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

Chapter 99 The Occupied Forest
"Gather the knights and heavy cavalry! Have all the Battanian archers who can ride mounts follow!" A cold glint flashed in Roland's eyes. No matter what had happened, since the other side had injured someone, he definitely had to go and demand an explanation.

“We can only arm a maximum of 200 Battanian archers, and we don’t have many warhorses left,” Caslo said after a moment’s calculation.

“Alright, assemble the army! Leave the city to Renault! Oh, and bring a priest! The wounded need their bleeding stopped!” Roland said.

“Yes, sir!” Caslo nodded.

"Boom boom boom..." A full 100 heavy cavalrymen and 200 Battanian archers rode their horses toward the forest where centaurs roamed.

……

"Let's go! Let's regroup the knights first!" Roland urged after leaving Swiftstream City. Although the arrow that pierced their shoulder blades wasn't fatal, the massive blood loss was enough to send them to see the Dragon God.

"Alright! Speed ​​up!" Caslo rode his horse from the front of the column to the back, shouting as he ran.

With Caslo's urging, the entire army's marching speed increased considerably. The crisp sound of hooves instantly broke the tranquility of the wasteland, and the small animals that were originally resting in the snow and grass were frightened and scattered in all directions.

"Something's up!" The Battanian shooter, who was scouting hundreds of meters ahead, spotted the anomaly in the distance thanks to his amazing eyesight.

"What's going on?" Caslo quickly rode over.

"They're our men!" The Battanian archer squinted and carefully examined the group, spotting the knights covering the civilians' retreat. The flowing cloaks behind them were their most distinctive feature.

"Welcome them!" Roland exclaimed with delight.

The massive cavalry force instantly formed a pincer movement, encircling the stumbling column in the distance...

……

"Be on guard! It's the sound of hooves! At least 300 warhorses!" A seasoned cavalry captain suddenly dismounted, pressed his ear to the ground, listened carefully, and then shouted.

"Mount up! Quickly! Ditch all your burdens! Mount up! Young men, take up your weapons! Surround the wounded!" The battle-hardened knights immediately sprang into action. They turned the reins and made their horses circle around the civilians. The advantage of this was obvious: they could take turns blocking arrows coming from all directions, and when the enemy got close, they could charge in at high speed to fight, reducing the need for acceleration.

"His Highness has come to our aid!" When the dragon flag representing Lagrange appeared before everyone, countless people were moved to tears. When they were driven away and attacked, their king personally led his troops to appear.

"Praise be to Your Highness!"

"Long live!"

The simple and honest people of Lagrange knelt on the ground to express their heartfelt respect for their lord.

"What's going on?" Roland approached the leading knight.

"Greetings, Your Highness! It is like this, our troop of knights escorted these people who were picking wild vegetables into this forest, and then we were attacked by arrows! These are the attackers' arrows! They only wounded our men in the shoulder, they did not kill them!" The leading knight greeted Roland and said.

"Are the knights injured?" Roland looked around.

"No, their inferior arrows couldn't penetrate our plate armor, and the armor on our shoulders is thicker anyway," the knight said, pointing to the white spots on his plate armor.

Roland examined the arrow closely. The exquisite shaft rivaled that of elven arrows, and the fletching at the tail, used to stabilize the arrow's flight, was also meticulously applied. However, the most crucial part for killing enemies—the arrowhead—was crafted from carefully polished flint. The smooth, black flint was sharpened to an exceptionally razor-sharp edge. "What's the use of this thing? Besides shooting unarmored units, what else can it do?" Roland tested the sharpness of the arrowhead with his hand, speechless. His people had been attacked by a group of enemies wielding such weapons, though he had confirmed that these attackers were indeed centaurs!

"Why would centaurs come south from the northern wasteland?" Roland asked, puzzled. In his mind, centaurs were a race that lived in the far north. They had their own tribes, the largest of which were comparable to small human kingdoms.

“I don’t know. Centaurs are peace-loving and prefer to live in forests or plains. They have a very strong sense of territory, and it seems they consider this forest their territory,” Caslo said, looking at the bare forest.

"This is really strange! Let's go in and see. They have to give me an explanation, no matter what." A flash of murderous intent crossed Roland's eyes. Harming the people of the Empire without cause is tantamount to declaring war! Although Roland cannot yet restore the glory of the Lagrange Empire, the Empire's banner will not be trampled upon by anyone!

"Are the wounded alright?" Roland asked the accompanying priest with concern.

"His Highness and the others are alright for now. Although they have lost a lot of blood, it is not fatal," the priest said while casting spells to heal the injured.

"That's good. Heavy cavalry escort the priests and civilians away! The rest of you come with me to meet these centaurs and let me see if their bones are harder than those of orcs!" Roland said coldly.

"Yes, Your Highness!" countless people shouted in unison. All the heavy cavalry immediately left the ranks and escorted the huge crowd of civilians away, while the other professional soldiers all moved closer to Roland.

"Let's go! Let's take a look!" Roland spurred his horse and headed into the forest.

"Clang!" A gust of wind swept in, and Roland instinctively raised Eliar in his left hand to shield himself.

The force from the wrist made Roland tremble, and the arrow that had attacked him was shattered on the spot by Eliar.

"You're asking for death!" Caslo roared in fury. How dare someone attack his lord right in front of him? This was utterly dereliction of duty on his part!
A longbow made of dragon bone wood appeared in his hand, and Caslo stretched out his long arms, instantly forming an energy arrow condensed from battle aura...

With a terrifying sonic boom, the long arrow shot out, its terrifying battle aura tearing through the trees along its path before disappearing into the forest in the blink of an eye.

"Damn humans! You've crossed the line!" A roar echoed from the forest, and then, as the shadows of the trees swayed, one human-horse after another emerged from the woods.

“Crossing the line?” Roland sneered.

"This doesn't seem to be centaur territory, does it?" Roland clenched his grip on his sword.

"Damn humans! Why did you hurt my people!" The leading centaur didn't reply but instead questioned Roland.

"Harm your people? Then who shot and wounded my people first?" Roland was so angry that he laughed.

"They were the ones who first set foot on our territory!" the centaur leader declared righteously.

"Your territory? Are you kidding me? This place is less than 20 miles from our city. When did it become your territory?" Roland asked coldly.

“Now that we’ve settled here, and no one else lives here, it’s naturally our territory!” the centaurs declared in unison.

"Heh, this place is very close to my city, so can I assume you're trying to invade my territory?" Roland laughed, a cruel laugh.

"You! Go back and tell Renault to assemble my army! I'll try to wipe out you invaders!" Roland angrily pointed at a Battanian archer. How could anyone be so shameless! Just because no one lives there doesn't mean they can claim it as their own territory?

(End of this chapter)