Escaping

Jay gritted his teeth. He obviously didn't like the idea of abandoning his captain, but it was clear that Kanaria had to go back to the hill so that she could support them. 

"Kanaria. Do you hear me?!" Jay asked. To his surprise, Kanaria didn't reply. 

Soon, he heard rapid gunshots resounding across the area. It was definitely Kanaria using her gun.

Even Clovis could predict what was going on. "Jay!" 

"I know!" Jay rushed to the south, following the sound of the gunshot. Kanaria was probably too occupied to press the button to transmit her voice. It also meant that she was being cornered.

When he arrived, he found three bears attacking her. The bears were even more clever than the wolves. The first bear charged from the front, while the other two flanked her from both sides.

Kanaria also noticed Jay's figure in the distance as she heard, "Come to me,' through the radio.

Without hesitation, Kanaria aimed forward and shot the bear in front of her with all the bullets she had. 

The bear was covering its head and body with its strong arms. Its skin could actually block normal bullets.

The other two bears had to shift their direction a bit and chase after her, but that was when they saw Jay. 

When he was about to arrive, Kanaria stopped shooting, allowing Jay to finally approach the bear and slice its neck from the back.

"Oo—" The two bears looked quite shocked when they saw one of them dying. The shock turned into anger as the bears sped up. 

It didn't matter anymore. Kanaria rushed past the bear and regrouped with Jay, but instead of stopping these two bears, Jay started running as if he wanted Kanaria to follow him. 

"We have to help Clovis. He is fighting a Tier 1 bear by himself."

"What? A Tier 1? How did I miss it?" Kanaria's heart skipped a beat. It was her role to make sure that the group knew where they would be attacked. 

But then again, she didn't notice these three bears before, even though she had looked at the area with binoculars.

"Sleeping? No, hibernating? But…" Kanaria had no time to think about it. They had to help Clovis, but at the same time, they couldn't outrun these two bears. 

"You help Clovis. I will kill these two bears first."

Kanaria hesitated for a second before nodding her head. She ran toward Clovis's position before she found him slashing the bear's nose.

"!!!" Kanaria dropped her jaw to the ground. The bear was so tall, but Clovis was actually able to reach its nose. Then, she noticed the short sword that made it possible. 

*Roar!*

The bear tried to catch Clovis, but the latter was swinging around its neck. The short sword always came out before the bear could catch it. This kind of timing was only possible because Clovis was frustrated when the dire wolf bit his chain and prevented him from utilizing it. He refined his movement a bit more and allowed him to fight the Tier 1 bear to this extent. 

On the one hand, Kanaria could go around to hit the bear from behind, which was its weak point. On the other hand, the foot was right in front of her. 

Kanaria didn't hesitate to drop her rifle, letting it hang on her body, and pull out the high-caliber sniper rifle. She approached the right foot quietly and aimed at its knee. 

*Cezz!* 

The sound was suppressed, but it was still quite loud for both the bear and Clovis. At the same time, the bullet pierced through the bear's knee. Its power was so strong that some of the flesh came out of the hole like an explosion. 

*Roar!* The bear screamed in pain while falling on one knee.

Meanwhile, Clovis was quite surprised by Kanaria, who ended up losing his balance due to the bear's movement. Fortunately, the bear was in pain, so he could easily swing around the paw and stand on the bear's shoulder. 

Clovis stabbed the bear quite deep before jumping off the bear two meters at a time. It seemed that the bear could feel Clovis's steps as it hurriedly spun its body, causing its paw to smash a few trees into pieces. If Clovis took a single hit from that, he would definitely die.

Clovis hurriedly looped around the bear and saw Kanaria. "We have to go. Where is Jay?"

"He is still fighting the two bears that chased me earlier."

"We'll fetch him and go directly to the camp!" Clovis commanded while regrouping with Kanaria.

"Did something happen?" 

"I saw a cloud of dust coming in our direction. I'm afraid that the beasts in Tier 1 Territory have noticed us. We shouldn't be too reckless and retreat to the base." Clovis explained what he saw when he was on top of the bear. 

"Are you serious?" Kanaria gasped and turned around, ready to run with Clovis.

However, the bear's roar echoed once again as it slammed the ground and ripped it apart with its claws.

"Watch out!" Clovis hurriedly pushed Kanaria down with his body. The claws actually ripped apart the rock and released the rubble. If not for Clovis's quick reaction time, their heads would have been hit by some bigger rocks.

