Chapter 90: Fierce Battle

"Squeak~~~"

Accompanied by a sound difficult to detect, four cracks faintly emitting red light appeared on the cave wall illuminated by firelight. Soon, these cracks expanded into four passages, and these four passages were precisely the main entrance to Orc Town.

This mechanism, which even to Allen could be considered ingenious, was the handiwork of the Orcish; they were very adept at these crafts that facilitated their own slaughter.

Or rather, the Orcish had their own unique insights into forging and mechanisms. The things they made were all ugly, but they could be considered ingenious. If they were to do it seriously, even compared to the Dwarf, they would only be a little bit behind.

The biggest problem the Orcish faced was that their irritable temperaments made it impossible for them to settle down and do this kind of extremely tedious work. They were more willing to tell others their understanding and let them complete this part of the work.

And these "others" usually referred to those slaves imprisoned by the Orcish. They had to work non-stop according to the Orcish's orders, until they died because they could not see the sun, or from hunger and exhaustion, or even because they could not breathe fresh air.

These slaves included Elf, Humans, and the Dwarf of Durin's Folk. Why single out the Dwarf of Durin's Folk to talk about?

It might be because of the wars that occurred in ancient times. At that time, the Dwarf of Durin's Folk still lived in Moria. At that time, Moria was not called by this name, but was called Khazad-dum, meaning the city-state of the Dwarf.

In the Second Age, during the battle of the Ruin of Eregion, Durin III, who ruled Khazad-dum at the time, dispatched a Dwarf army to assist the Elf. After they attacked Sauron's Orcish army, they retreated into the great mountains and even closed Khazad-dum, leaving the Orcish with no way to proceed.

From then on, Sauron ordered all Orcish to be enemies with the Dwarf, and especially to hate Durin's Folk. This grudge lasted for thousands of years, right up to the present.

Now, with the fermentation of time, this hatred between the two sides had reached the point where they would fight to the death upon meeting.

Of course, it was not just the Dwarf; whether it was Elf or Humans, they all had new and old scores with the Orcish that had to be settled.

Just like at this moment, countless Orcish, led by Fimbul, rushed out from these four passages. They did not attack Humans for any noble reason; they just wanted to possess more slaves and food.

As soon as these Orcish came out, they extinguished the several campfires beside them. Although they did not fear fire, they did not want to be exposed to the light.

And Fimbul, who led the charge, was stunned when he saw Allen and the others already waiting in battle formation before him.

In his expectations, the enemies in the cave should have been locked in a bitter battle with the Warg outside, or at the very least, these Humans should have been panicked by his sudden appearance.

This situation made Fimbul feel somewhat surprised; he faintly felt that something was not quite right.

Now the two troops were in a standoff, and the call of the One Ring did not allow Fimbul to think too much. He quickly gave a look to the well-equipped guards beside him and shouted, "Let them go!"

Fimbul's guards clearly knew what they should do. They cracked the whips in their hands with a "pop, pop" sound, driving the Orcish who had been reduced to slaves to charge toward the Human troops standing in the firelight.

These Orcish slaves, with their relatively simple minds, stimulated by both pain and a desire for slaughter, shouted and charged toward Allen and his party. If they performed well in battle, they would immediately shed their slave status and become members of Fimbul's personal guard.

Fimbul, who gave the order, had a very simple idea: if the Humans had a major flaw at this moment, he would immediately lead his well-equipped guards to give the Human team a big surprise.

But now, these heavily guarded Humans caused Fimbul to have no small amount of doubt. Even though he was obsessed with obtaining the treasure—whatever it was—at this moment, he still maintained a certain level of calmness.

"Let those slaves go first; the Warg have blocked the entrance, no need to rush."

Fimbul was still able to clearly recognize what the foundation of his ability to be a leader was.

Following Fimbul's orders, and under the lashing of whips, a large number of Orcish slaves brandished the Curved Blade and clubs in their hands, darting from the darkness into the light, charging toward the Humans.

Facing the large number of Orcish stepping into the range of the firelight, the first to launch an attack was Gandalf, who had been prepared for a long time.

