Defending the City

"Did you hear that?"

"I did. Wargs, and noisy orcs."

The breeze carried the clamor echoing across the wilderness.

Yet inside the walls, it was silent.

To be honest, even with plenty of preparation, Li Wei was still a little nervous.

Unlike the ranger beside him, Li Wei hadn't seen much action, and now, knowing a band of orc cavalry was charging straight at them, he couldn't help but feel a chill.

A hundred orcs, a few dozen riders—it didn't sound like much, but circled up, they'd be more than enough to trap just two people in a tight ring.

Staring at the five stacks of Iron Blocks in his backpack, Li Wei regretted not buying some pumpkins back in Bree. He could've tried summoning an Iron Golem.

"Roar—!"

A beastly howl rang out, startling Li Wei into looking up.

"They're here," Falrodan said.

The two hid behind the battlements, eyes fixed on the direction of the noise.

Rustle rustle.

"Kill!"

The racket drew closer. A patch of shadow burst from the thicket, spilling into the moonlight. First came dozens of wargs charging forward in a line, orcs mounted atop them, weapons raised, barreling straight for the wall with a ferocity no slower than horses.

As the enemy closed to a certain distance, Falrodan nocked an arrow to his bow.

Swish—

One shot, dead center into the lead warg. It dropped on the spot, the orc rider tumbling off to eat a mouthful of dirt.

Another arrow pierced an orc's head, sending it crashing to the ground, motionless.

Under Falrodan's precise shooting, by the time the cavalry squad reached the wall, three wargs had lost their riders and two more lay dead. But the remaining riders weren't scared—instead, the bloodlust riled them up. Seeing only two people on the wall, they grew even fiercer, a few orcs even laughing out loud.

Of course, even with just two defenders, a smooth stone wall over ten meters high wasn't something they could scale in a flash. The lead warg riders quickly hit a dead end, failing again and again to climb, and had to fall back and regroup.

"Damn it, the intel was wrong! Which blind idiot said wargs could jump straight over?!"

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

The scout orc in the squad hurriedly explained.

"You useless piece of trash!"

Humbled by the wall, the orc squad immediately fell back on tradition: infighting.

Falrodan tried to keep shooting, but the orcs were on guard now, watching the top. A few archers aimed at his position, forcing him to duck back and use pre-prepared arrow slits inside the wall for sneak attacks.

But after downing just a few more riders, those slits were spotted too, and soon rendered useless.

Li Wei peeked out. The whole squad had gathered at the base of the wall.

Now, both offense and defense were at a stalemate. The attackers couldn't breach, and the defenders didn't have enough firepower to make a dent.

The orcs outside had no choice but to hoot and curse. But their insults couldn't shake Li Wei in the slightest. After a while, he even found them kind of talented—pretty eloquent when it came to trash talk, stringing together long and short sentences, throwing in rhetorical flourishes and metaphors.

Still, compared to the internet veterans in Li Wei's memory, whose every line was poetry and every hit a critical blow, their vocabulary was way too lacking.

"You scum!"

Amid the cursing, a roar suddenly erupted from the rear.

A burly orc over three meters tall, wielding a massive axe, led the main force to the wall. He casually shoved aside the riders in his way, his strength so great he knocked both warg and rider to the ground with a single push.

"Aha, look what I found—garbage hiding behind a wall, little bugs!"

But the first thing this orc chieftain did upon arrival was still point at the wall and shout.

"Cowards! Chickens!"

"Cowards! Chickens!" the orcs behind him echoed.

In a normal siege, failing to mount a counterattack now would hurt morale.

But Li Wei's side had exactly two people. A hundred of you attacking two of us, and you're calling us cowards...?

How about a one-on-one!

Li Wei couldn't help but grumble.

The orc chieftain didn't care what they thought. After casually blocking a sneak arrow with his axe, he bellowed to the rear: "Bring it up!"

Thud!

Amid the racket, several orcs struggled to haul up a massive wooden ram thicker than their own bodies. But the three-meter-tall chieftain grabbed it with one hand.

Then, he slammed it into the city gate.

Thud!

First strike—the wooden door cracked.

Thud!

The second strike warped the wooden door, and it was clearly about to collapse.

Outside the city walls, cheers had already begun, the orcs ready to surge in for slaughter and plunder, to seize the castle.

But Li Wei's mood remained steady.

Thump!

On the third hit, the small gate made of wooden palisade and planks shattered completely. Yet just as the orcs prepared to swarm in, they froze in shock.

Behind that wooden door stood a solid stone wall three meters thick.

The orc chieftain's nostrils flared with rage as he glared up at the two hiding on the wall.

"Want to get in? No way!" Li Wei popped his head out to shout, and immediately seven or eight arrows flew his way, forcing him to duck back in.

Realizing the intelligence was wrong, the assault foiled, and several of his warg riders had been killed by the trap, the chieftain cursed viciously, then waved a hand. "We're leaving!"

With that, he led his hundred-odd orcs back into the woods.

"They're retreating just like that?" Li Wei was surprised. They gave up too quickly—found they couldn't breach the walls and just ran? He hadn't even made a move yet.

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

Falrodan took the chance to come closer, pointing in a direction for Li Wei to look.

Thump!

A loud crash rang out as a tree fell with a roar, then was slowly dragged away.

Soon after, another tremor, and several more trees toppled in succession.

Even someone as slow on the uptake as Li Wei now realized—those orcs seemed to be... making something on the spot?

From the distant woods came the clang of hammering.

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

Li Wei looked surprised.

They had that kind of skill?

Falrodan, however, wore a calm expression.

Seeing Li Wei's confusion, he explained, "Don't underestimate those orcs, Li Wei. Crude and evil as they are, their craftsmanship in armor and weapons never falls short of men's. What an ordinary army can do, they can do too."

After all, the master behind them was that Dark Lord—Sauron, who forged the One Ring and was a master of smithing.

"I see." Li Wei understood.

"I can't just let them finish building those."

"You plan to leave the city?"

Li Wei nodded.

"I'm not going to sit back and watch those orcs finish their work."

"Too dangerous. I don't advise it."

Li Wei smiled.

Ranger, you know nothing about an MC Player.

"Don't worry."

Li Wei descended the wall, entered the castle, and took all the sulfur and saltpeter from the ore chest. He placed them on the crafting table with charcoal.

1 Sulfur + 1 Saltpeter + 1 Charcoal = 3 Gunpowder.

5 Gunpowder + 4 Sand = TNT.

After using up all the gunpowder, Li Wei's inventory held a full twenty blocks of TNT.

"Have you ever heard of... aerial bombardment?"