Dragon sickness.
It was a curse that lingered among the treasures of the Lonely Mountain. Anyone who approached would be continuously affected by it.
Simply drinking milk couldn't directly remove this curse. It could only briefly clear the debuff. As long as one remained in this great mountain, the influence would return before long.
However, after gaining that moment of clarity through milk, Thorin immediately realized what he was doing.
He had developed a mental immunity.
At the gates of Erebor, the surrounding orcs were cleared away in short order. The area around them quieted down, and the dwarves and elves who were freed up immediately headed to the front lines to eliminate the enemies there.
"You finally came out, Levi."
Gandalf hurried over to discuss the situation with him.
"The situation isn't too bad yet. Most of those orcs and giant beasts are outside the walls. We just need to block that one tunnel leading inside the walls to halt their advance."
Thanks to the layer of flowing underground lava Levi had laid around the battlefield, most of the worm tunnels originally intended to dig into the walls had failed.
Only tunnels whose original destinations were outside the walls had successfully broken through.
The only oversight was on the eastern mountainside, where the were-worms had luckily dug above the lava layer, opening a tunnel that let the vanguard and a small number of giant beasts through.
But that was just one tunnel.
Although in Levi's view, even this one tunnel shouldn't have existed. It seemed to have been forced through.
Gandalf looked toward the distant wormhole and said: "I suspect their original plan didn't include these suddenly appearing defensive works."
Levi's wall construction project and the orcs' tunnel digging project had proceeded almost simultaneously.
When the tunnel construction was already more than halfway complete but they discovered the destination didn't match expectations, that was roughly the situation.
Unable to continue, they could only cut their losses.
"Of course it didn't."
He'd be damned if they could have predicted that.
"I'll go check out that tunnel entrance."
"The dwarven cavalry can cover your approach. Their goats have strong mobility and are suited for that terrain."
Goats...
Levi glanced at the mounts the dwarves rode.
Those goats were indeed very useful. As long as there were footholds, they could climb all the way to the eagle nests atop the Misty Mountains. They could be called all-terrain combat tools.
For complex terrain, they were more useful than horses. He could consider raising some.
But for now...
"Since when do you think I need cover, Gandalf?"
"From what I can see, there's nothing on this battlefield that can stop me yet."
"That vanguard doesn't even have archers."
Being able to advance this far was just due to appearing suddenly and having a numerical advantage.
Levi equipped his elytra, took out fireworks, and with a whoosh took off from the ground, heading straight for the tunnel on the eastern mountainside that was still spewing orcs.
At that moment, a troll had just emerged from inside. Seeing the unidentified flying object swooping down from above, it immediately raised the large club in its hands for a devastating blow.
Crash.
Just before landing, Levi instantly switched to his armor, drew his long sword, and with a resounding thud, crashed into the troll.
The long sword pierced deep into its skull. Driven by inertia, both man and troll slid a great distance before stopping. During this process, countless damage calculations occurred, and the troll died completely.
It also knocked down over a dozen orcs in the process.
A skill orb dropped.
Basic Swordsmanship.
"Not bad luck."
Levi immediately leveled up the skill.
"Where did this human come from? Kill him!"
With a rush, these orcs, who had spent years in the depths of Moria, swarmed over, wielding weapons to surround and dismember Levi.
They were even more vicious than the orcs living in the Misty Mountains.
But this time, they had definitely miscalculated.
Boom!
Under the enhancement of Sweeping Edge, an entire row of orcs seemed to suffer heavy blows, their bodies burning with flames as they wailed and fell to the ground, soon falling silent.
Even with such fierce attacks, no matter how many orcs were cut down, more would immediately surge forward from behind, as if endless.
This suddenly reminded Levi of an old saying: even if it were twenty thousand pigs, it would take days to catch them all.
Plop, plop.
A pile of TNT was unscientifically placed on both sides of the wall. As flint and steel sparked, they began glowing and falling.
Levi quickly retreated several steps, running toward the tunnel exit.
Just as these orcs thought they had finally turned the tables and scared off this powerful human, sudden explosions rang out, and the middle of the tunnel was blasted into a large crater.
With the terrain destroyed, the army behind was also affected and temporarily halted their advance.
