Log Horizon - Volume 9 - Chapter 2.6

6 
There was a band that prowled through the depths of that same night, holding its breath. 
It was a scouting party from the guild Lelang Wolf Cavalry. 
There were three members. All were highly trained level-90 Adventurers. 
“Well?” 
“…South, I’d say.” 
The Swashbuckler, who’d been crawling along the ground in order to investigate, answered briefly, then closed the shutter on his portable hand lantern. The item was built around a Hunan Rainbow Pearl, a magic item that gave off eternal light. It was one of the production unit’s recent creations: a piece of handiwork constructed with a mirror to amplify the light and a shutter to cover it. 
Having checked the footprints again, the group mounted the Great Wolves that had been waiting nearby. These creatures, which resembled three-meter-long wolves, were mounts seen on the Chinese server. 
Seated on leather saddles, the three scouts raced south over the dark steppe. 
Traveling on horseback at night was difficult. The moon was visible, but even so, the bumps and dips of the terrain easily blended into shadow, and one wrong step could break a horse’s ankle. In an environment like that, Great Wolves had an overwhelming advantage over horses. 
However, they hadn’t chosen to ride Great Wolves specifically because they were tracking at night. As a rule, all the members of the Lelang Wolf Cavalry guild rode the enormous mounts as the guild’s trademark. 
The Wolf Cavalry had originally been based in Dadu, the Chinese server’s central city. However, after the Catastrophe, public order in Dadu had deteriorated badly. Three guilds that called themselves the Kings of China had fought one another; each of them had occupied important town facilities to hinder the others, and the city had fallen into chaos. 
Zhu Huan, the very prescient leader of the Cavalry, had decided to leave Dadu early on. Their mount situation had also proved fortunate, because they had no trouble traveling long distances: Upon departing, all 480 of them had stuffed their property into bags and cleared out of their guild hall. 
After that, they’d gone steadily westward. It had taken them a month to settle down in Shimanaikui. They’d established a guild hall there, and although it had taken them a month to stabilize, the Lelang Wolf Cavalry had found a place where they could rest easy. They were probably one of the luckier guilds on the Chinese server. 
At present, the Wolf Cavalry acted as traveling guards. 
In the Qing dynasty, this job had been known as biao shi, or “bodyguard.” They accompanied People of the Earth transport units as security personnel, protecting their cargo, property, and lives from monsters and bandits. On the other hand, if they failed in their mission, they paid their client money in order to fulfill their liability for damages. 
By acting as traveling guards, they’d made a business out of one of the game’s most familiar quest duties. 
Shimanaikui, which was known locally as “the City of Mare’s Milk,” wasn’t small. It had a resident population of about fifteen thousand people, and it was also a regional center of commerce. 
It was likely that it had originally flourished as a relay base for merchant caravans: The town’s main streets were lined with shops selling dried provisions and curiosities from both East and West, and the city was rather wealthy. 
However, since it wasn’t a player town, few Adventurers were around. It had a temple—which had been the Lelang Wolf Cavalry’s biggest reason for choosing it as a base—but there was no bank. As a result, the guild’s members kept most of their property in the guild hall’s safe and had the guild protect it. 
Because of these restrictions, the Cavalry was more like a family than other guilds, and its horizontal bonds were stronger. The People of the Earth saw this, and it helped generate more confidence in them. 
The guild generally sent out single parties in response to requests for guards. These parties consisted of six members: a warrior to act as a vanguard shield, a healer to recover the warrior and manage the party as a whole, and a good balance of magical and physical attack classes. 
Depending on the request, the routes caravans took differed, and member selections were adjusted to suit the degree of difficulty. However, when it came to journeying over land-based trade routes, there were almost no threats in this region that six Wolf Cavalry members couldn’t drive away. 
While on the one hand they worked as guards, on the other, the guild leader Zhu Huan was known for sending many scouts out in all directions. 
Adventurers could be excellent scouts if they felt like it. The Weapon Attack classes, such as Assassins and Swashbucklers, had stealthy movement skills, while Magic Attack classes often had lights or special sight for seeing in the dark and could use summoned creatures that were convenient for long-distance reconnaissance. 
The fact that all members rode Great Wolves, which were good on wilderness terrain and in the mountains, was also a big plus. 
