Gandalf's face changed when he saw hundreds of Giant Spiders surrounding them, and he immediately drew his Glamdring to face the enemy.
The Giant Spiders were enormous, with the largest almost the size of a small house, and even the smallest over two meters tall, with leg spans reaching several meters, emanating a strong aura of Dark Arts.
They had numerous eyes on their heads, densely clustered into two large groups, releasing dizzying and hallucinatory magic.
Part of the reason Mirkwood became what it is today was due to these Giant Spiders.
As descendants of the evil god Ungoliant, these Giant Spiders were not only massive in size, with tough hides and extremely poisonous stingers, but also exhaled toxic breath.
The dizzying and hallucinatory air permeating Mirkwood was contaminated by the Giant Spiders, and many trees had been poisoned to death and withered.
Many creatures in the forest suffered destruction and were forced to migrate.
For example, the Elves of the Woodland Realm, who lived in Mirkwood, originally had the entire Mirkwood as their range of activity, but after the Giant Spiders invaded, they had to shrink their range, confining themselves to the area north of the Old Forest Road.
But now, the Giant Spiders had already crossed the Old Forest Road and were continuing to approach the Elves' living area.
Luke and Gandalf now had the Bubble-Head Charm to isolate the toxic air outside, so one of the Giant Spiders' major weapons was ineffective against them.
However, seeing so many Giant Spiders surrounding them, they still felt a bit troubled.
More importantly, Gandalf was very concerned about the safety of Bilbo and the Dwarves.
Although Giant Spiders cannot speak, they possess intelligence like Werewolves, and are very cunning and cruel, understanding how to cooperate with each other.
Perhaps sensing that the two were difficult to deal with, the Giant Spiders did not rush forward en masse, but instead sprayed thick, rope-like webs at them from a distance.
It seemed they intended to weave a net from the webs to trap the two, then capture them like a turtle in a jar.
"Protego!" Luke immediately cast a magical barrier on himself and Gandalf.
The webs were blocked outside the barrier, forming a giant spiderweb covering the barrier.
The Giant Spiders, feeling it was not enough, continued to spit out webs, weaving huge spiderwebs to trap them in the net.
Gandalf raised Glamdring and swung it forcefully at the webs, almost bouncing back.
The webs were hard and elastic; the sharp Elven sword striking the webs was like hitting a super elastic rope, and it took several forceful cuts to successfully sever one strand of web.
Luke waved his wand: "Diffindo!"
To Luke's surprise, the spiderweb actually negated part of the spell's power, only breaking a few strands of web.
Seeing this, Luke was not in a hurry to break through the webs; he wanted to see where the webs' tolerance limit was.
He chose a more powerful spell.
"Confringo!"
The spiderweb was successfully broken open with a hole.
Seeing this result, Luke's eyes lit up.
These webs are really good stuff. If they could be woven into protective clothing, they could truly be impervious to blades and spears, and also possess a certain degree of magic resistance.
Perhaps if there's a chance, he could catch a few Giant Spiders to raise, specifically for spitting webs.
But now was not the time to consider these things.
Luke no longer held back.
"Bombarda!"
Along with the dazzling flash of the spell, the massive explosion impact leveled all the Giant Spiders and trees within a radius of several hundred meters, leaving only Luke and Gandalf, protected by magic, unharmed in the very center.
Looking at the desolate clearing around them, Gandalf couldn't help but exclaim, "Luke, your magic is truly becoming more and more powerful. I am already full of confidence for the journey to the Lonely Mountain."
Luke shook his head. Ever since he witnessed the terrifying scene of Gandalf and others fighting Sauron in Dol Guldur, his slightly arrogant heart had completely settled down.
Gandalf's praise was just for listening; never take it seriously, or you'll lose.
He is a Maia, a demigod. If he wasn't restricted in power, let alone this small amount of power, even destroying the entire Mirkwood would just be a flick of his finger.
During the First Age, the Valar launched the War of Wrath to rescue the Elves persecuted by Morgoth, and almost sank the entire Middle-earth.
That war was vast and merciless; the earth cracked, hills collapsed, and plains rose. Middle-earth suffered severe damage, and the entire northern continent of Beleriand sank into the sea.
Even the Misty Mountains, which Luke and the others had painstakingly crossed before, were raised by Morgoth to prevent the Valar from advancing eastward.
Therefore, to avoid further destruction of the land, the Valar set rules, and all Maia entering Middle-earth were restricted in their power.
This included not only Wizards like Gandalf, but even Sauron was restricted in his power to some extent, unable to exert his full strength in Middle-earth, and could only rely more on violence and armies to conquer the world.
Luke even suspected that Sauron's reason for creating the one ring was not only to control the masters of the other rings with it, but also possibly to break through the restrictions set by the Valar and thus gain greater power.
Getting back to the point, after blasting away the Giant Spiders with the Bombarda Charm, Luke and Gandalf did not linger, continuing to use the guiding spell to pinpoint the direction of Bilbo and the others.
To Gandalf's relief, Bilbo and the Dwarves had not been captured by the Giant Spiders, or rather, had successfully escaped.
The two encountered some Giant Spider corpses ahead.
Gandalf pulled an arrow from one of the Giant Spider corpses and examined it.
"This is an Elven arrow. Bilbo and the Dwarves must have encountered the Elves of the nearby Woodland Realm."
Gandalf's expression was not relaxed.
The Elves of the Woodland Realm were different from Elves elsewhere; they were wary and exclusive, and their temper was not good.
More importantly, they had deep conflicts with the Dwarves.
If the Dwarves fell into the hands of the Woodland Realm Elves, it would definitely not be good news.
Just then, there was a commotion.
The next second, several figures flashed quickly, leaping agilely like deer among the trees, appearing on high ground and in the trees.
Several Elves dressed in robes of natural colors like green, brown, and gray, drew their bows and aimed at Luke and Gandalf, their faces stern as if they would shoot without a word.
"Who are you? Why do you visit here?"
A tall and slender young Elf with golden hair braided and cascading over his shoulders, and a handsome face, stepped out, looking at the two with wary suspicion.
He held a bow, had a quiver on his back, and wore a light brown cloak, with a green leaf brooch made of emeralds pinned at the collar of his cloak.
Seeing the green leaf brooch at his collar, Luke immediately guessed his identity.
Facing the Elves' bows and the young Elf's questioning, Gandalf proactively showed goodwill, smiling and bowing with a hand to his forehead:
"Greetings to you, Elf friend of the Woodland Realm!"
"I am Gandalf, Gandalf, the Grey Wizard."
As Gandalf introduced himself, Luke nodded to the young Elf.
"I am Luke the Black Wizard"