We moved down the tunnel in silence. It was so narrow that my shoulder plates scraped along the walls on either side, which forced me into an odd, diagonal walk as we moved further from the main building.

After a few minutes, we reached another door. Anne opened this in a similar manner to the first and revealed a set of stairs. After she had moved up and opened the hatch, we stepped out into a small hut.

“So, what now?” The bandit king turned to Anne after he looked around the room. “I’m not used to running away, maybe your friend could-”

“Be quiet.” Anne stamped on his foot before she turned to me. “Rook, you know the area better than I do. We’re near the eastern exit, any suggestions?”

“Uh, I haven’t been in the camp too long. I came in from the south, so I only know that area.” The bandit king opened his mouth to speak, but Anne shut him up with another glare before I continued. “We do have one thing we need to do first, though.”

“What's that?” Anne peered out of a narrow window, as though she expected someone to walk in on our meeting at any second. “You wanted us to be stealthy before, don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind now.”

“No, but Clive has tricked some villagers into joining the bandits. They’re together at the southern barracks from what he said, but he’ll take his anger out on them if we leave them behind.” I rubbed my forehead as I contemplated the few options we had. “Clive will be hunting for all of us soon, but he might not have got the call out yet.”

“So, what’s the plan?” The bandit king reached behind his head and stroked the huge battle-axe tied to his back. “Do you want me to distract him for you, kid?”

“No, I want the opposite.” I pulled the map out of my inventory and placed it on a nearby table. “Anne, where is the village on this? Please be exact.”

“Here.” She pointed at the area to the southeast. “But we wouldn’t be able to hold there for long if that’s the plan.”

“That’s fine.” I waved her off and placed my finger on a point not too far to the right of the village. “You just need to get the prisoners out of the barracks and get them to here. Pass by the village and tell the leader I sent you. It’s up to you how you persuade them to leave.”

“What about you?” The bandit king frowned as he stared at the map. His face had scrunched up as he listened to our conversation, as though the fact we hadn’t openly attacked Clive yet was painful to him.

“I’ll join you later.” I smiled and opened a nearby door. “You two set off in five minutes, there shouldn’t be too much of an issue for you to get them out after that.”

I jumped out of the door before they could question me any further. Anne trusted me due to my link with Claire, so she should follow through on the plan. Her friend was more of a concern, but it was her problem to keep him in line now.

Several people noticed me as I swaggered onto the main street. They stopped and stared as they saw my armour. Compared to the rough and ready leather and mail the bandits wore, my set was at a legendary level.

I focused on the lock that held the gate closed. It was bulky, huge enough to hold up against a battering ram. If something went wrong with it, most of the bandits would have to move through the side exits.

So I locked up the mechanism with Transmutation.

It was relatively easy. Only a few bolts had to be worn down before the whole thing collapsed into a hunk of useless metal. Externally it didn’t change, but when they tried to unlock it…

That should do it. Now for the difficult part.

I moved closer to the exit, which wasn’t too far as Anne had suggested. As the crowd gathered behind me, I focused my energy and jumped up onto a cart by the gate. As they watched me in confusion, I took a deep breath.

“CLIVE! I have something you want!”

My yell echoed over the crowd. I didn’t have to wait too long before I got the response.

“You! You stole my armour?!” Clive bellowed as appeared at the far end of the street. “I was going to leave you alive, but I’ve changed my mind. Take him down!”

The bandits stared at me in confusion before they reached for their weapons. It would only take a second before the cart under me was demolished by their attacks, so I had to move quick.

“I don’t think so, Clive. Your friend has something he wants to say to you.” I grinned and clicked my fingers. Claire’s trap, which had taken a quarter of an hour to set, sprung into action. A dull thump rang out across the camp as Clive’s office collapsed, along with several nearby rooms.

“What?!” Clive span around to face the central compound. He knew that the Bandit King was in there, so the chances of him making use of my escape as a distraction were high.

“Buffed Strike!”

My ability empowered me and launched me to the top of the gate. Two bandits tried to stop me, but I tripped the pair and chucked them down from the wall. They landed on a nearby roof, but they wouldn’t be able to follow in time.

“See ya, Clive!”

I left one final taunt as I jumped down from the wall. It was a large distance, but I rolled to absorb most of the impact. My escape from the camp itself was completed, but several arrows zipped by my head as I dashed into the forest.

The gate behind me rocked as the horde inside pushed against it. The lock failed to open due to my tinkering, which would give me a significant lead on most of the bandits, but some weren’t constrained by that.

Several adventurers copied me as they leapt over the wall. I had expected more to do so, but the actual number of followers was lower than expected.

“Well, not many people can use their abilities as easily as you.” Rose spoke up to ease my confusion “Even at master level, such control would be impossible for most people. Abilities level up faster in combat, but that also means people can’t experiment with them as much as you did.”

Why the hell did you wait till now to tell me that? I shot back at her internally, as I had no energy to waste on speaking.