These patrols had begun as a project intended to keep the members from getting rusty during the times when they weren’t handling requests, and they’d had the secondary effects of improving public order in the vicinity of Shimanaikui and of bringing lots of information to the Cavalry. 
By the time a month had passed after they’d set up shop in their new city, the People of the Earth had acknowledged the Lelang Wolf Cavalry as an important part of the town. 
After they’d sprinted for a while, the three mounts caught the scent of water in the darkness. 
It was probably a tributary of the Railnorth. 
A little while after they’d come up against that tributary, the three of them spotted marks on the riverbank. The grass at the river’s edge had been trampled, and it was black and wet. 
It wasn’t water. It was the blood of an animal. 
“That’s a lot,” the Swashbuckler leader muttered, patting the neck of his wolf, who was whining at the smell of blood. Yet, the blood was already almost dry. Whomever they’d been, the ones who’d left this place had gone quite some time ago. Even so, the party was careful. Instead of using a bright light, they continued to use the shuttered hand lantern. 
The group belonged to a specially assembled reconnaissance unit. 
The recon unit was a large faction whose objective was to gather information in the southwest. When all its teams were combined, it had more than sixty members. The main unit was slowly moving due west, consolidating information as it went. 
While their Cleric opened a telechat to the main unit, the leader explored the area further. Overturned rocks. Muddy soil that had been trampled firm. The unit they’d been chasing seemed to have met up with more of their companions—gnolls—here. 
The creature that had been slaughtered had probably been a sheep or a deer, something along those lines. After having a bloody meal here, the group had set off again. The number of gnolls that had crossed the tributary had been more than twenty, less than thirty. 
The leader, whose subclass was Tracker, determined this and informed the Cleric. Their report would be shared with the other surveillance teams, which, like this three-man unit, were scattered within a twenty-kilometer radius of the main one. 
They were pursuing a gnoll tribe. 
The Catastrophe seemed to have had a major influence on monster habitats, alongside everything else. On their journey from Dadu (which was on the eastern coast of the continent) to this area, the Lelang Wolf Cavalry had seen many monster tribes on the move. 
The gnoll group might be part of that. About two weeks ago, the Lelang Wolf Cavalry had detected their movements—in connection with the destruction of a few caravans—and had planned and launched a large-scale surveillance operation. 
If there were several hundred gnolls, this reconnaissance unit alone would be enough to annihilate them. Even if it was a scouting unit, its members had simply been chosen because of their tracking skills, and their fighting abilities were in no way inferior to those of the guard or combat units. 
The Chinese server had a lot of light users, but the Lelang Wolf Cavalry was a hard-line guild, and the majority of its members were level 90. 
Even if the gnoll group ended up requiring a raid, the possibility of sending in a specialized subjugation unit was on the table. In that case, the guild leader, Zhu Huan, who was currently on standby in Shimanaikui, would also come to the front. 
“?! Right. Understood!” 
The young Cleric’s attitude had abruptly turned anxious, and tension ran through the group. 

“What is it?” 
“They’ve lost contact with Team Four, the unit that went southwest ahead of us.” 
“Up ahead, huh?” 
The Swashbuckler glared into the darkness. Had they run into some kind of trouble? According to their last contact, Team Four should have been a few kilometers west of their group. 
“The main unit is requesting confirmation.” 
They didn’t even need to think about it. They were the closest team, so they’d have to investigate. The Swashbuckler leader gave the order, and the three of them mounted again. 
Once their masters were on their backs, the Great Wolves raced off into the darkness without waiting for a signal. 
In the Lelang Wolf Cavalry, mounts were practically family, and by now they didn’t need orders from their riders. Picking up on their masters’ tension, they ran at full speed through the dark night without a whimper. 
The wind that sliced at their ears was painful. It was still September—practically summer. And yet, the wind that blew down from the high mountains was cold and sharp. Running through it after sundown only made it worse. 
The Lelang Wolf Cavalry was used to this sort of mission, and they’d turned the collars of their fur-trimmed jackets up and buried their faces in their mounts’ necks. As the beasts between their arms leapt, their temperature was high, and if they buried themselves in their fur, a little cold wouldn’t bother them. 
Before long, about the time the moon began its descent from the top of the sky, huge pillars came into view, standing black on the horizon. 
The distance was so great that the pillars looked small, but when they thought about it, they thought it had to be incredibly tall. Since there was nothing to compare them to, it was difficult to guess with any accuracy, but they seemed to be easily over thirty meters in height. 
