Separating quickly at the sound of her voice, the three boys turned around to see Wei standing there, driven by her madness, wildly waving her guns at them. With her red eyes and crazed expression, the trio was one hundred percent sure that this was no longer the Wei they knew.

Xinya stood there frozen as he looked at Wei in this state, he had no idea how she had snuck upon them. The last time he had checked the map he had saw that she was close to them but it wasn"t that close to finding them this quick.    

He knew that it was their own fault for letting their guard down, but they were just so excited about finding the trick to this maze. Maybe his previous notion was correct, the curse could be leading her towards them.   

Glancing quickly at Melting Snow and Wandering Sound he saw that they already had their weapons in hand, prepared to fight. Although he felt reluctant to harm Wei, he knew it must be done so they could get to the center of the maze to cure her.

Taking out another floral attack potion from his quick slot, he was prepared to throw it at her, but before he could even think about it, Wei began to shoot her guns at them. With her being controlled by madness, her aim was completely ruined.

This gave Wandering Sound a chance to put up his s.h.i.+eld, protecting Drifting Cloud and Melting Snow from the spray of bullets. Xinya wanted to bind Wei once more with his potion, but he knew if he moved from behind Wandering Sound he would get hit.

Wandering Sound also realized that there was no way Drifting Cloud could get a throw-in, with how fast Roaming Wind was firing at them. He hoped that with the way that she was shooting that her stamina would run out before his mana did.

He sincerely doubted that would happen, so Wandering Sound decided that he needed to do something drastic before his s.h.i.+eld began to weaken. Not wanting to be riddled to death by bullets, Wandering Sound with his s.h.i.+eld still up, rushed towards her as fast as he could.

The closer he got to her, the more damage the light from his s.h.i.+eld did. The light blinded her, causing her to stop firing her guns so she could cover her eyes. Her pained screams were light knives to Wandering Sound"s heart.

"Don"t falter, keep attacking!" Xinya yelled as he saw Wandering Sound about to back away from Wei. 

While Wandering Sound had her at bay, Xinya ran forward potion in hand and bound her with a floral attack potion once again. As soon as she was bound, Wandering Sound hurried and took down his s.h.i.+eld, and stood there staring at Wei, with a face full of devastation. 

"I didn"t want to hurt her." Wandering Sound whispered, the sadness apparent in his voice.

"I know you didn"t," Xinya told him. "But it was either you attacking her, or she would have killed us. Which one do you think would have hurt her more."

Wandering Sound knew that he was right, but it still didn"t stop the pain he felt in his chest. He had hurt the woman he liked and that just left a sour taste in his mouth, he wished that there was another way he could have stopped her. 

Seeing as Wandering Sound was just standing there wasting their time dwelling on this matter, Melting Snow went over to him and gave him a hard push. "Stop standing there moping! We had to subdue her or we would all be dead by now. Stop acting like your the only one who cares about her, don"t you think it hurts Drifting Cloud just as much when he has to bind her!"

"Melting Snow is right, although blunt about how he said it," Xinya said, giving a sidelong glance to the boy. "You need to stop acting stupid, we can"t be wasting time here. The sooner we get to the center, the sooner this will be over." 

Xinya knew they were wasting valuable time trying to console Wandering Sound right now when they could have been finding the center of the maze. Throwing another floral attack potion at Wei, he grabbed Melting Snow"s hand and begin to rush through the maze, not caring if Wandering Sound was following them or not.

It wasn"t his job to take care of the man, there were more pressing matters at hand. He should know better than this, him hurting Wei wasn"t dire, not finding the cure was. If Wandering Sound wanted to act like a lovelorn fool, he would let him. 

With the knowledge they gained, Xinya and Melting Snow started to make their way through the maze with ease.

~

Wandering Sound watched as Drifting cloud and Melting Snow left. He knew he should have followed them, all he needed to do was get to the spring and find the cure and Roaming Wind would be fine, but he couldn"t bring himself to do so.

He felt as if he needed to stay here with Roaming Wind so that she wouldn"t be alone in her madness. A part of him knew that it was the guilt for hurting her that was taking away his common sense, but he didn"t care.  

Seconds pa.s.sed and the binding from Drifting Cloud, floral attack potion faded away. Roaming Wind was released and started to wildly look around herself before her eyes settled on Wandering Sound. 

"So they left you here to finish the job?" Wei asked, angrily. 

Frantically shaking his head, Wandering Sound said, "No, that"s not it at all. We want to help you Roaming Wind."

"Help me?!" She questioned with a hysterical laugh. "You called attacking me, helping? I"m not stupid you know!"

"In our defense, you did try to kill us." Wandering Sound said as calmly as he could.

With rage in her eyes, she stared fiercely at him, raising her guns at him once more. "Than you should have died."

Using her strongest skill Soul Shot, she shot at Wandering Sound knocking him back against the wall. The impact of the shot was so strong that it stunned him while taking almost all of his HP only leaving one point left. 

Since Wandering Sound was in a stunned state, Wei in her madness thought that he was dead and took off to find the others. It would be quite easy since the curse gave her a red smokey trail to follow to find them.

After Wei left, minutes pa.s.sed before Wandering Sound"s stunned state disappear. Getting up quickly, he knew he needed to stall Roaming Wind before she reached the others. It was the least he could do, for being so stupid, this was his last thought as he ran to find her.