The dew in the early morning hung on the grass stalks on the roadside, and the cold breath of the night had not completely faded from this land, and in the early morning wind, with a trace of gunpowder smoke, looking up from the barren land, the black smoke column in the sky had not yet been extinguished, and on the edge of the black cloud peak, some of the tents of the bull-headed people were still burning.

At this time, on the orders of King Liam, Major Wren of the Gray Wolf Brigade of Gilneis, who rushed to Black Cloud Peak to supervise the battlefield, and hundreds of soldiers behind him were looking at the battlefield in front of him with blank expressions.

The stone pillar stairs that were originally guarded by the terror totem minotaurs were empty, and on the ground below the stone pillar, there were corpses falling from the top of the Black Cloud Peak everywhere, and those unlucky guys fell from the stone pillars hundreds of meters high, and it was difficult to see the intact outline, and in the bushes around the blood-stained stone pillars, some scavenging wild dogs that smelled the "aroma" of food were vigilantly looking at the heavily armed human soldiers.

"Check around, look for those..."

Colonel Wren climbed up the Black Cloud Peak with his soldiers, he looked at the completely destroyed Minotaur position in front of him, looked at the shacks that were still burning, he wanted to issue some orders, but standing on the stairs and looking around, the Minotaur camp, which had been noisy a few days ago, was dead silent at this time, as if there had never been life here.

What's even worse is that, with the unique intuition of a veteran, Colonel Wren senses that there are some sick, dark things lurking in these ruins at the top of the Black Cloud Peak, which may not be physical, but the threat of those strange things may not be weaker than the savage centaurs on the frontal battlefield.

"Find the survivors!"

The Colonel hesitated for a few minutes, but then gave the order, he had to find out what had happened here last night, and what had happened to this tribe of more than 3,000 minotaurs that had caused them to be completely destroyed overnight.

And just as the soldiers clenched their muskets with bayonets and prepared to disperse the search, a voice suddenly sounded at the edge of the ruins:

"You'd better not touch the wreckage..."

"Who!"

The colonel subconsciously grabbed the gun on his waist, vigilantly aimed the muzzle at the shadow in the sun behind him, in his gaze, a group of people slowly walked out of the shadows, it was some human beings, the number was about 100 people, they were all wearing the hood of the Holy Light Church, but the color of the hood was rare black, and these men and women also had more or less some blood and traces left by the battle, most of them looked very tired, and some were wounded.

Clearly, they had a hard fight.

"Who are you? Friend. ”

Colonel Wren did not let his guard down when he saw his compatriots appear on the battlefield of Black Cloud Peak, and under his questioning, the leader of those strange people, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his 40s, took out a very small and quick letter from his pocket and handed it to the colonel, and after reading it at a glance, Colonel Gilnes's eyes widened.

He looked at the more than 100 compatriots in front of him with some incredulity, and he lowered his voice:

"It's really you guys... You just relied on such a few people to destroy this clan? Just kidding, right? ”

"It's not just us."

The Shadow Priest at the head struck several religious symbols on his chest in a compassionate gesture, and behind him, the silent priests did the same.

"And the 95 of our compatriots who died in battle, the victims who shed their blood on this desecrated land, without whose sacrifices we would not have been able to do such a feat, but now is not the time to say this, when we embrace the shadows, our names and our existence no longer matter. It is all the will of the Light. ”

The priest silently recited the sacred scriptures, but could not give people the slightest sense of the sacred, in these strange priests, Colonel Wren could not feel the warmth of the holy light, only felt a faint, cold sting from the darkness, which made him and his soldiers subconsciously want to stay away from these strange priests.

"On the western platform of Black Cloud Peak, there are still a few minotaur captives who have been defeated and waiting for you to receive them, Colonel."

