The loud sound of the chains rattling echoed in the empty forest as the group proceeded to move. The group was slowly nearing the military campsite.
Lyana who was silent up until now bit her nails in nervousness and spoke up, "Will just this disguise work out? The barbarians are not fools." She looked very worried. It was clear that they were going to get caught.
In fact, none of the elves thought that this was enough.
They were simply following Liam's orders as they did not have any other choice. It was either follow him or die in the forest. So all of them looked terrified.
Liam on the other hand looked completely relaxed. He had a plan. It was either going to work or not work. If it works, then it was the easy route. If it doesn't work then it was the hard route. He wasn't too worried about it.
"Don't worry about all this. Run when I run. That's all you have to do." He smiled at the elves as they finally arrived at the clearing. Now it was truth time!
All the elves nervously looked around as more than a dozen hungry bloodthirsty eyes fell on them instantly. In fact, everyone seemed to be looking at them, not one person paying attention to Liam.
Suddenly it struck Lyana and she realized the obvious. This bastard had used them as bait to escape this campsite? She took a step back trembling as she watched a bunch of barbarians shouting and walking towards them.
No! No! No! How were they going to escape now?
However, before she could even finish that thought, all of sudden something else started happening. A loud war horn sounded and all the barbarians started shouting agitatedly, the whole place devolving into complete commotion.
"Raaaa! We are under attack!"
"Raaa!"
"Raaa!"
The entire campsite fell into chaos and everyone began running here and there to prepare for this unexpected ambush. It looked like for the barbarians fighting came before women so Liam and the elves were quickly forgotten.
"NOW! RUN!" Liam shouted as he and the elves also started running. Everyone was in a rushed state, no one paid any special attention to them. Making use of the disturbance they hurriedly crossed the winding path curving around the huge boulders.
The path itself wasn't too long. It was relatively small, the only drawback being that everything was out in the open with no place to hide. So using this chance the group easily crossed it right in front of the barbarians in the campsite.
Some even shouted, calling Liam a coward as they watched him flee at the sound of the war horn but no one suspected anything more. They simply saw him as a merchant trying to protect his wares.
In the span of a few minutes, Liam and the elves managed to cross the whole place and disappear. In the end, there were a couple of barbarians who simply tried to block his path but these guys were no threat and were quickly taken care of.
Liam kept moving after putting them down and the group only relaxed when they were well past the finish line and back in the thick of the forests on the other side of the boulders.
"Phew! That was close!" Liam chuckled and started undoing his bulky disguise. It was good but now it was time to go as it hindered his movements a lot.
The bunch of elves could only stare at the guy in awe. What just happened and how was this human being doing this so casually? They had actually escaped right under everyone's nose!
Who even attacked the barbarians at this exact same moment helping them? They were not able to understand anything.
Surprisingly, at the other end, the barbarians also had the same expression. They had no clue what was going on.
One minute, some weird three-headed chickens, psychotic rabbits, wolves, and monsters of all shapes and sizes were attacking them, but now… they had all magically disappeared.
All the barbarians could do was scratch their heads and return back to the camp. A few even wondered where the fresh elven slaves went but no one was thinking about them in particular.
Everyone was completely focused on the weird ambush that lasted about five to seven minutes.
Meanwhile, Liam swiped the few notifications that told him how many experience points he had gained.
Create a diversion and run! It was a simple and straightforward strategy and it had worked like a charm. It was very satisfying.
Letting out a sigh of relief, he once again summoned the newly forged barbarians and asked them again with a smile, "How about now? What is the safest path?"
Thankfully, the next leg of the journey was not too taxing. They just had to cross a couple of small villages and it wasn't all that difficult.
They crossed the first village simply maneuvering through the forest and for the next village, they had to clash with a small group of barbarians before they were free to continue forward.
Everything was proceeding smoothly. They were almost out of the main zone that blocked their path to the elven lands.
If they just manage to cross this main zone, then according to the barbarian undeads they would be able to easily cross over to the elven territory using the vastly sprawled wilderness where the barbarians did not wander a lot. So it would be easy to escape their eyes in that territory.
Liam nodded and started moving again. It was good that this trip proved to be simpler than he had assumed. He was currently short on time and this helped a lot.
Lyana and the other elves were also rejoicing inwardly though they looked very nervous on the outside. They were almost back to their territory! They did not think that such a thing would happen but here they were!
Just like Liam, the group of elves also energetically moved as the group approached their next path which was a winding path around a hill flanking a waterfall. The barbarian settlement was on the other side so this was the only way to escape their detection.
The path around the waterfall was quite treacherous that no human being or rather civilian, even the experienced adventurers would be able to cross through.
However, Liam was inside the game. All his stats were enhanced and he was no longer an ordinary human being.
Hiking through this treacherous path might as well be a stroll in the park for him. He also helped the elves cross and once again without any hitch, the whole group made it through to the other end.
This was it! They were now fully outside the main zone. They were just a few miles from entering the wilderness after which their path would be unhindered.
Everyone sighed in relief and prepared to take this last leg of the journey with big expectations when suddenly… the gushing waterfall was not the only thing making a sound.
Liam stopped moving and so did all the elves as they heard several rustling sounds around them.
Apes? Everyone's eyes shifted to look around as they saw numerous figures emerging from the densely packed forest. They were completely surrounded on all sides.
Not by apes but by barbarians!
