Chapter 266: Turtle in a Jar

Following the old Dwarf Balin's reminder, Wayne did not immediately advance toward the Lonely Mountain, but took a detour and made a trip to Lake-town.

This small town had been abandoned for nearly a month due to the Orc raid. Unexpectedly, when Wayne arrived near the town, he saw a huge fierce beast lying by the river drinking water in large gulps, which was his pet, the Deathclaw Robin.

What made him feel even more surprised was that not far from Robin, a large bonfire had been lit, and a giant about two meters tall was standing by the bonfire, seemingly roasting meat.

And this giant was none other than the skin-changer Beorn, whom the expedition team had met before. Unexpectedly, this brother met Robin, and they started a small barbecue by the river.

Wayne flew over immediately. The Deathclaw seemed to smell its master's scent, immediately raised its head buried in the river water, and the tail behind it also began to sway slightly.

It let out a hiss similar to acting like a spoiled child toward Wayne in mid-air, which also attracted Beorn's attention.

Wayne landed beside Robin and observed it carefully. After half a month of absence, this big guy had a few more subtle wounds on its body, as well as many traces of fire burning. It was estimated that it was injured by their swords and magic when fighting with the Nazgul.

However, these could only be considered skin wounds, and did not affect combat effectiveness.

And in this month, after eating all of Smaug's flesh and blood, the Deathclaw's body had grown from the original eight meters or so to nine meters. The original dark green skin was also changing to bronze, and Wayne even smelled a trace of sulfur from the breath exhaled by the Deathclaw.

Obviously, Smaug's corpse brought it a lot of benefits, and it was also subtly changing its body.

"Why are you here, Beorn?"

Wayne was indeed somewhat confused, because the Orc army came a bit suddenly, and he forgot this skin-changer who wanted to participate in the war, and no one wrote him a letter. Logically speaking, Beorn should not have appeared.

Seeing Wayne, this giant Beorn with a rough appearance was quite happy. He handed over a string of roasted wild boar meat and said in a somewhat silly tone: "I noticed a large batch of Orcs coming out from the Misty Mountains, so I guessed they might have some conspiracy and wanted to do something bad, so I thought about going to the Lonely Mountain to see."

"However, I met your partner here in the evening, so I simply camped here tonight."

Wayne nodded clearly. Beorn, who could transform into a giant bear, could also be considered a powerful combat force. Meeting him here could be considered a pleasant surprise.

He told Beorn about the Orc raid on the Woodland Realm and the Lonely Mountain, and invited him to join the battle together.

Unexpectedly, facing such a dangerous request, Beorn agreed without any hesitation. It can only be said that it is worthy of being the Middle-earth world. Most people's personalities are very pure and kind, without any crooked thoughts.

After obtaining a powerful helper, Wayne rested with them by the ruins of Lake-town for two hours.

He took out a large number of Healing Potions and Mana Potions, while replenishing his magic power, while treating the skin wounds for the Deathclaw.

However, this big guy's body size was much larger than before, and it drank a full forty or so bottles of intermediate potions before it was considered to have restored its complete state.

And besides potions, Wayne's space bracelet also had a lot of food and fine wine. He naturally did not be stingy and took out a lot of delicacies to restore the physical strength of the Deathclaw and Beorn.

After resting, they set off immediately, preparing to start the next battle.

………………

Time passed in the blink of an eye for more than ten hours, and Wayne had long since arrived at the battlefield of the Lonely Mountain.

After arriving at the battlefield, he did not recklessly fight hard with the Orc army, but picked up the Dragon-Slaying Bow and began to use his advantage of flight to wantonly shoot any enemy that appeared in his

His giant heavy bow had a long range and great power, and coupled with his space equipment, he had no worries about logistics, essentially transforming into a humanoid sharpshooter constantly attacking from the air.

In just half an hour, more than two hundred Orc soldiers died under his arrows, and he single-handedly suppressed the entire outer perimeter of the Orc garrison.

Even so, Wayne felt it wasn't enough; after no more Orc soldiers dared to show their heads, he took out alchemy bombs and blew up all the siege equipment the Orc army had left outside the walls of the Lonely Mountain.

Boom! Boom! The sound of explosions echoed continuously outside the entire Lonely Mountain, and such a near-provocative act infuriated the Orc army.

Soon, a large group of Orc archers and crossbowmen were sent out, attempting to use the same long-range attack methods to counterattack.

