The dewdrops in the early morning hang on the grass stems on the roadside. The cold breath of the night has not completely faded from this land, and in the early morning wind, there is a hint of gunpowder smoke. Looking up from the barren land, in the sky
The black smoke column has not been extinguished yet, and on the edge of Black Cloud Peak, some tauren tents are still burning.
At this time, Major Renn of the Gilnean Gray Wolf Brigade, who had rushed to Black Cloud Peak to supervise the battlefield on King Liam's order, and the hundreds of soldiers behind him were looking at the battlefield in front of them with blank expressions.
The steps to the stone pillar that were originally guarded tightly by the tauren of Horrible Totem were now deserted, and the ground below the stone pillar was littered with corpses that had fallen from the top of Black Cloud Peak. Those unlucky guys fell from stone pillars hundreds of meters high.
After falling down, it was hard to see the intact outline, and in the bushes around the blood-stained stone pillars, some scavenging wild dogs that had smelled the "aroma" of the food were watching the heavily armed human soldiers with vigilance.
.
"Check around and look for those..."
Colonel Renn led his soldiers to climb up Black Cloud Peak. He looked at the completely destroyed tauren position in front of him and the burning huts. He wanted to issue some orders, but stood on the steps.
Looking around, the tauren camp that had been noisy a few days ago was now dead silent, as if there had never been life here.
What's even worse is that with the unique intuition of a veteran, Colonel Lane felt that there were some sick and dark things hiding in the ruins at the top of Black Cloud Peak. They might not exist physically, but the threat of those weird things,
Perhaps no weaker than the savage centaurs on the frontal battlefield.
"Find the survivors!"
After the colonel hesitated for a few minutes, he still issued the order. He had to figure out what happened here last night, and what happened to this tauren tribe of more than 3,000 people, which caused them to be completely destroyed overnight.
.
And just when the soldiers gripped their bayonet-equipped muskets and prepared to spread out to search, a voice suddenly sounded from the edge of the ruins:
"You'd better leave the wreckage alone..."
"who!"
The colonel subconsciously grabbed the gun at his waist and pointed the muzzle at the shadow under the sun behind him vigilantly. As he watched, a group of people slowly walked out of the shadow. They were human beings, numbering about more than 100.
Around the people, they were all wearing the hoods of the Holy Light Church, but the color of the hoods was a rare black, and these men and women all had more or less traces of blood and battles on their bodies, most of them
Everyone looked very tired, and some were injured.
Obviously, they had a tough fight.
"Who are you? Friends."
Colonel Lane saw his compatriots appearing on the battlefield at Black Cloud Peak. He did not relax his vigilance. Under his questioning, the leader of those strange people, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his 40s, took out his pocket.
He took out a small, folded letter and handed it to the colonel. After reading it at a glance, the Gilnean colonel's eyes widened.
He looked at the more than 100 compatriots in front of him with some disbelief, and lowered his voice:
"It's really you... you destroyed this clan with just a few people? Are you kidding me?"
"It's not just us."
The leading shadow priest drew several religious symbols on his chest in a compassionate gesture. Behind him, the silent priests also made the same move.
"There are also 95 of our compatriots who died in this battle, those who shed their blood on this desecrated land. Without their sacrifices, we would not be able to achieve such a feat, but now is not the time to talk about this.
, when we embrace the shadow, our names and existence are irrelevant. This is the will of the Holy Light."
The priests recited sacred scriptures silently, but they could not give people the slightest sense of sacredness. Colonel Lane could not feel the warmth of the holy light from these strange priests, but could only feel the faint cold sting from the darkness.
This made him and his soldiers subconsciously want to stay away from these weird priests.
"On the western platform of Black Cloud Peak, there are still some tauren prisoners whose minds have been defeated, waiting for you to receive them, Colonel."
The Shadow Father didn't care about the doubts and faint fear in the soldiers' eyes. He stretched out his hand, pointed at the wreckage in other areas of Black Cloud Peak, and said to the colonel:
"The soul-eating plague still remains in these ruins, as well as the shadow demons we summoned from dreams. Their existence is fatal to flesh and blood life, but in the real world, they only take a week.
