Chapter 17: Victory

Allen could never have imagined that Cress, who was prone to acting on his own initiative, had already completed the objective of his battle. By the time he rendezvoused with his men, Bolg had already commanded the Orcish to charge into the river channel. A battle erupted directly in the middle of the channel, and Allen and his dozen or so men blocked the channel, repelling wave after wave of the enemy's probes.

At this moment, Bolg was leading thirty or forty Wolf Riders at the mouth of the river channel. Although he was very angry, he knew that as the commander, he could not join the battle immediately. The lesson of his father was still fresh in his mind, and he did not want to experience that kind of humiliation. At the same time, he was also puzzled as to why there were only a dozen or so people on the opposite side who dared to block him. This was very strange, but it did not stop him from using the lives of these Orcish subordinates to exhaust the stamina of Allen's elite soldiers. Then, he would charge in at a moment he deemed appropriate to finish off Allen and his men.

During this period, he had also tried to use bows and arrows to shoot Allen and his men, but unfortunately, his arrows were all spent without breaking through the Nord Royal Guard's shields or the Greatsword wielded by Allen. Moreover, they were prepared to go to Orc Town for trade and had never imagined that anyone would be so bold as to ambush them here. The arrows he had were only brought along because he particularly liked archery.

While Allen was constantly repelling the enemy, he and his soldiers were slowly retreating in the darkness. During this time, Beorn proposed several times that he could transform into a Giant Bear to join the battle, but Allen refused each time; it was not yet the time.

It was not until the main force of Orcish pursuing Allen walked under the cliff where the Woodland Residents were hiding that Allen let out a loud roar. He led his men to advance instead of retreating, killing their way from the left side of the tunnel into the Orcish ranks. It was like a hot dagger stabbing into butter, continuously slaughtering the Orcish. Seeing this situation, Beorn knew that this was the moment for him to join the battle.

He let out a painful roar, his body growing larger and larger. In the blink of an eye, he had become a Giant Bear two to three meters tall and nearly four meters long. His expanding body burst the bandages that had been wrapped around him, and his wounds, which had already stopped bleeding, began to ooze blood again. But Beorn did not care about this; he charged directly toward the right side of the tunnel, knocking away a dozen or so Orcish in one go and keeping pace with Allen's charge.

After receiving the signal, Aota on the cliff directly ordered the Woodland Residents to ignite the bundles of firewood they had prepared in advance and throw them toward the Orcish ranks below the cliff. Subsequently, they threw down the few remaining jars of Fire Oil, which splashed onto a large area of Orcish. Flames ignited amidst the painful screams of the Orcish, illuminating everyone on both sides of the battle. Many Orcish showed expressions of panic and began to flee, but Bolg, leading dozens of Wolf Riders, was guarding behind them. Any Orcish who ran back would be caught up by the Wolf Riders and bitten to death by the Wargs. Falling into despair, they could only charge toward Allen and his men like madmen.

Allen had still miscalculated one point, or perhaps as a commander, tension made him forget something: the climbing ability of the Orcish is very, very strong, at least the Orcish of the Misty Mountains are like this. At this time, the Woodland Residents standing on the cliff had no way to shoot steadily in front of the Orcish; they would inevitably be entangled by the Orcish climbing up.

Aota knew this point; he had dealt with the Orcish in the Misty Mountains for many years, so how could he not know? But Aota also thought this was a very good ambush location, and the cliff was relatively safe. Allen and those Heavy Infantry were facing the enemy's attacks directly in the river channel, so what else could Aota say?

In fact, from the beginning, Aota had no interest in the matter of rescuing the Skin-changer. He had heard of the great name of the Skin-changer, but the Skin-changer lived further north in the Misty Mountains, and Aota and his people lived near the High Pass; the distance between them was too far, and the two sides usually had no friendship. However, Allen had issued an order, and they had joined Allen for less than a month and were living quite well, so Aota did not want to disobey Allen's order.