“It didn’t seem important, and it would have distracted you from mastering the ability. You damaged your legs the first time you used it, so I was going to warn you, but you’ve got the hang of it after your year of training.”

Next time, just tell me about this stuff.

I ran through the forest at full speed. My buffs kept me ahead of the adventurers, even though their class’s major advantage was speed. My pursuers had not passed their second advancement, so they had little chance to catch me while my buffs lasted.

I ran for two more minutes before the duration ran out, so I applied them once more. the Rage buffs didn’t have any application outside of combat, so I held back on those for the time being. As they were all at the basic level, it didn’t make sense to apply them. I did consider the dexterity buff, but it had a similar issue. Low duration, high cost. As I ran over the various issues in my mind, Clair spoke in an attempt to cheer me on.

‘You’re doing well, for a Supporter. Most of them would be next to useless at your level, which makes it hard for them to get into groups. Once they’ve ranked up their abilities, they become a big advantage... It’s just that most of them don’t get there.’

I nodded in response to her encouragement. The master rank of my abilities was stronger than I had expected. Even with the lower base stats of a Supporter, I could put up a fight against a direct combat class. The issue lay in the amount of mana each buff took to cast.

By the time I had enough mana to cast them efficiently, their use would be limited. They increased their specific stats by a set amount, and the overall percentage increase would lower as my base strength and speed increased. That explained why most Supporters didn’t bother with their basic abilities past a certain point, but it didn’t help my situation.

The adventurers behind me occasionally paused as they threw various ranged weapons at me. These attacks were on a different level compared to the traps in the corridor. If I trusted my armour to stop them, I would end up with a dagger in my back.

Dodging the attacks slowed me a little, but not enough for them to catch up. They kept pace with me, but the main issue was where I wanted to go.

The village lay to my left, which meant I was taking a long loop to reach it. I tried to keep it from being too obvious, but it wouldn’t be too long before they figured it out. At that point, they would send someone to cut me off.

Claire, how many of them are following me?

‘Three close, five far.’ Claire’s response was quick and to the point. Their numbers were just above what I could deal with. My first plan, which was to turn back and take them down, was dismissed instantly. The only other options would be to keep up with my current escape route, or find some way to lose them.

Claire… how quickly can you grow yourself to around two metres?

‘It would take about a minute. What’s your plan?’

I didn’t answer straight away as I searched the area in front of me. My plan would only work as a temporary measure, but it would be enough to create some space. If those following were higher level, I wouldn’t have even tried it… but it was worth a short.

I’ll throw you as far as I can. When you land, make yourself as large as possible and wait for me. When I get close… jump on me.

‘Wait, wha-’

I plucked Claire from my shoulder and tossed her with all my strength. I even added my Buffed Strike to the throw, though I spoke the words as quietly as possible. After she landed, I dropped a small piece of ore from my inventory and grabbed it from the air.

“Get back!” I yelled as I tossed it at one of my pursuers. He hadn’t expected the shift, so the rock caught him in the centre of his chest. He was knocked from his feet by the blow as his two comrades paused for a moment as they stared at me in shock.

I turned back and ran towards Claire’s landing spot. The move had taken out one the adventurers, but it wouldn’t work again. I had a large amount of ore to spare, but it still hurt to toss them out. Each one was a collection of the time and effort I had spent to process the materials back in the dungeon.

But the time I gained should help Claire. She could create a large form, but it was still impossible for her to control it past a certain point. We reached the spot a minute later as the pursuers paused once more to attack me from range.

Now!

They watched in horror as a slime queen appeared from the undergrowth. I turned to face them to add to the illusion as I crashed into Claire. The slime seeped through my armour and burned my skin as I sunk into it, but I ignored that as I grabbed Claire’s core and jumped out of the far side.

The slime collapsed as I removed its controller. Using a thick covering of trees, I dashed into some undergrowth and ducked down. My speed was lower, but they would easily spot me if I continued my mad dash.

The adventurers were terrified by the appearance of what would be a boss monster to them. They turned and sprinted away as soon as Claire had appeared, but I still didn’t trust they had gone forever. All it would take was for one of them to glance back and notice that the slime was collapsing, and they would pick up on my little trick.

But the distraction gave me time to make enough space before I set off at full speed once more. I looped to the left towards the village with a grin on my face. Claire controlled the few bits of slime in my armour to slip out of the cracks, after which she moved back to my shoulder.

‘I need to rest. Give me a shout if you need me~’

Her voice trailed off in my mind as the core on my shoulder dimmed. For a second I thought she might have faded away, but I could still feel the faint glimmer of her soul through our link. She wasn’t dead, she had just gone into a deep sleep.

We had escaped, but she had sacrificed a lot of her energy.

It didn’t take me too long to spot the village in the distance, but what I saw left me shocked. It was under attack by a large group of cloaked fighters, backed up by a tall man in a burnt and scarred mask.

Is that… Ray?