Chapter 162: Reinforcements

This was an Easterling camp near the Iron Hills, where squads of well-equipped Dwarves of Durin were scouring the battlefield; it was clear that the battle had long since ended.

Although the Easterlings in this camp had been prepared thanks to Kurda's warning, they had held out for less than an hour under the Dwarves' fierce offensive.

With equal numbers, the gap in combat skill, physical prowess, weaponry, and battlefield morale between the two sides was simply too vast; after breaching the gates, the Dwarves shattered the desperate, resisting Easterlings in a single charge, and the cold-glinting spears and axes in the Dwarves' hands demonstrated to the Easterlings what it meant to be unstoppable.

As King of the Dwarves of Erebor, Thorin II wore a suit of fine Plate Armor and rode an armored goat, his eyes cold as he surveyed everything before him; the Orcrist, which was free of bloodstains and emitted a cold light, was gripped in his hand, while beneath the goat's feet lay several already-cold corpses.

Thorin, leading the Dwarf warriors under his command, had by now broken through three Easterling strongholds, including Iron Wall Town, killing and capturing thousands of Easterlings; thanks to the fact that the numbers on both sides were roughly equal in every engagement, and relying on combat power far superior to the enemy and extremely elite armor, the Dwarves of Erebor had suffered minimal losses and still maintained almost complete combat strength at this time.

The only problem was that the Dwarves' pursuit capability was too poor, and the number of warriors brought out was indeed a bit small, making it difficult to wipe out all the Easterlings in the camps; although Goat Cavalry had a huge advantage in mountain warfare, it was difficult to compete with the speed of the Easterlings' warhorses on flat terrain, and as for the War Chariot, it went without saying that it was mostly only suitable for charging lines.

This situation caused Thorin to let many enemies escape due to being unable to catch up while besieging the Easterling camps, but this did not matter; according to the war plan given to him by Allen, the Dwarves had already successfully completed their mission by uprooting the three Easterling strongholds in the north.

Allen had actually anticipated this; he believed that as long as the Easterlings left their camps, he could inflict devastating blows on these enemies in the Wilderness by relying on his powerful reconnaissance capabilities and a cavalry force of over a thousand men; however, even the best plans could not keep up with the rapid changes on the ever-shifting battlefield, and Allen's plan was far from perfect.

Having completed the first step of the operation, Thorin knew his next step was to lead his army south to rendezvous with Allen, then have a showdown with the weakened Ashur to drive him out of Rhovanion.

But the sky was already overcast, and the biting cold wind brought a hint of chill even when it blew against the Dwarves' faces; looking at the weather, Thorin knew that a large-scale blizzard would surely sweep through Rhovanion in the near future, and Thorin recalled carefully that even though he had grown up in the Lonely Mountain, he had rarely seen such weather.

Dwarves were not particularly afraid of the cold, but if the blizzard was too heavy, their heavy equipment and short stature made it difficult for them to walk in deep snow, which made Thorin hesitate about the next step; perhaps he should send a letter to his friend to tell Allen that the next step of the plan should continue only after the snow melted.

Just as Thorin was hesitating, a large black Raven flapped its wings with great effort in the air, flying toward Thorin; before it even got close, its harsh "caw," "caw" cries drifted into Thorin's ears along with the cold wind.

Seeing the Raven flying down from the sky, Thorin's expression softened at once; these birds had a very deep connection with the Dwarves of Erebor and had provided the Dwarves with a considerable amount of information at critical moments; the one before him was Roac's son, Tark, the leader of the Ravens. To deal with this war, Thorin had dispatched Tark to Allen to pass messages back and forth; unlike most other birds, some Ravens used the Common Tongue to communicate.

"Thorin II, son of Thrain, at the very break of dawn, your friend asked me to bring you a message: his plan has failed, the enemy's large army has likely finished assembling and is in hot pursuit behind him; now he urgently needs your help. If you are willing, you may lead your army to follow behind me, and I will lead you to rendezvous with him. I have finished; what is your reply?"