However, they underestimated the lethality of an aerial long-range unit and the power of a super archer.

As a master-level heavy bow, the Dragon-Slaying Bow in Wayne's hands had a range far exceeding theirs, and combined with the terrain advantage of attacking from a height, those dispatched Orc archers were not only completely unable to hit the witcher in mid-air, but instead became living targets. After Wayne shot and killed over a hundred more of them, they all fled in a panic into the interior of the Lonely Mountain palace, not daring to come out again.

Wayne wasn't in much of a hurry, or rather, being in a hurry was useless; he couldn't charge into the enemy's massive army alone and still rescue Thorin and Dain unscathed under the siege of the Witch-king of Angmar and the other Nazgul.

The only thing he could do was find a way to weaken the strength of these Orcs before the Elf King's army arrived.

According to the old dwarf Balin's estimate, the original Orc army of about fifteen thousand had lost roughly half their number after two days and one night of determined resistance by the dwarves, leaving about eight thousand remaining.

A day has over fourteen hundred minutes, and King Thranduil and his army would likely need to wait two days before they could arrive here.

Therefore, even if he could only take out one Orc per minute, by the time the Elf army from the Woodland Realm arrived, they could directly launch a clean sweep.

He only hoped that in these three days, Thorin and his cousin Dain could hold out.

Once these Orc armies were all dealt with, all the righteous forces in the entire North would be able to enjoy a long period of good days.

Thus, when the Orc army dared not send any more soldiers outside the palace walls, Wayne turned into a master of destruction again, starting to bomb the fortifications on the walls, as well as siege equipment like ballistae and catapults, so that the warriors of the Woodland Realm wouldn't have to suffer extra losses when they came to support in two days.

However, what he found strange was that even after all the defensive facilities on the walls were destroyed by him, no one came out to stop him, and the figures of the Witch-king of Angmar and the other four Nazgul never appeared.

But this question only flashed through Wayne's mind, and he didn't pay much attention to it.

This wasn't because he was too arrogant and didn't take the Witch-king of Angmar and the other Nazgul seriously.

Well, okay, he really didn't take them that seriously.

After the actual combat test with the four Nazgul last time, in Lord Wayne's view, if it weren't for the fact that the opponent had thousands of Orc warriors as bodyguards and was hiding inside the Lonely Mountain, he could definitely take out that so-called Witch-king and the other Nazgul all at once.

Because besides the strength he currently possessed, he also had an extremely powerful trump card; even if the so-called Witch-king of Angmar could rival the evil dragon Smaug in strength, he was confident he could take this guy out in a very short time. It was precisely with this confidence that Wayne, after clearing all the defensive facilities on the walls, did not hesitate to take his weapons and break into the palace inside the Lonely Mountain.

After entering the palace, as he expected, he saw a group of Orc warriors holding weapons, guarding the palace with nervous expressions, clearly having been waiting for a long time.

Upon seeing Wayne, neither side said a word; a barrage of arrows and crossbow bolts were fired over, and at the same time, those warriors who had been waiting for a long time let out a series of wild roars and charged over with all their might.

Facing these charging Orcs, although Wayne felt no fear, he still cautiously raised his Quen Sign, blocking long-range attacks while quickly retreating, and only when he exited the palace and reached the range of the walls did he begin to engage them in battle.

However, he was very cunning and didn't give those Orc warriors any chance to surround him; every time he killed a few dozen, he used his short-distance Blink ability to break out of the Orcs' encirclement, and then, before those Orc warriors could react, he began to slaughter them and unleash all kinds of bombings.

After doing this seven or eight times in a row, killing for over an hour until the sun was about to set, the number of Orcs who died by his hand increased by more than four hundred.

Although his stamina was outstanding, his body wasn't made of iron; while the one-against-many combat mode had huge lethality, the stamina consumption was equally huge.

Realizing that his stamina had dropped by more than half, Wayne didn't risk pushing himself further and immediately used a long-distance Blink, directly exiting the range of the walls and appearing on the ground outside the Lonely Mountain walls.

However, just as he steadied himself and took out the magic flying carpet from his space bracelet, he immediately saw five black-clad Nazgul riding fell beasts rushing out from the palace inside the Lonely Mountain.

Clearly, the opponent had been waiting there for a long time, likely planning to wait until he exhausted his stamina to reap the rewards.

The leader, a Nazgul riding a huge fell beast and wearing a black crown on his head, shouted in a hoarse voice:

"Since you've come, don't think about escaping?"

