Chapter 115: A Modest Effort

Standing on high ground, Allen could take in the entire battlefield beneath his feet at a glance. After watching with a heavy heart for a short while, he knew that his trip here had most likely been in vain.

Following the massive offensive by the Easterlings, the defenders on the walls of Iron Wall Town were soon unable to hold them back; the first to collapse were the defenders stationed near the siege towers.

Beyond facing the endless stream of Easterling soldiers, they had to constantly guard against the rain of arrows flying up from below the walls. The elite troops at the very front, equipped with superior gear, could naturally ignore them, but elites were a minority after all. A large number of militiamen, who were assisting with spears, soon suffered heavy casualties under the barrage of arrows and retreated from the walls.

The elite defenders, having lost the support of the militiamen, were soon forced to retreat by the tide-like enemy. Even though these defenders were equipped with fine chainmail purchased from the Iron Hills, they could not withstand the enemy surging forward wave after wave.

Many elite defenders were tackled by enemies with madness in their eyes. Even if the weapons in their hands had already pierced the enemy's vitals, these crazed foes would not let go of their grip even after losing their lives. The elite defenders, restrained by the corpses of their enemies, were immediately pinned to the ground by the several enemies following behind and died miserably under knives or clubs.

Regardless of how fine the equipment is or how strong an individual's combat power may be, before breaking through a critical threshold, when facing a massive number of enemy troops, battle formations are always the key for ordinary soldiers to overcome the enemy and win against superior numbers.

Now, with the collapse of the militiamen in Iron Wall Town, the elite formations were immediately scattered and then submerged by the Easterlings; this section of the wall was declared lost.

As for the defenders stationed elsewhere on the walls, besides dealing with the enemies climbing the siege ladders, they now had to handle attacks launched directly from the wall by the enemy. Given the massive disparity in numbers, the entire wall was soon occupied by the Easterlings, and subsequently, the gates of Iron Wall Town were slowly opened under the control of the Easterlings.

At this moment, the battle entered into even more brutal street fighting, but the remaining defenders of the Northern Men would inevitably be unable to escape the fate of defeat; what awaited them was either death or enslavement.

Standing on the cliff, Allen watched this tragic scene unfold before his eyes, his bloodshot eyes seemingly about to spew fire.

"These minions of Sauron are truly damnable!"

"

According to Allen's original plan, the Northern Men who were currently dying under the butcher's knives of the Easterlings should have been his allies in resisting Sauron in the future. However, with Sauron acting in ways that defied conventional logic, these Northmen, who should have continued to live stable lives, were now suffering a fate different from their original destiny.

"Wait!

The actions of the Easterlings now seem to have been caused by the changes I made during the Battle of the Lonely Mountain. Could it be that these people were killed because of me?"

Suddenly thinking of this, Allen felt his hands and feet go cold in an instant. Since arriving in Middle-earth, he had always hoped to do his best in everything he encountered. Whether it was helping the Skin-changer race or sheltering the Woodland Residents who were under constant threat from the Orcish, the feedback he received had always been good and positive.

The lives of the Skin-changers could be described as happy and fulfilling, with close ties to Allen's forces. Under Allen's rule, the Woodland Residents not only gained a stable living environment, but their standard of living was also far better than before.

However, Allen's assistance to Thorin in reclaiming the Lonely Mountain, which greatly changed the outcome of the Battle of the Lonely Mountain, had ultimately led to the Easterlings' massive invasion of Rhovanion.

This matter suddenly made Allen realize that while the changes made in the present might yield immediate, excellent results, one never knows just how severe the consequences brought about by those changes might be.

"Could it be that everything I've done is wrong? Should I not have forcibly changed the outcome of events? Should I have just watched Thorin, Fili, and Kili die? Watched more than a third of the people of Long Lake Town suffer casualties? Watched the Elves and Dwarves suffer a major blow to their vitality in this battle?"

Fatis, standing to the side, soon noticed Allen's abnormal behavior. He looked at the pale-faced, frowning Allen, unaware that his good friend had fallen into self-doubt.