Taking advantage of this brief gap, Levi quickly placed blocks to climb to the tunnel roof and poured several buckets of lava on top.
A lava wall was thus formed.
The only remaining path into the walls was now blocked.
"He succeeded!"
At the rear of the battlefield, sharp-eyed Bilbo was the first to see the misty red glow of lava emanating from the tunnel.
"No, I'd say he finished the job," Gandalf corrected.
"Counterattack!"
With the enemy's march point blocked, the battlefield inside the walls now contained only these vanguard forces besides the existing enemies.
They just needed to eliminate them to focus entirely on the tide of troops outside the walls.
The leaders raised their weapons high, leading their armies to surround from both sides. Levi placed some more blocks to seal the tunnel entrance and quickly flew over to join the battle.
"Wait for me!"
"Let me farm some skill orbs!"
The legend of the wilderness began slaughtering again. The orc vanguard resisted with difficulty, unable to go anywhere within the encirclement, and were quite miserable.
If this were any other time, they should have collapsed long ago.
But this time, the orcs acted contrary to their nature, still charging forward even when casualties exceeded half.
The dwarves' morale was exceptionally high. Partly because they had blood feuds with the orcs, and partly because they had powerful leaders supporting them from behind.
But this statement applied equally to the orc side.
Blood feuds and leaders. They had those too.
Buzz!
Flag signals were sent out. Azog angrily smashed a rock and changed his orders.
It was him again!
Even from this distance, across a mountain, he could recognize that black figure. That was Levi!
Like a persistent ghost.
This situation of being thwarted at every turn must be Levi's doing.
Anyway, whenever something went wrong, blaming that human was never wrong.
"Break through the walls!"
Over a dozen siege beasts stood in the distance adjusting their angles. A pile of orcs busily transported stone materials, struggling to load them up.
"Fire!"
Whoosh!
Massive stone blocks two to three meters in diameter were hurled high, crushing through the air to slam hard against the smooth walls ahead.
However, the walls didn't collapse and crack as expected. Instead, where they were struck, a pile of blocks fell down?
A round of heavy stones, and only the surface layer was knocked off?
Azog's mouth hung open, somewhat stunned.
Something was wrong with these walls.
Was this still Dale? Even the White City wasn't this sturdy!
"What's going on?"
Beside him, his lieutenant Bolg angrily grabbed a small orc scout and lifted him up.
"I... I came here a few days ago, and there weren't these walls..." the scout stammered.
"If you dare say one false word, I guarantee every piece of your body will end up in a different warg's belly."
This scared the scout speechless.
"What he says might be true," Azog spoke up.
"It's our great enemy, that wizard from the wilderness who's very good at manipulating blocks. Levi Stonecraft."
Bolg threw down the scout and stood at the edge of the command platform, looking down.
"I'm very interested in him."
The mace in this lieutenant's hand was eager for a taste.
But Azog didn't respond to this statement, instead saying: "Go get a squad, preferably with many archers."
He had seen the great enemy's flying posture in the air.
"Yes."
Bolg temporarily left to organize soldiers.
The orc horns sounded. Azog pulled the mechanism again, sending out flag signals.
The orcs who received orders quickly concentrated before Dale.
"Siege beasts, charge!"
Roar!
A troll seven to eight meters tall with a conical boulder on its head charged fiercely toward the walls.
Hunters, rangers, and longbowmen from Lake-town on the walls concentrated fire on it but could barely penetrate its skin.
Thud!
A tremendous sound rang out. The very bottom of the wall successfully had a layer knocked off.
Whether physically or mentally, this wall was very troublesome for the orcs.
Any other thinner wall would have collapsed after such a blow.
"Continue," Azog mercilessly gave orders.
A troll picked up a battering ram to continue the relay attack. Orcs gathered behind, ready to surge in for a massacre once the wall was breached.
However, what they didn't know was that as the attack proceeded, iron golems had been attracted over, no longer patrolling aimlessly but waiting behind the wall.
At this moment, in Dale's dusty armory, Bard was nervously organizing personnel and arranging for townspeople to take shelter.
"Take them all! Everyone capable of fighting, take up weapons and put on armor!"
