With how evil that long range guy was, the right answer was obviously to not attempt to save him at all and use his body as a springboard to be safe. Since he fears pain and is willing to kill random children a nice lava bath would help.
such a boring story MC tries to help everyone, even someone who would kill strangers for a win in a tournament. Even ignored all the traps and didnt say anything to the teachers about being attacked. "I have to put all the weight of the world on my back, otherwise Im not a shitty MC."