However, what Aota did not expect was that the matter of gathering hunters went exceptionally smoothly. The young men in the tribe were all very enthusiastic. It made sense; living in the Misty Mountains, who in their family did not have a little bit of hatred related to the Orcish? They were all very happy to be able to come out and kill Orcish.

Aota, who was quite familiar with the Orcish, had been paying attention to the movements of the Orcish below after launching the attack.

Sure enough, after Bolg discovered that there were also people ambushing on the cliff, he directly ordered a portion of the Orcish who had not participated in the battle to begin climbing toward the cliff. Soon, they climbed up from the other side of the cliff. Aota, who had been prepared, led the Woodland Residents, who had drawn their Great Axes, to fight with the Orcish who had climbed up. For a time, the Woodland Residents began to suffer slight casualties.

At this time, Alayen and the nine personal guards he led stood out. They dropped the Heavy Crossbows in their hands, raised the Broad Shields they had managed to carry up, and drew the Pointed Sticks from their waists. Under Alayen's leadership, they quickly rushed in front of the Orcish, forming a shield wall where the Orcish charged, protecting the Woodland Residents behind them. At this moment, more Woodland Residents reacted and began to shoot at the Orcish climbing under the platform. Meanwhile, Desaiwei, at the other end of the river channel, also began to shoot at the Orcish climbing on the wall by the light of the fire. This side fell into a stalemate for a time.

Allen, leading his men, reassembled into a horizontal formation and blocked the river channel. It was not that Allen did not want to continue charging; there were simply too many Orcish blocking the way. As soon as one was killed, another Orcish would immediately stand in front of him. If they continued to charge down, Allen and his men would soon be surrounded. Their numbers were still too few, so they could only withstand the Orcish's offensive and block them in the river channel, giving the Woodland Residents on the platform more opportunities to inflict damage.

The Giant Bear that Beorn had transformed into was unstoppable among the Orcish crowd. A large number of Orcish blocking his path were knocked away or torn to pieces. Originally, Allen had discussed with Beorn that he should cooperate with Allen's team to kill the Orcish near Allen's formation, looking out for each other, but this plan went off track from the very beginning.

Beorn, transformed into a Giant Bear, seemed unable to control his emotions. He roared angrily, charging and crashing all the way, and soon left Allen's team behind, rushing toward Bolg's position alone.

Bolg looked at Beorn rushing over from the Orcish crowd, the expression on his face becoming even more ferocious. He shouted to the Wolf Riders beside him: "Prepare the Giant Net."

I saw the Wolf Riders beside Bolg take out a huge rope net intertwined with silvery-bright metal wires, which was held high by four Wolf Riders as they charged toward Beorn.

This Giant Net was specially manufactured by Bolg to deal with Skin-changers who could transform into bears. The net was mixed with threads made of a bright silver metal, which his father had looted after occupying Moria and then bestowed upon him. It was very tough. Bolg used these metal wires and hemp ropes to make a huge rope net. Although it was large, the weight was not high, and weights were prepared at the four corners of the net, making it very easy to throw. As long as it covered the prey, no beast had ever been able to break free.

Beorn, who was charging rapidly in the Orcish crowd, saw the Giant Net held up by the four Wolf Riders and gave a sudden jolt. Bad memories in his mind stimulated him to become much clearer, and he braked directly in his mad run, turning his head like a madman and running back toward Allen's side.

How could the Wolf Riders let Beorn go so easily? They directly knocked aside the Orcish blocking their way along the path and continued to charge toward Beorn. However, at this time, Beorn had already rushed into a narrower part of the river channel, where the Giant Net could not be spread out at all. Throwing it might only cover more of their own people. The helpless Wolf Riders had to retreat with the Giant Net.

