Zach and Yanael looked around the room. They did their best to see anything useful or worth taking note of beyond the horizontal shower of arrows. But it seemed like they had managed to drop into a completely sealed death trap.
'There's no fucking way.'
Zach did not believe it was a coincidence that the hole led into the trap room.
Zach gritted his teeth.
"I'll make an opening for you. Break down a wall and get us out of here." They would only end up deeper in trouble if they waited for the never-ending arrow rain to end since Zach would only grow more tired. The longer they waited, the lower their chance of making a successful exit from the trap room.
Yanael nodded and took a ready stance. She had her sword pointed at the ground next to her and her shield in front of her.
"Three."
Zach shrank the barrier and stepped closer to Yanael.
"Two."
Zach created another layer, separating him and Yanael.
"One."
Zach tore open a slit in the barrier in front of Yanael.
Yanael flew forward with an upward swing of her sword. The slash was powerful enough to affect the air, and she blasted away several dozens of arrows before they could reach Zach's barrier.
But the arrows were heavy, Zach was stretched to his limit, and the barrier wasn't as strong as it could have been.
Three arrows pierced his barrier before he could reinforce it after closing it. Fortunately, the barrier didn't break, and Zach managed to close up the holes and reinforce the barrier with only slight discomfort at the base of his throat.
However, the intersection between his throat and his torso, like he was about to puke, wasn't the only place that hurt.
Zach reached up with a hand to his cheek. He knew one arrow had completely missed him.
The second arrow had barely missed his face, leaving a bloody line across his cheek. It stung. But it was a scratch.
Zach looked down.
He found the third arrow.
It was lodged deep in his thigh.
'Well, shit.'
The pain hadn't hit him yet since he was still numb and filled with adrenaline from the life-threatening situation he had been tossed into as soon as he left the tunnel. But the more he looked at the arrow, trembling like a leaf, stuck in his leg, the more Zach felt a burning sensation slowly grow in intensity.
"Fuck."
Zach gritted his teeth again in determination and looked toward Yanael. She had fought her way through the arrow rain by dancing on the spikes covering the floor like a ballerina with feather-light steps. As soon as she arrived at the wall, she lashed out with her sword.
The brilliant sword strike hit the wall and left a deep wound. But it wasn't enough. It might never be enough since the walls could be several lengths deep of solid stone. But the arrows had to go somewhere.
Eventually, the wall would break.
But it would take some time since Yanael also had to defend against the arrows coming from the wall in front of her and the walls to her sides and behind her. She was doing well, much better than Zach.
However, until she was done, Zach was on his own.
He looked at his leg again.
If it had been an arrow from the surface, he would have left it inside to stop the bleeding until he was in a safer place where he could afford to lose the concentration holding up his barriers.
But the arrow came directly from the Underworld. It could carry poison. It could carry disease. It could carry underworld energy. It could kill him.
"Shitshitshit."
Zach took a deep breath. He tried to, at least. The pain was getting pretty bad, but so was the realization that he had a fucking arrow in his leg.
He quickly, with trembling hands, untied the rope around his waist and retied it around his thigh, shortly above the arrow. He had to stop the bleeding, and if he tied it tightly enough, his leg would numb a little, hopefully enough to make extracting the arrow bearable.
It didn't look like the arrow had significant hooks to make it impossible to pull out, but it would still be painful.
After tying the rope, Zach carefully sat down and looked at his barrier. It was going to stay up no matter what. He wouldn't let it falter for even a moment.
He etched that resolve into his heart and mind.
Zach grabbed the arrow as far down as he could. He wrapped his fingers around it right next to his bleeding thigh.
"!"
Zach drew in a quick breath through his teeth and winced as he managed to push the arrow to the side.
'Fuck whoever made this place.'
After a string of short exhales and inhales like he was about to give birth, Zach stopped dilly-dallying and yanked as hard as he could.
"Rngh!"
Zach clenched his fists and ground his teeth in pain. He refused to scream.
He slammed his fist into the hard barrier he used as floor as an outlet for the searing pain in his thigh. It felt like his entire leg was on fire. Zach stabbed his barrier with the arrow until it broke.
He laid down and pressed his hands against his forehead as hard as he could, unable to even breathe. The slightest movement provoked his wound to hiss and spit in pain.
When the pain finally subsided enough, Zach forced himself to take several slow, deep, and unsteady breaths to try and calm down.
The barrier had held up. The arrow was out. His wound was probably bleeding and gruesome from how badly he had yanked the arrow. But it was out.
He was alive. He had been better. But he could have been worse.
Zach forced himself to raise his head and look at his leg.
'Woah. That's a lot of blood.'
His entire thigh was red. There was a puddle of blood under his leg.
'Maybe too much blood.'
The last thought on Zach's mind before he passed out was if red velvet desserts were delicious.