Handle – El Knight.
Health: Slightly injured.
G. A. M. E.—#1.
Players Remaining/(122/201).
Unease hung like a stifling shroud about Lucian and Transient Cardinal, one only accentuated by the ever rising volume of malicious chitters and steady cadence of thud-thud-thudding from the still—infuriatingly so—unseen Apostate Wraith.
Boris and Tsumiki—and their protective barrier of light—had disappeared out of sight, long ago; allowing the scarlet tide to fully gild the environs once more.
“It’s just you and me once again, Cardinal.” Deciding to slice through the tension, Lucian spoke up after swiping his forearm over his brow, clearing away some of the sweat beading his flushed skin.
“Thank you, Mr. Obvious.” She sniped back, equal amounts of amusement and annoyance underpinning the young woman’s tone.
While a tad sarcastic, the raven-haired man didn’t take umbrage; knowing full well where the latter emotion was coming from.
Lucian swept his eyes across the passage’s width, brain struggling to come up with a response, hoping to see the orangey glow of firelight but failing to spot it.
Eventually, all he could come up with was, “Sorry for getting you into this shit, dear lady.”
After a short pause punctuated by crunching grass, she sighed. “It was my choice too, you know? There’s no need for you to feel sorry about anything, Sir Knight.”
Before Lucian could respond, fine hairs all across the nape of his neck stood on their ends as a chilling gust of wind blew against his exposed skin, causing him to duck his head instinctively.
Uncertain why he’d reacted as such, a fiery, whip-thin lash across the entirety of his nape clued him in just before a pained grunt left his throat. Copious beads of cold sweat erupted across his back, Lucian realising belatedly he had just experienced a near miss.
His eyes darted about rapidly as he straightened back up, searching around for the sonuvabitch that had dealt him the glancing blow.
“The rat landed at your one o’clock!” The white-haired waif guided him to find his quarry without delay or prompting, seeming to have taken notice of his pain.
Offering her a word of thanks, his eyes zeroed in on the solitary fucker instantly; the dog-sized vermin having just recovered from its failed ambush just as his eyes rested on it.
Not hesitating for even a moment, Lucian tossed his end table to his other hand and slipped his freed hand into his hoodie’s right pocket, fingers clenching around one of the uncursed Sacrificial Stakes.
Sliding it out just as slim wood smacked against bandaged left hand, he cocked his right arm back, sighted on the spot in between the rat’s beady scarlet eyes, and threw the enlarged metal thorn, tapered point first.
His eyes tracked the Sacrificial Stake as it tore through the air, tossed projectile seeming to glimmer with soft rubylight…
Just before it dug into the rat’s flesh, splatters of blood and small bits of flesh flying from the point of impact even as its head got wrenched back with a distinctive, lethal crack.
“Nice shot Knight!” Transient Cardinal’s compliment, while wholly unexpected, was still something he appreciated – even if he didn’t have the freedom to respond currently.
Lucian bent forward slightly and flung out his free hand, fingers closing around the impaled stake’s rounded end just as he ran past. Yanking it out of the corpse without hesitation, bits of brain and a last spurt of blood went flying in his wake.
At the same time, he spun on the balls of his right foot and smashed a kick into the dead rat’s haunches, launching the corpse into the wave of pursuing rats; hoping, at the back of his mind, that it would slow them down a touch.
Instead of seeing if his hopes sunk or swam, he made use of the recoil force to spin back forward; speed unavoidably falling as a direct consequence, even if it was only momentary.
While Lucian was aware that abandoning the corpse meant losing out on any accompanying loot, whatever might have come from the rat’s death couldn’t actually be worth as much as his life.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, gruesome sounds of tearing flesh alerted him to the corpse’s likely fate. While sorely tempted to turn around and see what had happened, his survival instincts screamed at him that it was a bad idea.
Exerting more strength with his legs while bending forward slightly, he tried to raise his speed to even greater heights; not too keen on experiencing another near miss, despite realising that the dog-sized rats were easier to kill than initially expected.
“There’s another alcove up ahead Knight! Just a couple more metres, and we’ll be home free!” It looked like his prayers were soon to be answered, either way.
Head jerking up violently at Transient Cardinal’s call, his eyes took in the sight metres ahead, immediately registering the warm stable glow of orangey firelight shining softly from just out of sight.
“Final-fucking-ly.” Lucian breathed out in relief, even as he felt a second wind come upon his flagging reserves of stamina; feet crunching grass all the harder.
At this point, he was uncertain how long he’d been running for. He was just glad it was going to be over and done with, soon.
Black leaves and crimson thorns blurred in his peripherals as Lucian dashed towards the orangey glow of salvation, snakes of lightning rampaging silently in the storm clouds overhead.
Moments later, a familiar break in the righthand wall of Bloodthirst Briars came into sight, the entrance to the alcove still roughly person-sized, cascade of firelight spilling out from the unseen confines.
