“—move on, as soon as possible. I do not like the looks of this rain at all, friends.” Said Boris, his words becoming audible after Lucian closed the distance.
“I 100% agree with the big guy. The rain sucks ass.” Repeated Cherub, his usual fount of cheery enthusiasm dimmed noticeably; energy levels falling in tandem with his increasing resemblance to a drowned rat.
Julia’s slim fingers played with a lock of sodden dark blonde hair, seeming to ponder over both opinions. But as the buxom beauty was doing so, she took notice of the raven-haired man’s proximity and immediately directed a question his way.
“What about you Lucian, thoughts?”
Shooting her a slightly startled look, he briefly skimmed over what was obviously the tail end of the conversation and understood what she was asking for.
Lucian immediately agreed with the other two men, recalling the shiver of dread that had raced up and down his spine moments prior.
“I’m ready to move on if the rest of you are.” He opined, before looking around and gesturing at Transient Cardinal then Tsumiki. “She should be with us in a moment, but has anyone asked for her input yet?”
The three—or at least, two; Boris remaining conspicuously stoic—others exchanged awkward looks, the raven-haired man understanding the answer to his question without a word needing to be said.
Lucian pinched the bridge of his nose with bemusement. “Really, y’all? Whatever, I’ll handle it then.”
He huffed out an inaudible breath of irritation and turned away, long, purposeful strides bringing him over to the ebony-haired girl stood off to the side like an arrow fired from a bow.
Even while doing so, the raven-haired man looked his newest acquaintance over with an appraising eye, realising this was the first time he was doing so ever since she had first joined the party
Failing to spot anything obviously amiss just as he came to a stop in front of her, Lucian spoke up; knowing he had her attention from her narrowed purple gaze and single arched brow.
“Did you manage to catch any part of our conversation?” Getting a gentle head shake in return, he continued. “Alrighty then. Short story made even shorter, are you cool with heading off right now?”
Rocking her head from side to side, Tsumiki fingered an errant bang of hair plastered close to her right eye – only for a moment, however, as she flashed Lucian a slight smile while nodding gently, wordlessly indicating her agreement.
The raven-haired man nodded in return before turning away and heading back to the larger group, shooting a final glance over his shoulder. “Great. Let’s go then.”
From the clear sound of shoes splashing through water, it was clear she wasn’t far behind.
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Isolated puddles of rainwater rapidly transformed into grassy, marsh-like wetlands as the sixsome trudged deeper into the maze.
Unlike the second concentric circle of Bloodthirst Briars, they had failed to stumble across any entrances to enclosed clearings thus far; a troubling sign if there ever was one.
With the current wet weather conditions and resultant unsteady footing, the mere thought of another tidal wave of Hungering Rodents was an utterly terrifying prospect to consider.
Lucian dragged his forearm over his forehead, pushing away some of the rain rolling down his brow and trying to limit his increasingly limited vision.
At the same time, his eyes occasionally swept from side to side, making sure that the Bloodthirst Briars still remained passive.
Done with his survey—and finding nothing amiss—he panned his view ahead of the party, trying to spot another break in the black leaves signalling a path that led deeper in; right to the fourth concentric circle, if the pattern thus far held.
Failing to find what he sought through the downpour’s veil, Lucian dragged his focus back to the sinister flora in his close proximity, searching for any movement once again.
As the raven-haired man continued with such repetitious motions, his mind became distracted with thoughts of the future; rain thundering down all the while.
Prior to escaping the room he had awakened within, his only goal had been to regain his lost memories as soon as possible. The problem was, seeing the number of people, in a similar situation to him to boot, made it clear things wouldn’t end just at that.
As his white-haired partner had put it, the situation they’d found themselves in wasn’t too dissimilar from old-school video games she remembered playing in the past. Much like playable characters in said games, they had a clear goal to pursue, hostile interlopers were placed in their path to obstruct their way, and comrades abounded – as long as one bothered to reach out, anyway.
Though his experience with games, from what memories he had, were in line with the pew-pew-pew-headshot! Variety, her summary had sounded apt enough.
But that, in and of itself, was the inherent issue. Because even though the shining golden star emblazoned in the Northeast of the minimap was a clear goal to aim for, something like that, according to the young woman, was but a small goal in the grand scheme of things.