Ignoring the doubts and faint fear in the eyes of the soldiers, the Shadow Priest stretched out his hand, pointed to the wreckage of the rest of Black Cloud Peak, and said to the Colonel:

"The plague of soul eaters still remains in these ruins, as well as the shadow demons we have summoned from our dreams, their presence is deadly to flesh life, but in the real world, it only takes a week for them to dissipate naturally, but unfortunately, for years to come, these pillars will be infected by the power of fear, and it is not suitable for too many people to live here until everything is normal."

As he spoke, the priest led the rest of his fellow citizens to the stairs of departure, and he seemed silent, like a man who really lived in the shadows.

"What's your name? Father? ”

As the priests were about to leave, Major Headmaster Wren sighed, looked back at the black-hooded priest, and cried out:

"I have to write down your contribution in the battle report... I can't use the word "nameless" to refer to you, can I? ”

The silent priest was stunned for a moment by the shout, and then, turning his head, pulled his hood down, and said in a hoarse voice:

"You can call me... Dazzle, we are the heresies of the Holy Light Church, you can just report it. ”

"All right, Pastor Daze."

Colonel Wren moved his fingers, and he shouted:

"Regardless, thank you for the sacrifices you've made for the Empire."

The shadow priest named Dazzle did not answer, he shook his hand without looking back, and disappeared on the stairs silently, and at the moment when he walked down the stairs of Black Cloud Peak, Dazzle looked at the bones of those minotaurs who had fallen to the ground in the fear of last night, and were torn apart, he sighed, and under the light of the sun, the priest knelt on one knee on the barren land, and his shadow like a living creature was stretched to grow elders.

In the wind of the wasteland, he silently recited the prayer of his heart, and finally, with his eyes closed, whispered:

"It's... It is the will of the Light. ”

————————————————

The destruction of the terrifying totem clan of Black Cloud Peak was a hearty victory in the westward expansion war launched by the empire with all its might, and it directly changed the situation on the battlefield in the rear, but on the frontal battlefield, in the face of the wasteland west of the large elevator entrenched in the Thousand Needles Stone Forest, and the last centaur tribe that occupied the "Wind Nest" in the grand canyon that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, the speed of the human army's advance was not satisfactory.

On the one hand, 70% of the entire Thousand Needles Stone Forest has fallen under the control of the Empire, and on the other side of the Thousand Needles Stone Forest, at the northern entrance of Firas, the Night Elf army has also blocked the exit of the other side, which directly leads to the fact that the remaining centaur tribes have no way to retreat, and those barbarians who have been cornered can only resist stubbornly.

On the other hand, under the aggressive power of the Human Empire, the originally arrogant Centaur Khan had to accept the help of the cunning goblin consortium in a low voice, and with the support of the super large alchemy bombs that the goblins sent to the centaur tribe with floating boats, the centaurs who finally had "hot weapons" also had a little more power to fight back in the human attack.

"Boom"

Several crazy centaurs covered in alchemy bombs roared and pounced on the human position, and seeing the suicidal attack of the crimson-eyed and thunderous monster, even the most brave and skilled human soldiers had to choose to retreat to avoid these nimble "human flesh" bombs.

More than twenty heavy weapons kept firing, weaving a web of death in front of the position, blasting the bodies of those rushing centaurs into the air, but even so, after the alchemy bombs hanging from the bodies of these fearless barbarians were exploded, the small fragments filled in those bombs still caused several casualties to the soldiers staying in the position.

"!"

Aldrin, the old knight of the Stormgard Kingdom who supervised the battle at the front, grabbed his helmet and slammed it on the table in front of him, he witnessed the crazy raid just now, and looked at the wounded soldiers who were carried back to the rear medical center on stretchers, the old soldier's heart was like a burning fire.

This is not the first time.

Those stubborn centaurs got bombs from goblins, and then learned this disgusting and threatening "meat bomb" tactic without a teacher, and the entire communication line of the empire's front line has been destroyed by these crazy centaurs with bombs all over their bodies, and even the elite company after a full outfit will suffer heavy casualties under the self-explosion of a few centaurs who don't know where to rush out.

