Chapter 65: The End of Azog (Part I)

Ravenhill, located on the mountain range on the south side of the Lonely Mountain, is a hill with a very high vantage point.

Because of the excellent view here, when the Kingdom of Erebor was prosperous, the Dwarves also built several outposts on it to guard against dark forces coming from other directions.

Ever since Smaug occupied the Lonely Mountain, these places had not been repaired by anyone.

After all, this dragon did not even have a single servant.

And the commander of the Orcish, the Dark Lord's number one henchman in the North, the Pale Orc Azog, had set up his command post at one of these outposts.

This outpost, located on the ridge between Dale and the Kingdom of Erebor, could overlook most of the city of Dale, and the battlefield in front of the gates of the Kingdom of Erebor could also be seen in its entirety.

It must be said that Azog had chosen a good spot.

It was just that the situation for this Pale Orc was not very good.

He would look for a moment at the Uruk soldiers who had already collapsed on the front line.

Then he would look for a moment at the Northern Orcs that had already appeared in the northwest.

Immediately, this excellent general among the Orcish calculated the strength of both sides in his heart and decisively issued the order for a full-scale attack.

The dull sound of horns rang out again from the direction of Ravenhill, spreading in all directions.

This order could no longer have any effect on the Uruk soldiers on the front line.

Driven by the Cavalry and surrounded and intercepted by the infantry, these guys had completely collapsed and scattered.

Not to mention fighting the allied forces head-on, they could not even complete the mission of rushing to Ravenhill.

But the Snagas coming from Gundabad suddenly quickened their marching pace; they could already vaguely receive Azog's orders.

It was also at this time that Allen, leading his personal guards and two Skin-changers, arrived at the foot of Ravenhill.

And Thorin Oakenshield was leading his elite Cavalry unit, riding goats and nimbly charging from the cliffs and crags toward Azog's command post.

They were preparing to carry out a decapitation strike.

And Allen could only obediently walk slowly upward along the dilapidated mountain path.

After all, no matter how strong an Elf Horse is, it cannot climb a mountain.

And the arrival of Allen and Thorin Oakenshield finally alarmed the Orcish on Ravenhill.

Especially Azog, who had been standing at the command position; with a grim expression, he became surprised after hearing such news.

Although Azog feared a surprise attack by thousands of Elves, he did not mind killing a few dozen guys who did not fear death.

Especially when he learned that the one leading the Dwarves was Thorin Oakenshield, and the one leading the Elves was the guy who had shot an arrow into his left arm.

These were all his enemies.

Azog's scar-covered face quickly turned from surprise to a sinister grin; he never expected that these two people would actually run over to throw their lives away now.

Azog had left quite a few soldiers and elites at Ravenhill and was not afraid of a small-scale enemy raid.

It was just that the collapse on the front line and his past experiences still made Azog add a bit of caution.

He did not want to repeat that scene in front of the gates of Moria.

Thinking of this, Azog began to shout out orders.

"Let all soldiers do their best to stop the Elf Cavalry from approaching the summit."

Afterward, he said to his personal guards: "Have those four Trolls ready; once the battle starts at the summit, have them support this place immediately."

Watching his subordinates leave with the orders, Azog gave a sinister smile.

He then took dozens of personal guards, left the command platform, and walked toward the outpost that only had crumbling walls left.

Azog prepared to lie in ambush here to give Thorin Oakenshield a big surprise, to avenge the humiliation of his severed arm from back then.

Azog had also given up on commanding the front line; the Uruk soldiers had already collapsed, and commanding or not commanding no longer had any meaning.

And his other legion, the more than twenty thousand Northern Orcs, had not yet engaged the enemy, so at this moment, they did not need excessive command.

In Azog's plan, he had enough time to play with Thorin Oakenshield.

Therefore, when Thorin Oakenshield led the Dwarf Goat Cavalry and climbed to Azog's command post, it was already empty.

Thorin Oakenshield, observing his surroundings, unsurprisingly also saw the large number of Orcish coming from Gundabad.