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Most games—or at least, the good, memorable ones—typically had a far more grand goal underpinning the entire storyline; with small, less momentous, goals distributed throughout, much like the one they were heading for, case in point.
If such a formula held true in their current situation—which judging from the little clues gathered here and there was likely to be the case—then what was the grand goal behind all of this?
…
At the end of the day, however, Lucian knew all his speculations could be completely off the mark. Sure, both his Knowledge implant and the emotionless, mechanical voice told him that he was a player—even if only implicitly in the former’s case—and sure, the inexplicable way items appeared after a monster’s death was rather characteristic of a game, and sure, the acronym G. A. M. E. was a tad on the nose…
He… sort of lost track with where he was going with this.
Before the raven-haired man could be further confused by his own train of thought, muffled sounds from up ahead caught his attention.
Tuning out the pounding raindrops, his ears laser-focused on what was going on even as his eyes tried to pierce through the almost solid wall of falling water.
“—and cut him loose! Cherub’s going to bleed out at this rate!” While clearly sounding like Julia, the obvious panic in her tone was quite uncharacteristic.
Even though all he could see were indistinct silhouettes, the emotion on its own kicked him into high gear. Quickly letting Transient Cardinal know what he was about to do, Lucian sprinted forward; large splashes left in his wake.
Soon enough, he was able to see what, exactly, was going on.
At the same time, the voices of those involved finally became clear, painting for him a rather grim picture.
Hoisted up in mid-air purely by his wrists, the brown-clad man was suspended by a single, thick tendril of wriggling briar, occasional, yet regularly-timed, round bulges travelling up from where thorns pierced into flesh before disappearing into the dense cover of mist overhead.
Owing to the height, neither Julia nor Tsumiki could do anything about Cherub’s predicament except watch on. Luckily, Boris was around to solve the issue.
Straightening up to his full, not inconsiderable, height, the giant of a man fully stretched both his arms above his head—Julia’s Sacrificial Stakes nearly swallowed up in his fleshy mitts—and pierced their pointed tips into the ropey tendril. Almost like a wounded animal, the briar flinched and recoiled, reflexively letting go of Cherub in the process.
With a startled scream, the man plummeted and splashed into the watery marsh underneath; before coming up moments later while spluttering for breath and coughing out some grassy water.
Lucian had to choke back a laugh at the sight, worry rapidly transforming into amusement. Alas, a flash of black and red in the corner of his eyes caused his emotions to experience a sudden whiplash, transforming back into worry almost as rapidly.
Another ropey tendril, off to the side and hidden by the rain, was lashing out at Boris; the bald giant too focused on the first tendril, trying to get the impaled Sacrificial Stakes back.
Before it could sink into his flesh, however, Tsumiki intercepted it with her table leg cum flail – scarlet thorns only finding purchase in giving wood even as multiple points of razer-sharp glass bit back.
Much like the first tendril, the Bloodthirst Briar flinched and recoiled; a process halted in its tracks by Julia when she smashed an overhead blow down on the black-leaved vine and slam-dunked it into the shin-high water.
The honey blonde brought her improvised mace back up and smashed it back down before the hostile flora had a chance to react; plumes of water and grass spraying up every time she repeated the thunderous up-and-down motion.
While all this was happening, Lucian was speeding over to the exact opposite side of the path – just in time to intercept another stealthy tendril with a solid sideswipe as it tried to latch onto Tsumiki’s exposed back.
Copying Julia’s actions, he slammed the Bloodthirst Briar down into the water with an overhead blow after seeming to daze it with his initial strike, right foot coming down on the wriggling tendril with a quick, watery stomp.
Smashing another overhead blow into the leaf-clad vine for good measure, Lucian dropped his end table before slipping his newly freed hand into his hoodie’s right pocket; fingers coming to a rest around the Cursed Sacrificial Stake after a moment’s worth of hesitation.
Smoothly drawing the torture implement out, the raven-haired man dropped to a knee and used the momentum from his descent to drive the enlarged metal thorn into and through the writhing vine, effortlessly staking it to the softened ground.
The Bloodthirst Briar… convulsed, for lack of a better term, the moment sharpened metal impaled animate flora.
Desperation seemed to ooze off the bloodthirsty plant life as it wriggled violently, trying to escape the combination of stake and boot pinning it down. Not sure what to make of it, he swept his end table back up into his grip after watching it wriggle about fruitlessly…
Only for a moment, though.
