“So you are alive. I started to think that the county guards might have killed you.”

As the six men entered through the massive stone door, an equally enormous hall greeted them as dozens of eyes fell on them. Some were uncaring, some irritated, and some were stern.

The speaker was a big, robust man, seated in a stone chair at the end of the hall on a step higher than everybody, next to another empty stone chair the same height. But nobody seemed to care.

While a step down from the two stone chairs could be seen at first sight roughly seventy to eighty bandits, most of them were at the sides of the hall as only six were seated at a long rectangular stone table with a dozen empty seats.

As the six men entered, they divided respectably, as only the man in front of the group took a seat at the table, causing some scorn and anger to appear in the eyes of most bandits.

"Good, now that Zuger is here, we have almost everybody of those rank 4 and upwards here."

As the seated man addressed his words towards the crowded hall, he took a glance at the empty chair to the left in an unnoticeable manner.

"Since you made it here, do you have any other news, Zuger?"

"Nothing that you don't already know. The villages are already empty without any other thing of value, provision and all."

As he said that, his sight was on a man, two seats from him as unnoticeable disdain appeared on his face, that was because the man was one of the two rank 5 vice leaders, a man named Bloody Dog, whose love for killing, was the fault that the county guards had appeared earlier the what was anticipated, as his mindless slaughter of the villages for provisions, had let to escapees off, announcing the movements of the bandits, as the county, came not a month later.

However, the glance of Zuger did not go unnoticed as the man turned toward him and gave a brutal grin full of murder. But before anything could happen, the seated man, who was clearly the leader, interfered, stopping anything from happening.

"Dog, keep your anger in check and Zuger, know your place. Now Joul, what have you found?"

As the leader's voice deepened and stopped Dog, he immediately addressed the other rank 5 vice leader Joul, the one in charge of energy items and the information in the group of bandits, as a lean and somewhat bored man rose from the closest seat to the leader opposite of Dog.

"The location of the encampment, the number of villagers and the guards. First is the border mountains' east corner, the sea of trees and the prairie where you'll find the camp. Second, the number of villagers should be somewhat within the range of one thousand, with a large number of provisions and livestock. As for the guards, there are 50 of them. The captain is a freshly promoted boy, coming from the central part of the kingdom, a descendant of some big family of the kingdom, but what family I don't know, what I know that he is a rank 5 cultivator, as for the rest there are three rank 4, eight rank 3, seventeen rank 2 and twenty-one rank 1. The overall power and troupes are sub-par to any captain of the county. We have a high chance of obtaining the provisions we need to pass this winter. As for what we have already, sixty females and twenty-five males, we could sell them for quite something, but the traffickers will still try to inflate prices on everything we might want to buy."

The eyes of Zuger squinted at the speed of the information that Joul had already found by the time he returned as he himself was still waiting for the scouts.

"Those bastards were already asking a lot for the food. Now they are trying to skin us alive, but fear not, you bastards. Once the pervert and I reach rank 7, we will leave this shit hole and move north, on the east edge route of the mountains, to reach the War State and leave the Kingdom for good. So, if we can beat the county dogs!? Dog and the rank 4 captains take charge and bring everything of use. Joul see to the products and look where the pervert is?"

As the leader ordered Dog to attack the camp, the sited bandits at the table rose and formed groups with the rest as they divided to prepare for the journey.

Zuger was alone with Square as they walked the long cave-like corridor to their rooms. Square's face was as always, next to the irritated Zuger as he was constantly cursed under his breath.

"Fucking bastard, "go take anything of use", "leave this shit hole", does he take me for a fool and that bastard Joul how the fuck some important brat in rank 5 doesn't have someone fucking protecting him."

"Are you sure?"

"You should really think a bit more with your head. Think about it, two months ago, this bastard was nothing but a hooligan in the mountains, and now he probably is on the execution list of the county and province. The only reason he's not killing Dog is for the same reasons that we live as well, to be nothing more than fucking scapegoats a diversion as he’ll run from here. After all, if a real captain of the county will come here, everybody will die."

"So, do you have a plan?"

As more and more irritation was piling on Zuger mind, the flat and simple questions of his companion did nothing to alleviate his headache. Still, as the impending doom seemed to approach, closer and closer, he grasped the collar of his shirt to look with a grim face at a black round spot right under where his heart was, as determination flickered in his eyes.

“I have an idea. Well, more like an insane plan, if everything will go as I think it will go, that in the best case we will be crippled and die anyway, do you want to hear?"

As Zuger looked at the black spot under his clothes, a grim and solemn mood appeared on Square's face as he nodded at his companion.

As the day was dying and the sun crimson red, thirteen freshly graves could be seen in the Down River village as galloping horses going south could be heard in the distance as imprints of horses could be seen on the ground following the still somewhat faint trail left by little Levis escape.