Beiruth is feeling uneasy for many reason. He needs to consider again the best approach against the upcoming ambush. Three hours ago Evrick had explained to him about the enemy's deployment on their ambush, but Beiruth still haven't came up with any appropriate strategy to counter it. The main thing he currently concerned about are his group's fighting capability and experience, which most of them are currently lacks. There are only a few people in his group who had actual battle experiences and skills, including Evrick.
Beiruth himself was once known as Blood Tiger Mercenary's leader, so he knows a lot of things regarding warfare and battle stuff. But his abundant experience seemed useless because his groups is filled with thief, thugs, pickpockets, and even rapist. There are only 4 of them who were actually have good battle experiences.
The first one is Rendall. This guy is only 29, yet he was sentenced to death, because he had killed 5 city guards after he Stabbed an arrogant merchant who shamed him in public to a miserable death. He tried to flee from the scene and killed 5 of 20 city guards who pursued him to the city's outskirts. after staying in the prison for a year, he was supposed to be executed next month. But Beiruth released Rendall on his successful prison break, so Rendall joined this group willingly. This guy have a real skill in wielding a long sword.
The second would be old man Hovan. This old man used to work as a woodcutter, but woodcutting was only his side job. His real profession was an underground arena fighter. Old man Hovan used to hold the title of the Undefeated champion for 10 years in the Lore City underground arena. He was imprisoned for assaulting the underground arena's promotor in a broad daylight. He's hot blooded by nature, and the reason he followed Beiruth was because Beiruth had beaten him in a 1 on 1 brawl when in prison. Even beiruth have difficulties handling Hovan's brute strength, so old man Hovan is unquestionably strong.
The third person is unexpectedly a beautiful young woman, her name is Sevana. She's the flower of this group of rowdy men, and these guys has always treated her like a princess since the beginning of their journey. Why would such a beautiful girl such as her got imprisoned ? Because she beat up a nobillity from Marquis's family including his 6 personal guards inside the Lore City tavern.
This 24 years old girl was a new watress in "Rolling Rock Tavern" which is a high class tavern located in the central area of Lore City. Sevana was purely tempted with the high pay the tavern offered, which was 10 Zebs per hour. The most important thing Sevana overlooked when applying for the job was the tavern's esteemed customers who are mostly from lore city's high class society, and sometimes even nobles from Lore Castle would visit there.
Sevana never thought about the unrestrained practices some people from high class society tend to do while she applied for the job. Only on the first week working, her worst nightmare already came. The 4th young master of Lorelius Castle suddenly visited the tavern with the company of his 6 personal guards. When he saw Sevana for the first time, his eyes was already full of obscenity. He tried to woo Sevana, but to no avail, Sevana didn't show any interest towards him, and this attittude of her enraged the 4th young master as he forced himself on her to show her his powerful might in lore city. Sevana had cried for help, but no one seemed to hear her desperate cry. She was really scared of offending the nobility, so she cried for help, hoping there would be anyone to help her escape from such predicament.
Sevana didn't think of anything else at that moment, so she headbutted the 4th young master and threw a deadly punch to his that instantly knocked him out. Sevana did this to protect her own purity. Seeing the young master got knocked out, the 6 personal guards moved out to apprehend the young girl. But contrary to their expectation, the beautiful young girl had already transformed into a tigress as she also knocked out the 6 armed bodyguards one after another, with only her fist and kicks.
Apparently, Sevana was a martial practitioner. She had trained under her late father since her childhood. But still, an unarmed girl against 6 armed powerful men, and she still win with no serious injury. She's undoubtedly a strong person even among these rowdy men. The reason she joined the group was because she have nowhere else to go.
The last and the strongest one is undoubtedly Evrick the young Half-Elf. He had the most merits on their successful breakout operation from the castle dungeon. He singlehandedly slaughtered tens of guards and the warden inside the dungeon, then personally opened up the path towards the armory for all the escaped prisoners to get their own steel weapons. Evrick wreaking havoc again was the main reason to the chaos that's been happening inside Lorelius Castle till this date, since the total number of Lorelius Castle's guard had instantly dwindled to half it's original. Marquiss Lorelius himself needed to pardon himself from the council meeting and quickly return home from the capital city in order to stabillize the chaotic situation in his own territory.
