A short minute after the group began to make their way down, Rex felt multiple gazes on him. He covered his mouth with his cloak and softly spoke.
"Captain, I have bad news. We got spotted."
Everyone's body tensed, but no one made any large movements. They knew if he was informing them quietly, it was because they were only watching and not attacking, yet.
"Where?" Sol asked.
"All around us, at least 30. More keep entering my range of perception as we speak. They are all staying 200 meters away for now."
'For them to not attack immediately means they're waiting for something, likely reinforcements. In that case…'
Not planning to stick around for more orcs to surround them, Sol quietly whispered the plan.
"On my mark we run. I'll carry Nataly so we can go faster; Duncan is the next slowest, so the rest of us will match his pace."
While he was confident they could win against these orcs, they had the ticking time bomb of his spatial ring breaking. He had to keep a constant eye on it for any changes, and the transfer process wasn't instant either.
Nataly's cheeks reddened at the thought of being carried but held back on making any comments given the situation they were in. The rest of the squad gave light nods in response.
They continued with their normal pace as Sol didn't immediately give the signal. It was not until their group was halfway up a tall mountain when he suddenly stomped with his foot, causing the earth to rumble and reveal a tunnel he quickly made with [Terra Manipulation].
"Now!" he signaled.
"Eep!"
Nataly yelped as she was lifted and princess-carried by Sol. Though she was warned ahead of time, she couldn't help but be a little surprised at how suddenly it occurred. He ran into the tunnel with the rest of the squad following right behind him. Once they were all inside, he collapsed the entrance while expanding the tunnel until it reached the other side of the mountain.
The orcs who were watching from a distance realized they had been spotted and took action.
"Charge! We can't let them get away!"
The orcs split into two groups. The first went to where Sol collapsed the tunnel and began to open it with the help of their mages, while the rest circled the mountain.
While the orcs were removing the blockade, Sol and the squad had already emerged through the other side of the mountain. He chose a thin area in the mountain to minimize his mana consumption and so they could get back to running on open terrain. If he had the mana to spare, he would rather just make a tunnel that led directly outside the mountain range, but even if he did, the orcs would simply follow the tunnel behind him and eventually catch up.
When their entire squad left the tunnel, he collapsed the exit once more and turned to Rex.
"Rex, lead the way!"
"On it, Captain!"
Rex ran ahead as he kept track of all the orcs who were not only chasing after them but were also coming from all directions, including the ones they avoided getting here in the first place.
From his other spatial ring, Sol retrieved two communication gems and passed them to Nataly, who he was carrying.
"Try contacting the other two squads to see if they're in range!"
Nataly nodded and inserted mana into both gems, but after doing so for a few seconds, neither of them showed any reaction. Neither responded to their call as they were outside the gem's 100 mile range. Because their squad was given the direct route, that meant they arrived much sooner than either of them, but that also meant they wouldn't get any support anytime soon.
Sol saw this and mumbled, "We're on our own then. Keep going! We should cross the border in an hour!"
The squad continued to run, making much faster progress leaving than when they originally sneaked in. Because they were going as fast as possible, many orcs on patrol and on the lookout easily spotted them and tried to hinder their escape.
"Halt, humans!" yelled an orc that was followed by seven other orcs with weapons drawn. They stood in the way, ready to attack.
No one in the squad responded to their commands and instead continued charging straight towards them with their own weapons drawn.
Lapis stabbed forward towards two orcs. The spear stabbed straight through the first, and as it exited them, it turned and stabbed the other in one motion.
Rex swung his sword lightly, cutting the necks of two without any resistance.
Aron wasn't far behind as he followed up with a flying spinning kick, hitting two orcs squarely in the head. It wasn't enough to kill the two, but it knocked them out.
Duncan used his massive shield to slam the last orc, and even though the orc was a full head taller and twice the muscle mass, the shield slam crushed the poor orc.
Nataly and Sol were the only ones who didn't attack and weren't attacking unless forced to. Nataly needed time to cast spells, and on top of that, nature magic wasn't known for its speed. In the time she cast a spell, the fight would normally be over. For Sol, he had his hands full with Nataly, and he was trying to conserve his mana for if he needed to do any big plays with [Terra Manipulation].
Even without their participation, the small orc groups they encountered didn't stand a chance. Most were usually C-Rank, and the few B-Rank orcs they encountered were immediately taken down by Lapis. The most the orcs managed to do was slightly slow them down, but even the blizzard did a better job at that.
Sol found their relentlessness odd. 'They are throwing their lives away to slow us down by a few seconds. To what end?'
As the squad continued to run, they climbed and arrived at one of the higher plateaus in the mountain range. From there, they had a view of the Orna mountain range, and a few more mountains south, they could even see the northern forest of Crestelia. While a beautiful sight, there was only one problem with it: numerous orcs could be seen rushing towards them from multiple directions as they relentlessly pursued them.
Aron eagerly spoke, "A few more mountains and we're home free. Hopefully the orcs don't follow us into the kingdom."
"They shouldn't. The army would quickly mobilize to intercept them. The Kerman reinforcements to Chillton would also hold them off," Duncan assured him.
"Wait, why are the orcs no longer approaching?" Rex asked after noticing they had all suddenly begun to either retreat or spectate from a distance. He scanned the surroundings once more and found one orc two mountains away that was not retreating.
Alarm bells rang in his head when he saw the faraway orc, and even without skills like [Analysis] to confirm his suspicions, he immediately called out.
"They sent an A-Ranker after us!"
Just as he yelled that, a massive swirl of mana began to gather on the faraway mountain. Snow and ice swirled like a tornado, growing and growing. When the tornado dispersed, a massive hundred foot tall snow giant stood where the orc once was and roared, causing avalanches throughout the mountain range.
The squad felt a rising sense of dread. Knowing the might of A-Rankers firsthand, Sol immediately yelled, "Run!"