Chapter 182: Battle

And on this battlefield, those suffering the same fate were the heavy cavalry under Allen.

Although the warhorses they rode were equipped with full armor, at the moment of initial contact with the enemy, the warhorses had good stamina, and the charge speed was sufficiently fast.

With the help of such high-speed movement, the heavy cavalry had great impact force during the charge; they not only knocked away many Wargs that pounced up, but also defended against many attacks from the Wargs.

However, as the enemy harassed them incessantly, the speed of the horses would inevitably decrease.

Moreover, the scale of some wolf packs was extremely massive; in the process of head-on collision, a large portion of the heavy cavalry's wedge formation did not break out of the wolf packs' encirclement, but instead fell into the siege of the wolf packs.

The most critical point was that they lost speed while being besieged, which was a very fatal matter for cavalry.

And the bloodthirsty and irritable Wargs naturally would not let go of such an opportunity, immediately surrounding them.

And the unprotected limbs of the horses became the weak points that the enemy attacked at the cost of their lives.

Facing the endless Wargs, when the riders killed enemies on horseback, there were always situations where they could not look after their mounts.

And at this time, the horses' legs would suffer the miserable fate of being gnawed and clawed by the vicious wolves.

After the horses' lower legs were attacked, most of them were in pain, collapsing directly to the ground amidst whinnies, unable to stand up again.

Soon, the heavy-armored cavalry were forced to dismount from their horses and join other companions who had also lost their mounts, transitioning from the cavalry's small wedge formation to a small infantry circular formation.

At the same time, they also brandished the Longswords and Shields in their hands, confronting and slaughtering the surrounding Wargs amidst roars.

For the Dwarfs, this situation was already quite good; when they stopped charging, their speed had completely dropped, allowing them to dismount from their horses with relative composure.

Otherwise, the injuries from falling at high speed would have been enough to keep them from getting back up.

After all, Humans are not as sturdy as Dwarfs.

And the Horse Archers following closely behind used the bows and arrows in their hands to launch wave after wave of covering fire toward the besieged heavy cavalry.

The fine armor on the heavy cavalry, which came from the Dwarfs, did not fear the shooting of arrows at all, and the same was true for the horses sitting on the ground; under the arrows, they did not suffer the slightest harm.

But the Wargs surrounding them were not so lucky; the rain of arrows instantly cleared all the enemies in the vicinity.

With the help of these Horse Archers, the heavy cavalry temporarily escaped the crisis, and several small squads seized the opportunity to gather together to fight.

But they were still in the encirclement of the wolf packs, and this did not change anything.

And the frequently shooting Horse Archers naturally attracted the attention of the lead wolves; amidst the howling that rose one after another, countless wolf shadows gave up surrounding those "tin cans" and instead rushed toward the Horse Archers.

Strengthened by Dark Magic, they approached the Horse Archers who were drawing their bows to shoot in an instant, and pounced on them viciously.

Whether it was the Dúnedain or the Sindar elite led by Legolas, they all jumped off their horses, drew their melee weapons, and engaged in a tragic battle with the Wargs that rushed over.

And on this entire battlefield, the only ones who could still handle the wolf packs with ease were likely the Elf cavalry led by Cirdan.

The formation set up by the three thousand-plus Elves was extremely loose, and very thin, only about three rows deep.

When they accelerated to set off, there was no such thing as melee in front and ranged in the back; they just rushed out loosely, and the spread-out formation was at least several kilometers wide.

And Cirdan led a small squad behind his clansmen, moving forward slowly.

As the Elves continued to move forward, the battle was also on the verge of breaking out.

When dozens of black wolf packs of varying sizes rapidly approached the several-kilometer-long Elf formation, they were first subjected to a wave of arrow rain.

Those Elves drawing their bows to shoot seemed not to care at all whether the arrows shot out might harm their own clansmen.

They just pulled the Composite Bows in their hands to the full, took a casual aim, and released their fingers, shooting a large number of arrows in a short time.

And those dense arrows seemed to possess their own consciousness, avoiding the Elves in front of them one after another.

Subsequently, they fell into the wolf packs like rain, only this "rain" was fatal, washing away half of the dozen or so wolf packs that were rushing at the front.

