Green Monster Epic

Chapter 835: The Centaur's Scheme

The fighting in Newins City was fierce. As the humans deployed their metal behemoths, the already dilapidated northern city walls of Newins fell as expected to the human army.

The Wildlands army, already short on manpower to defend the city walls, simply abandoned the outer city's defensive structures and instead concentrated their forces in the inner city, where the fortifications were relatively more complete.

At the same time, the Wildlands allied forces sent the remaining human prisoners in the city to the inner city walls, building a human shield to erode the morale of the human army.

Over twenty days passed, and the Wildlands' less than eighty thousand soldiers actually held out for longer than the Rose Duchy's army had anticipated.

Of course, the price paid by the Wildlands allied forces was also heavy. The army had lost more than half its strength in these twenty days. Now, the number of soldiers still capable of fighting was less than twenty thousand, and almost every one of them was injured. Even divine healing could not fully restore them; they needed time to heal on their own.

Even two Wildlands powerhouses had died in battle. Nicol, a member of the Thorns Ring team and a close-combat tank, had nearly been killed several times. Now, his injuries were severe, and his strength had been greatly reduced.

Ever since Kerong and the centaur army retreated, along with the departure of Ahmad and several other legendary knight commanders, the Wildlands allied forces had been at an absolute disadvantage in terms of both quantity and quality.

"Your Excellency! If we don't make a decision to withdraw, I'm afraid not only will all our allied soldiers be lost in this foreign land, but even we old fellows will have to die here!"

"If Your Excellency cannot give us a satisfactory answer, then I'm afraid I will no longer be able to fight alongside you!"

Before the heavily injured Wildlands warriors could cause much unrest, the Wildlands powerhouses, as the strong and the backbone, had already begun to show disharmonious voices internally, turning into practical actions to put pressure on Allen and Jehr.

The five members of the Thorns Ring organization, although not standing with the other powerhouses at this time, still betrayed their inner thoughts with their eyes, looking expectantly at Allen, waiting for his explanation.

"Everyone!"

"Let me make it clear first: anyone who dares to attempt to escape north before my Wildlands allied forces collapse, I will surely kill them, no matter where you flee!"

Allen's cold gaze swept directly over the powerhouses present, and the condensed killing intent made even the legendary powerhouses feel a chill.

"I also represent the Temple of Nature to warn everyone that if any deserters appear in our army, no matter how high your status or how strong your tribe, my Temple of Nature and the alliance represented by His Excellency Allen will jointly pursue and kill the traitors, until death! !"

Instead of the expected explanation, there was an undisguised threat from the demigod pillar Allen and the Knight Commander of the Temple of Nature, Jehr. Everyone's expressions were complex but also fearful.

After a round of threats, even if someone tried to find out more, they obediently closed their mouths in the face of Allen's icy killing intent.

"I will not explain the reasons for making such sacrifices, but you will all soon know the answer."

"The only guarantee I can make to everyone is that I will not let you die in vain. When the time really comes to retreat, we will naturally issue an order to break through, but it will not be now!"

"Understand?"

Allen glanced around majestically, paused deliberately for a moment, and then spoke again. However, as he said these words, the expressions on everyone's faces eased somewhat.

"Alright!"

"Tomorrow will still be a fierce battle. The humans are likely to deploy their siege behemoth again in tomorrow's siege battle. At that time, I'm afraid I will have to take action to deal with the behemoth's attack on the inner city."

"So, if there is nothing else, everyone should hurry back to prepare and recover their strength. After this battle is over, I will report everyone's efforts and struggles during this period to the alliance and ask the alliance to give corresponding rewards!"

The last time the behemoth was deployed, it opened up the northern city defenses. Later, before withdrawing from the battlefield, Allen suddenly erupted, breaking through the interception of the human powerhouses and creating a large hole in its internal components, rendering it immobile for more than ten days, which allowed the Wildlands inner city defense mission to persist.

If the humans deploy that behemoth again next time, I am afraid that piercing the dilapidated inner city again will not be difficult for the humans.