At this time, several Woodland Residents on the platform noticed these special Wolf Riders and began to raise their bows to hunt them down, directly shooting dead the two Wolf Riders who were originally at the front. The Giant Net held high in their hands fell directly into the dense Orcish crowd. The extra-large mesh directly covered the heads of many Orcish. These covered Orcish directly dragged down the Wolf Riders who were still running toward Bolg's direction, and then the entire large net covered the heads of the Orcish themselves. For a time, the Orcish in this area fell into chaos.

Watching this scene, Bolg roared in hatred and ordered several Wolf Riders beside him to run over, lift the Giant Net from the heads of the Orcish, and take it back.

Beorn, who ran back to Allen's side, was much better behaved this time, cooperating with Allen's team to slaughter the Orcish blocking their way.

With Beorn's help, the pressure Allen and his men faced suddenly lightened, and the speed of slaughtering the Orcish greatly accelerated. For a time, the scales of victory seemed to be tilting toward Allen's side.

Slowly, the fire in the tunnel gradually diminished, and darkness returned to the tunnel. The Humans, having returned to the darkness from the light, were a bit unable to adapt. The Nord Royal Guards and the Woodland Residents were already exhausted; only Allen and Beorn were still slaughtering in the Orcish crowd. In the darkness, the Orcish could clearly see these two existences who were like gods of slaughter, seemingly never knowing fatigue, slaughtering their own kind.

Finally, the Orcish in the river channel, with casualties exceeding half, could not hold on and suffered a large-scale rout. Even though Bolg commanded the Wolf Riders to kill those Orcish who fled first, he could not stop their rout. They fled frantically along the tunnel they had come from.

Bolg, watching this scene, was not overly surprised. He had anticipated this scene; he knew that it was impossible to kill Allen and his men relying solely on these stupid subordinates of his.

At this time, Bolg felt that now was the time for him to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy. His enemies were already exhausted, and the tunnel had returned to the darkness they loved. The fire that the Wargs feared was gone, and in the darkness, there was no longer any need to worry about arrows shot from the cliff.

Bolg, believing that his chances of winning were high, roared and issued the order to attack, leading the Wolf Riders in a howl as they charged into the river channel and killed their way to Allen's front.

Bolg believed that as long as he killed the dozen or so elites and that bear blocking the way, he didn't need to worry about the archers on the cliff at all. As long as he guarded the surroundings of the cliff, he could grasp the initiative and kill them at any time.

Ailong did not lead men to pursue the fleeing Orcish. He had seen that huge net. If he led men to charge into an open position, he would just be waiting to be covered by Bolg's Giant Net. Therefore, Allen stayed with his men in the narrow part of the river channel.

In fact, Allen, during the battle, had been worrying about the issue of the captives, because Bolg's team had not entered the river channel, and the captives remained in the distant dark tunnel. Allen was very worried that Bolg, after being defeated, would kill the captives in a fit of rage to vent his anger. If this were the case, the battle Allen had launched for the sake of rescue would have been fought in vain.

Soon, Allen stopped worrying. Just as Bolg led the Wolf Riders to charge into the river channel, Allen, by the remaining faint firelight, saw three huge figures appear on the opposite side of the river channel.

At this time, Bolg still did not know what was behind him. Seeing that Allen would not come out, he still ordered the Wolf Riders to take out the large net and threw the Giant Net directly toward Allen's position during the charge. Allen, watching the Giant Net flying in the air, raised the Greatsword in his hand, thinking of throwing the sword to block the fall of the Giant Net, but someone was faster than him. Ten Nord Royal Shields flew toward the Giant Net one after another. Under the obstruction of the shields, the Giant Net fell to the ground.

Allen looked left and right at the Nord Royal Guards holding battle axes with both hands, laughed, raised the Greatsword in his hand, and ran toward the charging Wolf Riders. But faster than him was Beorn. I saw Beorn, disregarding the wounds all over his body, pounce directly onto the charging Wolf Riders, accurately biting the neck of a Warg and using the Warg's body as a weapon to swing left and right in the four-to-five-meter-wide river channel, directly disrupting the rhythm of the Warg's charge. The Nord Royal Guards drew the Flying Axes from their waists that they had not used yet and threw them one after another toward the position of the Wolf Riders, which directly forced Bolg to stop his charge.

