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

Chapter 85 Thranduil Arrives Late

"Slurp!" Roland immediately swallowed hard. This was a huge windfall. One hundred Battanian archers plus one hundred heavy cavalrymen would give Roland a significant advantage. As long as the Swift Infantry didn't suffer particularly heavy casualties, Roland wouldn't lose too much this time.

"Arial?" Roland took out the legendary divine shield from his system space and began to examine it with curiosity.

This shield is one meter long and half a meter wide. It is a very standard kite-shaped cross shield, made entirely of holy dragonblood steel. Holy magic runes are engraved on the golden shield surface. Roland recognized the shield's attributes at a glance.

"So it really is paladin equipment?" Roland pondered. He noticed that almost all the knights' artifact equipment was designed for paladins or black knights, with the remainder being dragon knights. Very few ordinary knights could fully activate any of the artifacts.

"Luckily, I'm a paladin, so I can still use this shield. Otherwise, it would have just gone to Renault." Roland thought to himself with satisfaction.

After his mental energy entered the shield, Roland skillfully formed a contract. At the same time, Eliar's information also entered Roland's mind. This shield was actually made in Turin! Roland was surprised and then overjoyed after checking the shield's abilities.

This shield comes with three skills, each of which is an absolute powerhouse!

First Skill: Immortal Eliar! Can be cast once per day. Units under the command of the Shieldbearer will gain 5 seconds of intangibility. During intangibility, they are immune to all damage, control effects, and attacks!

Second skill: Spirit of Fearlessness! Can be cast once a day. Allies within a 500-meter radius of the shield bearer will be protected by the Spirit of Fearlessness and will not be affected by negative status effects for 10 minutes!

Third Skill: One Against a Thousand! Activate the Soul of Eliar to summon projection clones of your own battle aura to fight. Each projection clone possesses one-thousandth of the original's combat power. The number of projection clones summoned depends on the amount of battle aura injected, with a maximum of one thousand! (Paladin class exclusive!)
"Awesome!" That was all Roland could say. The first skill gave Roland's army the confidence to withstand a burst of forbidden spells. The second skill could effectively prevent the enemy from inflicting negative status effects on his own side, meaning that Roland's army would not experience a drop in morale during this period! And it ignored negative status effects! The third skill was a god-tier skill for crushing weaker opponents. Once Roland himself was strong enough, he was an army all by himself. However, although this skill could be used infinitely, the consumption of battle qi was a big problem. After all, this skill consumed a lot of battle qi. According to Roland's current total amount of battle qi, he would need to consume several mana potions to maintain a hundred clones.

“Your Highness…” Lance walked over with a grim expression.

"What's wrong..." Roland suddenly had a bad feeling.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness, I have failed your trust... The Swiftflow Legion is already crippled..." Lance said with shame.

"Tell me the details!" Roland immediately stopped smiling. He already had a premonition and just hoped that this time he wouldn't end up losing money.

"Five hundred and sixty-three men were killed... seven hundred and ninety-six were wounded, some seriously and some lightly. The good news is that these soldiers can return to the battlefield thanks to Pastor Ivy's treatment..." Lance sighed, his grief barely concealed...

"How could this be..." Roland's heart sank. Although Roland knew that the Swift Infantry would suffer casualties after meeting the orc army head-on with their inferior strength, he never expected the casualties to be so heavy. This was no longer just a matter of not making ends meet, but a serious injury!
"Sigh..." Roland sighed deeply. Well, at least Swiftstream City was saved, which was the result Roland had expected. Although the casualties among the infantry made Roland's heart clench, he understood that all of this was a necessary price to pay on the road to growth.

"Take good care of the wounded, make sure they don't die from lack of timely treatment, and organize people to collect the remains of our soldiers." After Roland finished speaking, he ran towards the Swift Infantry's camp. As a paladin, he could also act as a priest.

"Renault! Come and save them!" Roland's voice drifted back even after he had ridden away. ...

"What? All the sentries in our outposts have disappeared?" Thranduil listened to the report from the elven assassin.

After being cut off from the outposts for an extended period, even the slow-witted elves realized something was wrong, and sure enough, the assassins who went out to investigate discovered the anomaly.

"Damn it! This is bad! Assemble the army! We're heading to Lonely Mountain! No! Send the Moon Deer cavalry to scout ahead first, then our main force will follow!" Thranduil's expression changed as he suddenly realized something.

……

"Thank you for your help. You gave us the glimmer of hope in the end!" Iovia greeted Roland with the highest level of respect.

"Thank you for coming to our aid when we needed you most. I am deeply sorry for the sacrifices made by your men..." Bai Yi also walked over, his body exhausted.

"I was just keeping my promise, it's what I should do. As for Peter Gro, if it weren't for the forbidden spell he and his dragon cast, we would have been helpless even if we had come." Roland waved his hand. He knew his own people best. If he were to face a full-strength orc army, Roland would have to think about how he could possibly come back alive.

"By the Dragon God!" exclaimed the knight beside him. It wasn't until the war ended and everyone had some free time that they realized just how much destruction the Dragon Star Meteor had caused!
A giant crater, nearly 5 kilometers in diameter and 100 meters deep, appeared next to the city of Los Saint-Neil. The edge of the crater was less than 100 meters from the city. More than half of the city wall near the crater had melted away. The water from the moat outside Los Saint-Neil was trickling into the crater through cracks in the ground. This is how the landmark of Los Saint-Neil, Dragon Star Lake, was born in such a muddled way!
……

"Thranduil! You owe me an explanation!" Iovia gripped the hilt of her sword tightly, staring intently at Thranduil, the Woodland Elf King, before her. The two Elf Kings stood face to face, their powerful auras clashing. Roland watched in stunned silence, realizing that such imposing presence could indeed be so strong as to kill an enemy.

"King of the Woodlands, I also need an explanation!" Roland stepped forward. The allied elves had signed an agreement back then. Although the Kingdom of Akvia did not sign, the Kingdom of Lagrange did! Now Thranduil was letting the orc army march straight in. This was not just breaking the alliance, it was practically starting to put on a show.

"I'm sorry... it was an accident." Thranduil finally backed down. Even someone as proud as him knew he was in the wrong. After all, it was his fault that the Gangbada army had marched straight into his territory. If the allied forces hadn't had more trump cards, Los Sannier and Swiftstream would have been completely overrun. However, the allied forces also paid a heavy price. Peter Gro and his dragons were unable to participate in the war. Roland's Swiftstream Legion, composed of 1500 Swiftstream Infantry, could only muster 600 men to form two formations. However, Roland recruited 100 heavy cavalry and 200 Battanian archers he had just summoned, plus the original Holy Light Knights, bringing Roland's cavalry force to 400 men!
"Because of your accident, we have suffered heavy losses! Irubor is still under siege!" Roland said irritably.

"Our army will lead the vanguard in this battle!" Thranduil said apologetically.

"Hopefully, the war won't have any more twists and turns!" Iovia said with a headache. Although Polge and the remaining orcs were not a threat, if they were allowed to return to the mountains, there would still be great hidden dangers in the future. So, it was best to nip them in the bud. Iovia was unwilling to give the orcs a chance to make a comeback.

“Yes, it’s time to deal with the orcs in the north.” Roland nodded in deep agreement. He was about to embark on a long period of farming, and he didn’t want to be constantly targeted by the orcs.

Thank you to reader "Flower Falls Without Mercy" for the monthly ticket. Gan Xia is here to ask for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets.

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(End of this chapter)