Killing

Once Harrot's plan was approved, he wasted no time. He immediately slowed down, turned his horse around, and charged back toward the Centaurs. The others' horses were slower, so they fell behind him.

Seeing the enemy they had been crushing turn back to counterattack, the Centaurs immediately changed direction and retreated, firing arrows as they went to hinder Harrot's pursuit.

But it had little effect. Both Harrot and his mount were fully armored, and Harrot in particular had internal armor with "+40 Defense."

Ignoring the rain of arrows, Harrot quickly caught up to the Centaurs. Seeing that Harrot was the only one moving quickly, the Centaur leader ordered a counterattack.

They wanted to kill Harrot before the other humans caught up. The Centaur leader took the lead, charging straight at Harrot.

The Centaur leader wielded a long axe and moved extremely fast. Harrot could only hastily block the incoming blow. The impact numbed his arms and left both hands bloody.

His Power Strike skill was useless while blocking. His strength was far inferior to that of the Centaur leader; conservatively speaking, the opponent's Strength was at least 60!

After exchanging a blow with the Centaur leader, Harrot brushed past him and charged into the other Centaurs. With one swing of his sword, he severed the upper body of a nearby Centaur.

The other Centaurs thrust their spears at him. Harrot had no time to block or dodge. He was still unaccustomed to fighting on horseback!

Fortunately, the armor forged by dwarves was sturdy. Ordinary Centaur attacks could not pierce it, though the force behind them still shook Harrot badly.

-5 -8 -4. His health began to drop continuously. The Magical Warhorse was also surrounded and could not break free. Centaurs weighed half a ton; without a running start, even a Magical Warhorse could not knock them aside.

At that moment, the Centaur leader caught up and brought his axe down again. Harrot did not block this time. Instead, he met the blow with his sword. With the massive strength bonus from Power Strike, Harrot was no longer at a disadvantage, but the recoil still nearly threw him from his horse.

The other Centaurs continued attacking as well. With only two hands, Harrot struggled to hold on. Marcus and the rest of the team would need over ten seconds to reach him.

Another spear struck him in the chest. Blood surged up in his throat, and Harrot spat out a mouthful of blood. I can't hold on. These Centaurs are much stronger than the ones I encountered before! My horse can't move while we're surrounded! Rather than being a target on horseback, I might as well dismount and fight on foot!

With that thought, Harrot gritted his teeth and jumped from his horse. He grabbed a thrusting spear and used it to pull himself onto the back of a Centaur.

The Centaur leaped desperately and used both hands to attack Harrot behind him, trying to throw him off. Unfortunately, it had little effect. Their body structure made it difficult for them to attack an enemy riding on their backs.

Harrot grabbed the Centaur by the head and drove his sword through its heart from behind. After fighting for so long, he had only killed two enemies!

Seeing Harrot brutally kill one of their own right before their eyes, the other Centaurs let out savage howls and tried to turn him into a pincushion.

Harrot rolled off the Centaur's corpse and began fighting on foot.

Fighting on foot activated his Running skill. Although he became much more agile, he also faced greater danger. He had to watch out for the Centaurs' trampling and charges.

Centaurs weighed half a ton, and the strength of their horse bodies far exceeded that of human bodies. A full-force charge would seriously injure Harrot.

To deal with this, Harrot once again used the ultimate technique he had learned in the Gladiatorial Arena: rolling!

After using this move, Harrot not only narrowly avoided the hooves and spears, but also slipped beneath a Centaur and viciously attacked its belly. There were no muscles or bones protecting that area; it was one of a Centaur's weak points.

Marcus finally arrived with the soldiers to provide support. Seeing Harrot abandon his horse and roll around on the ground, Marcus assumed the situation was critical. He leaped from his mount, transformed into a three-meter-tall Balrog, and began attacking the enemy frantically.

The Bald Man hurriedly entangled the mighty Centaur leader. That fellow seemed to possess Fire Resistance, and even Marcus could not drive him back.

The Bald Man was no match for the Centaur leader and was forced back step by step. Still, he gritted his teeth and held on. Without the Centaur leader's support, the ordinary Centaurs could not deal with Marcus at all.

Seeing his teammates arrive, Harrot stopped rolling on the ground to evade attacks. He rose to his feet and sent a Dragon Slaying Sword Qi at a Centaur in front of him. As the white sword qi swept past, it instantly killed its target.

After more than a month of training, he had gained control over the power of his sword qi. He no longer exhausted himself by attacking with full force every time, but he could still only use it two or three times at most and could not waste it carelessly.

The Centaurs were beaten into disorder by the fire whip of Marcus's Balrog form. The other Knights and soldiers caught up and easily killed the remaining Centaurs.

However, the Centaur leader was truly formidable. The Bald Man had been completely suppressed and could only rely on the Magical Warhorse's agility to keep circling him.

