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

Chapter 409 The Glittering Lance

As night fell, Roland led his knights to the town of Delwin. When Roland saw the town in ruins, his expression twisted. He circled the town and saw that a section of the once neatly built city wall, dozens of meters long, had been forcibly breached. The frost still on the wall was still emitting a chill. Roland dismounted with a cold face and casually reached out.

"Crack!" Roland suddenly crushed the fist-sized frost.

"Where is Lance?" Roland asked in a low voice.

"Your Highness, I'm here!" Lance peeked out quietly.

"Hmm, tell me! What happened?" Roland frowned as he looked at Lance, who was covered in dust and dirt.

"Your Highness, I apologize for my dereliction of duty..." Lance said with his head down, somewhat ashamed.

"It's not your responsibility. I saw the scene; you couldn't solve it..." Roland shook his head, not blaming Lance. He knew Lance's capabilities, and besides, ten soldiers guarding such a large town were too spread out! If it weren't for the location, there would probably be fewer of even the forest rangers...

"A bunch of magical beast families!" Roland snorted coldly. Those damned magical beasts dared to provoke Roland for no reason? Roland almost laughed out of anger.

"Do you know which direction they went?" Roland asked coldly.

Are any Tom, Dick, or Harry now daring to trespass on the Kingdom of Lagrang? Has no one told them what the past examples are like?

"Ice Leopard! These things aren't supposed to live in groups!" Omske scratched his head. Even if it's a clan, this clan is far too large!

"Yes, Your Majesty! That is exactly what we were wondering about!" Lance limped over. He had been holding on by sheer willpower, so nothing was visible at the time. Now that he was out of danger, he had relaxed, and the aftereffects of his injuries were starting to show.

“Strange…” Omsk shook his head. Normally, these intermediate-level magical beasts would only appear in groups, but now they were appearing in huge numbers! This cast a shadow over Omsk’s mind.

"Can we track him down?" Roland asked Omske as he used his hands to gather holy light to heal Lance's wounds.

"Your Highness! The people in the town also need treatment!" Lance said excitedly, grabbing Roland's hand.

"Don't worry! I've already sent the priests to save them. By the time you tell them, they'll all be bleeding to death..." Roland shook his head helplessly, knowing that Lance was just being overly concerned.

"Come here, everyone, let me heal you all!" Roland looked at the external injuries on the Woodland Warriors and once again activated his Holy Battle Aura to release healing skills. It has to be said that the Paladin is truly the strongest knight class branch besides the Dragon Knight. With full offensive and defensive capabilities, it also has its own independent Holy Skill Tree. Being able to fight, tank, and heal is the perfect description of a Paladin!

Soon, under Roland's holy light, these Swift Warriors successfully revived on the spot with full health!

"Stay here! Come back and report back to me with details. Now I have to go hunt down those beasts!" Roland shook his head and patted Lance on the shoulder.

Lance opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately remained silent, simply watching Roland leave. "Giddy up! Knights, assemble! We're going to hunt down those scum!" Roland brandished his mithril dragon spear, though he seemed a little awkward... but he looked undeniably cool! Only the most powerful knights could wield a nine-meter-nine-foot dragon spear, and Roland, as a noble paladin, could naturally handle it with ease... What a load of rubbish!

His hand was getting sore from all the waving! And the increased attack range made Roland extremely awkward; he was even afraid that he might accidentally kill one of his own men…

"I've made a fool of myself!" Roland thought to himself, glancing at Omske's strange gaze and twitching eyes. He decisively put the Adamantite Dragon Spear back into his spatial storage and vowed never to touch that thing again until he rode a dragon...

"Let's go, Your Highness! They've fled north!" Omsk said, his eyes gleaming with cold light.

"They actually came from the north?" Roland blinked.

“These snow leopard monsters only live in cold regions. It must be that the temperature in the north is dropping as winter approaches, which has attracted this group!” Omsk analyzed.

"They shouldn't be attacking my people!" Roland's eyes were filled with murderous intent.

“Perhaps it’s the scarcity of resources in the North that prevents them from having enough hunting grounds…” Omske guessed. After all, magical beasts have their own hunting grounds, and the barren wastelands of the North naturally don’t have much to fill their stomachs. Large prey are either kept in captivity by humans and dwarves or hunted, so these magical beasts are destined to only be able to gnaw on grass roots and dig up rats…

"But attacking the kingdom's people is unforgivable!" Roland said coldly. Perhaps these magical beasts were not at fault; they were merely hungry. But what about the ordinary civilians? What crime had they committed?
Roland clenched his fist, showing no mercy whatsoever. After all, these magical beasts were not tamed; killing them was no big deal, and he felt no remorse whatsoever! But the deaths and injuries of civilians would truly suffocate Roland, not to mention the severe damage caused this time!

Roland regretted his carelessness while hating the monsters that attacked civilians!
"I'll need to reinforce Delwin's troops when I get back!" Roland thought helplessly. Sure enough, some things can't be skimped on... especially the garrison! If you dare to fool the city, the city will dare to fool you. Roland was fooled... A huge upheaval swept through almost the entire town of Delwin, affecting more than a fifth of the population! If there had been a qualified garrison, the outcome would have been very different.

"Sigh..." Roland sighed helplessly as he followed the knights in pursuit of the culprit monster. He couldn't possibly place all his hopes on others! The centaur was fast enough, but ultimately, they were too late...

"The kingdom doesn't have many troops to allocate to Delwin..." Roland frowned. After all, Delwin was a small place that could only be garrisoned by a small number of elite professionals. The cost-effectiveness of ordinary soldiers was too low, and if something happened, the casualties wouldn't be much better than those of civilians... That's right! I'm talking about you! Swift Infantry! Moreover, Swift Infantry excels in battle formations, which isn't the case here. Lulong Fortress allowed Swift Infantry to operate effectively because of its high walls, but in Delwin... Roland was afraid they wouldn't even be able to properly extend their spears!

"Something's wrong!" Omske suddenly pulled on the reins and stopped.

"What's wrong?" Roland asked curiously as he walked over.

"Looks like we didn't go the wrong way! These are the footprints of an ice leopard!" Omske said, pointing to the messy footprints and hard ice shards on the ground.

"Catch them! Those who killed me, they'd better pay with their lives!" Roland said fiercely.

"As you wish!" Omske nodded and led his team to continue the pursuit.

I have certification exams today and tomorrow, so updates will be inconsistent. Please understand.

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(End of this chapter)