As a city that had once been prosperous for a long time, Dale's weapon and armor reserves were actually quite abundant. It was just that these things were useless against dragons, so after the city was destroyed, they had been left here.
And because there was a dragon entrenched nearby, neither people nor orcs had dared to take them over the years.
Now drawn again, those swords and spears were still sharp.
"All combat forces to the walls! Women, elderly, and children retreat to safe places!"
Under Bard's arrangements, people quickly went about their tasks.
Suddenly, Bard grabbed a 'woman' with a rather full chest who was making clanking metal sounds.
"Oh my! What are you doing? I'm going to a safe place!" this 'woman' squeaked in a high voice but never dared look up.
"Alfrid."
Bard was shocked by this fellow's shamelessness.
He yanked off the gold coins Alfrid had stuffed in his chest and threw them aside, grabbing his collar.
"I said men go to the front to fight. Didn't you hear?"
"Sir, let's talk nicely. I'll go, I'll go..."
Bard shoved him away and thrust a sword into his hands.
"Don't let me see you in the rear."
Alfrid gritted his teeth and tremblingly followed the main force forward, looking back every three steps.
Creak.
At this moment, the rear gate facing Erebor suddenly opened. Two armies quickly and orderly poured into the city, heading toward the high walls on both sides.
Elves and dwarves.
"We've finished clearing the orcs inside the walls. How's the situation here?" Thranduil approached Bard to inquire about the situation.
"They can't break through the walls for now."
Bard looked up at those towering solid walls, then at the iron golems clustered nearby. A strong sense of security rose from his heart.
With this setup, even if the walls were breached, nothing would happen.
Besides, they couldn't break through anyway.
"Hey!"
While the two were talking, Dain suddenly rode up on his boar and said to Thranduil: "Have your army go to the other side. Leave the side with wide stairs for me, or we can't get our ballistas up!"
Thranduil somewhat helplessly waved to his troops behind him, switching directions with the dwarves.
Following closely, Thorin led the expedition members over.
He looked up and made eye contact with Thranduil for several seconds.
But before Thranduil could say anything, Thorin spoke first: "After this, I'd like to invite the King of the Woodland to Erebor for talks."
"I accept." Thranduil raised his head proudly, looking down at Thorin.
But this high-and-mighty attitude rarely failed to anger Thorin. This clear-headed king just nodded and led his companions to follow the dwarven army up the walls.
"Huh?"
At this moment, Levi and Gandalf arrived late, seeing the two armies changing directions.
"Wait for me. That's not necessary."
Plop, plop. Levi immediately crafted some stone steps, widening both staircases by several blocks.
"Amazing! This is much more practical than Gandalf's magic!" Dain turned and exclaimed in amazement, calling for the dwarves to move the ballistas up the walls.
Gandalf's face stiffened.
This Lord of the Iron Hills was somewhat impolite.
"Let those big guys taste our power!"
"Don't miss, lads!" the dwarves shouted noisily. Experienced Balin was the first to operate a ballista.
Thud!
A rapidly spinning special heavy arrow arced high and slammed hard into a troll charging from the side, directly sending it flying to roll aside, motionless for a long time.
"Haha!" the old warrior laughed heartily.
"Fire!"
Swoosh!
Several more ballistas were brought up, all firing spinning heavy arrows that crashed into the orc formations, momentarily magnificent.
"Nobody move!" the orc sub-leader commanding the front lines shouted angrily, maintaining formation.
However, when a heavy arrow flew toward him and was about to land, he dodged to the side, then after a moment stood back up, pretending nothing had happened.
"What are you all looking at? Mind your own business!" the leader bared his teeth fiercely.
The dwarves cheered on the walls, continuing to fire heavy arrows.
"Let those bastards taste our power!"
Besides the dwarves, the elves were also exerting themselves.
Compared to the dwarves' crude, heavy weapons, the elves' bows were more flexible and precise.
"Loose!"
One volley, and a large swath of orcs fell.
Notably, some of the smaller trolls also fell, each with at least a dozen arrows stuck in them.
When quality wasn't enough, quantity made up for it. That was the principle.
"Damn it."