What's even worse is that this kind of self-detonation firepower that will appear anytime and anywhere has greatly hit the courage of the soldiers, and no one wants to be crippled because of the opponent's self-explosion after killing the opponent.

But the reality is that the madness of the centaurs did stop the human empire from moving forward, and after seeing the effect, the brutal centaur khans took more care to make this dangerous "gadget", and also developed a "variety of attacks" under the impetus of their evil intelligence.

It is said that a day ago, on the side of the Wind Nest battlefield, there was a Lordaeron infantry regiment that had retreated to the rear to recuperate, and it was completely blown out in the collective self-explosion of hundreds of centaurs who rushed out halfway... It was a real disaster, and it was said that the soldiers of the Wind Nest Battlefield were now in danger, and the offensive operations there had completely stopped.

"Let the front-line soldiers retreat 300 meters! Let the sappers dig trenches for the attack! Send more scouts! ”

The old knight Aldrin shouted to the herald beside him:

"Deploy 10 repeating machine guns from the armory to the front line, and tell the sergeants at the front! I need them to kill those dog mongrels in their path! Do you understand? ”

The roar and anger of the military commander can not change the current predicament of the battlefield, as long as the human race makes a full-scale attack, there will inevitably be barbarians who are ready to burn themselves and explode at any time to rush out to block the footsteps of the soldiers, the worst part of the suicide attack is that as long as it succeeds once, it can be exchanged for several times the harvest, and in the current situation, every soldier in the human empire is very precious, and no military commander will be willing to give the soldiers under his command to those stinky barbarians to be buried.

"We need more griffon knights to turn the skies into our battlefields!"

In the Northwest Command, the irascible King Garin walked around the table, waving his hands and shouting to the others:

"Air supremacy! That's a word I've heard from those gnomes and goblins who sell weapons, and it makes sense, doesn't it? Now the situation has been laid out, unless we are willing to pay huge casualties, those stinky centaurs will not surrender voluntarily at all, and I am not willing to accept those miscellaneous surrenders, I will cut off the heads of each and every one of them! ”

"And those damn hot sand goblins!"

The young king's eyes were bloodshot with anger:

"The damn weapons they gave to the centaurs buried the lives of at least a thousand of our stick boys, they all deserve to die!"

"Most of the dwarves of the Hammer Clan have stayed behind in Kul Tiras, the number of griffon knights who have followed us to Kalimdor is not large, and the Beast Trainers are trying to tame the local Wyvern as aerial mounts, but the massive air force you want is unlikely to be possible in at least the last few years."

Duke Abrolock, who was also frowning, stared at the tactical map on the table in front of him, the eyes of the old man over sixty years old shone with a strange light, and after fighting with King Garin for a few words, the old duke took a sip of wine, he waved his hand and retreated the guards around him, and then lowered his voice:

"If the elven mages of Quel'Salas are here, we can use the mages' abilities to send an army into the core area of these centaurs and blossom in the center..."

"That's a good idea, but those High Elves are too busy playing games with those ogres in Firas to have time to help us."

Garin puffed up and said:

"The mages of Dalaran don't know where they've gone... So you say that all of this makes no sense. ”

"No!"

The old duke sighed, he raised his head and looked at King Garin:

"I have a force of spellcasters in my hands who are willing to sacrifice for the cause of the Empire, and their appearance will directly change the situation on the frontline battlefield, but the only question is, Your Majesty Garin, do you have the guts to use them?"

"What do you mean?"

King Garin sensed something in the old duke's words, and he asked suspiciously:

"Lord Abrolock, it's all this time, please don't go around in circles, okay?"

The old duke's expression was a little strange, but after a moment, he still explained seriously:

"Ahem... I mean, the other day, a group of sneaky warlocks approached me and said they wanted to join the Empire's military power system, and I can guarantee that they are strong and clean, but you also know the bad reputation of warlocks in the Empire, so I ask you, do you dare to use them in this war? ”