This was an Easterling camp near the Iron Hills. Groups of well-equipped Durin Dwarves were clearing the battlefield throughout the camp. Clearly, the fighting had long since ended.
Although Kurda's warning had given the Easterlings in this camp time to prepare, they had lasted less than an hour under the Dwarves' fierce assault.
With equal numbers on both sides, the gulf in combat skill, physical strength, equipment, and morale was simply too great. After breaking through the gates, the Dwarves shattered the stubborn defenders with a single charge. The coldly gleaming spears and sharp axes in their hands showed the Easterlings what it meant to be unstoppable.
Thorin II, king of the Lonely Mountain Dwarves, sat astride an armored goat in fine plate armor, surveying everything before him with icy eyes. He held the Beast-Biter in his hand, its blade gleaming coldly without a trace of blood, while several corpses already lay cold beneath his goat's hooves.
Thorin and his warriors had now destroyed three Easterling strongholds, including Ironwall Town, killing or capturing thousands of Easterlings. Since the two sides had been roughly equal in number in every attack, their vastly superior fighting strength and exceptional armor had kept the Lonely Mountain Dwarves' losses to a minimum. Their fighting force was still almost entirely intact.
The only problem was that the Dwarves were poor at pursuit, and he had brought rather too few warriors to round up every Easterling in the camps. Though the Goat Riders enjoyed a tremendous advantage in mountain warfare, they struggled to match the speed of Easterling warhorses on the plains. As for the chariots, there was little to say; most of the time, they were only suited to breaking through enemy formations.
This had allowed many enemies to escape when Thorin attacked the Easterling camps,