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

Chapter 864 Disastrous Failure
"He's still not dead!" Ismir's expression changed drastically as he watched the Cyclops, riddled with bullets, still charging forward with his club.

"Crack! Thud!" Although Ymir was not as tall as the Cyclops, with the help of the Senate Guard's Blood Mist Village Set, she used her serpentine greatsword to cleave the Cyclops' weapon in half and dismember it.

"Roar!" The half-giant's roar was no weaker than the Cyclops's. To everyone's horror, Ymir collided heavily with the Cyclops!
"Boom!" Amidst the flying dust, the Cyclops was sent flying backward, while the more robust Ymir staggered back two steps.

"Awooo!" A stone axe roared down toward Ymir's head. Just as Ymir's head was about to explode, a clump of winding vines rose up from the ground and wrapped around its arm. In the distance, Ismir held up his withered wooden staff, his face turning red.

“Ymir!” Ismir roared.

"Pfft!" Black and red blood splattered as Ymir's greatsword easily severed the Cyclops's head, the millstone-sized bald head rolling around.

"Defend!" Hundreds of nature guardians raised their shields, and in an instant, a bright green halo converged into a curved wall of light that blocked the soldiers' path.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The giant catcher's slingshot hurled stones the size of human heads at the crowd.

"Hmph!" Soldiers groaned repeatedly as the stones struck their shields, causing their battle energy to drain rapidly, and many soldiers' legs began to go weak.

"Fire!" Ismir shouted anxiously, the crossbows behind him being their only source of heavy firepower.

"Pfft! Pfft!" Putting aside accuracy, most of the Cyclopes hit by the crossbow bolts only swayed for a moment before continuing their charge.

"Bang!" The Cyclops, who had just raised his club to bring it down on the Guardians of Nature's defensive skills, was tripped and fell to the ground. It turned out that Ismir had created a large number of vines and pits as obstacles to delay the Cyclops' movement. Unexpectedly, this move worked in the right direction. A group of Cyclops fell flat on their backs. The Cyclops that rushed in first were either killed by Ymir or tripped and fell to the ground.

"Kill!" These nature guardians would not let go of the opportunity to beat a drowning dog, and they swung their longswords at the Cyclops's head.

"Agh!" The sharp sword pierced directly into their large eyes, and blood mixed with eye fluid flowed all over the ground. The blind giants rolled around frantically.

A muffled thud sounded beside Ismir. He turned his head and saw something flying in the sky.
Then Ismir saw a Cyclops still in a striking position and immediately realized that a Nature Guardian had been sent flying! Truly sent flying!

"Kill!" Ismir roared, his eyes bloodshot.

"Crack!"

"Bang!" Several nature guardians were scattered and flew out. The battle aura shields released by their defensive skills were no match for the powerful club!
"Help our teammates! Retreat!" Ismir said with difficulty. Several Cyclopes had almost broken through their defenses, which made Ismir very bitter. He had no choice but to order his soldiers to lead the wounded to retreat.

"Go! Ymir!" Ismir's face flushed red. At his command, a large number of vines sprang up and quickly wrapped around the Cyclops's ankles, slowing their movement. "Damn it! These lunatics! They're so hard to kill!" Ismir watched with lingering fear as his subordinates dragged the wounded away, while Ymir and the other uninjured soldiers continued to fight and retreat in formation.

With a loud thud, a figure was sent flying by the Cyclops hunter's stone, collapsing limply to the ground. His chainmail had failed to protect him.

"Damn it!" Ismir rushed over, channeling his life force into the man's body while using his only healing magic.

"Stop fighting! Retreat! Retreat!" Ismir shouted hoarsely. Having misjudged the strength of the Cyclops, Ismir was now on the verge of tears. The powerful Cyclops became unstoppable due to their sheer numbers, and Ismir and his fellow professional soldiers simply could not hold them off in open field battles.

"Roar!" A sharp roar came from the sky as dragon riders swooped down. Their support allowed the Ismir tribe, who were on the verge of death, to escape. The pressure from the dragons forced the cyclops back into the dense forest.

……

"Damn it! Bastards!" Ismir slammed his fist on the table in fury. The deaths of dozens of people were excruciating for him. He had never suffered such a loss since the start of the expedition, and what pained him even more was that these were all professionals! Although he possessed the Heart of Nature, allowing him to awaken the Nature Guardian swordsman class in batches, it didn't mean he could squander it recklessly! More than ten people had died on the spot today alone! This was practically the death knell for Ismir!
"Never mind, victory and defeat are common occurrences in war..." Ymir comforted him.

"It's all my fault! I underestimated them!" Ismir said regretfully. He thought there would only be a handful of Cyclopes at most, but dozens of huge guys actually emerged, which really taught Ismir a lesson.

“We’ve killed at least ten Cyclopes today, so it’s not a loss!” Ymir could only advise.

"What a huge loss! How can those scum be compared to the citizens of the Empire?" Ismir said in anguish.

"..." Ymir did not refute this statement, after all, in Ymir's mind, the people of the empire were definitely more valuable than these scoundrels.

"I should have let the wyvern riders cover us with fire first!" Ismir sighed. He had specially invited a small squad of wyvern riders as support, but he didn't expect it to backfire so badly! And the failure caught him completely off guard.

"How come those things haven't gone extinct yet? I remember cyclops were solitary creatures, how come they've become gregarious?" Ismir complained. It's really not easy to gather dozens of these rare creatures like cyclops! You have to know that these guys are actually solitary animals, so you can imagine how terrifying the entire Mirkwood must be for them to live together like this!
“The records say they are solitary creatures!” Ymir scratched his head, completely puzzled. In fact, the fact that these Cyclopes could gather together was also closely related to them. Ever since the several major battles surrounding Dolgoth broke out, the entire Mirkwood was in turmoil. Faced with various powerful enemies, these Cyclopes could only gather together to protect themselves. The reason they appeared here was simply because it was easier to plunder Windhelm, which was under Ismir's rule, than to plunder other magical beasts…

"We need to find a way to drive them away or kill them all! Otherwise, our residents won't be able to leave their homes! Luckily it's winter now! If it were spring planting..." Ismir was disgusted to death. It was only in winter that Ismir had the mind to fight with them. As a result, this fight caused Ismir to have a huge bowel movement, and he almost lost his underwear!

"Is it possible that they attacked us precisely because it's winter?" Ymir asked, raising her eyelids somewhat awkwardly.

"Damn it! They're attacking my grain?" Ismir looked into Ymir's eyes and immediately realized what was happening.