Escape!

Colt sprinted through the forest with an icy glint in his eyes as he glared at Donna. "You just had to! Didn't you?"

"Of course! I couldn't help myself. They were shouting about looking for a pair of ugly girls with a guy. My tongue just slipped!" Donna moaned as her brows lowered into a frown, as her cheeks reddened.

"Stop arguing, you two!" Beans coughed as she cut in to their argument while attempting to catch her breath. "We still have to lose them!"

"I don't think there's much hope of that happening now." Colt said, as he fixed his glare on Donna again.

The trio surged onwards with heavy feet as the members of Kaleidoscope attempted to catch up to them. Their rasping voices yelled at Colt's group for them to stop and face them, but Colt just snorted in reply. 'You want me to stand still and wait for death? Dream on!'

A tree to their right side threw splinters everywhere as the enemy struck it with a spell. Colt cursed under his breath as his eyes darted to the hole that was created as they passed by. Colt inhaled sharply as he wondered how much damage that spell could have done if it had hit one of them.

Colt stomped the ground and came to a halt as he raised his shield. In the next moment, a golden arrow slammed into it. The force behind the projectile made his arm feel numb, but something else caught his attention.

[-4 HP]

The women heard air being inhaled sharply as Colt spun on his heels to chase after them. Donna frowned when she saw the grim expression upon Exile's face. It told her everything that she needed to know about their pursuers. After all, he had shrugged off tens of attacks from the Lost Souls as if they were nothing.

For Exile to appear concerned about receiving a single attack, well, that meant that they were in deep water. Donna's face cramped as she pushed herself to run at her full speed. Since it had come to this, it was definitely better to leave Exile behind and escape with Beans.

"Come on!" Donna made a point of staring in Beans' direction as she dealt with the lump in her throat.

Beans bit her lower lip as she glanced between Exile and Donna. Her moment of hesitation caused Colt to clench his fists as he waited for her decision.

"I'm sorry…" Beans' lips trembled before she ran off to catch up with Donna.

Colt gritted his teeth as his eyes squinted at their departing backs. They had left him behind to face Kaleidoscope on his own. Colt clenched his shield tightly as he glanced around for anything that could help him. However, to his dismay, there was nothing that looked promising.

Colt turned red in the face as he slowly accepted that there was no way out of this situation for him. The best he could do was attempt to take as many of them with him as he could. However, he failed to notice that he had just misplaced his footing! His boot connected with a rock and sent him tumbling to the ground. Colt groaned as he hit his head, then felt a stinging pain on his arm.

Frustrated voices entered his hearing from somewhere above and his heart felt like it was beating nonstop. His palms were sweaty as he tried to get his bearings. It appeared as though he had fallen down a hidden slope because of the way the layout of the land was.

Colt's eyes bulged out of his head as he realised it had given him the best chance that he was ever going to get! He panted heavily as he crawled through the dirt to conceal himself between several large boulders. If luck was on his side, then Kaleidoscope would pass right by without knowing what had happened.

"Over here! Wait! Where did he go?"

"You didn't lose him, did you?"

"Damn it! Go after the girls! He might have used a spell to catch up with them!"

A sharp sensation of pain rushed through Colt's palm from clenching the rock in front of him too tightly. He finally allowed himself to heave a sigh of relief as the muffled shouting quickly moved away from his position. 'I guess they're the girls' problem now.'

Colt felt his veins popping out on his face as he thought about them. 'They better hope I don't run into them again. I swear I'll hack them to pieces!' He waited for a few minutes just to be safe before he hobbled out into the open. Colt clambered up the slope, using the rocks jutting out of the ground for support.

He glanced around at the now empty forest surrounding him. 'Valheim should be in that direction.' Colt had found out the direction by reviewing the path they had taken and comparing it with his memories of his view from on the mountain. He felt like he was on cloud nine when he realised that there should no longer be any obstacles between him and his goal.

'There's just one more thing to take care of…' Colt called up the Party interface in his mind. With a broad grin on his face, he selected the option to leave the Party. After confirming his selection, he set off at top speed through the forest.

'I wish I could be there to see the look on their faces when Kaleidoscope catches up to them.' Colt snorted before laughing merrily. 'They should be able to keep them busy for a while. I'll need to lie low once I turn this quest in. But where would I go?'

Colt's mind wandered to several issues that he would have to take care of. For example, finding reliable Party members and a safe place to rest. A frown crossed his face as he wondered if he should check in with Ania. Maybe he could ask her to offer some useful items. That was what followers were for, right?