Although the enemy's show of force lasted only a short time, the three men on the hillside felt as if it had been a few years, for this particular experience was enough to make them mature quickly as adventurers at some point.

Experience and facts are sometimes such a wonderful thing, when you know such a thing through the relay of others without experiencing it yourself, you will feel that other people's words may sound strange and fantastic. When you have witnessed such a scene yourself, you will understand that some things cannot be reproduced by words alone, and exaggerated rhetoric will only make people feel that your description is too subjective and not detailed enough. Those who are arrogant and prejudiced are more likely to mistake your well-intentioned advice as clumsy and ridiculous alarmism from hillbillies who have never seen the world.

Byron vaguely felt that the other party proposed that the three of them must come together, perhaps out of this consideration. If only one person describes the strength of the enemy as invincible, people will probably only think that his words are not credible...... But why didn't the enemy allow more people to see the shocking battle drill before, but only three of them!? Because he didn't want us to know too much? It was too detailed? Byron felt that if there were more people with him, the other party's deterrent might be more effective.

...... Why did only three of them come along?

Byron felt that he could not grasp the key to this with his own knowledge, and perhaps it would be better for Crane to personally see the strange movements of the enemy, who might be able to guess some intention from the enemy's actions with a keen eye. But before the incident, no one was sure of the risks involved, and now that he thought of relying on Crane, it seemed that he was a little suspicious of hindsight......

A dozen paces away, Adolf stooped and pulled an arrow from the ground covered with fallen leaves. The rush of fire that had just come from the ranks of enemy archers landed no more than ten paces from their nearest point, and when the dense rain of arrows completely dominated their line of sight, even the leader of the battle-hardened adventurers was not sure that he was out of range of the enemy's attack until they fell.

The man who was not good at hiding his anger frowned, staring at the arrow in his hand that shone with a cold light, unlike the arrow feathers used by those hunters, the arrow and shaft of this arrow were very different. The weighted and thickened arrows and shafts allow it to plunge into the dirt a full three feet deep when falling with inertia. The forest ground was covered with a thick layer of dead leaves and decay, and Adolf felt that the leather armor that adventurers were accustomed to might not be more reliable than these natural cushions, and that the human body would only look fragile under the arrows with blood grooves.

He tried to hold the arrow in his hand and plunge it into the dirt under the dead leaves, and Adolf's expression became even more ugly compared to the strength he used and the depth of the arrow.

"How long are you going to be here?" Adolf looked at his two companions with a slight displeasure.

Byron looked at the arrows that were standing all over the hill and looked in the direction the elven rangers had left, and in fact the archers who had almost scared him to the ground had only just left. The tall adventurer moved his slightly stiff limbs, then smiled and pulled his young companion to the ground.

"I almost didn't get on my feet just now, and if those guys were just trying to scare us, I think they've basically succeeded. Byron deliberately said something to ease the awkwardness, and the young companion who took his hand and stood up from the dead leaves responded with a polite smile.

Adolf was the only one who frowned and never said anything more.

......

On the way back to the burial site, the trio still looked strange because of the shocking sights they had seen before. Adolf looked thoughtful as he walked, studying the arrow in his hand. Byron was also trying to recall the opposing formations and elite forces, and was thinking about how to accurately describe the strength of those enemies to Crane. It was their fellow young adventurer, whose face was cloudy, perhaps because he had not yet shaken off his previous fears, and he seemed to be about to say something at the end.

"Don't you think the enemy was just bluffing?" After much thought, the young adventurer named Alan finally asked what was in his mind.

Adolf looked back at him with an unkind face, but did not speak.

Byron paused, seemed to think carefully for a moment, and then slowly spoke: "In any case, it is an indisputable fact that the enemy's soldiers are more elite than our troops. As you can see from the comrades who died in battle, the situation may have been just a one-sided massacre. If this is the so-called 'weak alien city defense team', then the reason for bringing us together is very debatable. ”

"Even if they are better equipped than us, we always have the absolute advantage in numbers, don't we!?" Alan seemed to be a little unreceptive to his companions' arguments, isn't victory always within easy reach for adventurers?

"Nothing else, first of all, they hid their army of more than a thousand men only two or three hourglass footsteps from our main camp. With this covert ability to keep the initiative firmly in our own hands, there is no good way for us to deal with them. Without the initiative in battle, we will only be beaten passively, and the cunning enemy will land their most ferocious and deadly fists on our soft underbelly. We have no good way to deal with their surprise attack until the enemy shows its feet, and even if they are going to raid our camp by the river tonight, there is no better way for us than to be passive. Byron clearly analyzed the situation between the enemy and us, and the initiative in the battle has always been in the hands of the enemy, which is already a fact that the adventurers vaguely admitted, but he never thought that the enemy's hidden forces in the forest could reach such a level!