At this moment, the figure of this Grey Wizard suddenly became taller under the illumination of the firelight, and his usually kind expression became very majestic.

"Evil creatures, I command you to retreat."

With a loud shout from Gandalf, a bolt of white lightning capable of illuminating the entire cave emerged from thin air on the staff Gandalf held up. Following a "Boom—", this lightning directly blasted to death twenty or thirty Orcish who were charging at the front.

The immense power produced by this Magic directly left most of the Orcish stunned in place, but Fimbul reacted very quickly. He kept shouting, "Scum, charge for me, charge, charge quickly!"

The whip in his hand also kept lashing down on the heads of the stunned Orcish, making them recover quickly and roar again as they charged toward the Humans.

"Free fire."

Allen gave a loud shout, grabbed five Cone-headed Arrow in one hand, and quickly pulled the bowstring to launch an attack on the charging enemies.

"Swish," "Swish," "Swish."

The few Orcish who first rushed into the range of the firelight fell directly under Allen's precise marksmanship, but following closely behind them were more Orcish brandishing Curved Blade or wooden clubs.

Charging toward the Humans in a frenzy, they opened their large mouths to roar, the expressions on their faces cruel and ferocious.

The forty-plus Horse Archer who had been standing behind the Swadian Knight had already stepped forward two paces after the Orcish appeared, standing in front of the Swadian Knight.

They pulled the Khergit Bow in their hands one after another, and with the help of the firelight, precisely struck the charging Orcish slaves.

The Orcish, running wildly while roaring loudly, died one after another under the dense arrow attack. The simple, small wooden shields in their hands could not help them much under such dense and precise shooting.

For a time, a large number of Orcish who rushed into the firelight suffered heavy casualties under the arrow attack, and those Orcish who barely survived the arrow rain and reached the front of the Human troops were also easily cut down by Allen, who raised his Greatsword, and the dozen or so Swadian Knight holding two-handed swords.

The lives of these Orcish slaves could not even last a single round before these elite Human soldiers.

The brandished two-handed swords, carrying power far exceeding that of ordinary people, split the Orcish slaves in front of them in two, along with their shields.

At this time, their bodies were already splattered with filthy blood, and the ground in front of them was full of the scattered remains of the enemy. Allen felt that as long as the Orcish did not swarm him all at once, he could keep standing here with the Swadian Knight.

Gradually, the Orcish slaves still in the darkness began to stop. Looking at the hundreds of their own kind lying on the ground, and the blood-stained, fierce-looking Humans in the firelight, they began to feel afraid in their hearts.

When the seeds of fear appeared, they would uncontrollably control their thoughts. Now, even under the lashing of whips, they were no longer willing to take a single step into the light.

At this time, Allen, who had fired more than a dozen arrows in a row and had also raised his Greatsword to kill several enemies, let out a light sigh of relief. Even as tough as he was, his arms were already beginning to feel numb, not to mention the Horse Archer whose physical fitness was far inferior to his.

Even though the Khergit Bow they used were short bows with low draw weight for the convenience of shooting on horseback, firing more than ten times in a short period of time had brought them to their limit, and their arms had already begun to tremble slightly.

Now that the enemy was no longer launching attacks, it was just the right time for them to recover their strength a little.

On the Orcish side, Fimbul, seeing that his slaves no longer dared to move forward, was already extremely angry. For this reason, he lashed out fiercely at the Orcish who had run back.

However, Fimbul also knew that in the current situation, even if he forced these slaves to launch another charge, it would not have much effect.

He had already realized that although the enemies in front of him were few, their combat power was very fierce. In such a narrow terrain, he had to let a large number of Orcish troops approach the enemy to fully exert the advantage of their large numbers.

But to achieve this goal, he had to suppress the enemy's continuous arrow fire.

Among the Orcish, Fimbul was considered to have a very good brain. Although not as good as top-tier Orcish like Azog or Bolg, he had been recognized by Azog in the original trajectory and had served as a leader of the Wolf Rider.

After thinking for a moment, he whispered a few words to the personal guards beside him, and dozens of well-equipped Orcish turned and returned into the dark tunnel.

