Defending the City

"Did you hear that?"

"I did. There are Wargs, and noisy Orcs too."

The breeze carried the clamor echoing across the wilderness.

Yet inside the city walls, all was silent.

To be honest, despite all his preparations, Li Wei was still somewhat uneasy.

Unlike the Ranger beside him, Li Wei had not seen much of the world. Knowing that an Orc cavalry force was charging toward them made him nervous.

A hundred Orcs and several dozen cavalrymen did not sound like much, but they were more than enough to surround and completely trap just two people.

Looking at the five stacks of Iron Blocks in his inventory, Li Wei regretted not buying some pumpkins back in Bree. Then he could have tried to see whether he could summon an Iron Golem.

"Roar—!"

A beast's roar rang out, startling Li Wei into looking up.

"They're here," Falrodan said.

The two hid behind the cover atop the walls, staring intently in the direction of the sound.

Rustle, rustle.

"Kill!"

The noise gradually drew closer. A patch of shadows burst from the trees and emerged beneath the moonlight. Several dozen Wargs charged ahead in a line, Orcs atop them brandishing weapons as they raced straight for the city wall. They looked menacing, and were no slower than horses.

Once the enemy drew close enough, Falrodan took up the bow he carried and drew an arrow.

Whoosh—

One arrow struck the foremost Warg with perfect accuracy. The beast died on the spot, and the Orc riding it tumbled off, landing face-first in the mud.

Another arrow pierced an Orc's head, sending it straight to the ground, where it lay still.

Under Falrodan's precise shooting, by the time the cavalry squad reached the city wall, three Wargs had lost their riders and two had died outright. Yet the remaining cavalry showed no fear. Instead, the scent of blood stirred their savagery. Seeing that there were only two people on the wall made them even fiercer, and several Orcs even laughed aloud.

Of course, even if only two people were defending the city, the smooth stone wall over ten meters high was not something they could scale in an instant. The Warg riders at the front quickly met with frustration. After trying repeatedly and failing to climb up, they could only retreat and reform their ranks.

"Damn it, the intelligence was wrong! Which blind fool said Wargs could jump straight over it?!"

"The last time I saw this wall, it was only half this tall!"

The Orc scout in the group hurriedly explained.

"You useless trash!"

After being stymied by the wall, the Orc squad immediately turned to their traditional specialty: infighting.

Falrodan tried to keep firing, but the Orcs had become wary. They had long been watching for attacks from above, and several archers shot at Falrodan's position, forcing him to retreat behind the wall and use the arrow slits prepared beforehand to launch sneak attacks.

But after only a few more cavalrymen fell, those arrow slits were discovered as well and quickly became useless.

Li Wei quietly peered outside and saw that the entire squad had gathered beneath the city wall.

At that point, both offense and defense had reached a stalemate. The attackers could not break through, while the defenders did not have enough firepower to inflict meaningful damage.

The Orcs outside the wall had no choice but to jeer and curse. However, their insults did not shake Li Wei in the slightest. After listening for a while, he even felt that the Orcs were rather talented. They had quite a flair for insults, firing off one crude line after another, using all manner of sentences, rhetorical devices, and metaphors.

Still, compared to the flamboyant internet veterans Li Wei remembered, whose every sentence was poetry and every line a devastating blow, the Orcs' vocabulary was far too limited.

"You bunch of scum!"

As they cursed, an angry roar suddenly came from behind them.

A burly Orc over three meters tall, wielding a massive axe, arrived before the wall with the main force. He casually shoved aside the cavalry blocking his way. His strength was so great that he knocked over a Warg and its rider with a single push.

"Aha, look what I found—garbage that only knows how to hide behind walls. Little bugs!"

Yet the first thing this Orc leader did upon arriving was point at the wall and curse.

"Cowards! Chickenshits!"

"Cowards! Chickenshits!" the Orcs behind him echoed.

In an ordinary siege, failing to organize a response at a time like this would surely hurt morale.

But Li Wei's side only had two people. You had a hundred men attacking the two of them, and you were calling them cowards...?

Come fight us one-on-one, then!

Li Wei could not help complaining inwardly.

But the Orc leader did not care what they thought. After casually blocking a sneak arrow with his axe, he roared toward the rear, "Bring it up!"

Thud!

Amid the uproar, several Orcs laboriously carried over a huge wooden ram thicker than their bodies. Yet the brawny Orc leader, over three meters tall, lifted it with just one hand.

Then he swung it hard at the city gate.

Thud!

The first strike cracked the wooden gate.

Thud!

The second strike bent the gate out of shape. It looked ready to collapse at any moment.

Cheers had already erupted outside the city wall, as they prepared to rush in all at once to kill, loot, and seize the castle.

Yet Li Wei remained calm.

Thud!

On the third strike, the small gate made of wooden fencing and wooden doors shattered completely. But just as the Orcs prepared to swarm inside, they froze in disbelief.

Behind the wooden gate stood a stone wall three meters thick.

Smoke practically poured from the Orc leader's nostrils as he glared furiously at the two people hiding atop the wall.

"Want to come in? No chance!" Li Wei poked his head out and shouted. Seven or eight arrows immediately flew his way, scaring him into ducking back down.

Seeing that their intelligence had been wrong, that they could not take the city, and that several Warg riders had been killed by ambushes, the leader cursed viciously before suddenly waving a hand. "We're leaving!"

Then he simply led the hundred or so Orcs back into the woods.

"They're retreating just like that?" Li Wei was surprised. They had given up far too quickly. Had they just run away after realizing they could not take the city? He had not even made a move yet.

"No... they haven't left."

Falrodan moved closer, then pointed in a direction for Li Wei to look.

Boom!

With a deafening crash, a tree toppled over and was slowly dragged away.

Before long, another tremor followed, and several trees fell one after another.

Even someone as slow to catch on as Li Wei realized that the Orcs seemed to be... making something on the spot?

The distant forest rang with clanging sounds.

"Ladders," Falrodan said. "They're making siege ladders."

Li Wei looked somewhat surprised.

They knew how to do that?

Falrodan, on the other hand, looked completely unsurprised.

Apparently seeing Li Wei's confusion, he explained, "Do not underestimate those Orcs, Li Wei. Though they are crude and evil, their skill in crafting armor and weapons is never inferior to that of humans. Whatever ordinary armies can do, they can do as well."

After all, the one behind them was the Dark Lord, Sauron, who had forged something like The Lord of the Rings and was a master of smithing.

"I see." Li Wei understood.

"No, I have to stop them."

"You intend to leave the city?"

Li Wei nodded.

"I won't just sit by and watch those Orcs finish making it."

"That's too dangerous. I don't really approve."

Li Wei smiled.

Ranger, you know nothing about MC Players.

"Don't worry."

Li Wei descended from the wall, entered the castle, and took all the Sulfur and Saltpeter from the ore chest. Together with charcoal, he placed them on the Crafting Table.

1 Sulfur + 1 Saltpeter + 1 Charcoal = 3 Gunpowder

5 Gunpowder + 4 Sand = TNT

After using up all the gunpowder, Li Wei had a full twenty TNT in his inventory.

"Have you ever heard of aerial bombardment?"