Soon, three huge figures appeared behind the Wolf Riders. They were three Giant Bears slightly smaller than Beorn. They had just been freed from the Orcish's restraints and, under Cress's leadership, had hidden behind a giant rock. After eating some food provided by Cress, they had recovered a little bit of energy.

From behind the giant rock, they had observed the situation of a large number of Orcish routing and Bolg leading the Wolf Riders charging into the river channel.

Out of hatred for the Orcish and concern for Beorn, they stood up quietly and walked to the mouth of the river channel.

Cress widened his eyes in shock, watching them transform into Giant Bears in front of him, charging in from the mouth of the river channel and cutting off Bolg's retreat.

Bolg discovered the Skin-changers who had transformed into bears—how could he not discover them? After Beorn disrupted the Wolf Riders' charge, they appeared behind the Wolf Riders. Although their condition was very poor, their massive weight was their weapon at this time; a single palm or a single collision could send the Wolf Riders flying.

Bolg knew that he was in a crisis at this time; his retreat was cut off, and the captives had been rescued by others. The changes in the situation were truly too fast, but he did not fall into panic. Years of fighting gave him the ability to make correct judgments in critical moments. He was currently looking for his way of survival—yes, his way of survival. His retreat was directly squeezed off by three huge bears, and his path forward was caught in a battle, but it was not entirely a dead end; the way of survival was ahead.

Through observation, Bolg discovered that apart from Beorn and Allen, everyone else was barely raising their weapons to fight with the Wolf Riders. Although time was favorable to Allen and his men, it was impossible to kill all the Wolf Riders immediately.

At this time, Allen and Beorn were each entangled by several Wolf Riders, unable to attend to Bolg's side. Bolg seized this opportunity and loudly commanded the Wolf Riders beside him to charge regardless of life or death toward the Nord Royal Guards who were struggling to fight the Wolf Riders in front of them.

On the continent of Calradia, the Nord Royal Guards were very strong. They were the only infantry who could fight the Swadian Knights to a standstill on the plains while holding Great Axes, which fully demonstrated their combat power. However, compared to Allen or Beorn, they were only in the category of ordinary people. They were wearing heavy armor and did not know how many Orcish they had already killed. Under Allen's leadership, their spirits were still high, but their stamina could not keep up. Under the desperate charge of the Wolf Riders, some finally could not hold on and were knocked to the ground.

Bolg, after knocking down the Nord Royal Guards, did not stop at all and led the surviving Wolf Riders to run frantically toward the position of Orc Town. Meanwhile, Desaiwei, who had been shooting from the rear, noticed Bolg and, following her intuition, shot an arrow at Bolg. Unfortunately, it only grazed Bolg's scalp and flew away. Desaiwei, who missed, subsequently fired a few more shots, shooting dead several Wolf Riders who were fleeing with Bolg.

Bolg, who had been ambushed, ignored the black blood flowing all over his face and drove the Warg to flee frantically toward the depths of the tunnel. He secretly decided in his heart that even if it was shameful, he would borrow troops from that fat man and come back to avenge this arrow wound.

In fact, he ran into a reconnaissance unit sent out by Orc Town halfway there. After gathering these Orcish, Bolg killed his way back into the river channel again.

Unfortunately, when he returned to the river channel with a large number of Orcish, he found nothing except a ground full of Orcish corpses; even that Giant Net of his, which had been invincible in the past, had disappeared.

A stench of corpses being burned by fire permeated the entire tunnel, which also dispelled Bolg's idea of wanting to rely on the Wargs' sense of smell to pursue the enemy.

Not to mention how angry Bolg was, at the very least, he did not give up the plan to pursue Allen, but instead led his Wolf Riders out of the tunnel and began to search for Allen's tracks everywhere in the vicinity of Orc Town.