Lucian swept his trusty improvised mace back up and brought it down on the convulsing vine while remaining on bent knee, applying the maxim, ‘it ain’t dead if it’s still moving’ to his actions.
It took more than a couple of good, hearty smashes before the pinned tendril finally ceased wriggling about.
Whacking it one more time for good measure—and to ensure it wasn’t faking him out or some such—Lucian yanked out his Cursed Sacrificial Stake in a spray of water and plant matter once he was confident it wasn’t.
Still remaining on bent knee, the raven-haired man spun around in a spray of rainwater and bone white grass in order to check on and assess the others’ states in the least amount of time possible.
It was clear that while he was busy giving his own tendril of Bloodthirst Briar the beatdown of its life, another one had joined the fray; making there four in all to assault the party of six.
From the aftermath, it looked like Transient Cardinal and Tsumiki had teamed up to fend off aforementioned tendril – and to great effect, to boot, judging from the cut off piece of vine floating in the water nearby the two ruffled females.
Much like himself—or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, much like he had copied her—Julia had beaten her own foe until it was reduced to a pulpy mess of shredded plant matter and snapped scarlet thorns.
In contrast, Boris was still reaching for the sole tendril overhead, the plant life keeping well out of reach while lashing out at irregular intervals, as if it were testing out the bald giant’s reaction speed.
Under normal circumstances, the sight would have been a worrying one: if not for the simple fact that Boris seemed to be in no danger, and that he looked like a cat—even if a bald, large one—batting at a dangling bit of—admittedly eerie—yarn.
Lucian watched the show for several seconds, slight smirk stretching his face. Seeing a flash of white out of the corner of his eyes, he had a sudden stroke of inspiration, prompting him to look away.
Since Transient Cardinal wasn’t doing anything at the moment, he straightened up from his kneeling position and walked over to her; needing her help for his idea.
Noticing his approach before the raven-haired man could fully close the distance, the snowy-haired waif turned away from Boris’s spectacle and faced him properly.
“Do you need something, Knight?” She asked curiously, clear traces of fatigue threading through her tone.
Looking her over carefully, Lucian made sure all was well before answering her. “Yes actually. Do you think you could reach the last tendril if I boosted you up on my shoulders?”
…
She blinked, wide-eyed and blushing. “W-What?”
Though he wondered why she was blushing, he didn’t waste any time to ask about it and started elaborating.
“At this rate, we’re going to be here all day if Boris is left to his own devices. Since the giant isn’t able to reach it even with his height, I thought the height of two people, combined, would solve the problem.” Gesturing between himself and the young woman, he finished. “So, are you willing to get up on my shoulders?”
Plush pink lips forming into a small o, it was clear she finally understood what he was asking for. Instead of responding immediately, she skewed her head slightly, obviously putting some proper thought into his proposal.
Lucian looked away, willing to wait for her reply since no one was in danger. Instead of continuing to watch Boris bat at the overhead thorny vine, he looked at Cherub; the brown-clad man having remained close to his initial landing spot.
From the pained grimace plastered across his visage, it was clear the piercing of his wrists was still affecting him deeply. Judging from the lightish scarlet hue of the dust sheet strips wrapped around aforementioned wrists, it was also clear that Transient Cardinal had already gotten to him and attended to his injuries at some point.
Now that Lucian had some time to think on it, goosebumps—already present from the damp chill—rose in even greater quantities as he recalled the spherical bulges that had travelled up the first tendril of Bloodthirst Briar.
He couldn’t be 100% sure, but judging by the name bestowed on the black-leaved, crimson-thorned plant life, he had a sneaking suspicion that aforementioned bulges comprised fresh blood—straight from the source—sucked up from Cherub’s previously bound wrists.
So it was in his best interests to avoid getting bound by any future thorny vines, because he wasn’t keen on—in any way, shape, or form—experiencing what it felt like for his blood to get sucked out in such an unsettling manner.
“I’m okay with your suggestion, Knight. How exactly should we go about it though?” Transient Cardinal’s questioning lilt drew Lucian away from his musings, the raven-haired man turning back around to face her just as the first few words left her mouth.
Having already thought of it, he promptly responded. “Let’s go over to Boris first? I’ll let you know on the way.”
Receiving a quick nod, Lucian turned back around, shrugged off his backpack, and started walking, laying out his plan of action to the young woman while she followed right alongside.