The Wildlands powerhouse team had too many casualties, and their strength had declined a lot. Their quantity and quality were also at a disadvantage. Therefore, Allen, as the most lethal powerhouse in the team, naturally had to shoulder a greater role, containing more human powerhouses.

If it weren't for Allen's strong fighting, perhaps the Wildlands powerhouses would have lost more than just one powerhouse in these twenty days of fighting.

It was precisely because of Allen's efforts that his position and authority in the hearts of this group of powerhouses reached their peak. Now, after he simply said these few words, he suppressed the dissatisfaction and resentment in everyone's hearts once again.

After the other powerhouses dispersed, only Allen, Jehr, and Aaron remained in the side hall of the palace. At this time, a look of worry appeared on the faces of the other two, and they were no longer as calm and composed as before.

"How is the progress on the centaur side? Could it be that the plan they gave us before was to deceive us and let us cover their retreat?"

Aaron still had some distrust of the centaurs after all. Watching his painstakingly cultivated army being constantly consumed and sacrificed in his hands, his heart was actually very painful.

Not only him, but also Ao Cong, the gnoll leader who did not participate in the gathering this time. In order to make up for his debt and to appease the emotions of the soldiers under him, he had been eating and sleeping with them these days, not treating himself as a legendary general at all, but as an ordinary soldier.

When fighting, Ao Cong took the lead, always charging into the most dangerous and fierce front lines, while exerting his powerful domain power as a knight, while doing his best to reduce the damage to the soldiers under his command.

During the post-war rest, he transformed into a partner with a mind full of lewd thoughts, chatting with everyone about various customs, squeezing into the simple dormitory full of foot odor, body odor, and blood, laughing and joking with these soldiers.

The seemingly simple behavior ultimately reaped great results. The allied forces of the Wildlands have been reduced from 80,000 to less than 20,000 today, but they can still maintain a fairly good fighting spirit. In addition to the Wildlands warriors' own steel-like will, it is also because of Ao Cong, the general who directly commands these 20,000 soldiers.

“I believe General Ahmad and his men won't betray us. Moreover, even Lord Kerong's Avatar has been dispatched for this operation. They wouldn't easily change the plan,”

Jie He, on the other hand, had more faith in the centaurs. What worried him was the possibility of unforeseen circumstances arising during the execution of the plan.

“Now that things have reached this point, regardless of what happens to the centaurs, we must prepare for a breakout!”

Although Alan had appeared strong and unfazed when facing the questions from the wilderness experts, he couldn't help but reveal a hint of heaviness now that only these few companions who knew the plan were present.

It wasn't for any other reason than the fact that the Allied Forces' remaining strength was no longer capable of holding out for more than a few days. When the city fell, it would be the annihilation of their entire army. Although he had reached a level where he wouldn't feel the slightest bit of heartache even if all the soldiers of this Allied Force were lost, as long as the objective was achieved.

But if this group of warriors could leave behind a spark, taking it back to the Alliance, and in the future, a new army could be rebuilt around them as the backbone, it would allow this new army to grow faster and play a stronger role.

“Yes, I will inform Oren in advance and have them prepare!”

Aaron's eyes clearly brightened upon hearing Alan's words, and he nodded quickly.

“What's the point of breaking out now? We might as well continue to hold on and buy General Ahmad and his men more time.”

Jie He, however, didn't agree with Alan's opinion. Since things had already progressed this far, and hundreds of thousands of warriors had already sacrificed themselves, what was the need to cherish the remaining less than twenty thousand warriors? It would be better to simply continue to hold on and buy more time for the plan to succeed.

“.”

Aaron wanted to retort, but seeing Jie He's firm and cold face, he ultimately closed his mouth.

“Hold out until daytime the day after tomorrow at most. Regardless of whether there is any response from the human side, we will break out with the entire army late the day after tomorrow!”

Alan wasn't afraid of Jie He, the representative of the Church of Nature. This guy had been keeping many things from him, which had long made him very dissatisfied. Now that their opinions differed, he didn't need to consider the other party's attitude.

“Alright!”

Aaron quickly nodded, not giving Jie He a chance to refute.

“You!”

