Chapter 708: Sheina’s pressure
Sheina found herself tumbling forward as they exited the tunnel rift. With Aubility Power no longer surrounding her, she was able to use her arrow and stick it onto the ground, stopping her momentum entirely.
She looked around, and saw the rest of her siblings landing safely, skidding across the stone ground.
"...relieved…," Umisu muttered.
"Urghh… finally, a bed," Jaku muttered, kissing the floor and immediately taking a nap.
"WOOHOOO! I want to do that again!" Zion cheered as he laid on the ground. "Good job sis!"
However, his celebrations were just met with a swift knock on the head by Sheina.
"Ow! What'd you do that for?!" he complained.
Sheina pursed her lips. "We were at such a dangerous spot, yet you were still acting so carefree! And you, Jaku! You almost missed the arrow because you weren't paying attention; you were just trying to take a nap! And Umisu, I love you, but you gotta speak up more. I almost missed it because I couldn't hear your voice!"
She huffed and puffed all of the feelings she had deep inside, leaving her all worked up in the end.
Everyone looked at her, surprised. Sheina was always uptight and strict, but she was never this stressed that smoke almost came out of her ears. Her white scales were almost turning into beet red as she let out all of her complaints. And she definitely wouldn't be shouting at Umisu, of all people.
"Woah, sis. Relax," Zion said, chuckling. "We made it out alive, didn't we? That's the most important part."
"I gotta agree with Zion on this one. You're making Umisu sad, " Jaku said, with Umisu hiding behind his shoulders.
Sheina pursed her lips and didn't say anything else. She just couldn't understand why her siblings weren't being more serious about the situation.
While she was being super stressed about this situation, her siblings weren't exhibiting any kind of seriousness to the whole situation.
First and foremost, she had to worry about making sure that they were all safe.
And secondly, she had to worry about rescuing Lord Michael. As his attendants and personal guards, it was their duty to make sure that no harm would fall onto him.
They had already failed by the mere fact that they let him be abducted right in front of their eyes. Their first priority should be his retrieval, but because they were so weak, they had to worry about their own survival first.
"I'm already worried about a lot of stuff, just don't add onto my stress," she said to them. "We have to find out where we are, and where Lord Michael is so that we can rescue him."
Jaku stood up and patted her shoulders. "You don't know Boss well enough. He doesn't need our help. He can manage all on his own. I'm betting he's even more worried about our safety rather than his own."
"Yup! Bro Mike is super strong!" Zion added.
"...super, super…" Umisu muttered.
"We just have to worry about our own safety," Jaku said.
Sheina understood what he was saying. However, there was still this underlying pressure she felt that she could not lift off of her shoulders. It was grasping her body, making her movements tight.
"Fortunately for us, it seems that we didn't get transported that far," Jaku said, looking around the room.
They were located inside a hallway made out of irregularly sized stones fitted together through thousands of years of natural formation.
They were still in the Red Ravine.
The biggest evidence of this was the fact that they saw multiple buddings of mushrooms growing around the cracks of the stones, making him realize that they were near the Mushroom Forest.
"Where are we?" Zion asked.
Sheina peered forward, squinting her eyes. She saw that the end of the hallway led to a much bigger open room, one similar to the one that they just left.
And with her sharp ears, she could hear sounds of activity: crashing rocks, clinking metal, and hurried shoutings of groups of people.
"We're entering into one of the tunnel rooms," she realized. "We were transported back!"
She immediately ran towards the end of the hallway, with her other siblings following suit.
As they left the hallway, they found themselves standing on a large cliff that led down into a dark chasm. Beyond that, on the end of the room, she saw a platform that led to a tunnel that let out a huge amount of light.
"Hit him!"
"I can't! He's too fast! Its movements are unpredictable!"
Just tens of meters away from them, they saw a group of about seven humans facing against a giant bee-like creature floating above an abyss.
That was a guardian. And the human adventurers were trying to defeat it!
One of the female adventurers looked back, noticing the Dragonborns.
"Where did you guys come from?! Ah, it doesn't matter. We need your help," she pleaded.
"What's wrong?" Sheina said, immediately moving forward.
"You see that guardian? It's called the Mocking Jay. And it's a relatively weak guardian.
As long as we defeat it, a bridge would form that would let us cross to the abyss and finally get out of the Red Ravine!
However, it's extremely fast and all of the movements do not conform to normal reasoning. We can't hit it at all. Please help us. We're just total beginners who thought we could challenge the Red Ravine, but we're totally wrong. We can't even defeat the weakest ones!"
This was one of the dangers of the Red Ravine. Once you enter one of the tunnels, the only way that you were going out was if you defeated a Guardian in one of the rooms.
And through a lucky coincidence, the Dragonborns were teleported right at the exit of the Red Ravine. They only had to go through the Guardian called the Mocking Jay, and they would be able to get out of this place. And according to these adventurers, this guardian was one of the weakest too.
Sheina looked up at the Mocking Jay and saw its human-like face upturned like a clown. It seemed to be mocking the humans for not even being able to graze its fur.
HIK HIK HIK HIK!
The Mocking Jay laughed as a fireball shot way past above its head.
None of these adventurers specialized in ranged attacks. They all brought with them swords and shields, which only goes to show how thoroughly unprepared they were for the Red Ravine.
"This is great!" Zion said. "My sis can hit any target even if it was a kilometer away. This little bee won't stand a chance against one of her arrows."
Everyone looked at Sheina. They saw the bow on her back and hope returned to their faces. Finally, an archer—the only person that could save them from this problem.
"Go, on sis! Don't be shy," said Zion, nudging at Sheina. "This is target practice for you."
Her siblings knew her capabilities well enough to know that she could hit this Mocking Jay in her sleep.
Jaku even laid down and just waited for the inevitable to happen. "Just wake me up when you hit it."
"Shoot… shoot!" Umisu cheered.
With everyone looking towards her, Sheina slowly took out her bow.