Cough!
In an instant, poison fog invaded her lungs, a certain numb probed throughout her whole body. Her senses dulled by the second that ticked.
Her throat itched, barely able to stop herself from breathing in any of the fog longer.
'D-Damn I-it, all because of some dumb flashback..'
She insulted herself for still being hung up over the past.
Almost letting Cale fall down in the process.
'I-I have to get out of here..'
Anymore and her entire body will be fully paralyzed.
She took one glance to her right.
Step
And took one laborious step after another.
Am clutched his unnaturally bent and bleeding arm.
'Did...she breathed in that fog just now?'
Beads of blood trickled like how sweat would on his head.
'Is it just my imagination?'
He didn't know, but for now, it didn't seem like a big deal, so he trudged forward.
'My insight is needed..'
If he could not fulfill his role, everyone here would die.
'I...don't want that to happen'
He already had many people in his tribe dying, and while Iye appeared to be an enemy...she also moved with a certain desperation, a desperation he wanted to at the very least respect.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a body sprang towards his hand. From where Am, Famu and Iye dropped and had come from.
'I'm...sorry..'
It was Am's now deceased comrade whom he used to call a brother.
'I should have...'
Been better, but those thoughts dissolved before they could take form.
Am, wanted to at least bury his comrade's body in a respectable grave. Who would want to rest in this hellhole after all?
While he also wanted to kill Iye with all his might, he also knew one more thing.
'I'd die'
Not knowing who she was, one would naturally believe that they have a shot against her now that she was letting her guard down and potentially being poisoned, but this.
Was further from the truth.
'She will screw us over if we even so much as attempt betraying her'
An eye for an eye as they say. It didn't take a genius to know that Iye might be spiteful. Her being mad like a rom-com female lead when Am tried to save someone else was essentially proof enough...to his delusional eyes anyway.
'Well, let's just see, no one knows what might occur in the future anyway'
Holding those thoughts close to him. Am took a step forward, his feet squelched and blood kept dripping away from him.
It was a painful experience, but Am was used to this kind of pain. Just, as long as he and the people around him didn't perish, that is all that mattered.
Step!
Step!
Rushed footsteps alarmed all the predators living like parasites in the Ohrn tree, they awoke and hurried towards the sound.
...?
They found nothing noteworthy with the exception of one.
Step
A soft, yet lacerating step came, echoing proudly from behind them.
They saw three figures, all carrying another on their back or slung over on their back and they—
Were all suspended in the air? Squatting down like they were doing a group exercise together.
The sight was weird, but regardless of the prey being slightly on the freaky side, food was still food to the hungry.
A small, actual ordinary looking snake began zooming towards them, smoothly slithering like the adorable snake it was. It opened its tiny adorable mouth, ready to sink venomous teeth in—
Fwoosh!
The cute snake...breathed out, fire?
Fwaam!
The surprisingly small flamethrower oozed out even more flames out of its tiny body, the flames covered the entire small space underneath the Ohrn tree and ushered towards the three unsuspecting figures.
**
Meanwhile.
'I feel like I might fall flat out on my face at any moment...'
Iye still held her breath, her toes, fingers and elbows had long ago lost sensation, it proved more and more difficult to move even a single muscle.
They kept bulldozing through, narrowly missing the slumbering beasts with quiet and careful movements.
Famu remained at the front as the spearhead, Iye right behind as the handle and spine, and Am stood as the pommel.
Each step felt exhausting to take, a deep-suffocating pressure kept falling down on them, pressing tighter and tighter by the second. They wouldn't be able to keep their breaths any longer.
Surprisingly, Iye did not breathe in any of the air despite being in a very critical state, she could hold her breath for just under 10 minutes, any more and she would either fall unconscious or be on the very edge of it.
Am, despite being completely wounded, treated them as if it were nothing, but slowly...his smooth composure cracked and he dulled.
There were a few close calls, for example, when Famu tripped over a vine hidden in the fog, Iye had to rush towards him and grab him by the nape.