It will dissipate naturally, but unfortunately, in the next few years, these stone pillars will be infected by the power of fear, and it is not suitable for too many people to live here until everything returns to normal."
As he spoke, the priest led his remaining compatriots towards the stairs leaving this place. He seemed very silent, like a person who really lives in the shadows.
"What's your name, Father?"
When the priests were about to leave, Major Lane sighed. He looked back at the priest wearing a black hood and shouted loudly:
"I have to write down your contribution in the battle report... I can't use "Anonymous" to refer to you, right?"
This shout made the silent priest stunned for a moment. Then he turned back, pulled his hood down, and said in a hoarse voice:
"You can call me...Daze, we are the heresy judges of the Holy Light Church. You can just report it like this."
"Okay, Pastor Daze."
Colonel Lane flexed his fingers and shouted:
"No matter what, thank you for your sacrifices for the empire."
The shadow priest named Dai Ze did not answer. He shook his hand without looking back and disappeared on the stairs quietly. The moment he walked down the stairs of Black Cloud Peak, Dai Ze saw
Looking at the bones of those tauren who lost their footing and fell to the ground in the fear of last night, and were thrown to pieces, he sighed deeply. Under the sunshine, the priest knelt on one knee on the desolate ground, and he seemed alive.
The shadow like an object was stretched out.
In the wind of the wilderness, he silently recited his inner prayer. Finally, he closed his eyes and whispered:
"This...is all the will of the Holy Light."
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The destruction of the Horrible Totem Clan in Black Cloud Peak was a heartfelt victory in the westward march launched by the empire. It directly changed the situation on the rear battlefield. However, on the frontal battlefield, facing the enemy entrenched in Thousand Needles Stone Forest,
In the wasteland to the west of the Grand Elevator, as well as the last centaur tribe occupying the "Wind Nest" in the Grand Canyon, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack, the human army is not advancing at a satisfactory speed.
On the one hand, 70% of the entire Thousand Needles fell under the control of the empire. On the other side of Thousand Needles, at the northern entrance to Feralas, the night elves' army had also blocked the other exit.
This directly resulted in the remaining centaur tribe having no way to retreat, and those barbarians who were forced to a dead end could only resist stubbornly.
On the other hand, under the aggressive power of the human empire, the originally arrogant Centaur Khan had to humbly accept the help of the cunning goblin consortium.
With the support of massive alchemy bombs, the centaurs finally had "thermal weapons" and gained a little more strength to fight back against human attacks.
"boom"
Several crazy centaurs with alchemy bombs hanging all over their bodies roared and rushed towards the human position. Seeing the suicide attack of the monster with red eyes and a voice like thunder, even the bravest and most capable human soldiers had no choice but to
Choose to retreat to avoid these flexible "human bombs".
More than 20 heavy weapons fired continuously, forming a large death net in front of the position, blasting the bodies of the centaurs that rushed towards them. But even so, the bodies of these barbarians who were not afraid of death were still hanging.
After the alchemy bomb was exploded, the tiny fragments filled in the bomb still caused several casualties to the soldiers staying in the position.
"Dry!"
Aldrin, the old knight of the Kingdom of Stromgard who was supervising the battle on the front line, grabbed his helmet and smashed it on the table in front of him. He witnessed the crazy raid just now and watched the few people being carried on stretchers.
Carrying the wounded soldier back to the rear medical center, the old soldier felt as if there was a burning fire in his heart.
This is not the first time.
Those centaurs who resisted got bombs from the goblins, and then learned this disgusting and threatening "meat bomb" tactic without any teacher. In the past few days, the entire empire's frontline communication lines have been destroyed by these
The crazy centaurs with bombs hanging all over their bodies destroyed most of them. Even the elite company after a complete change of equipment would suffer heavy casualties due to the self-explosion of several centaurs who rushed out of nowhere.
