*Adela*

"We should be arriving in Xian soon," Iah said as he continued to move aside debris. They had been at it for who knows how long. It felt like days when it reality it had only been hours.

"I am exhausted," Nyima said, waving her now limp arms around. "Did anyone bring some food with them?"

"I got some honey," Lei said, summoning a bottle of honey. "But there's not much to share..."

Nyima narrowed her cyan eyes. "I'm fine. I am not into eating honey by itself."

Iah summoned a bag of potato chips from his yellow hyper ring. "Here, have these."

Nyima snatched the bag and greedily devoured the plain chips.

Iah and Lei snickered as they watched her eat.

"What? I'm starving here!"

"I'll make you something more filling once we arrive in Xian," Lei said, giggling.

I stared at Lei and Nyima. Ever since I met Lei again at Mahpiya I had wondered what kind of relationship those two had. I recalled them telling Iah they had just met when he asked but something told me that wasn't true.

"Are you hungry too?" Iah asked, summoning another bag of chips.

I shook my head as I hugged my waist. "No, I'm fine, just a little cold," I responded.

"A fire mage who is cold?" a voice echoed from behind. We spun around only to see the vampire lady from before. Who did she catch up so rapidly?

"Water Angel!" Nyima yelled, forming a sphere of water. The sphere soon expanded until it was six feet tall. "Spear of Archeus, equip!" A golden spear with a tip divided in the middle into two manifested in the angel's hand.

"A new spell?" Lei said, awestruck.

Nyima smiled proudly. "It's still imperfect, however. I have been hard at work learning, though! Attack, my guardian!" The angel lurched forward, breaking the stone floor with the spear and raising a wall of light in its place.

"Really? Light now?" the girl asked as she raised her hand. Several of her fellow bats swarmed toward her hand. They swirled around until they dissolved into darkness. A blood red scythe sprung forth in her hand. "You underestimate me, children!"

Iah blocked the sprung forward, shielding Ntima as the wall of light shattered. He grunted as the blade of the scythe collided with his hand. Blooded dripped down the scythe, giving it a red glow.

"This blood," the vampire girl said, pulling her weapon away. She watched as Iah's wound rapidly recovered. Drawing the blade toward her lips she ran her tongue through it. "Divine blood. You're a god?"

Iah looked up and grinned. "Yeah, well a demi-god to be exact. My father is your god, Tsukuyu no Mikoto."

The vampire narrowed her eyes at him. "I have no such thing! But your words ring true. You are his child..." The lowered her scythe and closed her eyes as if contemplating her next action.

"Iah," Nyima said, staring at his arm. "You alright?"

Iah winced. "I'm fine. Let's get out of here while we can.

Lei nodded. "But before we do... come here."

We all huddled around in a circle.

"If she decides to attack us again, we need to come up with a plan. We can't fight here like we would on surface."

"What do you got in mind? Nyima asked.

Lei formed three tiny balls in his hand. "Put these against your foreheads while she isn't looking."

"Got it," the three of us said, nodding our head.

Lei grinned. "Now let's get out of here for real."

The vampire snickered. I spun around in the blink of an eye and blocked the scythe with my macuahuitl.

"Nice one, girl. You three won't be going anywhere! Your blood will be all mine! With the blood of a god, I shall become all powerful! The other tribes will stop looking down at us and those surface mortals will cower in fear like my people have for centuries!"

"Tsk. So she plans to continue this," Iah said, summoning his yari and stabbed the vampire in the side. "I hate hurting women, but if one plans to hurt me and my friends then I won't hold back."

"Guys, be careful," I said, these tunnels as you've seen are unstable.

"No need to tell me that, it's the only other reason for why I haven't gone all out," Iah said as he blocked the vampire swift downward slash using the pole of his yari.

Lei stepped back and threw one of his butterfly knives, cutting the vampire's left cheek.

"Darn brats! Come my minions! Lends me your power!" the vampire yelled at the top of her lungs. The remaining swarm of fifty or so bats moved from their perches on the ceiling. But that wasn't all. A loud echoing sound rumbled across the entire complex.

"What's that? An earthquake?" Lei asked.

Iah stabbed the ground with his yari. " I won't let you!" Two earthen walls enclosed us and the vampire into a room the size of a high school soccer field.

"What are you doing?" Lei asked.