Upon hearing this, Thorin answered without the slightest hesitation: "I understand, I will assemble the troops immediately; Mr. Tark, please rest for a moment." After speaking, he fished out a small, sparkling ruby from somewhere and handed it to the black Raven on his shoulder.

Mr. Tark let out two satisfied "caw," "caw" cries, picked up the ruby with his gray beak, lowered his head to hide the gem, and continued to say: "Be quick, be quick, they have already set off."

Realizing that Allen's situation might be very dangerous at this moment, Thorin turned to a burly Dwarf beside him and said: "Dwalin, now I need you to take fifty Goat Cavalry to bring those Humans to Iron Wall Town; keep a strict watch, do not let them cause trouble, and do not let them freeze or starve to death."

A clearly reluctant expression appeared on Dwalin's rugged face; if he could, he would rather accompany his King to charge and break through enemy lines on the battlefield than be a jailer watching over prisoners, but he would never refuse Thorin's orders; after summoning enough men, he led the Goat Cavalry toward those Humans.

"Dain, have the clansmen assemble; now we must go south to rendezvous with Allen." Dain, hearing his cousin's order, looked up at the clouds in the sky, then nodded and said: "No problem, Your Majesty."

At this moment, Allen, who was retreating westward with all the soldiers under his command, was calculating in his heart what kind of blow he had dealt to Ashur's strength in this battle.

Due to various unexpected influences, the plan Allen had formulated was not executed to the end, but before this, his actions had been very smooth; in less than two months, he had led his army to break through five Easterling camps, killed nearly four thousand enemies who resisted to the end, rescued less than three thousand slaves, and even had over four thousand Easterlings who surrendered in battle, who had now become his prisoners.

A portion of these people had already been escorted back to Wilderness Town, while the rest were waiting to be dealt with at Bamonde's camp.

And Allen's army had suffered almost negligible losses throughout the entire battle; although dozens or even hundreds of people would suffer light or heavy injuries in every fight, they would soon recover under Allen's healing and join the battlefield again.

Up to now, only a few had died and twenty-some were wounded or disabled; if not for Allen's ability to heal wounds, even if they had defeated the Easterlings with an absolute advantage in every battle, the losses would have increased tenfold or even twentyfold; after all, these soldiers had defeated tens of thousands of Easterlings, and the number of Easterling soldiers they had fought in head-on confrontations alone exceeded their total number, not to mention those Easterling women who ambushed from the shadows and launched attacks on these warriors.

Allen was very satisfied with this result; through this war, he fully realized how powerful his Qi Technique, which could heal others' wounds, could be in such small-scale battles after long-term accumulation through the Simulator; Allen felt that even the newly redeemed "Chain Lightning" could not compare to it; this was simply a real-life "Surgery" skill, and even stronger than that.

"Boss, there is a large group of cavalry coming toward us from the east; they are at least a thousand strong, and they are very fast; we are about to run into them!!"

Cress's urgent words interrupted Allen's thoughts; the moment he understood the situation, Allen felt it was somewhat unbelievable; to his knowledge, there were no large groups of cavalry in Rhovanion, not even in the Woodland Realm; Thorin's Goat Cavalry did not number a thousand, and theoretically, they should be to his north, right?

"Could it be that Ashur's cavalry force has already gotten ahead of me?"

Thinking of this, Allen immediately shook his head; this was impossible; he had retreated so decisively, and unless the Dark Lord Sauron had unleashed some terrifying dark magic, the Easterlings' speed could not possibly be that fast; Sauron should still be locked in a stalemate with Gondor.

"Alayen, have all the infantry prepare to deal with the cavalry; Fatis, take the cavalry to defend the flanks of the infantry phalanx; be quick."

Following Allen's order, the infantry, who were marching on the road with prisoners, quickly assembled amidst shouts and, in a short while, formed a phalanx that looked like a hedgehog.

