Ash's words were cut off as a massive blunt force hit him squarely on his chest.
The boot-shaped stain on his chest became apparent as John retracted his feet.
"Run! We must not waste Ash's sacrifice!"
No words left Ash's mouth.
He continued breathing calmly as if nothing had happened.
Ash just sat on the ground, his eyes blankly staring at the 5 people who had run and left him behind.
He saw Jane looking back at him multiple times, but tears flowed from her eyes once more as she looked at Ash for the last time before running forward with everything she had.
Never looking back again.
John was the guy who said that they would get through this together.
He was the one who said that even though they were powerless, they could survive and live together.
But in the end, it was John's foot that brought Ash to the ground.
Ash finally broke free of the stupor.
Ash's chest violently heaved up and down. His hands trembled, unable to hold down the feeling exploding in his chest.
"JOHNNN!!!"
"I WILL KILL YOU."
"I WILL-"
Ash's words were cut off once again as a green vine wrapped around his body.
He turned behind him and saw that the flowers on the wolf's back had grown a vine, capturing Ash in its grasp.
Ash trashed around, trying to free himself.
But it was useless.
His hands were tied by the vine, his whole body dragged away as if he weighed nothing more than paper.
Ash couldn't even do anything as the wolf bit his shoulder.
"ARGHH!!!"
The pain burned him. He could feel his blood leaving him. As more blood flowed out of the wound, his body surprisingly felt lighter and lighter.
'Help me… Please… Help… Me…'
He had been turned away every time he sought out help. This time, he wished- begged that someone would finally come to help him.
But John's face appeared in his mind.
The scene where John kicked him down replayed.
The faces of the three people who offered him a luxurious life appeared.
His classmates, his friends, and other people who had all been good to him before he turned out to be a null. They all replayed in Ash's head like a broken record.
As if trying to remind him.
'No one will come to help.'
As the words formed in his mind, solidifying as truth, and permeated throughout his whole body, Ash stopped wishing for help.
Looking at the wolf who didn't release his shoulder from its bite, Ash opened up his own mouth.
The wolf's face was basically right beside his own. He could reach it.
The next moment, the wolf squealed as Ash's teeth stabbed themselves into the wolf's neck.
The wolf released its bite, and the vine that trapped Ash's hands finally weakened, enabling Ash to forcefully break free.
But Ash wasn't done, though.
He forced his arms, even the bleeding one, to wrap around the wolf. His feet followed as they locked themselves on the wolf's body.
Just like how the wolf didn't stop, Ash also kept his mouth biting the wolf's neck.
He bit harder and harder until his teeth met each other.
And that was the moment Ash jerked his head, tearing the wolf's flesh apart.
Blood burst out of the wolf's neck.
The pain it felt was unbearable as it thrashed around, jumping and running everywhere to knock Ash off its body.
Ash held strong. Every single strength that he had left in his body, he used it to hold onto the wolf even tighter.
He opened his mouth and bit the wolf for the second time.
When the wolf's flesh filled his mouth, Ash pulled away, tearing more meat from the wolf's neck.
Ash repeated it again and again.
The wolf jumped around even more violently, almost knocking Ash over when it crashed itself into a tree trunk.
But Ash held strong. His body had become numb. His bleeding shoulder, the bruises, nothing registered in his mind.
There's nothing in his head now other than to keep his grip on the mutated wolf.
He only stopped when the wolf finally collapsed on the ground, its body unmoving as it had lost its life.
Ash finally released his grip.
He won. He was the one who remained standing.
He lived.
=======
The seizure finally stopped after minutes that felt like hours.
Ash could walk once more, but his body didn't get any better.
It had gotten worse instead.
Every step caused his joints to ache, and his head was barely able to look ahead. Each passing second, his body almost fell to the ground.
Even a zombie looked more alive than he was currently.
Every cell in his body screamed at him, begging him to just sit down and close his eyes.
But after everything, Ash refused to go down just like that.
Every hand that had turned him away, every foot that had kicked him down, Ash refused to give them the satisfaction of succeeding.
He limped deeper and deeper into the forest, not a single thought other than to move forward existed in his mind.
But then, he finally stopped.
His eyes locked onto a certain bush, saliva began pooling in his mouth.
Red, glowing berries filled the bush.
Ash didn't know what those berries were. But the thought that the berries looked so delicious, so refreshing, kept assaulting his mind.
The berries seemingly begged to be eaten.
Their constant pestering kicked everything else away from his mind.
Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat.
The thoughts overwhelmed him as Ash took a step closer to the berry bush.
The urges intensified.
'I haven't eaten anything ever since morning… My body hurts all over… A berry or two will help me regain my strength.'
Ash plucked a berry and popped it inside his mouth, and chewed.
The liquid inside burst out.
Ash's eyes turned wide. It was the most bitter berry he had ever tasted in his life.
He instantly spat the berry out of his mouth.
But the liquid had entered his body.
Liquid began pooling at the back of his mouth, forcing Ash to cough.
But when he did, he saw the liquid that came out of his mouth.
It was blood.
His heart began racing faster than when he fought the mutated wolf.
Before Ash could even think of what to do, he coughed blood once more.
His feet finally collapsed as he fell to the ground.
A small puddle of blood formed on the dirt right in front of his mouth.