Chapter 499 - Centaur Avance (Patreon)

Hera's Status

Malva's roar was a rallying cry for the rest of the centaurs. They got up from beneath the rubble and the destruction caused by the spells of the humans, took one look at the number of dead children, and turned back, enraged. All the ones who were inside the tent were killed. Even the children who were currently sleeping with their parents or friends have died. The tribe had lost their future, and it was yet again because of humans. Not everyone initially agreed with that idea, but what just happened turned the entire tribe into believers. Humans were a scourge that must be destroyed, a plague on the land, devils who are abusing the system for their own greed.

The chieftain placed her son's body on the ground, making sure not to jostle him. That corpse had already endured too much, and she wanted to have a proper burial later. When she let go of her child, she gave a soft kiss on its hand before turning around and rushing towards her tent. Arriving there, she tossed what remained of the tent itself to the side, revealing her glaive and a large pile of jerky. Malva grabbed her glaive and a handful of the dried meat before turning to the rest of the tribe, "Grab some meat and come with me! We shall kill those monsters!" the chieftain shoved the jerky in her mouth, and with the first bite her veins popped out, and her skin grew red as if it was recently sunburned. She dashed towards the middle of the woods, where Toxic Rain once was. The centaurs yell back, 'Yes, chieftain!' revealing that this was their leader.

Spinner saw the centaur dashing at the center of the army and quickly gave orders for the vanguard to intercept her. At the same time, he cast a couple of spells to try to lower her abilities. One of them was a net that would wrap around the centaur and sap her attributes. However, despite the spell taking hold of the chieftain, it seemed like nothing happened, "Mages, support the vanguard. Everyone who is not engaging with that centaur, go around and start the crab maneuver. You are the large pincers to rip everything apart!"

"And the ones that can be cut off if things go to shit," Yellow Flash, a fighter specialized in high-speed combat, mumbled as the orders came through. Since things were about to start, he also activated his spell to increase his power. In a few seconds, he started to sink into the ground, his body mass becoming larger and larger until he pushed that energy out by stepping forward at impossible speeds. Anyone looking at him could only see a blur of yellow energy crossing the battlefield. In his wake, centaurs were getting hit, being tossed far away, or having one of their limbs broken, but the man didn't return for a second attack. He only hit each enemy once, hoping the rest of the humans could finish them off. If he was to come back around, he would lose too much momentum, weakening him considerably.

Halros noticed that energy and tried to follow it for a moment, but it was too fast even for his eyes. However, the centaur saw something else. A human archer was notching an arrow while aiming to the side. An arrow that was just like the one that killed three centaurs before all the spells hit. Grabbing his own bow, the centaur aimed at the human and let an arrow fly. The attack was about to hit him, but another human pulled Archer to the side. As promised, Iron Heart was protecting him. Halros clicked his tongue and started firing at that duo again. He wanted to avenge his brothers who fell and having someone that strong on the battlefield wouldn't be good for the centaurs. Unfortunately, the combination of two humans proved to be a problem for him. Each of his arrows was either blocked or dodged by them. The centaur started using magic to change the trajectory his attacks would take, and that seemed to work. But only at first. The first two attacks managed to graze Archer, but the follow-ups were stopped by Iron Heart. The heavily armored warrior was surprisingly nimble, and being in the middle of the forest allowed them to use their surroundings as cover, unlike Halros. Frustrated, the centaur rushed to the chieftain's tent to grab a handful of jerky. His movement was too fast for the humans to follow up, and when he fired again, his arrow went straight to Archer's neck.

He didn't expect that Iron Heart had a skill that could let him notice incoming attacks, even at the speed that they were coming. The arrow was less than a meter away when the controller body slammed Archer, making him fall to the ground while defending the attack with his dual shields, making a loud 'clang' echo through the woods, "Get up and stay behind me. if I move, you move!" Iron Heart commanded Archer, who followed the orders to a tee. Taking the idea of old warriors, Iron Heart would be a literal support for the assassin to steady his bow before letting the arrow fly. The problem was that neither of them could see Halros, and both were starting to get injured by the constant barrage of attacks coming not just from that one centaur but from the others that started to pile up to kill them. Iron Heart could be a great controller and bodyguard, but the moment more centaurs joined, it became hard to block every blow. He had to make the conscious decisions between evading and even letting some weaker attacks pass and hit Archer so he could defend against the deadlier ones.

Archer wasn't about to let impacts like that stop him. He could be much weaker than everyone, but he still wanted to pull his own weight. Even with the feelings of a few ribs cracked, he continued to let out a barrage of arrows at the incoming centaur. Most of them were imbued with a different element and effect. Ice, fire, poison, thunder, and other elemental attacks, as well as nets, grasping vines, ankle breakers, blinding shots, and even flash bangs, were in his arsenal, being thrown around in an adrenaline-infused flurry. Halros was having trouble getting a decent aim when seeing all the attacks coming out of Archer. Too many lights and other particles were getting in his way, not to mention that the number of centaurs in the area also caused problems. The last thing Halros wanted was to hit one of his tribesmen by accident.

