Chapter 103: Malherbe

The Redwater River serves as the boundary between Rhovanion and the Rhun region, stretching for nearly four hundred kilometers, and after merging with the Running River in the south, it flows into the Sea of Rhun.

On both banks of the river, there is almost nothing but desolate wilderness, especially on the east bank; being so close to Rhun, the year-round ravages of the Easterlings have resulted in no Northern Men ever crossing the Redwater River to make a living on the east bank.

Yet today, under the illumination of the moonlight, the once-quiet wilderness has become lively; two groups of riders are galloping one after another, and amidst the flying hooves, a great cloud of dust is kicked up.

It is none other than Holimion and his party of eight, and the Easterling Cavalry pursuing them from Ashur's main camp.

The soldiers who were able to enter combat status in such a short time in response to Ashur's summons were almost all elite soldiers, only in their haste, they did not have time to put on full sets of Iron Armor, and full sets of Iron Armor are not conducive to pursuit.

So they simply threw on easy-to-wear coats, took up their handy weapons, and mounted their horses to give chase according to their leader's orders.

Under the tutelage of Sauron, these barbaric people living on the wilderness had long ago begun using iron equipment, yet they did not possess the character of those who wholeheartedly study craftsmanship; what was engraved in their bones was more of a barbaric habit of being keen on plundering.

This resulted in their equipment often not being considered very refined compared to other Human forces; not to mention comparing it to Gondor, even Rohan, whose foundation is not particularly deep, has weapons and equipment far more refined than these Easterlings.

Even these confidants of Ashur, when fighting on horseback, mostly hold uneven Spears in their hands, and after entering melee, they would draw strange sword-shaped weapons similar to Curved Blades from their waists, or simply take out short-handled sharp axes that are easier to exert force with.

These weapons can well reflect the character of the Easterlings: simple, brutal, and more willing to engage in close-quarters combat and life-and-death struggles with the enemy after entering a combat state.

They are neither as good at utilizing tight military formations as the Dwarves, nor do they emphasize coordination as much as Allen's subordinates.

The fighting habits of the Easterlings are perhaps closer to their allies, the Orcish, and their massive numbers and fearless character also determine that they prefer this way of fighting.

Of course, among the many elites who gave chase, there are also many who are proficient in mounted archery; these Cavalry have lived in the Wilderness for years and have great confidence in their skills of shooting arrows from horseback.

In order to capture those few little thieves who came from who knows where, Ashur sent out all the most elite confidants around him; among the sixty or seventy Cavalry, there were more than a dozen Horse Archers.

Not only that, this Easterling Warlord, who had already smashed countless decorations, also promised a very heavy reward: as long as someone catches the invading enemies, whether dead or alive, there will be a reward of gold and silver equal to the weight of the person.

One must know that since Ashur became the leader, such a massive bounty amount had not appeared for a very long time.

These guys, who are extremely thirsty for wealth, took a few hunting dogs and desperately urged the horses beneath them to chase after Holimion and the others, fearing that if they ran too slowly, this gold and silver moving before their eyes would be snatched away by others.

Soon, the distance between the two sides grew closer, so close that Holimion could already faintly hear the cursing of the enemies behind him, yet he ignored these meaningless sounds, instead, while galloping, he kept looking back to calculate the distance between the two sides.

In fact, the Elf Horses ridden by the Twilight Knights are extremely fast, and shaking off the pursuers behind them in a short time is not a difficult task.

But Holimion did not choose to do so at the first moment; this elite Twilight Knight, who had fought bloody battles against the Gatu on the grasslands for years, knew very clearly that the place where everyone was running now was the wilderness, with no cover or obstruction around, and the flying hooves could leave extremely obvious traces on the grass.

Moreover, there were a few hunting dogs with blood-red eyes in the enemy's ranks; these guys didn't even need to look for traces, as they could follow closely behind the party just by smelling the blood scent emanating from the young boy in his arms.

In this situation, blindly fleeing cannot completely shake off the enemy; only by hurting them, or even killing them all, can they win a period of safety for their party.

Holimion needed a little time; the young boy in his arms, who had fallen into a coma again, needed some bandaging, otherwise, it was very likely he would not last until the party reached Red River Town; after crossing the wooden bridge that the Twilight Knights had previously seized, it would also take some time to destroy it to prevent the enemy from continuing to track them.

