Chapter 117: Crushing Victory! Astounding Casualty Ratio!

"They dare to attack first!"

On the opposite plain, the lion-man beside Leader Rick, seeing the centaurs charging forward in a long line, exclaimed in shock.

The centaur warriors stood directly opposite the sunlight; their bright armor, struck by the sun, turned these thousand centaurs into a dazzling streak of light!

At this moment, that streak of light was charging forward with overwhelming force!

The plain, barely a few kilometers wide, would be crossed by the centaur warriors in no time!

Leader Rick roared:

"Advance! Kill them all!"

Even though the centaurs' armor gave Leader Rick some unease, he made his decision in an instant.

Fight!

As powerful lion-clan warriors, there was no such thing as retreat!

He was decisive!

Hearing Leader Rick's order, a thousand brave and battle-hardened lion-clan warriors roared in unison, stood upright, grabbed their shields and weapons from their backs, one hand holding a shield, the other a weapon, and charged toward the centaur warriors.

When standing upright, their speed was not much slower than when on all fours.

But as beastmen, they retained certain beast-like traits; when on all fours, they could run far more efficiently.

Thus, during long-distance raids, these lion-clan warriors generally chose to run on all fours, but stood upright in battle!

Standing upright and wielding weapons was also their greatest distinction from wild lions!

Their combat power rose several levels!

On this plain, two lines were rapidly closing in!

Both the centaurs and the lion-clan warriors were accelerating continuously!

This plain, several kilometers wide, was more than enough for them to reach maximum speed!

Finally, the two lines drew near!

"Swoosh!"

"Swoosh!"

Across the plain, a vast chorus of spear-throws rang out.

At a distance of just one or two hundred meters, both the centaurs and the lion-clan warriors chose to throw their spears!

Both the centaurs and the lion-clan warriors possessed tremendous strength; in their high-speed charge, the spears they hurled carried terrifying force!

Even though these spears were carved from wood, if the enemy used ordinary wooden shields, they would be easily pierced through!

And then kill the warriors behind the shields!

After firing one volley of spears, the centaur warriors immediately launched a second volley!

Yes, they made no defensive moves at all!

Because their entire bodies were fully armored, their heads protected by visored helmets, shielding every part of their bodies!

The lion-clan warriors had only one chance to throw spears.

The distance was too short.

After throwing their spears, they had to raise their shields and draw their weapons for close combat!

The lion-clan warriors' spears struck the centaur warriors' armor, producing dull thuds.

Across the plain, a cacophony of clanging echoed.

But these wooden spears could not pierce the centaur warriors' armor at all!

The charging centaur warriors didn't even slow down significantly!

The centaur warriors' equipment advantage had reached its maximum!

On the other side, the centaur warriors' first volley of spears also struck the lion-clan warriors.

Both sides were expert spear-throwers.

The lion-clan warriors raised their shields in defense!

These lion-clan warriors were truly battle-hardened veterans.

Ordinary warriors, faced with a dense barrage of spears, would merely hide their vital parts behind their shields and leave their fate to chance!

But these lion-clan warriors actively swung their shields, deflecting the incoming spears!

Their shields were not made of iron.

They were wooden shields, but crafted from extremely dense wood, with a layer of leather wrapped over the front.

This leather clearly had been soaked in oil for a long time; its toughness was terrifying, resistant even to fire!

The leather bore mysterious symbols, granting decent protection against magic!

The centaur warriors' spears were deflected by their shields, producing especially muffled sounds.

The protective quality of that leather layer was indeed excellent.

The spears could at most puncture the leather, but could not break through the shield!

Only a few shields were pierced by the centaurs' spears, and even those posed little threat to the warriors behind.

Nevertheless, over a dozen lion-clan warriors failed to block the spears, were struck, and suffered heavy injuries, completely losing combat capability!

But this alone proved the lion-clan warriors' strength!

This was a direct charge, with almost no reaction time; if the centaurs had thrown spears against other races, even with shield defense, they would have killed at least hundreds of warriors from those races.

Yet, even with such strength, the lion-clan warriors could not overcome their equipment disadvantage.

Because the centaur warriors needed no defense, their second volley of spears arrived less than a second after the first.

Many of the lion-clan warriors who had just deflected the first volley had no time to react before being struck by the second!

No, many of them hadn't even anticipated a second volley!

In such a short time, don't the Centaurs have any defenses in place?

So the Lion warriors were immediately shot down in a swath by the spears!

Because the speed was so great, many Lion warriors, after falling, tumbled several more times on the ground before finally stopping, cries of pain rising one after another!

The second volley of spears took out at least a full third of the Lion warriors outright!

Before the two sides had even clashed at close quarters, more than a third of the Lion warriors were already eliminated.

Then the Centaur warriors charged in, spears tipped with iron heads in hand!

A muffled thud of impact rang out!

The Centaur warriors' spears slammed into the shields of the remaining Lion warriors!

After the Centaur warriors accelerated over several kilometers and charged in at full strength, the force carried by their iron-tipped spears was simply terrifying.

Even though the shields of these Lion warriors were wrapped in thick leather, they were still pierced clean through by a single thrust of the sharp iron-tipped spear.