Ashton watched as the knife moved downward, creating an arc downward. An arc that has its end point directly on Selene’s chest.
He wanted to rush over as soon as possible, but his body couldn’t move as fast as his mind does. The only physical response he actually received was a heart beating at an increasingly fast pace.
Thankfully for him, though, the sound of the falling lantern that had snapped him awake had also startled their mystery attacker.
The previous perfect arc now has a hitch in it, a hitch that was long enough for Ashton’s body to actually react.
Right now he wasn’t thinking of the possible injuries he could get or anything; the only thing on his mind was that Selene mustn’t get hurt.
Noticing a figure charging straight at him, the attacker was forced to stop the attack and focus on Ashton.
He didn’t panic or jitter; he just stood there waiting for Ashton to arrive, and it eventually did.
He took a step to the side and swiped his knife vertically. He wanted to cut Ashton’s neck one clean swipe.
Luckily or unluckily, Ashton managed to escape the cut to the neck and was only left with a large cut on the shoulder.
"Lucky," the shadowy figure muttered before vanishing and reappearing at the corner of the bedroom.
Thick red blood dripped from his shoulder, but he still didn’t leave his spot; his goal wasn’t to fight the man; the goal was to protect Selene.
If he could keep the intruder away from her, he would win.
Both Ashton and the man in the corner were locked in deadlock as they both stared at each other; no one was willing to move first.
’Should I take the initiative? I might be able to scare him off,’ a thought surfaced in his mind.
But it was dismissed almost immediately, and it didn’t even take any thought. All it took was for Ashton to take a look at himself.
"Are you really just going to stand there and obstruct me?" the shadow said in a thick, raspy voice.
"I won’t be taking a single step; if anything is going to happen to Selene tonight, it only means I am dead."
Though he couldn’t say for sure, Ashton was sure he noticed the Intruder raising an eyebrow, almost as if he felt challenged.
"I guess you will just have to die then,"
With those words, the person in front of Ashton was nowhere to be found.
Just to be safe, Ashton looked all around the room to see if his opponent had to move somewhere else, but he didn’t see anyone. Not that he could search thoroughly in his current state, though.
The wound on his shoulder was still bleeding profusely, and if this continues, he would end up getting blood on Selene.
’Is he gone?’ Ashton thought.
’He has no reason to leave, though he has the upper hand, especially since becoming a Lord grants you a myriad of abilities.’
Unbeknownst to Ashton, a shadow was already directly beside Selene’s head; the time of day made it even harder to spot.
The blade popped out of that area and was ready to just slice the neck and get it over with, but what the person underestimated was how determined Ashton was.
The corners of his eyes managed to catch sight of that, and his body moved as instinctively as it could.
He jumped from his current position straight at the blade, hand first. He was ready to use his hands to hold the blade directly.
And that was exactly what he did; his outstretched hand landed on the blade, and he held on to it as hard as he could, he even proceeded to twist it just to knock it out of the grip of the intruder, and he was actually successful, and now he was the one that was armed.
"I already said it earlier, you won’t be doing anything to Selene except you kill me first,"
Unlike the last time, though, he didn’t receive any response; there was no voice, nor was there any movement, just silence.
A minute passed, then ten minutes, and finally an hour, but there was still no movement.
"He has left," Ashton said in a shaky voice.
[Task Completed: Risk your life for your Wife]
[Willforce +50]
The amount of blood he had lost from the cut on his shoulder and the very nasty cut on his left palm was so much that his consciousness was already fading; it was taking everything he had for him not to faint right there.
Forcing his eyes open, he scanned through the rooms one last time before he actually moved. He moved towards where his clothes were.
He picked a much older one, tore a strip out, and slowly began cleaning his wounds. He then used the rest to wrap them all up.
When he was done, he looked out the window and immediately began staggering out of the bedroom.
"I am sorry, Selene, but we will have to eat potatoes again tonight."
By the time he was done speaking, he was already in the kitchen peeling the potatoes.
Every once in a while, a drop of blood would land on a slice, forcing Ashton to clean them over and over, each bout filled with the stinging pain of water touching fresh wounds.
A few minutes later, the food was already boiling which means he had time to return to the bedroom.
"I am sorry Selene, you must have been so scared,"
"I will do better next time; no one will get so close to you like that anymore, I promise."
While he made his promise out loud, Ashton was already thinking of the implications of those statements.
He couldn’t protect someone from the supernatural using just his fist and sheer Willforce, it couldn’t work.
To actually commit to the care, you need to be able to handle every single scenario possible.
’I need to become a lord.’