Having spent nearly ten years with Allen, Fatis knew well that there was a merciful side to Allen's character. In the past, on the continent of Calradia, when seeing villages plundered and destroyed by nobles, Allen would often stand at the village entrance for a long time, as if mourning the dead villagers.

At this moment, the inherently kind-hearted Fatis assumed that Allen was sad and blaming himself because he could not help the Northern Men dying miserably below. He patted Allen on the shoulder and said, "I am also very sad to see people who crave a stable life die under the butcher's knives of invaders, but we have already done our best to protect the stable lives of more people. In pursuit of redemption, I have always been helping others, and at the same time, I have understood a truth: whether it is an individual or a country, strength is limited. Right now, we indeed cannot help them, but sooner or later, we will be able to do better. Moreover, Allen, you must understand that their plight is not your fault; it is the fault of these invaders. Allen, you... look over there!"

Allen, who had been lost in his own thoughts, was suddenly jolted awake after being interrupted by Fatis. He now understood what his state of mind had been just a moment ago.

"After seeing so many people die in war, I actually ended up trapped in a dead end; my mental fortitude is still not strong enough. Look at Thorin; I am truly far behind. Indeed, I changed the outcome of the Battle of the Five Armies, which also led to the Easterlings under Sauron's command launching a massive offensive into Rhovanion. But, without my changes, would the Easterlings not have invaded? That is absolutely impossible. Now that the situation is as it is, I should think more about how to improve my own strength, rather than doubting whether what I did in the past was right or wrong here."

These thoughts flashed through Allen's mind, and his previously pale face soon returned to calm. At this time, Fatis was still chattering on about his insights on the path of redemption. Allen prepared to say "Thank you" to his friend after he finished speaking.

However, before Fatis could finish, he pointed in surprise at a hidden corner of Iron Wall Town. If they hadn't been standing on the mountaintop looking down, Fatis and Allen would never have seen this scene.

At the cliff on one side of Iron Wall Town, there were a dozen or so people standing. Although the distance was a bit far, Allen's eyesight was excellent, and from their faces, it could be seen that most of those people were teenagers.

A fully armed middle-aged man among them seemed to be saying something to these children. He then pointed to a cave entrance that had been opened on the cliff face. However, the children did not seem particularly willing, and they raised the weapons in their hands while saying something. The middle-aged man's expression immediately became extremely stern, as if he were scolding the young people before him.

Before long, the dejected young people all crawled into the cave, and then a magical scene occurred: the closed cave entrance left not a single trace behind. The uneasy middle-aged man placed a large number of baskets and discarded wooden crates to block the large area around the entrance, then, with a determined look on his face, drew his longsword and ran toward the battlefield in the town where the fighting was still fierce.

This kind of cave that could not be discovered after being closed was a craft of the Dwarves. Some people also called this phenomenon magic unique to the Dwarves. Whether in Moria or the Lonely Mountain, there were such gates; some were voice-activated, while others required certain conditions to be met.

But looking at the middle-aged man's reaction, Allen felt it was very likely that this gate was not as magical as what he had seen before; otherwise, why place those obstructions there?

Moreover, this cave might truly just be a small cave; otherwise, why not let more people crawl in to take refuge?

"By the way, what about the others in this town? I seem to have only seen young adults and soldiers?"

At this moment, Allen naturally did not know where the families of these defenders had gone, but he didn't think too much about it. It was better that there were no women and children, as it spared them the fate of becoming slaves to the Easterlings, which was also a good outcome.

If he hadn't seen this scene at the cave, Allen would have certainly left by now. The fate of Iron Wall Town was already sealed; the enemy's strength was simply too great. Allen was powerless; he could do nothing. His unwillingness could not grant him the strength to face the enemy in a head-on battle.

However, now, Allen decided to wait. If possible, he wanted to take those dozen or so young people away. After all, the Wilderness was not safe now, and the Easterlings would not leave horses for them. Walking out of this land occupied by the Easterlings was simply too dangerous. He did not have enough strength to save the entire town, but he could save the hope left behind by this town, which could be considered Allen doing his own small part.

