Chapter 121: Khamul

The Nazgul, also known as Ringwraiths, are the nine most important subordinates under the command of the Dark Lord Sauron. Some say that three of them may have been leaders of the Numenoreans, but no written records remain to verify such matters.

The most famous among them is the leader of the Nazgul, also known as the Witch-king of Angmar, though he left no real name in the world of men. In Allen's memory, there is only one who possesses a relatively verifiable name, and that is Khamul.

He was originally born in the region of Rhun. After obtaining a Ring, Khamul, who was already a Chieftain, quickly gained greater power, more wealth, and even more immense authority.

However, having grown up in the East, Khamul possessed no kindness from the start. After obtaining the Ring, he was quickly eroded by dark power and forced to submit to Sauron, becoming a terrifying, enslaved minion. His glory lasted only for a very short time during the Second Age.

In Allen's estimation, he had always believed that Sauron would dispatch an army composed of Orcish from Mordor, traveling along the Brown Lands toward Dol Guldur, or simply attack his Humans soldiers on the Mirkwood Road.

He guessed the beginning correctly. When the Easterling army began to invade Rhovanion, Sauron did indeed have Khamul lead an army of Orcish out from the Morannon, and he even handed the Ring of Power that originally belonged to Khamul back to his own deputy commander.

In fact, during the Second Age, Sauron no longer needed the help of the Nine Rings of Humans to control these enslaved Ringwraiths. At that time, he had taken the rings back from his servants. However, the destruction of his physical form combined with the loss of the One Ring ultimately caused a great weakening of Sauron's power.

Those Ringwraiths who were already very powerful, or those Humans who possessed kindness and firm willpower before turning into Ringwraiths, would still show signs of loosening control when they were at a distance from him. Sauron, of course, would not allow such things to happen, so he kept the Ringwraiths by his side most of the time.

This time, Sauron's order to Khamul was to resolve the trouble blocking the Easterlings and, at the same time, to entrench himself in Dol Guldur for the long term. Originally, he had wanted to send two other Nazgul to assist Khamul, but with the Barad-dur tower at a critical stage of construction, even the Dark Lord had no extra subordinates to spare for the time being.

For this reason, after leading the Orcish army out of the Morannon, Khamul did not head to Dol Guldur or attack along the Mirkwood Road as Allen had guessed, but instead headed south, preparing to find Ashur, who was still marching slowly on the road.

However, Khamul, flying in the sky, had not yet found Ashur when he saw the flames that could light up half the sky. Whether these flames were consuming his own people or the enemy, Khamul would not turn a blind eye to it.

The Orcish army he led consisted mostly of infantry, among which there were also nearly a thousand Wargs, as well as hundreds of Orcish Wolf Riders who could coordinate with the Wargs. The infantry could not keep up with his pace, and the Wargs and Wolf Riders, who could barely keep up with his speed, were already entangled outside the camp with the Woodland Elves who had set up a defensive formation.

As for himself, he observed carefully from the sky, and only after confirming there were no problems did he drive the fierce beast he was riding to land in the center of the camp.

Khamul's physical body had long since been consumed under the erosion of the Ring of Power, leaving only a lingering Spirit. It was difficult for him to see in the world of men; he could only observe the scenes of the real world through the Unseen World. Before landing in the camp, he did not see the white shadows that represented Elves, only the shadows of Humans and Dwarfs.

His terrifying aura, capable of striking fear into all things, was enough to plunge the Humans in the camp into panic, and the combat effectiveness the Dwarfs could exert in such a state was less than one-tenth of their usual. As for those Elves, they were already pinned down by his subordinates, which was why Khamul felt safe and bold enough to land in the camp surrounded by flames in the middle of the night.

Although Khamul was slightly disgusted by the flames, that was only because these flames might ignite the Cloak that maintained his form. At this time, he was wearing the Silver Chainmail personally crafted by Sauron, and he had also put on the long-lost Ring of Power on his hand; he did not fear the surrounding environment at this moment.

But what surprised Khamul was that those dozen or so enemies who did not emit white light in the Unseen World were not affected by his terrifying aura, and they even took the initiative to launch an attack on him and his mount.

