Banyan Tree

He had been drunk on violence, but Ash's mind was as clear as a lake now.

The stag, the enemy that had taken him and his doppelganger, and a surprise attack together to take down before, had now grown even stronger.

It grew even taller, more humongous. 

All the damage that he did with the crimson vines seemed to mean nothing.

It just stood back up as good as new. Even better.

If he could barely contain the stag before with his thorny vines and his doppelganger, then Ash didn't doubt that he didn't have any chance now.

Ash felt something inside the huge body of the stag, but he couldn't figure out what his crimson vines had touched.

'It should be what gave the stag the power to keep regenerating damage to its body, or even gave it the power to control the forest…

But I don't know what it was…'

Without waiting for another attack, Ash turned his body and bolted out of the place.

He couldn't run back to the outskirts of the forest since the stag was in that direction. He was forced to go even deeper into the forest.

He might meet an even more dangerous creature inside, but Ash was willing to risk it.

The stag was clearly set out to kill him.

If he met another creature, despite being stronger, it wouldn't be dead set on taking his life.

He spammed twitchstep several times, dropping his mana to dangerous levels.

He might have had the benevolent god's blessing, but Ash wasn't able to infinitely use his ability either.

The amount of mana he had depended on the quantity and quality of diseases he had, and he had quite an amount.

He had 8 tier 1 diseases and 3 tier 2 diseases. 

Which gave him quite a freedom in casting his tier 1 abilities for tens of times.

But the fight with the stag had taken a toll on him.

If he even had the sliver of thought to try and fight the enhanced stag, then he would surely turn either into fertilizer for the forest or the stag's nutrition.

He couldn't even take the stag on with his mana still full, let alone now.

Ash managed to get some distance between himself and the stag with him spamming his movement ability, but he wasn't out of danger yet.

With a bigger body, the stag moved even faster than before. 

Crossing more than 10 meters forward in a single jump.

Which was about 3 times the speed Ash was capable of moving with his toxic surge.

He activated his new berserk ability, which doubled his strength once more.

Barely giving him the speed to still go a little slower than the stag.

But the stag's speed wasn't the only thing that Ash needed to deal with to survive.

As if on steroids, the stag didn't need to charge its ability anymore.

With just its eyes glowing for a split second, the forest bent to its will.

More vines grew. More roots woke up from their slumber. 

The weeds beneath his feet came to life.

Every single flora in the forest ground awakened to answer the stag's call.

Ash was forced to use his twitchstep even more, moving much further with the berserker ability stacked on top of it.

But the attacks kept coming.

He was forced to return to swinging between the trees. Avoiding the ground as if it were made out of lava.

He had passed several creatures. The bears that attacked the carnivorous trees, even more wolves with their bodies bigger than Ash's, and even more carnivorous trees.

Which made him have to be wary of placing his vines to swing from.

Ash's presence alerted those creatures. More than several attacks from them had flown towards Ash.

But when they saw what followed behind him, they all scattered everywhere. 

Going anywhere as long as they weren't near the vine stag.

Ash mana kept lowering even further. 

He had somehow managed to keep the status quo of the distance between himself and the stag by running in a zig zag, however.

With each passing second, more vines, roots, and weeds were out to get him.

Forcing Ash to keep using his twitchstep even though his mana had been reduced to a critical level.

But no matter how many attacks he dodged. The many turns he took. The stag was hellbent on getting to him.

'I can't keep this going.'

He had been running in circles for minutes now. Even his boosted endurance had started to dwindle down.

He even mistimed his twitchstep, causing him to trip on a vine.

His head almost cracked into pieces if he didn't change his trajectory at the last second using his vines.

His mana was almost empty. His focus was barely keeping up with the constant harassment he received.

'There must be something I can do…'

Ash went around for another lap before he realized something.

Whenever he got to a certain part of the forest, the flora had actually stopped attacking him.

As if in that certain part of the forest, they didn't bend to the stag's command.

He used his last bits of mana to swing with his vines and used his twitch step to go to that area.

Praying to the benevolent god that whatever he felt before wasn't just his imagination.

Ash landed on the ground.

His feet kept moving as fast as they could to prepare for more attacks.

But even after two seconds, they never came.

His guess was correct.

'He can't control the vines and roots in this area!'

The flora had stopped harassing him, but the stag kept running towards him.

As if knowing something that Ash didn't, the stag grunted one more, moving even faster when it saw where Ash had gone to.

Ash didn't even notice this.

He just ran and ran. 

He had deactivated his steelbark to make himself lighter. His berserk ability had run out of time. He didn't even have enough mana to swing with his vines anymore.

The only thing he could rely on now was his feet. 

No matter how feeble and weak his human feet were, Ash could only depend on them.

He went past dozens of trees, jumping over large roots, and his eyes finally fell upon an unfamiliar sight in the forest.

Bathed in moonlight, so bright that it looked like the moon's favorite child, was a large clearing.

And in the middle of the clearing, a gigantic banyan tree casts its shadow, seemingly absorbing all the moonlight for itself.

Ash didn't know what he heck the tree was or whether it could save him from the stag.

But he knew for sure that the area around here refused to bend to the stag's will.

With nothing else left in his arsenal, Ash jumped for one last time.

He stepped onto the clearing, savoring the moonlight enveloping his body.

It felt so calm, even the cold night wind felt comforting in here.

As if entranced, Ash closed his eyes and took a deep, long breath.

There's this feeling around him that filled his being. Just like the time when he first received the benevolent god's blessing.

Ash wished to be trapped in this feeling forever, but a grunt woke him up.

Standing right at the edge of the clearing was the stag.

Ash's heart began racing as the creature was only a few meters away from him.

It would only take the stag half a step to reach him.

His mind screamed at him to run, but his eyes noticed a change.

The stag wasn't chasing him anymore.

It just stood there, right at the edge of the clearing and the wall of trees.

Its glowing eyes still wished him death, but the stag didn't advance.

It just stared at Ash for a whole minute and did nothing.

At last, the stag glanced at the huge banyan tree for one last time before turning its back and returning to the forest.

Ash's feet finally buckled. His eyes stared into the dark, empty night sky.

'I survived…'