"They've rested here for the night," he straightened up from the mess of the place, and his face was full of smiles, and the situation seemed to be quite optimistic, "the jackals have been lazy again, and have rested here for a long time, and judging by the traces here, they have not been gone long." Masrae, you are wrong, at this rate, they will not be able to return to the lair even by this evening. ”

"This is the first good news I've heard in a few days!" Windsor said happily that he finally didn't look so sad.

With this excitement, they began to rush again.

They walked through the mountains, which were dense, but not the impenetrable heat of the tropical jungle, but similar to the deciduous forest belt of the north, mostly pine, but also interspersed with some elms, birches, beeches and a few oaks, and the air was fresh, but also mixed with the smell of decaying leaves.

Tall trees obscure the sky, and sunlight simply does not reach the ground, leaving some spots on the ground at most in sparse spots. They walked very fast, and the thick twigs and fallen leaves on the ground made a slight cracking sound under their feet, a small sound, but in this secluded forest, it could be heard far away.

The sun had set in the west, and the afterglow was shining on the breezy earth. There was still a dense jungle ahead, and Diego wondered if they were lost here, or they would have to get out of it. But the traces left by the gnolls told him that they were not wrong.

The group had been running non-stop for nearly a day, and their pace gradually slowed involuntarily, even Wendthor's back was bent down. The tenacious veteran was as determined as black iron, but the chase with no end in sight left him feeling exhausted. Diego didn't say a word, but walked in front with a solemn face, bending down from time to time to examine the marks or footprints on the ground. Only two leopards were still brisk on their feet—and the length of their legs seemed to give them a big advantage.

"Are they going to destroy the two slates?" While searching for traces, Diego asked with some concern.

"No, those two stone slabs are actually whole essentia casts, and even the sharpest weapons are hard to destroy." Wendthor said firmly, but this is not what he is worried about, if the jackal throws it into that bottomless cave, it will be a bad thing, as far as the eye can see, where can I find the dense jungle of Red Ridge Mountain?

The twilight was getting thicker and thicker, and the forest beneath everyone's feet began to be surrounded by mist, because to the north was the Zhishui Lake, which was also filled with heavy water vapor, but the sky was still very clear, and the two moons hung high in the sky, radiating bright moonlight, and the stars in the sky seemed much dimmer against them.

They had reached the southwest edge of the lake, and their speed slowed down as the traces left by the other party were no longer visible. Here, the surface of the lake becomes narrow, meandering between the hills like a long and narrow belt, forming a narrow plain between the mountains to the east.

In a sparsely wooded place, they looked northwest and saw that it was not far from the stone fortress where they had fought, and even at night they could see the little white dot in the distance through the cracks in the canopy.

Probably to prevent their pursuers, the gnolls have covered their tracks here, making the already inconspicuous traces even more difficult to find. Diego stepped down and searched the trees for the traces of the gnolls.

"You think they're going in that direction?" Masrae asked, "Will you go north to the Tower of Ilgara, as you guessed, or will you take a boat west to the shores of the lake?" ”

Diego groaned for a moment and said, "No matter where the target is, they will not go towards the lake, and unless the fish-people there have moved, these big, slippery fish will never allow anyone to pass over their heads." Let's go north! ”

Truth be told, the Gnolls aren't a race that excels at stealth, even at night. For Diego, it's not an impossible task either. After walking half a mile north, he found the Jackal again.

Following these trails, they found a trail through the dense forest, the ruins of the lakeside road many years ago. There are still many stone slabs left in the sparse areas, which have fallen into disrepair and fallen apart by the expansion of the roots. They walked for a while, and finally came across a glade. There are many tall beeches growing all around, and a flat meadow in the middle. Looking up at the starry sky from this clearing, it is like being at the bottom of a deep well.

Far away, they could see the glow of a campfire burning in the middle of the clearing, where the gnolls had set up a makeshift camp to rest.

The group cautiously approached the past, and then saw the camp, there were not too many gnolls in the camp, probably only a few dozen, and it seemed that the damage caused by this attack to themselves was also very heavy.

The gnolls were boiling something with a pot over the campfire, but Diego saw that the pot looked like a helmet. The gnolls seemed very excited, and they sat around the campfire, talking happily, but a few of the gnolls who were like the leaders turned their heads from time to time to look at the dark forest to the north.

"They seem to be waiting for someone." Diego guessed that they didn't walk out of the woods, but peered out at the edge of the woods and clearing.

"Perhaps, we'll soon find out who caused all this trouble." Wendsol said lightly, but Diego could clearly hear the sound of his molars after he mismoved.

Suddenly, across from Diego and them, on the other side of the gnolls' camp, a figure emerged from the darkness. His appearance was very strange, as if it had appeared completely out of thin air. Diego bet that there was nothing but air in that place a moment ago.

The man was shrouded in a black hooded robe. He carried a staff with an emerald gem on the top, glowing green in the darkness.

