A trio of individuals, comprising one man and two women, stood back to back to back in chilly, rippling waters.

Concealing the skies above were layer upon layer of obscuration; storm clouds at the zenith, one that violently rained down on a thick, interwoven canopy of Bloodthirst Briars, the gaps in between only allowing air and rain to slip through – even if only just, in the latter’s case.

To a casual observer, it might look as if the trio were relaxed, owing to each of their improvised weapons—including a glass-embedded table leg with strips of soaked pink canvas wrapping up its pointed end, an uneven pair of table legs, where one boasted a jagged end, and a nondescript wooden end table—hanging loosely by each of their sides…

If not for the devastation swirling about their legs in the form of filthy ribbons of muddy dirt, severed blades of bone white grass, and shredded black leaves interspersed with crimson thorns cracked in twain.

…

In order to escape any teasing remarks, Transient Cardinal had hopped off Lucian’s shoulders the first chance she got. As an unfortunate result, she had warned the other two of the oncoming danger a split second too late.

Several more Bloodthirst Briar tendrils—three in all, and from wildly varying directions—had struck down at the trio from out of the fog overhead.

Reacting instantly, Julia had abandoned her desire to tease Lucian and directed the other two to form up, back to back to back, so that they would have eyes on every conceivable direction and could intercept a tendril accordingly.

Unfortunately, while the honey blonde’s reaction had been as fast as possible, injuries hadn’t been avoided.

As a result of the—somewhat—unexpected ambush, Julia had acquired a new laceration across her torso, one of Transient Cardinal’s biceps had been nicked, and Lucian had earned a light gash along the left side of his skull; one that coincidentally mirrored the first injury he had received in terms of its positioning.

At the very least, injuries from the initial onslaught had been limited to just that.

Julia’s close to instant reaction, alongside Lucian and Transient Cardinal going along with it without question, allowed the trio to fend off subsequent lashes from the thorny triple threat – in a lethal fashion, to boot… at least, eventually.

…

“Do the two of you think any more of the tendrils will be coming out of the fog?” Lucian asked while wincing as he swiped a forearm across his brow, wiping away a mix of raindrops, blood, and sweat tracing down from his scalp.

“I’m not sure, but hopefully not?” Transient Cardinal trailed off, clearly uncertain. “It’s already been, what? A minute or more, since we severed the vines.”

“It doesn’t matter how long it’s been!” Julia interjected forcefully. “As long as we’re stuck in the clearing, we need to keep on guard.”

“It’s not like I’m saying we should stop or anything.” He pointed out calmly, immediately picking up on the honey blonde’s agitation and trying to soothe it. “I’m just trying to make some conversation, is all.”

Silence fell for a beat before, “I apologise if I came across as harsh. The earlier… ambush, still has me on edge.”

Lucian waved his bandaged hand dismissively – even though neither woman was likely to see it. “I get it, so there’s no need to say sorry.”

Letting his hand fall back down to his side, he continued. “But anyway, back to my earlier question. Do you think the three tendrils will be all there is to it, or do you think there’ll be more.”

Julia hummed consideringly, seeming to put serious thought into the question now that she was—hopefully—more calm.

“Most… probably not.” She let out eventually. “If more were coming, I think they’d have attacked by now, much like the earlier three.”

He huffed ruefully, agreeing with her opinion yet annoyed by the fact. To be back in the previous firelit clearing was oh so very tempting right about now…

“How about you then, Sir Knight?” Transient Cardinal’s question focused him back on the here and now. “Both of us have answered but you haven’t.”

Julia interrupted before he could respond. “Actually, before that. What’s up with this ‘Sir Knight’ business, Cardinal? I’ve been wanting to ask but I never had the opportunity to ask before.”

Only after she brought it up did Lucian actually take notice of the odd honorific tagged on to his handle’s shortened form.

Quickly going over recent memories, he realised she had been using it for quite a while now. Interested in Transient Cardinal’s reply as well, he twisted his neck until he was able to see her from the corner of his right eye.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

She fidgeted slightly. “Umm… it’s nothing, really. I just liked the sound of it.”