"Wait a bit more. Let the vanguard Olog-hai wait. Let the beasts go first, with archer cover!"
Azog stared intently at the battlefield situation, initiating full assault mode.
All beasts large enough to damage the walls were equipped with siege equipment under logistical support, conducting wave after wave of impacts on the walls.
The elves' arrows clinked against the siege cones the beasts carried. A few arrows at tricky angles hit their bodies but could hardly cause effective damage.
Those beasts could always charge forward under arrow rain to deliver heavy blows to the walls.
"Dwarven axes, fire!"
Swoosh!
Heavy ballista bolts thundered forth.
"Vanguard!" Azog gave the command. Fully armored Olog-hai waiting in reserve immediately moved forward, using their bodies and armor to forcibly block this heavy arrow called "Dwarven Axe" for the siege beasts. They were only knocked back several meters before getting up, seemingly uninjured.
"Catapults, fire!"
Rumble!
From the orc side, over a dozen massive stone blocks were hurled high. Several hit the very top of the walls, shattering cover and exposing the soldiers behind.
This included Balin, who was operating a ballista.
If not for the walls Levi built being too sturdy, that stone block would definitely have smashed him down along with his ballista after destroying the cover.
This really gave him quite a shock.
"Take cover!"
Rumble, rumble.
Boulders kept coming, bombarding the upper and lower parts of the walls, knocking off layers of cobblestone.
On the other side, the orc archer corps gradually emerged from tunnels, assembling to freely shoot at the walls.
Perhaps not very accurate, but quantity made up for everything.
Siege beasts attacked again, making the walls shake.
"Levi!"
Seeing the situation looking bad, Thorin quickly ran to Levi's side and said rapidly: "Can you help me dig a hole in the middle of the wall, just big enough to jump onto that thing? I'll go deal with it!"
Before Levi could speak, Kili was the first to object: "Too dangerous, Thorin!"
"I'll go with you!"
"Me too!" Fili quickly followed.
"Royal blood must be preserved. You're still young." Although current Thorin looked physically robust with black hair, he was actually older than Balin, whose hair and beard were completely white.
"No need." Levi's casual words interrupted the three's emotional moment.
Click.
A mechanism was activated.
Just as the siege beast reached the wall, it suddenly felt the ground give way beneath it. The large gate lying horizontally on the ground instantly retracted under mechanical operation, revealing the red-hot lava below.
The speed was so fast there was no time to react.
Only now did the orcs realize that wasn't flooring, but some kind of gate.
"Roar!"
The beast fell into the lava pit. Its cries were heart-rending, echoing through the valley, but soon fell silent.
Azog's face turned ugly.
"Transport building materials, fill the roads, avoid abnormal areas on the ground, and attack from multiple directions!" he issued new orders.
As Azog's commands were being transmitted, on the walls, Levi called out to Bard.
"Gather a group of archers. Actually, call them all. I'll give you some good stuff."
"What stuff?"
"Crossbows and fireworks."
Bard looked confused.
"Set off fireworks...?"
"Just call people over, and you'll see."
Soon, all of Lake-town's people capable of using bows and crossbows assembled before Levi.
Levi looked at his material inventory and fell silent for a moment.
"Actually, we don't need this many... Keep a hundred with the best aim. The rest can go back."
Plop.
A crafting table was placed on the ground. Iron, wood, and string were consumed in large quantities as crossbows were passed out one after another to the hundred people lined up neatly.
After distributing crossbows, Levi crafted a large pile of multi-burst fireworks on the spot, pulling them from his inventory to pile on the side.
"This is your ammunition. Try it out."
"Bard, you go first."
"Will this really work?" Although quite skilled with bows, Bard also knew something about crossbows.
But still.
"Fireworks, shot like arrows?"
Though he didn't understand, facing Levi, Bard had to abandon common sense and try loading fireworks into the crossbow like arrows.
Click.
Surprisingly, it actually worked.
"Very good. You've learned how to load. Now tell the townspeople how to use this, then lead them to bombard the orcs!"
"Huh?"
A moment later, a group of human crossbow troops appeared on the walls.
Gandalf turned to look, seeing Bard and Levi leading them, and stopped paying attention...
"Hmm?"