So Holimion consciously controlled the running speed of the Elf Horses, which could not only allow the Elf Horses to retain more stamina to cope with the fierce battle that would surely happen next, but also allow those more threatening Horse Archers to be brought into the effective attack range of the Noldor Rune Bows as much as possible.

And once the enemies were close enough, Holimion prepared to rely on two or three volleys of shooting in a short time to kill these enemies with long-range strike capabilities first.

And at this time, the Horse Archers who had gradually approached their "prey" had already begun to shout and scream in excitement, as if they had already killed the enemy and received the reward.

These Rhun Horse Archers clamped their legs tightly against the horses' bellies and raised the short bows in their hands amidst the galloping wind, preparing to wait until they were closer to fire the first wave of probing shots at the enemy.

However, before these Rhun Horse Archers could enter a suitable range, the enemies in front of them drew their bows and launched an attack on them; at first, they even felt a bit amused—how could shooting from such a long distance have any effect? Could it be that the prey about to be caught up in front had been scared silly?

But as elites, they still subconsciously made dodging movements, and then the few Horse Archers charging at the very front groaned and tumbled to the ground under the attack they thought would have no effect.

There were also a few horses that were suddenly hit by arrows and died, which tripped up several Horse Archers behind them who were continuing to charge, while the Horse Archers who were not hit hurriedly pulled tight the reins in their hands in their crisis, attempting to widen the distance between themselves and the enemies in front.

These guys realized in a short time that the enemy's strike range far exceeded their own.

But it was too late now; it was precisely because Holimion was worried that these Rhun soldiers would widen the distance from him in a short time that he allowed them to chase to such a close distance.

Subsequently, after only two volleys of arrows, those Rhun Horse Archers who had been extremely arrogant and chasing closely behind Holimion remained forever on the plain of lush grass with looks of disbelief.

This situation left Holimion, who had been prepared to tangle with the enemy for a long time, with a face full of astonishment.

"If I had known they were this weak, why did I go to such great lengths earlier? ╮(╯▽╰)╭"

After eliminating the Horse Archers, the remaining enemies were all Cavalry who could only fight in melee; in front of Holimion and the seven Twilight Knights, these people were no different from lambs waiting to be slaughtered, and death would sooner or later descend upon them tonight.

Before setting out, the Twilight Knights had prepared a total of more than two hundred arrows; they had consumed some when rescuing Brendon, and used some just now when shooting the Rhun Horse Archers, so the remaining hundred-plus arrows would now all be used to greet those Rhun Cavalry who had clearly slowed down.

At the same time, beside a simple wooden bridge surrounded by corpses, a Shadow seemed to be lowering its head to search for something; a moment later, the Shadow raised its head, and under the illumination of the moonlight, the face was clearly visible—it was none other than Malherbe, who had left in advance.

At this moment, he was holding an iron sharp axe in his hand and walked quickly to the side of the support pillar of the bridge on the west side; Malherbe prepared to chop down this pillar the moment Holimion and the others returned to prevent any enemy pursuers that might appear in his field of vision.

After witnessing the power of these Elf Cavalry, Malherbe did not doubt at all whether they could return, and on the way of galloping, he had also thought a lot.

At the beginning, when Malherbe saw that boundless Easterling tribe, his mentality completely collapsed, because at that time he could not think of any way to preserve his family, as well as the thousands of Northern Men living in Red River Town.

It was not until Holimion's hint that he thought: since the east of Mirkwood is already under the threat of the Easterlings, why not migrate to live in the Anduin Valley?

There are vast tracts of uncultivated land there, and during the short time he stayed in Wilderness Town, Malherbe had learned quite a lot of information in the tavern.

As Lord Allen, who is about to become King, can fund Bard to become the Lord of Esgaroth, then he will certainly accept the Northern Men of Red River Town to live there; Malherbe had already thought of the price, which was to persuade his father to let him pledge allegiance to Lord Allen and become the second Vassal of the Rhovanion City-State.

It is just that he had disappeared for five years before and only just returned to Red River Town recently, so the suggestion he gives might not be valued by his father, which is why he was waiting at this moment, waiting for Holimion to bring back more bargaining chips that could help him persuade his father.