“Suuurrrree.” Julia dragged out the single word deliberately, making her scepticism crystal clear.

Contrary to what Lucian expected, the honey blonde left it at that and fell silent.

Following in her lead, he didn’t carry on with the line of inquiry; curious to know the answer, but not curious enough to push for it in spite of that.

Still… Lucian made sure to file away the short exchange, so that he could revisit the unanswered question at some later, more appropriate, point in time.

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Despite their concerns, nothing else—Bloodthirst Briar or otherwise—lashed out from within the fog by the time the Temporary Barrier of Immaculate Respite was close to winking out of existence.

More importantly, however, was that the downpour had weakened substantially, having transformed into something closer to a gentle drizzle.

At the same time, the water levels, previously up to the waist and rising—or in Transient Cardinal’s case, around her navel—had started draining away at an appreciable rate.

Judging from the direction and strength of the underwater currents, it felt like something at the edges of the clearing—still remaining infuriatingly out of sight due to the dense, rain-conjured fog—was sucking it all away.

Lucian was glad for the falling water levels, most of all. Not only would it make it easier to move—and run away, when necessary—it also let them more easily sift through the debris from combat to retrieve what loot there was from the quartet of kills.

After a quick discussion, they decided to go about the search in a rotation; where one of them would search in the waters nearby their designated section, while the other two would guard against any unforeseen threats.

While the process could have gone by far faster if all three of them had worked at the task concurrently, such a move would have been short-sighted in the extreme. After all, what would have happened if another tendril decided to ambush them?

And so, while the raven-haired man searched, the white-haired waif and buxom honey blonde protected; something then repeated with all three taking their respective turns.

Retrieving all the loot was… easier than expected, Lucian had to admit. Roughly knowing how and where they would appear by now, it became a simple matter of going for a treasure hunt in the area where the dead plant life had settled.

While the muddy ground and general detritus made the task a touch more difficult, it still didn’t take long for the trio to have 23 Bloodsucking Thorns in hand after somewhere over a minute had passed.

He looked down at some of the thorns in question, metallic tips bristling out from between the gaps in his slightly clenched fist. “Both of you are cool with splitting the thorns equally right?”

Looking up from a similar handful, Julia answered. “Of course. There will still be two extra though. Do either of you want them?”

“Nope~.” Transient Cardinal chirped while putting away 7 of the thorns in question in her partially unslung backpack. “My bag is getting a little too heavy.”

“Don’t mind if I do.” He answered, following the white-haired waif’s lead and retrieving his backpack before putting the thorns away. “I’m planning on chucking them at any monsters, worst come to worst.”

Seeing the other two’s actions, Julia quickly copied them and started putting away her thorns in her own backpack. “Do you want both of them or just one?”

“Just one of them is good.” He grunted out slightly distractedly, focused on forcing the sixth Bloodsucking Thorns into a compartment. “You should take one of them too after all.”

“How kind of you.” She let out, mostly amused but with traces of sarcasm. “Anyways, here you go.”

Looking up at those words, Lucian saw her hand stretched out in offer, Bloodsucking Thorn extended out between slender index and middle fingers like a tapered, blood-soaked cigar.

Stretching his hand out to meet hers, he plucked his eighth, and final, Bloodsucking Thorn from her grip before shoving it—alongside his seventh Bloodsucking Thorn—inside his hoodie’s right pocket after slinging his backpack back into place.

“Thanks.” He let out and offered her a smile. “Now all that’s left to do is wait for the magical barrier to disappear so we can move on.”

“Indeed.”

“Yup~!”

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Less than a minute after the raven-haired man’s declaration, the Temporary Barrier of Immaculate Respite fell.

Waiting just beyond the opaque white energy shield were Boris, Cherub, and Tsumiki; the brown-clad man in the van.

Much like Lucian’s trio, all of them boasted brand new injuries – each varying in level of severity.

