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

Chapter 926 The Journey Home!

"Human cavalry! How could humans be here?" the orcs roared in terror, their eyes filled with confusion and fear. After all, since the large-scale southward migration of human cavalry from the north, no humans had ventured deep into this land for a long time. They had only wanted to find some food to satisfy their hunger and thirst during the winter, but instead, they were left forever in this wasteland.

……

In the Barbarian Stone Tribe, Chief "King Han" sat crouched on his animal-skin throne (which was really just a leather chair made of stacked stones and wood). He shuddered as he looked at the half-orc before him, his chest caved in and his arm broken. His tribe were survivors of the Battle of Pan-Asia Creek on the northern slopes of the Gray Mountains! They had witnessed the iron cavalry of Lagrang! They recognized the heavy fists of Lagrang's dragon riders! They were the ones whose faces were reddened by the flames of the Great Forbidden Spell! If it weren't for Chief Han Xuyang leading his tribe to escape quickly, they too would have been wiped out by the Lagrang Kingdom! In those years before the Ringwraiths intervened, the regime that was the predecessor of the Lagrang Kingdom possessed terrifying external offensive power!

"Are you sure you didn't mistake that flag?" After a long silence, the King of Han, wrapped in thick animal hides, asked the orc lying below with a hint of caution in his eyes, but no one could answer him! The orc with the sunken chest had long since stopped breathing; it was lucky that it had even managed to return with a breath to deliver the message! Hundreds of other orcs like it had long since fallen in the snow and ice outside, gradually growing cold and stiff…

"Impossible! How could they have gone so far?" Chief Han Wang of the Barbarian Stone Tribe racked his brains but couldn't understand how that flag that terrified him could be flying in this empty wasteland!

What triggered its terrifying memories were precisely the knights of the Fourteenth Legion of the Empire! These elite knights, with the Imperial Dragon Banner tattooed on their chests and carrying aloft a red banner with a golden dragon, reaped every orc they encountered like mowing grass! The Fourteenth Legion, belonging to the royal family, happened to share the same banner as Roland! This led the orc to mistakenly believe that the southern kingdom had invaded the wasteland…

……

"Damn it! These lunatics! Are they out of their minds?" Shaking his blood-soaked longsword, a Wind Rider found his warhorse, which had been overturned and was struggling on the ground, among the corpses of more than ten sitting wolves. He quickly pulled his warhorse out.

"Pfft!" The knight, who had been kneeling on the corpse of a wolf rider, pulled his longsword from its chest and stood up shakily. He looked around and saw that the undulating snow hills were covered with a layer of orc corpses, and the purplish-black snow had melted some of the snow layer!

"Are the brothers all alright?" The knight who appeared to be the captain raised his lance with a corner flag, signaling his target to assemble the troops.

"Still alive!"

"This is too dangerous! Aren't these lunatics afraid of death?"

Listening to his subordinates' complaints, the squad leader looked around the battlefield, littered with corpses, feeling lost and unsure of who should be afraid.

"Go back and report! We encountered a hundred wolf riders! We wiped them out!" The squad leader shook his head, mounted his horse, and made no attempt to hide his pride! Only the most elite knights of the Gale Clan could fight ten men against one and cut through the enemy like vegetables.

"Oh right! Remember to finish them off! Don't leave any alive!" the captain said, as if he had just remembered something.

"Pfft!"

"Pfft!"

The knights methodically and rapidly stabbed the corpses in front of them one by one with their lances.

"Awooo!" A wolf that wasn't quite dead howled and leaped up, trying to pounce on the knight's warhorse. "Thud!" A blur flashed by, followed by the sound of air being cut! A straight lance pierced its head, pinning it to the ground.

"Tsk! Getting more and more cunning! Even the wolf..." The squad leader, who had thrown his lance, shook his head as he walked toward his own lance.

"Whoosh!" A "corpse" suddenly threw off the dead body covering itself and ran in the opposite direction from the knights. It quickly climbed the snow hill, using both its hands and feet, and was about to disappear from everyone's sight and escape...

"Buzz!" A blue flame of battle aura flashed, and the next second the orc who was climbing stood up straight, then lay on the ground and twitched a few times.

"I'm dying of laughter..." This comical scene made the squad leader cover his face with one hand.

"Can you outrun a swift horse but outrun an arrow?" A knight holding a bow twitched at the corner of his mouth. Trying to run away right in front of them? Does he think we don't exist?

It turns out that not all knightly orders are as ill-equipped with archery as the Holy Radiance Knights; the Windrider Knights are one of the few that possess archery expertise! As the orthodox guerrilla knights of the Empire's East, kiting tactics play a significant role in their tactical system! The Windrider family's pillar (not really the pillar, the true face is the Double-Edged Swordsman) is just kidding! A knightly order of unparalleled versatility! Having withstood the test of the Empire's collapse, they still maintain their complete structure! Their prestige is high enough to rank them among all the Empire's knightly orders! Incidentally, they might even crush the knightly orders of certain grand dukes, but of course, this isn't meant to refer to the Grand Duchy of Nyx…

……

"Hiss! We've stumbled into an orc's den? Are they all rats? They'll crawl into any hole they can find!" Grand Duke Okrian Yaso was terrified by the reports from the various scout cavalry. After all, reports of encounters with orcs were coming from all directions, and the scout cavalry had been transformed into a full-scale cavalry force. They looked like scouts, but they were actually the vanguard of a series of guerrilla attacks!

"Is it possible that we've been away from this land for too long and the orcs have already taken root?" the swordsman following Grand Duke Okrian Yasso asked tentatively.

“…Well said! Don’t say that again! Come on, drag him away and behead him!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso twitched his face as he tried to calm himself down amidst his agitation, teasing his soldiers.

"We can't delay any longer! We need to speed things up! I don't want to get bogged down in a human wave war! I used to be the only one who could overwhelm others with sheer numbers! How can we let others overwhelm us?" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso said with a wave of his hand. After all, the Empire's Swift Infantry was a prime example of being cheap, effective, and efficient!

"The problem is that the people behind us aren't moving fast enough, and we don't have enough carriages..." the swordsmen said tactfully.

Even without the soldiers saying it, Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso knew that they didn't lack enough wagons; they simply didn't have any! At that point, rescuing people was already a difficult task, let alone having time to salvage tools.

"Let everyone prepare to depart. They should have rested enough! Don't delay!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso glanced at the sky and finally decided to set off. The people had to move forward, even if they had to support each other. Staying behind would only mean certain death!

"Remember to cut down trees along the way! Collect every piece of wood you see!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso said to his soldiers. The sun was already setting, and if they didn't act soon, tens of thousands of men would soon be plunged into darkness and cold!

"Yes, Your Highness!" The soldiers and knights nodded knowingly. They could go without food, but they absolutely could not go without water or suffer from hypothermia! Those two things could really kill them!

"I hope those orcs don't foolishly throw their lives away! We don't want to fight right now, we just want to go home!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yasso comforted himself.

Happy New Year, everyone! Happy first day of the new year!