief moment, and then and there, Revai realized that this was not the same person he had met, this was something completely different. The pots that hung on the inner part of the roof of the hut were now rattling incessantly, more like swinging back and forth, first slowly, then at an increasing pace as something else was happening in the thickness of the trees at that exact moment.

Hombarume emerged from within the cover, but his lip had been split and his forehead was bleeding, he did not seem to mind, in fact he seemed to be overly gleeful for someone who had just suffered n severe hit. He burst into delirious laughter as he walked toward the center of the compound and challenged Mhangura once more.

Mhangura did not respond, instead he just stood there, looking more menacing by the moment until the several pots behind him shattered in unison and the clay seemed to just melt away, completely startling Revai. Hombarume stomped his bare feet on the ground and it shook tremendously for a while as Revai struggled to stay on his feet and Mhangura suddenly knelt down and held himself steady with his palms on the ground.

Hombarume stomped his feet some more and the ground shook again, sending Revai toppling over and landing on the ground by his bottom. It was almost as if Hombarume noticed his presence then for the first time and for a moment, his attention was drawn from Mhangura who was still maintaining his kneeling stance and he was now focused on him while he was dazed and confused on the ground.

He could only see a glimpse of him now, but it was very perplexing, he was no longer the helpless man who was bruised, hurt and desperate on the floor at the palace, chained to the ground and whipped endlessly until he ached. He was stronger, he was powerful and he surely had been maddened by what Mhangura had done to him, he had been provoked, like a wild animal, he was ready to pounce and it seemed as if Revai was about to be the first one to taste his wrath.

His face seemed to change shape, as if it were rippling like water, then slowly but surely, it had morphed into something else, an animal that could not be defined, a beast of untold proportions. It was something between a tiger and a hyena, a ghastly creature that had the striped fur and the size of the former, while it had the fangs and cunning darkened eyes of the latter. Revai could feel every hair on his arms standing on end at the sight of this unexpected transformation The creature had already begun to walk towards him, then Mhangura's voice beamed;

'No!'

***

Hombarume, or the beast, stopped but he hadn't turned around to face him yet. Mhangura seemed calm and unbothered by how the man who had been sitting beside him now possessed an abominable face that was menacing to anyone who saw it.

'You misled him all this while, made him believe that you were helpless and powerless, but no more. You are not the powerless one, he is. He trusted you with his life, his reputation, but you turned out to be exactly what he was running from, evil incarnate.'

Hombarume burst into laughter, the exact way a hyena would, then finally turned back around to face him.

'Evil incarnate? Am I not divine enough for you? Are the gods that you pray to, ask for rain, plead to for success also evil?' he growled.

'Yes, they are all so predictable and vile, but you are something worse, you will not walk out of this alive, friend, I cannot allow it,' Mhangura said.

Before he could say anything more, Hombarume was already coming for him, leaping on his fore legs as every movement continued to shake the earth. Mhangura quickly raised his hands high up to the sky and by the time he brought them back down, there were two other men beside him, one on either side. They resembled him except for the fact that they seemed to be sculpted out of clay, did not possess faces and their much larger bodies were covered in strange dark markings,

As soon as the two men appeared, they charged right at Hombarume like raging bulls, as if they did not care that they were up against a beast with sharp fangs and the speed of one of the biggest predators in the forest. They clashed with him, fighting valiantly while pushing their earthen bodies to their limits.

Hombarume was choking and wheezing under the pressure and for a moment it seemed like he was getting overpowered by these two strange beings, to be giving in to Mhangura's strange and powerful hold over him, then slowly but surely, he began to fight it, he started to break out of it as the ripples moved to his arms and he had sharp claws ravaging the two men simultaneously until they became a pile of shredded clay.

'You underestimated me, witch. You are no match for me,' Hombarume said.

There was another heavy stomp on the ground, then instantly, Hombarume started coming for Mhangura.

The beast which was now two fold its prior size leapt into the air and ripped Mhangura's arm upon landing. Blood was steadily gushing from it, but he knew he could not stop to assess his wound, so he fought back with his bare hands at first then he began to get light on his feet.