Experienced hunters can easily determine the size and type of prey by the traces in the wild environment.

-- It's not just the "footprint shape" that is often mentioned in adventure novels. The spacing of steps, the depth of the footprints, the stones that have been turned up, the broken branches, the fresh leaves that have fallen, the grass that has been bent.

A big man weighing 150 pounds is enough to make a deep mark when he moves, and the branches that he doesn't notice when he runs will also record the tracks.

His approximate height can be judged by the height of the broken branches, and the depth and length of the footprints give an indication of how fast he is moving - details that are out of touch with nature are obvious to those who are familiar with the wild. This is why the pursuing units of the armies of various countries often have to bring a local hunting expert with them. But even without a full-time hunter, a dozen horses weighing around 800 kilograms left traces in the forest that would be enough for any infantry with no broken brains or eyes to use as a trail in pursuit.

The best way to get out of pursuit was to abandon the horses, but Henry knew very well that the men would not do that.

He held Mira in one hand and moved forward quickly, while his eyes kept turning back and forth to observe the environment, carefully considering what to do.

- Sivalier's soldiers could not have gone into the depths of the jungle so quickly, for two reasons: first, they had to search for those who were hiding while they were advancing, so they were not at full speed, and second, Henry was quite confident in the path he had chosen, and in the midst of such a forest where it was easy to lose his way without paying attention, he did not need to be as cautious as the others but ran almost at full speed, so that the distance between them would be about half a day.

Oddly efficient and the appearance of the men guarding the horses, Henry could only conclude that they were guarding something that the West Valiers wanted, and that the pursuing West Valier soldiers were not part of the attack on the combined convoy of the Chamber of Commerce.

The sage thought about it a little and looked at the people behind him with his spare eyes, prudence in words and deeds was the only rule when dealing with strangers, not to mention that he already had a rough guess in his heart about the identities of these people-

He's right, once again.

A mere glance at Henry made it clear that these people had obvious distrust of him. The men behind him adopted a single-column defensive formation - why a single column because we will not explain some nonsense, the main point of the defensive formation is to place important assets and incapable personnel in areas of low risk, and at the same time to deploy combat professionals with rapid reaction in high-risk areas.

What is a combat professional with a quick response?-This question is a lot of detail, but let's put it simply: crossbows with slow winding times, shield fighters with a strong emphasis on mobility and protection, and so on, are excluded. Short bows and daggers that can quickly produce and deliver powerful blows are suitable.

Short bow, short knife, light leather armor with chain mail, agile and vigilant, when something is wrong, open the bow and arrows can instantly attack.

The two of them, who were typical of scouts, were placed closest to Henry, and normal people would not be suspicious, but in the eyes of the sage, their defense of themselves was unmistakable.

With Sivalier's pursuers at any moment ready to appear from behind, he cut off his fangs and deployed the archers who had the advantage of distance to defend himself. Henry really didn't know whether to say that the people in this group were defensive or pedantic—but he could understand their defenses to some extent, because he did look a little suspicious and the importance of what they were escorting -

The sage figured it all out with great speed, and then the next second he stopped suddenly.

"Horn-" The sound of the bowstring tightening immediately sounded behind him, and Henry turned his head, and the younger of the two archers was already aiming his bow and arrows at him.

"Jericho!" the older archer next to him called out to him, frowning, and the overreacted young man slowly loosened his strings in a cold sweat and put away his arrows—he looked at Henry with some embarrassment, but the sage didn't care, just listened.

"What are you doing, mercenary," the older archer asked Henry in an unkind tone, and although he didn't stretch his bow directly, he was 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.

The dark-haired sage was succinct and to the point, and the older archer immediately understood what he meant.

Horses weighing hundreds of kilograms cannot hide their tracks with the same care as a man, and the only way to escape pursuit is to find hard ground where no traces are left, but in dense forests full of soil.

The remaining compromise is that the water will not leave a trace, as long as you cross the river and choose to go ashore at another location, although the other party can find footprints on the other side with a little search, but it can buy a little time.

There was no time to wait, and the older archer, after listening carefully for a while, immediately made the same judgment as Henry. He ignored the sage for the moment, turned his head and said to the middle-aged man who was now holding only a one-handed sword with his big sword on his horse.

"Good" The man who was obviously the leader nodded and glanced at Henry, Mira, who looked quite tired, was already a little asleep at the moment, and the appearance of the sage carrying her with one hand for so long effortlessly made him pay some attention.

"Please, lead the way," the man nodded to Henry, and without saying a word, our master turned his head away and pushed away the grass.

He moves like a wild animal in the woods, and his mud-stained light leather boots make the only sound of contact with the ground. One meter nine tall, holding a little girl and carrying a big sword, but Henry's actions interfere with less of the environment than those lightly armed archers.

While all these details made Henry's leading behavior more and more reliable, he himself became more and more suspicious in the eyes of the crowd rather paradoxically.

There will always be a variety of comparison psychology and complex jealousy between people, and when a person is not as good as themselves, we are always good at showing our friendliness. But when someone goes above and beyond in some way, there will inevitably be some imbalance in their hearts.

This kind of inner prejudice against the capable, combined with the extremely coincidental encounter, led to this combination of ten men, three women, and fifteen horses, showing a clear distrust of Henry. But our Sage only took it lightly, as if they had asked him for help, and he only replied lightly: "Follow me"

The half-waist-high grass was brutally swept away, and the horses' hooves were heavily trampled on it, breaking the roots of the grass and leaving traces that could not be concealed in any way, and the group walked to the left for about half a minute, and after turning a large thick tree, a forest stream that was neither too deep nor too shallow was exposed in front of them.