The battle inside the cave, after the Orcish suffered hundreds of casualties, returned to a standoff.

Allen, whose goal was to delay time, seized this precious time to start recovering his strength. His eyesight, which was stronger than the average person's, could vaguely see the extremely large number of Shadow deep in the cave.

Allen knew that the battle here was far from over.

At this time, the battle at the cave entrance had entered a white-hot stage from the very beginning.

While Holimion led the soldiers to retreat, the Warg, under the command of the pack leader, also rushed out from various parts of the forest one after another, quickly charging toward the cave.

Holimion led the Twilight Knight to quickly snipe at the Warg in the distance. Relying on the powerful penetrating power and extremely fast rate of fire of the Noldor Rune Bow, they nailed most of the enemies who wanted to approach the cave to the grass at the cave entrance.

The Rhodok Sharpshooters, aided by the moonlight, relied on the excellent precision of their Siege Crossbows at close range to continuously snipe the Wargs that were just about to charge into the cave.

Their thirteen archers plus fifteen crossbowmen managed, for a time, to suppress the Wargs attempting to rush into the cave.

However, the discipline of the Wargs was far beyond what the Orcish could compare to; the cunning lead wolf, upon seeing its subordinates' attack hindered, immediately let out a howl and changed its attack strategy.

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Amidst the lead wolf's "Awoo" howl, the dense mass of Wargs gathered in the forest into an extremely tight formation.

After a brief preparation, they surged out from the forest in a continuous stream; even when facing the arrows of the Elf and Humans, they would step on the corpses of their companions to continue advancing!

Facing this suicidal charge, even though the Twilight Knights and Rhodok Sharpshooters were doing their utmost to block the enemy's advance, they could not completely stop such a massive number of Wargs from gradually approaching the cave entrance.

In such a critical situation, the Rhodok Sharpshooters threw down their Siege Crossbows one after another and quickly assembled.

Holding Heavy Broad Shields in their left hands and Longswords in their right, they formed a shield wall nearly 1.5 meters high in the cave passage, preparing to meet the impact from the Wargs.

Holimion also led the Twilight Knights to consciously shoot and kill the Wargs, creating gaps in their charging ranks to reduce the defensive pressure on the Rhodok Sharpshooters.

Soon, the charging Wargs slammed into the shield wall of the Rhodok Sharpshooters; these soldiers were, after all, not professional defensive infantry and were not that proficient in the techniques of absorbing shield impacts, so they inevitably made mistakes when encountering such tremendous force.

Arnold was one of them; the shield he held was struck by two Wargs in succession, and although those two Wargs entered a dazed state immediately after the impact, Arnold could not withstand the massive force that followed, retreating a few steps from the collision and falling to the ground.

The wolf that followed closely behind pounced on Arnold before he could react, then opened its mouth, which was full of foul stench, and its sharp fangs quickly bit toward Arnold's neck.

At this moment, all the Rhodok Sharpshooters were engaged in close-quarters combat with the Wargs that had followed; these Human soldiers were equipped with Chain Mail, and the helmets they wore also provided some protection for the neck area.

Only the legs and the hands used to fire the Siege Crossbows had lower protection, and they relied on their equipment and the sharp Longswords in their hands to fight the Wargs to a standstill.

For a time, the entire battle scene fell into chaos.

As for Arnold, who had been pounced upon, he was very lucky; the Warg's attack, aside from some chest tightness and pain, did not cause him much substantial injury.

Pinned under the Warg, Arnold was not dominated by fear; the moment he was pounced on, his right hand gripped his Longsword tightly, and he used all his strength to stab the Longsword into the Warg's abdomen.

His left hand precisely gripped the Warg's upper jaw, struggling with all his might to resist the enemy pressing down on him.

Subsequently, the Longsword in his right hand pierced into the Warg's abdomen, shredding the enemy's internal organs to pieces.

Having suffered such a heavy blow, the strength in the Warg's body vanished in an instant, and it then slumped limply onto Arnold.

