The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 14 Battle of the Dark Forest
Leaving aside Thorin and his companions being hunted down and ultimately escaping under the giant eagle summoned by Gandalf, let's turn our attention to the tragic children of Roland.

"Holy crap, where did all these goblins come from?" Caslo looked in surprise at the goblins surging from behind.

Roland's lips twitched. If his brain hadn't gone limp, it seemed like Gandalf had slaughtered a fat guy in a goblin town in the Misty Mountains, something like the Goblin King...

"Damn it! That damn Thorin! You all ran away and brought trouble upon me!" Roland realized that he had taken the bullet for Thorin and his group.

"Retreat! Retreat! Get out of here!" Roland hurriedly said. It wasn't that he hadn't thought about fighting back, but he felt that there was no benefit in turning around and fighting. If he lost, he would lose face; if he won, he would lose money (his men's casualties would definitely be significant). There was really no need to do a losing business.

Thus, a spectacular scene unfolded on the eastern slope of the Misty Mountains: about four hundred elite humans, fully armed, were running wildly through the forest and bushes, while thousands of weak goblins with thin arms and legs were chasing after them, howling and screaming. Both sides put all their strength into a unique marathon race.

"Fire back!" Caslo suddenly roared.

While covering the rear, he noticed that a group of strong goblins were already close to the slowest swift infantry. Immediately, at his command, the knights and Battanian archers turned on their horses and drew their bows. The knights fired the first volley of arrows, only managing to fall a dozen or so goblins. Roland covered his face in disbelief at the low accuracy. The Battanian archers, however, proved Roland right. A hundred arrows flew, and the goblin vanguard instantly collapsed as if they had been devoured. A closer look revealed that almost all of them had been shot in the throat or heart.

"Wow! As expected of a knight specializing in marksmanship!" Roland exclaimed inwardly. But damn it! What kind of knight is this?! He'd been fooled by the Battanian archers' heavy armor again. Roland blushed with embarrassment. "Well, it's not my fault! They're just too deceptive."

"My lord! The infantry can't keep up!" Kaslan suddenly shouted.

"What?" Roland looked closely after hearing this and saw that the Swift Infantry were indeed struggling to move and panting heavily. Seeing them drenched in sweat, Roland's heart sank.

"This can't go on!" Roland thought to himself.

"Rear guard to front guard! All troops in formation!" Roland suddenly roared.

Renault's eyes widened. What was going on? Had his lord gone mad? Was he planning to die? If he really turned around to fight, apart from Caslo riding the dragon, Renault was probably the only one among those present who could survive.

Roland was certainly not crazy. He knew that it wasn't just the Swift Infantry who had lost their strength after that long chase; the goblins with their short legs were also exhausted. Sure enough, the "giant wave" chasing them had become a "small stream," and small waves of goblins were rushing towards them from afar.

Well! These silly kids didn't even care about their formation in their pursuit of someone, and they scattered into small groups of chasers.

"The piecemeal tactic is great! The piecemeal tactic is great! I love the piecemeal tactic the most!" Roland grinned maliciously.

"Rapid Charge Formation! Formation!" Roland shouted.

Then… the Swift Infantry were completely bewildered… Roland slapped his forehead, speechless. What the hell? The system only gave them 200 people! The lowest level of Swift Infantry formation requires 300 people to form. Others might not know, but Roland knew that a Swift Infantry formation of 30 people in a row or 10 people in a column was incredibly powerful. You should know that 10 such formations could knock down a hundred-man knight order, and that was a proper knight order! Especially since professionals weren't everywhere in this world; they were relatively rare.

"One hundred men in a row! Two men in a line! Roll them over!" Roland could only give detailed instructions.

Upon hearing the order, the Swiftstream Infantrymen immediately slammed their large shields into the ground. The first rank of Swiftstream Infantrymen laid their chevaux-de-frise flat and leaned against the shield wall. The second rank of infantrymen did the same, but they tilted their shields 30 degrees to the left, leaving an arm's length gap. They leaned their chevaux-de-frise against the shields and drew their maces from their waists.