Just as Malherbe's mentality became increasingly anxious, the sound of horses running reached his ears; this commotion was definitely not something that seven or eight Cavalry could produce.

"Could it be that Holimion failed? Are the Easterling Cavalry chasing over along the tracks at this moment?"

After thinking of this, Malherbe abruptly raised the sharp axe in his hand, preparing to wait a moment longer; if the people coming were truly Easterling Cavalry, he would immediately chop down the support pillar beside him.

However, the first things to enter his vision in the darkness were several figures emitting silver light under the moonlight, and behind them followed dozens of ownerless Rhun Horses.

These people were none other than Holimion and the others preparing to return to Red River Town; they had spent a little time killing all the enemies who had been chasing them closely before, and immediately arrived near the wooden bridge, preparing to return to Red River Town by crossing here.

The weapons and equipment of these Easterlings were very poor, and Holimion did not look down on them at all, thinking that bringing them back was just a waste of his time, but the horses the enemies were riding looked quite good; although their endurance and speed could not compare to the Elf Horses, they were better than most of the horses in Horse Pasture Village, and after bringing them back, perhaps they could be crossbred to produce even better horses.

Compared to Malherbe, Holimion's vision in the dark was much stronger; he saw the Northern Man holding a large axe and immediately understood what that guy was going to do, so he hurriedly led all his subordinates and the horses across the wooden bridge—he did not want to run for another few hours to the shallows further south to cross the river.

"Why haven't you left yet?"

After crossing the bridge, Holimion looked at Malherbe, who was waving an iron axe and chopping at the wooden piles, and asked with some confusion, while simultaneously drawing the Noldor Rune Longsword from his waist.

A flash of silver light streaked by, and the wooden pile that Malherbe had chopped three or four times without breaking snapped in two under Holimion's seemingly ordinary strike, and then the Elf immediately walked to the other side of the wooden bridge and did the same to chop down the other wooden pile.

Subsequently, this simple wooden bridge, which Baal had painstakingly built over the Redwater River for four or five years, slowly fell into the water under the gaze of the few, and the greater part of it was washed away by the turbulent river.

Malherbe stood to the side, blankly watching everything that happened, his understanding of these Elf Cavalry refreshed once again in his heart, only he did not have much time to consider these things now.

"I need your help."

Malherbe had known Holimion for more than a month, and he knew that the personality of the Elf before him was unusually straightforward; if you played any games of mystery when talking to him, you would likely not get a response, and he would even look at you with furrowed brows, as if asking: "What are you talking about?"

With his rich experience, Malherbe very directly told Holimion all his plans truthfully: "My Lord, there are simply too many Easterlings invading this time, and Red River Town is hard to hold out against such power, so I intend to persuade my father to lead the residents of Red River Town to migrate to live in His Majesty Allen's territory."

Holimion knew at once that this was a good thing; after all, his lord had always been worried about the lack of population, and although Red River Town did not look large, it still had a population of two thousand. If he could bring them all back, it would certainly greatly strengthen the kingdom's power, and his own merits would likely accumulate even more.

In fact, after returning from the Lonely Mountain, Allen had specifically sought out Holimion to ask what kind of rewards these Elves who had risked their lives with him wanted.

At that time, Holimion and the other twelve Twilight Knights had hemmed and hawed without giving Allen a clear answer, and Allen could only tell them that once they had decided, they could come to him at any time, and as long as it was something he could do, he would certainly find a way.

In truth, having been in Middle-earth for over a year, Holimion hoped that Allen could bring over more Noldor Elves, especially female Elves, because he had discovered that the Humans on this continent treated Elves very kindly, and the living environment for Elves was far more comfortable than it was in Pendor.

If possible, he hoped to be able to start a family here and live in Middle-earth from then on, but to start a family he needed a wife, and Allen's subordinates were only male Elves.

Although in the process of traveling through the Woodland Realm, Holimion had also seen quite a few female Elves, he knew very clearly that no matter how much those Elves resembled him in appearance, they were two completely different races.

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Regardless, he hoped to find a female of his own race to be his future partner, and many of the Twilight Knights under his command held the same thoughts, so they had been accumulating merits, hoping to be able to discuss this matter with the lord they served in the future.

Holimion believed that now was a very good opportunity; he looked at the subordinate who was bandaging Brendon nearby, and then asked:

"So, Malherbe, how should I help you?"