52: Chapter 52 The Battle for Mithril and the Centaur's Fierce Resistance
Eastern Mountains, Mithril Vein Entrance.
The biting mountain wind swept across the jagged ore rocks, bringing with it a hint of metal's unique cold sweetness.
Thousands of Silver Centaurs stood like a silent steel forest, guarding the massive mine entrance. Their upper bodies were muscular, robust warriors, while their lower halves were agile warhorses covered in gleaming silver fur, hooves firmly planted, stable as mountains.
"Loose arrows!"
Chieftain Andra's chest erupted with a thunderous roar, the sound wave echoing through the valley.
The Silver War Bow in his hand, inscribed with Wind Runes and glowing with a moon-like cold radiance, was now drawn into a breathtaking full moon by his bulging muscles.
On the bowstring, a completely silver arrow was not physical but compressed from high-purity energy, with visible helical air currents swirling around its shaft.
Thwack!
A sharp whistle tore through the air.
The moment the energy arrow left the string, the surrounding air was instantly sucked out and twisted, forming a brief vacuum channel.
A thousand meters away, an Abyssal Thunder Beast - Titan, comparable in size to a small hill, was taking heavy strides, attempting to break through the defense line with its indestructible headbutt.
The next instant, the silver light precisely struck its steel-hard skull head-on.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, only an extremely muffled bang.
The Abyssal Thunder Beast's charge abruptly stopped, its massive body shaking violently. A dark green bodily fluid spurted from the penetrating wound on its head, and then the giant beast let out a short, painful roar before crashing to the ground.
The earth trembled violently with it.
"For the glory of Silverhoof!"
Andra's fatal blow ignited the fighting spirit of all centaur warriors.
Thousands of longbows vibrated simultaneously, forming a humming metallic torrent.
A death curtain made of pure silver light rose from the ground, enveloping the entire battlefield. Each arrow dragged a light of demon-breaking radiance, precisely covering every corner of the Zerg Swarm's charge.
The Zerglings in the front ranks couldn't even let out a complete hiss.
Their chitinous carapaces, upon contact with the silver stream of light, were completely purified and disintegrated by the laws attached to it, turning into nothingness before even a drop of acidic blood could splash.
The offensive was firmly suppressed.
On Andra's face, a hint of pride rooted in his bloodline emerged. Their Silverhoof tribe had guarded this sacred mountain and Mithril Vein for hundreds of years, enduring countless wars, big and small, without a single defeat.
These ugly bugs would be no exception.
However, just as his confidence reached its peak.
The tide of the battle subtly changed in a way he couldn't comprehend.
Above the centaur formation, which was firing in unison, an extremely faint ripple, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, silently spread out.
Pfft!
A sticky, faint sound of a sharp blade cutting into flesh.
A Centaur Centurion, who had just nocked a new arrow, suddenly froze.
His silver-helmeted head flew into the air without warning, and hot blood spurted from his severed neck like a tragic fountain. His headless, burly body remained rigid for half a second before collapsing to its knees.
Beside him, there was no one.
Only the mountain wind howled.
"What is that?!"
The proud expression on Andra's weathered face instantly froze. His golden pupils suddenly contracted into dangerous pinpricks, staring intently at the location where his fallen tribesman lay.
But there was nothing there.
His perception frantically swept through, yet only captured emptiness.
Immediately after, that chilling cutting sound began to rise and fall within his formation.
Pfft!
Pfft! Pfft!
Screams began to merge into a continuous chorus.
Distorted shadows moved at high speed through the centaur ranks, so fast that they only left afterimages on the retina. They had no fixed form, merely an unnatural refraction in the air.
Each flash of dark light was accompanied by a deathly cutting sound.
Inevitably, an elite centaur archer would be decapitated in utter astonishment, or have their heart pierced from behind.
Death became silent and unpredictable.
"It's assassins! Invisible assassins!"
"I can't see! I can't see anything!"
Fear, like the Plague, spread through the indestructible front line. Companions who were fighting side by side one moment became cold corpses the next. This terror stemming from the unknown was a hundred times more frightening than the Zerg Swarm beasts charging head-on.
The Void Stalker officially entered the fray.
Each of its attacks precisely severed throats or pierced skulls, efficient and deadly. Shadow Divine Power adhered to its blades, annihilating the centaurs' souls, leaving them no chance to even issue a complete warning.
"Hold the formation! Back to back!"
Andra let out a hoarse roar, attempting to rally the morale that had been disrupted by fear.
"They're not just in the air!"
As a battle-hardened commander, he keenly sensed that such a multi-dimensional attack would not be so singular.
"Underground! Be careful of the underground!"
His warning had not yet finished.
Rumble—
The hard rocky ground beneath the centaurs' feet emitted a grating, cracking sound. Deep purple cracks rapidly spread like a spiderweb.
Before they could react from the terror of the invisible killers, the ground suddenly burst open.
Countless giant purple poisonous vines, covered in barbs and mucus, erupted from the earth, carrying a strong, sweet, and putrid stench. Their targets were clear, precisely coiling around large numbers of centaur warriors' exposed hind hooves and horse legs.
Rott, the mother tree's, long-range support – [Toxic Strangulation]!
"Ah!! My leg!"
"I can't move! My leg is numb!"
Sharp poisonous barbs plunged deep into flesh, and purplish-black neurotoxin instantly injected. Intense numbness began in their legs, spreading like lightning throughout their bodies.
Large numbers of centaur warriors instantly lost their ability to move, their longbows clattering to the ground, their massive bodies uncontrollably twitching and falling.
"Can't see... can't see the enemy at all!"
A warrior desperately swung his war blade, but only cut through air.
In the sky, invisible reapers harvested lives.
Underground, deadly traps stripped them of their boasted mobility.
The once indestructible silver canopy, constructed by thousands of demon-breaking arrows, instantly shattered and crumbled under this dual strangulation from the sky and underground.