Gandalf looked again.
"Fireworks?"
"Aim, fire!" Levi shouted loudly, taking the lead.
Swoosh!
Dense firework launching sounds rang out. Over a hundred fireworks shot forth, flying straight toward the orcs and beasts gathered close to the walls.
Rumble, rumble!
As the fireworks exploded, nearby orcs were miserably blown away, their armor blackened. Trolls in front seemed to suffer heavy blows, with two or three falling immediately.
What was that thing again? Over a hundred wizards casting explosion magic?
Azog was sweating profusely.
What was there left to fight?
"No!"
He suddenly saw a firework explode in midair before reaching its target.
"That thing has limited range."
"Fall back a hundred meters!"
Flag signals went out. The orc formations immediately retreated.
"Really troublesome."
Watching the constantly changing flag signals on Ravenhill, Levi thought for a moment and equipped his elytra.
"What are you going to do?" Having spent so much time around Levi, Gandalf had become familiar with this item.
He knew that whenever Levi equipped elytra, he was definitely going somewhere far.
"Decapitation."
"Decapitation?"
Swoosh!
Levi jumped from the walls and instantly soared upward. The orc archer army quickly fired volleys upward, but only a few arrows grazed him.
But it still hurt quite a bit.
Levi grimaced.
When equipped with elytra, he couldn't wear chest armor at the same time.
And chest armor provided the most damage reduction of any piece. Taking it off meant even ordinary swords could break his defense, let alone all those arrows.
Whoosh.
Before long, Levi had risen high into the sky, beyond the range of ground archers. Only then did he have time to survey the entire battlefield.
He saw that outside the walls, at the edge of the wilderness, orcs and wargs stretched as far as the eye could see. Looking left and right, there were siege beasts standing on high slopes, fiercely attacking the walls.
"Unbelievable."
Levi really couldn't imagine how, in a timeline without him, with such a disparity in combat power, relying on just five hundred elite dwarves plus three thousand elves, they could actually win.
It seemed the key was still decapitation...
Levi looked toward Azog's location, which was also where the command post was: Ravenhill.
Massive swarms of bats circled like dark clouds above that watchtower, blocking out the sunlight.
They also concealed the situation below.
Levi silently put away his ender pearl.
That would definitely hit the bats!
That density couldn't be cleared with firework crossbows. It would need Gandalf to cast a big spell.
But though there were many bats, these creatures had almost no offensive capability. They were just battlefield atmospheres, used to render a dark mood.
So, bypass the bats and strike directly?
But why, with over a hundred archers surrounding the command platform, could this guy be so cowardly?
Swoosh!
Levi flew back into the city and immediately said: "Gandalf, can you drive away those bats?"
"Let me see." Gandalf looked up into the distance.
"How about you drive me away instead?"
Levi facepalmed.
This was indeed asking too much.
A siege beast charged toward the walls again under arrow rain. Gandalf raised his staff, planning to use some means to drive it away and show he wasn't completely useless.
But Levi shot an arrow first, igniting it. The beast immediately fell to the ground rolling, throwing aside its siege cone.
"Right, good."
Gandalf nodded, experiencing what Radagast had felt when driven away by him at Dol Guldur.
You're capable, you can fight, looking down on my little bit of combat power, eh.
"The situation isn't too good." Standing on the walls, Levi looked up again toward the horizon.
Looking far into the distance, he saw neatly arranged orcs slowly moving across the plains, with another large army reinforcing from the rear.
Those were orcs from the Misty Mountains. They even had reinforcements.
"Too many."
Even Levi felt somewhat troubled now.
If this were in a game, the computer would be smoking from the lag.
How many rendering resources would this require?
A moment later.
On the high walls, commanders from various factions gathered together, looking seriously at the scene outside, all lost in thought.
Although there had been basically no casualties so far, this situation couldn't exactly be called good either.
"Ha! Let them all come! I can guard this wall until I die of old age!" the dwarves were quite optimistic. The solidity this wall had demonstrated had given them considerable confidence.
Die of old age...?
Thranduil shook his head.
If he had to guard this wall until dying of old age, he'd have to wait until the world's end.
