Staying Cool [Natalia's B Rank Exam]

"I uh..." Natalia was speechless at what just transpired, had Shuhei been one step further he would have suffered severe burns from the hot geyser. She was already buckling under the pressure and she hadn't even began not to mention that she was starting to feel the effects of the heat. Once again a voice echoed in her head as things seemed rather dire. "You know you can't last here, you need to finish this quickly, let me be your eyes and give you what you need to know." It said, this time Natalia didn't freak out like she did last time, the presence in her mind felt almost warm but was cold at the same time. Her vision seemingly cleared as the presence took over, most of the steam seemed to clear out of her vision and she started to calm herself awaiting what to do next. "you can begin by backing up several steps." She said as she began to order Shuhei into a position where she could actually make safe orders. "There is a geyser directly in front of you if you step to the right by 5 wide steps you will end up beside another but the path in front will be clear." She made an order as she began to calculate how she was going to handle this, there was no direct path to bell nor was there a clear path however there were brief moments where the geysers stop leaving an opening to jump over to another path. "The path is dangerous but if we time this correctly then it shouldn't be much of an issue." She said to prepare Shuhei for what was about to transpire.

Natalia observed the flow of the geysers with the eyes of a hawk, making note of every interval and the distance between each geyser, eventually she found the perfect timing. "Natalia calm down you're too excited." Said the voice in her head as to try and get her to re-evaluate her decision, she simply shrugged it off as nothing just a concern. As the geysers continued their pattern she made a rather quite shout for Shuhei to go. "Go now run about 10 steps forward then jump the bell will be directly in front of you!" Just as she finished saying that the ground in front of Shuhei began to crack, the signs of a freshly created geyser in the making, if he were to run at that point in time it would just barely nick him on his 5th step. "You fool, you knew you would make a mistake in your calculations." The voice said berrating Natalia for her error in judgment.

Natalia stared at the scene before her, it was as if she had never moved an inch since the exam had begun. She was standing at the lake in the exact spot that the bells were first rung before she set out on her tasks, so did that mean that everything she had bore witness to and endured was all a lie. She screamed out in anger not sure what to believe before breaking down crying tears streaming from her face. She had just endured several harsh trials, it was hard to tell if she was crying out of anger or joy that this was all over. After taking a moment to rest herself and recovering from the returning migraine she had developed she eventually turned to return to the ship, she was tired of being here, she just wanted to go home now and sleep, and so she set out on her journey home.