Colonel Sebastian ordered his captain to radio in an Airstrike. His captain looked confused when he added the word "triumvir steal" but quickly did as he was told. One of the two Enforcers was killed. Someone put a shotgun to his head and blew it away before he could react. Before dying, the Enforcer had managed to take down 9 officers and wounded 3. The remaining Enforcer fought on but he was greatly outnumbered. It was only a matter of time before he too would fall. As for Dioha, there was no real damage done to him. Dioha saw the two Enforcers who had joined him, saw when one of them fell and the other outnumbered. Majority of the Ngamés that had gotten through the force field were dead. The remaining handful of about 10 were trying to make their way back to the force field entrance to leave. If they'd listened to the other two guides who, by the way, were still outside the force field, they wouldn't have found themselves in such a precarious position.
Dioha understood immediately that no one would make it out alive except him, unless he intervened. Dioha flexed his muscles and the Shield responded, producing a short humming sound. He moved purposefully towards the formation of soldiers. They resumed throwing grenades but this time the grenades didn't explode on contact. They bounced off the shield, back towards the soldiers, dealing damage to the army. The troop quickly learnt from their error and switched back to their rifles. Bullets ricochet off the shield hitting more soldiers in the process. The Enforcer was also hit.
"Get behind me," Dioha shouted to the Enforcer, who quickly complied. He was seriously wounded and needed some minutes to regain some strength. Someone among the soldiers thought it was a good idea to attack Dioha with his hands when bullets and bombs couldn't. When he got to within a yard of Dioha, the Shield picked him up and flung him several yards, crashing him into one of the army trucks. The soldier died instantly. After that scene, no one knew what to do again. They couldn't fire for fear of killing more of their own, they also couldn't approach cos of some invisible protection.
A loud roar sounded from above as a fighter jet flew by. The jet made a turn and was heading back towards them. Dioha pointed a finger at the incoming jet but nothing happened. Electroshoot still wasn't back he guessed. The soldiers were backing away from Dioha as the jet returned. The Enforcer behind Dioha noticed this. He was wondering what weapon the humans were going to use now. The jet fired a projectile towards Dioha. The projectile morphed into a net in mid air as it travelled towards Dioha. The net wrapped around the shield giving it a visual shape for the first time. It looked spherical and seemed to be spinning cos the net on it was rotating wildly. Another unusual thing was the net wasn't thrown off like other items that came in contact with the shield. It stuck to the shield emitting some sort of electromagnetic pulse.
Dioha was wondering why the shield couldn't throw the net off and what it would do to its shield. The shield began a low humming sound as Dioha strained visibly, trying to power up the shield to throw off the net. The shield began shrinking in size as the net seemed to be absorbing the shield.
"What is this?" Dioha asked no one in particular. The shield continued to reduce bringing the net closer and closer. The Enforcer ran to Dioha and grabbed the net. He spasmed as the net sent shockwaves down his entire being. The Enforcer collapsed after a few seconds. Dioha understood immediately that he had to get the net off him as quickly as possible or face the same fate as the Enforcer behind him. Electricity coursed through Dioha, beginning from his feet and gathering in his fists. The shield emitted a loud screeching sound as if crying out in defiance to the annoyingly clingy net. The screech ended in a wet tearing sound as the shield imploded tearing the net into two. The implosion rocked Dioha violently, causing him to stagger. Some soldiers, seeing an opening, began firing at Dioha. The Colonel ordered them to stand down. He wanted Dioha alive. The jet made a turn and was coming round for another sweep. Dioha tried activating the shield but it refused to come out. He spread his feet apart and groaned as he willed the shield to come out. But instead of the shield, what he heard was Lanre's voice,
"You have to get out of here Dioha. The humans want to take you alive. If this happens, you have not only put yourself at risk but also the entire race."
Dioha didn't like running from a fight but he knew what Lanre said was right. Already the secrecy of the Ngamé race was in jeopardy, thanks to this ill-fated trip. He couldn't doom the whole race by letting himself be captured. But instead of running, Dioha decided every human who witnessed the fight had to die. The Ngamé race needed to remain a secret.
