Chapter 227: The First Hall

Late at night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse; a night breeze blew past, and the emerald fir clusters and tall birch forests swayed with the wind, emitting a rustling sound.

The dilapidated and open East Gate of Moria revealed a darkness deeper than the night itself; more than twenty pairs of eyes were currently hidden in the surroundings, staring intently at the movement deep within the gate—these people were Allen and his men, who had arrived here during the day.

Because no one could guarantee whether the Orcish entrenched in Moria might suddenly take an interest in walking out of the pitch-black gate to look at the beautiful scenery of Mirror Mere, or perhaps take a leak against the stone pillars worshipped by the Durin Dwarves.

Therefore, to avoid the enemy discovering his team after coming out of Moria, Allen arranged for at least one-third of his men to guard that gate.

And another third were hidden high up in the tall trees or in the thickets on the hillside, monitoring the surrounding environment at all times to prevent any accidents from occurring due to Orcish coming from other directions.

The remaining third of his men were resting, to replace their comrades on duty after the stipulated time.

When Allen and his party reached the Dark Stream Valley after a difficult journey along the forest on the banks of the Yinmaihe, the sky was already approaching dusk; at this time, the shadows of the three high peaks shrouded the Dark Stream Valley, making the environment of the entire valley very dim.

Allen looked at the current time and thought about the Orcish habit of being active at night and resting during the day, feeling that now was not the best time to enter Moria; the best time would of course be tomorrow morning, when most of the Orcish should be asleep.

Subsequently, he divided his personal guards into three parts and began to monitor the Dark Stream Valley.

And Allen himself, with the help of the special power of the Elven Cloak, hid himself in a patch of dense grass on the hillside south of the East Gate of Moria.

At this moment, he missed his Hobbit friend; if Bilbo Baggins were here, he would only need to put on that Ring and go inside for a stroll, and he could basically figure out everything inside—it simply couldn't be easier.

But after careful consideration, Allen gave up this plan.

Heaven knows if Sauron, located at the Tower of Barad-dur, was staring at him with the Palantir; if he were discovered by him to have the One Ring, then the entire Shire would face a threat hidden in the shadows, and Bilbo's life would also face great danger.

Even if Sauron could not gather a massive army in Eriador, those Nazgul riding the Fell Beast could descend upon Hobbiton at any time, and that fragile door at Bag End would simply not be able to stop such dark evil.

Trouble is trouble; Allen would rather be careful and cautious himself than bring such great trouble to his friends and the temporarily peaceful Middle-earth.

"I'm really sick of this war, fighting every day, fighting every day, there's not much food left; I didn't get enough to eat yesterday, how about you, Gebal?"

"I didn't either, there's not much food left on the second level; I really curse that damn Fimbul, ever since he came back, there hasn't been a moment of peace here."

"Alright, alright, save your energy; at this time of year there might be rabbits and mice looking for food in the forest, if we can catch a few, that fresh meat will be enough to fill the bellies of the three of us."

A burst of harsh noise and heavy footsteps came from the pitch-black gate, immediately waking Allen, who was deep in thought; knowing that an accident had occurred, he tightened his cloak again, and after confirming that he was in a state of concealment, he refocused his gaze on the gate.

Before long, three short and greyish-yellow-skinned Orcish appeared under the moonlight; they complained about their dissatisfaction with life in a broken, pseudo-Common tongue, and then quickly walked toward the bottom of the valley along the damaged road at the gate.

"Shalago, you often stay by the boss's side, when do you think this fighting will end?"

"Ha, want it to end? Unless that hateful, cursed Fimbul dies immediately, otherwise there will still be plenty of time for chaos."

"I heard that Fimbul seems to have escaped back from Orc Town, having been directly expelled by the Humans there; it's really shameful, but that guy also picked up quite a few fellows along the way, as well as a few big ones, otherwise he wouldn't have the capital to challenge our boss."

"You can't say it like that; when he followed Boss Azog before, Fimbul's status was higher, you ask him to accept the boss's leadership now, he definitely wouldn't be willing."

"Stop arguing, you're going to scare the rabbits away."

Following a harsh, low shout, the Orcish voices came to an abrupt halt.

After waiting for a moment, Allen beckoned to the two Twilight Knights beside him and quietly followed; he didn't want to kill these three guys at the gate, who knew if there were other Orcish behind them with the same intentions.

Therefore, Allen chose to wait; in any case, the field of vision here was extremely open, and those three Orcish had not escaped his monitoring.

Under the cover of the Elven Cloak, the three of them, wearing specially treated Runic Plate Armor, moved quickly and silently through the forest; in the vegetation, they became deep green shadows, and under the starlight, dark silver light protected them.

And the three Orcish, who were staring at the bottom of the valley looking for prey, did not notice at all that three tall figures were staring closely at them.

After simple communication through gestures, Allen took out his bow and arrow from behind and aimed at the enemy in front of him; with three "swish, swish, swish" sounds of the bowstring, three filthy lives were ended in this beautiful valley.

If he hadn't heard their conversation, Allen might have considered letting these three Orcish go for fear of alerting the enemy.

But the situation was different now; the Orcish entrenched in Moria were clearly divided into two factions and were fighting endlessly for the position of boss; in this situation, it was perfectly normal for a few Orcish to die.

With the management ability and lifestyle of this bunch, even if the two bosses got together to carefully calculate, they wouldn't be able to figure out where their underlings had died.

As for the authenticity of the information, not to mention that Orcish usually don't have the courage to die to play a game of "luring the enemy into a trap" with their own lives, Allen had indeed defeated a group of enemies in Orc Town several years ago.

Although he couldn't remember the name Fimbul, the enemy leader who ruled Orc Town at the time didn't die there, but ran away with an elite force.

