Air Raid

Strike while the iron is hot—and take their lives!

Having refused Falrodan's offer to accompany him, telling him to wait in the city for the show, Li Wei gathered his materials, quietly pried open two Cobblestones, and slipped out beyond the wall.

Those Orc brains would never dream that while they were busy building their ladders, he'd dare to leave the city—and not only leave, but even take the initiative to launch a sneak attack.

One man ambushing a hundred.

In the Orc chieftain's thick-headed imagination, whether Li Wei and his companion waited for the ladders to be finished and then stormed in, or slipped out of the city while they were building, his side would come out ahead. Either way, they'd take the castle with the ladders. Whether the enemy was killed in the assault or fled without a fight—it was all the same.

And so, this chieftain couldn't even be bothered to leave scouts behind. After all, that castle had a sharpshooter with deadly aim. If he left too few soldiers, they'd likely end up as corpses on the return trip; if he left too many, he'd be short-handed here. No matter how he figured it, it seemed unnecessary.

Admittedly, while most Orcs were stupid and weak, there were always a few that developed well, growing both muscle and brain.

But this time, this burly Orc was destined to miscalculate.

"Hurry up, you trash! Get those ladders assembled! If I'm not sitting in that castle by dawn, I'll feed every last one of you to the Wargs!"

In the woods, the Orc chieftain bellowed at the Orcs tasked with building the ladders.

On the other side, a Warg on watch duty twitched its nose, its crimson eyes shifting as it instinctively glanced beyond the treeline, but spotted nothing moving.

Yet this motion was caught by an observant rider.

"What's wrong? Did you smell something?"

The Warg panted, carrying its rider forward until they were a fair distance from the squad. Suddenly, they noticed a stone pillar rising straight into the sky on an empty patch of ground nearby. It was perfectly square, exactly a meter thick.

The Orc rider frowned, looked up, and strained his eyes toward the top. He felt like something was moving up there, but couldn't make it out clearly.

Even raising his torch as high as he could, he could only vaguely see a dark shape at the summit.

A bird? A crow?

At first, the rider paid it no mind, assuming it was just some small animal perched up there.

Until the stone pillar suddenly, against all reason, extended outward from its very top—stretching toward the direction where the Orcs were working.

The Orc rider scratched his head.

"What the hell is that? A living rock?"

Clack.

Li Wei wiped the cold sweat from his brow, crouched at the edge, and placed another stone, extending it one block outward.

A casual glance downward made his legs go weak.

His fear of heights was kicking in.

"Wait... is that...?"

A spark lit up in his mind. Li Wei forgot his fear and quickly leaned out to look down again.

There, beside the empty ground where he'd been stacking upward, a tiny point of light had appeared.

A torch.

Li Wei squinted.

Not good. Looks like I've been spotted. I need to speed up!

Taking a few deep breaths to overcome his shaky legs, Li Wei quickened his pace, bridging toward where the siege ladders were being built, while doing his best to stay hidden from below.

But maybe he got too close, or maybe among a bunch of wooden heads, there was always one or two sharp ones.

By the time Li Wei's tower reached about seventy or eighty meters directly above the work site, finally, an Orc looked up, stared at the vague shadow overhead, and couldn't help asking:

"What's that thing?"

That one sentence drew several gazes upward.

A few Orcs stood dumbly staring at the sky, forgetting even their patrols.

"Damn it, I think I'm seeing things—there's someone up there?"

"Someone?"

"I say it's clearly a crow."

"What if it is a person?"

"Shut up, all of you! Whether it's a person or a crow, shoot it down and we'll know."

An archer drew an arrow, nocked his bow, and aimed at the sky. At seventy or eighty meters, if his aim was good enough, there was a chance he could hit it.

But he never got that chance.

"Look! Something's glowing in the sky!"

"Idiot, the sky's full of glowing stars!"

"Not stars..."

Before he could finish, a red object glowing with white light fell from above, landing squarely in the middle of those Orcs.

BOOM!

The moment it hit the ground, a massive explosion erupted, blasting a crater several meters wide on the spot. A nearby tree was unlucky enough to catch the blast, its branches snapped clean off.

As for the few Orcs at the very center of the explosion, their limbs flew in all directions, instantly disintegrating on the spot.

Expected.

After all, TNT's maximum damage was a full 65 points—how could these small fry with an average health cap of just over a dozen withstand that?

The height of over seventy meters was calculated by Li Wei; lit at that altitude, the TNT would explode the moment it hit the ground.

Giving those Orcs no time to react.

"What the hell?!"

The chieftain was immediately startled by the blast, hastily grabbing the large wooden mallet beside him and leading a squad to investigate.

But when they arrived at the scene, all they saw was a big crater and a few mangled limbs and torsos.

"What happened?"

The chieftain roared in anger, but no one answered.

Suddenly, a sharp-eyed scout pointed upward and shouted, "Look, what's that!"

A group of Orcs followed the direction of his finger, seeing seven or eight glowing red objects hurtling down from high above, about to hit the ground.

The towering chieftain suddenly felt a bad premonition, directly thrusting his large wooden mallet forward as a shield, yet feeling that alone wasn't enough, he took several steps back in that second, putting his subordinates in front of him.

All eyes tracked the glowing red objects until the TNT landed one by one.

Boom—!

Explosion, white light, screams—as the TNT detonated one after another, the ground was blasted into craters. Orcs near the center of the blast were blown into pieces that scattered everywhere, instantly vaporized. Those a bit farther away couldn't escape being flung into the air either; many Orcs might have still been breathing when launched skyward, but when they came crashing down, that breath finally gave out.

"Aaaahhh!!!"

Though the Orc chieftain was lucky enough not to be instantly vaporized at the blast's epicenter, he was still thrown by the shockwave, tumbling until he slammed into a tree, barely clinging to life.

Clang.

The large wooden mallet he used as a weapon fell to the ground, its surface charred black.

Without bothering to check his own injuries, the sturdy Orc struggled to his feet and looked at his squad.

At this moment, after a round of bombardment, most of the squad was unrecognizable as Orcs in life. Black blood and charred flesh littered the ground; incomplete limbs were plastered on the earth or hanging from trees. A few lucky survivors, though far from whole, crawled weakly on the ground, clearly not long for this world.

Nearly wiped out.

Staring at the hellish scene before him, the chieftain's mind went blank.

What happened? What's going on?

From start to finish, he never saw where the enemy was, nor did he know what had attacked them.

Just inexplicably, in an instant, they were all but annihilated.

Right, the sky!

The attack came from the sky!

Finally pinpointing the source of the attack, the Orc chieftain was both furious and terrified. To launch such a powerful strike from high above—could it be a legendary dragon?

Just then, a rustling came from the nearby bushes, and several Warg riders arrived at the sound. Seeing the craters and corpses, they paused for a moment, then spotted the blood-soaked Orc chieftain.

Several Orcs immediately jumped off their Wargs and rushed over to curry favor: "Chieftain, we're here to support you!"

As they spoke, a large group of Warg riders burst out, spreading out to scout and search for the incoming enemy.

Clearly, nearly all the forces of this Orc squad were gathered here now.

Realizing something, the chieftain's expression shifted sharply: "No—!"

But it was too late.

Over a dozen glowing TNTs fell from the sky.

The work is signed, so feel free to read with confidence. Thank you all for your support.

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P.S.: Orc, also called Goblin. In The Lord of the Rings, both terms are correct; generally, just use whichever flows better.