Buzz...
Deep underground directly below, a ring trembled with ancient malice.
"My precious!"
A filthy, gnarled hand caressed it, gripping it tightly with desperate hunger.
...
"The more powerful one becomes, the more easily they are blinded by power and accept temptation, but they will never have a good end, because that object has always had only one true master from beginning to end."
"Isildur, who once possessed the ring, was tempted at the volcano and ultimately died in the Gladden Fields south of here, where the ring was also lost, or flowed into the Anduin."
At the foot of the mountain, Gandalf walked ahead with measured steps, recounting the major historical events that had occurred in this blood-soaked region.
Levi walked behind, listening silently and occasionally nodding as the weight of ancient history settled around them.
"Do you think if someone had kicked him into the volcano back then, would there have been so much trouble later?"
Gandalf glanced at him with those piercing grey eyes.
"All fate has its inevitable logic, Levi. What you suggest, even if that scene were replayed a hundred times, a thousand times, would never happen."
The relationships involved were far too complex.
"Alright, I believe you."
The two walked and talked, discussing various matters in a leisurely fashion as the mountain air grew warmer with each step.
As if the great battle they had just experienced was merely an illusion.
Of course, Levi couldn't keep fighting a war of attrition with the orcs. After the initial blocking action, he fought while retreating like a tactical withdrawal. Perhaps those orcs had truly been frightened by the slaughter, or perhaps because the battle was too sudden, the orcs' subsequent pursuit seemed quite weak, and the two escaped from the mountains before long.
But speaking of which.
Gandalf had a strange feeling.
About this person behind him... if you said he didn't understand history, he indeed knew many ancient and almost unknown secrets. But if you said he did understand history, that wasn't necessarily true either, because when asked about details or common knowledge that ordinary people might know, he would answer that he didn't know.
Very contradictory.
"Shh..."
On a windswept plain far from the Misty Mountains, Gandalf suddenly stopped and signaled Levi not to make a sound.
"Orcs."
Roar!
Accompanied by the low, menacing growls of wargs, a swarm of orc riders thundered past, heading in one direction like a dark tide.
"I guess there's an orc fortress over there, or at least a camp."
Gandalf poked out half his head, watching the orcs' retreating figures with calculating eyes.
"So what do we do? Go destroy them?"
"Oh, no no, that would be too risky, after all there are only two of us..."
Looking at Levi's relaxed expression, Gandalf's voice suddenly stopped.
It seemed... not impossible?
"I think we'd better scout first, since we don't know exactly how many of them there are."
"Agreed."
Don't let Levi's relaxed appearance fool you... he actually had some sense. After all, if they accidentally poked a hornet's nest of orc armies, it would be very difficult to handle.
Quantity leads to qualitative change. When numbers reach a certain level, even he would be concerned.
"Let's go."
Following the orcs' marching trail, the two used their robes for cover and soon arrived at a somewhat noisy fortress that reeked of decay and violence.
However, rather than calling it a fortress, it was more like a temporary camp built using crumbling fortress ruins. In the camp was a relatively strong-looking orc sub-leader with scarred arms commanding these creatures with barked orders.
At this moment, a large group of orcs were resting in this dark, damp camp. Occasionally you could hear vicious cursing... that was orcs fighting among themselves over scraps.
"Over a dozen wargs, plus twenty-something orcs."
Soon, Gandalf had counted the enemy forces with practiced efficiency.
"Look." He pointed to two orcs fighting in the distance. "The word 'unity' never appears among orcs. They can always start infighting over trivial matters."
"I think we can do some small guidance to make them fight among themselves first and wear each other down..."
Gandalf picked up a small stone, blew on it with a whispered word, and smack hit a dozing orc square in the head.
"Who was that?!"
The nearby orc was startled awake by this shout and immediately became annoyed. "What's all the noise!"
"Did you hit me?"
"So what if I did?"
Smack!
The awakened orc threw a handful of pebbles, hitting the other orc so hard he couldn't open his eyes.
"Scum!" The hit orc was furious, roared like a wild beast, and pounced.
The two orcs quickly wrestled together in a tangle of claws and curses.
This sort of thing was commonplace in orc camps and didn't attract much attention. The surrounding orcs even looked like they were enjoying the brutal show.
Where there's conflict, there's always an ending.
Soon, one of them was lying on the ground with a bruised and swollen face, groaning... clearly unable to move for a while.
"Bah." The other naturally didn't forget to add insult to injury with a vicious kick.
Looking over, Gandalf nearby had a mischievous smile, obviously not doing this sort of thing for the first time.
"I often use this method to make them fight among themselves. It can reduce their strength without them even noticing."
"Very clever approach."
"Thank you."
Just as Gandalf was aiming at a second target, preparing to artificially incite more infighting, Levi directly stood up from their hiding place.
Gandalf stopped his motion and looked up at him with alarm.
"But it's too troublesome. I think going directly would be faster."
Swoosh...
His long sword was drawn, gleaming with ethereal blue light that cut through the gathering dusk.
"Enemy!"
"Roar!"
With a warning cry that echoed across the camp, the orcs immediately mounted their wargs, while those without warg mounts grabbed weapons and followed behind in a chaotic charge.
"Sigh! Too reckless!" Knowing they couldn't hide anymore, Gandalf also immediately stood up and grabbed his staff.
"Aha, look what I found... a human with a disgusting sword, and... a wizard?"
"Who gave you the courage to come to my territory!"
"Kill them!"
The sub-leader raised his cleaver high, and the wargs behind him immediately pounced forward like unleashed demons.
Thud!
Levi swept horizontally with devastating force, directly blocking three riders. Flames ignited from the wargs' dry fur, burning the orcs riding them into screams as they immediately jumped down, rolling frantically to extinguish the fire.
Behind him, Gandalf glanced at the spreading fire. With a whoosh, the flames that had almost been extinguished by rolling suddenly flared up with such force that they ignited the orcs who were relatively close.
Levi didn't turn to look. He knew Gandalf possessed Narya, one of the Three Rings... a ring that could both kindle flames and kindle hope.
On this side, Levi swept through large groups like a force of nature. Wearing black armor that seemed to absorb light itself, he directly withstood wave after wave of ranged and melee attacks, charging into the orc horde for a massacre, leaving behind charred corpses and making the remaining orcs tremble with primal fear.
Can't provoke them? Then can't we at least hide?
In comparison, that old man over there looked much easier to bully.
An orc shrieked and raised its weapon to smash at Gandalf. But Gandalf remained calm, raising his staff to poke with surgical precision. Following the principle that longer reach meant greater strength, he used the staff's length to directly knock down the attacking orc.
After this poke, he immediately turned and struck again with his staff. The staff whistled through the air and hit another orc, actually bending that orc's not-very-sturdy armor, surprising even Gandalf himself.
This thing was getting handier the more he used it.
Although Gandalf was also fighting with impressive momentum, compared to Levi, he was far behind. Soon five or six orcs had gathered around him, obviously treating him as the weak link and planning to take out the weak one first as a hostage.
However, Gandalf struck his staff on the ground, and a terrible flash suddenly streaked across the sky above the camp. As a smell of gunpowder drifted by, several orcs immediately fell dead on the spot.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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