"Keeping those bats away," Iah said, glaring at the girl who was now robbed in a flowing crimson dress. "She seems to be getting stronger with the more she collects."

"So you figured it out," the girl said, taking a single step forward. The ground beneath her feet crumbled to dust as a crimson aura enveloped her. "No matter. With what little blood of yours I've devoured and my minions' power, I should be able to take all four of you."

"Think again," Nyima said as she stabbed the vampire in the back with her spear.

"How?" she growled, staring at the girl standing by Iah. Water covered Iah.

"Hehehe!" Lei said, grinning. "Seems like you were ignoring our little circle."

"What?"

Lei stepped forward and stabbed her with both his knives. "Why do you think the four of us haven't attacked you at once yet? It's not because we are still afraid of you."

"Not that I ever was," Nyima said as light gathered in the tip of her spear. She smiled at Lei. "You actually can be helpful from time to time."

Lei grumbled. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that from time to time part."

"You darn brats!" she screamed.

I stepped forward and placed a hand against her head. "Be gone, creature of the night!"

"No, stop!" she screamed as a bright light formed in the tips of my fingers. "I'll take you down with me!"

I gave her a blank look as I closed my ruby eyes. A brilliant white flame manifested where the light in my fingers was was. The flames exploded causing the vampire to explode too. Beams of darkness stuck all sides. The four were sent flying in opposite directions. I looked up but it was too late, the entire tunnel was caving in. The only reason I wasn't buried was due to Iah keeping the stones afloat. In front of us were Nyima who was being shielded by Lei who had dashed off to help her.

"Hurry up!" Iah screamed.

Lei picked up Nyima bridal style and ran as fast as he could, dodging the rocks which Iah could no longer sustain.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked, kneeling down next to Iah. He was struggling more than he should be considering the guy could raise whole plateaus of earth.

"The weight above ground, it's too much," Iah said, grunting as he fell to his knees. Lei snatched us with a sphere of wind and threw us along with Nyima to stairway.

"Lei!" I yelled.

Lei smiled. "I'll be fine." He lined the ceiling with intense winds and ran toward us as fast as he could. Without hesitating we ran for it and emerged from a cavern in the middle of nowhere, at least not any place I was familiar with, and I had lived and traveled across Xian all my life.

"We made it," Lei yelled.

Iah grunted. "Step away!" he shouted. "The ground is going to give way!" All of us jumped back and watched as a large chunk of the forest and the cave entrance collapsed. The four of us we sent flying by the cloud of dust.

Lei gasped but strangely his asthma hadn't kicked in, nor did it within the cavern. "Wait, I'm fine?" Lei said between coughs. "Is my asthma gone?"

"I hope so," I said, smiling. "Though what would the cause me? The abyssmal within?"

He chuckled. "What? Honestly? If so then maybe being possessed by that thing wasn't so bad after all! Though I still want to get rid of it."

"Let's get to Mina, the others are waiting for us," Nyima said. She glanced up at the radiant sky as the sun went below the horizon. "Seems the trip through the tunnel system took longer than expected."

"Stay here and rest," I said. "You three can head to Mina tomorrow morning."

Lei nodded. "Sounds good, I'm starving."

Nyima sighed and rubbed her stomach. "Alright, we can stay over tonight, but we should contact our families to let them know."

Iah stared at the collapsed forest for a moment.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked.

"I was thinking about how the Huo's teleportation crystal only had enough power to transport my siblings and cousins back."

I recalled how Lady Yeung had taken the children back upstairs prior to Kadriya showing us to the tunnel. "You think that was true?"

"I have no reason to doubt his intentions, but the Huo crystal's death means that our own crystal is likely not far from its own, seeing how they are two halves of the same."

"Wait, does that mean that we might have to take a boat to Wahkan?" Nyima asked.

"Possibly. Once we return to Mina I need to check on its condition for future reference."

"I see," Lei said, putting his hands behind his back. "Well, no use thinking about that now, we should go get us some food!"

"Yeah!" Nyima said in an unusually upbeat tone. It seemed that Lei's personality had started to rub off on her.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed this chapter :3. So Lei and co. are out of the tunnels, now only a matter of time until Lei and Nyima make it back to Wahkan to determine the ones representing Wahkan in the games \^_^/!**