Watching the Orcish pouring out of the mountain peaks endlessly, Thorin Oakenshield's mood sank to the bottom again.

Originally, the victory on the front line had filled Thorin Oakenshield with hope; as long as he successfully killed Azog, this expedition to reclaim the Kingdom of Erebor could come to a successful conclusion.

Now, his desire to kill Azog became even more urgent.

This urgent feeling prompted Thorin Oakenshield to act impulsively; he could guess that Azog must be lying in ambush for him somewhere, but Thorin Oakenshield did not care.

Because Thorin Oakenshield knew that he had to kill this Pale Orc as soon as possible so that the endless Orcish would lose their command.

Only then would the armies of Dwarves, Humans, and Elves have hope of victory.

Thinking of this, Thorin Oakenshield looked at his kin with a firm gaze and said: "Everyone, the victory that belongs to us is right before our eyes. As long as we find that bastard Azog and kill him, we can truly take back the Lonely Mountain. Kili, Fili, Dwalin, you each take a few people to search; the rest follow me."

Facing Thorin Oakenshield's order, naturally, no Dwarf could raise any objection.

The group of Dwarf warriors who had originally intended to raid Azog split into four teams and walked into the ruins of Ravenhill, searching everywhere for traces of the Orcish.

These Dwarf warriors knew that the Orcish must be lying in ambush in the ruins, and danger could descend upon their heads at any moment.

But they were not afraid; following their King and dedicating their lives was a loyalty engraved in their bones.

Just as the Dwarves were searching everywhere for Azog's figure, Allen encountered a blockade of hundreds of Uruk soldiers on his way up the mountain.

They did not take the initiative to attack Allen, but instead raised the weapons in their hands and blocked the path Allen had to take to go up the mountain.

These Uruk soldiers formed a dense formation, baring their teeth and opening their mouths, saying some nasty things.

"Look, isn't this a tender-skinned Elf?" "I think they must taste very good." "I want to take the first bite."

In the eyes of the Uruk soldiers, they had hundreds of people, so how could they not stop the dozen or so people in front of them? They were actually a bit worried that these guys would not attack them.

Allen looked at the Uruk soldiers blocking the road and knew that Azog had already made preparations.

And Thorin Oakenshield, at this time, had likely already arrived at Azog's command post.

That guy with somewhat pale skin and a sinister, cunning nature would not just easily offer his neck to be slaughtered.

He must have set an ambush, preparing to give Thorin Oakenshield a big surprise.

Allen did not want his friend to end up dying so miserably on Ravenhill.

Thinking of this, Allen felt anxious; he needed to reach the mountaintop as soon as possible to support Thorin Oakenshield.

Allen felt it was time to let the two Skin-changers, Beorn and Wulf, show their strength, and also let Azog see the gift he had prepared for him.

Allen looked back at the two Skin-changers, who were also riding horses, and said, "I'm counting on you."

Beorn and Wulf nodded, dismounted, and walked toward the Uruk soldiers.

The Twilight Knights also quickly dismounted, gripped their weapons tightly, and prepared to charge.

Yes, Allen had given the two mounts of the Twilight Knights to the two Skin-changers to ride; otherwise, the untransformed Skin-changers would never have had the speed to keep up with Allen's personal guards.

It was only because Skin-changers had the ability to tame animals that they could ride them; even an ordinary Knight could not tame an Elf Horse, and would be thrown off the moment they got on.

Of course, Skin-changers had many other abilities, such as transforming into bears during battle.

At this moment, Beorn and Wulf had already reached the front of the hundreds of Uruk soldiers.

Following a series of roars, and under the stunned gazes of the many Uruk soldiers, Beorn and Wulf transformed into two massive, scarred bears, nearly three meters tall, four meters long, and over a meter wide.

Their massive and imposing frames were enough to fill the mountain path, and two angry bear faces looked toward the Orcish above on the road.

After transforming, the Skin-changers remembered the various persecutions their kind had suffered at the hands of the Orcish in the past; their eyes began to bloodshot, and they opened their mouths to roar angrily at the Uruk soldiers.