Without hesitation, Transient Cardinal dashed into the alcove and vanished. Before Lucian could do likewise, another chilly gust of wind against the nape of his neck forced him to duck, once more; body instinctively reacting, at an even faster speed, to the unseen threat.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Lucian straightened back up quickly, knowing what to do this time. Searching for the rat, he cocked his arm back and tossed the bloodied Sacrificial Stake once he’d spotted it; an extra flick of the wrist tacked on, all to add an additional oomph to his throw.
With his far more rapid reaction, the ambushing cretin didn’t have enough time to fully recover from its jump; the enlarged metal thorn finding a fresh new sheath in the side of its skull without any suspense.
Coincidentally and fortuitously, the corpse rolled to a final rest steps away from the alcove’s entrance; firelight casting its matted black fur in a hellish glow.
Quickly weighing the risks in his mind, Lucian thought to hell with it and veered slightly off course, end table swapping between his hands in the process.
Once he drew near to the carcass, his bandaged hand shot out and snagged on to the rat’s chewed up tail, getting a firm grip around the slimy, corded appendage.
Skidding to a stop parallel to the alcove’s narrow entrance once he had gotten firm hold, he pushed off the ground and sprinted headlong through the gap; Transient Cardinal encouraging him just beyond even as in his peripherals, his brain took a snapshot of the veritable tidal wave of matted fur and beady scarlets a mere handspan away.
His heart pounded like a jackrabbit at the sight. Legs working furiously even as sweat drenched his hoodie, Lucian realised how close the rats were at this point.
Seconds later, just before the wave’s vanguard could roll over his prior position, the raven-haired man burst through the narrow break, intact rat carcass in tow.
He spun around to face back the way he came once he was in the clearing proper, hand letting go of the ravaged tail in concert. Only once he’d seen the barrier of opaque white light did he let out a heavy breath of relief, end table falling from relaxed grip.
Bending over, he placed his hands on his knees in exhaustion, large mouthfuls of air entering his lungs as he recovered from the prolonged run. Inadvertently, the motion caused the stinging along his nape to act up once more, a slight hiss of pain slipping out from his dry throat.
Soft, probing fingers on his nape alerted him to the white-haired waif’s proximity even as the tendons in his neck jumped, the action, while gentle, still causing a flare up of discomfort in the affected area.
“Don’t be a baby, Knight.” Transient Cardinal chided from behind him and off to the right, clearly noticing his reaction. “The wound’s nothing serious. I just wanted to check it for my own peace of mind, is all.”
“A warning would’ve been nice, don’t you think?” he shot back, a touch tetchy by the young woman breaching his personal space without even a ‘by your leave’, but rapidly getting used to it at the same time – unfortunate and reluctant as that might be.
She tutted jokingly. “Now, now. Is that any way to talk to the person who’s been bandaging you up?”
“You haven’t even ban—”
“Lies and slander~!” She interrupted playfully. While Lucian was taken aback by her out of place demeanour—especially given their close brush with death—carefully going over her tone thus far in his mind told him a far truer tale.
While she desperately tried to mask it with playful teasing and assertive quips, quavering notes—of emotions indefinable—still nipped at the edges of her voice, noticeable only if one had been paying close enough attention.
Lucian wavered between confronting her about it or letting her be, unsure which would be the right course of action in this instance. He didn’t have much time to think over it, regardless; her fingers pulling away from his nape seconds later.
He observed her out of the corner of his eye as he straightened back up, hoping that seeing her current expression would guide him on the appropriate next steps to take.
Lucian wasn’t that lucky, unfortunately, as Transient Cardinal’s visage might as well have been carved from cold unfeeling marble for all the emotions—or lack thereof, in this instance—it displayed.
If not for the surety in his own ability to read people—no matter how inherently odd such a confidence was, considering his major memory loss—he might have believed he had misheard things earlier or read too much into things.
But no… the absence of emotions, in and of itself, caused red flags to spring up in the raven-haired man’s mind, as it seemed rather uncharacteristic—wholly so, even—of a young woman who he’d pegged as someone who wore her emotions on their proverbial sleeves.
Besides observing his white-haired partner, however, Lucian took advantage of the opportunity to examine the clearing he had found himself in, having stuck to taking in the most essential of details so far.
The first thing that sprung out at him were the pair of long wooden poles sprouting from the ground smack-dab in the centre of the small clearing, a pair of torches positioned at the apex of each inclined, crisscrossed fixture
The pair—while looking extremely precarious—also stretched far up, licking tongues of flame looking as if they would set the dense canopy of briars ablaze.
While a tad unsure how a pair of torches could put out so much light, such musings only swirled around idly at the back of his mind, as most of it was consumed in coming to the sudden realisation that the only exit out was through the entrance he’d burst through – and was now, more worryingly, blocked off for who knew how long.
As the realisation properly dawned, Lucian’s feet were already moving him towards the opaque white forcefield, body acting on his half-formed thoughts to get what information he could on the protection cum potential blockage.
Coming to a stop an arm’s length away, he rested his hand on the firm surface and triggered his Knowledge implant without delay.
Name: Temporary Barrier of Immaculate Respite.