There was a commotion among the gnolls, and a tall gnolll who looked like a leader stood up and met him. He was holding a human-style two-handed sword in his hand, which looked very sharp in the light reflected by the cold light of the campfire.

They looked like they had known each other before, and the two men whispered to each other at the edge of the woods. But it didn't take long for the human mage's voice to suddenly become high, and even Diego and their side could hear his roar.

"How dare you say that, Van Gore!" The human roared loudly, and he angrily waved the staff in his hand, almost hitting the gnoll man on the head several times, "How dare you oppose your master! ”

"The great gnolls never need masters, we are our own masters!" The gnoll leader shouted loudly, but his voice sounded a little weak, and the great sword wielded in his hand was more like a bluff. His human language is lame, sounding somewhat like a coyote barking, but barely intelligible.

"It seems that I have been so merciful to you lowly earth dogs that you dare to rebel against me!" The mage finally lost his patience and shouted angrily, he raised the staff in his hand and pointed at Van Goghray.

"Go and nibble on the grass for a while, sober up!"

Diego saw a cloud of smoke appear out of thin air where the gnoll leader stood, and he felt that he could faintly hear the bleating of sheep, and then when the smoke cleared, the gnoll leader was gone, and there was a curly-haired sheep.

The cute-looking sheep circled the grass a few times, as if unable to resist its biological instincts, it lowered its head and gnawed on the grass.

Diego looked at it with a chill, this transfiguration technique was so rebellious that it could destroy people's consciousness and make them obey the deformed biological instincts.

The other gnolls were visibly frightened, and out of fear of the mage's mysterious power, they trembled and fell to their knees, holding the two dragon slabs above their heads.

"Lord Morgans, please accept our offerings!"

"That's just Van Gore's idea, and all of us in the Darkskin Clan are happy to serve you."

"That Van Goray must have lost his mind, we don't know what he's going to do!"

“……”

The gnolls did not hesitate to sell their leader, and they talked and coaxed, lest they would be too late to express their position and be turned into sheep by this mage.

The mage didn't take the slab at once, he looked triumphantly at the gnolls who fell to their knees, enjoying their awe and fear.

"It turned out to be him." Diego suddenly realized that he knew who this mage was. This is a Kel'thugad-like figure, the owner of the Tower of Ilgara, who was forever banished from Stormwind for his secret study of dark spells, and hid here to conduct his own evil research.

But at that moment, the mage seemed to have noticed something, and he looked sharply this way, his gaze sharp

"Who's there?"

He was answered with a loud bang and a scorching bullet, but the bullet didn't work, it slammed into the mage, but it only splashed a splinter of ice.

The mage who had lost the lead reacted very quickly, his figure flickering like lightning for a moment, and then vanished. When he showed himself again, he was already in the woods in the distance. Unlike other classes, pretentious mages always put their lives above the line, and when attacked, their first instinct is often to protect themselves before fighting back or something. In their eyes, their lives are more valuable than anyone else, and porcelain should never be struck by tiles.

Masrae, who had long since transformed into a cheetah, rushed forward, and before the trembling gnolls could react, he slapped the slate in the direction of Windsol with one paw.

"Let's go!" The latter grabbed the slate and shouted loudly, with a prepared mage, who no one with a little brains would do, especially since this mage also had a group of gnolls with him.

Mages are powerful! There is no doubt about that. Even in Diego's previous life, Blizzard's own sons were always the center of attention and center of all scenes. Compared to the Hunter, Diego himself thinks that the Mage is more suitable as the protagonist of a time-traveling drama. Their spells are brilliant and powerful, their tactics are tough and brutal, they seem to have been born to crush other professions, high above and over all beings - and it is true, isn't the city of mages Dalaran a city in the sky?

But, so what? In this world, it is never possible to do whatever you want if you control a powerful force. The real strength is the human heart and hope! Like Anduin Lothar, he is only a powerful warrior who knows no Light, no arcane law, and no evil powers, but he can still lead the alliance of Azeroth's tribes to turn the tide and defeat the mighty orc army. Why was he able to do this? Is it because of his strength? No! It's because of his loyalty, steadfastness, and faith! He sacrificed his life to protect Azeroth, and even his enemies had to have a sense of respect for him. That's the real power!

As the Pandaren sages said: The real question for all of us is, what are you fighting for! If you don't understand this, even if you have mastered the power, you can only be the next Guldan, the next Kel'thugad, the next Alsace! The stronger the power, the worse the disaster!

As the group ran through the forest, Masrae at the front of the group, his intimacy with the forest helped a lot, and they ran steadily and fast without the entanglement of branches, vines, and roots.

At this time, in the forest camp, the leader of the gnoll finally changed back to his human form with a "bang". He woke up, looked at the chaos in front of him with some surprise, and then grabbed the great sword on the ground and chased after Diego and the others disappeared.

"Don't leave me!" He took a bite of the grass residue in his mouth and shouted.