"Retreat!" The elf captain immediately turned his hawkstrider around and led the rangers fleeing back the way they had come.
After riding for a while and putting some distance between them, he glanced back. The Orc Wolf Riders charging toward them had not slowed, but halfway through their charge, they swept around in a wide turn and raced back.
"Damn it, we fell for it!" the elf company commander shouted furiously. "Turn around! Turn around!"
The Elf Rangers also looked back, but unlike the Orc Wolf Riders, they had not prepared for this. They turned more slowly, widening the gap between them and the orcs even further. When they reached the edge of the minefield, they saw that the orcs had covered the passage through it with densely packed nets. Then they looked at their hawkstriders' long, slender legs and exchanged helpless glances.
"Send word to headquarters! Tell them we can no longer hold the enemy up!" The elf company commander shook his head with a bitter smile.
Man proposed, but heaven disposed. Luck did not always favor the elves, and the orcs had clever people too. The minefield the elf Gryphon Riders had laid to halt the orcs' advance had ended up blocking their own pursuit.
He did not dare sacrifice soldiers' lives to clear the mines as the orcs had. He could only have the Owl Rangers confirm that no orcs lay in ambush before slowly gathering up the nets the orcs had laid. Otherwise, if orc ambushers suddenly charged out while the nets were being rolled up, the Elf Soldiers doing the work would not even have a chance to escape.
Sylvanas was on her way to observe the main orc force when a Gryphon Rider caught up with her and delivered the news.
"Leave them alone