Hyuna Ka-Nan
Three flashes of a sword later, and Hyuna let out a breath of relief, joking a little about how she could have finished them on her own, and that Suna's aid wasn't really needed, calling him, amongst others, a kill stealer. That doesn't mean she wasn't thankful, but just that she didn't want to express it so easily. Especially not to someone who stood and watched as she and Yamato were being cornered by the imperials a few hours back. But, she had to at least apologize in her head to him for thinking he was weak- this guy was skilled and precise in his attacks. Not the fastest, of course, but Hyuna figured her speed was near the upper human limits, with a self satisfied air.
"Counting kills." She answered him in a subdued voice, trying to preserve energy. "What say we wait for a bit at this hole, in case others want to come with?"
So they waited in a nervous sort of silence until eventually, two more people arrived, first of which was that Yuwen Fortune. The story-telling oni, introducing himself as Suiken, came by almost directly behind him, as if they entered together. She smiled a little bit to herself to see him again, but then quickly remembered that he didn't even know who she was; forcing the scowl back onto her small face. Yuwen greeted them, not even trying to explain that these Tengu were obviously not simple bandits, and that probably means his bandits were a total fabrication. It went pretty much as expected until Yuwen called her by Hyuna, giving almost an apologetic-but-not-quite smile at her. She stood there, completely blank for a second; having no idea how to react whatsoever. She finally settled with a radiant grin, and a failed attempt to respond until she gulped hard, slapped her cheeks, and sputtered out a "took you long enough, you idiot" at her old friend. She nodded as he exclaimed the weirdness of their reunion, hardly even noticing the newly dead Tengu that leaped out of the dark.
"Are we all planning to go down?" A quiet voice from somewhere behind them. Hyuna turned to look, and saw that it was that sword girl on the stage with Yuwen. Before she could answer though, the Monkey King, all of a sudden, leapt down the hole. Heck, Hyuna didn't even know when he got with the group in the first place, let alone how he knew there was a hole. Still, it answered sword girl's question well enough.
So then Hyuna followed the Monkey King down the hole, cushioning her fall with her chi, landing gracefully with flair to her imaginary audience.
She could hear some people talking up above, something about a key, or a chest, perhaps? It was pretty far down, and there were a lot of echoes so it'd be incredibly difficult to clearly hear anything from either end of the pit. But her eyes accustomed themselves to the dark pretty quickly, and she could see intricate stone linings in the wherever they were, as well as multiple paths.Was it possibly a labyrinth, to try and hide where the chest was? If so, whatever's inside had to be valuable. And if it's valuable, couldn't it be sold for a lot of money?
Sure, it's main purpose isn't the price... but still. How rich could I be if I did get it before anyone else..
But then she remembered that she was running low on energy already, and shook the temporary greed out of her head. It was then when the oni, Suiken followed, making it three on the bottom. And along with the heavy crash of the oni, Hyuna suddenly heard the excited, frantic sounds of Tengu wings, almost a whole squad of them, faintly hearing the Tengu words for 'found' 'chest' and 'hurry'. After they passed them by, Hyuna called up to the others up top. But of course, such a loud sound as a giant oni landing on his feet wouldn't go unnoticed, and some of the Tengu split off from their squad, maybe nine or ten of them, she couldn't keep count. Hyuna condensed the air and expanded it out as it reached the attackers, forcing them back, and giving her, Malao, and Suiken some much needed breathing room.
"Hurry up and get down here, stupid!" Hyuna called up, sucking up her pride. "We- we kinda need help!"
Together, the three of them could keep the Tengu at bay, but they couldn't take advantage of any opportunities to get attacks in, forced into a frantic defensive position, backs to each other. She felt as if she was on the verge of fainting, the corners of her vision going all blurry, and here vision itself going completely monochrome. All she could really hear was the sound of her pulse pounding in her head, reminding her that she was still alive.