The plane got close and fired another projectile. Dioha flipped backwards several times putting reasonable space between himself and the net's coverage area. Dioha looked around, ran up to a human corpse picked the rifle beside it and aimed at the sky. The soldiers all raised their weapons towards Dioha again.
"Hold your fire!" Colonel Sebastian barked. "Sir, we cannot afford to lose our advantage in the air," the captain responded.
"Hold your fire, boy. That is a direct order. Do we have any tranquilizers?"
Someone amongst the soldiers answered in the affirmative. The Colonel ordered it to be brought. The jet returned and flew in close to the ground. Dioha's rifle rattled out a few rounds forcing the jet to pull up hastily. The pilot must not have seen Dioha with the gun until it was late. Dioha's aim was extremely poor though, if not he surely would have hit the jet.
A case like that of a trumpet's was brought to the Colonel.
"Captain, who's your best marksman? Tell him to take the shot"
"Derek Mannequin!" the captain called and a tall lanky figure stepped out of formation. He moved swiftly towards the captain to get orders.
"You are on bull's-eye duty. Bring trophy home," the captain said.
"Yes sir! " the soldier answered and got down to work.
The jet returned for Dioha again but this time it shot the projectile early and from far off. Dioha also squeezed off some bullets but he was never going to hit the jet from that distance. The projectile travelled towards Dioha but didn't morph into a net this time. At first, it travelled in a straight line towards Dioha but after Dioha did several flips and turns to evade it, it would stop at Dioha's former location, hover in the air a bit, change direction and resume chasing Dioha.
Derek hugged the gun close as he adjusted the lens. This wasn't standard procedure marksmanship. There was no higher ground, no wind or atmospheric pressure to consider and gauge. This was simply a close combat shot, straightforward and direct. Any soldier could take this shot. Target was not far away though target wasn't static. But all in all, this shot was an easy shot. Derek didn't understand why he was chosen to take such an easy shot. He took a deep breath, steadied his aim and waited for a perfect shot.
Dioha twirled in the air and landed with a thud. The projectile just zoomed past but it would soon redirect itself to him. It wasn't fast in changing directions as it always spent several seconds hovering before changing direction affording Dioha time to pick out where he wanted to jump to next.
"Watch out!" was all Dioha heard from Lanre before he felt a needle embed itself in his neck. Dioha pulled out the needle which was attached to a syringe. The syringe was empty, the contents coursing through Dioha in a matter of seconds. Dioha smiled. It would take a lot more to stop him. The jet had long since gone after firing this missile that was tracking him. The projectile resumed tracking Dioha. More flips and turns ensued and yet another needle found its way to Dioha. Dioha brushed it off and started killing the soldiers off one by one. The soldiers entered hand to hand combat with Dioha simply because the Colonel won't let them use guns on the asset. Dioha killed with his bare fists, all the while never completely taking his eyes off the missile.
After two more tranquilizers had been shot at Dioha, he realised his speed had dropped drastically. He was getting slower, and tired. The last time he dodged the missile, he had faltered causing the missile to begin morphing. It stopped after dropping off one piece of metal, redirecting itself to find Dioha again. It was taking longer for Dioha to kill off a soldier, and taking shorter for the projectile to track him time and time again. Lanre pleaded with Dioha to abandon the fight yet Dioha roared on, defying the effects of the tranquilizers. On more than two occasions Dioha stumbled to the ground without being hit by anyone. He was having problems standing, his head and vision kept swimming. "This is our only chance. You have to leave now Dioha." Lanre repeated wearily. He was also feeling the effects of the drugs. As Dioha's head cleared and his vision steadied momentarily, Dioha made a run for it. "Somebody stop him!" the colonel ordered. What was left of the army began running after Dioha. The colonel and the captain entered the wagon and ignited it into life. Dioha ran towards the entrance. He did more stumbling than running. Thankfully, his speed was still a little better than that of the humans if not they'd have caught up to him now. Even with that, they were seriously gaining on him. The missile zeroed in on Dioha's location and dove towards him. When it got to within 12 metres it shed off two metal pieces as it morphed into a net flying towards Dioha. A soldier who was very fast was within touching distance of Dioha. The soldier prepared to tackle Dioha. Just as he launched himself at Dioha, the net flew in.