After taking out the machine gun and turning it on, Ryan was surprised to find that it was a version with a smart computer, making its operation as simple as playing a game. He couldn't help but feel fortunate that they were in the Forbidden Forest. If they had been inside the school, this weapon would have been nothing more than a pile of scrap metal.
At that moment, the battlefield fell into an eerie calm. Mosag retreated deeper into the Forbidden Forest, avoiding the firepower of the pea shooter machine guns. She needed time to summon more spiders, hoping to offset Ryan's advantage through sheer numbers.
Ryan's side had few people, and the battlefield was not particularly large, as they had chosen a defensive position. No one could have predicted that the Acromantulas would leave their nests in such numbers, making the firepower density in this area inadequate.
Taking advantage of the pause, the centaurs and unicorns took a brief rest. While centaurs possessed great endurance, drawing their bows repeatedly still exhausted them. Meanwhile, the unicorns required time to recover their magical energy.
Nearby, Wolff silently planted potato mines, using the opportunity to fortify their defenses.
When Ryan retrieved two additional machine guns, Phelan approached out of curiosity. "What are these?" he asked.
"Muggle weapons," Ryan replied, activating the smart targeting system and showing it to Firenze. This immediately attracted a crowd of centaurs, all intrigued by the demonstration.
"It's essentially a device that rapidly propels metal projectiles, much like a bow and arrow," Ms. Betty commented after observing the simulation. "Of course, it would be useless against strong magical defenses. However, these spiders lack such protections, making this an excellent weapon against them."
Ms. Betty then appointed two centaurs to operate the machine guns. Ryan, intrigued, asked her, "You don't seem to have any aversion to using Muggle technology. Many wizards reject anything that isn't magical."
"Why would we reject something that helps maintain the balance of nature?" Betty responded. "We are not bound by the prejudices of wizards. Moreover, this is the Forbidden Forest. No one outside will know what happened here. Your headmaster left early this morning, and there's no one else capable of detecting anything, even if they wanted to."
With their positions secured, the two centaurs carrying the machine guns set up on either side of a slope, ensuring they could establish a crossfire when the battle resumed.
Suddenly, a sharp, grating sound—akin to nails on glass—pierced the air. A vast swarm of spiders surged from the trees, flooding the battlefield like a relentless tide.
Ryan quickly cast a spell to disrupt their movements. In such a dense charge, even a single disoriented spider could trigger a chain reaction, creating chaos among their ranks. This slowed their advance, leaving them exposed to the plant-based defenses for a longer period.
As the battle intensified, the spiders used their fallen comrades as stepping stones to push forward. Ms. Betty detonated several potato mines, further delaying them, but they pressed on, quickly filling the gaps left by their fallen kin.
Finally, Ms. Betty detonated the entire mine belt encircling the hill, using the explosions to disorient the spiders. Their sensory organs, thrown into disarray, caused them to cluster together—making them easy prey. The centaurs opened fire with the machine guns.
The scene turned into a massacre. Unlike the pea shooters, which had struggled to penetrate the spiders' tough exoskeletons, the 7.62mm machine gun rounds tore through multiple targets at once. The spiders, unable to regenerate like zombies, collapsed under sustained fire. Many lost their sense of direction, freezing in confusion.
As the spiders packed tightly together, the centaurs launched cherry bomb-tipped arrows into the densest areas. The explosions sent flaming fragments in all directions.
Then, the dragon grass ignited.
The spiders, already packed too closely to escape, became fuel for the spreading fire. Within moments, the battlefield was engulfed in flames.
Mosag, leading the charge at the front, had mistakenly assumed that centaur arrows would be her primary threat. She had not anticipated the explosive attacks. A direct hit from a cherry bomb sealed her fate, killing her on the spot.
With their leader dead, the remaining spiders—lacking true intelligence—mindlessly followed Mosag's final order to keep advancing. However, they were all wiped out in the relentless onslaught.
When the remaining spiders finally broke ranks and fled toward their nest in twos and threes, it became clear: the battle was won.
As the sun began its slow descent, the battlefield was bathed in the golden hues of twilight. Before them lay the corpses of countless spiders, a scene of both devastation and cruel beauty.
Betty instructed the wounded centaurs to collect any useful spoils from the fallen spiders. Meanwhile, the uninjured warriors pursued the fleeing creatures, determined to finish the job.
Firenze bent his legs, allowing Ryan to climb onto his back.
As Ryan settled into position, he noticed Ronan running past. The older centaur glanced at him but said nothing—neither in approval nor objection.
Feeling the rhythmic gallop beneath him, Ryan turned to Firenze. "I thought centaurs considered it an insult to let humans ride them?"
"Under normal circumstances, yes," Firenze replied. "But we are comrades-in-arms in this fight. You have provided us with plants and weapons, and we, in turn, aid you in battle. Helping an ally who cannot match our speed is not an insult—it is solidarity."
They galloped through the jungle for less than ten minutes before reaching the entrance of the spider nest—a dark, gaping cavern.
At the entrance, Ryan found the centaurs standing idle, seemingly at an impasse.
It turned out that, after their defeat, the remaining spiders had retreated into the cave alongside Aragog, hoping to lay eggs and rebuild their numbers. Unfortunately, the sheer mass of their bodies now blocked the entrance, preventing the centaurs from entering.
The machine guns had run out of ammunition. As new users, the centaurs had kept their fingers on the triggers too long, depleting their supply. With few cherry bombs remaining, they had attempted to blast a path through the spiders, only to find that reinforcements kept pouring in to replace the fallen.
Ryan quickly opened a box, hoping to find a grenade that could clear the path. To his surprise, he discovered something even more powerful—thermostatic grenades.
These were far superior to ordinary grenades. For a brief moment, Ryan considered saving them for his eventual battle against the basilisk. However, realizing that using explosives in a confined space during that fight would be suicidal, he abandoned the idea.
Ryan explained the effects of the grenades to the centaurs. After scouting the cave, they confirmed that it had no other exits.
The final battle was about to begin.
If they succeeded, the darkness that had plagued the Forbidden Forest for decades would finally be purged. The power of nature was immense—once these dark creatures were wiped out, the ecosystem would slowly recover. Over time, the Forbidden Forest would once again thrive, teeming with life as it had in the past.
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