These things—which towered over all else in a world with no modern structures, not to mention in the middle of a wasteland—had a surreal immensity that made them visible even from the distant horizon. 
As they drew nearer, the full extent of their imposing appearance was revealed. 
They might have been made of steel; the structure looked like three poles standing together, and it didn’t seem to have an interior. This was why they hadn’t called them buildings—in other words, towers—but pillars. They looked as spiky as ancient weapons, and they almost seemed to be menacing their surroundings. 
Ruined Colonnade Tonnesgrave. 
The recon team leader muttered the name to himself, almost silently. 
There were no accurate maps of this region. 
To People of the Earth merchants, routes were everything. They didn’t need detailed maps of an entire region in order to conduct sales along those routes. In addition, the more seasoned the merchant, the less likely they were to carelessly let their knowledge and experience—their property—leave the confines of their own head. 
Adventurers did need maps, and they actually created them, but Aorsoi was a savage land that they hadn’t really touched. They didn’t have enough information to make maps yet, and at the very least, there were no completed maps. 
However, collecting information that would lead to map-making was one of this scout team’s regular duties. Due to his Tracker subclass, the Swashbuckler who led the team had patrolled this region many times, and he was well versed in the local rumors. As a result, he immediately understood that what he was seeing was the Ruined Colonnade that appeared in the old people’s stories. 
“Stop!” 
At his words, his two companions instantly halted. 
In the hollow up ahead on their right, he’d seen a shadow move slightly. 
When he strained his eyes, he could make out some gnolls. Far more than a hundred of them, perhaps over a thousand, were advancing through the hollow in complete silence. 
For a moment, the three waited with bated breath upon the backs of their wolves, but it seemed they’d gone unnoticed: By nature, when gnolls discovered Adventurers, they attacked with insane ferocity. That said, as long as they were on these particular mounts, they weren’t in that much danger. 
This was due to the difference in speed. Even if they got surrounded, they’d probably be able to get away. However, if that happened, it would be hard to continue their reconnaissance, and that was a disadvantage. Needless to say, if possible, they’d prefer not to be spotted. 
“Why are there so many of them?” 
The young Taomancer spoke to him in a whisper, and he shook his head. 
He had no idea. 
However, for now, it seemed clear that Team Four had encountered these things and run into trouble. After a little hesitation, the leader signaled the Cleric. It would make things choppy, but for now, they should probably send in a report. 
“Tell them exactly what we’re seeing and retreat about a hundred meters.” 
Watching his comrades’ Wolves slink backward, their bodies low to the ground, the leader leapt down from his own mount. After lightly tapping his loyal partner’s wet nose, he began to crawl forward on his hands and knees. 
He wanted to get just a little closer, to see what the gnolls were doing and where they were headed. All else aside, it struck him as very strange that such a large group was advancing without so much as a cough. 
Activating a Tracker special skill, he concealed his presence, then moved forward, taking care not to let his shape show on the ridge of the hill. 
He approached the gnolls, taking quite a long time. 
The hyena-like demihumans, dribbling saliva, seemed to be gazing at the pillars on the horizon as they advanced, their eyes filled with a sort of starving desire. They looked like opium addicts, and there was something eerie about them that froze the man’s spine. 
His instincts were screaming at him to run. 
However, he forced them down and continued his approach. In another ten meters, he’d be close enough to check their statuses. 
Even as he dripped with greasy sweat, he went closer, and as he’d expected, the statuses belonged to monsters: regular gnolls and Gnoll War Mages. That wasn’t unusual; within races, demihuman monsters were often divided into several classes. Goblin and orc tribes included warrior and priest ranks, for instance. 
The gnolls in front of him were Darkmancers, assault troops, and Wolf-Fang Captains, and their levels were mostly between 60 and 70. 
He had the information he wanted. 
Scouting any longer wouldn’t just be useless; it would be dangerous. If it came to fighting a hostile group of this size, they’d need the entire guild, or at the very least, a legion raid force. A three-man scout unit couldn’t do a thing. 
On that thought, he slowly turned back, intending to tell the others to withdraw. 
However, what he saw was a moon as sharp as a grim reaper’s scythe—and an enormous Black Dragon descending with that moon at its back. 
In the midst of a lukewarm fountain, his vision was dyed monochrome, then immediately cut out.