haven - zb1

33

Without missing a beat, Quanrui yanked the smoking door open, shielding his face with his hand and threw himself into the fray. Hanbin and Woohyun were quickly followed behind, stopping at the door when the intense heat engulfed them, but they pushed ahead.

"Zhang Hao!" Quanrui, seemingly unbothered by the smoke and flames, yelled out, narrowly avoiding a falling flaming wooden beam. There was fire burning on every flammable surface, tables, curtains, the beautiful red silks on the ceiling. The air was filled with smoke, making vision limited and hazy. And the heat was unbearable.

"I'm here!" A muffled voice coughed out, and soon Zhang Hao's small figure was spotted crouched down, back to the wall. Quanrui dove for him, dragging him to his feet and was about to push him towards Woohyun and Hanbin when Zhang Hao cried, "Jiwoong, he's in pain, we have to help him-"

"Zhang Hao, you're not immune to fire, you have to get out!" Quanrui roared, urging Zhang Hao towards Hanbin.

"Try to put out the fire," Quanrui yelled over his shoulder as he ran deeper into the room, in search of Jiwoong. As he ran, the fire in the room trailed after him, encircling his ankles and dissipating at contact with his skin.

Zhang Hao's throat seemed to be coated with soot and smoke, as he choked out, "He-he's really not in a good-" He was riddled with coughing fit, and Woohyun considered for a second, before he nudged Hanbin towards the exit. "Try and extinguish the fire from outside," He pleaded, before he went after Quanrui.

Hanbin, dazed and confused, managed to murmur "He's mad" before the smoke got to him and urgency took hold of him.

Quanrui bolted towards the bedroom, where the heat was getting more intense and fires were raging high and hot. Jiwoong's bed was on fire, as was the surroundings around him. He lay still, sweat running down his skin, miraculously, his clothes were still intact. Quanrui tried to draw as much fire as he could from the room, even as he felt his body start to heat up.

Quanrui was going to reach the bed before a loud crack sounded above him, he looked up in time for a destroyed ceiling plank to come crashing down on him and his vision went dark.

When Woohyun caught up to him, he took in the sight of Quanrui, pressed under a wooden plank and Jiwoong, lying in the centre of flames and chaos. Acting quickly, he shot out a stream of water to put out the fire ringed around Jiwoong, then ran to Quanrui. He was breathing but the wood carved quite an ugly cut in his forehead. Woohyun was going to lift the plank before a second one landed beside him, causing him to stumble back. Then, a cool hand pressed to his side, and Hanbin was there, supporting him up and together they extracted Quanrui.

Just then, a hole was cracked in the wall, and Gunwook hopped in, waving his hand in front of his face to clear the smoke. He reacted swiftly to the absolute mess they were in, assuring them he could take care of Quanrui as he hauled the older out of the fiery room.

Hanbin summoned more water for Jiwoong, but it just kept evaporating. At a loss for what to do and with time ticking, Hanbin drew in a sharp breath. "Here's a terrible idea-"

"Is that really the time for that-"

"Woohyun, you gotta trust me," Hanbin's eyes were liquid and desperate, "Let's try something. Let's summon a storm."

"What?"

"It'll kill two birds with one stone- We don't have time to argue, work with me."

Luckily, they had their scabbards strapped to their hips, and they swiftly drew their swords and got to work. Water beaded at the edges of their swords, but they didn't stop there. The humidity started to climb up, the fragments of sky visible through the broken ceiling bleeding into a dark grey.

Outside, thunder rumbled ferociously. Zhang Hao, pretty much recovered, was tending to Quanrui who was just carefully laid down a distance from the burning room. The moment he heard the thunder his head jerked up, the water used to heal Quanrui's bloody cut flowing off his face.

"They're trying to summon a storm," Zhang Hao scrambled up, still supporting Quanrui, "We gotta bring Quanrui to shelter, unless you guys are keen to be drenched soon."

"Wait, wait, they're just casually gonna summon a storm?" Gunwook asked as he grabbed Quanrui's arms to lift him, "Hold on, then they'll need-"

Taerae already reacted, spinning on his heels to send large vines to tear what remains of the room's ceiling down, so rain water could enter the room. As wood, splinters and more scattered across the lawn, the others managed to get Quanrui and a dizzy Zhang Hao to shelter, just in time for a bright fork of lightning to slash across the sky.

And here came the rain. It wasn't a light drizzle, oh no. It was a downpour, so hard and heavy it was difficult to see. Woohyun and Hanbin, so drained from their effort, stood there for a while, as the rain drenched their clothes and hair, washing ash and soot from their skin, the cold such a welcome from the blistering heat of the fire.

Then, they remembered Jiwoong was still here, and hurried to his side. Luckily, the rain did wonders to cool him down, his skin was only slightly warm to the touch and his expression wasn't pained anymore.

They both released a synchronised sigh of relief, and using their last bits of energy, brought Jiwoong out of the tattered room. They were immediately greeted with the rest, who tended to all three at once, catching a still-fainted Jiwoong and supporting the two water heirs out.

When Quanrui came to, his cut had already been nicely healed by Zhang Hao, and while he was a little sore, he managed to get up and move around with no troubles. As the others rested and Jiwoong started to stir, Quanrui decided to return to their room.

The room was completely destroyed. The burnt wood was damp from the rain, the red silks were scorched beyond repair. Quanrui managed to salvage some things from the room, some clothes, personal belongings, their spears, of course and amazingly, Taehyun's books, which despite being the most flammable things in the room, still remained completely untouched.

Quanrui took a slow, shaky breath as he brushed his fingers over the blackened surface of a table. This was insane and unnatural. Collecting their things, he ducked out of the ruins and went back to join the others.

-

"Okay, what the hell happened just now."

The dinner table was quiet and sombre, especially because most of them were exhausted from the day's hectic events, so Gunwook's question remained unanswered for a few beats.

"Honestly, if I were to guess, something aggravated his condition. I'm not saying this to make you feel better," Quanrui gave a pointed look at the disheartened water heirs, "I genuinely have never seen his condition this bad. I think there was an external influence, something we've never encountered before."

"Then..." Yujin said carefully, "Do you think our challenge has begun?"

"This is...too strange. Challenges have to involve everyone, don't they?" Taerae asked. Everyone turned to look at Jiwoong, but he looked so weak and out of it that they decided against prying.

"Let's just rest up," Hanbin sighed, shakily getting to his feet, "What's important is that all of us are safe and alive, so let's...let's see how this goes."

Since the fire heirs' rooms were completely destroyed, save for a few tiny saved scraps, the duo had to stay in the earth and air rooms instead. As they retreated to their rooms, they all wondered what could possibly come next.