Tossing and turning as I lay on my bedroll, I mentally crossed off one point from the list of positives of adventuring; to wit, the laying underneath the starry skies.

The constant buzz of insects around my body that found purchase on my skin, no matter how tightly I wound my sheet around myself, made me feel that perhaps mass extermination wasn’t such a bad thing at all.

In fact, I would gladly be the one doing the exterminating should it mean dealing with these pesky insects.

Slapping myself again on the face and cursing as I missed the bug, I finally gave up the struggle for sleep, and just laid awake.

Occasionally swatting the bugs, I thought of the flowers of thorns, and wondered where on Protos would I be able to find it.

Struggling to my feet as the need to relieve myself came over me, I got up and drowsily nodded to Moreno, who, of course, snorted in reply.

Walking out of the small clearing, and choosing a random direction, I found a nice-looking tree underneath which I began relieving myself over these beautiful bright black flowers, complete with thorns.

Idly looking at them, I froze and my stream petered off as I stared bug eyed at the flowers.

We-weren’t these the flowers of thorns?

Then, even more bug eyed, I looked at the flecks of moisture with which I had just watered them and cursed.

Grunting in annoyance, I bent down and slowly began harvesting the well-watered flowers while hoping that they would still work as intended.

Shuddering at the thought of having to drink the decoction made of them, I nonetheless steeled myself while consoling myself that it wasn’t so bad.

I mean, I could’ve gone for the bigger job and actually sat on them instead. Thinking of that, I shuddered even more as I critically looked at the thorns.

Finally, after fifteen minutes had passed, I rose and stretched with satisfaction as I thought about the four flowers within my finite ring.

Then, I froze again as I saw another flower of thorns, and another, all the way stretching into the distance, was a line of flowers of thorns.

Stupefied, I blinked multiple times before I slapped myself hard and cursed. Curses turned to delighted cries as I rabidly harvested the flowers, one after the other.

Soon, I had lost count of how many I had harvested as I followed the trail of flowers.

All the way until I reached a large clearing that was distinctly not the clearing in which we had set up camp. But it was awash with flowers of thorns. They carpeted the entire area, such that stepping one foot inside was akin to death as the malevolent thorns waved in the breeze.

Jumping for joy, I quickly set to work, and I lost track of time as flowers kept appearing inside my finite ring.

Then, distantly, I heard noises that sounded like shouts and screams.

Getting up rapidly, I had my weapons at the ready in a moment, and then running toward the direction of the sounds, which happened to be the same way that I came from; I saw two enormous spiders, much bigger than the ones in the evening, standing in front of me.

Not pausing in the slightest, I rushed at them as they skittered forward and I stabbed one in the eyes; the sword going through deep; and then, letting go of the sword, I used the momentum to keep going and rammed into the second spider, which flipped over with a screech.

Grimacing at the impact, I drew my dagger and, bending down, finished the spider off cleanly.

Rising, and flicking the blood and ichor of the spider off the dagger, I went to the other spider, which was thrashing around in agony, and grabbed the hilt of my sword.

Pushing deeper inside and then pulling it out with a grunt, I kicked the spider away, and it twitched a few times more before it lay as silent as my surroundings.

Until another shout pierced the air.

Running toward the sound, I crashed through the undergrowth and emerged into the small clearing in which we had made camp.

Right onto a battlefield.

Around the fire stood Cathy, who was desperately using her bow to fend off the swarm of spiders, while Duncan and Dunkirk flanked her.

Moreno was nowhere to be seen and there was this gigantic spider, the size of a house, right in the middle of the spider swarm.

The gigantic spider, seeing me, screeched so loudly that I thought my ears were about to burst, and heeding its call, seven spiders peeled off the attack and charged at me.

Following the spider’s movements, Duncan saw me and paled as he yelled out, “Go! Run! That’s a Tarantula Lord. We have no chance against it! Run Faustus, Run!”

I looked at the desperate situation, at the horde of spiders, before I nodded, and I ran.

I ran straight at the approaching horde with my weapons held low.

As I neared the first spider, I dodged its charge while my sword swept up in an arc, almost bisecting the spider in two uneven halves.

Still running, I dodged low to the right - balancing on my right leg - and passing beside another spider; I raked my dagger from down to up and using the momentum I turned, facing the previously bisected spider, and dagger still moving in the upward arc, I brought it down low and threw it as hard as I could at another spider that had overshot me and was now turning to face me.

The dagger pierced true into the monster’s eyes and with a cry; the monster curled up thrashing.

Running toward the downed spider, I passed by, collecting my dagger as I did so; Then, back in the initial position that I had started the fight in, I turned and looked at the spiders, of whom only 4 remained.

Breathing out calmly, I thought of the first rule that was hammered into me.

Never, ever be surrounded.

Then, as I inhaled deeply, my body began shining in patterns of white and black while reddish black tattoos crawled up my hands and all over my body.

Baring my teeth, I smiled, and then I roared.

I roared, and the horn of Valor blew.

And I charged.

There were no fancy tricks this time, there was no spinning around, no positioning.

I charged brutally at the first spider and rammed it, sending it flying into the reinforcements that the tarantula lord had sent.

Twisting by a hair’s breadth to the right; I avoided a hairy leg that would have stabbed into my chest and chopped it off with my sword before I backflipped and landed on another spider’s back shell; Then I stabbed down and twisted the blade before ripping it free in a spray of fluid and anguished screams.

Standing stable as a rock on the thrashing spider’s back, I grinned fiercely as I looked at the battlefield.

2 spiders left with 4 reinforcements coming. 1 wounded spider in front of me, and 1 dying spider underneath me.

Close to twenty spiders assaulting Duncan and the rest, and one tarantula lord, which even now screeched in anger.

Breathing in deeply, I lost myself to the battle song. To the carnage. To the rage.

Then a Drayke smiled.

And a spider died.

And the Drayke danced by the razor’s edge again.