Barely avoiding detection from a plant that was theorized to trick its prey by looking like a frail female human that was relatively easy to feast on.
An Arulel, and while there is a lot of information about them in the encyclopedias, their hunting methods...are listed as 'unknown', only theories of how they hunt were ever presented.
Since, no one who tried to document the creature, returned alive or 'fine'.
Eventually, avoiding the Arulel and not wanting to do anything with it. Iye, Am and Famu finally reached the end of the underground maze whose paths were coincidentally in a spiral-like formation.
The light did not slap Iye's eyes, it actually looked quite dark outside. She gazed at her nonresponding limbs, veins popping in her forehead from trying to hold in her breath.
'It hasn't even been a full ten minutes and my right side is basically already disabled'
She could still feel it, but she couldn't move it no matter how much she tried, which caused a slight delay.
'By now I should be having several respiratory problems, maybe even infections, well. Not that I can check by breathing or with some tool'
Standing in tandem with the fog, Am looked back and motioned for her to come next to him.
She followed his movements, when he jumped up in the air, she also jumped with him.
Tok
Her feet landed on a translucent expanded film.
'Soft'
It felt as such when stomping on it, but when Am winced she stopped momentarily and gazed at his bloodied figure.
'How the hell is he moving with those injuries?'
Famu did attempt to help Am out, but he rejected it and moved as if he didn't even get injured.
She felt the need to stomp on the foothold to inflict Am with pain again, but out of small respect for him, she stopped, after all.. even though they are helpful to each other right now, she needed to get ready for when he might stab her in the back. He had the motive to do so as well.
Gieek!
A small scaly black snake slithered towards them. Iye stitched a smirk on her face.
'Awww~! so adorab—'
Fwoosh!
'Eh?'
It didn't take long for her face to shift into a bewildered, surprised look.
Its fiery breath drew in and concentrated towards them at an alarming rate.
'Wait, wait wait! How can something that small pack so much firepower?'
Literally and metaphorically. She also never read anything about a small snake breathing up a firestorm.
The foothold she stood on, lowered slightly, straining further down as if it were being pushed down like a button—No, it really was being pushed down.
'Wait'
Looking below, she thought of something that though stupid, was also a reasonable concern to stress.
'I know I shouldn't be thinking this...but'
A sudden realization hit her like a tidal wave.
'How are we....'
Humming loudly and proudly. The translucent film, reaching a certain threshold prepared to flick upwards like a catapult.
'Going to land?'
Whoosh!
The solid wall held no appetite to answer Iye's question. Springing up and launching the three to the skies.
The fog opened way and spit them out, all three immediately started gasping like thirsty animals.
But alas, even though the air lashed wildly like a whip from a professional, they could only hope to drag in a single breath through the slicing wind.
Iye's heart thumped and pounded, her lungs suffocated under the pressure and after a long time of not breathing.
Rattle!
Her body crushed and rammed itself into the leaves, killing a lot of her momentum and small branches stabbed at her body, but despite that, she still flew high, high enough to see the starry night.
'Ah'
The stars in the night flashed and twinkled like shiny coins.
Her body toured through the wind, passing by the trees in a beautiful long arch, already miles away from where she originally was.
'It's...beautiful'
Countless constellations blinked and flashed away, flirting with the hanging moon.
"....."
Even now, as she was falling down, she could not bring herself to respect that old fossil of an artifact.
Instead, she thought of more pressing matters.
"..wait"
In a low tone, she spoke and glanced to her sides, her heart at the edge of its seat.
"..Where is.."
Right above her, a ragdoll spun and danced through the air. A truly ugly one at that.
"Cale?"
And it was the man and the whole goddamn reason she even set out on this dangerous journey for.
Iye, feeling and sensing her emotions reaching the boiling point. Spoke with bated breaths.
"The moment I resurrect you.."
She raised her hand not yet paralyzed and unaffected, ready to receive Cale into her grasp, but just before his body closed in on her.
"I'm pounding you hard to the ground"
Her fingers curled in and left only the middle sticking out.