The look of suspicion on Allen's face became heavier, which made his tone become a little strange: "How is this possible!? Can't we be ready by the river?

Byron's face also looked very ugly, and now their enemies have shown many characteristics of an unusual army, and how many secrets are still in those alien warriors, as adventurers, they really don't know anything.

"I'm not sure if we're going to leave if we want to, but I think we're going to have to pay a lot if we get caught up with the enemy who launched the raid. In addition, although the open space by the river is spacious, it is a long and narrow terrain, which is not conducive to our shrinking camp to guard against enemy attacks. Less than three stone's throw from the riverbank is a dense forest, and if it is daytime, we may still have enough warning time, but at night, we can only react if the enemy touches the door. It's also unrealistic to keep the enemy from attacking for a long time, as long as they send out those elusive ranger scouts to watch our every move, and it's hard to escape their eyes if they're lax or tight. If it is too tight, the enemy will not throw himself into the net, and it will be difficult for us to drag on for a long time, and it will be difficult for the supplies in each team to support us in this delay. By that time, the enemy has not yet come, and we ourselves may have already lost our own way. ”

"How can this be?

Byron thought carefully for a moment, and then came to a conclusion: "If we can't grasp the enemy's movements in the forest, I'm afraid that in a short time we will only be played by the other party between applause." ”

"There must be something that can be done!" Alan anxiously walked back and forth, "How about setting fire to this forest!? so that those despicable enemies will no longer be able to hide their whereabouts!"

"Absolutely not!!" Adolf, who had not spoken all this time and had been quietly watching the two of them discuss, finally couldn't help but interject, but his expression looked very unkind.

"Why not!?" Alan felt that burning the forest was the best way to break the deadlock, but the young adventurer did not have the courage to challenge the authority of the veteran who was famous among the adventurers.

"Because the same thing had already been done five hundred years ago, and it directly led to the full involvement of the elven kingdom in the war...... That may be a good way to break the deadlock, but if the balance is broken, it will probably only bring us even greater disaster! As you saw just now, those elves make up less than half of their ranks, and if the elves, who are masters of the Whispering Forest, are fully involved in our war with Andrari, do you think we will still be in a stalemate here?"

Byron felt some sympathy for the companion in front of him.

The young man embarked on an adventurous journey with a dream, but because he believed in the demagogy of others, he regarded some unrealistic things as his own goal, until he found the gap between imagination and reality, and the huge sense of gap easily shattered the belief in his heart...... If he hadn't learned so much from Crane, Byron felt that he was just this kind of hairy boy with no judgment a few years ago.

"In short, setting fire to the forest is equivalent to declaring war on the entire elven kingdom, and the entire vast whispering forest is their resting place since ancient times, once it touches their taboo, I am afraid that the entire city-state alliance will not take any advantage of it. Byron patiently admonished his slightly simple companion that it was not terrible to make mistakes when he was young, but it was terrible to make such a mistake that the consequences were so serious that he could not bear it, but he still did not know it.

"Is there really nothing that can be done at all!?" Alan sat on the ground as if he had lost his strength, and there seemed to be something brewing in his empty eyes, but his two companions took it as the weakness of the young man after the blow.

Byron shook his head helplessly, "This first depends on how long the enemy and us can hold out, and the other crucial question is - how many troops does the enemy have?"

Adolf, who has always been relatively silent, already has a plan in his heart at this time, he is a leader of adventurers who dares to fight and is experienced in battle, but when it comes to understanding the war array, the "powerful ghost" thinks that he is not half the level of the tall young man in front of him.

"What do you think we have if it's a head-to-head showdown?" said Adolf, his expression serious.

Byron remembered the sights that had impressed him today, and sat in his mind uncertainly. Among the adventurers, he may be regarded as a rare tactical expert under Crane, but he has never experienced a real large-scale war, but he still can't accurately grasp the cruelty between battle formations.

"If the opponent's strength can reach twice as many as we saw just now, I am afraid that the victory or defeat will already be a five-to-five situation. But the problem now is that we don't know the exact number of enemies, and at the same time, the other side will not give us a chance to fight head-on......" Byron, who had expounded his argument, slowly walked to the side of his young companion, and for the second time today he reached out and pulled up his companion who was sitting on the ground.

The moment Eren raised his head, the expression on his young face was almost distorted!

“...... Die, alarmist traitor to humanity!"

Caught off guard, Byron only felt a cold chill stabbing deep into his flank as he pulled his "companion" in front of him......