"Awoo—"

The Uruks who had lived in Dol Guldur for years had never seen such a formation; they tightened their grips on their weapons, watching the two roaring giant bears with trepidation.

Even the highly disciplined Uruk soldiers began to feel timid in such a situation, and they started to retreat slowly.

The angry Beorn and Wulf did not give them much time to think.

After their earth-shaking roars, the two giant bears exerted force with all four limbs, ignored the weapons in the Uruk soldiers' hands, and charged straight at them.

Allen and his Twilight Knight personal guards followed closely behind Beorn and Wulf, also launching a charge toward the enemy.

As for the Uruk soldiers blocking the mountain path, facing the charge of the two giant bears, they were instantly knocked flying by the immense power generated by the charge the moment they made contact.

Seeing such powerful enemies, some of the Uruk soldiers in the rear had completely lost the courage to hold the mountain path and turned to run in the opposite direction.

Some Uruk soldiers mustered their courage, brandishing their weapons as they hacked at Beorn and Wulf.

But their seemingly fierce attacks could not cause any significant damage to the two giant bears.

In the end, these brave Uruks could only be knocked over in despair by the two giant bears and roll off the cliff.

Beorn and Wulf charged madly up the mountain path like this, and most of the Uruk soldiers who stood in their way could not escape the fate of death.

Some Uruk soldiers were knocked directly off the cliff by the two giant bears, and shrill screams rang out from time to time on Ravenhill.

Others were trampled underfoot by Beorn and Wulf; the terrifying weight of the two giant bears, during the charge, directly crushed their bones.

Even worse, some were knocked directly into the fleeing ranks of Uruk soldiers, causing massive chaos.

Those lucky Uruks who did not die in the impact would be killed by a sword strike from the following Twilight Knights after they dazedly stood up.

That swift and ruthless sword strike quickly took the lives of these few stragglers.

A dozen Elf Horses ran behind the Twilight Knights, causing secondary damage to the enemies lying on the ground.

From time to time, surviving Uruk soldiers would have their faces trampled by a horse hoof, dying with painful groans.

Just like that, Allen and his party chased the Orcish who had originally wanted to block them, charging all the way up to Ravenhill, the road filled with the corpses of enemies.

This was the reason Allen had not let Beorn and Wulf appear earlier; he knew that the guy Azog must have left plenty of troops on Ravenhill to protect his own safety.

He just wanted these two Skin-changers to give Azog a big surprise, and this surprise would soon be delivered to Azog's front.

In fact, in Allen's original plan, he had only intended to take Beorn to raid Ravenhill and leave Wulf on the front lines to cooperate with the Humans' army, but who knew that Lord Elrond would bring an army to support them.

So Allen could only "reluctantly" send an even bigger surprise to Azog.

It was just that the sounds of the fight between the Skin-changers and Allen's group as they chased the Uruk soldiers in the middle of the mountain immediately attracted the attention of the four Trolls on standby.

Their orders were to support the mountaintop upon hearing the sounds of fighting.

But their simple minds had no time to worry about much else; seeing the enemy had already charged before them, they roared and rushed out from their hiding places, charging toward Allen's team.

At this moment, Allen, while chasing the Uruk soldiers, had just arrived on a platform and was met head-on by the four charging Trolls.

Seeing this, Beorn and Wulf roared, instantly switching targets to charge at two of the Trolls, their equally massive bodies slamming fiercely into the Trolls.

The powerful impact knocked two of the Trolls down directly, while the other two bypassed the two Skin-changers and continued to charge toward the others.

Meeting them were Allen and Holimion, who had rushed out of the formation.

Beorn, having just knocked down a Troll, shook his head, then stood up on his hind legs and stomped heavily onto the chest of the fallen Troll.

This blow made the nearly four-meter-tall Troll roar in pain, but such an attack was not enough to kill a Troll.

The Troll, recovering quickly, struck Beorn heavily in the face with a fist, causing Beorn to stagger.

Beorn, reacting, glared with blood-red eyes, pounced directly on the Troll that had just sat up, and bit into its neck.

