Chapter 231: Changes

Black Face is the current leader of Moria.

As an Uruk from Mordor, he has stayed in this mountain range for over a hundred years, having long been a capable subordinate of Azog, mostly in matters of combat.

However, time passes and fate is fickle; no one expected that Azog, who could command all the Orcish in the North, would actually die in vain at Ravenhill while directing the Battle of the Lonely Mountain.

When this news was brought back to Moria, all the Orcish were shocked, and Black Face, who was responsible for guarding the home base, became the leader of the remaining Orcish here from that moment on.

In his early years, his name was not like this, but because of that pitch-black face and eyes as bright as coal, Azog gave him this nickname directly.

And this title became famous during the process of Black Face rising to power.

Generally speaking, the leaders who rule Orcish tribes always possess intelligence no less than that of Humans, so that they can lead their dim-witted kin to fight against Humans, Elves, or Dwarves.

But Black Face is an exception.

If one were to say he lacks intelligence, Black Face has extremely strong intuition in combat, capable of keenly perceiving opportunities to change the tide of battle and quickly making correct commands.

But if one were to say he has intelligence, it is also very limited.

For example, recently people have been reporting to him that some of their kin have not been seen for several days, and they do not know where they have gone.

At this time, if it were any other Orcish with a bit of brains, the first thing they would think of is to send someone to the gate of the First Hall to ask if any fellows went out and did not return.

However, Black Face cannot think of these things; in fact, he cannot even remember who is missing.

He also cannot understand why anyone would defy his orders and run out alone, let alone analyze where the missing companions might have gone.

None of these things exist.

But he also knows that having fewer and fewer subordinates is ultimately not a good thing; if this continues, his tribe will sooner or later be defeated by that group of scum that suddenly appeared.

And his underlings, apart from complaining about being hungry every day, cannot provide any constructive suggestions.

Therefore, during this recent period, Black Face has been extremely irritable, sitting on that pitch-black throne in a daze while suppressing a belly full of fire.

Of course, for this current Orcish tribe, this is also a very normal situation.

After all, when Azog died at the Lonely Mountain, he had basically wasted the strength of the Misty Mountains Orcish, and he truly did not leave behind many subordinates with brains for the Moria base; and even if there were any, they were killed when Black Face rose to power.

Even with a brain like Black Face's, he knows that smart kin are hard to manage and it is better if they are dead.

And early this morning, a fellow ran over to tell Black Face that someone had been attacked near the passage of the Great Cave, and handed over a broken black arrow.

At this, Black Face's not-so-clever brain attributed everything that had happened recently to Fimbul.

Outside the cave passage is the Sixteenth Hall, where Black Face had just had a fight with another group of Orcish. And the black arrows were only used by that other group of Orcish, who also relied on the assistance of two Trolls to snatch away some of his tribe's slaves and a portion of the caves where food was stored.

With new hatred and old grudges surging into his heart at this moment, Black Face directly overturned his previous thought of not wanting to fight, and while shouting in anger, he gathered all his underlings and quickly ran toward Fimbul's base.

Subsequently, this group of well-armed Orcish followed the commotion coming from the passage and bumped into Fimbul, who was still thinking.

At this moment, Black Face's eyes, bright as coal, stared fixedly at his former colleague, and after a roar like thunder, he led his personal guards and charged directly at Fimbul.

Facing this sudden attack, Fimbul appeared somewhat flustered; if it were a head-on duel, he would not fear Black Face, but this battle came truly too fast.

At this time, some of Fimbul's subordinates did not even have weapons, and his strongest force against Black Face, those two Trolls, had also just finished eating and were fast asleep in another cave.

"Stop him for me."

Fimbul's voice became extremely shrill due to the sudden crisis, and the dozens of elites wearing Chainmail beside him, along with most of the tribesmen present, launched a counter-charge, preparing to intercept Black Face who was rushing over.

Meanwhile, Fimbul turned around quickly and ran toward the passage behind him; he needed a little time to wake up those two Cave Trolls who did nothing but eat and sleep.

