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

Chapter 166 Tug of War

"Alternate firing cover!" Thranduil, an expert archer commander, personally drew his bow and stood with the other archers, firing at the outer walls and arrow towers of Dolgodor.

Although the elves were not shooting fast, they were accurate enough. Every arrow was aimed at the crenellations of the city wall and the firing holes of the arrow towers. If an enemy appeared there, he would face a barrage of arrows that had been aimed at him beforehand.

"Guards! Form a shield line! Cross the bridge!" Roland narrowed his eyes. The Lagrange Royal Guards, who possessed an invincibility skill, were undoubtedly the best vanguard. With such steep and treacherous terrain, as long as the enemy ambushed a few tough-skinned trolls in the city wall on the other side... almost no one except the guards could cross their defensive line.

"Shield Wall!" The Royal Guards split into three columns, with the left and right columns standing close together, their thick tower shields forming a shield wall around them. The middle column of Royal Guards raised their tower shields overhead, and the overlapping shields instantly provided them with complete aerial defense. The three columns of Royal Guards, pressed tightly together, activated the Shield Wall skill, and in an instant, a moving "wall" appeared!

"No one can break through their defenses! No one!" Omske exclaimed. These were the most elite infantry of the Lagrange Empire! They had once terrified the entire Middle-earth! They were the cornerstone of the empire!
"Boom boom boom!" With orderly and dull steps, the moving city wall finally stepped onto the bridgehead.

"Destroy the bridge!" The orc chieftain watched in horror as the impenetrable wall pressed down on the castle. Realizing there was no way to stop it, he quickly gave the order to destroy the bridge. The castle of Dolgodo, perched atop a cliff, was right outside!

"Kill them! Don't let them destroy the bridge!" Verway roared, and with the wind, he heard the orcs' open scheme.

"Launch! Launch! Don't conserve your energy and battle spirit!" Iovia roared.

As their words fell, the previously accurate and ruthless shooting turned into a rapid and deadly attack! A torrential rain of arrows fell from the sky, and several ogres carrying stones to throw were instantly riddled with holes. Their bodies were covered with fine arrows, and they were killed instantly without even uttering a sound.

"Quick! Charge! They're going to destroy the bridge!" The experienced Royal Guards also saw through the Orcs' intentions, but they were wearing such heavy equipment and had to maintain their formation to prevent them from taking advantage of the situation. So, although they were determined, they were still slow.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!" Several muffled sounds came.

"Damn! Giant crossbows!" a knowledgeable royal guard exclaimed. The arrow towers in Dolgodo began to retaliate, and the crossbows hidden on the flat-topped towers came into play.

"Hold on!"

"Boom!"

Although the heavy crossbows couldn't break through their defenses in a short time, the terrifying impact was not so easy to counteract. The impact of those few crossbow bolts had already pushed them half a step to the right, forcing the entire team to stop. If there were a few more giant crossbows, they could have been blown away by the impact.

"Iovia! Thranduil! Verweil! Suppress the crossbow towers!" Roland said anxiously. Ordinary elves couldn't reach crossbow towers three or four thousand meters away, but these three sixth-tier hunters could.

"I see them!" Verway grabbed his longbow, drew it to its full extent, and fired at the crossbow tower hidden among the towers. "Bang!" The fire-elemental battle aura attached to the arrow exploded and swept outwards, instantly engulfing half of the tower's top in flames.

"Boom!"

"Damn it! It missed!" Verway cursed. Although he had hit the ballista, he hadn't managed to destroy it. A few dozen seconds later, the ballista fired again.

"Your Highness! We can't hold on! We can't advance at all!" The last royal guards roared helplessly towards the Roaring Allied Forces. The crossbow bolts, fired every few seconds, made it impossible for them to move. If they tried to move, a group of guards would inevitably be thrown back by the impact of the giant crossbow bolts due to their loss of footing.

"Think of something! The shields are dented!" came the voice of the Royal Guard.

Each bolt that fell not only shattered the battle aura on the shield's surface, but also damaged their tower shields. Although the adamantite alloy tower shields were sturdy enough, they couldn't withstand the damage from this giant crossbow, which was comparable to the Dragon Slayer Crossbow.

"Right ahead! Trolls charging! Fire!" a guard warned. Sure enough, several huge ogres in iron armor scaled the city wall and pounced on them. If they were allowed to get through, they could easily push this elite royal guard down the cliff.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" Three cold glints suddenly appeared from the gaps in the shield wall. The troll in front of him immediately fell to the ground with a wail. After struggling for a few moments, it stopped moving. Its fall instantly caused bad luck for the trolls behind it. The trolls that were originally charging at high speed were tripped by the first troll and fell to the ground. One of the unlucky ones even fell off the cliff with a wail.

Their unusual behavior immediately attracted the attention of the allied forces. Relying on the Royal Guard's abnormal defense, Roland directly ordered the elven archers to fire indiscriminately at that area. The Royal Guards hiding behind the shield wall listened to the sound of rain pattering on banana leaves, while the ogres could only sing the song of withered chrysanthemums. One by one, they were shot so badly that they immediately fell to the ground or rolled down the mountain.

"Damn it! They've blocked the road!" Roland jumped up in anger. The trolls were dead, but what were these mountains of flesh? If it weren't for the giant crossbows, the Royal Guards could have simply pushed the corpses off the bridge, but the problem was that they were pinned down and couldn't move an inch...

"What the hell! It's turned into a tug-of-war?" Roland covered his face. Apart from the Royal Guards being beaten, everyone else was venting their firepower. The orcs were targeting the stone bridge at the entrance and the Royal Guards on the bridge, while the allied forces were targeting the orcs hiding in the city. As for the Royal Guards... they were huddled behind the shield wall, trembling with fear.

"Bang!" With the efforts of the royal guards at the front, they successfully knocked down the first ogre's corpse. At this moment, they had just reached the center of the stone bridge, and ahead of them... there were still 7 corpses waiting for them.

"Suppress the crossbow towers! Don't let the hell they fire again!" Roland was furious. Those damned orcs were scurrying in and out like rats in the ground, and the giant crossbows would always fire unexpectedly. Even three sixth-tier hunters couldn't completely suppress them.

"How many crossbows did they install? And haven't they all been removed yet?" Omske asked bitterly. He had confirmed that at least ten crossbows had been hit, but some were still firing.

"The Ringwraiths have made their move! They've protected the ballista! Although we successfully hit the ballista, we clearly didn't break through its defenses!" Roland immediately realized the problem; it was obvious the Ringwraiths didn't want to let the allied forces in for urban warfare.

"Keep going! Kill them all!" Roland angrily gripped a longbow and launched himself. Aim? No need! They're all orcs anyway, surely some will hit, right?
(End of this chapter)