Trusting that the ebony-haired girl and snowy-haired waif would heed his call, Lucian refocused back on the flying Bloodsucking thorn as he ran. At this point, the projectile had already crossed over half the distance.

As the Apostate Wraith took another step, the crimson thorn drew inches away from its right eye. Just as it was about to puncture the glowing orb, the colossus bent its thick neck forward and intercepted the tapered point with a metallic, ‘clink!’.

His mouth opened with incredulity even as the Bloodsucking Thorn bounced off and fell into the water with a defeated plop.

Shutting his mouth with a click, he focused back on running even as the sound of rapid splashes finally sounded off from behind. Hopefully, it meant that the two he called for were on their way to provide support.

Just before he got into close enough range to start bludgeoning the Apostate Wraith’s legs, the raven-haired man brought the Toxic Essence up to his mouth, tore out the rubber stopper with his teeth, and spat it out to the side.

Pulling his left arm back, he took a few more steps then splashed about half of the yellow liquid at the humanoid’s trunk-like right shin; wafts of white steam erupting from the affected area and mingling with the gentle drizzle.

At the same time, the colossus took a step forward on aforementioned leg and instantly buckled, knee smashing into the water and throwing up a small wave while causing the softened ground to tremble violently.

Not wanting to waste the remaining Toxic Essence, he splashed the other half at the Apostate Wraith’s flayed chest—more specifically, its left side—before carelessly throwing the empty test tube aside.

A low groan of agony left the humanoid’s concealed mouth even as he brought his end table back, jumped up, and smashed it into the steaming area; bubbling flesh instantly giving way under the blunt force impact.

His improvised mace’s curved edge sunk in and got stuck briefly, causing him to hang in the air momentarily.

Swinging his legs forward, he curled them up and smashed the soles of his boots into the Apostate Wraith’s lower abs. Bending his knees even further, he kicked off while reverberations travelled up his limbs, making use of the generated momentum to yank out his stuck end table while he was at it.

As a result of the brief resistance exerted on his right arm, his leap away was transformed into something more akin to an uncontrolled tumble; one that caused him to land in the ankle-high waters, ass first.

Just as Lucian made his splash landing in the water, a glass-embedded table leg zipped by right over his shoulder, sodden, twisted up canvas trailing in its wake. Even as the flail started tying itself around the Apostate Wraith’s left knee, Transient Cardinal darted past on his left, sprays of water kicked up in her wake.

The white-haired waif immediately begun scaling the kneeling colossus, making use of its softened flesh and her pair of table legs to pull herself up the left side of the humanoid’s body. At the same time, the wet white cord went taut, causing the copious glass edges lining the head of the improvised flail to scratch against the Apostate Wraith’s knee with an ear-piercing screech.

A shot of adrenalin was injected into Lucian’s bloodstream at the racket, getting him to haul himself back up onto his feet even as he shrugged off his backpack in a single, smooth motion. Watching his white-haired partner start hauling herself up the Apostate Wraith’s shoulder, he had an inkling of what she was planning.

Body acting without any conscious input, he was sprinting forward before he knew it, end table resting parallel to his side as the muscles in his legs and right arm tensed up.

Just as the young woman finished pulling herself up onto the humanoid’s ridiculously broad left shoulder, he closed the remaining bit of distance and jumped up forcefully, improvised mace’s edge brought up into a rising uppercut; straight on a collision course with its softened up torso.

As if if his end table had suddenly become a shovel, it effortlessly carved through the giving flesh like a hot knife through butter, melted flesh and other bits of unrecognisable gore flying upwards and off to the side in an arcing spray.

Having not expected such minimal resistance, the thin stand nearly slipped out of his grip; such an embarrassing fumble only averted by a desperate scrabbling of his fingers around the slick, wooden stand.

Just as Lucian had resecured his grip, he splashed back down into the water; right next to the Apostate Wraith’s disabled leg, a small wave surging out from his landing spot.

Instead of resuming his attack, he pushed off the ground and hopped back several times in quick succession, worried that the colossus might decide to faceplant or something and smash him like a bug under its weight.

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The raven-haired man only came to a stop after reaching his first landing spot. Looking up quickly, he searched for Transient Cardinal and immediately spotted her balancing on the Apostate Wraith’s shoulder in an absolutely indecent squat – her modesty only preserved by her coat, causing him to gape momentarily.

…

…

At least a couple of seconds passed as he stared at the sight incredulously.

Closing his mouth with a click, he realised with a jolt that his delay would prevent him from charging back in before she enacted her plan – whatever it might be.

As such, he rushed over to the right while carelessly dropping his end table and immediately grabbed hold of the taut, stretched out cord; Tsumiki having been pulling at it all this time.

Trading a nod of acknowledgement with the ebony-haired girl over his shoulder, Lucian started adding his strength to the effort without a further word while watching Transient Cardinal like a hawk, curious to know if his conjecture would hold water.

Meanwhile, even as Transient Cardinal was balancing on her broad perch, she was wondering how she was going to impale the Apostate Wraith’s eyes to pierce its brain in a lethal blow.

She was reluctant to take another swan dive off the Apostate Wraith’s head, recalling what Her Knight had said earlier. It didn’t mean she wasn’t going to do it if there weren’t any other choices, but she was willing to try other options first.

Surveying the side of the humanoid’s head as she was thinking, its huge left ear, barely peeking out from its tangled mass of grimy hair, gave her a sudden stroke of inspiration.

Quickly going over the idea in her head, she figured it was going to take some daredevil acrobatics and an insane level of flexibility – two things that she was well equipped with, if she did think so herself.

Just as she was planning to go over the plan for a final time, slight vibrations underfoot made her glance down. Her stomach clenched in anxiety when she saw that the Apostate Wraith was finally getting up—even if laboriously—to its feet.

