Unconscious Again

Ellis's eyes blinked open to a squint which slowly revealed a blanket of cold white surrounding him. The cold white surrounding him was snow. A thin layer of it covered most of his body. Ellis sat up from the ground slowly only to become dizzy and confused. As Ellis put his hand to his forehead, he tried to recall the previous events that had happened.

I was running from that snake and it was about to eat me just after I jumped.

Ellis opened his eyes the rest of the way and looked around the area he was laying in. He was just inside the narrow passageway that was only half the size of the Ice Naga, too small for it to fit through. Ellis swiveled his head around the area to get his bearings. In front of him was a winding narrow pathway with steep cliffs on either side that led farther up toward the peak of the mountain. Behind him was the frozen lake where the Ice Naga had chased him. The giant white snake was nowhere to be found now and the lake looked like it had refrozen over, leaving sharp sheets of ice protruding up out of the lake.

I guess I made it. How long was I out? I'm lucky I didn't freeze to death already; it must be because of the body of the Tower-Walker. For now, let's see what my HP is at.

Ellis quickly checked his HP and discovered that he only had 15% of his total HP remaining. If he had remained unconscious for another day, he would have died. His health was still ticking down 1 point at a time slowly reducing what little leftover HP he still had. In order to regain his lost HP, he was going to have to get warm and rest for a while. And in order to get warm, he was going to have to find something to burn. Right now he had no sticks or tinder in his backpack so he was going to have to look for it. Ellis pushed himself up from the ground and ventured up through the winding narrow path. He walked and searched, but after two hours of searching, he still hadn't found anything he could use for a fire. Ellis shivered and breathed out a puff of air that immediately turned to fog.

I'm not going to last much longer. I only half 12% of my HP left now. I need to find something to get warm fast.

As he walked up the narrowing path, he prayed that he didn't run into any monsters because if he did, he didn't know if he had the strength to fight them. Ellis rounded a corner and off in the distance he could see a single lone tree in a little out cove to the side.

I can chop that down and make a fire! I'll finally be warm!

Ellis used what little strength he had to jog up to the tree in front of him. The tree was pretty odd shaped Ellis noticed as he approached it. It had a thick truck but was pretty short and only had leaves covering the top of it, whereas the two thick branches protruding from either side were bare. But what did he know about trees anyway? When he was just a couple of steps in front of the tree the trunk began splitting down the middle starting from the bottom, making it about halfway up before it stopped. The right side of the split in the tree lifted up and stepped forward toward Ellis.

What the hell? Why is this tree moving?

Suddenly, the center of the tree split open revealing a spikey screaming face in the tree. The tree suddenly whipped one of its branches at Ellis who reacted as fast as he could given the situation. Ellis jumped up into the air, but it was slightly too late and the metal like branch crashed into his legs, knocking him to the ground. The tree then came stomping toward him with its toothy wooden mouth open.

Why do even the trees want to eat me?

Ellis groaned as he quickly pushed himself to his feet and backstepped away from the angry tree running at him. As he backstepped, he instinctively used Identify and found out the moving tree was called an Ironbark Evil Tree.

Ellis checked his HP and discovered it was at 9% now. He did not have much longer left; he really needed to warm up to heal and this tree monster was the only wood in sight. He barely had the energy to fight but his anima was full from being unconscious for who knows how long. To kill two birds with one stone Ellis raised his hand and quickly shot out a bolt of lightning at the monster intending to kill it and light a fire at the same time.

ZWOOH! KABOOM!

The top half of the tree suddenly exploded and splintered away leaving the other have smoldering. Ellis checked the monsters HP to see how much damage the attack had done.

[Ironbark Evil Tree]

[HP:980/5000]

Nice. It makes sense that a tree monster would be weak to lightning. I did most of its health with that strike. One more ought to do it.

Ellis raised his hand to attack again but he saw the Ironbark Evil Tree whip its tree branch arm at him, sending something flashing toward him. In his peripheral vision, he saw a cluster of whatever it was coming straight for his abdomen. He quickly dove out of the way as fast as his fatigued body would allow him to. As Ellis hit the ground and rolled up back to his feet, he felt a warmth spreading down his leg, then a second later he felt a searing pain in his thigh. He looked down and saw that sticking out from it was a large pointed wooden spike.

Damn it! I'm too weak to be able to dodge these attacks. All I gotta do is hit this thing one more time, but if it hits me again, I'm dead.

Ellis quickly raised his arm and to shoot a bolt of lightning at the monster in an attempt to not allow the monster any time to attack again, but just as he fired off the lightning bolt, it launched another volley of wooden spikes at him. After the lightning bolt had left his hand, Ellis sidestepped and intentionally fell backward to the ground hoping to narrowly avoid the spikes coming for him as he didn't have much energy to do any sophisticated movements.

Two of the three wooden spikes narrowly missed, but the last one scraped across Ellis's cheek, leaving a small cut. Ellis hit the ground as the tree exploded and it fell over dead in a blaze of fire. An extreme coldness came over Ellis, unlike any he had ever experienced before as he laid on the snowy ground staring at the burning monster in front of him. Ellis checked his HP as he laid on the ground. It was at 1% but probably wouldn't stay that way for much longer as he was still freezing, and his HP was still ticking down slowly.

Am I really going to die like this?

Ellis's eyes blinked slowly and became heavier as he began to lose consciousness.

No, I can't die here.

"ARRGH!"

Ellis grunted as he mustered the little strength had left and clawed his way toward the burning Ironbark Evil Tree in front of him. As he got closer and closer, he could feel his HP dropping rapidly.

I need warmth. I can't die here. I can't die here. As long as I can get to the fire.

Ellis's vision faded to black as he passed out in front of the burning pile of wood.