Without the blockage of the dense forest, the bright afternoon sun was reflected by the water surface, revealing a wonderful light and shadow intertwined with golden yellow and silver, and the leaders couldn't help but squint their eyes to adapt to the dazzling bright light. Even the tired Mira had some energy to do so, but Henry didn't let her go.

The creek is about calf deep, and the forest stream is always so clear that some round pebbles are clearly visible at the bottom of it. They weren't big, maybe they were made by a rock that had collapsed somewhere in the mountains.

Henry did not hesitate, he first stepped on the bank of the brook with some grass growing and jumped into the water, and the earth crumbled and slipped into the water because of the movement, and it was muddy all the way down the stream. He stretched out his right hand as well, and Mira was still dazed, her physical exertion was too much, and the sage was worried that she would fall, so the other hand also reached out to protect the girl.

It's autumn, and it's clearly not a good idea to wet your only outfit even in a relatively mild area like the west coast of Mobigas.

But Henry's boots inevitably do. The cool stream quickly seeped through the seams on the edge of the boot, and in just a dozen seconds the boot was filled with water that did not reach the surface of his feet, and he moved forward quickly, probing his way with his toes to prevent the stones from loosening where he was going under.

The speed of the stream is not too fast, but there is still some resistance. The group behind them also quickly jumped down with Henry, this time they did not use the single column, the archers temporarily put away their bows and pulled the reins of the horses, and went down into the water with their companions in pairs, and the youngest of the women who sat on the horse's back all the way let out a "Ahh

"Alas," the captain who walked behind Henry sighed, and without saying anything more, the group quickly crossed the creek to the other side.

"Tread—"

The dripping drops of water fell on the riverbank, and Henry should have chosen to go down the river and find another place to go ashore if they wanted to hide their traces more effectively—but there happened to be some irregularly shaped white stones on the ground on the opposite bank, and the hard ground perfectly concealed the traces of the group. The scenery on this side hasn't changed much, except for the fact that there are more rocks on the side of the road.

They went for quite some time.

Henry glanced back again, and the archers seemed to have relaxed their vigilance against him after a few hours. But the atmosphere in the team was still quite tense, as evidenced by the fact that the two young women, aged 19 and 21 and 2 respectively, appeared fairly quiet throughout the whole process.

To be honest, Henry didn't know why these three people were here, they had slender limbs and fair skin, but the clothes they were wearing didn't look too luxurious.

If you want to say that, it's the kind of person who would come up in some slightly richer merchant family, but not rich enough to afford such an elite team.

To be honest, they looked more like the families of these mercenaries than the objects of their protection, but who would take their family members, not to mention fighting, to do a dangerous mission together? Henry stopped thinking, he didn't want to put too much thought into it.

Only those who are too idle to do will get to the bottom of everything, and all the sage needs is the information that is beneficial to him.

As if he had chosen to help these people, Henry's actions had always been simple and straightforward, without overly complicated reasons and superfluous curiosity.

He was not a man of excessive kindness. When acting alone, Henry would probably have chosen to turn away even if he met these people - but he was not alone now, and the unaccustomed days of field trips and the exhaustion of the young Loan girl were now very tired. In such a situation, encountering such a well-armed squad of non-combat professionals, choosing to operate with them would obviously greatly improve the situation of the two.

But in order to reach a temporary alliance, he must first show his worth, and Henry was well aware of the calmness or cold-bloodedness with which these experienced warriors made their decisions—for he himself belonged to this ranks. If they don't have enough value, they won't hesitate to abandon him and Mira in times of crisis.

Although it is highly likely that they will leave the two of them behind in such a short period of time, depending on the extent of the crisis, it is better than nothing—Henry thought, and the group moved on.

Their only purpose at the moment is to get rid of the enemy. Initially, the sage told Mira to go deep into the forest in order to escape the pursuers. The fact that it was not the bandits but the Sivalier soldiers who attacked the caravan was the main reason for Henry's judgment, these people were not here to rob, they were simply slaughtering everyone.

Therefore, retreating with others is the worst decision, and 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 and make the pursuers choose to retreat.

At this time, Henry's purpose before meeting these people can be said to coincide with them, the same is to avoid the enemy. So, consciously or unconsciously, they walked all the way into the wilderness.

"Da, da, da"

The sound of a crisp horseshoe on the hard surface sounded, and the leader frowned, acutely aware that the number of stones on the path had increased significantly from the beginning.

This is good news, but it can also be bad news.

Such a relatively smooth and regular road surface can only be man-made, and there may be some buildings waiting for them in front of them. It could be a bazaar, a village, or an ambush, and he grasped the hilt of his sword at his waist and glanced at several of his companions to remove their shields from their horses.

As the group approached slowly, the road itself was not wide, and many places were covered in mud and vegetation, with only a few stone slabs in the middle. However, judging from the faint white stones on the sides of the trees and shrubs, it was originally large enough to accommodate five horses at the same time.

This wasn't what a market or a village should be, and the leader of the team, who knew some ancient legends, furrowed his thick golden eyebrows, and the next moment's eyes widened at the realization of the conjecture.

“...... "The ruins of the ancient city," the old archer, standing next to Henry, muttered as he looked at the spider-silk castle at the entrance.

It's very old.

Not only the signs of weathering on the surface and the cobwebs and moss everywhere, but also the design style shows a sense of antiquity.

The color of the stone looks very similar to the pebbles in the creek, and perhaps the stones in the creek came from a section of the castle's collapsed walls.

The group walked past the thick moss-covered pillars of the outer gate, which was only half a man tall, and then walked towards the inner gate, which was blocked by the dense forest and could not even cast light.

The wooden gate had rotted so much that only a pile of debris had piled up at the entrance, overgrown with vines and grass, and the wind blew through the doorway with a "whining" sound that made people shudder.

But Henry turned his head and looked at the men behind him.

"This is our shelter tonight"

So to speak.