Chapter 398: Act 153 – The Wolf’s Pass, Final Assault
Mister Brendel was unaware of Earl Ouding’s thoughts.
As time passed by the second, he continued to command the team forward.
The fierce battle seemed to stretch time into eternity.
The armor of the centaur elder guards was stained with bright red blood—blood of winter wolves and their own—layer upon layer glistening on the silver armor. Hundreds of centaurs and tree spirits advanced along a narrow mountain gorge, raising their heads to see two intersecting mountain silhouettes blocking half the sky ahead.
That was the Wolf’s Pass.
A pale tide surged forward as over a thousand winter wolves rushed from the direction of the pass, among them a massive winter lord raised half of its body and howled to the sky, its snow-white mane billowing in the wind, imposing and majestic. Amidst the roaring of the earth, the wolf pack split into three, the snow swirling beneath their claws, forming what looked like a trident rushing toward the centaur formation from above.
White shadows darted into the forests on both sides, like pale phantoms leaping through the mountains and forests, the wolf pack’s jaws opened, and the encirclement formed in an instant.
Quinelle, the tree spirit leader, raised her hand, and over a hundred tree spirits drew their bows. The interval from nocking an arrow to aiming and releasing was no more than two seconds; their movements were as swift as lightning, accustomed to free shooting, and even their dense barrage achieved the effect of falling rain.
Winter wolves on the sides fell dead from arrows, yet their numerical advantage allowed them to continue forward, gradually threatening the flanks of the formation.
“More troublesome than black wolves!” Brendel slashed down a winter wolf that pounced at him, taking a breath that produced white mist rising upward.
He raised his head and saw the left flank exposed to the winter wolves’ attacks, necessitating him to lift his sword and command a squad of Fireclaw Lizardmen to engage. They sprang out from the forest on the side, colliding with the charging winter wolf pack.
“Mister Brendel!” Quinelle shouted.
“Throw the javelins!”
A row of javelins flew into the air, forming a silver arc as they pierced the front winter wolf pack. The first three ranks of winter wolves sank to their knees, falling over, while the monsters behind surged over their fallen comrades, just like a white wave sweeping over a dam.
The centaurs and winter wolves rushed toward each other in the valley like two surging snow waves, seemingly destined to collide at some moment. At the same time, the attack arrows formed by the white wolf shadows in the forest were closing in on them.
From above, it looked like a white trident converging over a vast area.
Less than a mile from the Wolf’s Pass, this was the final charge.
There were increasingly more winter wolves in the forest; action had to be decisive.
Brendel looked up at Ward, just in time to see the centaur elder place his hand on his left chest, his expression serious as he nodded. Then, the centaur elder suddenly raised his war spear, accelerating forward, stepping out from the centaur army.
“Warriors of the Goddess Nia!” he shouted.
A row of centaur elder guards pounded their left chests in unison and charged out calmly behind him; a full row of centaur warriors raised their war spears high, their hooves thundering, following close behind Ward.
At that moment, the scene created a static balance amid the dynamic action.
The centaurs’ unique movement caused everyone to instinctively turn their heads; both their companion tree spirits and Druids stared blankly as about a third of the centaurs surged forward.
Under Ward’s lead, an independent attack spearhead formed at the front of the charging army.
Earl Ouding was directing Erluin’s knights to rush towards the right, protecting the tree spirits exposed to the winter wolves’ claws, but when he flicked away a winter wolf amidst the chaos and turned back to see this scene, he was immediately stunned.
Not just him.
Erluin’s knights held their breaths, as fellow soldiers, they understood what these centaurs were about to do. At that moment, most knights subconsciously raised their hands to their left chests—
This was a blessing among comrades.
But on the other side of the battlefield, the winter lord also let out a long howl, and the winter wolves moved like a tide, some breaking forth to form an independent spearhead ahead of their army.
Their tactics were exactly the same as the centaurs.
“…Huh, how clever!” Under Xi’s protection, the aristocratic young lady, panting heavily, stared in shock as the winter wolves swiftly changed formation.
But Quinelle aimed the end of her longbow in that direction: “Clear the way for our glorious comrades—!”
The tree spirits immediately abandoned their flanks and once again drew their bows in unison—this was the first time since entering the battlefield that the tree spirits performed a coordinated shot, their enormous elven longbows drawn to full moon—producing a cacophony of creaks and groans.
“Arrows of Life!”
“Strong wind, due east!”
“Two hundred feet, one hundred and fifty feet, fire!”
The archers released the bowstrings simultaneously, a light buzzing filled everyone’s ears as a shadowy mass soared into the sky like a flock of migratory birds taking flight.