Transient Cardinal, as she was wont to do, immediately focused on said injuries and attended to them, or at least, as best as she could, given that most of her first aid supplies were… waterlogged, to put it mildly.

Where Cherub and Tsumiki essentially suffered scrapes and bruises, Boris’s sole additional wound was a touch more serious.

Up until this point, Lucian had never seen what lay underneath the bearded man’s full body cloak. However, with the Bloodsucking Thorn-sized hole puncturing the maroon fabric and piercing the flesh underneath, Boris was forced to unclasp it and bear what lay underneath to the world.

Disappointingly, it was far more mundane than he expected – simply consisting of a mostly red flannel, thick jeans with threadbare patches on the knees, and sturdy-looking, steel-toed brown bordering on black boots.

The thing that, ironically, stood out most was the puncture wound—located above his right ribcage—leaking out a steady stream of blood.

At the very least, while it looked problematic, wiping away the blood made it clear that the wound was a shallow one; something Transient Cardinal handled in a jiffy.

On that note…

Lucian turned away from watching the path they’d come from after hearing a soft, satisfied exclamation come from his white-haired partner.

Confirming that she was done with Boris, he spoke up; drawing all eyes to him.

“Since Cardinal’s finished, shall we get going? I don’t know about y’all, but I’m keen on getting out of this concentric circle as fast as fucking possible.”

“I second that!” Cherub agreed. “I don’t want to get chased down again.”

At Boris’s affirmative grunt, Tsumiki’s silent nod, and Transient Cardinal’s quick “Let’s go~!”, five of the six were in agreement.

“Since everyone’s made up their mind…” Trailing off questioningly, Julia swept her eyes over the five and confirmed none would backpedal. “Let’s go then.”

So saying, the honey blonde turned away and started off; the rest falling in line without any further delays.

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Time marched on, and so did the sixsome.

Besides the constant splashing from their trek forward, the only other sound filling the silence was the gentle, consistent, plop-plop-plop of raindrops falling into the knee-high waters.

Honestly, Lucian thought the gentle drizzle was soothing. At the same time, said calming effect made him feel sleepy – as insane as that sounded, especially when nothing threatening had appeared even after several minutes had passed.

He shook his head violently, trying his best to clear away some of the lethargy. When the only thing separating him from death was the keenness of his senses, feeling such a state of tiredness was going to be the death of him.

“There’s another break up ahead!”

He perked up at Julia’s call, all the clinging traces of lethargy instantly swept away. Focusing on the area ahead of the honey blonde, his eyes tried to pierce through the light mist to see the break in question while hoping that it wouldn’t be another entrance to an enclosed clearing.

It took a couple of seconds, but he eventually saw what he was looking for. Much like before, the gap in the Bloodthirst Briar was located on the left. He really hoped it would be a path connecting the fourth circle to the fifth, this time.

…

The raven-haired man’s hopes became a reality seconds later.

“And it’s a red skull! Looks like we’ve finally found the path leading deeper in!” Julia piped up once more, causing Lucian to pick up his pace.

“It’s about damn time.”

He caught up to Cherub and Tsumiki just in time to hear the former’s mumble. While sounding more annoyed than he felt was warranted, it was, nonetheless, a sentiment he could fully agree with.

If the info on the digital minimap held water, then there were only two more concentric circles to go before reaching Heavenly Constellation Spire.

While reluctant to admit it, even to himself, he feared what might lay in wait in those two circles.

Having already toppled an Apostate Wraith, run away from Hungering Rodents, been assaulted by Bloodthirst Briar tendrils, and been run down by a huge, metallic wheel, of all things…

He really, really didn’t want to know what would be next.

“Let’s hope we don’t get chased by another wheel, yes?” Julia’s clearly sarcastic quip tore Lucian out of his thoughts.

Focusing on her back, he was just in time to watch as she jogged to the left and disappeared out of sight; her jade-coloured backpack the last thing he saw.

As he followed behind, her words bounced around in his head.

…

He was really hoping the honey blonde hadn't just jinxed things.