As the raven-haired man and white-haired waif came to a stop nearby the bald, ineffectually flailing giant, they observed him in action – if only briefly.
Having already finished laying out his idea, Lucian dropped to a knee while setting his end table down right beside him, chilly water splashing up around him from his actions.
He slightly adjusted his position while keeping an eye out on the tendril up above, making sure his white-haired partner would have an easier time climbing up onto his broad shoulders while ensuring he wouldn’t be attacked without warning.
Seconds later and after some more splashes, aforementioned young woman’s hands latched onto his shoulder for stability before pulling herself up slowly, the soft curves of her modest mounds pressing into his back as she did.
Ignoring the pleasant sensation with some difficulty, he focused on keeping still so that she would have an easier time mounting his shoulders. Before long, he felt one of her hands let go of his right shoulder, one of her legs replacing it and hooking over said shoulder almost immediately after.
The same was repeated with his left shoulder a second later, just as her hands softly came down on his head; fingers firmly tangling up in his hoodie’s waterlogged hood so that she could maintain her balance.
“I’m ready, Sir Knight.” At her signal, Lucian rose up from his kneeling position, the process done extra slowly so that he wouldn’t unbalance himself and fall over.
As the raven-haired man was straightening up, he placed his left hand on his white-haired partner’s left thigh while pulling out his Cursed Sacrificial Stake with the other.
Raising his newly occupied hand above his head, he warned. “I’m passing you the cursed stake now. Remember not to get pierced, its tip is pointing at you.”
“Got it~.” Even while speaking, the young woman’s hand was already tugging at said stake, a signal prompting Lucian to release his hold on the torture implement like they’d agreed.
At the same time, her—surprisingly firm, Lucian noted appreciatively—thighs clamped together against his neck, further stabilising herself on his shoulders even as her other hand let go of his hoodie.
The raven-haired man was tempted to watch what she was about to do, but his current position prevented him from sating his curiosity.
While waiting for her to attack the overhead tendril, Lucian distracted himself by watching the others as he raised his right hand, extremity coming to a rest and gripped around smooth, plush yet muscled, flesh.
In the meantime, the pair’s actions hadn’t gone by unnoticed.
First to take note amongst the lot was Tsumiki, the ebony-haired girl having been standing right next to the snowy-haired waif when the raven-haired man explained his initial proposal. Obviously interested in what they were going to do, she trailed after them without a word.
Her obvious intentions, alongside Lucian not bothering to lower his volume, drew Julia and Cherub in turn; the trio standing back and observing after listening in to the proposed plan of action.
While close enough to offer aid if needed, they still kept enough of a distance for their bodies to become blurred silhouettes amidst the torrential downpour.
“Move a bit closer, my Knight.” Focusing back on the task at hand, Lucian shuffled closer to Boris as asked…
“Okay, you can stop now.” Only to come to a halt once requested to do so, Transient Cardinal’s thighs clamping down even harder on his neck as she started shifting about.
Their closer proximity seemed to have finally attracted Boris’s attention as well.
Aiming another—ultimately fruitless—throw at the overhead annoyance, the bearded giant retracted the chained end table with an inaudible grumble even as he turned away.
Instead of joining the three bystanders off to the side, the cloaked man watched what Lucian and Transient Cardinal were attempting without shifting away from his current spot.
If Lucian were to make a guess, it seemed like the man was keeping a simultaneous eye out on the overhead tendril, while making sure to keep in rage in case his aid became necessary; a decision he was extremely grateful for.
An abrupt shift of weight on his shoulders caused Lucian to stagger momentarily, the raven-haired man taking a single step forward before he managed to recover.
Taking a glance upwards as he straightened back up, it looked like his passenger had finally made a move. With their combined height, the white-haired waif was easily able to land an impaling blow on the annoyance up above once it got too close; having changed targets when Boris stopped attacking it.
Using a solitary table leg as a defensive tool, she waited for the thorny tendril to lash out before interposing the scarred wood in its way, forcing it to halt momentarily, trapped as it was after It wound around aforementioned wood.
Quick as a flash of lightning, the young woman pierced out with her other hand, stabbing the Cursed Sacrificial Stake a third of the way up the sole remaining briar’s length and causing it to convulse violently.
Before she could be dragged off her perch, the young woman carelessly yanked out the stake, drew her arm back, and plunged it back in at a completely different spot higher up the squirming tendril.
Repeating the same action several times more even as she pulled her other arm taut, Transient Cardinal made sure the single tendril of Bloodthirst Briar had no chance to escape as she got down to work.
