Experienced hunters can easily determine the size and type of prey through traces in the wild environment.
——This is not just a simple "footprint shape" often mentioned in those adventure novels. The distance between steps, the depth of footprints, the upturned rocks, the broken branches, the fallen fresh leaves, the bent grass.
When a 150-pound man moves, one step is enough to leave a deep mark, and the branches that his shoulder brushes without noticing when he runs will also record his whereabouts.
His approximate height can be judged from the height of the broken branches, and the depth and length of the footprints can tell how fast he is moving - for those familiar with the wild, these details that are incompatible with nature are clear to them. This is why the pursuit troops in each corps often bring a local hunting expert with them. But even if there are no full-time hunters, the traces left by a dozen horses weighing around 800 kilograms in the forest are enough to be used as pursuit traces by any infantryman with good brains and eyesight.
The best way to get rid of the pursuit was to abandon the horses, but Henry knew very well that these people would not do that.
He held Mira with one hand and moved forward quickly. At the same time, he kept moving his eyes back and forth to observe the environment and carefully think about countermeasures.
——It is impossible for the soldiers of Sivalier to enter the depths of the jungle so quickly. There are two reasons: first, they need to search for hiding people while advancing, so they are not at full speed; second, Henry has chosen for himself The road is quite confident. In this kind of forest where it is easy to lose direction if you are not paying attention, he does not need to be as cautious as others but runs almost at full speed. The sage himself estimates that the distance he has opened is about half a day. about.
With the strange high efficiency and the appearance of those people closely guarding the horses, Henry could only draw one conclusion - they were guarding something that the Shivaliers wanted, and the pursuing Shivalier soldiers should not belong to Assault on part of the Chamber of Commerce's joint convoy.
As the sage pondered, he turned his head slightly and looked at the people behind him with his peripheral vision. Caution in words and deeds is the only rule when dealing with strangers, not to mention that he already had a rough guess about the identities of these people. ——
He was right, once again.
Just one glance at Henry showed these people's obvious distrust of him. The people following him adopted a single-column defensive formation - we won't explain why it is a single-column because there is some nonsense. The key point of the defensive formation is to place important assets and those without combat capabilities in a less dangerous area. , while deploying quick-response combat professionals in high-risk areas.
What is a rapid response combat professional? ——This issue is too detailed to elaborate on. Let’s put it simply: crossbows with slow winding time, which mainly emphasize mobility and protective capabilities, shield fighters, etc. are excluded. Short bows and short swords and flying axes that can act quickly and deliver a powerful blow meet the requirements.
Equipped with a short bow, a short sword, light leather armor and chain mail, he is agile and alert, and can attack instantly if something goes wrong with his bow and arrow.
The two typical scouts were placed closest to Henry. Normal people would not be suspicious, but in the eyes of the sage, their defense against themselves was clearly revealed.
In the case where Sivalier's pursuers might appear from behind at any time, Zishuang Tuang placed the archers with the advantage of distance counterattack in front to defend themselves. Henry really didn't know whether to say that the people in this team were defensive or pedantic - but to a certain extent, he could understand their defensiveness, because he did look suspicious and the things they were escorting should be. Some importance——
The sage thought through all this very quickly, and then he suddenly stopped in the next second.
"La--" The sound of a tight bowstring sounded immediately from behind. Henry turned his head, and the younger of the two archers had already raised his bow and aimed an arrow at him.
"Jericho!" The older archer next to him called him with a frown, and the overreacting young man slowly loosened the string and put away the arrow, dripping with cold sweat. He looked at Henry looking a little embarrassed, The sage didn't care and just listened.
"What are you doing, mercenary?" the older archer asked Henry in a bad tone. Although he did not draw his bow directly, he was still tense and ready to attack.
Henry didn't answer his question, he just listened quietly for a while before pointing in the direction to the left.
"Sound of Water" The black-haired sage spoke concisely, and the older archer immediately understood what he meant.
Horses weighing hundreds of kilograms cannot hide their traces as long as people are careful. The only way to escape pursuit is to find hard ground that will not leave traces. But in a dense forest full of soil, this is impossible.
