Chapter 160: Unexpected

This was a pitch-black, cold night; the moon and stars had all hidden behind thick layers of clouds, and the biting cold wind blew across the land, which was left with nothing but grass roots, appearing utterly quiet and desolate.

Suddenly, the sound of rapid hoofbeats rang out in the northeast of this land. An Easterling cavalryman with a face full of sweat looked behind him in a panic, then swung the horsewhip in his hand, lashing it fiercely against his mount. Under the master's whipping, the Easterling warhorse, which had already begun to pant heavily, accelerated its pace once more; its speed actually increased yet again.

However, the efforts of this warhorse were completely useless. At this moment, three pursuers clad in silver bright plate armor still had not given up on chasing this man and horse, and the distance between the two sides was growing closer as time passed.

Soon, one of the cavalrymen chasing the prey raised the war bow engraved with runes while riding on the galloping Elf Horse. The two azure gemstones on the bow body gradually brightened as the bowstring was drawn. As the bowstring was pulled to its limit, the light on the gemstones gathered onto the Noldor arrow nocked on the string, and the originally silver-bright arrowhead was also rendered into a blue light that radiated a chilling intent.

Subsequently, the cavalryman released the bowstring in his hand. This rapidly flying arrow, like a streak of azure lightning, flew toward the Easterling cavalryman who was fleeing in a panic.

The Easterling cavalryman fleeing in front seemed to sense something; he suddenly turned his body to look back, just in time to see the pursuer behind him release the bowstring. That blue light arrived before his eyes in an instant. This Easterling cavalryman had no time to make any reaction; after a brief pain came intense cold and endless darkness.

At this moment, the Easterling cavalryman's instantly stiffened body could no longer maintain its balance on the galloping horse. Within a few seconds, it tumbled to the ground, and after the corpse made contact with the hard earth, it shattered directly into several pieces.

Holimion put away the Sapphire Rune Bow in his hand, urged the Elf Horse beneath him to catch up to the Easterling warhorse that had already slowed down, and brought it under control. He handed the horse's reins to a companion beside him and said quickly, "Belis, dispose of the corpse on the ground. After that, return directly to Lord Allen's side; no need to look for us."

As a member of the Twilight Knights, Belis nodded upon hearing this, took the reins, and reined his horse around to head toward the enemy corpse scattered on the ground.

Having arranged the aftermath, Holimion then said softly to the little girl in the arms of another companion, "Emily, there should still be one escaping enemy. Has your nightjar partner returned?"

Even though she was tightly held in the arms of a Twilight Knight wrapped in a blanket, having galloped in the cold wind for several hours, Emily still looked exhausted and haggard. A little squirrel, as if feeling sorry for its partner, was using its little paws to help the little girl comb her messy hair.

However, this resilient little girl did not complain about anything. Upon hearing Holimion's words, Emily puffed out her cheeks and let out a short, sharp bird call from her mouth.

Before long, other bird calls appeared in the sky; this was the response given by Emily's nightjar partner. Having received the news, Emily looked at the sky, pointed her hand toward the northwest, and said, "It's just not far over there."

"Very good."

After a word of praise, Holimion did not waste any time and galloped toward the direction Emily pointed. He was a bit anxious now, because the outline of the enemy's base, Chariot City, had already appeared before his eyes. With his excellent eyesight, Holimion could even clearly see the specks of firelight within it.

This place was simply too close to Ashur's base. Holimion did not even want to let the enemy's blood remain in this place, because in winter, the ground was frozen extremely hard by the cold weather, and the blood would not seep into the soil at all. Moreover, the Easterlings all had the habit of keeping hunting dogs. Holimion could not let the enemies living in Chariot City receive the news that the war had begun, and his next task was to use the Sapphire Rune Bow in his hand to kill the last escaping enemy.

At this time, Allen had been campaigning on this Wilderland with his army for over a month. In this increasingly cold winter, Allen, with the help of powerful reconnaissance capabilities, rapid mobility, and extremely fast recovery abilities, had broken four Easterling camps during this period, including those of Rabat and Bamonde.

In the battles, the Metenheim Death Warriors under Allen's command, as well as the two Skin-changers Wulf and Grim, played a crucial role. In the narrow and complex terrain of the camps, their destructive power was far higher than that of the cavalry. With the assistance of the soldiers under Allen's command, they could shatter the enemy's morale in a very short time, thereby ending the battle quickly.