What's even more terrible is that this kind of self-destruction firepower that can appear anytime and anywhere greatly affects the inner courage of the soldiers. No one wants to kill the opponent and then be crippled by the opponent's self-destruction.
But the reality is this. The crazy behavior of the centaurs did prevent the human empire from moving forward. After seeing the effect, those cruel centaur khans became more diligent in making such dangerous "gadgets".
And driven by their evil wisdom, they have developed a "variety of" attack methods.
It is said that one day ago, on the Windnest battlefield, a Lordaeron infantry regiment that had retreated to the rear to recuperate was completely wiped out by the collective self-destruction of hundreds of centaurs who rushed out halfway... That was really
It is an out-and-out disaster. It is said that the soldiers on the Wind Nest battlefield are now in danger, and the offensive operations there have been completely stopped.
"Let the frontline soldiers retreat 300 meters! Let the engineers dig trenches for attack! Send more scouts!"
The old knight Aldrin shouted to the messenger beside him:
"After transferring 10 continuous-fire machine guns from the armory to the front line, tell the sergeants on the front line! I need them to kill those bastards completely on the way to the charge! Do you understand?"
The roar and anger of the military commander cannot change the current predicament on the battlefield. As long as humans make a full-scale attack, barbarians who are always ready to burn themselves and self-destruct will rush out to stop the soldiers. The worst thing about suicide attacks is that,
As long as you succeed once, you can get several times the harvest. Under the current situation, every soldier of the human empire is very precious. No military commander would be willing to bury his soldiers with those stinking barbarians.
"We need more gryphon knights to turn the sky into our battlefield!"
In the northwest headquarters, the irritable King Garin walked around the table, waving his hands and shouting to others:
"Air supremacy! This is a word I heard from those dwarfs and goblins who sell weapons. It makes sense, doesn't it? The current situation has become clear. Unless we are willing to pay huge casualties, those stinky centaurs will never win.
I will not surrender voluntarily, and I am not willing to accept the surrender of those bastards. I will chop off the heads of every one of them!"
"And those damn Hotsand Goblins!"
The young king's eyes were bloodshot with anger:
"The damn weapons they gave to the Centaurs cost at least the lives of nearly a thousand of our young men. They all deserve to die!"
"Most of the dwarves of the Wildhammer clan have stayed in Kul Tiras. There are not many gryphon knights who have followed us to Kalimdor. The trainers are trying to tame the local wyverns as aerial mounts, but
The large-scale air force you want is unlikely to be realized in the last few years at least."
Duke Aberlock, who was also frowning, stared at the tactical map on the table in front of him. There was a strange light shining in the eyes of this old man who was over sixty years old. After a few words of fighting with King Garin, the old man
The Duke took a sip of wine, waved away the surrounding guards, and then lowered his voice:
"If the group of elven mages in Quel'Thalas are here, we can use the abilities of the mages to send an army into the core area of these centaurs and create a central flower..."
"It's a good idea, but those high elves are busy playing games with the ogres in Feralas, so they don't have time to help us."
Galin said angrily:
"The mages of Dalaran have gone to who knows where...so what you say is meaningless."
"No!"
The old Duke sighed, raised his head and looked at King Jialin:
"I have a force of spellcasters who are willing to make sacrifices for the cause of the empire. Their appearance will directly change the situation on the frontline battlefield. But the only question is, Your Majesty Galin, do you have the guts to use them?"
"What's the meaning?"
King Garin felt that there was something in the old Duke's words, and he asked doubtfully:
"Sir Aberlock, it's already this time, please stop beating around the bush, okay?"
The old Duke's expression was a little strange, but after a moment, he still explained seriously:
"Ahem...I mean, a few days ago, a group of sneaky warlocks found me and expressed their desire to join the empire's military power system. I can guarantee that they are strong and have an innocent background, but you also
Knowing the bad reputation of warlocks in the empire, that's why I ask you, do you dare to use them in this war?"
