How To Survive In A Isekai World [On Break]

Groups of men swarmed out of the camp towards the southwest. They all carried torches with them and looked out for any small children. They didn't know in which specific direction the thieves had fled in, so they spread in a fan-like shape to cover a bigger area.

From a distance they may have seemed calm and concentrated while working on their tasks, but if someone had approached them and looked at their faces, the only thing that could be clearly seen was fear! Blank fear!

Their Boss had alarmed all the people inside the camp in the middle of the night, so the bandits were sure that something was definitly wrong. They were first informed about children that had broken into his mansion and stolen some important belongings of his. It sounded ridiculous, but nobody dared to voice out this opinion. Who in their right mind would have enough courage to approach someone like their Boss? Someone with a death-wish maybe!

If people hadn't been serious about this search in the beginning, they were after the Boss revealed the guards at the west entrance! They were all beaten black and blue, blood flowing out of their bodies, some had even limbs chopped off and they barely held on to their lives!

But what made their hearts turn freezing cold and made them shiver even now, far away from the camp was ... his brutal verdict!

The children had entered and left the camp from the west while the guards on duty just dozed off!

And their punishment for neglecting their responsibilities was being devoured alive by the Boss' three headed monster servant!

And all the rest of the camp's bandits had to watch and hear the process of this massacre. The crushing sounds of bones, and splashing of flesh and blood all over the place ... nobody could forget these bloody scenes even if they wanted to!

This also showed how serious the Boss was about finding these children and how far he would go to do that.

Nobody wanted to slack off and end up like their former bandit mates, so they rushed through the woods as if their lives depended on it.

At the forefront stood a tall man with a muscular body and a blood tainted leather armor. In front of him stood a huge three headed creature equal to his own size and sniffed in the air, attempting to find residual traces of their targets' scents.

The man's cold eyes gazed into the dark trying to rip apart the cloak preventing him to find his prey.

According to the 'report' from the dead guards, the last person entering the camp one of them had seen was an underling of his, Gorst, and with him were two other people. Supposedly the children. But neither the children nor Gorst had been seen afterwards. He didn't know how or why one of his own men got entangled in this mess but it didn't matter actually. Under his breath he spoke with a deep rough voice:

"Run, run as far as you can. Because the moment you fall into my hands I will skin you alive and let you know what awaits those who dare steal from me ...!"

"Growwllll!", the hellhound picked up some smell and followed it into the darkness. Michael stepped into the unknown with an unwavering determination.

.....

As the night went on, its colours took on a deeper blackness. The children gathered together or else it would have been hard to not get lost or find each other. Sadly they didn't have something like light and fire. Jafar and Craig tried it out with some sticks. Usual stuff one sees in videos and movies, but the materials were either to wet and moist or they didn't turn the sticks fast enough on the wood to create some small ember.

They surrounded Sieg who was carrying the Gemini Stones with him. The way Gorst explained it, the Gemini Stones only had a limited area of effect. Their connection didn't cross infinite lengths. So once Vincent and the others got out of a certain reach, the stones stopped glowing. But just an hour ago, the gems suddenly started to pulse again with their shining light!

This meant the scouts were within their reach again and were on their way back! Definitly good news, and they might have celebrated it if they had some snacks and drinks. And a room, and warmth and appropriate light ...

The bushes on the north side started rustling and they started hearing loud hectic voices. Three ... no, four people came into the children's view! Their classmates had all returned, even Charlotte!

Everyone stopped with what they were doing and stormed up to the scouts to welcome them back, Sasha and Gene wanted to hug the other girls but when the group was finally there, the children had to witness a horrible sight!

Vincent, Claire and Charlotte were breathing heavily and had dirt all over their clothes. Their sweat was flowing down their faces like endless streams of water and showcased the difficulty of the journey. The fourth person, Panda was leaning against Vincent while Charlotte still hold on to him on his back. But before someone could say anything, Claire ran up to Sieg and Anastasia and shouted desperately:

"Help, we need help!", when she finished speaking those last words, the dam broke and tears ran down her eyes. She fell on to her knees and cried out her heart.

"What happened?!", everyone present thought.

Vincent and Charlotte stepped closer to them and under the faint light of the sky, Panda's wound was revealed. To be more specific, it wasn't directly the wound that the children saw but the redness of his usually white uniform that made them realise something dangerous had occurred during their mission.

Panda was also breathing heavily, and his eyes were only half open. He couldn't form clear thoughts and wasn't aware of where he was and how he got to this place. The only things that kept him moving and awake where Vincent and Charlotte as well as a sharp instinctual fear of death, as if he needed to escape and keep going if he wanted to survive this ordeal.

If it hadn't been for his persistency that kept him awake, Vincent and Charlotte might have found it nearly impossible to bring him back all the way through that uneven and dark forest path.

"His wound, it opened up again on the way here, it keeps coming out! The blood, it doesn't stop at all!", Vincent spoke up instantly and very fast to inform the children about his friend's emergency. He couldn't quite hide his fear and agony in his tone.

Charlotte looked really exhausted, she wasn't used to carrying someone over such a long distance and time. She let go of Panda and fell next to Claire and tried to console her weakly.

After a couple of seconds ... :

"How did this happen?!"

"Omg!!!"

"Shit! What do we do?"

"We need to help him immediately!"

"Have you been attacked by a monster!"

Everyone was talking without any order, the mood changed drastically and they all felt an impeding sense of danger.

Anastasia quickly walked up to Vincent, propped up Panda, and made him lie on the ground.

When the weight was lifted off of Vincent's shoulders, fatqiue also washed over him and his eyelids got very heavy. He didn't realise he had been under so much stress, and now that they were in a safer environment they could calm down their minds and take a small break. The adrenalin that had kept him going, faded away and only left utter exhaustion. Still, he forced himself awake because he knew their problems weren't resolved at all!