Chaotically.

"Wind Breath!" Kazuma called hastily, creating an air current that redirected the arrows. He breathed a sigh of relief as they all missed. Multiple thugs wearing hooded cloak came into view, sniggering as they drew their weapons, or in the case of the bowmen, already had them out.

Their leader, a large bald man wearing an eye patch sniggered. "Well well, look like these guys want to try and fight this time! Get 'em boys!"

Based on that, Kazuma surmised that they were pretty used to taking out weakened adventurers in the opening salvo of shots. "Should I blow some of them up?" Megumin asked hopefully.

"No, they're too scattered, you won't get them all!" Kazuma denied as he drew his sword, and quickly ducked under one that reached him and attacked with an axe. He swung his blade, cutting into the man's leather armor, and leaving a gash on his stomach. The man staggered back, but recovered and swung at Kazuma again... Only to fall as a crossbow bolt hit him in the chest.

"Thanks Fio!" Kazuma shouted as the party quickly fell back, not letting the enemy surround them, with Cremea and Darkness in the front, blocking what attacks they could.

"Fireball!" Megumin shouted, using an intermediate fire spell, and blasting one of the enemies... And of course, her eye was twitching, and her nose was bleeding.

Then, the zombies shot up and started trying to subdue the enemies. "What the hell!?" one of them shouted. Unfortunately, this respite didn't last long, as the bandits had brought along actual holy water, apparently prepared for the possibility of having to fight zombies if they had won instead of their targets in order to get to their loot. As a result, they managed to quickly clear a path.

Kazuma however used the respite well, and proceeded to use his Create Water and Freeze combo to get the bandits slipping and sliding, which Cremea tried to take advantage of in order to charge... Forgetting about the ice herself, and slipping and sliding, though this worked out amusingly well as she knocked down several of the few bandits that managed to retain their balance like she was a bowling ball and they pins.

Still, a few managed to clear the ice, and moved in on the party. Kazuma quickly used Steal on one, managing to swipe his axe, but another swung a hammer down, and he hastily backed up, raising his blade to try and deflect the blow. Which worked, keeping the hammer from hitting him... But also resulting in his sword breaking. Again.

"...getting REAL sick of that!" he cursed. The bandit made another attempt to hit him, but Kazuma proceeded to use Create Earth and Wind Breath to blow sand in his eyes, making him recoil... Then he kicked the man in the crotch, and when he doubled over, grabbed his head, and brought his knee up into the guy's face. Out like a light after that.

The bandits started to fall back and retreat as they realized they were losing numbers as a recovered Cremea was knocking several around, and Darkness wasn't doing too bad herself, and none of their attacks were doing much to her, and they freaked out as she cackled with every hit she managed to land. And Fio was staying out of reach, taking every shot she could, and disappearing with the Lurk skill whenever some bandits thought they had her cornered. "Hah! How's that!?" Kazuma taunted. "Not so easy when your targets can fight back, is it!?"

"Can it, we can't let any of them escape!" Aqua shouted.