8 Almost getting killed again.

I went into the glowing tunnel, being cautious I went slow and observed my surroundings jokingly thinking to myself 'Observe: glowing tunnel, its a tunnel that is glowing, the reason for the glowing is the glowing mushrooms all over the tunnel.'

I had a small chuckle at that, and continued on.

I came to an intersection of tunnel, three paths in this way (not four cause that way is back where I came from) I looked at them and thought carefully.

As I was contemplating on which direction to go in I had seen a blur dash past me into the one on the left(the left had the least glowing mushrooms and seemed to be a bit windier.)

I decided to follow the blur thinking it was Hornet, but still deciding to be a bit smart I had decided to make a carving on the wall that looked like my head-ish, I was very bad at carving out the wall with my nail, so it looked more like what a five year old would draw as a cat.

Still I went on and followed the blur down the tunnel.

Coming to a room that seemed smaller than that of Sif's room and larger than the library, it had pools of what looked like acid, and smelled awful.

Yet I pressed on, and fought some globbies, and a new type of enemy, I called them banes.

It stood a full two heads taller than Hornet and had rage in its eyes, it charged for me and I dodged to the side, however I had gone a bit too far and stepped into a small puddle of the acid, it stung worse than if you had your whole body covered in paper cuts and decided to take a dip in a pool full of lemon juice that was spiced up with hot sauce and bleach.

I fell down on my side, shaking my leg trying to get the acid off as fast as I could, nearly forgetting about the bane about to smash my head in, looking up at it I could only feel dread and sorrow, as I had no way of getting away fast enough, and was in great pain.

I closed my eyes, and cursed at myself for my over zealotry in trying to go further faster, I waited for the bane's large hammer like hands to crush me, but it never came, and what I heard was a choking gasp and a large thud.

Opening my eyes I saw the bane had fallen onto its back shaking slightly as its shuddering breaths came in more ragged, looking at who had saved me I saw it was Hornet, she looked quite miffed at me(bit of an understatement furious was more apt).

I was about to thank her for the save when she grabbed me and bolted out of the room and then the tunnel, and sat me down(rather forcefully) onto the bench.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!" she shouted at me.

"w-well, I was just-" I tried saying before she cut me off.

"YOU ALMOST GOT KILLED!" she was not happy.

"mn(means mumbled I'm) sorry." I weakly apologized.

"YOU SHOULD BE!" anger was radiating off her.

"I just thought that-" attempting to salvage, process interrupted.

"NO, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANY EXCUSES, YOU ARE SITTING HERE AND NOT GOING ANYWHERE FOR NOW" ok, seeming to be cooling down, should be fine if I don't ask if she is-

"are you ok?" god damn it me.

"AM I OK!? DO I LOOK OK!?" yeah ok, me just shut.

I wisely learned from my mistake and did not answer, but I learned it a bit too soon, as I should have answered.

"LOOK AT ME, WORRYING ABOUT A RANDOM SMALL BUG WHO CLAIMS TO HAVE COME HERE TO KILL RADIENCE YET HE HAS LITTLE TO NO CARE ABOUT WHATS GOING ON AROUND HIM!" yeah, should have answered, best to try and sal-

"AND NOW HE GOES AND ALMOST KILLS HIMSELF! AFTER I SHOW A LITTLE LOVE TO THE FIRST THING IN ALMOST A FEW CENTURIES THAT DOES NOT WANT TO KILL ME OR IS RADIENCE!" wait a sec did she-

"AND YOU ASK ME IF I'M ALRIGHT LOOK AT YOUR LEG ITS ALMOST DOWN TO NOTHING BUT BONE!" she had a point there, should foc-

"I MEAN REALLY HOW RECKLESS CAN YOU BE TO JUST CHALLANGE SOMETHING SO LARGE RIGHT AFTER YOU HAD A BIG FIGHT!?" ok, point.

"I just wanted to get stronger faster, so I could help you sooner." yes! Clutch save by me.

"r-really, you almost got killed because of me?" oh shit, oh shit, fix fix fix!

"n-no its that-" uh oh.

"d-did you really almost die, because I made you do it?" she said, almost sobbing.

"no! no, its just that, I cared for you so much that I wanted to fix your problems faster." is, is it fixed now?

"y-you dumb idiot of a little bug, Ember." she sat next to me, and this time it was I who was the crying pillow for the other occupant of the bench.

Hornet cried, and cried and cried, I just held her close, and kept saying sorry.

This had opened my eyes, to many things, Hornet loved me(I had a thought about it when she kissed me, but thought that she had just wanted me to have a special reward, in true dense protagonist fashion), I was not as strong as I had thought I was(truly games do give false sense of empowerment and it carried over), and that I had to take into account what my actions were to Hornet(just some cocky little bug that charged forth trying to impress her(oh my god, I've become zote)).

It all became clear to me, I had to get stronger, and I had to do it thoroughly.

Seiya, give me the patience to do this right. ([reference to The Hero Is Overly Cautious])

And so, with thoughts of being stronger, and a sleeping Hornet laying on my lap(true gender equality everyone gets lap pillows) I leaned back and closed my eyes, and slept for the first time since being reincarnated.

...To be continued some time in the future perhaps.

(a/n yeah, felt like making a chapter so, here you go.)