Shadow

"Rustle, rustle, rustle..." A sound suddenly came from the distant bushes, and several Bannaria Bows raised their bows.

"Ah! Fire! Death! Murderer!" A figure riding a sled pulled by more than a dozen rabbits burst out.

"Radagast!" Gandalf recognized him and quickly waved for everyone to lower their weapons.

Radagast the Brown Wizard? He should be a high-ranking wizard like Gandalf, right? Roland thought to himself. Since Middle-earth in this world had neither Valar nor Maiar, he truly could not figure out the rank of this Brown Wizard, who had been at the bottom of the original story's hierarchy.

"Everyone, don't be nervous. This is Radagast the Brown Wizard," Gandalf introduced him to the group.

"Radagast, why are you here?" Gandalf asked curiously.

"I've been looking for you. The Greenwood is sick!" Radagast said mysteriously in a lowered voice.

"Hm?" Gandalf looked at him in confusion.

"Uh..." Sure enough, just as Roland knew, poor Radagast had once again forgotten what he wanted to say.

Roland's expression suddenly changed. He immediately turned away and began looking around at the scenery. Sure enough, Radagast opened his mouth and pulled a stick insect from it...

"Bleurgh!" One of the Knights who saw it vomited on the spot.

Even the thick-nerved dwarves had their eyes twitching, while Bilbo's face changed colors, shifting between green and purple.

Roland was glad he had not seen that appetite-destroying scene. Otherwise, his eyes would have been ruined.

"Ha! It's a stick insect!" Radagast finally cried happily.

"Bleurgh!" Several Knights who had barely suppressed their churning stomachs could no longer hold it in.

"The Greenwood is sick. Darkness covers the land, all things have stopped growing, and the air is filled with rot. Worst of all are those webs."

"Webs? What webs?" Gandalf asked in alarm.

"Spiders! Very large ones. I'm certain they are descendants of Ungoliant. I followed them all the way and discovered they came from Dol Guldur!" Radagast said seriously.

"Dol Guldur? The old fortress?" Gandalf asked in surprise.

"That place was abandoned long ago!" Gandalf said.

"No! It wasn't! A Necromancer has taken up residence there..." Radagast began recalling it, his voice full of fear.

"Here, have some Old Toby. It'll help calm your nerves." Gandalf offered him his pipe.

Watching Radagast take a deep puff, Gandalf asked, "Can you confirm that it was a Necromancer?"

Radagast said nothing and instead took a cloth bundle from his robes.

"This is definitely not a weapon from the mortal realm!" he said firmly.

Gandalf opened the cloth bundle with a grim expression, and his face immediately changed. Just as he was about to speak...

"Awooo!"

"What was that? Are there wolves in this forest?" Bilbo asked curiously.

"Damn it! Full alert! They're Wargs!" Roland's expression changed.

"Shing!" Reno drew his longsword.

"Roar!" A powerful figure leaped from the shadows. This Warg was clearly stronger and more muscular than the ones Roland had encountered before.

"Die!" Caslo raised his spear, ready to throw it, but the Badenia Archers who had already been on guard were faster. An arrow instantly pierced the Warg's eye socket.

"Damn it! A Warg scout!" Gandalf's face changed dramatically.

"We're being hunted! The Orc army is nearby!" Roland said in panic.

"Ah!" A knight was knocked down by a Warg, but fortunately, the companion beside him was reliable and cut off the Warg's head with one stroke.

"Get out of the woods!" Roland forced himself to calm down.

"My lord! Which way should we go?" Reno came to Roland's side.

"Gandalf! Take us to Rivendell!" Roland shouted.

"This way!" Gandalf quickly pointed the way.

"Why Rivendell? Do you think those damned elves will help us?" Thorin asked angrily.

"My friend, if you wish to be swallowed by the tide of Orcs, then suit yourself! Durin's Lineage will end today! I will not have Lagrange's Knights buried alongside you!" Roland said coldly.

"If you think thirteen dwarves can fight an Orc army, then suit yourselves! Knights, move out!" Roland turned his horse and charged away.

Thorin should have counted himself lucky. After all, in the original story, they had lost all their ponies. At least now, they still had mounts.

Sure enough, following the principle that a wise man did not fight when the odds were against him, Thorin eventually led his people after them.

