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

Chapter 66 The Bloodstained Scimitar
"After a barrel of dragon blood can be refined into a maximum of 10 crossbows, the energy in the dragon blood will be exhausted." Radil said to Roland, holding a crossbow that looked like a spear. The crossbow in his hand was wrapped with burning blood-red patterns like veins, which made people shudder. This was the manifestation of its enchanted weapon.

"So how was the result?" Roland asked, after all, something that cost so much to produce should at least be worth the price.

"The effect is quite good! It's imbued with tearing magic, burning magic, and piercing magic!" Radil stroked his beard and laughed.

“Tear magic can effectively tear apart any object it hits, whether it's a living creature or a building. Burning magic will magically ignite the object it hits, which is fatal to siege equipment. Penetrating magic can effectively break through the defenses of an object, mainly targeting high-level enemy heavy armor units. In general, even fourth-tier heavy armor professionals don't want to be hit by it head-on,” Radil explained to Roland.

"Not bad, not bad!" Roland nodded in satisfaction. Although he had played with this heavy city defense crossbow before when he was a lord in the game, he had never really understood this defensive device. This time, Roland was truly amazed. He never expected that this thing would be so powerful when paired with an enchanted crossbow.

"How about this, let's make 100?" Roland said, somewhat reluctantly.

"Sigh, what a waste!" Radil sighed as well. After all, it was pure dragon blood. Such simple processing would make a real alchemist so angry that he would vomit blood.

……

Woodland Kingdom, Western Frontier...

"Honestly, they have to come out on patrol even in winter..." A group of elves patrolling the border were chatting and complaining.

"In this weather... there aren't even ghosts. How could orcs possibly come out and attack the kingdom through the heavy snow?"

"I really don't understand why we should care about the lives of those greedy dwarves!"

A group of elves braved the swirling snowflakes to patrol the edge of the forest. Beyond the forest lay the perilous Misty Mountains. This group of elves were the guards of the furthest outpost in the Woodland Kingdom.

"Even the Forest River is frozen!" The elves shuddered as they looked at the frozen Forest River.

"Cheer up, everyone. After one more lap, we'll go back and have some fruit wine to warm up." The elf ranger leading the group straightened his crooked scimitar and walked at the front.

"This snow is really heavy!" The group prepared to return home, trudging through knee-deep snow.

What they didn't know was that the heavy snow could not only stop predators but also conceal their movements...

"Roar!" A roar suddenly erupted as a snowdrift beside the bushes burst open, the surging battle energy melting the snow into water droplets that rained down. A battle axe gleaming with cold light shot out, spinning and piercing an elf's chest, sending him flying and tearing him apart in mid-air!

The splattered blood startled the elves beside them, but before they could react, the next second, more snowdrifts exploded, and a series of flying axes hurtled towards them with a sharp whistling sound...

"Enemy attack!" The leading elven ranger finally reacted, shouting in terror as he instinctively drew his curved sword from his waist.

"Agh!" A hexagonal warhammer came hurtling towards him, striking his fragile body with a sickening cracking sound.

"Clang!" The exquisite scimitar forged by the elves was ultimately not drawn by its master.

A trickle of blood flowed slowly down the hilt of the sword, eventually settling on the half-drawn blade… “Order the main force to advance!” The one wielding the warhammer was none other than Polger, a 5th-tier warrior!
"The rest of you, follow me and pull out these nails along the way!" Polger waved his hand, and more than a dozen third-tier orc berserkers behind him gathered around. It was they who had ambushed the elven patrol in the icy wilderness and delivered the fatal blow.

A fifth-tier warrior leading more than ten third-tier berserkers could easily defeat an elven patrol whose highest rank was only second-tier. The elven patrol, consisting of 12 people, could not withstand their slaughter...

Thranduil never dreamed that his outposts and patrols left on the border would be wiped out in a sneak attack by the Orcs.

……

"How is the situation?" Iovia asked.

“Your Highness, the situation is very bad. The southern part of the Dark Forest has been occupied by orcs. Our rangers will be discovered by the patrolling wolf riders soon after they enter to investigate…” The elf did not speak further. What he implied was that it was not worth sacrificing the already sparse Star Elf race for this intelligence.

“Well, in that case, let’s not investigate too deeply in the future.” Iovia nodded. He supported the spies’ decision. The Star Elves didn’t need to sacrifice their already small population for this kind of intelligence.

"The war is already a foregone conclusion..." Iovia sighed and dismissed the soldiers in front of her. So what if they knew the orcs were gathering or marching? Did the allied forces have the ability to stop them?

Iovia rubbed her throbbing temples and began to study the defense plans of Los Sannier again.

"Sigh... I hope the orcs will give us more time!" Whitewing sighed and turned to leave as he watched the elven ranger emerge from Iovia's room.

……

"Where are Dan and the others?" Thorin asked, staring at Phil in front of him.

“They still have a few days’ journey ahead of them. They are carrying a lot of supplies. Qili is with them. I came back ahead of time to inform you and to let you know to send someone to meet them,” Philip reported.

"This is wonderful!" Thorin breathed a sigh of relief. The orc army, hundreds of miles away, was pressing down on the dwarves in Irubor, making it hard for them to breathe.

"It's a pity that most of our people haven't returned yet, otherwise I would have led the valiant dwarf army to cut off the heads of those northern orcs!" Thorin complained to his nephew Fili while sitting on the throne.

“Uncle, I heard that King Roland has defeated an orc army. Does that mean there are no more orc threats in the south?” Philip asked.

“How could that be! Roland and his men defeated the Wasteland Orcs. The well-equipped Togolden Orcs are still hiding in the dark forest, ready to deliver a fatal blow at any moment! They can’t help us much in this battle.” Thorin smiled at his nephew and explained the problems Roland and his men were facing.

"Sigh... Are elves really reliable?" Phil couldn't help but think of the elf who had refused to help Ilbo back then.

"I never had any hope for them." Thorin snorted coldly. Although he had been forced to fight alongside the elves during the War of the Five Armies, Thorin still harbored resentment in his heart.

"Hopefully they'll be reliable this time." After all, the elves are one of the few reinforcements on the northern battlefield, and Fili can only hope that the elves won't play it safe this time.

(End of this chapter)