The remaining compromise plan is to use water that leaves no traces. As long as you cross the river and choose to go ashore at another location, although the other party can still find footprints on the other side with a little search, it can buy you some time.
Without delay, the older archer immediately made the same judgment as Henry after listening carefully for a while. He ignored the sage at the moment, turned around and kept talking to the middle-aged man who was now placing the big sword on the horse and holding only a one-handed sword.
"Okay." The man who was obviously the leader nodded and glanced at Henry and the two. Mira, who looked quite tired, was already half asleep at the moment, and the sage effortlessly held her with one hand and walked for so long, which impressed him. Some attention was raised.
"Please lead the way." The man nodded to Henry, and our hero turned his head and pushed away the grass without saying a word.
He moved skillfully like a wild animal that has lived in a dense forest for a long time. When his lightweight leather boots covered with mud landed on his feet, they made only a slight sound of contact with the ground. He was 1.9 meters tall, holding a little girl and carrying a big sword on his back, but Henry's actions disturbed the environment less than those lightly-armed archers.
While various details made Henry's behavior of leading the way more and more reliable, he himself paradoxically became more and more suspicious in the eyes of this group of people.
There are always various comparisons and complex feelings of jealousy between people. When someone is not as good as ourselves, we are always good at showing our friendliness. But when someone goes beyond what they are capable of in some way, there will inevitably be some imbalance in their heart.
This inner prejudice against capable people combined with the extremely coincidental encounter resulted in this combination of ten men, three women and fifteen horses showing a clear distrust of Henry. But our wise man just took it lightly, just like when they asked him for help before, he just replied lightly: "Follow me."
The waist-high grass was pushed aside arbitrarily, and the horse's hooves stepped heavily on it, breaking the roots of the grass, leaving traces that could not be concealed. The group walked to the left for about half a minute, and turned around a thick tree. Behind the big tree, a forest stream that was neither deep nor shallow was exposed in front of them.
Without the obstruction of the dense forest, the bright sunshine in the afternoon was reflected by the water surface, showing a wonderful interweaving of golden and silver light and shadow. The leaders could not help but squint their eyes to adapt to the dazzling light. Even the tired Mira gained some energy, but Henry did not let her down.
The stream is about calf-deep. This kind of forest stream is always so clear. Some round pebbles are clearly visible at its bottom. They are not big, maybe they are the rocks that collapsed from somewhere on the mountain and became like this after being washed along the way.
Henry did not hesitate. He first stepped on the grassy bank of the stream and jumped into the water. The soil collapsed and fell into the water due to the movement, and it was stained with turbidity along the trickling stream. He also stretched out his right hand, but Mira was still in a daze. Her physical exertion was too much. The sage was worried that she would fall, so he stretched out his other hand to protect the girl.
It's fall, and getting your only set of clothing wet even in a relatively mild area like the west coast of Morbigas is obviously not a good idea.
But Henry's boots were inevitably like this. The cool stream water quickly seeped into the interior through the seams on the edge of the leather boots. In just ten seconds, water covered the tops of his feet had accumulated in the boots, and he moved forward quickly, exploring with his toes. Road to prevent loose stones where you step.
The flow of the stream is not too fast, but there is still some resistance. The group of people behind them also quickly jumped down with Henry. This time they did not use single verticals. The archers temporarily put away their bows and pulled the reins of the horses, and went into the water two by two with the companions behind them. The youngest of the women sitting on the horse the whole time screamed "Yeah" because of the splash of cold water, but then she blushed and covered her mouth.
"Alas" the team leader walking behind Henry couldn't help but sigh. The group quickly crossed the creek and reached the other side without saying anything else.
"tread--"
Tick-tock drops of water fell on the river bank. Originally, if they wanted to hide the traces more effectively, Henry and the others should have chosen to go down the river and find another place to go ashore - but there happened to be some unusual spots on the ground on the other side. The regular-shaped white stones and the hard earth perfectly concealed the traces of the group of people. The scenery on this side has not changed much. There is almost no difference except that there are more stones on the roadside.