Of course, the terrifying lightning in Allen's hands also made those barbaric, rude, and short-sighted Easterlings exceptionally terrified.

But this was not fast enough, far from it. Allen looked at the thick clouds in the sky and knew that it was about to snow in the Wilderland, and it would inevitably be a heavy snow.

Once it snowed, his plan would have to be terminated. No matter what, he would not let his soldiers march in snowy weather, because this was the unobstructed Wilderland. With the gale mixed with icy snowflakes, even wearing warm winter clothes, most of his men could not persist for too long in such weather.

If they had to fight in such an environment, there would only be one final result: the plague would take more lives than the battle, and the war would definitely be half the work for twice the result.

At night, the time Allen launched attacks was always at night. Only in the dark of night would the Easterlings return to their camps to live. Even in winter, they would drive slaves to the wilderness to harvest horse grass during the day, and some Easterling Warlords would even take wine and food during the day to visit other camps.

Allen had encountered such a situation, and without hesitation, he killed that Easterling Warlord who wore a dazed expression in the Easterling camp he had just broken.

This Easterling Warlord simply could not adapt to this huge change in a short time. Half a month ago, he was still drinking and having fun with newly met colleagues in this camp, and he had even received several slaves as a return gift.

At that time, more than two thousand Easterlings lived in this huge camp. Having arrived in Rhovanion two years early, they were living quite well.

But now, this place had already become a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. This huge change made him even forget to beg for mercy; of course, soon he would not need to beg for mercy either.

After Allen killed the Easterling Warlord who had rashly intruded into his controlled area, he knew that he could not follow the original plan and let his troops continue to rest for two days.

A camp leader had suddenly gone missing; who knew what would happen in two days?

Therefore, under the influence of various conditions, Allen did not march cautiously on the wilderness as he had in the past. Instead, while Holimion cleared the enemy's Scout Cavalry, he led his troops to gallop directly to the vicinity of the enemy's camp, and he even split his forces to attack two camps.

He prepared to attack the two camps closest to him in this final moment, to weaken the enemy's power as much as possible.

After the fighting was over, Allen would lead his subordinates to hide in the canyon where the Northern Men had once hidden, to spend the coldest moments of winter there.

In fact, Allen's war plan was already nearly half complete. Originally, there were five Easterling camps surrounding Ashur; in fact, after Rabat and Bamonde left, only three remained.

It was just that under the harsh living environment, two more Easterling tribes could not resist Ashur's enticement and came to Rhovanion, but having just arrived, they did not obtain the beautiful life they had imagined.

At this moment, the camp closer to the east had already fallen into the flames of war.

Under the all-out attack of nearly three thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry under Allen's command, these Easterlings who had not yet stood firm were already in a precarious situation, on the verge of collapse.

Things were relatively smooth up to this point. The news from Holimion's side also indicated that the control of this area had been completed; all the enemy's Scout Cavalry had died on this wilderness.

After learning the news, Allen personally led his personal guards and threw himself into the battle to attack the camp. As Allen's Chain Lightning appeared on the battlefield, those Easterlings who were putting up a desperate resistance soon could not hold out and knelt down to surrender.

But just as Allen's troops were cleaning up the battlefield, a group of Easterling cavalry fleeing in a panic suddenly broke into Allen's controlled area from the north of the camp, seeing the battlefield with raging flames from afar.

Meanwhile, Cress also learned the news of this group of enemies from his animal partners, and subsequently reported it to Allen, who was treating the soldiers.

The moment he heard this news, Allen guessed the origin of these enemies.

It was very clear that the Dwarf army led by the King under the Mountain, Thorin II, had likely already captured Iron-arm Town at this moment and started the attack on other Easterling camps. However, the Dwarf army only had a few hundred Goat Cavalry and a small number of War Chariots; it was impossible for them to seal off the news as tightly as Allen did.

Now this cavalry troop was likely messengers who had escaped from those two camps, either going to seek help from Ashur or to report the news that the war had begun.

Allen's guess was not entirely correct, but it was not wrong either. At this moment, the one leading this cavalry was none other than Kurda, the leader of Iron-arm Town. When Thorin II's army suddenly appeared outside the city walls of Iron-arm Town from the Iron Hills, Kurda was not in his own territory, but was visiting a colleague's camp with a portion of his cavalry.