The Bald Man had blocked the Centaur leader's heavy axe several times in a row, and both his arms were nearly numb. When faced with another fierce attack from the Centaur leader, his weapon was knocked from his grasp, and he was sent flying from his horse. He hit the ground and rolled several times before stopping.

After being tied up by the Bald Man for so long, the Centaur leader saw that nearly all his subordinates had died. He roared furiously and chased after him, intending to hack the fallen Bald Man to pieces.

"The Bald Man can't hold on anymore!" Seeing the Bald Man defeated by the Centaur leader, Harrot stopped slaughtering the ordinary Centaurs and hurried over to block the enraged leader. Muscle Burst activated! Strength +50%! There was only one enemy left, so there was no need to consider the skill's side effects. Once he was dealt with, the battle would be over!

Harrot was not on horseback this time; with his feet planted on the ground, he could exert more force. With the support of his various skills, he had the strength to trade blows with the Centaur leader.

"Ha! Ha!" Harrot used all his strength to meet the Centaur leader's heavy axe blow for blow with his sword. He had to attack head-on to trigger Power Strike; he could not passively block.

He ignored the intense pain in his arms from the recoil. After activating Muscle Burst, his Strength had reached 47. With the bonuses from his passive skills, it exceeded 80. Even the Centaur leader was slightly weaker than him in strength.

But strength was not the Centaur leader's only advantage. Harrot forced him back two steps with a Heavy Strike, but just as he moved in to pursue, the Centaur leader reared up and kicked him backward with its hooves.

The Centaur leader's Agility was higher than Harrot's, while its Strength was only slightly inferior. Harrot's attacks basically posed no pressure to him.

After exchanging several rounds with Harrot, he had also figured out Harrot's limits and knew how to deal with him.

The Centaur leader launched a continuous assault. Harrot's speed could not quite keep up. Every time he deflected one attack, he had to deal with the next in a desperate rush.

Finally, he failed to react in time to one attack and was struck by the Centaur leader's axe.

-32. Harrot's health had not been full to begin with, and this blow immediately reduced him to critical condition.

Even the full plate armor forged by dwarves was cut open, blood spraying wildly as though his organs were about to spill out. Yet even so, Harrot did not retreat. If he did, he would be handing the Bald Man over to death!

Harrot had the system's "Revival on the Brink of Death" protection. Wearing heavy armor, there was a high chance he would not be chopped in half by a single axe. Even if he died, he could revive.

Marcus also noticed the critical situation. His Balrog transformation had ended, and he had regained his sanity. While the Centaur leader's attention was focused entirely on Harrot, Marcus suddenly leaped onto the Centaur's back. His right hand transformed into a massive flaming claw and viciously stabbed into the Centaur's back.

At that moment, his right hand could melt even steel, let alone a Centaur's body. It easily pierced straight through him.

Then Marcus fully unleashed his Bloodline Power. Flames erupted from the Centaur leader's chest, completely engulfing his body.

The Centaur leader howled miserably. With his toughness, even a large fireball would not have seriously injured him, but he had no way to resist flames burning inside his body.

Marcus was flung away by the rampaging Centaur leader. Covered in flames, the leader ran wildly in every direction. The fire even seemed to be gradually dying out; his vitality was absurdly powerful.

In the end, Harrot used all his strength to unleash a Dragon Slaying Sword Qi, severing the Centaur leader's head and ending the battle.

Although the Centaur leader was far stronger than the troll, he had no regenerative ability. After losing his head, his body staggered about for a few more seconds before finally collapsing.

Experience +2600. Level increased to lv10. From the experience granted by the system, it was obvious this was no ordinary opponent. Ordinary Centaurs only gave a little over 200 experience points.

The Bald Man looked at Harrot gratefully and said, "Thank you, brother. Without you, I would have died here today! I will never forget this favor!" In his eyes, Harrot had risked his life to stop the Centaur leader and save him.

"How was that guy so strong? I was completely no match for him!" Thinking of how the Centaur leader had crushed both him and Harrot, the Bald Man could not help but sigh.

"He was probably the leader of a medium-sized tribe. It would have been difficult for me to defeat him alone! I just hope there aren't many Centaurs with that kind of strength!" Marcus was also shocked by the Centaur leader's power.

"We should retreat quickly. That was probably an elite from the Thunder Tribe. If we run into another one, we're finished!" Harrot, who was the most badly injured, suggested retreating.

The soldiers and Knights had only suffered some arrow wounds earlier. Marcus was mentally exhausted from excessively unleashing his Bloodline Power. Only the Bald Man and Harrot were seriously injured.

No one dared to linger. They hurried back toward the allied army's defensive position. Their objective had more or less been achieved. The Centaur leader they had killed was definitely no ordinary figure, and his death would surely provoke the Centaurs into launching an attack.

Several other unlucky nobles in the camp had also been attacked by elite Centaur squads. They did not possess the strength of Marcus's team. The Centaurs slaughtered all their ordinary soldiers, while only the Knights and nobles managed to escape on their faster Magical Warhorses.