This was a situation rarely encountered in the thousands of years Khamul had been campaigning in the human world since becoming a Ringwraith. It was difficult for Humans to maintain the heart to fight in front of him and his colleagues, let alone appearing in a group like this.

However, the current situation did not allow Khamul to think too much. Those dozen or so Cavalry had already put away their bows and arrows, brandishing their melee weapons as they charged toward him. The other enemies were one thing; it was estimated they would be hard-pressed to harm him, but the Human charging at the very front, with that Greatsword in his hand emitting a rich white light, made Khamul feel an extremely powerful threat.

Allen, who had originally thought victory was within his grasp, never expected the sudden appearance of a Ringwraith, let alone in such a manner and at this current time.

As a transmigrator familiar with the plot, Allen knew that one day he would face this kind of terrifying creature on the battlefield. At the same time, he had also thought of many ways to deal with such creatures; for example, the Qi Technique he had already mastered was one possibility he had considered.

Another was the enchanted weapons of the Pendor Continent. It was not the Rune Sword he gifted to Aragorn. In Allen's understanding, in Middle-earth, only those weapons crafted by Elves in the First Age, or weapons blessed by the Numenoreans, could cause harm to Ringwraiths.

The Rune Magic from the Noldor Elves of the Pendor Continent only caused certain changes in the sharpness, toughness, durability, and weight of the weapons and equipment, and did not endow them with special lethality. Allen believed that what could truly cause harm to these invisible Spirits were those magic weapons redeemed with Dragon Tear, or artifacts left over from ancient times; only they possessed such power.

However, Allen had not expected the Ringwraith to appear before his eyes so soon. He had not yet begun to prepare those so-called magic weapons and artifacts, but he had been practicing the Qi Technique he possessed without stopping.

In one accidental simulation, Allen discovered that when he redeemed the training progress of his Qi Technique, the growth of the "Holy Qi Technique" directly allowed his severely depleted spirit to recover, but the price was that the Simulator would enter a cooldown period, though it was not long.

After testing it several times, Allen thought of a way to quickly increase his own strength. From then on, he would enter the simulation every night. Besides checking his fief in the Calradia continent, he would practice his "Holy Qi Technique" in the simulation.

At the same time, after several tests, Allen calculated that as long as he controlled the time spent practicing in the Simulator, he could stabilize the cooldown of his cheat to within one day, thus forming a virtuous cycle.

At night, he practiced Qi Technique in the Simulator, and the increase in ability after redeeming his identity greatly offset the mental energy he consumed by activating the Simulator, allowing him to have enough energy during the day to handle the administration of his territory and lead his soldiers in non-stop galloping.

Relying on this method, Allen's combat power increased extremely rapidly in a short period of time. That Greatsword carrying the rich white light was the manifestation of him applying his Qi Technique to the limit.

After using the Simulator for several years, Allen finally found a bug he could exploit, and the rapidly growing strength also gave him the confidence to launch a charge at the Ringwraith at this moment.

As for whether the "Holy Qi Technique" was useful against a special creature like a Ringwraith, Allen felt that this was a good opportunity to test it. Therefore, his first arrow was aimed directly at Khamul's mount. Now that the fierce beast was dead, the Ringwraith, who was maintaining his form in the world of men, no longer had a way to move quickly, and thus Allen had the possibility of advancing or retreating at will.

At this moment, Allen, galloping rapidly on horseback, had already rushed to Khamul's front, and that Greatsword with the rich white light, under Allen's swing, slashed fiercely toward the dark, terrifying Khamul.

Regardless, Khamul was also an Easterling Chieftain with powerful martial arts during his lifetime. Although he was very wary of the Greatsword in Allen's hand, he did not fear Allen's crude and somewhat straightforward sword technique.

He also swung the Morgul Blade in his hand, lightly tapping against Allen's Greatsword, deflecting the Greatsword that was attacking him. However, when the Morgul Blade came into contact with the Greatsword emitting white light, some white light spots splashed out during the collision of the weapons.

Caught off guard, some of those white light spots splashed onto Khamul's body. The confrontation between the two different powers instantly stirred up layers of visible ripples in the air. Khamul, who had been a Ringwraith for thousands of years, seemed to experience the feeling of pain once again, although this pain was extremely slight.

