"Shit." A quick and to-the-point curse cut the air with a sharp ring.

The elf took a step back from the chasm before turning around to see what was happening further inside the cave. Behind her, she saw everyone standing but with their knees shaking as the prolonged exposure to the stone-shattering quake had turned their legs into gelatin. Standing furthest away from the elf, Shiro had her eyes trained on the opposite side of the cave. Iris's eyes followed the white-furred nekos's eyes piercing the twilight. Where the entrance to the emergency escape tunnel should have been there was a wall of rubble blocking their sole way back.

Anger leaked out of Shiro's aura as she mumbled snappily under her breath, seemingly challenging the rubble to a duel. Surprisingly the rock didn't answer.

"To hell with that," The nekos hissed another curse as anger seeped out of her. Her aura grew slowly weighing down on everyone around her as she seemed to be thinking about something. Something finally snapped in Shiro as she ripped out the nearest mana crystal leaving a long octagonal hole in the wall. The faint pinkish light emanating from the crystal flew through the cavern before filling it in a blinding blast as it shattered into hundreds of shards upon smashing against the wall. "Everything that could have fucking gone wrong went wrong!" Time stopped as the level 100 warrior broke her calm, playful if not a little mischievous character.

Dust fell down the back of Iris's collar as Shiro clenched her palm into a fist and hit the wall beside her with all her strength.

Kia let out a quiet yelp as she hid her face in the folds of Iris's sleeve in fear of getting hit by a rogue piece of shrapnel splintering off from the wall as the nekos continued to pound her fist on it, her knuckles turning more purple with each hit.

"Shiro?" Behind the warrior the shaman called out, her body was turned to the side and her arms were pressed to her chest in fear. She appeared so small and powerless compared to Shiro.

The large triangular ear on top of the berserking nekos' head twitched. They folded themselves like falling trees before springing back up and rotating toward the direction the strange squeak of worried stupidity came from.

Shiro's crimson pupils redirected her anger at Nakatei causing the already small-looking shaman to shrink even more. White steam fumed from the level 100 warrior's nose as the air around her got heavier, pushing everyone down onto their knees.

Iris's body jerked upwards as the warrior's aura disappeared alongside the force pushing down on her shoulders. Shiro had her eyes wide open as she stared at the wall behind Nakatei, her empty gaze filled with shock. Her ears flopped down lifelessly like that of a beaten dog and her tail dropped powerlessly, hanging between her legs.

"I lost my temper," Shiro raised her hand behind her head and awkwardly scratched it followed by a small nervous laugh which only made the nekos look even more appologetic. "I think you and I should step away." She turned around and pointed at the crater in the stone behind her from which a cracked web spread all over the ceiling.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The two demi-humans quickly approached the opening Iris was standing next to. The two beast women walked with such haste that the undead mage clinging to the elf's arm, had jolted from surprise when she found the white-furred cat standing so close to her. Kia's big eyes then shot up to search Iris's face for answers followed swiftly by a familiar feeling making its way through the link they shared.

Iris understood the necromancer's confusion as the nekos had flipped-flopped between radical emotions so quickly that the undead had no time to process what was happening. Although looking at her little kitten she deduced that the girl probably didn't understand the reason why had Shiro snapped in the first place.

For a moment the elf stood still, thinking about trying to explain what had happened and how would she describe the event. She glanced at the two beast women, she could probably asked them about explaining the situation to the mage. She saw that Shiro looked normal... too normal as she tried to overcompensate for what just happened and looked not too eager to speak about it. The other demi standing a step behind the nekos looked far more concerned and tired than Shiro as she stared at the back of her neck with a hint of disbelief as if wondering why the level 100 warrior snapped before her.

Iris quickly delegated the thought to the background, as explaining to the ancient undead who had literally created a new race that it was not an everyday occurrence to almost die multiple times in a very short amount of time, by the hand of a nigh-invulnerable spirit, chased by giant beasts or nearly being swallowed by a god-like Wyrm had a worrying low chance of success.

The elf rested her arm on Kia's shoulder and began to massage it, the mage seemed to understand that her confusion should be put away from now. This didn't mean that she was happy about it but she couldn't voice her complaint as the elf's fingers pressed into her flesh causing her to squirm.

"Any ideas how to leave?" Shiro asked before she peeked her head into the open void. "Nakatei, didn't you tell me that you befriended a spirit?"

"Spark? I don't think she would be able to help us... I also don't know how to summon her," The shaman drew a line with the tip of her shoe as she avoided Shiro's eyes as they still hadn't calmed down fully and induced her with fear status. "I could summon an earth spirit to try to remove the boulders?"

"We could but from the look of things we could be here a month and not be close to digging ourselves from here."

While the two demis talked Iris too was thinking about their way of escaping. She looked at the mage massaging her shoulder and saw no worry whatsoever about starving in her fair face rather she saw that the girl looked eager to leave, urgent to get away from this land which can at any point flood their little cave with life mana. Iris too felt little urgency to live even though she expected to at least feel something after meeting the God of the Depths once again and getting stuck far underground but her race's ability kept her calm and rational mind at the helm.

"Kia, can you cast earth magic?" Shiro suddenly asked after finishing questioning her own magic caster.

"Of course." The mage puffed her chest upward like a peacock while she answered.

"Then can you dig us out of here?"

"Ehhh..." The proud peacock quickly turned into a chick as she gave the pile of heavy boulders a look. Her mouth opened and closed while she bobbed her head back and forward. In this quite unintelligible murmur, an occasional number brushed against the elf's ear. "Depends?" The mage answered but the elf noticed that her words seemed to be aimed more towards herself than to the nekos standing next to her as she opened and closed her palms, uncertain of her own power.

"Well, better to start earlier than later I guess." Shiro said as she started to walk toward the rubble, ready to start clearing it.

"I think I have a better idea." The cat's crimson eyes locked onto the elf behind her similar to everyone else. "Kia, how much mana do you have?"

"About seventy-six per cent but I'm slowly gaining it since there is a lot of mana around us coming from there." The petite undead watched the taller undead with a curious glint in her eyes as she answered raising her slender arm and pointing at the chasm.

"Do any of you have fears of heights?" Iris flashed a large smile before explaining her plan to everyone around her.