Before long, the attackers lost their courage and became too frightened to even poke their heads out of cover. They had seen some of their people getting a hole in their heads as soon as they tried to peek at the enemy. No one wanted to suffer the same kind of death that didn't even allow them enough time to recognize how they died.
Since, the enemies weren't giving him any chances, Zach figured that it was time to make a run. Before enemy reinforcements came in, he had to distance himself from the enemy as much as possible. His and Luna's survival depended on it.
Luna waited for Zach in the exact same place that he had left her. Although the injuries had left her weak, Luna still wasn't made of glass. Her heart burned with fury at those who wanted to enslave her and were currently trying to harm the one person who had tried to help her. She wanted to burn these humans to ashes if only she was in her peal condition.
"We need to move, can you hold on for a bit longer? We need to be fast if we want to put some distance between us before they catch on to what we are doing." Zach asked Luna in a low voice that suggested that he wanted to get out of here in a low key manner without alerting anyone else.
Luna clenched her fists and put on a determined expression on her face. She looked Zach in the eyes with confidence and nodded her head vigorously.
"That's good. We are going to make a run for it. If someone comes in our way, shower them with firepower and break through no matter what." Zach had to explain the situation and his intentions clearly to Luna who seemed a little na?ve to him.
Zach grabbed her hand and dashed out of their hiding place towards the location where he had killed one of the attackers earlier. The gap looked very appealing to someone like him who had already memorized the positions of the enemies.
Running at the fastest speed that he could muster while dragging Luna behind him, Zach cautiously observed everything in his field of vision in order to react to any enemy that tried to pull a surprise attack. Zach preferred to be ready for any event. He hated it when things began to get out of his control and he took enemy surprises as his own failure to anticipate the attack.
It didn't take him long to breach the perimeter that the attackers had previously set up. But something at the back of his mind caused him to go into full alert. Not a single enemy had attacked him from the back as he had expected. Either the enemies were terrified past the point of no return or there was something else brewing around him.
Zach was doubtful but he continued to run without looking back since the path ahead seemed to be clear. Luna tried to steady her heavy breath as she tried to follow in his footsteps as best as she could.
Zach of course knew how difficult it was for the succubus to move so much in her condition since he had treated her injuries in the first place but he couldn't allow her to lag behind him even a little, not when he wasn't sure about the current situation.
"Stay alert, something doesn't feel right. Don't put your guard down just because we escaped past the encirclement." Zach increased his speed slightly forcing Luna to catch up to him.
Luna who had a relieved expression on her face was forcefully pulled out of her fantasies. She couldn't help but feel that Zach was being overly cautious but she had no choice but to follow after him.
"LOOK OUT!!" Zach shouted as soon as he saw the slightest movement in his field of view.
A moment later, a barrage of arrows came at the escaping duo from different directions. Zach pulled on Luna and took cover behind another giant tree before taking aim with his rifle.
The earlier arrows had already revealed the locations of the enemies to Zach as he aimed his rifle in the direction of one of the archers before moving out of cover. As expected the corner of his elbow was visible from behind the tree where the archer was hiding.
Zach didn't waste a single moment and fired his rifle. The bullet tore through the arm bone as a piercing shriek echoed in the forest. Had he been closer, Zach would have been able to hear the sound of the bones crunching like a cracker.
Zach carefully aimed the rifle and waited for someone to make the mistake of leaving cover but not a single one did.
Zach called out to Luna and started running towards the injured attacker's location. Based on his earlier assessment, he had been surrounded from all the directions except the direction that he had come from and the direction in which the fallen archer laid.
The gap between the injured archer and the adjacent attacker was wide enough for the two of them to escape before being attacked. Moreover, the trees would help them block most of the attacks, giving them a chance to escape undetected.
When they were close enough to the fallen archer, Zach warned Luna to be careful. Luna readied her flames to counter attack as soon as they moved past his hiding place.
Zach's rifle was already aiming at the location where he had shot the archer previously. He moved towards the position while aiming while keeping Luna behind him just in case someone popped out to attack them.
It wasn't long before the panting silhouette of the injured archer with outstretched arms appeared in his scope; Zach pulled the trigger with barely any time lapse in between. But even that wasn't fast enough to stop the archer from releasing the last of his arrows towards Zach. The injured archer had been aiming the bow with a notched arrow in their direction quite similar to what Zach himself had done.
The bullet from Zach's rifle had hit the target first which twisted the aim somewhat and the arrow swooshed past Zach harmlessly.
"AAaahhh" Zach heard the loud scream that had come from behind him and for a moment he froze. He had failed to keep Luna safe during the confrontation.
A yellowish red flame was dancing around her hands but it was lackluster compared to the one she had been using while fighting the attackers before.
His eyes went from the flame dancing around her hands to the arrow that was currently lodged inside her right thigh. Panic stricken he rushed towards the girl in a single leap.
He dragged her behind a nearby tree for cover in order to take a look at her wound that was slowly oozing blood. She had been weak to begin with and the blood loss was causing her vision to swim.
Zach broke off the arrow from the part that was visible outside her thigh instead of trying to pull it out from the root. Pulling out the arrow would have caused her to bleed out before they even managed to escape past the encirclement of the enemies.
"Hold it in for a while longer. I am going to carry you out of here. Just try to bear with it for a little bit more. We will be out of here soon." Zach tried to console the girl as much as he could after seeing the tears forming at the edge of her eyes from the pain that she was going through.
"Hearing the soothing tone and the worry hidden in his voice helped Luna calm down a little. Even though the pierced portion of her thigh was throbbing painfully; she felt better knowing that Zach wouldn't leave her behind to escape alone.
With her cooperation, Zach managed to carry her on his back and using a rope in his backpack, he tied her carefully to himself. The close physical contact forced the two heavy but soft lumps pressing against his back to bend out of shape. Zach didn't even have time to feel Luna's huge assets that were about to burst out of her tight clothes.
He was too occupied trying to read the system message in bold red that was blocking his view of the front to be wondering about the size and current shape of Luna's bust pressed against his back.