In any case, Kurda was also an old subordinate of Ashur and had made no small contribution when conquering the eastern part of Rhovanion. The relationship between the two was naturally closer, and compared to these newly arrived colleagues, he could speak more effectively to the commander.

Moreover, among Ashur's many underlings, the strength in Kurda's hands was considered relatively powerful, and he occupied a town with stone walls. Therefore, these two newly relocated Easterling Warlords often feasted Kurda to smooth over the relationship between the two sides, so that they could have a place to hide in times of crisis.

And by the time Kurda had enjoyed himself to the fullest at his colleague's place, Iron-arm Town had actually already been captured by the Dwarves. What Kurda saw upon returning with his troops were squads of elite Dwarves cleaning up the battlefield.

Moreover, a squad of Goat Cavalry had discovered them from afar and began to charge toward his direction, led by a Dwarf of unusually tall stature.

Having already witnessed the combat power of the Dwarves at the Battle of Long Lake, Kurda did not hesitate at all. He directly took the dozens of cavalrymen under his command and returned along the original path to his colleague's camp, and did his best to persuade his colleague to relocate the camp and stay away from the Dwarf army.

Kurda knew that his subordinates were all finished, and relying solely on the nearby Easterlings, there was simply no way to fight against the large-scale elite Dwarves. Helpless, he could only abandon the idea of rescue.

Moreover, he could not understand why the Durin Dwarves, who lived in the high mountains, would suddenly launch an attack on him in this cold winter. The two sides had clearly signed a peace treaty and had lived without interfering with each other for two years. If possible, Kurda hoped that such a stable and prosperous life could continue forever; he did not want to fight anymore.

In fact, Kurda had always been affected by that battle near Long Lake, often dreaming in his sleep of his good friend who died in the flames, looking at him with a grin, as if asking him why he didn't save him at the time.

Afterward, his friend's figure would disappear in the flames, and rushing out from the flames were endless Elf and Dwarf troops, waving weapons emitting cold light in their hands, preparing to take his life. Subsequently, Kurda would wake up from the nightmare, and this dream had plagued him for two years.

The terrible memories and mental state made Kurda, who was originally keen on plundering, start to grow weary of war. He had to rely on large amounts of strong liquor every day to fall asleep peacefully.

However, these things were temporarily cast to the back of his mind. The top priority was how to save his own life, while simultaneously delivering the news that the war had begun to Ashur, so that his boss could make preparations for war.

But the Easterlings' reaction was still slow. Just as the entire camp was busy preparing to relocate, the Dwarves' Goat Cavalry had already appeared on the outskirts of their camp. Knowing that he could not drag it out, Kurda gathered over a hundred Easterling cavalrymen and, before the Dwarf army attacked the camp, charged out directly and ran toward the south.

Then they plunged headlong into Allen's controlled area and saw the camp emitting unusual firelight.

In the previous battles, besides sending most of his reconnaissance forces to the east, Allen had also paid attention to the north. But tonight's battle started too hurriedly; just to ensure the safety of the surroundings, Holimion had taken away all the Animal Friends.

He really did not expect that at this moment, there would be enemy cavalry approaching this battlefield; one must know that it was already late at night.

In any case, Allen could not just sit by and watch this troop of Easterling cavalry bring his news to other enemies; his plan had not yet completely succeeded.

"Cress, notify Holimion to intercept this enemy cavalry unit with all his might, be quick!!"

After issuing the order to Cress, Allen then said to Abinas beside him: "I trouble you to gather some of your clansmen as quickly as possible; I am in dire need of your help right now."

After speaking, Allen rushed toward his Elf Horse, and the camp, which had already become somewhat calm, suddenly grew lively; before long, a cavalry unit charged out of the camp.

Even though it was a pitch-black night, with the help of the firelight, Kurda clearly saw a troop of cavalry charging in his direction, but they had already been galloping for a long time and were long since exhausted.

Kurda looked at his subordinates behind him, gritted his teeth, and shouted loudly: "Split up and run!"

Immediately, the hundreds of Easterling cavalry split into over a dozen small squads, moving away from Allen's cavalry unit under the cover of the pitch-black night, but their direction was all toward Ashur's Chariot City.