"Today... perhaps none of us will survive, but history will remember you and me! We have upheld our honor and faith!" Roland looked at every citizen of Lagrange.
"Perhaps! Lagrange's banner will eventually fall! Perhaps! The empire can never rise again! Perhaps! People will forget your names and mine! But today, I hope you will charge with me! Charge with me into hell! Into death! Into the end of the world!" Roland roared.
"For the glory of the empire! Kill!" Roland raised the Dragon-slaying Sword high, and the crowd immediately erupted.
"Sound the War Dragon Horn! Tell those scum below... the Emperor of Lagrange has arrived!" Roland lightly turned his head toward Caslo.
"Yes!" Caslo bowed respectfully and pulled a War Dragon Horn from his chest. This was a rare item Roland had received from signing in, capable of greatly boosting his subordinates' morale. After obtaining it, Roland had casually tossed it to Caslo.
"Wooo..." Unlike the crisp sound of Elven horns or the soaring notes of Dwarven horns, a deeply penetrating bass note swept across the entire battlefield. Even Azog on Ravenhill narrowed his eyes.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Heavy footsteps and low horn calls echoed across the battlefield.
To the east, beneath the sunlight, a blinding radiance flashed. Figures appeared atop the hill in the sunlight, and an enormous Red Flag with Golden Dragon fluttered in the wind...
"Hm? Who are they?" Azog asked in confusion.
"That is... Lord Roland of Lagrange?" Bard, who had been desperately holding a watchtower, immediately recognized the highly distinctive banner in the distance.
"Oh! It's Mr. Roland!" Bilbo recognized the dragon banner as well.
"There is still hope for this battle. The mysterious lord has finally arrived with his army..." Gandalf smiled, clearly having foreseen something earlier. Now, he was merely certain.
"Roland! They're alive!" The Dwarves atop Erebor excitedly waved toward the east.
"Who are they?" Thranduil looked at the unfamiliar banner.
"Aha! Children! Reinforcements have arrived!" Dain Ironfoot roared as he watched the moving forest of steel.
"Here we are..." Reno suddenly began to sing softly.
Roland, riding atop his warhorse, froze. Only then did he remember that, back in the day, the Ring System Game's developers had purchased the rights to "Star Sky" as Lagrange's battle anthem in tribute to the entire Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series. From then on, this song had accompanied Lagrange's soldiers into battle...
"Riding the sky, painting the night with sun..." The Knights beside him slowly joined in.
The warhorses beneath them began to move in time with the song. Their hoofbeats gradually grew lighter, until, led by Roland and Reno, one hundred Lagrange Knights broke into a wild gallop. Holy auras enveloped them. The holy auras released jointly by the two Holy Knights covered the entire Knight Order, while they also waved their hands and bestowed Divine Inspiration upon the Swift River Infantry and Bannaria Archers.
Gradually... as the distance between the Knight Order and the others widened, the Bannaria Archers riding behind them came into view. Mounted on fully armored Shire Horses, the archers held mithril bows in hand, their bright eyes fixed tightly on the Knights' rear. Amid the battle anthem, the Bannaria Archers rode around to both flanks, finally revealing the Swift River Infantry arranged in Swift River formation. Thirty men stood in each rank and ten in each file. Accompanied by the archers, they held their shields and leveled their Anti-cavalry Pikes as they charged down the mountain.
Before countless terrified eyes, a Dragon's Roar tore through the sky, even drowning out the impassioned singing on the battlefield... Wyvern Knight Caslo had arrived!
"A dragon! No! A wyvern!" Thranduil stared in surprise at the wyvern with a Dragon Saddle strapped to its back.
Roar! Sharp Storm Blades were spat out by the wind dragon. The twisted mass of Wind Element erupted the moment it struck the ground, carving a bloody path dozens of meters long across the earth.
"Kill!" Amid a rain of arrows, the Knight Order led by Roland slammed fiercely into the Orcs' flank in a wall charge. Their hastily assembled line was crushed by the Knights' lances with devastating force. At least two hundred Orc corpses hung from the 102 lances.
Iron Hooves trampled without restraint. The Orcs wailed as they became the dead beneath the Knight Order's edge. Blood, organs, shredded flesh... coated the Knights' helmets. Looking through his visor, Roland felt as if the whole world had turned red. Yet the Knight Order continued charging madly under the momentum of their mounts... Some Knights still had nearly ten twitching Orc corpses impaled on their lances. Without a care, they discarded the heavy lances, drew Longswords from their waists, and held them before themselves. The Knight Order kept charging...