At the same time, he felt that his power seemed to have lost a little bit, but soon, the Ring worn on his right hand made up for all his losses.

And Allen, who was constantly paying attention to the situation in front of him, immediately noticed this. He knew that his preparations had played an extremely important role at this very moment.

However, the Twilight Knight following closely behind Allen did not cause any harm to Khamul. Although they relied on the Magic attached to their helmets to resist Khamul's fear aura, the Rune Sword in their hands, just as Allen had expected, was completely ineffective against the Ringwraith's body.

The Twilight Knight, who also possessed outstanding martial arts, effectively blocked the attack of the Morgul-blade with the Enchanted Shield in his hand during the confrontation with Khamul. However, two of the Knights who had thrust their Rune Sword into Khamul's body felt their arms go numb the moment they pulled out their swords, and soon they could no longer feel their arms at all, and their weapons fell to the ground.

Allen, who had already turned his horse's head, saw this scene, and at the same time, he knew that his subordinates might not be able to harm the Ringwraith in this battle, so the only person left who could confront the great enemy in front of him was himself.

"Holimion, take the men to help the Dwarfs."

At this time, a portion of the Wolf Riders had already rushed in from the entrance of the camp, killing their way toward the Dwarf troops that had already finished assembling. At this moment, under the influence of the Ringwraith, a sense of fear arose in the hearts of the Dwarfs, as if they were about to face their nemesis. However, under the leadership of Dain, they still gathered under the Commander and struggled to resist the Orcish attack.

It was just that the elite Dwarfs at this moment found it difficult to exert their proper combat effectiveness and could only rely on their elite armor to barely protect themselves under the attack of the Wargs. The situation was already in dire straits.

Allen, who had exchanged blows with Khamul once, also noticed this during his charge. He needed the Dwarfs to resist those Wolf Riders so that he could fight the Ringwraith in front of him without distraction.

Therefore, having Holimion take people to support the Dwarfs was the best choice Allen could make at this moment.

After two charges by the Humans, Khamul did not immediately launch a charge in Allen's direction. There were still doubts in his heart; that kind of white light was a power he had never seen before.

Not daring to act rashly, Khamul stood where he was, staring fixedly at Allen, who was gradually walking toward him. Even during the process of Allen using his own ability to drive away the black breath from the two Twilight Knights, he did not make a single move.

Khamul was worried that Allen was luring him into an attack. He was not afraid of a head-on confrontation at all; that Human's sword technique was truly too crude, possessing terrifying power but unable to exert it.

Seeing that the enemy was not moving, Allen, after healing his subordinates, casually dropped the Greatsword in his hand and snatched the Noldor Rune Longsword and Enchanted Shield from his own underlings. That Greatsword was simply too large, and the material was just ordinary iron; maintaining the energy on the sword for a long time was truly too exhausting for Allen.

Although the Noldor Rune Longsword did not possess special attack attributes, in the ancient times of the Panda Continent, they were used by the Sindar Elf as embryos for elemental weapons. It was just that this craft was lost with the destruction of the Sindar Elf, replaced by a more costly method of enchantment.

But this longsword still allowed Allen to use the energy still quite abundant in his body more effectively, and the Enchanted Shield could also allow Allen to resist the Ringwraith's black breath. Most importantly, compared to the Greatsword, Allen was more proficient in sword and shield techniques.

The brief contact on horseback let Allen know that the enemy he was facing now far surpassed him in combat skills. If he wanted to win this battle, he needed to make many changes.

And watching the Human approaching him after changing weapons, Khamul's perception once again sent him a signal of danger. He could clearly feel that the danger came from the strangely shaped longsword that had begun to emit white light.

Looking at the enemy close at hand, the fear of unknown power made Khamul, whose heart was already tense to a certain degree, wait no longer. The Ringwraith, shrouded in darkness, swung the longsword with special power in his hand and attacked Allen.

At this time, Allen, with a serious face, reacted sharply by using the Shield in his hand to deflect the Ringwraith's thrust, while the Rune Sword emitting white light in his hand also took the opportunity to attack the enemy that brought him immense pressure.

The two of them fought fiercely together, surrounded by flames.