54: Chapter 54 The Stalker's Decapitation Shot and the Collapse of the Defense Line
Shifting the perspective back.
Deep within the endless mountains to the east of the God's Domain.
The Mithril Vein locked onto by Su Chen's will was currently the stage for a symphony of blood and fire.
Battle cries tore through the tranquility of the valley, as the clashing of metal and the tearing of flesh blended together to compose a cruel movement of war.
"Hold the line!"
"For the glory of the Silver Hoof Clan! We must not let these monsters set foot in our holy land!"
Andra, the patriarch of the Silver Centaur race, stood atop a towering rock watchtower.
The silver war bow in his hand radiated a scorching heat from being drawn to its limit for so long, nearly burning his palm.
His eyes were already bloodshot as he stared fixedly at the dark, squirming wave of horror advancing below.
The swarm.
A boundless swarm of insects.
The offensive was too fierce, completely disregarding casualties, as if their very lives existed only for attrition and destruction.
With every collision of the massive bodies of those Thunder Beasts clad in thick chitinous shells, the ground beneath groaned under the unbearable weight; the firm rock fortifications were as fragile as sandcastles before them.
Countless swift Zerglings ignored the dense rain of arrows pouring from above, using the piled-up corpses of their kin to quickly fill the trenches the centaurs had painstakingly dug, charging forward without fear of death.
But the Silver Centaur race was, after all, a warrior race that had inhabited these mountains for a thousand years.
They were not lambs to be slaughtered.
Every centaur warrior was a natural marksman, and their proud "Silver Shield-Piercing Arrows" were infused with special magic, possessing devastating penetration against the Zerg's hard carapaces.
Every second, swaths of Zerglings were pinned accurately to the ground; green blood splattered, only to be trampled into mud by their kin behind them.
The vanguard of the Zerg Swarm suffered heavy casualties, their remains piling into a nauseating low hill before the mine entrance.
"As long as we hold the mine entrance!"
"By utilizing the geographical advantage here, we can wear these monsters down until they all die!"
Watching the battle before him, a faint glimmer of hope rose in Andra's heart.
His clansmen were using their lives and glory to defend their home.
However, in that very instant.
An icy chill, as if seeping directly from the deepest part of his soul, seized his heart without warning, causing the blood in his entire body to stagnate.
As an Epic-Tier powerhouse, Andra's perception of danger had long been honed into a beast-like instinct.
There was no sound of wind.
No killing intent.
Even the surrounding airflow showed no sign of abnormality.
Yet, he felt it.
In the mottled shadows of the trees cast by the rocks behind him, something extremely lethal was emerging from a non-existent dimension.
"Who's there?!"
Andra let out a thunderous shout, his muscles tensing instantly as his war bow instinctively twisted to sweep backward at a tricky angle.
But he was too slow.
Or rather, before this hunter who stepped out from the void, all of his reactions seemed to be slowed down by an invisible force.
In the previously empty air, a sudden ripple of transparent water-like distortion appeared.
Following that.
A slender arm, covered in an eerie crystalline carapace that could refract light, reached out silently from that ripple.
The end of that arm was not a hand.
Instead, it was an incomparably sharp bone scythe shimmering with a ghostly blue energy luster.
[Void Warp]!
[Backstab]!
*Puchi—*
An extremely faint sound, as subtle as a sharp blade piercing through a piece of wet, rotten leather.
The bone blade, sharp to the extreme, followed an inconceivable trajectory, first lightly severing the bowstring in Andra's hand that was taut to its limit from his great strength.
The bowstring snapped.
The bone blade's momentum did not stall at all; carrying the chill of death, it was precisely placed against the carotid artery of his neck, which was covered in coarse bristles.
Only then.
Did the leader of those Void Stalkers—a hideous yet eerily elegant figure—fully manifest in the air.
It had no eyes.
Its smooth face had only a few slender, slightly vibrating sensory tentacles, directed right at Andra's face, which was filled with shock and disbelief.
"Don't move."
A raspy mental whisper, unlike any biological sound, rang out directly in the depths of his mind.
"Patriarch!!!"
The personal guards around the watchtower were livid; they had seen the scene that made their souls tremble and were about to rush up recklessly to the rescue.
*Shua!*
*Shua!*
*Shua!*
At this moment, across the entire battlefield, dozens of transparent shadows emerged simultaneously.
Behind the elite centaur archers who were still maintaining long-range fire suppression on the second and third defense lines, Void Stalkers wielding bone scythes emerged from their shadows at almost the exact same time.
They were like projections of the Grim Reaper in the mortal world.
Melancholy flowers of blood bloomed simultaneously in every corner of the battlefield.
There were no screams.
There was no struggling.
Only the dull thuds of blades cutting into flesh.
In just an instant, the long-range fire network that the Silver Centaur race took pride in—and which struck fear into all their enemies—was completely silenced.
*Rumble!!!*
Losing the suppression of the arrow rain, the balance of the frontal battlefield tilted irreversibly in an instant.
Three Abyssal Thunder Beasts - Titan, which had been gathering strength in the rear, their massive bodies shimmering with violent energy halos, let out roars that shook the valley simultaneously.
They moved their pillar-like, hideous limbs and launched a final charge.
The last defense line constructed of boulders shattered with a bang under their world-destroying impact!
Dust and rubble soared into the sky.
Within the pervasive dust, countless hideous Hydralisks and hungry Zerglings, like a black flood breaking through a dam, let out ear-piercing screeches and frantically poured into the gap in the defense line.
They easily split, surrounded, and then submerged those centaur warriors who had lost their long-range cover and whose formations were scattered.
*Clang.*
The crisp sound of metal hitting the ground.
The broken silver bow that had accompanied Andra for over a hundred years slipped from his weak hand and fell onto the cold rock.
He turned his eyes stiffly.
He saw the Zerg behemoths surging past his feet, their bodies dripping with highly corrosive slime, radiating a pure, undisguised aura of tyranny and slaughter.
He felt the bone scythe resting against his neck once more.
That icy sensation, that terrifying sharpness capable of harvesting his life at any moment, was reminding him of the reality before his eyes every second.
The will to fight in his eyes was extinguished.
Like a candle in the wind, only a final spark remained before it returned completely to darkness.
All that remained was endless despair and bitterness.
It was over.
The Silver Centaur race, with its thousand-year heritage, was finished.