Not every part of the camp was suitable to use for an exit.
Obviously, first things first, it had to be on the edge of the camp. But beyond that... It had to be as far away from the huge flames as possible. The more obstacles there were in the way of those leaving the camp, the better.
Those and all sorts of other considerations led me to guide the entire group right back to the spot where one of the patrolmen tried to stop us.
By now, only the suspicious man remained, staring off at the nearby fires consuming the supply depot.
'They are pretty well organized, I will give them that,' I thought, noticing how there was already a line forming of people carrying water to try to quell the fires. At the same time, Fay finally began her bombardment, drawing as much attention away from our group as she could by showering the other side of the camp with her fires.
Conditioned by the earlier attacks, whoever heard the massive noise of the familiar attacks, rushed to either raise a barrier or find one to hide beneath.
Right at this moment, a girl walked forth, standing right between my group and the guard who, despite looking our way, appeared to be extremely dazed.
BOOM!
The botched explosion went off behind our backs, this time much louder. The fires it caused weren't as well-hidden as the one in the blaze nearby, alerting more and more people around.
We moved a bit closer, just a few steps away from where we could make our exit and disappear into the darkness of the muddy plain, hidden in its cold embrace from the enemy pursuit.
Faster.
Now that our disguise was down, the time pressure grew only stronger. And despite Fay's best efforts, someone was bound to realize that her hammering down on the barriers despite little to no results... maybe weren't aimed at causing as much damage as possible.
And once people would arrive at this simple conclusion, this entire camp would be after my neck!
We moved closer and closer. All the way to just a few steps away from the girl who stood in our path.
Taking a few hurried steps, one of the divines rushed forth and reached out for the girl's arm...
'Good thinking,' I thought, praising the man in my mind as, under the pressure of leading the group through the enemy camp, I completely forgot about an important part of the mission!
The young guard finally noticed us. And most likely by catching the change in the man's expression, the girl suddenly spun around, pulling out and slashing with her saber in one, swift move...
Only to watch her weapon meet the divine's hand and shatter into pieces.
"Grab them and let's ditch!" I ordered, no longer bothering to keep up any appearances. "This mission will lose its purpose if we allow them to bait us into a fight."
Staying behind to farm some experience... would be a simply bad idea. So, rather than going full young adult story protagonist, I decided to do the actual smart thing and retreated, jumping over the small barrier of stacked boxes with some supplies.
Soon, my entire unit followed suit, dropping into the wet swamp outside of the camp.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
One by one, the explosive spells that my unit set up started to go off. And Fay's aim now moved to the place we just left, showering our pursuers with explosive shots.
As for us... We dove with our feet into the soft ground, sinking further and further with each step as we tried to hurry through the wetlands. And in the time that took humans to finally push some people through the open area under Fay's bombardment, we barely managed to move by about fifty, eighty meters.
A bit more than a tenth of the distance that separated us from the safety of the treeline.
"Faster! Don't hold back!"
Swish!
A first arrow went right by my ear, threatening to end my otherworldly adventure right here and now. Then another.
Then, a fireball exploded a mere two steps from Varus, showering him in intense yet seemingly harmless flames. The divine man simply brushed the fires off with his arms before silently continuing deeper into the swamp.
Ten more meters, twenty.
By the time the humans finally braved past the wall of fire set up by Fay's bombardment, we rushed one hundred and fifty steps into the field, finally reaching the place where the light of camp's torches and the massive lights burning every few hundred steps could no longer reach.
In an instant, the accuracy of the humans decreased... But not enough to stop a total of three arrows from finding their target. And while one of them bounced off after drawing a deep arc in the sky... Two others shot much flatter, dug into the flesh of an unlucky celestial.
Step by step, we treaded through the thick mud of the swamp, soon crossing the maximal effective distance of the ranger fighters from the camp.
"Keep going! We can't slow down now!"
With little to no doubt, no human at the camp's edge could match our speed through this mood. And even if they did, stepping out of the camp and into the darkness of the night was akin to asking Fay in the distance to greet one with her welcoming, explosive rounds.
And before long, we crawled out from the mud at the edge of the forest. Tired, cold... but satisfied.
"We've brought two tongues," I called out, before gesturing at the divine controlling our prisoners to send them forward. "So how about we learn why are they even attacking this place?"