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

Chapter 170 Fearless and Invincible

"Keep an eye on your surroundings!" Roland warned, raising his lance. No one dared to underestimate the orcs lurking in the shadows. In this place shrouded in darkness and evil for millennia, their senses were suppressed to the minimum, and they were always in danger of being ambushed.

“Your Highness! This is not a suitable place for knights to clear the way!” said the captain of the Royal Guard.

“Indeed, we rushed too fast and might be surrounded by orcs. We need to clear the streets and houses along the way one by one. Most importantly, we need to keep the knights’ battle spirit at its peak. It’s unrealistic to maintain a state of glory all the time!” Omsk nodded.

“Then the knights will stay behind to provide support, the Royal Guards will be in front, and the Elnino Rangers will be in the middle!” Roland readily agreed.

"Watch out!" A squad of 10 Royal Guards approached a dark doorway along the wall. Just as the leader was about to go in, he was pulled back by the person behind him.

"Thrust!" A sharp spear shot out from behind, its surging battle aura forming a spear beam nearly 3 meters long, which plunged straight into the darkness...

"Agh!" Several shrill screams rang out, followed by a stream of purplish-black blood flowing out from the crack in the stone.

"Orcs! Torches!" With a cry of alarm, several torches fell into the darkness, illuminating the stone house.

Several fully armed orcs were lurking in the area, but two unlucky ones were hit by the royal guards' instantaneous thrust. One of them was pierced through the chest and abdomen, leaving a half-meter-long wound on his torso, and he was completely "empty". The other orc had his left leg severed by the sharp aura of the battle aura spear, and the few cries of agony just now clearly came from his mouth.

"laugh!"

"puff!"

After several Royal Guards rushed in and stabbed wildly, the orcs were freed, leaving behind only a few riddled corpses and bloodstains that testified to the brutality of the Lagranges.

"Roar!" A large stone slab by the roadside was suddenly overturned, and a group of orcs leaped out. The orcs appearing in the group in an instant made everyone pause. Then, the Lagrange soldiers with extremely high combat skills reacted quickly. An Elnino ranger dropped his bow and arrow, drew the rune blade he was carrying, and swiftly beheaded an orc. The headless corpse suddenly lurched forward a few steps before twitching weakly and collapsing to the ground.

"Kill them all!" The Elnino rangers reacted quickly, abandoning their cumbersome longbows for close combat. The longbows, which were sufficient for hunting dragons, were only their death warrant in close combat. The reliable rune blades on their backs were their most trustworthy friends.

"Protect the King!" The Royal Guards had a clearly different focus than the Rangers. The Elnino Ranger, full of offensive desire, was thinking about how to kill the attacking enemy, while the Royal Guards immediately stood in front of Roland.

"Don't block them! Kill the enemy!" Roland stared in shock at the massive tortoise-shell formation that had suddenly appeared before him, speechless as he gave the order to the Royal Guards. These idiots had actually blocked the valiant Elnino Rangers outside the shield formation in the first place... "Bang bang bang!" The Royal Guards, reacting quickly, showed no mercy, charging forward with their large shields. The clear sound of bones breaking made Roland's heart tighten. He suddenly had the illusion that an orc had been hit by a train. By the time the Royal Guards passed him, all that remained was a mangled, limp, and unrecognizable corpse.

"Holy crap!" Roland couldn't help but curse. Today he truly realized that the Elnino Ranger's melee ability was monstrous. No wonder it almost wiped out the dragon army; its melee ability was even more ferocious than the Battanian Archer. (Battanian Archer: I feel offended. It seems my title as the number one melee ranged unit is about to be relinquished?)
These Elnino rangers, with their agile movements…show off their skills against the orcs! In Roland's eyes, these 50 Elnino rangers were all freaks of nature, their every move brimming with deadly intent. When the orcs attacked, they used their nimble bodies to perform all sorts of difficult moves; splits and iron bridges were child's play. What was truly impressive was that they actually spun and leaped in the trajectory of an upward-pointing cleaver…with their eyes closed? Then, with a long swing of their long arms, the sharp and broad runic blade mercilessly sliced ​​through the throats and necks of three people…

"Pfft! Pfft!" Bloodstained spear tips suddenly emerged from the orc's back, then disappeared with a spray of blood, taking the orc's life with them.

The Royal Guards, reacting quickly, pressed forward using their superior defenses, advancing despite the slashing and thrusting of the orcs' weapons. In that short time, they had placed the orcs next to ranged units, which, strictly speaking, was a clear dereliction of duty. But Lagrang's ranged units... were they really ranged...?

The orcs, on the verge of tears, were relentlessly routed by the runic swords of the Elnino rangers who were eager to hunt them down. They finally realized that this ranged unit, which didn't even wear helmets, wasn't incapable of equipping them; rather, their terrifying strength made them disdainful of defense. After all, by the time their attacks landed, these terrifying rangers had already killed their attackers or disappeared elsewhere.

"Push them back!" Omsk glared. The Light and Shadow Heroes, who were not known for their mental strength, had almost no difference in perception compared to the naked eye in this place shrouded in darkness. Evil energy and atmosphere were everywhere, which seriously affected the Allied Forces' detection capabilities. Omsk was also very ashamed, after all, the enemy had almost stabbed Roland in the face.

“I should have brought the priests with me…” Roland missed the detection array that the priests had cast together. He felt that the array could dispel darkness and evil and drag out the orcs hiding in the shadows.

“Your Highness…” Omsk said guiltily. Fortunately, it was a group of orcs that emerged instead of a Ringwraith. Otherwise, in that instant, he would have been able to kill dozens of people. Of course, Roland, who was the first to be hit, would not have been able to escape.

"It's not your fault. Accidents can happen anytime here. We can only try our best to avoid them, but there might still be oversights. Don't worry about it," Roland reassured him. To be honest, even Roland was shocked by these orcs who were using tunnel warfare, let alone the others. However, they were just ordinary orcs, without a trace of battle aura, and couldn't harm the Lagrang soldiers at all, not even wear them down. At least they gave Roland a demonstration of what it means to be as fierce as a tiger in one move, and then all be gone in a minute...

To be honest, the El Niño Rangers could easily slice them apart, let alone the Royal Guards, those sturdy cans. If a Royal Guard with their shields and spears raised got close enough, they'd either have broken bones or be turned into a showerhead, yeah! The kind that spurts black blood...

"Is it cleaned up?" Roland asked, looking at Omske who was emerging from below.

“Of course, not a single one of them was even breathing!” Omske gave a thumbs up.

"Keep moving forward!" Roland ordered, while simultaneously raising his large shield high above his chest, fearing that orcs might suddenly charge at him.

(End of this chapter)