And at this time, those Elf cavalry holding long-handled weapons had already reached the front of the team.

They stroked their partners with one hand, controlling the speed of the horses, while the long-handled weapon in the other hand slashed precisely onto the bodies of the Wargs in front of them.

Moreover, their attacks were incomparably smooth, as if they were performing; after the first attack, the second attack that followed, utilizing the remaining force of the previous attack, soon landed on the enemy again.

And the mounts under the Elves had no fear of the Wargs in front of them, because most of their ancestors came from the Undying Lands and were horse breeds brought back from Valinor by the Noldor.

Their nature was heroic and quite intelligent; the Elves riding on their backs did not need to worry about whether their partners feared the vicious wolves, they only needed to attack to their heart's content.

It was just that as the Elves continued to move forward, more and more wolf packs began to charge their formation, and the battle officially entered a white-hot stage.

However, the Elves still handled it with ease.

Group after group of Wargs, after rushing into the Elf formation, were directly melted, just like black snow facing the scorching sun, quickly turning into a pool of grayish-black dead water on the ground.

Of course, even though the Elves' combat power was incomparably strong and the horses were heroic and intelligent, casualties would still occur.

Because these Wargs they faced were not only extremely fast but also fearless of death.

The death of surrounding companions could not make them feel the slightest bit of fear; they just stared with pairs of blood-red eyes, constantly pouncing toward the prey in front of them.

Facing this situation, there were always Elves who were targeted by numerous Wargs, unable to withstand the enemy's continuous attacks, being pounced off their horses by the Wargs, thereby separating from the main force and falling into fighting alone.

It was just that compared to the Wargs they slaughtered, the number of Elves who encountered this situation was extremely small and would not affect the rhythm of the entire battle.

These Elves' armor was also very fine; under the short-term siege of the Wargs, it could not threaten their lives, but it was hard to say if it lasted a long time.

Because under the fearless delay of the wolf packs, the speed of the cavalry charge inevitably slowed down.

The only ones who completely broke out of the Warg encirclement were the Knight apprentices led by Aragorn and those numerous spare warhorses carrying supplies.

In the situation where all the wolf packs were attracted by their comrades, they rushed out thrillingly along the bank of the Anduin River.

And under Allen's order, they had already rushed toward the distance and were not allowed to turn back to participate in this battle.

As for the other warriors, they were basically all entangled with the wolf packs, and the heavy cavalry that Allen re-assembled, along with the small portion of Dwarf Cavalry led by Fili, charged into the wolf packs again.

This time there was no choice of breaking out of the encirclement; there was only the determination to slaughter the enemy to the last.

Allen had sufficient confidence in this; it was nothing more than a matter of time.

However, time was not on his side.

At this moment, the afterglow of the sunset was getting weaker, while the dark clouds covering the sky and blocking the sun behind them were gradually approaching the entire battlefield at this moment.

The tens of thousands of Orcish under the dark clouds had already seen from afar the battlefield where Humans, Dwarfs, Elves, and Wargs were slaughtering each other.

And that already eerie and evil dark cloud seemed even darker at this time, and the marching speed of the Orcish army suddenly accelerated again.

The Blind Sorcerer, one of the Ji Jieling, used his few remaining Dark Magic.

Cirdan, who was constantly monitoring the surrounding situation, had already discovered the traces of the enemy behind him.

And as the one who proposed this plan, he naturally could not let his own kin and comrades-in-arms fall into a situation of being attacked from both sides.

He knew that at this moment, some changes needed to be made.

As Cirdan continuously issued orders through his voice, the speed of the Elf Cavalry increased even further.

Moreover, they changed their previous passive stance of waiting and began to actively surround the packs of Wargs that were galloping in front of them.

This behavior made most of the vicious wolves even more excited; only the lead wolves, who could barely maintain their composure, sensed something amiss, but they were quickly suppressed by their bloodthirsty desires.

Meanwhile, the Elves greatly increased their area of lethality while moving at high speed, eliminating the enemies before them as quickly as possible.

And those Elves who had been using bows and arrows from the rear turned their horses' heads one after another and charged toward the Humans and Dwarves.