Evrick was the first person Beiruth had freed after he escaped his own cell with Simon's help. Beiruth could only drop his jaws when he saw Evrick slaughtered ten guards in a mere minute. This made him wondered, how did such a strong individual got imprisoned. He later found out that the reason Evrick got imprisoned were for his infiltration to Lorelius Castle and the murder of 93 guards in the castle's premises.
Though Beiruth never know about Evrick's reason to intrude the castle, he was still awed by Evrick's prowess to have done all that alone. Without Evrick's help, their escape plan would be full of chaos, and may even ended up in failure. Evrick had no special reason in joinning this group, he only tagged along because he happened to be also running away towards Southwest.
"Sigh..." Beiruth couldn't help but sighed in this hopeless situation. He didn't want to always depend on young Evrick every time they faced a difficult battle, because once Evrick left the group, they would have nothing else to depend on other than their own strengths. Beiruth actually wished to train these rowdy bunch by letting them fight a real combat in a battlefield, yet their starting point is just very miserable. At this rate, they might get wiped out before they even start their bandit group.
Hearing the leader sighed to himself, old man Hovan approached him from the side. and start trash talking, "Beiruth! What's with the pitiful sigh? Do you feel bored with the peaceful forest ? Hahaha, don't worry. As you had said before, there might be an ambush up ahead. This forest won't bore you for too long, we're already halfway towards the bloodfest, I can't wait for it as well. Hahahaha!"
"Bloodfest my ass. I hope your 3rd squad won't get wiped out too soon later." Beiruth also replied with a trash talk. "I still haven't found the most effective way to counter the ambush. Do you have any idea, Hovan ?" Beiruth could only hope to ask the opinions of one of his his strongest comrades. "Why don't we just break into their formations and slaughter them all ? It's the simplest way you know." Old man Hovan gave out his opinions as he raised his big shoulders, gesturing as if these matters aren't so difficult.
Hearing Old man Hovan's opinion made Beiruth's eyes twitched several times. In the end, Beiruth got his hopes up for nothing, since this old man is a complete muscle head. *"Nothing less from an Ex-Champion of underground arena huh? I'm realy stupid to have asked him."* He mocked himself and he felt miserable as he could only depend on Evrick's quick maneuver again for later after all.
At this moment, Evrick is walking a little further ahead, Since he need to observe the road ahead using his newly plundered device 'prismocular'. But this time, he isn't alone. Sevana is walking a step away behind Evrick.
She had been following Evrick closely since they departed from the halt three hours ago. She was not satisfied with the division of the group into 7 squads, since she needed to stick together in a squad full of men.
Inside this group of ruffians, whenever walking or resting Sevana was often on her own, since she's the only girl. It's obvious that she needs her own space and privacy, when the other reason is that she has to keep practicing her martial arts. So, Sevana went forward and complained to Beiruth and told him she can't stand walking together with a squad full of these rowdy men.
In the first place, Beiruth assigned Sevana in his own squad out of his concern towards her safety. But at the end of their division meeting, this young tigress had coerced Beiruth to assign her for an Individual role like he did to Evrick. It's obvious that Beiruth had rejected her idea to fight alone at first. But Sevana's stubborn nature prevented Beiruth to make her stay in his squad.
In the end Beiruth thought of an idea and suggested her to go and ask for Evrick's permission to be his helper. *"With Evrick by her side, she's suppposed to be safer, and Evrick isn't a complete ruffian"* Beiruth thought really simply as if he had caught old man Hovan's stupidity. But in reality, he just want this extremely stubborn girl to stop her complaints.
Surprisingly, her eyes shone after she heard Beiruth's suggestion. Sevana didn't even need to reconsider beiruth's idea at all. She had always thought to closely observe Evrick's combat skill since the prison breaking operation, but Evrick's movements were just too fast and unpredictable which made her unable to catch up to him at all. So, she quickly thanked Leader Beiruth and ran forward to went after Evrick with a face full of expectations.
Seeing how the little girl just up and left without any more complaint, Beiruth suddenly had a really bad feeling regarding this decision, as he already had an intention to stop her. But thinking back to how persistent she was, Beiruth gave up on his idea.
An here she is now, pestering the young Half-Elf to death.