Imagination is always beautiful, but reality is often very cruel.

Black Face, who was running at full speed, held a round shield of unknown material, swung it violently while charging, directly knocking over two enemies wearing Chainmail who were preparing to intercept him, then ducked to avoid two slashing Curved Blades, and then violently extended his right arm to stab the last enemy blocking his path to death.

At this time, there was no one left to block him from Fimbul.

And Fimbul, who kept looking back, naturally saw all of this; driven by fear in his heart, he could not help but take faster steps, but all of this was futile.

Even if Black Face was holding a round shield and a Spear and wearing a suit of full-body armor, he still ran much faster than Fimbul, who was only wearing a piece of Chainmail.

The distance between the two sides was constantly closing; looking at the enemy right before his eyes, Black Face's pitch-black face revealed a cruel expression, his wide-open mouth spat out a blood-red tongue, and with a loud shout, the thick Spear thrust toward Fimbul.

Under the threat of death, Fimbul exploded with physical potential after a jolt, rolled while running to dodge Black Face's fierce attack, then collapsed to the ground, raised his hands, and shouted loudly: "I surrender, I surrender."

Black Face, who had missed his strike and was preparing to deliver a finishing blow, heard Fimbul's plea and showed a thoughtful expression on his face; if it had been a few years ago, he would definitely have gone up without hesitation and stabbed this bastard he hated to death with one spear.

But the things that happened recently always made Black Face feel that he needed a quick-witted guy to assist him in ruling more fellows, so he hesitated, wavered, and prepared to use his not-so-bright brain.

Finally, even the fighting in the hall had stopped for a long time, and Black Face, who had been thinking for a long time, finally put down his Spear and said in a muffled voice: "Fine, if you dare to cause trouble in the future, I will stab you to death with one spear."

Knowing that he had finally escaped with his life, Fimbul nodded frantically, indicating that he would definitely be obedient in the future, and all the Orcish in the hall heard Fimbul's promise, and this battle for the control of Moria ended in this extremely unexpected situation.

Of course, Allen, who caused all of this, did not know the current situation; at this time, he had already familiarly arrived at that black throne, pulled out Durin's Axe, and had already begun to return along the passage to the First Hall.

At this time, Holimion was waiting for Allen's return, and Dain had already directed other personnel to transport all the spoils back to the edge of the Golden Wood, and dispatched Oin and the Elf maiden to guard there.

When Allen handed Durin's Axe to Dain with a smile, this tough-natured Dwarf first showed an expression of disbelief, and then after wiping the filth off the surface of the battle axe, only excitement and thrill remained on his face.

Under the sunlight, an emblem was engraved on the silver-bright axe face; it was an anvil and a hammer, with a crown and seven shining stars hanging above.

The crown and stars represented the stars reflected in the water when Durin I first looked down at the Mirror Mere, appearing like a crown worn on the top of his reflection's head, while the anvil and hammer symbolized the craftsman's passion inherited by the Dwarves from the Valar Aule.

This was undoubtedly an heirloom of Durin's Folk; for the Dwarves, its symbolic significance was on par with the "Heart of the Mountain" hidden in the Lonely Mountain.

After returning Durin's Axe to Dain, Allen left this Dwarf who was intoxicated by the past years, came to Holimion's side, and subsequently learned everything about the Armory.

Regarding that strange "whoosh-whoosh" sound, Allen immediately thought it was the Balrog that was sleeping, and expressed his agreement with Holimion's decision at that time.

Even Legolas, who is known as a "hacker" in Middle-earth, showed an expression of fear and shock when sensing the Balrog, let alone the Twilight Knights whose combat power was not even comparable to his.

At that time, Holimion's decision was correct and timely; if the Balrog had really been disturbed, the current situation might be that Allen would need to lurk in Moria for a long time, looking for a chance to escape.

And Dain would have taken the others and run away directly; as for whether Holimion's squad could escape, that would really be up to fate.