That problem wasn't something Vond had to worry about. The heavily armored centaur was pushing through the human vanguard, heading towards Archer. He was an unstoppable force on the battlefield. Each person who got in his way was killed without even being able to slow the centaur down. Spells were hitting his armor, and, despite the damage his items were suffering, Vond didn't seem to mind what was happening at all. The vanguard was doing their best, but the heavy centaur with a moose's body was just trampling everything people threw at him without a problem. Even the ones who decided to run didn't get far, as the two-handed axe came crashing down on whoever was trying to escape. Vond was just a few meters away from Archer and Iron Heart when a set of chains appeared around his body, pinning him to the ground. The centaur struggled to get up and turn only to see a young man with short hair and a blue chain wrapped in his arm.

Having a centaur going around decimating the human army would be awful, especially after the chieftain vanished into the forest. If there was one incredibly strong enemy was one thing, but having several would be too much of a hit for morale for people to keep going. Because of that, Azure Chain had to step in. He was a hunter, and his skills were better used to making traps than fighting someone head-on. Unfortunately, he didn't have time for that right now. By wrapping the chain around Vond, he managed to hinder its movement. The next step was spinning the metal like it was a chainsaw. Even that wasn't enough to damage the centaur, who was now walking toward the hunter at a slow but steady pace. Azure Chain whipped his arm to the side, letting the metal links wrapped around his body free and sending them all towards the centaur, the five bladed tips aiming for his vital points. Two managed to hit one of his legs, sinking into Vond's skin, while the other three bounced off his armor, but the centaur didn't let the attack continue from there. He grabbed the chains in the air and pulled Azure Chain towards him. Without moving too much, Vond shifted his two-handed axe to catch the human with the blade. Azure Chain was yanked out of the ground, and he tried to move and turn to evade the weapon, but he was moving too fast. This centaur was strong, too strong. To make things worse, every attempt the hunter made to change his trajectory was met with a small correction from the centaur, forcing him to continue flying towards the blade of the axe. As a last ditch effort, Azure Chain triggered a weapon break skill to destroy part of the chain so the force could push him away from his certain doom. His final plan worked, but just as he managed to hit the ground and dodge the attack, an arrow came flying and hit his torso. The arrow also had some sort of paralytic agent that instantly made his body freeze up. As a follow up, Vond used what was left of the chain to wrap around Azure Chain's neck and started squeezing.

Halros wasn't the only one watching that fight. A human known as Mirror Match was going through a group of centaurs, trying to reach Azure Chain to assist the battle. The problem was that his way of fighting focused on reflecting the attacks back to the attacker, and the centaurs around him weren't going for the kill. That caused a considerable delay, and only after some other humans joined his fight did he manage to push the centaurs to the side, but when he looked at the armored centaur again, it was already too late. Vond had tightened his choke so much that Azure Chain's head popped clean off. Mirror Match was already halfway through the woods and caught Vond's eye, who went straight for him, swinging his two-handed axe at the human who seemed to be challenging him. Mirror Match deployed his signature spell, and a reflective surface appeared in front of him just before the blade came crashing down. The blade bounced off as if it hit a piece of rock, and the damage was mostly reflected back to Vond. But there was a limit to that. Everything that went past his threshold carried on to him. As a final bit of advantage that the spell gave him, the damage was spread evenly through his body, so it wasn't something that would deal fatal damage at once, "Oh?" Vond smiled and started attacking again, looking at this new human as if it was a new toy that he was trying to break.

Even with his spells that could stop almost most attacks, Mirror Match was struggling against Vond. The centaur kept trying to hit him from different angles, playing with the man that finally was able to injure him a bit. Little by little, Mirror Match began to crack. He was reflecting less and less damage while more was being dealt to his body. After about a dozen attacks, Mirror Match fell to his knees, unable to cast another spell. Not because of a lack of mana, but because his body was too mangled to continue. Vond smiled and prepared a mighty swing, activating a skill that would ensure it would break through any reflection that could appear, "Get up, boy! This ain't over!" Wildborn's voice came echoing through the forest, healing most of Mirror Match's wounds and giving him a buff that would increase the power of spells. When the axe came crashing down, a powered-up reflective surface that looked like an ornate mirror appeared just before the attack hit the man. The reflection of the attack hit Vond like a truck, opening a large gash on his shoulder and neck. Two arrows came from the side and were embedded into the centaur's neck. At the same time Mirror Match jumped to the side and put one of his hands inside Vond's wound before triggering an electric shock that was strong enough to burn the centaur's organs. Wildborn arrived just after the centaur fell to the ground and tapped Mirror Match in the back, healing the man one more time, "Good work, boy. Take a solid five and go back into the fray. We still have work to do," Wildborn turned to the deepest part of the woods before running after Malva, who seemed to be heading straight to the barrier.