Boom! With an explosive crash, Caslo dove from the sky with his dragon lance in hand. Battle Qi compressed into a sharp edge at its tip as he struck toward a group of shield-bearing Orcs below. The terrifying wind-attributed dragon Battle Qi instantly blew apart that "turtle shell." Freed from restraint, the Wind Element ravaged the Orcs' bodies, grinding apart flesh and bone, tearing through Iron Armor and shields...
"No!" Azog, witnessing it all from Ravenhill, roared in fury. The Dwarves, who had been pushed to the brink, regrouped with the help of this suddenly appearing army and stabilized their position once more.
In the sky, Caslo continued to dive from time to time, delivering Wind Blades and dragon lances filled with the blessings of the Lagrangeans to his Orc friends below.
Obscure draconic words rang out, and the wandering Wind Elements around them gathered toward the dragon beneath Caslo...
"Get down! Draconic Magic!" Thranduil, directly below Caslo, recognized the familiar sight and hurriedly shouted at everyone.
The humans and Elves who heard Thranduil's warning rushed into the buildings. The next moment, the four-legged wind dragon flapped its wings and unleashed a massive tornado. This strange azure tornado was Storm Dragon Tornado, the most powerful of the few simple Draconic Magic spells Caslo's dragon had mastered! Guided by the dragon's will, the tornado swept sideways along River Valley City's walls, dragging countless Orcs into its vortex. The tornado was essentially formed from countless rapidly spinning Wind Blades and wandering Wind Elements. The Orcs caught within were torn to pieces. By the time the tornado dispersed, the once-azure vortex had turned blood-red... Countless chunks of flesh fell from the sky with it.
By then, Roland and the Knight Order had already punched through the Orc army attacking the Dwarves. The entire Orc force had been pierced from left to right, with at least a thousand Orcs dying beneath their Iron Hooves. The price paid by the whole Knight Order was less than a quarter of their Battle Qi.
"Turn around! Charge again!" Roland shouted at the Orcs surging toward them like a tide once more.
"Burn the page for me, I cannot erase the time of sleep, I cannot be loved so set me free, I cannot deliver you your love..." Accompanied by the impassioned battle anthem, the Swift River Infantry slammed hard into the Orc army. For a time, screaming Orcs were everywhere. After the front-line Swift River Infantry thrust their Anti-cavalry Pikes forward viciously, every withdrawal brought a spray of foul black blood. They sang the battle anthem passionately, stepping over the dying Orcs on the ground as they advanced. They surged like a swift river! They feared nothing! They were unstoppable!
The Bannaria Archers protected the fragile Temple Priest, Ivy, lingering behind the Swift River Infantry. All they needed to do was clear out the Orcs swarming their flanks. With precise archery and an astonishing rate of fire, they actually managed to suppress the Orcs on both sides.
The Holy Radiance Knight Order, charging back once more, met the Swift River formation pouring forward like a rushing river. After Roland cut down several Orcs with his sword, he issued orders to the Swift River Infantry.
"Get to River Valley City quickly!" Roland said coldly.
"Yes!" The Swift River Infantry rushed through the gap opened by the Knight Order before the Orcs could surround them again, heading straight for River Valley City.
Roland had thought this through carefully. With the Knight Order's mobile harassment, the Bannaria Archers' mounted hit-and-run attacks, and the Wyvern Knight controlling the skies, they could quickly stabilize the Dwarves' side. After all, what the Dwarves lacked were damage-dealing units, not frontline meat shields. But the human-Elven allied army in River Valley City was different. Roland had seen large numbers of Elf Ranger corpses. Once Elven archers were engaged in close combat by the thick-skinned Orcs, it was practically a disaster... The Swift River Infantry could effectively make up for the Elves' lack of melee units.
Rumble, rumble, rumble~ The sound of a stampede came from the direction of Ravenhill.
"My lord! Orc reinforcements have arrived! At least twenty thousand!" Caslo, flying high enough to see far into the distance, swiftly passed Roland. After briefly leaving those words behind, he pulled on the Dragon Saddle and flew toward Ravenhill.
Roar! Amid an enraged Dragon's Roar, Caslo rode his wyvern into battle against the War Bats of Gundabad.
"Brothers! Form up! Stop them!" Watching the Orcs pour down like a flood, the Swift River Infantry changed direction. They would use mortal bodies to prevent the Orc armies from joining forces...
Bang! The massive stone wall was smashed open by the golden bell, and the King Under the Mountain finally broke free of the evil dragon's curse.
"Kill!" Thorin Oakenshield charged out at the front, with the other Dwarves close behind.
"Hey! Brother, I've been waiting for you forever! Where the hell have you been?" Dain Ironfoot hurried over and happily embraced Thorin.
Second update. Brothers, send those recommendation votes! An army will soon take its final bow, so look forward to it.
Before you continue