From the eyes of a man who sees his girl safe, there was a smile painted on his mind’s embrace. Vince was certain that even though he had to fight those branches alone, at least he felt satisfied, seeing Cherish escaped from the scene. His eyes stuck in her direction until she had landed above a normal tree’s branch.
When Vince saw Cherish looking at his state, he felt a sigh of relief even though he was unsure that she noticed him sightseeing her. Meanwhile, when those branches were going to attack him again, Vince rolled on the ground and avoided the impact. He quickly stood up to condition his mind.
Vince twisted his body as he dodged all the monster branches around him. Just like what happened to him a while ago, he turned in different directions while spreading his arms to fire the bullets towards them. His senses from the back saw that two branches were approaching him, so he jumped above the air, making a backflip. While doing so, he placed one of the guns at his side so that he may able to support his body’s momentum when firing the bullet using his two hands. He held this gun tight, pointing in the direction of those two branches that came moving vigorously towards him. His sightsees an upside-down perspective when doing such things.
“Eradicating these creatures would not stop the chances of its reproduction. It’s useless, but at least I tried to slow down the rate…” Vince whispered on his mind as he cut off those branches while backflipping on the air.
As soon as Vince landed on the ground, he quickly avoided other attacks while firing bullets at them when he had a chance. He stood above a branch, running towards its peak so that he could find the monster tree’s bearing. Vince fired bullets towards those skinny branches that were approaching to wrap his body. He doesn’t care where those bullets may hit anymore. As long as he can reach the bearing, then this tree will slowly disappear.
Besides, he gasped when he heard bullets helping him to cut down those branches.
“What was that?” He had no idea who did it, but that thought did not last on his mind. He needs to concentrate.
The sound of his breathing and the cracking woods from the creature’s movements were the only things he heard while switching at different branches towards above. He ran until he could finally see the enormous trunk of these branches’ source. His skin reacted to the coldness after the ashes faded away.
The humidity is cold. Vince looked above the skies and saw the clouds going dark. When his eyes roamed around the tree to find the bearing between its narrow branches on its head, he was surprised to figure out that the bearing wasn’t there! He felt disappointed for the efforts he made just to reach this peak.
Vince decided to go down since he thought it was useless to stay. However, when he faced in front, he was frightened to see how high he was from the ground. This tree was indeed a gigantic one!
“Shit…” He greeted his teeth as he leaned back, trying to avoid staring below for too long.
Then, Vince felt a movement above him. His body stilled, and only his head was moving slowly to see what was above. When he saw two branches with a form of a snake that connects at the back of the tree, with no eyes, his jaw dropped. His eyes widened in fear and confusion. He couldn’t believe what he saw!
Its texture is the same as a branch with a slight combination of gray and brown, covering the entire tree. Their looks were not scary but, their presence of which formed a snake made it more monstrous.
“Whoa… Aegir truly allowed evil to exist…” He whispered while his eyes kept switching on those two snake-like monster tree branches.
Vince remained astonished. He could not move his legs to go back to the ground. His eyes widened, and the range of his breathing slowly became rapid.
"What a beautiful existence does Aegir has that he is capable of making things out of his limitless free will without anyone who threatens to disclose." He whispered inside his mind, admiring the power of the god with a slight sigh of despair.
When the snake-like branches approached in front of him at a quick speed, Vince dodged over the other side of the tree. The branches seem in hunger that it pushes itself towards him. They kept attacking him!
Vince settled himself everywhere above the tree that he was unable to know where he even landed from time to time.
"Oh, shit!" He cursed while positioning his guns towards those branches. He then fired the bullets to mitigate the possibility of being hit by these monsters!
When Vince accidentally made a backbend flip on the air, he was too late to notice that one of the snake-like branches was approaching his sight. As a result, Vince was hit on his stomach and was even unable to land back on the tree. He cussed a word, greeted his teeth, and made a fist as his guns fell. His eyesight followed the direction to where he dropped those. Upon realizing that he made a mistake, his body flew away to one normal tree with an average trunk. Vince's back bumped to its hard structured wood, and he can feel his bones getting fractured by that incident. His neck almost gets separated from his head as he felt the nerves stretching. Because of what happened, Vince's eyesight went black. He could no longer sense the environment around him. Thus, his body isn't reacting.
The monster tree succeeded. The rest of its branches went towards his fractured body, which laid beside the roots and slowly wrapped its entire wood around him. His legs, arms, and even at his waist!
When the branches pulled him on the air, unconsciously, Cherish knew about all these things. Cherish was slaughtered, seeing Vince ended up this way. She could not believe what she saw! Her arms were shaking, and it felt that she was stuck in a reality where she could do nothing but stare at the monster tree. It slowly eats Vince's body on its trunk!
She can feel the heaviness of her chest. Her eyes were even dropping down those single tears that came from her left eye. She manipulated her weapon and made it as a large blade, and without further hesitation, she threw the circular blade towards those branches. Fortunately, it works! Those branches were cut off in a single attack from her!
With aggressiveness, she pulled the rope attached to the blade back to her to make a double attack for those upcoming branches. Although Vince's body was free from the monster tree, she could not manage her time being there to aid his falling. She was too far away, plus the ashes smoke bothered their sight.
She became alarmed by the situation. Cherish immediately cast her umbrella towards different trunks of those normal trees for her to arrive fast to where Vince was about to completely fall.
"Vince!" She accidentally shouted.
When she was a few distances away from his location, the debris of those branches fell in front of him. Some were even coming above her head. This made Cherish's pace slower. She barely can see because of the uproar, and now this happened?!
"Why are you so mean?!" She exclaimed as she avoided those lose branches. At this point, Cherish felt a sigh of discouragement as she already knew that she could not catch Vince's body anymore because of this unexpected situation. Besides, why was she even expecting him to be alive? Surely, it was obvious.
As soon as she successfully avoided those falling branches, she ran quickly to where Vince's body fell. Blood was scattered around the ground. His eyes were half-opened, and his lips were pale.
Cherish's world seemed to shake while seeing the situation. She can feel a reaction on her lips as it get a bit shaky. She could not understand the reason behind what she felt. Besides, she shouldn't be feeling like this. This uncertain feeling of pain and loss is definitely not her anymore!
She slowly went closer to Vince, bent her knees and checked his pulses. Afterwhich, her body seemed to freeze, seeing that Vince was no longer breathing nor have pulses. At this very moment, it has been confirmed that Vince is dead.
Cherish breathed deep and made her chin up and tried to went back to her usual facade of numbness. She wasn't feeling anything, but she also knew she felt a pain that she never felt it before. But why? It was only this time that she felt this unusual thing that she never felt it before.
She stared at his dead face and whispered on her own thoughts, "You've been running after me, am I that cruel not to notice the purest intention of yours? No, I think..."
Cherish stood up firm, shook her head like she was trying to forget the situation.
"It is just that time is an effortless enemy."