Ashton could obviously hear the hurried footsteps coming from not too far away, but he didn’t panic, nor did he fret; he just stood there to breathe out a few breaths of relief.
He had managed to obtain a remedy for Selene, even if it was a single bottle.
"Let’s go," he said to his two already alert Legion Members.
It wasn’t like he didn’t want to leave earlier; it was because he needed to breathe. Right now, everything that has been happening seems already too much for him, but that breath helped him relax once more.
With his current crazy low amount of Willforce, Ashton ran out of the warehouse and towards their entry point.
This time, their run felt nothing like it did before. Right now, every step he took was an extremely arduous task, and it was growing increasingly harder since the drain was still ongoing.
The new arrivals had already arrived in the Warehouse and they noticed the Man’s dead body and Ashton missing.
"He actually managed to kill him," Cornelius said with a grim face.
"He killed my brother."
He didn’t approach the corpse for now since they had more serious things to do, but from his face it was obvious that he couldn’t want anything more than to rush to his brother and cry.
"He won’t escape, brother," he muttered with reddened eyes.
"Let’s go, guys...he mustn’t make it back home."
After that short moment of grief, the final Chase was about to begin. Will Ashton’s pursuers catch up to him, or will Ashton get home in time to help his wife before his Willforce runs out completely and also save himself?
Cornelius didn’t waste a single moment; he went back towards the entrance and ran straight towards Ashton’s house, accompanied by multiple men.
Right now, Ashton and his Plant Sprout had just passed by the Cathedral, and Ashton felt someone staring straight at him from the inside, but right now wasn’t the time to bother with him.
He only wanted to get home.
Ashton was in the front; the Plant Knight and the Vine Stalker ran through the street, and soon they could already hear the sounds of their pursuers close by.
Though under the cover of night, it was much more difficult to see how close they actually were. Soon they arrived at the town square, and that was when the first payoff landed.
An oblivious pursuer fell into the same trap or trick Ashton had also once entered.
"Haaaaa," A loud shout echoed throughout the surroundings, confusing everyone except the Vine Stalker.
It, on the other hand, was smiling when it heard that, like it was picturing the scene in his head.
The first person had fallen into his Vine trap and was almost certainly down and won’t be getting back up for a while; he had made sure of that.
Unlike the trap he had used when he tricked Ashton and during the fight, this one was much different; it was made such that the instant it was touched, it would tighten instantly and would become covered in thorns.
For anyone that was running at full speed, the damage can only be imagined.
’So that’s what he was doing,’ Ashton thought.
’How do you know I won’t fall into the same trap?’
Though he was on his final thread, Ashton knows to pay attention to safety; if he were to get caught in one of them, then all of this will be for nothing.
"I think you should lead the way," Ashton said to Vine Stalker.
He watched as its expression grew from a contented smile to a smug one as it sped up slightly until it was now at the very front of the group.
’If this goes on, this guy will surely grow arrogant, now I don’t know if I should wish for more people to be caught in the trap or not,’ he thought.
Since they had begun this fast-paced run, Ashton had found his mind straying and memories of his life slowly coming to him, especially his time with Selene since they had spent most of their childhood together.
He didn’t understand what that meant.
The chase continued, and every minute or so the sound of someone screaming out Will resound in the surrounding areas. Ashton could avoid getting caught in the traps because the Vine Stalker was leading, but their pursuers weren’t that lucky.
Though Cornelius had managed to escape every trap and would even stop to take a look at whoever got stuck, Ashton still didn’t manage to push ahead.
The distance between them was increasing at all, but instead it kept reducing at a fast pace, and soon Cornelius had gotten close enough to see Ashton up ahead.
This wasn’t happening because Cornelius and his team were suddenly running faster than they originally could but because Ashton kept getting slower.
His speed, which was akin to a full athlete sprint, was now almost equal to an extremely fast walk.
Cornelius could feel it; The Plant Sprouts could, in fact, every one except Ashton himself.
He looked at the Houses on the side of the road, and he felt at peace a little since he would be home soon.
’I am almost there, almost, just a little bit more.’
But at this point, his run had already become a Walk and soon it was about to become a slow trudge.
The only reason they hadn’t caught them was because of a sacrifice someone else was making.
The leading Vine Stalker had been slowly doing something it wasn’t instructed to do. It had been creating more and more Vine traps such that it wasn’t almost impossible to pass by if you ran; you could only walk.
But it wasn’t using any Willforce from Ashton; it knew they couldn’t afford it. So it was using a part of its body every single time.
Finally, Ashton was in the final stretch; his door was just a few meters away.
Every step, every move was taken with one thing being his drive.
’I must get this to Selene,’
’She must get this,’
One foot landed in front of the other once every few breaths until he eventually got to the front of his door.
His hand landed on the door handle; he twisted it open, but that last step was just too difficult.
He was spent.
The World had gone dark.