Descriptor: A shield against the unholy, appearing only in the direst of need.
Remarks: Temporary means temporary, understand?
Instead of balking at the mellifluous voice’s words, its Remarks only made Lucian feel reassured; his sole concern melting away like darkness under the noonday Sun.
The distinct sound of crunching grass coming from behind alerted him to Transient Cardinal’s approach. Having a feeling he knew what she wanted to ask, the raven-haired man pre-empted any queries and recited the info he’d just heard, word for word.
Turning back around after he was done, Lucian ambled over to the pair of poles, yanking out his Sacrificial Stake on the way.
Even while doing so, he scanned the young woman’s expression. Much like earlier, it might as well have been carved from marble; head slightly skewed in thought the only indication that she had been listening at all.
Only when Lucian was steps away from the torch-touting wooden poles did Transient Cardinal finally break her silence. “So… what you’re saying is that we’re safe for now, right?”
Glancing back slightly, he made sure to lock gazes with her inquiring pale blues even as his hand stretched out, fingers coming to a rest around comfortingly warm wood. “You have the right of it.”
----------------------------------------
In the end, for all the warmth they provided, the pair of torch-touting poles were as mundane as mundane could be. Without much else of note within the border of the small enclosed clearing, Lucian spent his time pacing about restlessly.
Even so, it wasn’t like the raven-haired man did nothing but pace. Throughout his route, he had cleaned the bloodied metal projectile by wiping it off on the grass, leaving crimson streaks on the bone white blades left in his wake.
In stark contrast, Transient Cardinal had tucked her legs underneath her and adopted a serene position in between the two wooden poles, right below the spot where the pair intersected; eyes shut tight, breathing kept deliberate and regular.
Lucian’s eyes flickered over to the opaque white barrier for the umpteenth time, a faint sigh of listlessness slipping out from his mouth when he failed to spot any visible changes.
“There’s no point in tiring yourself out, you know?” Even though her eyes were still closed, it was clear Transient Cardinal had picked up on his restlessness.
Coming to a stop and properly facing the young woman’s seated form, he replied. “Yeah, I know. I can’t really help it though. I don’t think I like the feeling of being trapped in a confined space, truth be told.”
She quirked a single snowy brow, head skewed slightly. “Don’t think…?”
Instead of responding immediately, he walked closer to her and plopped down on the grass right opposite her; legs naturally falling into a cross-legged position.
“I can’t be a hundred percent sure, sadly. Since my memories aren’t of any help, all I have to go on is my body’s instinctive reaction to being entrapped. So yeah… I don’t think I like being trapped, even if it’s temporary.”
Lucian fell silent but didn’t remain idle. While waiting for the white-haired waif’s response, he set up his end table in a proper upright position next to him—having retrieved it during his pacing—and set his Sacrificial Stake on its surface, still unwilling to slip it back into his pocket after where it had just been.
Since she hadn’t replied even after he was done, the raven-haired man rotated on the spot and looked over at the rat’s carcass, seeing if any loot had appeared.
While unable to see the entire area surrounding where the corpse lay, the bits of it in his line of sight told him nothing had appeared as of yet.
“Speaking of that… I still don’t really understand why it’s a thing, you know?” While a tad quiet, Transient Cardinal’s voice still clearly entered his ears just as Lucian was done giving the corpse a once-over.
Rotating back around to face the white-haired waif, he responded only after settling back down properly.
“Honestly, I try not to think about it. At this point, I’m just hoping to get answers at the Heavenly Constellation Spire or at that unnamed golden star.”
She hummed disbelievingly. “That’s quite a carefree outlook on things, isn’t it?”
He shrugged, hands coming up to clasp in his lap. “Probably? There’s nothing I can do about it though. I’ve already tried to dredge up any of my lost memories, but no luck so far.”
“Still.” She levelled him with a piercing look, eyes looking like thin slivers of jagged sapphire. “Best not be so casual about this, no?”
At her look, Lucian backtracked a bit. “I’m really not. I just don’t really see a point in worrying about it when there’s nothing I can actually do.”
She wrinkled her nose delicately, but closed her eyes once again after huffing out a tiny puff of air. “I’ll take your word for it, I suppose.”
Having nothing else to add and recognising a dismissal when he heard one, the raven-haired man got up to his feet and slowly ambled over to the rat’s carcass.
Besides checking for loot, he intended to get a blurb on the creature, believing it best to know more, now that the opportunity was at hand. Stopping right next to his target, he realised quickly that his former goal wouldn’t be achieved as of yet – nothing new having popped up anywhere around the corpse’s vicinity.
Shrugging lightly, Lucian supposed there was nothing for it even as he descended down on one knee, giving him the perfect height to reach out and grab a fistful of matted black fur while triggering his Knowledge implant.
Name: Hungering Rodent.
Descriptor: An enlarged, fragile rat boasting teeth sharp enough to crunch through bone.
Remarks: Minions of the Master, ready to pave a path ahead – with their corpses, if needs must.
< End of Gauntlet Two: Tide of Rats. >