(7)
"Not Now, Shirou, I'm at a tight spot right now! Shlag Von Vin!...Damn, This thing's fast!"
Hiding behind the countless number of high columns, Rin braced herself from the bombs or rather, excrements the flying eagle-like beast spewed from it's mouth. The acidic solution sent everything it touched to liquid
Rin tried to shoot as many gandr as fast as she could but they only managed to punch a hole in the wall. The beast flew in between the columns closing in on
Rin while giving only split second time for her to react
"Dammit!"
her last shots missed the eagle by an inch wide, it was the closest she could get, the eagle immediately retaliated. Rin threw her body right behind the pillar to her right, which took a direct hit from the eagle's spit, being instantly liquidated to nothing. Rinse and repeat, the more Rin tried to fight back the eagle the more she forced her into a corner.
It all started like this, after they split up Rin chose to go to this tunnel, it was a short three minute walk and she wasn't really expecting anything in particular, except that... that...she ran into something that any girl would die to have.
As you might have guessed by now, What she found here in this giant chamber rife with tall pillars was the potion of youth, She knew that because the black ceramic box had the name neatly engraved on it.
Being at her late twenties, Rin was also starting to worry about aging. Contrary to Luvia, her perpetual rival who looked to have a permanently fixated Baby face, Rin's face was starting to develop wrinkles. That's typical for any woman facing imminent bankruptcy but who would blame her? After all she's just a gir...(err...that's not right) a Woman.
She was always as beautiful as she'd be in her husband's eyes but as always its the women who pick up the tiny details. Anyway, returning to our main point, she simply opened the rock cover and tried touching it, Boom! An acid spraying eagle appeared out of nowhere. That's when Rin painfully realized that greed leads to one's inevitable downfall. Anyway that's one tiny lesson doomed to exist as one mere part of countless junks in her brain, conclusion reached, end of story.
"At this rate my mana is going to deplete before I can do jack shit on that damn thing."
Rin slowly spun her head towards the eagle, maintaining its altitude waiting for Rin to make the next move.
"She's like...fixated on the air just like that...wait, hold on...fixed means stop... stop..."
A small grin formed on her lips, as you'd have guessed, she's come back with one heck of an idea.
Rin steadily reached to her back pack and picked up four candy pop shaped totem wards from her bag and placed them neatly in between her belt two on the right the rest she on the left. She knew what they are for and knew well how potent they are.
She received them from Tohko when she first came across her during one of her personal mineralogy expedition to further advance the inner structure of jeweled sword Zelretch which had been completed to only around twenty percent back then.
These four totems are said to be able to utterly stop the very fabric of space; space bending if you'd like to put it. But there is one hefty condition that has to be made, they must be aligned horizontally in a square pattern and must be installed at least 4 feet above ground. Rin knew this was going to be a test of speed and agility, whoever is slower will surely be killed or worse.
"Alright, Steady... Use your logic, Think... Think..."
Slowly, Rin took out a pocket mirror from her bag, and tried reflecting faint sun rays coming from the ceiling, by what she had seen so far, the eagle seemed to only react at her movements, if his hypothesis is true then the eagle was sure to react to its reflection. When that happens she will start executing her move
"Alright... let's see how you do."
Within a quarter of a second, the eagle reacted, flying head fast towards the light, getting on the range before spitting it's gel on the decoy.
(A chance!)
quickly Moving out of her hideout, Rin aimed her left hand at the eagle and started pouring streaks of gandr blasts at it. The eagle pulled back while gaining altitude. dodging them in mid air.
Rin pushed her shots to the limit and sprinted towards the nearest wall of this cubical room before plunging the first ward into a crack on the crumbling wall.
Next, Rin set her eyes on the space to the left where the display case of the vial of youth was set. But by now her body started to see its limits, her magic circuits began to burn out by the continuous currents of prana it generated, her arms were beginning to twitch and burn. Even with all the hindrance she had to go on, hesitation would only result in her death.