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Meanwhile, with her violent movements, Lucian was forced to brace himself by digging his booted feet deep into the mushy earth underneath, the soil having grown soft from the excess of water.
Unable to see what exactly his white-haired passenger was doing , Lucian had no choice but to ask, “You going to be done up there any time soon, Cardinal?”
“Yup~!” Popping the ‘p’ for emphasis, her voice clearly floated down to him even as his body was jerked back and forth. “just, give, me, one, more, second!”
Right on her final word, a torn off segment of black leaves, crimson thorns, and lustreless metal splashed down right in front of him, coating his partially covered face in an additional—very much unwelcome—layer of chilly rainwater.
He spat out the water that had managed to get into his mouth, a single blade of bone white grass accompanying the almost-mouthful. Lifting off one of his hands from Transient Cardinal’s right thigh, he wiped his forearm over his lips, getting rid of any remnant residue before placing it back in its prior fleshy spot.
“So, is it dead?” Not willing to risk it, Lucian asked Transient Cardinal for confirmation on her kill – one he received without delay.
“Of course~!” Even as she spoke, the snowy-haired waif begun untangling herself from her perch atop the raven-haired man’s shoulders. “Oh, and, you can let go of my thighs now, by the way.”
Said hands flinched back as if scalded, letting the young woman swing, first her right leg then her left, off aforementioned shoulders before she hopped down and landed in the knee-high water with a large splash.
Rolling his shoulders and causing them to pop one after another, Lucian readjusted his hoodie while stepping back, intending on rearming himself now that things were over and done with.
With the show over, Julia and Tsumiki converged onto Transient Cardinal like a pair of hyenas, the two females sporting wide, knowing smirks on their faces.
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Instead of moving on immediately, Lucian and the others hung around to recover both their stamina and anything used in the skirmish – and see if any loot would show up, admittedly.
Luckily, their wait didn’t prove to be in vain.
Name: Bloodsucking Thorn.
Descriptor: Rigid plant matter tough enough to pierce through skin and deep into muscles.
Remarks: Perhaps its bloodletting properties can be taken advantage of?
While slightly unexpected, only one kind of loot materialized after the demise of the four Bloodthirst Briar tendrils. On the bright side, aforementioned loot came in extremely large numbers.
Much like the crimson thorns irregularly interspersed across the attacking tendrils, the Bloodsucking Thorns had a similar hue – even if they also, somehow, had acquired a bit of a metallic, glossy sheen.
All in all, the sixsome took possession of 26 Bloodsucking Thorns; a number divvied up almost equally, with Julia, Lucian, Transient Cardinal, and Tsumiki pocketing 5 each, Boris and Cherub splitting the rest and getting 3 apiece.
Once that was done, the party set off. Unlike their journey thus far, Lucian and the others stuck closer together, owing to the heavy downpour limiting their vision.
While the formation’s specific configuration remained the same, distance between the frontmost pair—comprising Julia and Boris—and the rearmost pair—comprising Lucian and Transient Cardinal—lessened by a significant amount; each pair only steps away from the next.
What’s more, with the softened ground and increasing water level, they were forced to slow down significantly, lest one of them fell over by accident and got injured unnecessarily.
Throughout their rainy trek, solitary tendrils of Bloodthirst Briar would lash out from the depths of the mist conjured up by the heavy downpour, each one seeming to target one of the six at completely random intervals.
While Boris and Transient Cardinal had no trouble fending off the annoyances, the same couldn’t be said for the other four. At least it helped Lucian confirm that the emotionless, mechanical voice hadn’t been lying when it claimed the Instinct implant would only be useful for their bearers and not those around them.
As such, exhausted was putting it lightly when describing the four in question, as they were forced to keep a constant eye out if they wanted to avoid getting unwillingly exsanguinated during their trek.
Lucian tossed his end table to his other hand before tiredly raking his newly freed fingers through his sodden black locks; a mixture of sweat and rain plastering his short hair to his scalp.
In doing so, he accidentally pushed his hoodie off his head, the dark gold fabric wetly slapping against the back of his neck as it fell.
Once that was done, he tossed his end table back to his right hand even as his left hand dug into his hoodie’s left pocket, fingers idly playing with the test tube of Abyssal Vitreous securely tucked away inside.
While glad he hadn’t been struck by any of the Bloodthirst Briars thus far, he wondered if he should offer the supposed healing elixir to Cherub.
Due to getting trapped during the opening onslaught, the brown-clad man had weakened a touch; from a combination of blood loss and getting hoisted up in such an unenviable position.
As a result, his reflexes weren’t exactly up to snuff when reacting to ambushes from other thorny tendrils the sixsome encountered along their trek.