"Barbarian, provide cover fire! Renault, you lead the Knights and find an opportunity to charge them!" Roland said solemnly.

"Yes, sir!" Renault led the knights away.

“We should be in the Dark Forest by now,” Roland asked Caslo.

Caslo pulled out the detailed map Elrond had given him and compared it to the map for a long time: "My lord, we should be on the edge of the Dark Forest now."

"Mm," Roland responded.

"Clang!" Roland drew his Dragon Slayer Sword and spurred his warhorse to the front lines. "Soldiers! Brothers! We can't run anymore! Without strength, we're just lambs to the slaughter! So we have no choice but to fight with our backs to the wall! I beg you to hold the line with me! Tell the enemy! The glory of Lagrange has never faded! The soldiers of the Empire are still fighting! Are you willing?!" Roland shouted.

"For the glory of the empire! Long live the empire!" the crowd shouted in unison.

"Kill!" The 5-meter-long chevaux-de-frise thrust horizontally, instantly skewering a hundred or so goblins that rushed forward. Seeing the goblins behind them rushing up, the heavy touch on their spears forced the first rank of swift infantrymen to decisively abandon their spears and grab the spiked hammers at their waists. The second rank of swift infantrymen behind them immediately followed suit, leveling their spears.

With a loud "bang," a swift infantryman swung his mace and smashed the head open of an overconfident goblin.

"Rapid fire!" Caslo shouted as he saw more and more goblins surging up and beginning to creep towards the infantry's flanks.

"Boom boom boom!" The Battanian archers immediately abandoned their precise shooting and began to unleash a rapid barrage of arrows from their quivers. In no time, a quiver containing 50 arrows was empty, and the Battanian archers were now grimacing and rubbing their cramped arms.

The effect was obvious. What does 5000 fine iron arrows mean? Just look at the goblins still twitching in front of you. Roland estimated that at least several hundred goblins had merged with the earth in the rain of arrows.

The Swift Infantry, who were swinging their maces, suddenly found themselves in a desolate place, only to discover that the area in front of them was littered with corpses. The goblins who had died under the rain of arrows were in a better position, but the bodies that had fallen in front of the Swift Infantry had piled up into small mountains. The ones at the very front were either riddled with dozens of holes or smashed into unidentifiable shapes by the maces.

The first rank of swift infantrymen quickly stepped out of their ranks, pulled their chevaux-de-frise from the pile of corpses, and stood in a new row, forming a shield wall.

"Woo-woo!" A deep horn sounded, and Renault's knights poured down from the horizon, causing the goblins caught in the middle to panic and scatter in all directions.

"Charge!" Roland ordered the entire army to charge when he saw that the time was right.

The swift infantry drew their shields, raised their spears, and charged forward in a line. Behind them, the Battanian archers on horseback surprisingly put away their longbows and took off the mithril armor-piercing hammers, each about a meter long, from their backs...

"Damn it! From now on, if anyone calls them archers, I'll fight them!" Roland said, his eyes twitching.

……

"Can this be considered a battle?" Roland asked smugly.

"I guess you could say that... After all, there are nearly two thousand goblins lying here... But seriously, can goblins really be considered a battle achievement?" Renault flattered Roland with a dark face.

"Well, at least let's count the number of people!" Roland waved his hand dismissively, as if to say, "I'm not listening."

"Let's go! It's time to go to the final battlefield..." Roland sighed, gazing into the distance. What was destined to happen would happen eventually. He wondered if the outcome of this battle would be as he had known...

"Congratulations, host, on completing an outstanding battle! The casualty ratio between the enemy and our side is 2457:0. Reward: 100 Swift Infantry."

"System is awesome! Well done!" Roland looked at the reward given by the system, which was exactly the troops he needed right now, and couldn't help but feel excited.

"All troops, listen up! Target: Lonely Mountain! Move out!" Roland said spiritedly, looking at the 100 Swift Infantrymen who were coming to provide support from afar.

What do you all think of this book? Please leave some suggestions in the comments section. If the response is good, I will switch to updating twice a day (ε). I'm begging for recommendation votes again.

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(End of this chapter)