The arrows reached the highest point in the air, then swooped down like raptors, the rain of arrows descending upon the winter wolves, as if doom was upon them—death’s scythe swiped down, and countless winter wolves collapsed to the ground.
In an instant, the independent spearhead of the wolf pack was impaled like a hedgehog mid-flight.
Then the winter wolves behind rushed over the now-sculpted corpses, they no longer had time to change formation, as the centaur vanguard, aligned in a straight line, clashed head-on.
A dull thud sounded across the battlefield.
In an instant, the silver line formed by the white streaks collided with the centaurs.
Most of the centaurs immediately toppled over, engulfed by the white wolves. The silver line existed for just a moment before collapsing entirely.
But at least the flood of wolves came to a halt—
The white tide of snow faltered.
Then they discovered that Brendel’s army was charging upward, those centaur elder guards not only felt no fear but were instead accelerating.
Brendel raised his sword: “Assault formation!”
He took the lead.
The spearhead sharpened around him.
The army surged forward.
At the same time, Quinelle pointed her longbow backward, “Warriors of the forest, hold back your enemies!”
With a massive crash, vines erupted from the dirt and stones of the valley, blocking the rear of the army. Meanwhile, the tree spirit archers in the rear discarded their longbows in unison, turned around, and drew their long knives.
They turned, halted, retreating from the army, creating a frail defensive line there.
The flanking winter wolves immediately noticed a wall of flesh appearing before them.
Twenty feet.
The enemy was already within reach, and Brendel, gripping the Sword of the Earth tightly and charging forward, could almost see every single snow-white hair on their bodies quivering in the chilling wind.
Ward, leading nearly a hundred centaurs, now had fewer than half remaining.
The centaur elder fought his way into the wolf pack alone; with a flash of his war spear, a winter wolf was immediately sent soaring high.
Brendel watched it all unfold. He took a breath and raised the Sword of the Earth. “Come on, the blood of warriors,” Brendel felt as if it had been a long time since he experienced this boiling sensation within his body surging to his brain; it was this feeling back in the day that made him persist on this path.
The path of the warrior.
“So, an unyielding charge,” Brendel closed his eyes, then opened them again: “is the romance of warriors!”
The moment his eyes opened, the charge skill activated. At the same time, he swept the Sword of the Earth forward, a streak of white light moved along with him.
To outsiders, it appeared that at that moment, Brendel, one person with one sword, charged into the wolf pack amidst a white sword light.
Wherever his sword passed.
Armor was severed, and flesh was cast flying.
Like a silver line plunging into the winter wolves, and from this silver line’s center, the wolf pack parted to either side—not voluntarily, but rather splitting under the downpour of blood.
Indeed, due to the speed, as Brendel passed, the power of the Sword of the Earth exploded, creating the appearance that the earth behind him twisted and cracked inch by inch—
As Brendel advanced, behind him rose sharp rocks pointing toward the sky with a “boom.”
A gap immediately appeared in the winter wolves’ defense line.
Brendel and Ward brushed past each other.
A winter wolf pouncing toward the centaur elder instantly split in two, its massive head flying off amidst a spray of blood.
Ward looked up and saw Brendel’s figure; the centaur elder flicked the blood from his war spear and hummed lightly.
Behind Brendel, the charging centaur army, led by Kuran and Xi on either side, wedged into that gap like a wedge.
Under the massive force, even the winter wolves could not resist, as their assault power disappeared, they could only retreat step by step. Then Rapal’s Fireclaw Lizardmen and Ouding’s knights entered the formation from the left and right.
The gap at the center of the wolf tide was finally torn open completely—Brendel swung his sword forward, a blast of white sword wind sent several winter wolves flying. He lifted his head and realized he had already killed his way through.
A clear path ahead.
They were coming!
Brendel took a deep breath; he turned back and saw Kuran and Xi etching their way through the path he had opened with the centaurs, followed by tree spirits, and finally, Erluin’s knights and Rapal’s Fireclaw Lizardmen.
But his gaze extended backward, and his expression suddenly narrowed—a Ward and his centaur vanguard had not followed up—this centaur elder raised his war spear and gestured for the remaining members to gather around him.
The centaurs reformed a wall of flesh once more.
They were holding the rear.
With their lives.
“Ward!” Brendel was taken aback; this was not his original plan.
But the centaur elder merely turned back to glance this way, then raised his hand to make a gesture. Almost no one there understood that gesture, but Brendel and Quinelle understood.
That was the common language of the children of the forest.
“We are the children of the forest—”
At that moment, Brendel suddenly held his breath and closed his eyes.
……
(PS: Thus, three chapters are released today, just one chapter short of settling debts; 5555, paying the debts is so painful…/ME rolls on the ground) (To be continued, for more chapters and to support the author, please log in for more and support authorized reading!)