"We have been waiting for you here for a long time!"

Guessing that this Nazgul wearing the crown was the legendary Witch-king of Angmar, and seeing them flying toward him as if they wanted to pursue,

Wayne felt a surge of joy, though he still feigned a look of exhaustion on his face and said, "If you want to use numbers to overwhelm me, you'll have to catch me first."

After saying this, he immediately jumped onto the magic flying carpet and began to fly rapidly in one direction.

At this time, the distance between the two sides was about four hundred meters, and the speed of the Nazgul's fell beasts was indeed very fast; even with Wayne driving the magic flying carpet at full power, the distance between them was closing bit by bit.

Seemingly seeing the hope of victory, the Witch-king of Angmar and the four Nazgul beside him did not give up the pursuit, but urged the fell beasts beneath them, flapping their wings desperately toward Wayne's position.

In just five minutes, the distance between the two sides was halved, leaving only about two hundred meters, and a solemn expression appeared on Wayne's face.

He estimated the distance, and after it had closed by another dozen meters, he turned his head to look at the pursuers behind him, suddenly changed the direction of the magic flying carpet, and flew directly into a canyon below, seemingly wanting to use the complex terrain to shake off the pursuers behind him.

The Witch-king of Angmar and the other Nazgul certainly wouldn't let it go, and without hesitation, they followed immediately.

As the distance between them and the ground grew closer, Wayne skillfully maneuvered the magic flying carpet, dodging many obstacles in the canyon, and dived directly to the bottom of the canyon, starting to fly slowly close to the ground.

The Nazgul's fell beasts were also quite agile; even after diving into the narrow and rugged canyon, they were not affected at all, and instead, using the advantage of the airflow, they quickly closed the distance between them to fifty meters.

At this distance, the Witch-king of Angmar's face, invisible beneath his helmet, seemed to reveal a smile of certainty.

He said in a hoarse voice: "You have nowhere to run, Elf!"

"Our master has been watching you for a long time."

"If you are willing to submit to our master, submit to the great Dark Lord Sauron, you will not only escape death, but also gain even greater power."

"This is your only chance; otherwise, your corpse will also be used by us."

As he spoke, the Witch-king of Angmar's hands suddenly condensed two balls of extremely dark energy.

After waiting for a dozen seconds without receiving an answer from Wayne.

The Witch-king of Angmar sneered, the two balls of black energy in his hands suddenly merged together, and then he pushed them hard toward Wayne's direction. In Wayne's slightly surprised gaze, a powerful shockwave instantly swept across his body, directly knocking him off the magic flying carpet.

Fortunately, the altitude they were flying at wasn't high from the ground; after being knocked away, Wayne used a few rolls against the wall and stood steadily on the ground.

And his magic flying carpet, having lost its master, seemed to turn into an ordinary blanket, losing power and drifting slowly to the ground dozens of meters away.

However, in such a short time, the Witch-king of Angmar and the other four Nazgul had already caught up to him.

Five powerful dark creatures and five huge fell beasts surrounded him from all directions, emitting a strong murderous aura.

The Witch-king of Angmar condensed dark power in his hands again, but did not act immediately, instead continuing to speak in a hoarse voice:

"You are already a turtle in a jar, you pathetic little mouse!"

"The great master is still waiting for your answer."

"Answer me, submission or death, you only have this one chance?"

Surrounded by the five Nazgul, Wayne's expression was not panicked at all. After hearing the Witch-king of Angmar's question, he raised an eyebrow and said with a playful tone: "Hahaha, who is the turtle in the jar and who is the little mouse, it seems you haven't figured that out yet, have you?"

And while Wayne was laughing, the Deathclaw Robin and Beorn's giant bear, who had long been lying in ambush in the canyon, suddenly appeared. Without giving the Nazgul any time to react, they leaped down from a height and pounced directly on them in a mountain-crushing manner.

And after Wayne finished speaking, he didn't hesitate anymore. To prevent the Witch-king of Angmar from escaping, he directly activated Aberration Enhancement, instantly tripling his physical attributes, with all physical stats breaking through one hundred points.

His entire body seemed to inflate, becoming a size larger, and in coordination with his Blink ability, he instantly appeared above the Witch-king of Angmar's head, the Statikk Shiv in his hand flashing with brilliant lightning as he slashed directly at the Witch-king's body.

(End of chapter)