Those Elite Infantry wearing Iron Armor stood at the very front of the phalanx, raising the large shields in their hands, while Spear after Spear flashing with cold light extended from behind them, forming a dense wall of spears that became the spikes protecting this hedgehog.

Archers holding heavy Crossbows and strong bows stood in the middle of the phalanx; they numbered over a thousand, and if the cavalry dared to charge the line, these Archers could completely pour one or two volleys of arrows onto the enemy in a short time, after which a portion of them would also raise the Spears beside them to join the ranks of those countering the cavalry.

As for Allen, he stood with his personal guards on the northern side of the phalanx; once the battle began, this position would allow all the Elven Archers under his command to use the bows in their hands to quickly launch attacks against the enemy, because although these Elven Archers were deeply accomplished in the art of archery, some Elves just could not master shooting from both sides, so this direction was more favorable for their performance.

After Allen's men were ready for battle, a team of blue-and-white cavalry quickly appeared before Allen's eyes a moment later; although somewhat incredulous, Allen still took out the telescope in his hand and looked over; in the lens, a fairly familiar old friend appeared before Allen in full military attire.

It was Lindir from Rivendell, the right-hand man of Lord Elrond; when they lived in Rivendell, the Dwarves in the Expedition had caused no small amount of trouble for this delicate and handsome Noldor Elf, and because Allen often chatted with Elrond, the two were relatively familiar.

It was just that Allen had not seen Lindir since he left Rivendell; being able to meet again at this time, Allen felt it was a very happy thing, because this meant that Lord Elrond had likely extended a helping hand to him in this battle.

Seeing that the incoming force was friendly, Allen immediately ordered his army to break formation and rest on the spot; he did not want to present a posture of being about to clash with swords to his Elven friends who had come from afar.

And he himself rode forward with a face full of smiles; no matter what, it was always right to be a bit enthusiastic toward friends who came to help him, and besides, Allen was truly very happy at this moment.

At this time, Lindir, who was leading the army forward, also saw Allen coming toward him with a team of cavalry, and immediately ordered the Elven Cavalry behind him to slow down; when the two approached, Lindir stopped his horse, took the lead in bowing to Allen on horseback, and then spoke: "Lord Allen, Lord Elrond and Lord Cirdan of Lindon asked me to send you their greetings."

"Wise Elves always manage to do some astonishing things; if there is an opportunity, I will go to Imladris and Mithlond to visit the two Lords in person; it is just puzzling, Lindir, why you would lead an Elven force from Eriador to appear in Rhovanion?"

At this moment, those following behind Lindir were all handsome Elves wearing fine Plate Armor; their stature was very tall, and the expressions on their faces were extremely calm, as if they were not about to rush to the battlefield but were merely attending a hunt; they held weapons with very distinct Elven characteristics, and there were several blue-and-white triangular Flags in the team, on which was drawn the emblem representing Lord Elrond, which was a golden six-pointed star inside a circular frame.

Allen felt he could see the light of stars in the eyes of these black-haired Elves; without needing to guess too much, he knew that most of these cavalry were Noldor Elves who were unwilling to return to Valinor, the most powerful race on the side of order in Middle-earth; during the dash, Allen roughly estimated that there were at least two thousand Elven Cavalry.

Allen did not understand why Lord Elrond would send such a large force to help him at this time; if he could have possessed such powerful allies two months ago, there would have been no need to execute any cutting-off plan; after joining with the elite Dwarf infantry of the Lonely Mountain, Ashur's Easterling soldiers could not possibly have been his match.

Because these Light Elves were extremely powerful; in the First Age, they could even join forces to kill the weaker Balrog, and today in the Third Age, due to the poisoning of Morgoth, the power of these Elves had declined, but their strength was still not something Humans could compare to; these two thousand-plus Elven Cavalry could, by their own power, completely crush the Easterlings entrenched in Rhovanion, it would just take a little longer.

Watching Allen's puzzled expression, Lindir explained with a smile.

"Lord Allen, the matter is like this; the beginning of everything must start with the visit of Mithrandir."