Chapter 177

When Cress slowly saw a glimmer of light from the darkness, the first thing that entered her vision was Allen's expressionless face, and the second was Grim, who stood to the side with a simple and honest look on his face.

"Awake? Drink some water."

As he spoke, Allen handed warm water mixed with honey to Cress, whose lips were pale and cracked; although Allen's abilities had extremely strong healing effects, he could not make a wounded person recover in a short time after the human body had lost a large amount of blood, and it was already quite good that he had been able to save her.

At this time, after receiving treatment, Cress could barely prop up her body to sit up; after taking the wooden bowl with both hands without a word, she poured the warm, sweet honey water into her mouth.

However, while drinking the water, she had been secretly observing Allen's expression, and from time to time, she cast inquiring glances at Grim.

What Cress wanted to know was what the situation was now, and most importantly, whether she would have to face a scolding that was like a violent storm next.

However, Grim, who knew nothing, naturally could not provide Cress with any information, and could only look at the big sister who had woken up and laugh; he had not been scolded, but instead had received praise from Allen, and he was indeed worthy of praise.

In fact, Allen did not have the intention to scold Cress angrily; instead, he had been thinking about whether his previous indulgence of Cress would harm her life in a future crisis.

It might be because when Allen met Cress, he had been saved by this young girl who was only thirteen or fourteen years old, and thus felt grateful;

It might also be because Cress was the youngest member of the team, and he subconsciously took good care of her;

It was even more likely that the reliance Cress inadvertently showed toward Allen allowed him to find some kind of emotional sustenance in this young girl.

For these ten years, Allen had always treated Cress as a daughter, giving her freedom, tolerance, and care, and of course, there was no lack of one scolding after another.

However, this young girl was already over twenty years old, and under the pampering of everyone, her actions were still reckless, as if she would never grow up.

Although Allen would get furious and scold her every time she caused trouble, this method of education did not work at all.

Allen believed that this situation must change, otherwise this young girl would really lose her life one day because of her recklessness and whims.

"Tomorrow I will have Balin take a team to send you back to Wilderness Town; from now on, just stay by Yamila's side. It will be safer there, and I will instruct Yamila to arrange some work for you."

The tone of Allen's voice was not heavy; on the contrary, it was very gentle, but after it reached Cress's ears, it was no less than a bolt from the blue; she knew that she was grounded, and she was afraid that she would not even be able to step out of the palace gate in the future.

Because Yamila stayed in that circle of buildings all year round and could not go out many times throughout the year; as Prime Minister, she was still better off, as she was very busy every day and did not feel much.

But as for Cress, who could not stay still, she would probably feel that it was like a larger prison, with no freedom to speak of.

But at this moment, Cress only held the wooden bowl and drank water sip by sip, not arguing about it, although her tears were already flowing on her face and dripping into the wooden bowl in front of her.

Because she had grown up after all, and she knew how dangerous the situation last night was; if it were not for Grim's refusal to leave her side, she would have already died there, and might have even caused the death of the little companions who had followed her out.

Seeing that Cress did not express any opposition to this, Allen nodded and said again: "I have already arranged for Malhebi to get you something to eat; after you finish eating, rest for a while."

After speaking, Allen turned and left the tent; in fact, he saw that Cress was crying, but Allen felt that he should appear more hard-hearted to let Cress understand how big the mistake she had made was.

Because the situation last night was indeed very dangerous; if it were not for a coincidence, Allen believed that it would have been impossible for him to save these two people.

How would he answer to himself then? How would he answer to Beorn?

Time returned to last night again; after Allen had arranged everything for the banquet, he took his two Attendants, Gale and Balin, and began his patrol after nightfall in the camp; at this time, he did not feel that anything was wrong.

But in his chat with Balin, Gale mentioned a sentence: "With such a lively banquet, why haven't I seen Cress? She likes to join in the fun so much, it's really strange?"

Just this one sentence finally made Allen realize that something was missing from his side, and that was the "two people who went out to familiarize themselves with the terrain," who had not returned yet.