Rin conjured every last bit of her courage and closed her eyes, her mind began to fill with this word:
(The Mind is blank, The body feels nothing.)
Rin's pain began to disappear gradually, prana circulating in her legs, not long after, she burried her second wand buried on the wall.
Next, Rin sprinted towards wall to the North. Just before she successfully plunged her third wand. Rin lost the sight of the eagle as the giant pillar got in the way of her gandr shots. She knew the Eagle was closing in fast she had to act.
Rin pushed onwards for the last sprint, this split second gap will decide everything.
"Just One more to go!"
halfway through, she found the eagle closing in fast from the left, their distant less than 3 seconds. Rin reinforced her legs to the maximum extent she could and made the leap of faith.
The eagle hurled its body its beak set to pierce its prey. The eagle had the edge in this contest of speed. Now it was down to pure luck.
"Reeeaaaccchhhh!"
-Wham-
A split second later, her consciousness started to fade. her punctured left arm spilling blood.
"...Dammit...so close..."
Rin collapsed into an immediate slumber.
Right behind, the body of the eagle stopped petrified on the air, it's beak piercing through Rin's flesh by a millimeter.
The Ward has stuck on the wall, a bounded field of stagnancy engulfed the chamber. The eagle was left paused on the air, drawn into an eternal slumber of nothingness.
"Rin! Rin! Answer me! Rin! No, God... please..."
On Shirou's hand was Rin, unconscious and all out of Stamina, the battle has made her deplete most of her prana. Her breathing was barely there, all Shirou could do was shaking the motionless body continuously.
"Please...Rin... I beg you..."
A warm tear streamed down his cheek, her love was surely dead, (well, nearly but not quite). The streaming Tear formed a droplet on the tip of his nose before gently landing on the lips of Rin.
"nggg... It's too salty Shirou...the egg... tastes like tears."
"Rin...huh?"
Shirou opened his eyes. His wife was there, on his arms, sleep talking. Twitching her eyes and shaking her head left to right.
"..."
Wiping away the last of his tears, Shirou pulled his hands out from Rin. Her head came impacting the ground at precisely seven inch off.
"Gah! What! The Eagle!"
Rin woke up with a rather hysterical plink. A nice poke on her cheek by Shiro pulled her back on her sense.
"Ouch! Shiro? Hah... phew, thank god...I thought I was in another world."
"Yeah... for a moment there I thought you were a goner too."
Said Shiro as he pointed his finger at the eagle, seemingly motionless on the air
"Heh? I see, your eyes are red and bloated with all the crying. Don't worry Shirou, I won't leave this world before you."
"You'd better be right about that...and please don't do that again will you?"
"Alright, Alright! What a crybaby."
Scratching her head Rin spun her head before to stand up and walk away towards the walkie talkie. There's still Saber, and seeing that of all person, she wasn't with Shirou meant something was definitely wrong
"Hello? This is Rin, what's your status saber?"
After a moment of radio white noise a voice emerged..
"Art..f..Con-rmed"
"What? I can't hear you clearly. Saber, Try pulling the antenna out."
"What... Antenna?"
"The pointy head on your radio."
"Ah..."
A moment later another sound, this time,with a much more clearer one emerged.
"Rin, Shirou, I have confirmation of the Artifact. And you won't believe this...its EA"
"Well that explains why I didn't recognize the picture right away"
Shirou scratched his head. Although the picture he got from Sion looked utterly familiar the picture blurred as long as it's a sword, that wouldve been every information he needed to make out its identity but up until now EA was his only exception.
"Anyway, did you happen to come cross any beasts?" spoke Rin
"Yes."
"Great! Can you tell us more?"
"...Do you really want to know?"
Shirou and Rin stopped briefly before answering back, with a rather tired tone.
"On second thought, please don't"
"Glad you said it Shirou, now let's get this over with and head back to base"
"Alright, wait there Saber, we're coming right up."