A sky-shattering roar erupted as countless Tauren warriors, wielding battle-axes, spears, and even totem poles, surged from the battle line.
Their furious charge was like a true herd of wild bison thundering across the plains, an onslaught that even the fiercest beasts would shy away from.
The strong Tauren unleashed terrifying speed and stamina from their robust bodies—in a short-distance sprint, these valiant Shu'halo warriors could directly breach any Centaur formation.
Having been sworn enemies for so long, the Centaur naturally knew that charging head-on at this moment would be pure suicide.
Their formation had already been shattered by the Alliance's artillery, and a large number of archers and spellcasters had been turned into an indescribable mess before they could even do anything.
If they didn't retreat now, and the Tauren truly caught up to them, that would be the real tragedy.
So, all the Centaur started running, sprinting as if their lives depended on it, feeling they had never run so desperately in their lives.
But before they could rejoice at having gained a little distance, a ground-shaking sound of hooves came.
Hundreds of heavily armored cavalry, armed with lances, pierced through their formation from the diagonal rear like a sharp dagger.
The Centaur, busy fleeing for their lives, were scattered even further without any resistance.
Sometimes, the cavalry's lances even impaled three Centaur corpses.
As the momentum of their charge slowed, the cavalry decisively discarded or broke their lances, or those impaled with bodies, and drew their longswords.
The impact of the Alliance heavy cavalry on the Centaur plunged them into chaos once again.
These Centaur, who fought by instinct and lacked any combat discipline, became even more fragile than farmers after suffering successive heavy blows.
The cavalry's longswords swung freely, and the Centaur could at most raise a wooden shield or a scimitar to block once before being cut down to the ground.
More Centaur were busy fleeing, not even looking as the Alliance soldiers' blades came down, willing to be injured just to escape.
But how could the ambush laid for them beforehand be so easy to escape?
When some Centaur shamans still tried to resist, desperately organizing elemental spells to prepare an attack on the Alliance cavalry, the Tauren behind them had already caught up.
A thick, heavy totem pole crashed down, as if the Centaur, in their high-speed charge, had collided with a sturdy tree trunk.
Their skulls and spines simply couldn't withstand such a heavy blow, and the Centaur shamans, still preparing their spells, instantly fell to the ground, lifeless.
Unprotected spellcasters could be fatally struck by even the weakest soldier, let alone a race like the Tauren, naturally endowed with immense strength.
Any attack landing on the shamans and other Centaur made them collapse without even a cry.
As the battle reached this stage, the outcome was no longer in doubt.
After a period of pursuit, only a few scattered Centaur escaped wounded.
This Centaur vanguard was almost completely annihilated, while the Alliance and the Tauren suffered negligible casualties and only expended some cannon shells.
Cairne leaned on his runic spear, which was still dripping blood, and looked at the enemy corpses strewn across the ground with great emotion—finally, this day had come, allowing the Centaur to taste bitterness.
At the same time, he was also very grateful that the Tauren tribe had received the Alliance's help.
Without the Alliance's artillery, the Tauren would have been subjected to long-range fire before any close-quarters combat.
The Centaur archers could shoot while running, which would cause great trouble for the Tauren.
And the Tauren, lacking cavalry, would find it difficult to pose a real threat to the Centaur.
Each charge would at most leave a very small number of Centaur deeply surrounded, while most Centaur could comfortably retreat while continuing to shoot at the Tauren.
The Tauren certainly couldn't catch up to the Centaur in a long-distance pursuit.
Under such an offensive from the enemy, the Tauren could only rage ineffectively and pay a considerable price before barely forcing the Centaur to withdraw.
The Centaur would continue to harass the Tauren in this manner, and the Tauren could only swallow their anger, because the enemy's advantage precisely struck their weakness.
The Tauren's strength lay in their close-quarters combat and frontal charges, but the Centaur would never be foolish enough to engage the Tauren head-on.
They always used this 'kiting' method to wear down the Tauren's will to fight.
However, with the Alliance's help, their artillery could tear apart the Centaur's formations and inflict considerable casualties before the Centaur riders could even draw their bows.
Moreover, the Alliance cavalry's speed was not inferior to the Centaur's, effectively preventing the Centaur from simply leaving whenever they wished.
Once the Centaur and the allied forces became entangled, Cairne was confident that he could lead just a hundred Shu'halo warriors to eliminate them all; these weaklings were no match for them.
"Oh ho ho, Cairne, it looks like you've also taken care of quite a few annoying Centaur—damn it, have these guys never bathed? Their stench is worse than the smell of blood!"
Muradin, covering his nose, rode his mountain goat over from the side.
The war hammer and battle-axe hanging at his waist were still dripping fresh blood.
Even though he was sitting on his mountain goat, he still had to look up to talk to Cairne.
Well, this might be the only drawback of these peace-loving yet valiant big guys; they were just too tall.
Cairne, understandingly, bent down slightly so that Muradin wouldn't have to look up at him.
"Hello, Muradin, I'm glad you weren't hurt by these scumbags.
Their death throes were still a bit fierce."
"Hey, they're too weak," Muradin stated that these Centaur posed no threat to him at all.
"I thought there might be a few strong ones among them, but now it seems the strongest one was taken down by you at the very beginning."
Cairne nodded.
He recognized the tattoos and decorations on that Centaur; he wasn't an ordinary soldier but a high-ranking Warlord.
It was highly probable that he was the leader of this group of Centaur.
Furthermore, since the opponent could withstand cannon fire, Cairne seized the opportunity and quickly finished him off, not giving the Centaur Warlord a chance to entangle with him, which greatly intimidated the Centaur and boosted his own people's morale.
The subsequent collapse of the Centaur was then within Cairne's expectation.
"That guy, as expected, should be the Centaur Warlord; he was the one leading these Centaur to raid us—" Cairne looked at the boundless plain to one side and said slowly, "We can relax for now.
Although this loss of personnel is nothing to the Centaur, their Khan will definitely be hesitant."
"It seems helping you solve this problem is much easier than I imagined," Muradin responded.
"I thought they would continue to send overwhelming numbers of soldiers to attack us."
"Perhaps, but not now.
The Centaur and Boar People have an extremely fragile balance in the Barrens.
Once this balance is broken, without us even lifting a finger, the Boar People guarding the southern mountains and deep valleys will drive them away."
"In that case, to invade the Barrens again, they would only have to choose the northernmost Stone Talon Mountains as a detour, but I don't think any Centaur would like that terrain."
Cairne explained the current situation.
The Centaur came from the Desolace to the west.
If they wanted to raid the more vast Barrens, they either had to go through Feralas and Thousand Needles, or go through the Stone Talon Mountains and mountain roads to reach the Barrens, and neither of these routes was easy.
In fact, Cairne also didn't know where the Centaur clan threatening the Tauren had come from, but if they abandoned their outpost in the Barrens, it would certainly be difficult to cross half a continent again to reach the Barrens.
So, after losing such a force, the Centaur should rein in a bit.
As for completely eradicating them from the Barrens, it was not within Cairne and the Alliance's consideration.
After all, the Centaur were nomadic, and finding all their camps in the Barrens, which was almost as large as all of Lordaeron, would undoubtedly be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Moreover, the Tauren were already planning to leave here, letting the Barrens to the Centaur and Boar People, allowing them to engage in endless conflicts and attrition here, which would actually be a good thing.