"We must think of some solutions..." Thorin was obviously one of the more thoughtful dwarves. While the others were making noise, only he remained silent.
Bard had no good ideas either, just silently reloading his firework crossbow and aiming below for opportunities to shoot.
Thud!
During the quiet moment, sudden vibrations came from several directions simultaneously, some far and some near.
Siege beasts. They were beginning to try dispersed attacks, especially targeting areas where the ground looked less abnormal.
Boulders and siege cones came one after another.
Whoosh!
A stone block was hurled toward the main gate.
While everyone was discussing, Levi suddenly grabbed Bilbo and pushed him aside a few steps.
"Levi?" Bilbo called out in confusion.
The stone block swept past unexpectedly.
Levi raised his shield to try blocking it, but after holding for just an instant, the shield broke with a thud and went into cooldown. Then he was directly smashed into the ruins below the wall, losing seven or eight hit points.
This blow had half the power of Sauron's normal attack.
Don't ask why he took it head-on instead of dodging. Curiosity was the answer.
Anyway, this was within his own territory. He could waste however much he wanted.
"Levi!" several people shouted simultaneously.
"May the blessing of the Valar protect you." This scared Thranduil so much he started praying. Gandalf directly jumped down, and Thorin and Bard also quickly ran down. Bilbo, who had been standing on the wall, felt his heart racing and froze in place, hardly believing what had just happened.
"No..."
If Levi hadn't pulled him aside just then, he might have become a hobbit pancake.
"It's fine, don't worry. I was just curious and wanted to test how powerful that thing was."
Levi dusted off non-existent dirt and, under everyone's stunned gazes, climbed back up the wall to rejoin the meeting.
"He's not dead from that?"
At the highest point of Ravenhill, Azog, who had seen every detail of the battlefield clearly, began to panic.
That stone had been specifically aimed on his orders.
"Don't take Levi Stonecraft's attacks head-on. His attacks will definitely connect and carry fire. His flames will immediately extinguish when they meet water. Logistics units must be ready to transport water to the front lines wherever Levi is."
"Don't approach iron gates lying on the ground. Those gates can open at any time, revealing lava traps below."
"Before the walls are breached, infantry shouldn't approach within a hundred meters of the walls. Their crossbow troops will fire short-range explosives."
"Even if gaps appear in the walls, they won't collapse. They can only be destroyed bit by bit."
"Levi Stonecraft can fly. Archers must be positioned at all times, and bat swarms must focus on covering his position for aerial interference."
"Those square lava flows. As long as you use something larger to block the source, the surrounding flowing lava will slowly disappear."
"There's a type of red block that will fall and explode within seconds of starting to glow. Any unit except beasts and trolls will definitely die."
"Also, Levi Stonecraft appears to be unkillable."
Azog enumerated the experience accumulated from these rounds of attacks, his heart going numb.
This orc commander had now been forced by Levi to develop Minecraft thinking, starting to find solutions according to his rules.
Some common sense had become invalid here. They had to start looking for new patterns.
It had to be said, forcing an orc to do so much thinking with his violent, bloodthirsty brain, even dwarves would find it somewhat extreme.
After summarizing the patterns, Azog stared silently at the corner of the wall where his forces were concentrated.
This was definitely the hardest battle of his life. Even the great decisive battle with all the Durin dwarves a century ago had been easier than this.
But the problem was the enemy didn't have that many people either!
All together they weren't even five thousand.
You had to know that currently on the field, his side had assembled most of the elite forces from Moria and the Misty Mountains, plus a large number of war beasts provided by the Dark Lord.
It could be said that even current Mordor would struggle to field an army of this configuration.
Though it was quite common in the First Age, and warriors as strong as Levi weren't unheard of then either.
Or rather, not only did they exist, there were many.
But correspondingly, the attacking side also had many Balrogs then. One of those could match an entire army.
Azog kind of wanted to ask Sauron if he still had any Balrogs to lend him.
"Our attack is at a disadvantage," Bolg said from behind.
Many of their attacks had been nullified.
"Don't rush."
"Soon..."
Rumble!
At a place where a lava pool had been filled with many orc lives, where lava poured from the walls was covered by thrown stones, where ballistas, bows, fireworks, and TNT were forcibly blocked by a whole row of fully armored Olog-hai plus war beasts using their lives.
