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

Chapter 21 The Battle of the Five Armies (1)
Everything unfolded exactly as it was in history: the elves, led by Thranduil, prepared to fight the dwarves of Ironhill...

"Boom!" The foot of the mountain in the distance shook, and several ferocious-looking mandibles emerged from the ground.

“They’ve forgotten about the giant earth serpent,” Azog said with a ferocious expression.

A dark mass of orcs surged out of the ground, running at high speed, their arm shields raised in front of them, their other hands gripping their weapons tightly, howling as they charged toward the elves, dwarves, and humans.

"The devil is coming to attack us!" Ironfoot Dayn roared, pulling on the reins and turning his wild boar around.

"Fight! Fight! Sons of Turin!" Dain roared.

The dwarves, who were originally preparing to fight the elven army to the death, all turned around and started running wildly with their short legs. With the thud of shields hitting each other, a wide shield wall blocked the orcs' path. Roland was wrong about this. There were 1500 dwarves, of whom more than 500 were professionals, making them a true elite force of dwarves.

“Elves…why aren’t you fighting?” Bilbo looked up at Gandalf, seeing the elves remain unmoved.

“Thranduil! You can’t do this!” Gandalf shouted at Thranduil.

Thranduil hesitated, glancing back at the array of dwarves...

……

"Speed ​​up! We need to get to the battlefield!" Roland said solemnly. He needed to assess the situation before deciding whether to jump into this abyss. Although he wasn't a particularly competent lord, he was definitely a man of conscience. He knew how to care for his subordinates and that there was no need to make unnecessary sacrifices for a battle they couldn't win.

"We need to circle around to the left side of the battlefield!" Roland commanded. After all, they couldn't appear directly behind the orc army. If the orcs turned on them, Roland would have to run. Right now, Roland was walking a tightrope over a bottomless abyss; one wrong step could mean utter destruction. Having a system didn't mean having the resources to squander it! Without a complete logistical system and reserve troops, Roland was like a rootless duckweed; any defeat would be a disaster…

As for why he went around to the left, as mentioned earlier, backstabs are useless for Roland's current strength except for feeding him kills. On the right, there's not only Raven Ridge where Azog is commanding, but also the possibility of Orc reinforcements from Gombada Fortress joining the battle at any time. If he actually went there, things would get really messed up... Just imagine being sandwiched between at least 2 Orcs... Even a Dragon Knight could overwhelm him and kill one of them. You have to know that there are also professionals among the Orcs. Their powerful warriors and Shamans skilled in curses are all big problems for Roland.

"Ahoohoo!" the orc roared as he charged toward the dwarf's shield wall.

Suddenly, the orcs in the front row squinted at the sunlight, but it wasn't sunlight... it was the glint of blades flashing from the elven rangers.

Ranger class rankings: Apprentice Ranger, Ranger, Intermediate Ranger, Advanced Ranger, Eagle Eye Ranger, and the highest title, Hunter.

It must be said that Thranduil really went all out this time. He threw out nearly a thousand elf rangers. The elven rangers' scimitars swung in the air, the scimitars, imbued with various battle auras, sliced ​​through the orcs' armor, muscles, blood vessels, and bones as swiftly as hot knives cutting through butter...

The orcs were stunned by the sudden attack. They swung their weapons haphazardly to block, and several vine whips emerged from the void.

"Crack! Crack! Crack!" After the crisp sound of the whips, the surrounding orcs were all covered in blood from the lashes, and some even had their heads whipped off. This was the skill activated by several high-level rangers—Whip the Jungle: summoning a clump of vines to continuously lash the enemy.

"Kill! For the glory of Turin!" The dwarves, now reinforced, no longer cowered behind their shields. They removed their shields, raised their weapons, and charged straight at the oncoming orcs.

"Heavy Slash!" The dwarven warrior-class practitioners activated their skills, and the sharp dwarven battle axes, enveloped in battle aura, slashed down from above, the surging battle aura blades cleaving through a group of orcs.