"Gandalf! Take them and go! We'll stay behind and cover the retreat! Otherwise, none of us will get away!" Roland shouted.

"Get out of here! All Badenia Archers, listen up! Follow them and leave! Keep them safe!" Roland turned his horse around after speaking.

"Brothers of the Holy Radiance Knight Order, head for the plains!" Roland called as he led the Knights charging toward the plains at their side.

Sure enough, the Orc army was drawn after them and failed to notice the small group slipping away.

"No!" Thorin sat on his horse in agony.

"We have to go back and save them!" Thorin had not yet been affected by Erebor's curse. He was still the dwarf who was fiercely loyal to his friends.

"Come back! They paid a huge price to let us escape! We cannot let them down!" Gandalf stopped his foolish act.

"We should find the elves!" one Badenia Archer spoke up.

"We're very close to Rivendell. There should be elven cavalry and Rangers patrolling nearby!" another Badenia Archer analyzed.

"Yes... We should seek King Elrond's help!" Gandalf's gaze pierced the distance.

"Form up! Battle formation!" Roland stopped his warhorse and let it rest for a moment.

"From here on, you're in command!" Roland said to Reno.

"Yes, my lord!" Reno accepted the task with a worried expression.

"Don't worry. Caslo will support us at any time!" Roland patted his shoulder, looking relaxed.

Once they were out of everyone else's sight, Roland's strongest combat power could finally go all out. A Wyvern Knight was practically an unsolvable threat to the Orc Warg Riders hunting the dwarves.

"You didn't know, did you? Caslo is a Wyvern Knight. You know, the kind with a wyvern." Roland asked Reno, who looked completely dumbfounded.

"Uh... No one really told me..." Reno gave Caslo a long look. Looks could truly be deceiving. This handsome young man had a dragon in his pocket! No wonder Lord Roland had not been worried at all. He had even sent the others away.

"Awooo!"

"Roar!"

A disorderly group of Warg Riders appeared in Roland's field of vision, around two or three hundred of them.

"Holy crap! That's it?" Roland nearly spat.

"Ah... Hahahaha." Reno, who had been tense moments ago, now laughed dryly.

"This..." Caslo covered his face.

They had been scared half to death and fled in a panic, only to find that the Orcs numbered so few. Roland, Reno, and Caslo all covered their faces... This was too damn embarrassing! If anyone heard that an entire Knight Order had been frightened out of the forest and onto the plains by barely three hundred Orc Warg Riders, and had even been ready to call out a wyvern to fight them... Roland glanced around. No outsiders. Good. Otherwise, he might have had to consider silencing witnesses.

"Boys! Get them!" Possessed by the soul of a bandit king, Roland shouted the absurd slogan as he leveled his spear and urged his horse forward.

"Knight Order, charge!" Reno ordered with a red face, activating the charge skill. The warhorses surged forward in neat strides. From above, the hundred Novice Knights, under Reno's command, had somehow executed a difficult wall formation charge.

"Ride forward like a wall!" Reno shouted!

"Boom!" The next moment, that wall of steel slammed heavily into the Orcs.

"Congratulations, Host. You have successfully activated the main quest: Expedition to Erebor! Sign-in function unlocked: You may sign in once per day to receive various random rewards!"

"Damn it! I thought your useless ring was dead! So I only just touched the main quest..." The more Roland thought about it, the more aggrieved he became. He had believed this system merely gave rewards for achievements and thought he had figured out how to use it. Who would have thought someone would tell him he had not even opened the real interface yet...

"Sign in!" Roland signed in for the first time with a dark expression.

"Sign-in successful. Congratulations, Host. You have received Badenia Archers ×90."

"Whoa? System, can I take this as you stockpiling troops for my upcoming Battle of Five Armies?" Roland felt that this system really was a little darling.

Since this Battle of Five Armies had excluded interference from other players—Roland laughed like a pig—the Orc coalition had only thirty thousand troops. The dwarves had five hundred, the elves had three thousand, and there were several hundred humans. Roland was practically the straw that broke the camel's back. No, he was not even straw anymore. He could practically be called sugarcane.

With the Shire Warhorse rewards he had accumulated daily, Roland could fully equip those ninety Badenia Archers and use them as heavy cavalry. Looking at it that way, two hundred fully armed mobile troops, along with an aura Paladin and a Wyvern Knight, could utterly crush the Orcs with the coalition's support.

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