That wall which made orcs despair, finally showed a small gap under concentrated catapult bombardment and the desperate rotation of siege beasts.
To open such a gap, they had nearly exhausted those elite beasts.
"Hahaha! Kill!" Azog laughed heartily and immediately pulled the flag signals, declaring the attack.
Buzz!
The orc general assault horn sounded. Orcs eagerly poured through that small gap.
"Finally broke through this damned wall!"
But after entering, they fell into confusion again.
Where were those elves, dwarves, and humans?
Why weren't they coming down to die?
Were they scared?
Soon, this question was answered.
Clang clang.
Dense masses of iron golems surrounded them, charging fiercely at these vanguards.
Thud clang!
Starting from the first orc being sent flying, this momentum couldn't be stopped. More and more orcs screamed as they flew into the sky, then fell like raindrops.
Those iron golems were like schools of sharks that had smelled blood, all surging over, using their bodies to block this gap and sending orcs flying one after another.
"Beast charge!"
Receiving orders, the few remaining Olog-hai quickly moved forward to arm-wrestle with the iron golems.
To the orcs, three-meter-tall iron golems were immovable little giants.
However, now facing Olog-hai that were at minimum four to five meters tall and covered in steel armor, the iron golems became the little ones instead.
Clang!
The sound of metal clashing rang out. The Olog-hai swung giant hammers and clubs, sweeping away groups of iron golems with each strike. The surrounding momentum was actually briefly halted.
Taking advantage of this moment, the last remaining war beast also clawed open the gap and bent down to enter the city.
With one stomp, it pressed an iron golem into the dirt, adding many cracks to its body.
"Die!"
Levi jumped down from the wall and thrust his sword into the beast's neck, igniting it.
The expedition dwarves followed closely, fearlessly charging forward under Thorin's lead. Some attacked its heel tendons, some smashed its toes, and some shot arrows at its rear. For a moment they had the beast flustered, not knowing where to strike.
But soon it didn't need to think anymore. Under continuous strikes from Levi and the dwarves, it barely lasted ten-odd seconds before crashing to the ground.
It even dropped a "Dodge" skill orb.
"Have to say, pretty thick skin."
Clang!
After dealing with the beast that had broken in, Levi immediately turned toward those Olog-hai.
Sword met iron.
"Really hard."
That Olog-hai made Levi's hands go numb.
These guys each had nearly full armor values, and even the one with the least health had seventy to eighty hit points. They were simply walking iron lumps.
Even more iron than iron golems.
However, their numbers were ultimately too few. Just three total. They only knocked down some iron golems when they first charged in but were quickly overwhelmed by reinforcements and couldn't advance or retreat.
Finally, after defeating several iron golems, they were mobbed to death.
"Good thing these things don't have high production rates," Levi sighed somewhat.
If even one or two hundred Olog-hai had come as vanguards to clear the way for the orc army behind, these iron golems might not have been able to hold them.
The Lonely Mountain's mineral stores weren't abundant. Levi had only summoned less than a thousand iron golems before running out.
But using these to defend the city was sufficient. They could at least fight ten times their number in orcs. It was just that the orcs outside numbered more than ten times the iron golems.
"What strange thing is that again?"
Azog was starting to feel numb.
"But if you think this can stop our army, you're wrong."
"We still have one army that hasn't deployed yet."
Flag signals went out again.
"Beasts attack!"
From the tunnels dug by worms, dense masses of wargs emerged, quickly rushing toward the gap.
This was another army that hadn't entered the field yet: wargs.
Before the walls were breached, they couldn't be of much use. Now was the time for them to shine.
"Please don't attack." Levi quickly blocked the wall gap, sweat pouring from his head.
"I really feel like this difficulty might be a bit too high now."
"What difficulty?" Gandalf asked while cutting down the remaining orcs inside the wall.
"I mean the difficulty of this battle. Why are they so fierce?"
"They've always been like this."
"No, I mean, forget it..."
"What?" Now Gandalf was truly confused. How was he even more cryptic than himself?
"I've decided to respect the mechanics," Levi suddenly said something inexplicable.