Whether it was Grim or Cress, they both had an extremely important status in Allen's heart; if it were in Wilderness Town, Allen would not feel that it was strange, because the two of them would often go out to play, but in this place, it was a bit different.

Realizing that the situation was a bit wrong, Allen immediately used his ability to see the figures of the two people from high in the sky, and also quickly located Cress's position through the distant, blurry Mirkwood.

At the same time, he also saw that Grim was fighting fiercely with the Wargs around him, and he even scanned a rough idea of the larger Orcish army further away.

In such a critical situation, Allen quickly issued an order to prepare for battle; the bonfire banquet that had not yet ended was directly cancelled, and all the soldiers were busy putting on armor, checking weapons, and making preparations before the battle.

Even though he was burning with anxiety, Allen still maintained basic rationality and did not rush out alone to rescue the two; in the end, he stepped out of the camp gate together with his armed subordinates.

However, when galloping on the road, he finally could not suppress the worry in his heart and directly shared a portion of his ability with the Elf Horse under his crotch, thereby greatly increasing the speed of his mount.

In the end, Allen still arrived at the side of Grim and the other in time, stabbed the leader of the enemy Wargs to death, and later even hung its corpse on his spear and threw it directly into the Orcish ranks like a cannonball.

Immediately following that were two uncharged Chain Lightning spells thrown into the Orcish ranks; the silver-white electric light darting everywhere instantly knocked down a large area of Orcish, and at the same time caused extremely strong deterrence to the enemy.

And at this time, Allen took advantage of this excellent opportunity to plunge into the enemy's ranks; in a distance of only ten meters or so, the Jia Chang Qi Qiang in his hand was like a skewer of candied haws, filled with the corpses of Orcish.

And when Allen threw away the Jia Chang Qi Qiang in his hand, drew his Rune Sword, and frantically slaughtered the Orcish who were surrounding him, the subordinates who followed behind him had also arrived here, directly killing the panicked Orcish army into a rout; and this battle could be considered to have ended here.

Whether it was Orcish or Wargs, as long as they were chasing behind Cress and Grim, not a single one could return to Mirkwood alive; they could only, and only deserved to, die in pain under the pursuit of the Cavalry.

Soon, over a thousand Orcish were killed on this Wilderness by the joint Cavalry of Humans, Elf, and Dwarf.

And the Orcish who were marching further away noticed the situation here; amidst a burst of horn sounds, most of the Orcish stopped their steps in the chaos and slowly turned back to retreat toward the direction of Mirkwood.

It was very clear that the enemy commander already knew that their team had been exposed, so there was no need to continue sending people to hunt down that one person and one bear.

And at this time, although it was night and the combat effectiveness of the Orcish would not be affected at all, walking out of Mirkwood meant having to entangle with a large number of enemy Cavalry on the wilderness, which was a very unwise thing.

Relying on their extremely fast speed, the Human Cavalry had a huge advantage when facing an Orcish army that was mostly infantry, especially in terrain like the Wilderness, where the infantry could only be beaten.

As one of the Ji Jieling, Holmras would naturally not make such a mistake; once a Gondor noble, he still understood this bit of military strategy.

Moreover, the vision of the Ringwraiths in the darkness was excellent; even at an extremely far distance, Holmras could see clearly that the opposite side was elite, which matched his master's guess.

Most importantly, Holmras was somewhat wary of the two lightning bolts that were wreaking havoc among the Orcish; that was a power he had never seen before.

And after killing the enemies around him, Allen gathered the scattered Cavalry back to his side.

Because he also saw the Ringwraith hiding in Mirkwood; although Allen did not know which one of the Ji Jieling the opponent was, in the vision of the Unseen World, that gray-white figure was extremely conspicuous and had nowhere to hide.

Allen did not want to be in a stalemate with the enemy here; the unconscious Cress was still waiting for his treatment.

Therefore, after discovering that the enemy had no desire to continue fighting, Allen led his team away, and then kept taking care of Cress until she woke up.

