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

Chapter 76 Brutal Hand-to-Hand Combat
"Release!" Iovia commanded, brandishing his scimitar from the city wall. His eyes were bloodshot; he hadn't had a proper rest for two days.

"Your Highness Iovia! The orcs have attacked the West Wall! My king has led the troops to defend it, so I'm leaving this place to you!" Maple Leaf Purple said breathlessly, leaning on the longsword at her waist.

"Don't worry, elves are much more resilient than you think!" Iovia said loudly after glancing at the exhausted Maple Leaf Purple.

"Kill!" The western city wall in the distance was already engulfed in fierce fighting, with the garrison of Los Saint-Nir, clad in iron armor forged by dwarves, pouring a hail of arrows down the wall.

"Ooh ho~" An orc carrying a sack full of dirt was shot through the chest by an armor-piercing arrow. It staggered forward two steps and then threw the sack away, and then fell silent.

"Bang!" A sharp arrow ripped open the orc's skull, sending a spray of warm, swaying white brain matter flying everywhere.

"Ugh~" Through the rain of arrows, an orc's throwing axe spun upwards against the current, piercing directly through the body of a human soldier. The dissipated battle aura tore the ordinary soldier apart in mid-air as he was being sent flying.

"Orc warriors! Their professionals are coming up!" The horrific scene immediately caught White Wing's attention, but the continuous stream of flying axes below made his expression instantly fall.

"Are they treating us like pushovers?" Bai Yi's face darkened immediately.

"Keep firing! Stop the orcs from filling in the moat!" Maple Leaf Purple Sword shouted as it cleaved a flying axe aimed at White Wing.

"Whoosh~" Under Maple Leaf Purple's command, the originally sparse rain of arrows instantly became denser.

"Oh no!" Maple Leaf Purple suddenly discovered that a "path" less than ten meters long had been filled in the moat below the city.

"Suppress them! Don't let them come up!" White Wing also noticed that deadly "path".

"Don't be afraid of sacrifice! Charge forward! Quickly hold off the enemy below!" The orc leader on this side also noticed the fatal gap.

The two sides immediately began a desperate struggle for the protrusion carved out by the orcs with their blood and flesh.

"Damn it! Maple, we have to stop the orcs' offensive!" White Wing roared at Maple Purple Fierce beside him, watching the orcs frantically filling the river around the path they had created.

At this moment, the road slowly widened and lengthened under the pile of orc corpses and sacks... the orc blood dyed the river water dark green.

"Ha!" A sword beam descended from the sky like a bolt of lightning. Maple Leaf watched the orc getting closer and closer and realized that he could no longer suppress the orc's offensive with just his bow and arrows. He decisively jumped down from the city wall to block the orc from the front.

"Flame Slash!" Maple Leaf wielded his longsword, drawing a semi-circle as scorching battle aura erupted, unleashing a flame blade nearly three meters long.

"Knights! Suppress them from the city!" White Wing gritted his teeth as he looked at the outnumbered Maple Leaf Purple and finally sent out his trump card knights.

"Thump!" A series of heavy sounds echoed as the knights of Los Sannier descended from the sky, shields and greatswords in hand.

"For the glory of knights! Kill!" The knight from the grasslands roared. The next moment, the orcs successfully filled in the moat; this twenty-meter-long road was paved with the lives of nearly a thousand orcs…

"Boom!" The knights wielding shields, led by the Maple Leaf Grand Knight, clashed fiercely with the orc vanguard!
There were a total of 54 knights present! White Wing had brought out all the old knights, from the highest-ranking knights to the apprentice knights, and they all formed a square formation and fought bravely against the orcs.

"Swoosh!" After blocking the orc warrior's slash, a knight suddenly thrust out his longsword. The longsword, imbued with wind elemental battle energy, easily pierced through the orc warrior's body, except for a slight hindrance when breaking through the orc warrior's protective battle energy. The raging wind element then shredded the orc's internal organs. The orc, who was of the same level as him, struggled a few times before collapsing limply to the ground.

"Bang!" Through the dented chainmail and the flying figure, it could be seen that the old knight was seriously injured. Even with his protective abilities activated, he was still severely wounded by the orc in front of him.

"Mercy!" Under immense pressure, the knights on the front lines activated their skill—Mercy—to reduce the damage they received.

"Guard!" The trainee knight in the last row quickly cast the Guard skill on the knights in front of him.

"Maintain formation! Don't let the orcs shrink our living space! Listen to my command! Push them out! Shield Bash!" Maple Leaf Purple roared.

"Boom!" A deafening roar echoed through the sky as dozens of shields, amplified by the knights' battle aura, slammed forward. The raging battle energy sent the surrounding orcs flying. Those struck head-on either tore to pieces due to the overwhelming difference in strength or collapsed, bleeding profusely from their heads. In an instant, the orcs' offensive slowed down.

Seeing the countless orcs around them who had been blasted into the water, the knights instinctively huddled together and formed a square formation that combined offense and defense.

"Phew!" After seeing the orcs pushed back down, Bai Yi breathed a long sigh of relief. Just now, he almost thought that the knights' formation was about to be broken through.

……

“The White Wing King is under a lot of pressure!” Peter Gro said to Iovia, who was leaning on his scimitar.

“His forces are too small. The orcs are likely to use him as a breakthrough point. We must be careful! This orc lord in front of us is very cunning! He knows how to deal with elves, and he also knows how to wear down our morale and stamina!” Iovia looked at the orc army that had regrouped in the distance, and for the first time, a look of fear appeared in her eyes.

"As expected of Soren's lackey! You really can't show your skills without some real ability!" Iovia laughed angrily.

“Sir Caslo, get ready. The White Wing King needs your support at any time.” Iovia turned his head and said, with Roland’s dragon knight Caslo standing beside him.

“The king sent me here for this very moment.” Caslo nodded in agreement.

"The tough times are yet to come! The orcs haven't launched their final attack; they're just wearing us down!" Iovia said casually, glancing at the chaotic orc army in the distance.

The orcs have now passed their initial panic. They felled trees to make thick wooden shields, then covered them with mud and poured water on them. In the cold weather, the water froze into ice, instantly giving the wooden shields defensive capabilities comparable to iron shields. As for lifespan? Who cares about that stuff!

"All troops on high alert!" Iovia said painfully, glancing at the elven soldiers who were slumped on the ground, looking at the five orcish phalanxes of a thousand men marching in the distance. His kin were exhausted, but he could not let them rest... The war was not over yet!
"Target two miles away! Launch!" Iovia roared furiously, as a hail of arrows shot into the sky behind her...

(End of this chapter)