Sensing danger, the Troll dodged Beorn's bite, pushed the pouncing Beorn away with force, then stood up and lunged at Beorn.

The two behemoths tore at each other just like that.

Wulf, meanwhile, clamped his jaws onto the arm of the smallest Troll on the field, dragging him with force.

After transforming into a bear, Wulf's immense strength even allowed him to drag a two-meter-tall Troll while running, and the direction he was running was toward the cliff.

At this time, some Uruk soldiers, seeing the help of the Trolls, actually mustered the courage to run down from the mountain again.

Allen quickly directed six Twilight Knights to go and intercept them.

Allen could not let those regrouped guys interfere with the others' battle against the Trolls.

The other six Twilight Knights guarded the Elf Horses, took out their Noldor Rune Bows, and rained Cone-headed Arrows down on the Trolls.

Their Noldor Rune Arrows had been used up in the previous battle, and Allen could not buy such arrows now.

Even if he could buy them, Allen's current wealth could not afford them; he would have to wait for the Simulator to recover and think of other ways.

These Cone-headed Arrows were what Allen had replenished when he gathered the Cavalry in Lake-town.

At this moment, Allen and Holimion were continuously entangling the Trolls in battle.

Within their attack range, they dodged the attacks of these monsters.

They were buying time for the Twilight Knights in the distance to find an opportunity for a fatal blow.

Very quickly, the outcome was decided on the Skin-changer's side; Wulf just bit down hard on that smaller-sized Troll,

ignoring its attacks while it struggled, and dragged the poor fellow all the way to the edge of the cliff, throwing him off.

This Troll, only a little over two meters tall, was propelled by momentum and thrown directly off the cliff; even though the fellow had an explosive desire to survive and grabbed the cliff edge at the critical moment, he was slapped down by the approaching Wulf.

Afterward, Wulf sprinted to support Beorn, slamming into the Troll that was contending with Beorn and knocking it to the ground, while he himself rolled away from the impact.

Beorn, feeling the pressure in front of him ease, seized this opportunity, opened his blood-filled maw, and bit down fiercely on the Troll's neck.

Sharp fangs broke through the Troll's rough skin and pierced into the flesh.

The injured Troll struggled violently, but Beorn did not give it any more chances, biting down even harder.

At the same time, he planted his two front paws firmly on the ground and jerked his head back violently, tearing off half of the Troll's neck.

Subsequently, the Troll in front of him stopped struggling, and black blood sprayed all over Beorn's face, making his already scarred face look even more ferocious.

But he did not care about this, and together with Wulf, who had already stood up, he charged toward Allen's direction.

On Allen's side, the battle had also ended.

The two Trolls, having had their attention slightly diverted by Allen and Holimion, were shot all over their bodies with Cone-headed Arrows by the Twilight Knights, who had been prepared for a long time in the distance.

It was only because the penetrating power of the Cone-headed Arrows was far inferior to the Noldor Rune Arrow that they hadn't died long ago.

Meanwhile, the sounds of shouting and killing on the mountain path were becoming increasingly intense.

Those Orcish who had run up the mountain had gathered again and were charging down toward the platform.

Six Twilight Knights holding swords and shields were struggling to resist them, but they had been retreating throughout the fight.

Because killing Uruk soldiers was not difficult, but ensuring they were all intercepted was too hard.

Now, the Twilight Knights were no longer able to intercept the charge of the large group of Uruk.

However, they no longer needed to intercept them, as Wulf's figure appeared behind them.

The Uruk soldiers, who had plucked up the courage because the Trolls had joined the battle, immediately stopped their downward advance upon seeing that suffocatingly massive figure and slowly retreated backward again.

Watching the retreating Uruk, Wulf did not intend to let them go; with a roar, he charged toward the retreating Uruk soldiers.

At this time, Holimion, having received Allen's order, took up his sword and shield and led the six Twilight Knights who had originally been blocking the enemy to follow Wulf and slaughter the Uruk soldiers once more.

As for Allen, he took Beorn and the remaining Twilight Knights and charged toward Ravenhill on the other side.