Thane backed up, reaching towards Kayden, and hefted him up on his back.
"Hey bud, I don't mean to disturb your nap but now's a really good time to wake up," Thane said under the strain and exhaustion.
Thane looked around him but it didn't matter, every tree, plant, bushel, or gathering of leaves seemed to wave and suffer as though responding to the Blood Vine.
Thane was unsure of where to place his foot, how to move, where to go, he doubted himself to survive, he wasn't even sure who he was anymore, he sighed inwardly deeply.
"If I'm going to die with a grown man napping on my back, I might as well make it as fun as when I visited the brothel for the first time," he said to himself, smiling sheepishly, he felt a new vigor course through him, that if he could survive just one more time, just once, then maybe he would pay the whore he visited last, in his defense she was done her job a little too well that Thane had forgotten where he had left his purse.
"This is going to hurt a bit" he whispered but not to himself, Thane released his cultivation once more, sending shockwaves through the ground, breaking some ice in the process.
He formed arua at his feet, the type that wouldn't let him slip or fall, he needed to be sure-footed for what he saw in front of him, to his dismay, the forest kept rising and rising, covering up the light that entered into the forest.
"Here goes nothing," he said then blasted off at blinding speed, his goal was to reach the river banks before the monster could catch up to him, he reckoned he still had about five kilometers before he would reach there but he couldn't stop.
He was inclined to believe the bluff from the Blood Vine but that didn't mean he would abandon his one and only hope of survival. Without pause he jumped off the sides of the trees that shook and lashed at him, branches bent at weird unnatural angles just to latch onto him, to grab his feet but he pushed on.
His fetter never touched the ground as he moved, the problem was how disorienting this all was, it was his first time doing such maneuvers in mid-air, dodging vines shooting at him, avoiding webs or roots and branches that blocked his path.
He thought that all was hard enough until the branches began rushing after him in Ernest, one latched unto his feet, tightly holding his ankle in place while others came from above, it felt as though the forest itself was closing in on him.
Regardless, Thane forced himself to jump, Kayden's life was in his hands after all, he couldn't afford to fail, he skinned his ankles greatly as he ripped off parts of his skin in an attempt to escape, he gritted his teeth at the pain while more vines latched at him mid-air.
He tried his best to dodge them all but it was simply impossible, one lashed at his left eye drawing blood immediately, while another lashed at his back but thankfully Kayden was on his back.
Thane fell to the ground with a bloodied eye, he couldn't see anymore with it and closed his left eye shut, now he had just an eye to navigate through the forest with, the roots on the ground moved slightly, and Thane jumped purely on reflex as the roots beneath him formed a trap that would have bitten through his bones.
While in the air he hadn't seen a branch move with blinding speed, smashing into his blindside, breaking his arm in the process, and sending him flying through the air, Thane felt dazed and shaken, his blood strewn across the forest as he flew face first into a tree, he felt his ribs cage burst in pain as his ribs broke and pierced his lungs.
Kayden fell off his back and so did he from the tree, they both fell unto the snow, laying by each other's side, one conscious while the other barely held onto his.
"Uuurgh" Thane croaked like a dying frog.
"No more brothels for me Kayden, no more hot wine for you either" he struggled to speak, blood foamed at his mouth as he spoke, he tried moving about but felt intense pain as his ribs stabbed harder into his lungs, he coughed up more blood and decided to simply lay there.
It was over, simply over and there was nothing he could do about it, he tried reaching over to Kayden to hold onto him, to protect him however he could one last time, to keep his oath till the very end but then he just realized that his broken arm couldn't move a muscle, it lay at an odd angle, twisted in a way he was too tired to understand.
His vision dimmed greatly as he tried to focus on his environment, but there was only so much he could do, he looked up above him as it looked like the trees were getting closer.
"Fools" a voice chuckled from the depths of the forest, Thane thought he was imagining things, he was already losing consciousness and now voices were talking to him.
"Help?" He croaked out but he knew none would come, not in this freezing land, while he lay under the canopy of trees that slowly descended on him, but he looked beyond that, into the skies, they looked unnatural, dark, and ominous.
It cleared his head slightly but that only made his pain more evident as he noticed just how dire his situation was, he wasn't imagining it, vines and branches reached out to the both of them, curling their tendrils around both their bodies, Thane was too weak to refuse, neither did he have the strength in him to escape.
The vines wrapped themselves around him tightly, he screamed in pain as his ribs dug even deeper into his lungs, his broken arm suffering being broken even more, the grip at which the vine held him too tight.
So much that he couldn't breathe so he just held his breath as he was gently pulled up by the vines, he looked to his side as Kayden was also being lifted up at the same pace as he was, the taste of being utterly weak made his mouth extremely sour as he held onto his dear life, the vine kept tightening itself more and more.
At that point, blood kept flowing from Thane's mouth at a steady pace, but he held on for as long as he could, he knew he was nearly his limit, he was so very close to being snapped in two, but alas he had one broken arm, one blinded eye, a punctured lung with broken ribs and a properly flayed ankle.
He could do nothing but look at the ominous skies in all their glory, how they twisted and turned, coming downwards towards his direction or he was just imagining things.
He gave a last look towards his friend Kayden but was surprised to see Kayden awake, but not completely awake, his eyes shone bright blue as he arched his back as though resisting something or someone, the heavens shook slightly and for a brief moment, time itself paused.