Chapter 72: Escape
"Fire! He is alone! We can suppress him with sheer numbers!"
I killed only two but the remaining Participant Killers are now on the highest alert on me.
"Kazuma, this is bad! We need to get out of here!" Blue said to me.
"I know, I am at a big disadvantage here."
This is a fight where I have a small chance of winning against them. Although I can mess them up, I don't think I can easily wipe them out. My magic is underdeveloped and if I recall my familiars, the girl on the camp will be all alone and vulnerable. My only way to survive is to screw them up a little bit before escaping. This has risk but the probability of surviving is high, therefore, I will choose this way.
I abandoned the idea of fighting them one on one. To stop their advances, I keep on conjuring fireballs and throws them randomly around them. I made sure that the leaves and trees won't burn and cause a forest fire. That is the least I want to happen.
The Participant killers did not manage to get into me since the flames on the ground are too strong and the smoke is getting thicker too. With the confusion underway on their ranks, I quickly slip away from their sight and escape using the grasses foliage and disappear.
…
I didn't bother hiding and waiting for them to discover me, I made my out of the area by using trees. With the tree branches being near almost to each other, jumping on them from each other is not a problem and they don't break that easily when stepped by a person, therefore, this is a perfect escape plan that won't leave a single trace on the ground.
"How did you manage to become a ninja Kazuma? Are you perhaps a ninja in your past life?!" Blue started talking.
"Idiot, with branches so close to each other, it isn't a problem to jump from tree to tree! If it was farther than this, I wouldn't bother this kind of trick and just run on the ground!"
There are occasional beasts that appear to surprise you while jumping from branch to branch but they don't pose much threat to me since I can just punch them once with my flaming hands. I am not sure I killed them but I made sure to knock them out.
To avoid the trace up of the enemies to my camp, I made a round trip back to my camp. When I arrived, the others are already eating lunch. Looks like they managed to kill a big monster while I am away. And I regretted it but I left the basilisk meat back there.
"Welcome back master!" Yuri said as she munched on a monster thigh.
"Keep them up for later, we need to get out of here, Yuri, carry the hostage. We will abandon the camp."
"Abandon the camp? Why would we abandon this campsite master? Is there a problem?"
"Yeah, killers might be tracking my whereabouts right now or maybe this hostage's trail. And from the looks of them, they are either going to kill or be a hooligan and sold their prisoners as slaves.
"You attracted those thugs?! What have you done?!" The girl shouted hearing that I encountered the Participant Killers.
"Did you really think I wanted them to track me down? I am just hunting for breakfast when they interrupted my hunt! Did you just thought I wanted to attract their filthy eyes? Now stop complaining because we are going now!"
"Why don't you just leave me be! You can just use me as a bait for you to escape!"
"Are you an idiot!? There is no way I will be leaving you to those bastards! I have read too many doujins that I already know what will happen to you if left here as bait! And that is not a good thing. Therefore, you need to stop complaining!"
"Doujins?"
"Anyways, Yuri, Yuto can you carry this woman?"
"Master, we are not a cargo vehicle. Carrying this nasty woman is something hard even for us!" Yuri complained. Yuto was about to say something but Yuri is covering his mouth.
"Master, I can do that. You don't have to worry about her!" Kon said as he proudly patted his chest.
"Huh? You can do it?"
"Don't you remember master? I can transfer to different forms whatever I want. I can carry her if I use my giant fox form!"
"Alright then, if that is good then I will leave the transportation of her to you. Anyways, Yuri, Yuto, store that food away. We can't afford to eat that here. We have to leave immediately.
The two nodded and quickly cast their spells to store the food away. I don't know how they did that but it is beneficial for us since I didn't manage to bring the dimensional bag.
Since I don't have many belongings when I arrive here in this place, I didn't need to bring anything to get away from that area. I can just abandon the place without any hard feelings.
After packing the necessary items, I signaled my familiars and started to vacate the place. I cast a mana scan and I was relieved that we left the place because after we left the area a few minutes later, a few figures that I can tell as males in their figures arrived on the area. They have weapons in their possession and they are similar to those men I faced earlier.
I didn't bother to think where we will be going. It is going to be a long ride for now and since the deadline before we return is still a few more weeks, it will not be something I can do. The only thing left for me to do is to survive as long as possible. This is not a training regime anymore and this is not some teamwork stuff that you can rely on other participants.
Although I am carrying a girl right now with us, that doesn't mean I trust her. She is still on her bindings while riding on the back of Kon. Escaping the Participant killers is one thing, but that doesn't mean we are already safe because the monsters in this mountain don't choose sides. Looks like I will be facing a few tough days ahead.