Having snatched a life from under the wolf's mouth, Arnold took a deep breath, then pushed the corpse off his body with effort; no longer restrained, he had just sat up when he immediately saw another Warg charging toward him.

Knowing he had been targeted, Arnold had no time to stand up; he twisted his body to pull his Longsword from the nearby corpse, preparing to face the charging wolf just like that, while sitting.

Holimion's quick-eyed and swift arrow shot dead the Warg that was about to pounce on Arnold, freeing the seated Arnold from his predicament.

At this time, the Rhodok Sharpshooters engaged in close-quarters combat were suffering significant casualties while struggling to kill the Wargs; as their commander, Holimion naturally could not stand by and watch these companions die under the sharp fangs and claws of the Wargs.

This Captain of the Personal Guard immediately threw down his bow and arrows, drew his Rune Sword and Enchanted Shield, and led the Twilight Knights, who had also taken out their melee weapons, to pounce on the Wargs that were entangled with the Rhodok Sharpshooters.

The Rune Swords in their hands, emitting a faint glow, easily sliced open the Wargs' tough fur and hard bones; the shields engraved with exquisite runes could knock back or even send a Warg flying with a casual swing, after which a companion would step forward to kill the unbalanced enemy with a sword strike.

In a short amount of time, the Twilight Knights relied on their exquisite combat skills and practiced coordination to kill the wolves that had rushed into the passage, taking their place on the front line of the battle.

While killing the Wargs, they also consciously maintained a certain position, letting the corpses of the Wargs gradually pile up together.

Even though Holimion decisively led the Noldor Elves to charge up, more than half of the Rhodok Sharpshooters were still scratched or bitten by the Wargs; the Chain Mail made of iron rings they wore provided good protection for their vital parts.

However, there was no decent protection for their hands and lower legs, making them easily scratched by the Wargs' sharp claws.

Moreover, the Chain Mail on their arms was also difficult to withstand the Wargs' forceful biting; even if the sharp fangs did not break through the Iron Armor, the force of the upper and lower jaws clamping down was enough to cause fractures in their forearms.

These eight injured Rhodok Sharpshooters were quickly carried to the depths of the passage by their teammates, allowing them to perform simple battlefield bandaging without being disturbed by enemies; after all, Allen had not brought a professional Physician when he came out this time.

The remaining seven Rhodok Sharpshooters picked up the Siege Crossbows from the ground and, after a simple inspection, continued to shoot at the Wargs in the distance, though their killing efficiency was far inferior to that of the Twilight Knights.

Not long after, under the slaughter of Holimion and the Twilight Knights, the corpses of the Wargs piled up into a small mountain of bodies at the entrance of the cave.

These corpses blocked the line of sight of the Rhodok Sharpshooters and also became the first obstacle to hinder the Wargs' charge; now, they had to climb over this small mountain formed by corpses to continue rushing into the interior of the cave.

However, every time a Warg jumped onto this mountain over a meter high, it would be sniped by the Rhodok Sharpshooters, and those that had the chance to jump down would immediately be cut down by the somewhat exhausted Twilight Knights.

Such a situation was extremely unfavorable for the Wargs' assault; under the command of their leader, the Wargs stopped their attack and began to clear the corpses piled at the cave entrance.

For Holimion, the situation had improved a lot by now; once the Wargs completely stopped their attack, they could finally seize a moment to rest.

Although the combat power of these dozen or so Twilight Knights was exceptionally strong, there were few enemies in Middle-earth who could confront them head-on.

But they were not perpetual motion machines that never knew fatigue; being few in number, they would also get tired after intense combat.

It was precisely because of this that Allen had arranged for the Rhodok Sharpshooters to assist them and attempted to have the Rhodok Sharpshooters hold the front line of the battle, but it was clear his plan had failed; these crossbowmen, who specialized in shooting, simply could not rival the cunning and treacherous Wargs in close combat.

However, Allen had no time to consider this problem now; the Orcish confronting him were charging toward them while holding a large number of wooden boards, perfectly countering the archers under Allen's command.

And those wooden boards looked extremely familiar to Allen; weren't they the wooden roads from the Orc Town?

"Fimbul, did you dismantle the house?"