"Fire!" The elven archers lined up at the rear nocked their bows, and a full 3000 elven archers unleashed arrows imbued with various skills.

"Hoohoo!"

"Ow!"

"Haaah!" A volley of arrows successfully blocked the orc army, cutting off their reinforcements and leaving large gaps in their ranks.

……

"Good heavens! It's really turned into a complete mess!" Roland and his group, completely disregarding their image, lay sprawled on the mountaintop, pointing and gesturing at the bustling battlefield below.

"Sir, are we really going to join the war like this?" Renault asked darkly, feeling that Roland might be planning to lead everyone into hell.

“Don’t forget, we haven’t gotten our commission back yet. All the capital we started with is in this mountain…” Roland glanced at the still closed Irubor, his heart burning with desire for the mountain of treasure in the city.

"Let's see how things go first." Roland didn't rush to conclusions but instead carefully observed the battlefield.

“At least 4000 elves! There should be around 1000 dwarves, and the 200 soldiers from Lake-town plus some recruited laborers should make it 500!” Roland murmured. This was much more than the historical population, and because of Roland, the people of Lake-town had escaped being roasted by Smaug, so the surge in the number of human soldiers was understandable.

“But there are at least 15000 orcs…” Caslo said weakly after some calculation.

"Sigh, and that doesn't even include the orc reinforcements from Gangbada Fortress..." Roland sighed. If it weren't for the damned money needed to exchange for wealth points to level up, Roland really wouldn't want to get involved in this mess. He was long past the arrogant, high-spirited phase he had when he first transmigrated; this was the real world! Every decision he made could cost his men, or even himself, his life. This wasn't a game!

……

“They can’t fight on two fronts! Attack the Valley State!” Azog saw through the allied forces’ weakness at a glance, and standing on Raven Ridge, he used this open strategy of attacking the enemy’s forced defense.

Humans would return to Valhalla to protect the old and weak, and dwarves would stand firm to protect Irubor. However, the elven army could only participate in one battle, so they would have to make a choice. Obviously, the elves would not fight alongside the dwarves. In this way, Azog easily completed his plan to divide the battlefield.

"Withdraw! River Valley!" Bard's eyes widened in fury as he watched the orcs turn and charge towards River Valley.

"Retreat to Dale!" Seeing the allied forces being steadily pushed back by the orcs, Thranduil gave the order to retreat. Elves and men, under the cover of alternating fire from elven archers, quickly withdrew towards Dale City...

Only the figures of dwarves fighting before the gates of Irubor remained, their living space constantly being squeezed.

"Thorin! Where is he? We need him!" Dain anxiously searched for his cousin on the battlefield.

"Agh!" A large blade stabbed down and embedded itself deep in the heart of Dain's mount, Ironfoot Dain, which was violently thrown to the ground.

"Sss!" Dain, who had gotten up from the ground, grabbed the spear that was thrust at him and shoved it into the heart of the orc who was attacking from behind. He then swung his warhammer a few times and smashed the skull of the orc who passed by him.

"Roar!" The towering ogre swung its battle axe in a wide arc and cleaved a dwarf berserker in two in an instant, unable to dodge in time.

"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!" The ear-piercing sound of metal scraping against metal rang out as several weapons were simultaneously thrust into the gaps in a dwarf warrior's armor. He weakly swung his battle axe once more before collapsing to the ground...

"Thorin! Thorin—" Dain, witnessing the endless deaths of his people, frantically shouted Thorin Oakenshield's name on the battlefield, but unfortunately, Thorin was already trapped in the curse of the golden dragon...

Second update! Based on feedback from readers, the plot of this book will focus primarily on farming, with side quests involving the reconquest of Moria interspersed throughout. Here, Gan Xia once again requests your recommendation votes; please shower me with them! (ω)

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(End of this chapter)