The order they had just received was to rescue their besieged allies.

In fact, Cirdan had already anticipated this scene of the Humans and Dwarves being surrounded.

In his predetermined plan, the greatest role of these two units was to help the Elves shoulder a portion of the pressure.

Even though he was full of confidence in his own kin, Cirdan did not believe that relying solely on the three thousand-plus Elf Cavalry would be enough to quickly eliminate over ten thousand Wargs.

And they had to do so while killing the enemy quickly, without suffering too many casualties themselves.

Because after these Elf Cavalry finished off the enemies before them, they still had to entangle with tens of thousands of Orcish.

The Humans and Dwarves could not help with this point; their ability to sustain combat was far inferior to the Elves, and after this battle, they would in all likelihood need to recover.

Yes, Cirdan's plan was never to break out, but rather for the Elves to initiate the attack after killing the Wargs, entangling the Orcish behind them to buy time for the Dwarves and Humans to recover.

After waiting for their allies to finish recovering, they would then use the powerful mobility of the cavalry to wipe out the Orcish behind them in the Brown Lands.

And without the entanglement of the Wargs, he believed that his thousands of cavalry could achieve this.

Furthermore, the task of attracting attention was actually very suitable for the Humans and Dwarves.

Because the armor they wore was meticulously crafted by the Dwarves, and they were armed to the teeth.

Even their horses and goats were equipped with heavy armor, which was simply perfect for facing enemies like Wargs, who were fast and agile but lacked armor-piercing capabilities.

Even as bait, their casualties could not be too high after the battle ended.

It was just that plans could never keep up with changes; Cirdan had not expected that the Humans and Dwarves would be able to attract more than half of the Wargs at the moment of their charge.

Because the formation deployed by the Elves was several times wider than that of the Humans and Dwarves combined, and the Elves were riding horses without any armor.

Cirdan had not expected in any way that the leaders of the wolf packs would ignore the unarmored horses and instead charge toward a group of "iron lumps."

This did not conform to his understanding of such creatures.

And all of this was, of course, due to Sauron's Magic; bloodlust and mania had caused the Wargs to lose most of their ability to think.

Although the lead wolves could barely maintain a bit of clarity, their usual cunning had vanished completely.

However, this situation did not lead to entirely bad things.

Because they were facing fewer enemies, the Elves were more composed and faster when killing the enemy.

But in contrast, most of the Dwarves and Humans were trapped in the encirclement, and the damage to their mounts was very severe.

This situation made Cirdan feel somewhat unbearable, but he still did not change his plan.

When a war machine is moving forward without looking back, it is best not to change its direction; otherwise, one might face failure and death.

There were quite a few things in this battle that made Cirdan feel surprised; besides the abnormality of the vicious wolves, there was the fact that the Orcish, under the shelter of dark clouds, were able to increase their speed of advance once again.

The effect of the evil Magic that Sauron had meticulously prepared did indeed exceed his imagination.

The great enemy of the Elves seemed to have more tricks than before.

And another point was that the combat power displayed by the Humans truly surprised Cirdan.

Especially those personal guards who had been following closely by Allen's side and were armed to the teeth; their combat power even reminded him of the Numenoreans in their prime.

Those swordsmen, holding extra-long greatswords and covered in steel from head to toe, were actually able to slaughter enemies in the wolf pack extremely quickly while wearing heavy armor.

In Cirdan's view, the physical fitness and combat skills of these ten people had already surpassed the vast majority of elite soldiers in Middle-earth; even the Royal Guard of Gondor were not this powerful.

Of course, the lightning that would erupt from time to time in Allen's hands also attracted Cirdan's attention, but in his impression, the Numenoreans possessed a great many magical items obtained from Valinor.

He had once seen the "Star of Earendil," which could deter Orcish, and the light it emitted was like a burning meteor.

And he himself was the keeper of a Palantir stone, so he did not harbor too many speculations about the lightning in Allen's hands at this moment.

The strength of an ally is, after all, a good thing.

And too much suspicion would only turn an originally harmonious relationship into one of jealousy and vigilance.

This would only consume the strength to resist the darkness and would have no benefit at all.

The wise Cirdan would never commit such a foolish mistake.