They walked for quite some time.
Henry looked back again and took a look. The archers seemed to have finally relaxed their guard against him after a few hours. But the atmosphere in the team was still quite tense. This could be seen from the fact that the two young women, aged 19 and 21 and 2 respectively, seemed quite quiet throughout the process.
To be honest, Henry was not sure why these three people appeared here. Their limbs were slender and their skin was fair, but the clothes they wore did not appear too luxurious.
To put it this way, he is the kind of person who would appear in a slightly wealthy businessman family, but he is not rich enough to afford such an elite team.
To be honest, they look more like the family members of these mercenaries than the objects of their protection, but who would go on a dangerous mission with their family members who can hardly protect themselves let alone fight? Henry stopped to think, he didn't want to spend too much thought on this.
Only those who really have nothing to do will inquire about everything, and all the sage needs is information that is beneficial to him.
Just as he chose to help these people, Henry's actions have always been simple and clear, without overly complicated reasons and unnecessary curiosity.
He is not a kind-hearted person. When acting alone, Henry would probably choose to turn around and leave even if he met these people - but now he was not alone. The unaccustomed days of field travel and the tired young Luoan girl now seemed very tired. Under such circumstances, encountering this well-armed team with non-combat professionals, choosing to act with them will obviously greatly improve the situation of the two of them.
But in order to reach a temporary alliance, he must first show his due value. Henry is very aware of the calmness or cold-bloodedness of these experienced warriors when making decisions - because he himself belongs to this ranks. If there is not enough value, these people will abandon him and Mira without hesitation in times of crisis.
Although even if they can build a little trust in this short period of time, it is very likely that they will leave the two of them behind depending on the degree of the crisis, but it is better than nothing - Henry thought so, and the group continued to move forward.
Their only purpose at the moment is to get rid of the enemy. Initially, the sage told Mira to go deep into the forest to escape pursuit. The fact that those who attacked the caravan alliance were not bandits but Sivalier soldiers was the main reason why Henry made this judgment. These people were not trying to rob, they were simply massacring everyone.
Therefore, retreating together with others is the worst decision. The bigger the target, the easier it is to be targeted. The small group ran as deep into the forest as possible to create difficulties so that the pursuers would choose to retreat.
Henry's purpose before meeting these people at this moment can be said to coincide with them, and it was also to avoid the enemy. So intentionally or unintentionally, they headed towards the wilderness.
"Da da da"
The crisp sound of horseshoes on the hard surface rang out, and the team leader frowned. He was keenly aware that the number of stones on the road had increased significantly since the beginning.
This is good news, but it can also be bad news.
Such a relatively flat and regular road surface could only be man-made. There might be some buildings waiting for them ahead. This might be a market, a village, or - an ambush. He held the hilt of the sword at his waist, and at the same time winked at several of his companions and asked them to take off their shields from their horses.
Everyone approached slowly. The road itself was not wide. Many places were covered with soil and vegetation. Only the middle part had some stone slabs. However, based on the looming white stones on both sides of the trees and shrubs, it can be judged that it originally had an area large enough to accommodate five war horses marching side by side.
This is no longer what a market or a village should have. When he contacted some ancient legends he knew, the team leader frowned his thick golden eyebrows and then his eyes widened in the next moment because the guess came true.
"...the ruins of the ancient city," the elderly archer standing next to Henry murmured, looking at the castle filled with spider silk at the entrance.
It's very old.
Not only are the traces of weathering on the surface and the spider webs and moss everywhere, but also the design style shows a sense of the ancient times.
The color of the stone looks very similar to the cobblestones in the creek. Perhaps the stones in the creek came from a certain section of the collapsed wall of the castle.
The group of people walked past the thick outer city gate pillars that were only half a person tall and covered with moss, and then walked towards the inner city gate that was blocked by the dense forest and could not even shine through.
The wooden door had rotted so much that only a pile of debris was left at the entrance, covered with vines and grass. The wind blowing through the door made a "woo-woo" sound that made people shudder.
But Henry turned his head and looked at the people behind him.
"This is our shelter tonight"
Said so.
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