Allen knew this, and then the information matched up, and this was very favorable for his next plan.

As for why he didn't keep those three Orcish to extort some information, Allen didn't have the time, nor the leisure to torture three Orcish, and who could guarantee whether their words were true?

It was better to rely on his own ability and slowly advance toward the depths of Moria.

During the thousands of years of construction by the Durin Dwarves, the terrain of Moria was extremely complex and had many levels; even Ori and Oin dared not guarantee that they knew the location of every hall.

But after entering from the East Gate, it was definitely the First Hall of Moria, which was the hall first opened by Durin I.

Sunlight would shine in from the windows at the top of the gate, dispelling most of the darkness, but shadows still occupied a significant portion; for example, the Guard Room located on the south side of the hall used to monitor the gate was in absolute darkness.

When light and music filled Moria, there would certainly be fully armed Durin Dwarves guarding this spacious Guard Room, always on alert for others sneaking in from the gate, but now it was occupied by more than twenty grey-skinned Orcish.

If it were several years ago, or when Sauron's orders reached Moria, the number of Orcish in the Guard Room should have been at least several times what it was now.

But when Mordor fell silent and Sauron did not issue further orders, the Orcish entrenched in Moria engaged in continuous fighting, and the troops in the Guard Room were also drawn away a lot.

And the Balrog, whom most Orcish regarded as a god, was sleeping in the darkness deep inside and was too lazy to care about the trivial matters between these dregs; who was the boss made no difference to him at all.

And the specific situation inside the First Hall had long been seen clearly by Allen using his abilities; he took the most powerful Twilight Knights under his command and, taking advantage of the short time when the Orcish changed shifts during the day-night transition, moved quietly from the darkness on the south side of the archway and, with the cover of the cloaks, sneaked into the gradually brightening First Hall.

And after that, Allen did not immediately clear out the Orcish in the Guard Room, but hid his figure with the help of the thick stone pillars in the hall, and led his men along the pitch-black stone wall on the north side to reach the passage on the west side of the First Hall.

Continuing forward from here was a wide staircase, leading directly to the Khazad-dum Bridge that connected to the Second Hall.

However, Allen would not go deep just yet, but left four Twilight Knights here to keep watch, and then turned back toward the Guard Room behind him.

In any case, he needed to completely control the First Hall to ensure the retreat of his main force, and guarding the west passage of the First Hall was naturally to avoid enemies happening to arrive and bumping into the upcoming battle, or some Orcish hidden in the dark escaping from here, thereby leaking his whereabouts.

At this time, the Orcish in the Guard Room were completely unaware of their impending fate; they were even fast asleep due to their habit of being active at night and resting during the day, with only two Orcish keeping their unwilling eyes open, chatting intermittently.

"You say, why haven't those three fellows who went out yesterday come back? They promised to bring us back a few rabbits."

"Hmph, maybe they ate happily yesterday and just found a place to sleep; don't worry, if they don't give us our share, they won't be able to go back."

"What are you two dregs whispering about? Keep a good watch on the gate, you know? When those three guys come back, I'll share some with you..."

A burst of indistinct scolding mumbled from the mouth of the largest Orcish in the room, followed by a burst of snoring as he fell into a deep sleep, and the talking in the Guard Room stopped there.

And it was at this moment that the battle suddenly erupted; two rapidly flying arrows shot through the windows of the Guard Room, piercing the two Orcish who had their eyes on the gate passage.

Allen, who had been well prepared for this, quickly pushed open the ajar wooden door of the Guard Room and rushed in; in the darkness, with a flash of silver light, Allen's downward slash directly hacked to death the Orcish closest to him.

And the six Twilight Knights who followed Allen into the Guard Room brandished their swords and shields and rushed toward the Orcish lying in various places in the room, while the remaining two held Noldor Rune Bows, guarding against any Orcish escaping from the windows or the gate.

The sound of running footsteps, the wailing of the dying, and the sound of weapons cutting through bone woke all the Orcish from their sleep; even in their confused state of just waking up, some of the Orcish reacted quite quickly, and while revealing fierce glares, they immediately picked up the weapons beside them and charged at the uninvited guests.

In particular, the Orcish Captain who had just scolded the guards, after loudly rousing his subordinates, brandished the heavy club in his hand and charged toward Allen, only to have his neck severed by a flash of blade light in a single encounter, and pitch-black blood sprayed out from the corpse that collapsed to the ground.

Whether it was a Snaga or some Uruk, the vast majority of Orcish could not withstand a single move before Allen, and this was even without him casting any Magic.

And with the death of the Captain, those Orcish who had been screeching just a moment ago quickly showed looks of terror on their faces, beginning to use their nimble short legs and sharp claws to scramble all over the pitch-black walls of the Guard Room, searching for a chance to escape.

But such behavior was clearly a futile effort; no matter how fast they climbed, they could not evade the sharp eyes of the Twilight Knights, and they were soon shot down one by one by Cone-headed Arrows.

This battle, from the moment Allen charged into the Guard Room until all the Orcish were dead, ended in less than three minutes; the enemy was completely wiped out, the friendly side suffered zero casualties, and even the Elven Cloaks worn behind the backs of the Twilight Knights were mostly clean.

And as the battle in the Guard Room ended, a few short, mournful cries also rang out from the west side of the First Hall; these few dead Orcish, whether they were hidden sentries placed by the enemy or had just happened to leave the Guard Room while Allen was circling around, had already lost the chance to report to their boss.

After careful consideration, Allen could not possibly give them this chance; apart from the window opened high on the east side, the First Hall only had two passages, both of which were already being guarded by Allen's personal guards.

Subsequently, all of Allen's subordinates guarding the main entrance, along with the three Dwarfs, entered the First Hall; they needed to make more detailed plans for the upcoming operation.