Diego didn't hesitate to turn his gun, but before he could hold the fire, the beast shouted,

"It's me! Diego, watch out for your musket, don't point it at me! "It was Masrae's voice.

But at this moment, through the afterglow of the flares, he saw countless gnolls rushing out of the dense forest in front of him and pounced on him.

"There's an ambush, go back." Diego shouted. He picked up his gun and threw the gnoll brute who rushed to the front to the ground, but there were too many gnolls, and they were not short of tactical acumen, and some of the gnolls made their way through the woods, trying to outflank the adventurers from both flanks and form an encirclement.

"Stand back!" Diego shouted. "It would be nice if this gun could fire shotguns." Diego secretly thought in his heart that in this kind of jungle terrain, the M1 rifle could not exert its power, but it covered a wide area, and a dozen large shotguns were the best choice.

Diego fired several shots in a row, but the bullets quickly ran out, and he subconsciously pulled out the M500, almost pulling the trigger against the face of the jackal brute who rushed up, he had long forgotten that he was filling the bullet nest with flares.

The spindle-shaped flare slammed into the gnoll's face, and even the parachute behind it failed to open. But the huge impact caused the powder inside to be thrown out at once, and the face of the jackal was pasted like flour.

Immediately afterwards, the powder was ignited by the fuse. The gnoll man on fire in his face screamed and slapped the powder on his face with both hands, but the fine powder that stuck to the fur was so easy to shoot off, and his slapping made the powder all over the place, and he was completely ablazed. The scream turned into a wail, but after a few seconds, the howl had subsided. He froze like this, burning violently like a bright humanoid torch, and the stench of burning flesh filled the air.

The gnolls were stunned by the horrific sight. They unconsciously stopped, looked at this terrible scene, and slowed down the pursuit of the adventurers.

"In the name of nature, the spirits of the forest help me!" Taking advantage of this gap, Masrae shouted. Diego felt the crunching sound of the trees around him, the branches of the trees that had always stood in his way suddenly changed direction, the roots of the trees that had always stumbled disappeared, and he ran as freely as if he were on a flat avenue, without any concern for the trees and thorns around him. And he heard a muffled grunt from behind him from being thrown by the gnolls, and the ambushers were clearly not enjoying his treatment.

After a few minutes, he felt a sense of relief as they finally broke out of the forest.

He and Masrae watched the dark forest warily, but the gnolls didn't chase them out. They were very wise, and knew that they could not do anything to these adventurers without losing their geographical advantage.

By this time, Wendthor had just run to the edge of the forest.

"How?" He gasped and asked aloud.

"There was an ambush, and we didn't find it." Diego replied apologetically.

"Hell!" Windsor slammed his fist into the ground, making a deep hole.

"Go back first, come back tomorrow!" He shouted angrily, and he knew that now was not the time to rush in.

Next, several people lost their sleepiness. Everyone understood the purpose of the gnolls - they had come for the two tablets. They pondered their hearts and minds, and it wasn't until the wee hours of the morning that Diego fell asleep. He was so tired, a little more than half an hour of fighting was even more tiring than walking on foot for a day.

Diego was woken up in the morning by Windsol, a worried veteran who looked like he hadn't slept all night, his face full of haggard and exhaustion. This made Diego feel guilty, and to be honest, the loss of the slate had nothing to do with him. Although it is normal to not take care of the slate in that critical situation, no matter what, it is his duty, and there is no reason for dereliction of duty.

After dawn, they searched down the hillside, but found nothing but the bodies of the gnolls, and there was no clue of who was behind the qiē, only charred grass and mutilated corpses as proof of last night's fierce battle. But after a while, Wendsol, who had searched the south, returned with a gloomy face. He was holding a broken blade in his hand, the half of the blade was very sharp, the surface of the blade was as bright as a mirror, Diego took it, leaned in front of his nose and sniffed it, and the smell of freshly opened maintenance oil came to his nose.

What's even more serious is that this blade looks very familiar, very much like the style of Stormwind's standard one-handed sword. He looked up at Wendthor and the latter, who knowingly drew the sword from his waist and handed it over.

Diego compared his blades and saw that they looked identical. He felt a pang of frustration in his heart, and now he didn't believe that these gnolls had nothing to do with humans, and that he wouldn't believe them.

"I've seen it, Stormwind military weapons, I swear it's not been more than a month since they've been crafted," Wendthor said with some sadness, looking devastated as he said, "The Stone Fortress hasn't used these new weapons yet, and they haven't updated their weapons and equipment for a whole year." ”

"What now? Are we going to get the slate back? Masrae asked, worried about the marshal's state of mind, and there was no doubt that the discovery had hit him deeply. The cold fact that weapons that should have been used for troop refitting were privately offered to the gnolls hurt the veterans more than anyone.

"Why not?" Wendthor looked up and said, his eyes spurting with anger, the people who betrayed Stormwind did not make this strong man despair, on the contrary, they finally angered him completely.

"Those scum, those who secretly obstruct us, I will let them repent with their lives!" Diego looked at the veteran who was as hard as black iron and swore secretly in his heart.

They had eaten breakfast in a dreary atmosphere, and the dry food was cold, but they were not even in the mood to cook hot soup. After eating something indiscriminately, they set off for the east. But they did not ride the Kodo beasts and horses, for the roads to the east were mostly sparse or dense woods, and were not suitable for horseback riding.