Now, whether the team exploring Moria would retreat from here or go to have a head-on confrontation with the Balrog was decided in Allen's hands, and this made him fall into thought.

In fact, the squad's harvest in the Sixteenth Hall could be considered rich; according to Allen's rough estimate, the Mithril he could get after distribution should be enough to make about three thousand to four thousand pieces of Silver Leaf Armor.

For the precious Mithril, this was already quite a lot, but for Allen, it was not enough, because he knew that there was only this one chance; even if he came again next time, he would still have to go to the Third Valley shrouded in fear and face that terrible Balrog directly; this was something that could not be avoided.

If following the original trajectory, it would have to wait until decades later for Gandalf and the Balrog to perish together, but this was not the result Allen wanted; he hoped that Gandalf could return to Valinor in his current state, rather than being resurrected by Eru Iluvatar after death and sent back to Middle-earth.

Of course, in the current situation, Allen had long since stopped worrying about this possibility, because the High Pass was now under his control; if there were no accidents, this situation would not change in the coming decades, and even if the Fellowship of the Ring were truly established, it would not pass through Moria, but would be escorted by his army all the way to Mordor.

In fact, according to Allen's original plan, he could have left at this time; a few months ago, he just wanted to get some Mithril to produce Silver Leaf Armor, and then continue to develop new armor to enhance the strength of his own army.

However, a silent environment always makes one think; having lived alone in the darkness for a period of time, Allen thought of many things, especially after seeing the Humans, Elves, and Dwarves enslaved by the Orcish in some areas of the seventh level, his thoughts became very complicated.

These laborers forced to serve the Orcish made Allen think of his people, the city he had worked so hard to build, and most importantly, his wife and their unborn child; thinking of all these beautiful things, they were actually all living under the threat of the Balrog.

If one day this fellow sleeping underground learned that he was already one of the most powerful existences in Middle-earth, heaven knows if he would crawl out from the underground to wreak havoc on the surrounding inhabitants.

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And those Orcish who submitted to him would become the Balrog's accomplices, just like driving those slaves, threatening everything he wished to protect.

Once this thought appeared, it occupied most of Allen's mind and also made him change his own plan.

Allen believed that he would have to finish this guy off eventually, and for this day, he had also made quite a lot of preparations; now, he was already at the Balrog's doorstep, could he really just leave sneakily with a little bit of Mithril?

One must at least meet, exchange a move or two to test the waters, and then one would know the gap between the two sides.

When he heard that Allen decided to continue exploring, Dain revealed an extremely astonished expression; he had indeed come on this trip to see whether this Human ally of his truly had the means to deal with the Balrog, but when truly facing this situation, Dain still could not control his emotions.

Could this Human before him have caught the same Dragon Sickness as Thorin? Risking his life for Mithril!

!

It was just that Dain's attempt to stop him did not have much effect, and Allen did not tell the Dwarf just how great the threat the Balrog posed to this world, only saying calmly: "Dain, I once promised you that I would help the Dwarves retake Moria; perhaps, now is the beginning of that promise."

Hearing such words, Dain's expression suddenly became extremely solemn, and then he nodded without a word; what else could he say to this?

However, even if he wanted to exchange moves with the Balrog, Allen still took Holimion and set off on the road toward the Third Valley to first scout the situation at the Armory.

Fighting is fighting, but before that, the Mithril that could be taken had to be taken; Allen was prepared to craft ten thousand sets of Elf armor to arm his soldiers, and the little bit he had now was far from enough.

But before arriving at the Armory, Allen had Holimion stay behind, and he stepped onto that staircase alone.

And as expected, that "whoosh—whoosh—" sound reached his ears.

And Allen also used his ability to clearly see the Balrog sleeping in the darkness, the sparks produced by its breathing illuminating the surrounding cave.

Suddenly, a pair of eyes flickering with firelight opened, and the surrounding shadows fluctuated along with the Balrog's awakening.

Immediately after, this pitch-black fellow changed into a more comfortable position and went back to sleep.

Allen's heart, which had been raised, also slowly settled down.

It is not yet time.