There's something out of place nearby—this is a signal of danger.
The patrol team leader is not a Transcendent and cannot sense the surrounding environment with Magic Power, yet an experienced veteran's battlefield intuition doesn't fall far behind that of a low-level Transcendent. This crisis instinct, honed through numerous brushes with death, allows him to acutely detect threats, and the secondary clarity spell effect in his standard-issue helmet sharpens his focus to almost the level of a low-level Transcendent.
Hostile individuals are lurking nearby, their numbers unknown, but they don't seem to be monsters from the mountains.
They have already detected the presence of the patrol but have not yet taken action; perhaps they haven't found a good angle of attack or confirmed the situation on this side.