Consequently, injuries piled up on more injuries, causing the usually energetic man to give off an air of lethargy even as numerous sodden bandages covered his myriad of wounds – ranging from punctures to bruises, to name but a few.
At this rate, Cherub was going to collapse, not from the accumulation of injuries, but due to something as simple—yet as deadly—as carelessness born of fatigue.
The issue was, Lucian only had a single Abyssal Vitreous, and a selfish part of him wasn’t keen on parting with something that could be lifesaving at some point down the line – at least if the mellifluous voice was to be believed, anyway.
The problem with that was, another, more pragmatic part, admittedly, of his mind pointed out that the strength of the group depended on its weakest link – which in this particular case would be Cherub.
As the raven-haired man waffled between his pragmatic and selfish sides, his fingers clenched and unclenched intermittently around the test tube’s smooth, glass surface. Drawing it out after some time had passed, he absently looked over the Abyssal Vitreous, scarlet, gel-like liquid seeming to look far more saturated under the Bloodthirst Briars’ soft glow.
His eyes darted between the test tube and Cherub’s slouched shoulders right in front of him, indecision swirling in soft brown depths…
Only for a moment more, however, as indecision transformed into a firm resolve; causing the raven-haired man’s eyes to unknowingly adopt a slight, haunting golden hue.
“Yo, Cherub.” Speaking up before he could change his mind, Lucian called out to Cherub and caused the brown-clad man to turn around and start trudging backwards, a curious look plastered across his fatigued visage.
“What’s up dude.” Reflecting his countenance, Cherub’s voice lacked much of its usual inflection.
“I think… you need this more than I do right now.” Lucian handed over his sole test tube of Abyssal Vitreous, Cherub taking it from his outstretched hand, confused look on his face. “Try not to drink all of it, yeah?”
Though he peered down at it questioningly, the brown-clad man didn’t forget to proffer his gratitude as he came to a stop. “Thanks…? What is this for though?”
Lucian quickly explained what the Abyssal Vitreous was after a brief moment of confusion, having forgotten that Cherub wouldn’t know what it was – while deliberately leaving out the more… unpleasant details, as it were, in case they prevented the brown-clad man from imbibing it.
Once he heard what it would do, Cherub offered his thanks—one sounding firmer, this time—and carefully pulled out the rubber stopper, making sure none of the precious liquid contained within would spill out.
Bringing it up to eye level, Cherub eyed it curiously before taking a cautious sip. The effects were immediate.
Shoulders straightening back up, the pained grimace previously dominating Cherub’s countenance seemed to melt away, a relieved sigh hot on its heels.
Taking a couple, even more careful, sips, Cherub’s pain seemed to melt away in concert with his throat bobbing up and down, the—confirmed—healing elixir evidently acting on his wounds post-haste.
Due to the sixsome’s close proximity, the exchange between Lucian and Cherub hadn’t gone unnoticed by any of the others. As such, the party wasn’t separated accidentally while the latter imbibed the Abyssal Vitreous.
Once about a third of the scarlet gel had been consumed, the brown-clad man stopped drinking from the test tube and stoppered it back up. Handing it back over to Lucian, he intoned; gratitude lacing every word. “Thanks for this. Really.”
Bobbing his head to signal that he had heard while simultaneously acknowledging said thanks, the raven-haired man took the test tube back before slipping it into his hoodie’s left pocket.
All the while, Lucian blatantly—and deliberately, truth be told—ignored the four sets of questioning eyes aimed his way.
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It wasn’t long after that when the party of six finally came across another break in the dense wall of Bloodthirst Briars. Although they had to non-lethally fend off an assault from another two solitary tendrils in the process, it felt like the effort was well worth it after spotting the lefthand break.
“Second verse, same as the first, everyone. Prepare yourselves, the newest skull has an even brighter red colouration than the one just before.” Intoned Julia, just as she turned into the lefthand passage.
Unlike before, Cherub remained silent as he followed after Boris; Tsumiki hot on his heels, all four vanishing out of sight an instant later.
Before following in their wake, Lucian swapped his end table between his hands and used his newly freed hand to check through his hoodie’s pockets, making sure everything was in place.
Tossing his end table back to his right hand, his left hand briefly rooted around in his hoodie’s associated pocket and made sure, for the umpteenth time, that the Abyssal Vitreous was secure.
Once he was certain, the raven-haired man splashed forward and followed right after Transient Cardinal’s curtain of sodden white hair; the limp ends of which had just disappeared around the break’s edge and, hopefully, to the briar maze’s fourth concentric circle.
< End of Gauntlet Three: Piercing Rain. >