"Wait! Don't get excited!" Van Erwei tried to dissuade Roland, fearing that Roland would get chopped to death by the Centaur leader if he lost control.
"This is Balder, the leader of the northern Matuput tribe. They will definitely not enter your territory without reason. They must have a reason!" Vanerwei, who had been wandering with his tribe for many years, recognized the centaur in front of him at a glance.
"Oh? Then please ask this great Centaur chief why he led his army to my territory!" Roland's eyes were filled with anger.
The obscure Elvish language came out quickly from Vanrwe's mouth, but the obscure language carried an elegance that was hard to conceal. Balder also communicated with Vanrwe at a very fast speed, his lips moving up and down, and the unwillingness and anger in his eyes, if they could be condensed into substance, could kill the Lagrang people present.
Finally, the communication between Vanerwei and Balder stopped. Vanerwei let out a long breath, and his face showed a bit of relief.
"What's going on?" Roland looked at Van Erwei's relaxed expression and immediately realized that there might be something hidden.
"It's probably a misunderstanding..." Van Erwei sighed.
"It's like this..." Van Erwei began to tell the story.
Originally, the centaurs of the Tuput tribe wandered the northern wastelands, chasing prey and living a nomadic life at the northern foot of the Grey Mountains. But not long ago, a large group of orcs suddenly appeared near the Tuput tribe's pastures...
Like other intelligent races, the centaurs hated the murderous orcs and other dark creatures. However, their superior combat power and mobility made them fearless of the orc army. After all, they lived a nomadic life, so if they couldn't defeat them, they couldn't just run away. With this in mind, Balder led his young and strong tribesmen to challenge the orcs. Nearly 500 centaurs, with the fighting power of trainee knights or knights, launched an attack on the orc army from the foothills!
The brave centaurs, relying on their innate ability—the same fate—engaged in frantic hand-to-hand combat with the orcs. Wooden spears engraved with magic patterns were broken one after another. The enraged centaurs used spears, bows, hands, bodies, and hooves as weapons in a bloody battle with the orcs. Instantly, the orc army was completely routed by the centaurs' charge. The vanguard of a thousand men was quickly torn to pieces by the centaur knights... Broken limbs, internal organs, and tattered armor and weapons were scattered all over the ground...
The orcs, initially panicked, calmed down. After several thousand-man phalanxes collapsed, they finally stopped the lingering centaurs. These centaurs, whose brains were all muscle, certainly didn't understand that the most important thing for cavalry was speed! They relied on their four-legged superiority and fought the orcs recklessly, relying on their shared destiny, until they were completely surrounded...
In the end, the brave centaurs were not knights, and sharing a fate could not compare to glory. Unlike glory, where both sides bear the brunt of the damage and would not be injured or killed before the battle qi was exhausted, sharing a fate simply shared each other's vitality, allowing for rapid healing when individual injuries occurred... So as time went on, the orcs fought more and more, and finally a centaur was pierced through the body by dozens of weapons and died beyond all possibility of death. The centaurs' unstoppable offensive momentum was severely dampened, and one centaur knight after another was swarmed and beaten to death by the orcs. The number of centaurs dwindled rapidly. Only then did Balder wake up and hurriedly call on his people to leave the battle circle, but it was too late. Many centaurs who had fought in the battle were separated and surrounded by the orc army... In the end, less than 300 centaurs were able to leave the battlefield alive...
So the centaurs of the Tuput tribe had no choice but to abandon their hunting grounds and flee south across the Grey Mountains. After bypassing Lonely Mountain and River Rapids along the way, they finally discovered this nameless forest not far from River Rapids. The key is that this forest is very vast, with hundreds of hectares of virgin jungle, enough to provide the Tuput tribe with food for the winter. After finally leading their tribe to break free from the orcs who entangled them (the old, weak, and sick centaurs seriously slowed their march!), they arrived here and discovered the Raglan people of River Rapids who had entered the area to hunt and gather. This made the centaurs, who had an extremely strong sense of territory, immediately furious. Although their relationship with humans was cold, they did not hate them. The centaurs hid in the dark and shot at the Raglan people who drove them in. But would the Raglan people, who had the support of the Knights, be scared by a mere arrow? When the expulsion failed, the centaurs had no choice but to shoot the civilians who entered here to drive them away (the knights' plate armor was covered with battle qi and they could not shoot...).
"I see!" Roland suddenly realized. No wonder the orcs, who usually roamed freely, would actually set up camp. Roland was still puzzled at the time! Orcs sleeping in the open air actually set up a semi-permanent camp along the way. It turned out that a tribe of centaurs, pursued by them, were lurking in the distance! If there were no camp to block the centaurs' sudden attack that night, it would be a real bummer! Imagine being attacked by three hundred knights at night... The defenseless orcs should forget about attacking Lonely Mountain and just go home to lick their wounds. Ultimately, it was these centaurs who bought precious time for the entire Lonely Mountain Alliance. Otherwise, the orcs who quickly attacked southwards would definitely give Thorin and Bard a surprise.
"Well, considering your contribution to the fight against the orcs, I won't bother with you." Roland's expression softened a bit. Since there were no casualties on either side, there was still room for negotiation. Roland waved his hand, and the knights holding Balder immediately withdrew their weapons.
Balder, having broken free, stretched his muscles, his sturdy bones crackling like frying beans. With a cold, displeased expression, he said, "Human, do you think I'm grateful to you? If you hadn't taken advantage of your weapons, we would have defeated you long ago!"
Balder looked unwilling to lose in weapons. Due to long-term wandering, most of the Centaur tribes now have no ability to smelt metals. The only iron tools they have are a few precious iron pots (exchanged). Moreover, they are so poor that they cannot afford to spend money to make their own weapons (the Centaur armor and weapons are not compatible with those of most races).
"Haha! Weapons are also part of the manifestation of strength." Roland smiled. Whether a force's weapons are sophisticated is also an important foundation of a force. Just like the powerful elves and dwarves, how much fame have these two races made of their excellent weapons?
"Hmph!" Balder snorted coldly, his eyes full of unwillingness.
"Let's sit down and talk! We're still facing the threat of darkness, so we don't have the strength to fight among ourselves!" Verwei advised, looking at the two lords about to fight again. One of them was a Knight! The other was a Centaur! If they fought, it would be like four words: heaven and earth collapsing! A clash between knights was both the safest and the bloodiest. Either the two sides would cross paths without a single casualty, or flesh and blood would fly everywhere, and the remains of the bodies would be scattered everywhere...