Chapter 46: Pursuing Bolg

Bilbo Baggins, hiding in the shadows of the dungeon, was now extremely distressed.

Back when he had first arrived at the Woodland Realm following the caravan from Wilderness Town, he had been very excited.

After all, his experience in Rivendell had given him a very good impression of the Elves, and he had assumed this would also be a pleasant experience.

But Thorin's actions shattered his hopes immediately.

And the Silvan Elves living in Mirkwood were not as kind as those in Rivendell.

Thranduil was not the benevolent Lord Elrond; after his talks with Thorin Oakenshield broke down, the King ordered the arrest of all members of the Expedition on the grounds that they had injured his subjects.

And our little Hobbit, using the natural talents of his race and that little magic item, successfully evaded the Elves' arrest and the subsequent thorough search.

But this did not make his situation much better.

He was trapped in the Woodland Realm.

That little magic item could indeed allow him to slip perfectly into the shadows.

But when he walked into bright places, he would still leave behind faint, inconspicuous traces, which aroused the vigilance of the Elves many times.

And the King here seemed to be able to vaguely sense his presence as well.

This resulted in Bilbo being unable to go to many places; he could only wander in the dark areas.

Under such circumstances, he felt as if his time had stopped flowing.

With no other options, he could only keep wearing the Ring while living right under the noses of the Woodland Elves, which was extremely exhausting for him.

These were nothing; the biggest problem was how to save those Dwarves.

For this reason, Bilbo Baggins wandered all over the Woodland Realm, carefully looking for an opportunity to escape.

The main gate was impossible; that gate seemed to have Magic on it, and only those with the King's permission could enter or exit freely.

Bilbo Baggins had tried, and it was clear he did not have this right.

But soon, this Hobbit discovered other opportunities.

Every so often, the Woodland Realm would discard the oak barrels that had held Wine into the Mirkwood River through the cellar exit.

With the King frequently holding banquets, the frequency of discarding the oak barrels became higher and higher.

In just one week, Bilbo had already seen it three times.

Today, Galion, who was responsible for the Wine supply, had gotten drunk again with the Captain guarding the dungeon; they seemed to be very good friends.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Bilbo had gotten the dungeon keys early, preparing to rescue the Dwarves.

As it turned out, the arrival of Allen and the dungeon guards interrupted his plan; at this moment, he was waiting anxiously in the shadows for Allen to leave.

The glance Allen cast in his direction made him tremble with fear in the shadows, thinking he had been exposed.

Fortunately, Allen did not stay long and soon left the dungeon, not affecting his plan.

Moreover, the arrival of Allen and his subordinate Elves attracted a great deal of interest from the Silvan Elves; in their view, the Noldor should be a more noble race than the Sindar Elf, and they were very eager to join in the excitement.

This even included some of the Elves guarding the back door of the Woodland Realm.

This allowed Bilbo Baggins's plan to be executed more smoothly.

Hiding in the barrels, they drifted quite smoothly to the vicinity of Long Lake Town.

There, they met Bard, who was responsible for salvaging barrels year-round, and then, with Bard's help, they moved into Long Lake Town.

It was not until the next day that our King of the Woodland Realm, Thranduil, learned the news of the Dwarves' escape.

How they escaped was also cleared up by Tauriel after many days of investigation.

The drunken Galion and the Captain of the guard suffered greatly for this.

At this time, although Thranduil was very angry, he had taken a little of what Allen said to heart.

Now that Thorin Oakenshield had run off, let them go and make a fuss.

Anyway, Thranduil had plenty of time; he could wait.

Either wait for Thorin Oakenshield to be burned to death by the dragon, or for Thorin Oakenshield to truly drive the dragon away.

Therefore, in the end, Thranduil did not send his men to pursue the members of the Expedition.

And Allen, knowing nothing of this, did not head directly to Long Lake Town to wait for Thorin Oakenshield and his party after leaving the Woodland Realm.

Because he did not know how long it would take for Bilbo Baggins to rescue Thorin Oakenshield and his party, he simply believed that Bilbo definitely could.

He took his personal guards directly along the flat wilderness on the east bank of the Running River, heading toward the Old Forest Road.

He was going to intercept and kill Bolg.

According to the plot in the movie, as soon as Thorin Oakenshield appeared on the channel of the Mirkwood River, Bolg and his men immediately launched a pursuit, which meant these Orcish had been prepared for a long time.

They must have arrived at the back door of the Woodland Realm very early, waiting for an opportunity.

Now Allen was gambling, gambling that that Orcish scum Bolg would definitely follow the plains on the east bank of Mirkwood to intercept Thorin.

Because the road on the west bank of the Running River was closer to the forest and very difficult to travel; if they were in a hurry, they should choose this road on the east.

Allen did not want to see these guys in Long Lake Town; although their goal was only to hunt down the Dwarves, they would definitely cause great harm to the Humans of Long Lake Town in the process.

Otherwise, what would they eat while traveling light? They couldn't just catch rabbits in the forest the whole time.

So Allen decided to take the initiative and kill Bolg and the Wolf Rider he led directly on the road.

He took Holimion with him and traveled south along the east bank of the Running River, then scattered all his personal guards toward the east.

He let them go to the Rhovanion plains to search for any traces of the Wolf Rider.

If it were just ordinary Cavalry, Allen would never do this, because ordinary horses could never escape the pursuit of the Wolf Rider.

But the Elf Horse of the Noldor Forest were different; their speed was enough to rival the Mearas of Middle-earth, and they were fierce in temperament and not afraid of the Warg.

In addition, these Elf Horse had extremely high defense, with a layer of scales on the surface of their skin that were not easily noticed, and their toughness was comparable to Plate Armor.

The Noldor who rode the Elf Horse were also highly skilled Knight, with extremely rich combat experience on horseback, especially their mounted archery ability, which was second to none in Pendor.

As those who had spent years fighting nomadic raiders on the edge of the forest, their ability was enough to ensure that after discovering the tracks of the Orcish, they could return to Allen's side with the news.

But in the blink of an eye, two days had passed, and Allen, with his personal guards, had already searched an area of several hundred square kilometers on the east bank of the river.

They traveled by night and rested by day, with very little time for rest, and did not even light a campfire so as not to attract the enemy's attention.

But it had been two days, and there was not a single trace; let alone Orcish, they hadn't even found a single hair from a Warg, which made Allen somewhat restless.

Because Allen could not afford to delay too much time here, and now that there had been no news for two days, Allen prepared to return.

In fact, lying in ambush at the gates of Long Lake Town was also an option, but Allen could not predict when Bolg would arrive at Long Lake Town.

If he arrived while Allen was doing something else, that would be too passive and not a good choice.

But the lack of traces meant that things had changed, or that Allen had bet on the wrong path, so Allen had to cut his losses in time.

Thus, on the morning of the third day, Allen and his personal guards set out on the return journey.

And unlike when they came, this time they walked along the west bank of the Running River; Allen still wanted to make one last effort.

Sure enough, this was a wise choice; soon Allen discovered the tracks of the Wolf Riders on the bank and pursued them along the traces.

It turned out these cunning fellows had not traveled along the plains on the east bank of the Running River as Allen had thought.

Instead, they chose to rest by day and travel by night, heading toward their target through the dense forest.

Therefore, these fellows had perfectly missed Allen's troop.

At this time, based on the tracks on the ground, Holimion told Allen that this group of Wolf Riders should number nearly a hundred riders.

Allen did not care about the number of the enemy; he knew his personal guard unit could absolutely kill or even completely annihilate them.

He commanded his troop to pursue and hunt down the Wolf Riders.