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

Chapter 33 Magic Pattern Stone Bricks
"Shield Bash!" Despite their deep contempt for the orcs, the guards of Lagrange still gave them the highest level of "treatment" in the face of the surging orcs.

"Buzz~" The battle aura rapidly spread across the entire broad shield, forming a battle aura shield several times larger than the broad shield itself within the halo of light.

"Bang~ Bang~" A series of slapping sounds rang out as the city guards raised their large shields, took a half step back, and then slammed forward again.

After a tooth-grinding, ear-piercing sound of bones cracking, all the orcs struck by the light shield collapsed to the ground, convulsing. Those who were lucky enough to survive were pinned to the ground with steel spears by the city guards who caught up with them. After the strike, the battle aura on the shield dissipated, and it turned back into an ordinary shield.

"Why are there more and more orcs the more we fight them..." The guards of Lagrange City were dumbfounded, realizing they had stirred up a hornet's nest. They were helpless as the orc city guards kept playing the piecemeal tactic.

"The civilians should be safe now, it's time for us to retreat."

"We need to find a way to shake them off. Swiftstream City is just ahead, and we can't lead the orcs there."

"Our battle energy is greatly depleted; we need to disengage from the battle and rest as soon as possible."

Taking advantage of the lull before the orcs attacked, the group chattered amongst themselves.

"Awooo..." After a wolf howl, everyone's face instantly turned ugly.

"Wilderness Wolf Riders!" Everyone's pupils contracted.

With a "whoosh," accompanied by the scraping sound of armor, the guards of Lagrange City quickly formed a three-tiered circle. The outermost soldiers held steel spears and shields, the middle ones raised javelins, and the soldiers on the outermost layer raised their crossbows.

"Awoo~" Dozens of dire wolves charged over with their master. The guards of Lagrange City who were gathered together breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it was not wolf knights. Wolf knights and wolf riders are only one word apart, but their strength is worlds apart. A wolf knight can easily kill more than a dozen ordinary wolf riders.

"Don't worry, hold your formation, they won't charge!" the Lagrange City Guards reminded each other. The wolf riders, lacking charge skills, were helpless against the Lagrange City Guards who had huddled together. Facing the spiked Lagrange City Guards, they could only roar from afar. Having already achieved a high status among the orcs, they were nothing like the mindless ordinary orcs. Seeing no advantage to be gained, they raged helplessly for a while before leading the rest of the orcs into hiding in the wasteland…

……

"Hi! Lord Radil." Roland took the initiative to approach Radil, having come to request that Radil strengthen the defenses of Swiftstream City.

"Your Highness, what's wrong?" Radil lay on the old wooden chair, basking in the winter sun.

"I need you to manufacture magic-patterned stone bricks to reinforce the city's defenses!" Roland explained his purpose.

“Hmm…I see. But what specifications of the city wall do you need?” Radil sat up and asked seriously, as he needed to know the exact requirements of the mission.

"Let's build a wall that's 5 meters high and 5 meters wide, based on the current city wall." Roland thought for a moment and decided to lay the foundation for the next upgrade to a 10-meter-high city wall.

"So how long will it take to complete?"

“This winter then,” Roland thought for a moment. “By the Dragon God! Are you trying to kill this old man with your labor?” Radil’s eyes widened. He never expected that his king, who looked so handsome, was actually a heartless capitalist.

"Your Highness, have you considered how much magic power it would take for me to condense the runestone bricks with magic, stack them up, and then cast a reinforcement spell again? Besides, I'm just a lowly war mage, and my total magic power isn't that much! There's no holy spring here, no moon well, and no sun well. I can only restore my magic power through meditation..." Radil rambled on and on, but it all boiled down to two words—dream on!
"Uh..." Roland awkwardly touched his nose.

“Lord Radil, here’s what I’m thinking: you only need to manufacture the magic-patterned stone bricks, and you won’t have to use magic to do the rough work of building the city walls. I’ll have the knights do it for you. You just need to reinforce them at the end.” Roland quickly offered a compromise.

“At this rate, I need to produce enough magic-patterned stone bricks to make 45 meters of city wall every day… Alright, I’ll give it my all.” After a moment of contemplation, Radil finally agreed to Roland’s plan.

"Oh! By the way! Your Highness, a small squad of wandering Lagrange City guards has come to join you. They should be arriving soon." Just as Roland was about to leave after receiving a satisfactory reply, Radil hurriedly told Roland this news. In his view, the glory of Lagrange shone on this last lord, and countless people came to his side under the guidance of the Dragon God.

“Yes, I understand. I will send someone to meet them.” Roland immediately realized that Old Master Radil must have sensed the arrival of the Lagrange City Guards.

……

"Your Highness!" The guards of Lagrange City, who had just arrived at the city gate, saw Roland standing on the broken city wall. He was looking up at the sky at a 45-degree angle, trying his best to look cool.

"Rise! Welcome back to the glory of Lagrange..." Roland gestured for them to rise, and then began his persuasive rhetoric. Sure enough, under Roland's influence, the group of Lagrange guards, who had never seen the wickedness of human nature, were almost ready to swear to the heavens that they would die for King Roland.

Ivy, who happened to be passing by, witnessed this scene. The little girl's eyes twitched, and she suddenly felt that her lord must have the potential to become a high priest (a great charlatan).

"Look, here come the bricklayers!" Roland thought to himself, hearing the foreman's laughter.

"What?!" Upon hearing Roland's instructions, the Lagrange City Guards were completely dumbfounded... What kind of lord was this? Ordering them, Imperial City Guards, to do such menial work... Then they saw knights in Imperial standard knight's armor removing their armor one by one...

"..." The guards of Lagrange City looked at each other in silence, and silently took off their infantry armor to join the brick-laying family.

"Huff huff huff~" Old Master Radil sat down, panting heavily, leaning against the wall. He had obviously run out of magic power. In front of him was a small mountain of magic-patterned stone bricks.

“That’s all. Take it away.” Radil pointed to the pile of stone bricks engraved with magic runes in front of him. These stone bricks were engraved with magic—Strength. Compared to stone bricks made of ordinary stone, buildings constructed from these bricks would be much stronger. Roland had seen the walls of Lagrange City, which were engraved with at least 10 kinds of magic and could even reflect magical attacks. The magic rune stone bricks that Radil made were only the most basic magic rune stone bricks. However, considering that this was only the time of the Battle of Lonely Mountain, the demand for high-level city walls was not particularly high. If this were during the War of the Ring, these city walls would be somewhat inadequate.

Lacking large carts for transportation, the knights managed to tie the bricks together with ropes and hang them on their horses. The guards of Lagrange, lacking warhorses, had no choice but to laboriously carry the bricks themselves. In a short time, nearly two hundred people worked tirelessly up and down to build a section of the wall less than 50 meters long. Meanwhile, Radil closed his eyes and began to meditate, a mysterious magic slowly surging from his body...

"Things are finally back on track..." Roland smiled with satisfaction as he looked at the busy crowd.

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(End of this chapter)