The white-haired waif acted immediately; knowing she had run out of time.

In the meantime, Lucian and Tsumiki weren’t having an easy time of it. Soon after the former had started helping to pull at the corded canvas, a sudden, violent tug on the other end nearly made the pair lose their grip.

Immediately seeing that the Apostate Wraith was trying to get back up onto its feet, the two desperately tried to prevent it by exerting even more strength as they pulled on the already taught-to-a -straining-point cord.

However, no matter how hard they pulled, the colossus seemed intent on rising – even if at a slightly slower pace than it likely was capable of.

Luckily for the two, Transient Cardinal acted before it could straighten up fully. Her right hand darted out and latched onto the Apostate Wraith’s ear just before she leaped from her squat and used her new handhold as a pivot point to spin around its head and in front of its left, concealed cheek.

In the blink of an eye, her combat booted feet parted the Apostate Wraith’s tangled, matted hair and planted against aforenamed cheek even as she drove her lefthand table leg straight into its glowing left orb in an explosion of ichor.

An enraged howl erupted from the colossus as it immediately collapsed forward, seemingly intending to squash Transient Cardinal into bloody meat paste under its overwhelming weight.

Lucian’s eyes widened in horror as he understood what the humanoid intended. Reacting instantly, he yelled. “Dammit Cardinal! Jump off now!”

Aforenamed young woman quickly glanced back but did nothing else, clearly having acknowledged his warning yet refusing to act for some unknown reason.

The raven-haired man watched as, almost as if it was happening in slow motion, the Apostate Wraith’s supporting leg collapsed underneath it before its torso inclined forward, face straight on a collision course with the ground. Just before its upper body went fully horizontal, Transient Cardinal pushed off and backflipped away, leaving her impaled table leg behind in the colossus’s eye.

Almost in tandem, the comparatively diminutive white-haired waif and far heavier flayed giant splashed down into the water, large wave instantly kicking up around the latter.

It was around that time when he finally reacted. Letting go of the slackened cord, he ran over to Transient Cardinal just as she started to straighten up from her splash landing.

On the way over, he pulled out the Cursed Sacrificial Stake, ready to stab it into the Apostate Wraith’s flesh if it even looked like it was going to twitch.

“Have you fucking gone mad, Cardinal?! Why are you still standing there!” Even as the raven-haired man was shouting, his free hand was already midway through reaching out, fully intent on yanking his white-haired partner back and behind him – consent or no.

Seeing and understanding his intentions with a quick glance, the young woman sidestepped his grabbing hand while frantically belting out rapid reassurances. “No need to worry, Sir Knight! Look at it. It’s already dead! There’s no need to back away!”

He immediately froze at her words, hand still outstretched and hanging in midair, grey-tinged brown eyes instantly darting over to the fallen Apostate Wraith to confirm her claim.

Ever since the humanoid had faceplanted, it hadn’t shown any signs of moving.

Lucian had thought the reason for such was its inability to get back up to its feet, a consequence of its bound arms. However, its eerie stillness could only mean one thing…

Death.

Just as that realisation solidified in his mind, the raven-haired man realised his left hand was still outstretched and instantly retracted it, letting it hang back by his side as he felt his cheeks heat up in mortification.

He coughed sheepishly, desperately trying to quash down his embarrassment. “You’re right. Sorry about that. Looks like I wasn’t paying it enough attention.”

“No need to worry, my Knight—”

Unlike the few times before, Lucian caught the oddly intimate appellation and filed it away – promising himself to bring it up when time permitted.

“—I appreciate your concern.” Transient Cardinal soothed with a far calmer voice. It was around then when Tsumiki finally came up from behind – stopping next to the pair just as the last word slipped past the white-haired waif’s lips.

Though the ebony-haired girl didn’t say a word, her furrowed brows and downturned, frowning mouth spoke of her concern; loud and clear.

Noticing her expression, Transient Cardinal was quick to reassure.

“There’s really no need to worry! I really am okay, see?” The young woman stretched out her arms to either side and twirled on the spot while speaking, backing up her words with demonstrative action.

His white-haired partner’s endearing display helped wash away the lingering traces of mortification still in Lucian’s system. Don’t get him wrong. He was still incredibly furious with her reckless move, but he didn’t think now was the time to actually get into an argument over something already over and done with.

As if the world was tuning in to and in full agreement with his thoughts, a tide of matted black fur and beady crimson eyes suddenly materialised out of thin air several metres behind the Apostate Wraith’s corpse; a chorus of chitters accompanying the Hungering Rodents’ unforeseen appearance.

Almost in concert, Transient Cardinal, having just finished twirling around, took off in a dead sprint and away from the newly appeared threat; free hand darting out and clamping around Tsumiki’s wrist in a flash even as she loudly screamed.

“Run! Danger incoming!!”

Lucian whirled around and instantly started sprinting. If the Hungering Rodent’s sudden appearance hadn’t been enough, then his white-haired partner’s scream sure would have been enough of an impetus.

While the raven-haired man, snowy-haired waif, and ebony-haired girl had been busy tackling the Apostate Wraith, Boris, Cherub, and Julia had successfully taken down two out of the three Bloodthirst Briar tendrils.

In fact, the latter trio were in the middle of taking down the last one when Transient Cardinal’s scream reached them; prompting the bald, bearded giant and the brown-clad man to reflexively look back even as the honey blonde sprinted off, no questions asked.

On the way, Lucian grabbed up his end table and backpack, slipping the latter on in a smooth motion. At the same time, seeing that Boris and Cherub hadn’t started moving yet, he called out. “What the fuck are y’all waiting for?! Run!”