South of Hindukush, between Dog Forest City and the southern forest, a not particularly wide river served as a boundary, separating the beastmen from the forest. Camps large and small were clustered along the river's north bank, while only a scattered few tribes stood on the south bank near the forest's edge. The Curved Claw Tribe was one of those few.
The werewolves' main camp lay south of a small hill. At its outermost perimeter was a two-meter-wide trench, behind which stood a bamboo wall some five or six meters high. Inside the bamboo wall were dozens of tents of every size and shape.
Three subsidiary camps surrounded the main camp. The largest belonged to a minotaur tribe that raised and grazed cattle for the werewolves; next was a Deer-folk tribe that helped grow vegetables and pick fruit; the smallest was a Human Race tribe that served as miners and laborers.
For the Curved Claw Tribe, the human miners were their primary source of food. The Scorch Wolf Tribe controlled several mines and required a great many miners to excavate ore.
During spring, summer, and autumn, small tribes such as Curved Claw sent their subordinate tribes into the mines, exchanging ore with top-tier tribes like Scorch Wolf for food and magic-pattern products. In autumn and winter, they followed Scorch Wolf into battle.
When Landen heard of this arrangement, he could not help nodding. "So these small tribes are basically labor dispatch agencies?"
On the night of the twenty-fifth, beneath the Three Moons, a squad of knights silently burst from the woods and charged toward the camp at tremendous speed.
Within the Curved Claw camp, the beastman on watch finally spotted the riders when they came within five hundred meters. He had just grabbed the horn at his side when an