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

Chapter 538 Fierce Battle

"Kill!" The orcs surged forward like a tide, and huge siege towers were pushed by ogres towards Lulong Fortress.

"Fire arrows! Shoot those trolls! Don't let the siege engines get close!" The captains ordered their soldiers to unleash their firepower on the siege engines.

Although the entire Lulong Fortress is over 150 meters high, that is the height of the inner city. The outer city wall is only 50 meters high. Those huge siege engines can easily send the orc soldiers to the outer city wall!

"Fire!" Lafitte Anthony commanded his soldiers to fire at the siege towers below. The sight of those towers, carrying large numbers of soldiers, made Lafitte Anthony's brow furrow instantly.

"Clang!" With a series of metallic clanging sounds, the iron plates covering the orc siege tower actually blocked the heavy crossbow bolts.

"Can the Meteor Dragon Tower attack those things?" Lafit Anthony turned to look at the messenger, because the archers were all distributed in the arrow towers, and the city walls were full of swift infantry and city guards. However, even with nearly 3000 soldiers deployed into the fortress, it still seemed sparse. It was clear that the more than 2700 soldiers were only maintaining the most basic operation of the fortress.

"The general has ordered that the Dragon Tower must not be attacked indiscriminately! Our arrows are limited and cannot be wasted on these orcs!" the messenger said to Lafit Anthony with a frown.

“Damn it! This is really…” Lafitte Anthony looked at the siege towers that were as big as small mountains, his eyes filled with anger.

"Whoosh!" A whooshing sound rang out.

Lafitte Anthony only saw a shadow flash by, and the next second the indestructible siege tower was missing its upper half. After preparation, the catapults of the fortress arrow tower unleashed their fury once again!

"Well done!" Lafitte Anthony waved his arms excitedly; clearly, the powerful rocks were far superior to those crossbow bolts!
"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!" Brilliant streaks of light crisscrossed the sky as the heavy crossbows, which had previously been ineffective, suddenly shot towards the siege tower that had lost its upper half, like sharks that had smelled blood.

The arrows flew erratically in the cramped compartment, and the shattered iron sheets became the culprits that killed them. Soon, the entire siege tower was riddled with holes by the arrows fired from above!
"Agh!" With a shrill scream, the last ogre pushing the siege tower was successfully shot down by the arrow tower. The almost ruined arrow tower quickly came to a stop, and dark purple blood flowed down from the cracks in the rough logs of the siege tower, quickly forming a pool of blood!
"Fire!" Raffit Anthony roared with ecstasy.

……

"The orcs' offensive has been halted, but we're not faring any better!"

“We’re consuming a lot of magic crystals, and our shields only activate city protection, not outwards, which means the orcs will be able to get close to our walls soon!” Renault said anxiously.

"Roar!" The orc's mournful battle cry made Reno increasingly uneasy, and the Ringwraiths standing by and watching made him even more stressed! After all, as long as the Ringwraiths didn't intervene, those Meteorite Towers couldn't be touched lightly! They were currently the only weapons in the entire Lulong Fortress capable of damaging Tier 6 enemies!

"Pay attention to the rotation! Tell the soldiers when they should rest! We need a protracted war!" Renault instructed the messenger. He could imagine how tirelessly the soldiers in the arrow towers would send out their arrows. The fierce battle was a challenge for both humans and orcs!
"Damn it! The orcs almost reached the moat!" Luke Leopold said to Renault, still shaken.

Taking advantage of the orcs' retreat, several leaders coincidentally met with Renault to discuss the matter. The orcs below the city had receded like a tide, leaving behind only piles of dead and wounded corpses and destroyed siege towers. About twenty wooden towers, shorter than the city walls, lay scattered on the ground in various shapes, and they all had one thing in common: they contained a large number of orc corpses...

As it turned out, the seemingly indestructible siege towers that Raffit Antony encountered were entirely accidental. Not every siege tower had thick iron plates. Many of the orcs who were strung together like candied hawthorns said they had a lot to say about the defensive capabilities of these things. However, the most outrageous thing was that the iron plates on the outside of some siege towers would fall off when they were attacked, exposing the wooden tower carts inside. At this time, the heavy crossbowmen of Battanian archers would concentrate their fire on them, and in an instant, the thin-skinned but well-filled siege towers would begin to "splash juice everywhere".

However, Renault said he saw something even more outrageous, such as a siege tower that fell apart while he was walking... which directly crushed and killed a giant trolley pushing a cart behind him.

"Tell the soldiers to take a break! Tell the kitchen staff to prepare hot soup for everyone!" Renault grabbed a messenger and gave the order.

Soon, the aroma filled the city walls. Bowls of thick soup made from smoked jerky were served to everyone, and hard, dry bread was shared among them. This thoroughly dry bread needed to be cut with a knife and then soaked in the soup to soften and become edible. This was Roland's sudden inspiration to create a Middle-earth version of dry rations based on compressed biscuits. The bread, mixed with grains and nut crumbs, was extremely hard, but absolutely filling and nutritious.

After quickly finishing their meal, everyone immediately went to sleep, leaving only a small number of surveillance troops behind. The others took advantage of the daylight to sleep a little longer, since night was the orcs' best camouflage, and they dared not rest like they were now.

……

“Part of the moat has already been filled in!” Renault whispered to the other three. The moat outside Lulong Fortress was built by them later. The ten-meter-wide moat surrounding the city was indeed an insurmountable barrier for those heavy siege weapons. However, the orc troops that had reached the moat today had already filled in a small part of it.

After Renault finished speaking, he looked down and saw that a third of the moat had been filled in by orcs with sand, wood, and even orc corpses!

“We may be facing off in two days at most! Tell the soldiers, I hope you are all prepared!” Renault said bitterly.

“The shields can’t be activated indefinitely. Our current magic crystal reserves are only enough to block the siege engines. The orcs that have reached the top of the city walls are no longer able to be stopped by the shields.” Renault delivered another piece of bad news. Originally, everyone could hide behind the shields and attack the orcs blocked on the city walls from one direction, but now… the soldiers can only learn how to drive the orcs off the city walls.

“I have some here! It should be enough to last three days!” Lafit Anthony suddenly said, and then took out a bag containing magic crystals that jingled.

"Why are you looking at me? As a direct descendant of the Anthony family, how could I lack magic crystals?" Lafit Anthony scratched his head and smiled.

(End of this chapter)