No Match

The Pioneering Alliance had chosen a good defensive position: a broad stretch of rolling hills. The terrain allowed the human forces to deploy comfortably while also restricting the Centaurs' mass charges.

Although they had formed an alliance to fight together, the nobles still commanded their own armies. They had merely been assigned separate duties according to the alliance's battle plan.

Like the unified formations and command structures of the various dynasties in the previous life, combining the armies under a single command would indeed have produced greater combat power and cohesion. However, the allied forces had never considered doing so.

For one thing, the soldiers had never trained or coordinated together. Suddenly placing them into unfamiliar units would make cooperation difficult.

For another, none of the nobles wanted someone else commanding their troops. During the pioneering campaign, whoever earned more merit would receive more land. If you led my soldiers into battle, whose achievement would that count as?

Marquis Prague alone commanded nearly ten thousand troops. His legion, together with the dwarves' thousand-man force, formed the main strength at the center of the defensive formation.

The other nobles defended both flanks around Marquis Prague. The stronger ones were assigned longer front lines, while the weaker ones were given shorter sections.

Although Marcus himself was powerful and his Knights performed exceptionally well, his force numbered only a little over a thousand, so he did not occupy a main position.

Marcus's territory was not in the Eastern Province, making recruitment far more difficult for him than for the other nobles. Even after offering excellent terms, he had recruited only a few hundred men. Counting the veterans he had brought from his territory, he had barely managed to gather a thousand soldiers.

However, all thousand of those soldiers were capable regular troops, with no miscellaneous rabble mixed into their ranks.

Marcus had been assigned to defend a high ground on the right flank. It was the highest point in the area and had been set with various traps and obstacles, making it relatively easy to defend.

Because that handsome elf, Tiona, and Harrot were on good terms, the elves had come along as well. The high ground on the right flank also happened to be well suited for archery.

Marcus encouraged everyone. "If we win this battle, our pioneering plan will already be half successful! Honor, status, and wealth are all reaching out to us!"

"Fight with courage! This campaign will be recorded in history as a great achievement of mankind, praised and celebrated by future generations! We are the heroes who will carve out a new world!"

Marcus was remarkably charismatic, and his speech greatly boosted the army's morale. Even those soldiers who had never fought monsters like Centaurs found their courage.

Harrot had been given an important task. Two hundred elite infantrymen had been placed under his command, including the fifty infantrymen he had originally led, the gladiators, and Marcus's core palace guards.

The Bald Man was too badly wounded to fight, which was regrettable. Still, Harrot believed Marcus would not mistreat him.

Harrot had to lead these elites and hold firm before the high ground, blocking the Centaurs' frontal assault.

Several other Knights led ordinary soldiers in defending both flanks. Marcus remained to the rear, directing the archers and leading ordinary soldiers to reinforce whichever area needed aid.

The elves could decide for themselves. Marcus was in no position to command them, but fortunately, they were cooperative and positioned themselves beside Marcus's ranged troops.

The Centaurs arrived quickly. Before noon, they had reached within ten li of the alliance camp. Each Centaur was a massive creature weighing half a ton, and the sight of more than thirty thousand Centaurs was several times more imposing than the alliance's eighty thousand troops.

The Centaurs had little patience and were not a disciplined army. It was impossible for them to bother with tactical arrangements or splitting their forces.

After resting for barely ten minutes, the Centaurs launched an all-out attack on the allied army.

Tens of thousands of Centaurs charged forward in disorder, with no formation, no cover, and no attempt to divide the battlefield. They simply surged toward the allied forces in a great wave, making the broad hills seem crowded beneath their flood.

Just as Grand Duke Lance had said, the Centaur army was nothing but a rabble. They had no formations and no tactics, like the brainless strategy in games where the whole army charged the moment battle began.

Only the Thunder Tribe led by the Centaur Chieftain remained steady, maintaining formation in the rear without joining the attack.

More than twenty thousand Centaurs swept toward the allied defensive lines with overwhelming force. The thunder of countless hooves striking the earth mixed with the Centaurs' roars, deafening everyone.

Fortunately, the rolling terrain made it difficult for the Centaurs to build up speed, greatly reducing the intimidation of their mass charge.

Both sides began firing arrows from afar. Drawing and firing their bows did not hinder the Centaurs' movement in the slightest. They were stronger than humans, and their bowstrings were more resilient; at full draw, their range exceeded that of most human archers.

The humans were only able to retaliate after the Centaurs had already fired an arrow each. Fortunately, the Centaurs looked down on humans and possessed terrible military discipline, so they did not exploit their range advantage to harass the humans from afar.

In a battle between armies this large, accuracy was not especially important. The Centaurs' advantage in archery precision did not show itself.

The human soldiers raised their shields to defend themselves. Even Harrot, that greatsword-wielding brute, lifted the refined steel shield on his back over his head to block the rain of arrows.

Although the Centaurs were strong and could shoot farther, their arrowheads were made of stone. Against humans equipped with shields and protected by cover, they inflicted limited damage.

The humans, on the other hand, had a small number of powerful crossbows in addition to bows, and their enemies were enormous Centaurs. A single volley brought down several hundred Centaurs.

If the Centaurs had not possessed such tremendous vitality, with two or three arrows barely affecting them, the number that fell would have been several times greater.

The allied forces held the advantage in the ranged exchange, but unfortunately, they had no chance to fire many more volleys and widen that advantage.

The Centaurs charged quickly. Even across the rolling hills, they rapidly reached the allied lines and began close-quarters combat.

The advantage the allied forces had gained in the ranged exchange vanished completely. It did not matter whether the Centaurs' formations were scattered or their ranks disorderly; their half-ton bodies and extraordinary strength were there for all to see. The human army was simply no match for them.

The human allied lines were thrown into total chaos the instant battle began, suffering devastating casualties. Defensive formations made up of regular soldiers and elite troops alike were easily torn apart, and several thousand human soldiers at the front died horribly.

It was fortunate that they were fighting in the hills, preventing the Centaurs from building up speed for a charge. Otherwise, that single impact might have caused more than ten thousand casualties and possibly reduced the allied army's morale to zero, sending it into immediate rout.

A Centaur possessed three times the strength of an ordinary human and twice that of an elite soldier. They weighed half a ton, and their vitality far surpassed that of humans.

In small-scale battles, humans could still rely on their agility to maneuver and fight. But on a chaotic battlefield like this, strength and physical endurance were what mattered most.

The difference in physical ability between humans and Centaurs meant that humans were inevitably at a disadvantage in direct combat.

Aside from the central army, which had the dwarf legion assisting its defense, every defensive position held by the other nobles was being battered down. Several lines had been completely pierced, and many soldiers had already begun to flee.

The allied forces had fallen into such a huge disadvantage the moment they clashed. It was far beyond everyone's expectations. How could these rabble-like Centaur forces be so powerful in a large-scale battle?