too good of a timing

Too Much Confidence : Part 3

Subaru and Ram had returned to exploring the labyrinth-like mines once more after they woke up, but their advancement was slower than either of them expected. Ram was still in a bad state, and Subaru, at this point, wasn't fairing much better. They had run out of food as well as water, and Subaru had been forced to dial down the phone's brightness even further to buy them a little more time before it ran out of charge for good. With almost nothing left to carry, they had scrapped their empty bags and pouches to staunch their seeping wounds. He focused on drawing the arrows, rather than on their pitiful conditions.

"Done. This part is fully mapped. Dead end," Subaru choked out his words as he finished drawing an arrow on the wall. "Let's... search the other branch, we haven't checked that out yet."

Subaru had been doing most of the talking. While his voice was dry and ragged, Ram's had given out almost entirely. Rather than waste what strength her voice had left, she communicated basic call-outs with rough movements lit dimly by the phone. As Subaru wasn't carrying it, and its effective radius as a light had dwindled to almost nothing, he had to rely on sound to let Ram know what he was up to.

The pair began backtracking their way to the last intersection, and proceeded down a fresh path. After a few minutes of travel, they came to another intersection, when Ram suddenly halted- body taut. He didn't notice this immediately, and started marking another arrow, when the sound of Ram sprinting down one of the paths snapped him out of his robotic motions.

"What!? Ram! Wait!"

Subaru began running after her, but he couldn't catch up, let alone keep pace. Even given his condition, he wasn't exactly moving slowly- as far as he could tell, Ram was moving faster than most professional sprinters could manage, even on a good day.

'I thought she was injured!? Is she for real? What the hell is in that direction?'

The tunnel began sloping up, but the incline had no effect on Ram's pace. If anything, she was running even faster, all while Subaru slowed as he struggled against his physical condition and the increasingly steep path.

She could feel it! Yes, a creature on the same wavelength as her clairvoyance! Tapping into her last reservoir of energy, she launched forward, pounding her feet against the ground as she charged directly towards it. A dim natural light began to illuminate the tunnel as she approached.

'There is a way, Rem! Wait for me- I will save you this time, without fail!'

As the light reached its peak, though regrettably still dim, intensity, Ram burst into a large cavernous room, and momentarily slid to a stop. She glanced up, and fixated on the source of the light- a narrow opening halfway up the wall at the far extent of the cavern, barely accessible via some convenient rock formations. She advanced towards it as fast as she could force herself to move, pumping her arms-

Crack*

She stepped on something. It wasn't important. She needed to reach the exit. No other outcome would be acceptable.

Crack* *Crack*

More debris. It was getting annoying, but she wouldn't let it slow her down. Whatever she was trampling underfoot posed no threat to the reincarnation of the oni-

A sound echoed through the cavern, snapping her out of her single-minded rush towards the light. She spared a glance behind her to spot the source, and found a panting, barely upright Subaru calling out to her. Something was wrong. His expression was not one of relief or joy, but that of-

"RAM! ON YOUR RIGHT!"

-total terror. Her eyes followed Subaru's desperate gestures as she skidded to a halt and looked to her right. How had she missed such a thing?