Kanaria looked at Clovis in shock, but the latter immediately stood up. 

"Are you alright? We have to run!"

"Y-yeah!" Kanaria hurriedly regained her composure and followed Clovis. The bear couldn't chase after them even though it saw them getting away. 

Clovis knew the reason for the bear's condition. "Thanks to you injuring its knee, it won't be able to chase after us. Although I don't know how those beasts are able to find us, we have to go to the base first and think about our next move."

"Mmhm." Kanaria let out a small groan, as if acknowledging his words, while enduring the slight pain that came from falling earlier. 

From what she could see, Clovis looked like a person who wanted a lot of money. She didn't know why he chased after the money. However, this incident made her realize that the money was still secondary compared to the safety of the group.

Clovis could, without hesitation, abandon the objective just to ensure the safety of the group. 

However, the bear hadn't given up yet. Its eyes were determined to kill Clovis and Kanaria. 

*Roar!*

The bear let out another sound, which caused some commotion in the forest. A series of roars filled the area. 

"Are you serious?" Clovis frowned. 

"The bear is calling the rest of the bears around this area." Kanaria looked to the right. "Clovis. Do you trust me?"

"Do you know the way?"

"I still remember the positions of those bears. As soon as we regroup with Jay, we have to make our way to the base as soon as possible or we will be completely surrounded by these bears." Kanaria nodded.

"Got it. We both will escort you."

"Don't worry about that. I am not so weak that I can't handle this. Though, it's going to be easier if you can help me pin the bears down. I will kill them in one shot." 

Clovis nodded in agreement. 

It only took them a minute to find Jay. It looked like he had injured both of them while maintaining his peak condition. Jay didn't want to use too much energy because he had to help Clovis after this.

However, the plan had changed. 

Clovis and Kanaria suddenly emerged from the trees behind him. Clovis struck the bear on the right with all his momentum and strength. He tried to cut down the bear, but the bear ended up overpowering him. Luckily, the sword was sharp enough to cut down the paw, but it still lost all its momentum and failed to cut down the bear. 

When the bear was too shocked by Clovis, Kanaria pointed her sniper rifle right at the bear's head. 

*Bang!*

The shot exploded the bear's head, killing it immediately. 

The other bear was shocked, but it was clashing with Jay. 

Seeing this opportunity, Clovis looped around and struck the bear's back from behind, killing it.

Now that the two bears were down, Clovis turned to Kanaria. "Lead the way. We're escaping."

Kanaria nodded with a serious expression as she began running to the left. Jay didn't understand what was going on, but it was clear that he should follow them. 

'Escaping? Why do we need to escape?' Jay couldn't help but look at the Tier 1 bear's location, thinking something must have gone wrong.

"There will be two bears coming from our front," warned Kanaria while recalling the positions of the bears before she descended the hill. 

Before engaging the bears, Clovis asked, "Kanaria. Do you know any path where we can get one minute, and that's not the main path to escape?" 

"Huh? Do you understand what you're asking? Do you know how precious one minute is in our situation?" Kanaria frowned.

"We need it to escape." Clovis's expression was serious as though this was the essential step if they really wanted to be safe. 

Kanaria gritted her teeth, recalling every single piece of information before saying, "To the left. We can go there for one minute, but we still need to kill the two bears in front of us."

"Got it." Clovis sped up and tossed the short swords at the bottom of the trunks before hiding behind another tree. When the bears came, he pulled the chain, tripping the bears. Still, it was quite painful due to the bear's momentum. "Kill them!"

Jay hurriedly slashed the falling bear while Kanaria shot its head.

After that, Clovis moved to the left according to Kanaria's instructions. 

"Every five seconds, you're going to shoot." Clovis suddenly gave a weird command, which actually made Kanaria understand his real intention. 

He wanted to trick the bears into thinking that they were going in this direction. After a few shots, they would change direction while the bears focused on this direction. 

'He has sharp eyes, a brilliant mind, and calmness in this situation. His fighting prowess is extremely high as well. Who is this man called Clovis? I can't recall any information about the heirs of a famous family called Clovis. Is he a secret weapon?' Kanaria was baffled by Clovis's ability because it was not at the level that a random explorer would possess at this level. He must have been trained by an expert explorer to reach this level. 

Unfortunately, this was not the time to do that. While it was true that they managed to fool the bears by using this method, they didn't realize that their trouble had just begun as their current destination was actually an even more dangerous place.