They followed the main road all the way east, and left the avenue at the bend where it twisted north toward Lakeside Town. Here, the woods begin to grow dense. But in the gaps of these dense forests, they could see that it was not far from the mountain range that separated the Red Ridge Mountains from the Sorrowful Swamp, and they could clearly see the valleys between the folds of the mountains. Some of the gnolls set up their own camps in the ravines and lived a grueling safari life. These may be among the gnolls who attacked them last night.

They walked a little east in a direction parallel to the mountains, but the trees became denser and denser, and they could not see the sky beyond their heads.

They barely stopped throughout the day covered in mist. On the flat ground, they strode wildly, and in the dense jungle they cut through thorns and thorns, as if nothing could extinguish the fire in their breasts. They barely said a word, and as the gnolls hurried almost non-stop to the northeast, they searched for the messy footprints all day long. At dusk, they came under a rolling hill, the undulating terrain that is very common in the Red Ridge Mountains, and it is not unusual at all. But the jackals' footprints are blurred here, because the land in this area is ochre-yellow clay, soft and sloppy when it rains, but very hard when it is dry, and it is difficult to leave footprints on it.

Diego walked at the front of the line, his eyes wide as he watched for clues ahead. Truth be told, the hunters' eyes are pretty good, and Diego's eyesight is particularly good. He looked around, trying to discern every clue around him. It was the first time he had put his tracking knowledge into practice, and he was a little excited.

For the hunters of Azeroth, they are destined to be entangled with all kinds of prey for a lifetime. There are many different hunters in this world, they are born in different regions, have different beliefs, and hold different goals, but the same thing is that deep in their souls, they all have a desire to hunt and devote themselves to the tireless pursuit of their prey. And no matter where the hunter comes from or where he goes, tracking is an essential part of their training. By tracking the footprints, scent, hair, and even other subtle traces of the prey, hunters can accurately deduce basic information such as the type, size, and physical condition of the prey. There are also powerful hunters who have mastered the art of tracking down twisted creatures such as demons and undead, either to take revenge or to eradicate the evils of the people, chasing these creatures from the darkness, vowing to destroy the filth and evil that should not exist in this world.

Diego kept searching with his head down, hoping to find some clues soon. And the Gnoll's carelessness did leave him with too many traces to follow—empty bags of dry food, unrecognizable food scraps, clothing fibers hanging from bushes, or rotten boots with a few big holes......

The traces left by these gnolls carried them through the jungle all afternoon, and by late evening they had to stop. Now they had walked more than a hundred miles, tired and hungry. Elune, on the other hand, was apparently unable to provide them with the light to rush to the night, and its figure floated in the clouds of the sky, unable to bring much light to the earth, and the stars were dim.

"One of the things I hate most right now is rest and pause!" Masrae said with some agitation, although the Night Elves could see at night, it was useless for him to catch up alone, "The gnolls have pulled us down too far, as if someone had whipped them hard in the back. I fear they've probably made it to Stonecastle Falls or the Garradel Valley, and now they've even returned to their lair. ”

"If this is the case, our hopes and efforts will be in vain!" Windthor said worriedly, looking very haggard. The loss of the slate was too great a blow to him, far beyond Diego and the others could have imagined, in fact, it was almost his only hope of surviving the dark stone abyss.

"Maybe they've run away, but I'm not going to give up, even if I have to chase them into their lair." Diego stubbornly said that he would rather use his actions to make up for his previous mistakes.

"We can't be discouraged at this time, but at the same time, I feel very uneasy," his gaze looked in the direction in which the gnolls had disappeared, in fact, from last night to now, the anomaly of the gnolls made him wary, he never thought that the gnolls would be so fierce and cunning, whether in previous or present lives, this race is almost synonymous with stupidity and laziness, notoriously brainless, "I have never felt so uneasy before, for a hunter, when there is such a clear trail to follow." , should not be so uneasy at all. But I always felt that there was a bigger conspiracy behind it, as if someone was behind it. ”

"You're right!" Masrae said with a vague feeling, attributing it to the sensitivities of the caster, and he pointed to the valley to the northeast, "Ever since we left Lakeside, I've had the same feeling, as if someone was watching our every move from afar. If there is one person who does have zài, I'm sure, it's to the northeast of us. ”

Watching him point in that direction, Diego fell silent for a moment, he knew what was over there, but he didn't want it to be true.

"Morgans!" Wendsol's face sank, and he looked even more melancholy, "If what you say is true, I can only think of this name!" But in any case, we must get plenty of rest now, and we must continue our march north early tomorrow morning to chase down the damned thieves. ”

The next morning, Windsol woke up early, and no one even knew if he had closed his eyes the previous night.

"Wake up, get up, get up!" He shouted loudly, his voice full of excitement, "It's dawn, I see movement ahead, get up!" ”

The others jumped up at once, and almost in a daze, began to pull out their legs and run wildly where he was pointing. They could feel themselves going downhill, and when they looked north over the lower tree tops in front of them, they could see a gap in the dense forest in the distance, not natural, as if it had been cut down by man. But the journey still took them a lot of time, and by the time they got there, it was close to noon.

Many of the trees had been cut down to clear a temporary campsite, the ground beneath their feet had been trampled so hard, and in the center of the clearing was a scorch mark from a burning campfire, and some of the wet wood that had not yet been burned was still emitting white smoke.

Diego stopped and surveyed the camp.