But this wait of Allen's lasted for a full four days. The Easterlings, who had already won the war that day, celebrated for a whole night under Ashur's orders. The supplies originally intended for the defenders to use for defense were also completely cleared out by the Easterlings in the process. The defenders who died on the battlefield were all piled up in the center of Iron Wall Town under Ashur's orders, and then set ablaze with a fire.

This action by the Easterlings, on the contrary, put Allen, who had been waiting for a long time, at ease. This meant that these guys would not occupy this town, which had decent defensive fortifications, so it would be more convenient for Allen to rescue the dozen or so young people trapped in the cave.

While waiting quietly, Allen also recognized his strongest opponent during this period: Ashur, the leader of the Bartra. It would be hard not to recognize him.

That extremely luxuriously decorated carriage with a canopy moved leisurely from the Easterling camp toward the gates of Iron Wall Town, pulled by four sturdy horses. The moment Ashur stepped off the carriage, Allen noticed this Easterling who had such an extremely different way of making an entrance.

Ashur, having just walked into the city gate, seemed to have sensed something. As he looked up abruptly, he discovered Allen, who had been unable to dodge in time. The two of them looked at each other across a distance of several hundred meters.

Seeing that the enemy leader had discovered him observing from the shadows, Allen simply stopped worrying about leaving. Instead, he took out his Noldor Rune Bow from his back and, to Ashur's surprise, fired an arrow in his direction.

This arrow was filled with Allen's rage toward Ashur, but the distance between the two was simply too far. This arrow did not hit Ashur's vitals as Allen had imagined; instead, it only shallowly pierced into the armor on his shoulder, and was subsequently pulled out by Ashur with a yank. The blood that splattered out indicated that this arrow had still caused a certain amount of injury to this Easterling leader.

However, Ashur did not care at all. With an angry face, he ordered the surrounding soldiers to search the area. Subsequently, a large number of Easterling soldiers began to search toward the cliffs of Iron Wall Town.

Because of this arrow, Allen hurriedly took his soldiers away from the enemy's search range. After hiding in a valley somewhere in the Iron Hills for two days, he climbed back up the cliffs surrounding Iron Wall Town.

By this time, most of the Easterlings had already left Iron Wall Town. Ashur had piled up all the corpses of the defenders in the center of the town to be burned; besides venting his anger, he truly did not think much of this castle.

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Although this town had decent defensive fortifications and the walls were high enough, its location was too remote, and it was too close to the Dwarves; it was impossible for Ashur to be stationed here.

Moreover, the land around this town was very scarce, and it could not accommodate hundreds of people farming here. Now that Ashur knew there was a third-party force interfering, it was absolutely impossible for him to continue pushing forward with his soldiers divided into squads as before.

On one hand, Ashur had paid a great price in this battle to attack the town. Just the archers alone had suffered seven or eight hundred casualties or more. Even with his numerous subordinates, he felt very pained, and the cannon fodder and slaves had suffered nearly a thousand casualties. This time, it could be considered a serious blow to his vitality.

But the harvest did not meet Ashur's expectations. He did not know why, but his subordinates had not found the families of these defending soldiers in this castle, and no matter how he tortured the dozens of captives he caught, they did not reveal the location where they were hiding.

What could provide Ashur with some comfort was that his subordinates had stripped a considerable amount of fine armor from the town's defenders, a full two hundred sets, and they had also found many weapons. With some minor modifications to these weapons and equipment, he would be able to assemble two hundred well-equipped elites.

Moreover, the large amount of supplies stored within the castle also greatly eased Ashur's food shortage. This was the result of his repeated instructions to his officers before the battle, telling them to seize the warehouse immediately after breaking into the town, and Ashur had already found the location of the warehouse through his observations.

The only thing Ashur felt was a pity was that the three catapults had been destroyed by the defenders at the first opportunity. He still cared a lot about those precision machines. He had once learned the construction of siege equipment from some Humans; if he could learn how to build catapults, his strength would be even greater.