However, at the same time, Allen still sent someone to deliver the news that the evil minions had appeared in Dol Guldur to the camp of the Noldor Elf, for them to send to the master of Lothlorien.

After all, the distance between these two forces was very close, and they were genuine mortal enemies, while Allen's Ioviah was still far away from here.

However, just in case, Allen still sent Gale back first to deliver this news to Yamila, letting her pay attention to the safety within the territory, and at the same time, the letter also instructed Artimenner to start building more outposts on the south side of Ioviah.

If there was spare capacity, one could choose a better terrain to directly build a fortress with solid defenses, because the southern end of Mirkwood was no longer safe, and small enemy units, or the Great Spider with a fierce appearance, would very likely harass Allen's territory under the command of the Ringwraith.

When the terrible news that evil had returned to Dol Guldur was passed back to Lothlorien, Celeborn and his wife soon made corresponding moves; team after team of Galadhrim walked out of Caras Galadhon, strengthening Lothlorien's control over the east.

And the Lord and Lady of the Golden Wood also accompanied Cirdan and Estel, appearing on the east bank of the Great River in a white swan boat, and immediately met with Allen, Legolas, and Fili.

The various Elf lords would not be affected by time at all; their appearances had not changed in the slightest compared to a few years ago, but Estel had undergone a huge change.

At this time, Estel had grown into an adult within these few years, turning into a tall, straight, and handsome young man; looking from afar, he looked just like a noble Prince.

Standing beside Cirdan, he wore silver-white armor forged by the Noldor Elf, his height was at least 1.8 meters or so, not much shorter than Allen anymore, and hanging at his waist was the Noldor Rune Longsword that Allen had given him.

The entire sword was well-maintained, and the silver-white pommel at the end of the hilt shone brilliantly under the sunlight, showing how much its owner cherished it.

Watching the arrival of Allen and the others, Lord Celeborn greeted each person and spoke politely: "Welcome, Allen, the dragon-slayer from Wilderness Town. It has been a few years, and you have become even more profound and powerful."

He then continued: "Welcome, my kin, Legolas, son of Thranduil! To allow you to travel from Mirkwood to Gondor, I believe your father has made a great concession, and I admire him greatly."

"And you, Fili, heir to the King of the Lonely Mountain, you are also welcome. Lord Thrain asked me to convey his regards to you."

After greeting the three, Celeborn did not stop speaking, but said with a hint of apology: "Please allow me to apologize once more for not arranging a banquet in Caras Galadhon to dine with you all. To express my apologies, please accept my gifts." Allen and the others hurriedly replied that, given the special circumstances, there was no need for such courtesy.

As the Lord of Lothlorien finished speaking, one Elf boat after another drifted out from the Yinmaihe and soon docked on the east bank of the Anduin River, unloading bag after bag of supplies. Allen did not know what they were, but hoped they were marching rations like Lembas, as the road they had to travel next was indeed very long.

When the pleasantries between the two sides were finished, Cirdan and Estel stepped off the white swan boat and came to the side of Allen and his two companions. Allen nodded to greet the two, and they returned the gesture.

At this moment, the voice of Lady Galadriel also rang out.

"Originally, the Galadhrim of Lothlorien should have had a force to accompany you to Minas Tirith to resist the encroachment of the Great Enemy. However, recently the Dimrill Dale has often been filled with towering flames and smoke obscuring the sun; the evil hidden deep beneath the earth may very well emerge from the dark and deep Moria, and I fear the army of Lothlorien cannot assist you."

As she spoke, Lady Galadriel looked toward Dol Guldur, which stood in the east and was shrouded in evil all year round.

"Furthermore, the evil servants of the Great Enemy have appeared once again in the distant forest. The upcoming tasks for Lothlorien are very heavy, and you will have to proceed on your own."

Regarding this, Allen had already made full mental preparations; in such a situation, no one could possibly send reinforcements to Gondor.

If it were not for Lady Galadriel watching over Dol Guldur, even he himself would have to think twice about whether to take the risk.