“Dismissed, go back and prepare for tomorrow's battle!”

Alan and Aaron turned and left, leaving Jie He alone, coldly staring at their departing figures.

Time rewinds to more than twenty days ago, when the centaur army was escorting a large amount of supplies and human professionals northward, with teams of elite centaur scouts patrolling back and forth behind them, clearing out the human spies following behind.

The team traveled north for more than three hundred miles, and the human spies who followed to gather information were finally completely cleared out. The centaur army suddenly separated from the team escorting the supplies and prisoners, and suddenly parted ways towards the east.

During the initial attacks on Ceres Fortress and Twin Fort, most of the villages and towns in the northern provinces of the Rose Duchy had already been destroyed by the centaur cavalry's clearing operations. Now, even though the wilderness coalition army had moved south for more than a month, there were no signs of any human existence. Everywhere they went was desolate and bleak.

No one noticed the movements of this elite centaur cavalry force of more than one hundred thousand. The occasional scattered human refugees along the way were all silenced. Subsequently, the centaur army made a large detour and returned to a valley more than three hundred miles southeast of Newens, the royal city.

This was also the farthest range cleared by the centaur army when they were idle and clearing outwards during the initial stages of the Allied Forces' attack on the royal city of Newens.

Beyond this area, they would enter Barton Province, the southeasternmost part of the Rose Duchy.

“My brothers, descendants of the great Kerong bloodline!”

“After tonight, it will be a great opportunity for us to dedicate ourselves to the Lord. Let us collectively and devoutly pray to the great Lord for the last time, and ask Him to witness our loyalty and faith!”

This pre-selected foothold was originally the ruins of a human village. It was surrounded on three sides by mountains hundreds of meters high, naturally forming a small basin in the middle. Because the surrounding area of hundreds of miles was a continuous series of stony, soil-deficient hills, very few people came and went.

Now, the village ruins had been leveled, and the ground of the not-so-small basin was occupied by teams of centaur warriors. Looking down from the sky, it was a dark mass, almost obscuring the land.

Ahmad, flying high in the sky, amplified his voice with a sound amplification spell, energetically giving the final pre-war mobilization speech to the warriors below.

Under his leadership, hundreds of thousands of brave centaur warriors closed their eyes and silently prayed, following Ahmad and others' prayers. Streams of pure faith power floated in the sky, forming clouds that only Kerong's Avatar, with black hair and golden eyes, could sense.

“Hiss!!”

Kerong opened his mouth wide and took a deep breath. The power of faith in the sky was immediately attracted like a magnet, rushing towards Kerong's Avatar, who was standing far away on the top of a hill. Finally, the huge cloud disappeared into the small body of the young centaur.

At this time, a hint of desolation and dimness appeared in the eyes of Kerong's Avatar, who had always maintained an indifferent expression. These centaur believers who could provide him with pure faith power would soon disappear from the material world and return to his divine kingdom in the endless starry sky.

Although entering his divine kingdom meant their eternal life, for Kerong, the souls entering the divine kingdom could no longer provide pure faith power, which was something he was unwilling to accept.

“. May the Lord's glory last forever!”

“. May the Lord's glory last forever!”

“After tonight, our army will head south, straight to the powerful human empire -- the Dawn Empire. We will go deep into their prosperous territories, wantonly destroying and devastating their land and population!!”

“If possible, we will also invade the territories of the Holy Light Empire and the Verorica Empire, letting these so-called civilized human empires witness the heroic posture of our centaur warriors!!”

“However, this is a one-way road. When we step into the land of the Dawn Empire, we will have no hope of returning to our homeland. Descendants of the great centaur guardians, are you afraid?”

“Willing to die for my Lord!!”

“Will you regret it!!”

“Never!!”

“Very good!!”

“This old man, and these other guys, will fight alongside you to the end, using battle to prove our loyalty to the centaur race, and using blood to sacrifice to my Lord's glory!!”

“Kill, kill, kill!!”

The impassioned pre-war mobilization speech finally revealed the centaur race's long-planned scheme. A cruel, epic war was brewing, and it would soon be revealed to the world.