The Great Eagles were formidable fighters, and in his wrath, Beorn was a force of nature.
However, combined, there were only seven or eight of them against an endless tide. For every orc an eagle's talons ripped from the earth, ten more swarmed to take its place. The great army from Gundabad continued to pour from the mountain's maw without pause. The orcs had hunted skin-changers before; they knew the giant bear's weaknesses and attacked with cunning, targeted strategies. With a willingness to bleed, they knew Beorn could be brought down.
The Great Eagles, who seemed to have no counter, were still just flesh and blood. No matter how strong or fierce, they couldn't possibly fight one against ten thousand. In fact, if Levi hadn't cleared out the orcs' war beasts beforehand with his various destructive methods, the eagles might not have been able to sweep through the warg packs so smoothly.
Manpower, even that of legends, eventually runs out.
But Levi's strength was inexhaustible.
"Go, go, go!"
At the foot of Ravenhill, Levi charged at the very front, a black-armored juggernaut leading the dwarves through the orcs ambushing in the ruins. The path behind them was already sealed. While the orcs were distracted by the chaos from the sky, Levi had taken the opportunity to block the road to their command center, trapping a sizable portion of the army outside the walls he had built.
At this moment, the orcs outside couldn't get in, and the orcs inside couldn't get out. The battlefield's connectivity was severed, creating a new, isolated kill zone.
However, right now, these trapped orcs didn't seem to want to get out. They swarmed from the ruins, raising cleavers and crude crossbows, attacking all at once. Most of the orcs ambushing here had come from the deep pits of Moria. Their temperament was much darker and more irritable than their kin from the Misty Mountains.
But that was about it.
Levi led the way, raising his shield as a volley of projectiles clanged against it. He drew his long sword and plunged into the orc pile, his blade a sweeping arc of fire that cleared a large area with each strike. He carved a path from the southern end of the ruins to the northern end, and after realizing he'd gone too far, he turned and cut his way back from north to south.
After plowing through them twice, he had thoroughly terrified these orcs, who had spent too long in the deep pits. They scrambled backward, their snarling courage dissolving into primal fear.
What new breed of human was this?
As a hulking captain fell, Levi felt a new instinct sharpen within him. He focused his power, and his next thrust bypassed another orc's iron plate entirely, the glowing blade sinking deep into flesh. The concept of armor piercing was now a part of his combat arsenal.
"The way up is this way!"
Seeing Levi was about to make another bloody round trip, Thorin quickly grabbed his arm and pointed the way up the winding path. In front of Levi's sheer destructive force, even Thorin Oakenshield had become a voice of caution.
"Alright, let's go up!"
The lowest level of orcs had been mostly cleared out. The remaining scattered few could be left to the dwarves' battlefield-clearing squads; they could handle them completely.
Following the stairs, Levi ascended without pause. If there were orcs, he killed orcs; if there were wargs, he cut down wargs. Some orcs tried to destroy the path, but in the next second, summoned stone blocks would bridge the gap. Others brought rubble to block the road, but those obstacles couldn't hold for even a second, being dug out after just a few swings of his pickaxe. A band of snarling goblins, a detachment from the now-decimated Goblin-town, swarmed from behind the rocks.
"Haha, you're surrounded!" one shrieked.
While everyone's attention was drawn to the goblins at the rear, another group shrieked and leaped from the cliffs above, raising scimitars and clubs, intending to launch an aerial assault.
They only realized their mistake when Levi looked up, his sword already a blur of motion.
"Wait, it's that man!" a goblin screeched, its words cut short as Levi's fiery blade sent it flying, a flaming comet in the gloom. When they clearly saw the face of the black-armored warrior below, the goblins finally realized what a terrible error they had made.
Perhaps it wasn't the dwarves who were surrounded.
"Retreat!" some goblins shrieked, scrambling back over the rocks.
It was far too late.
A moment later, over a hundred goblin corpses littered the path. A new sensation flowed through Levi as he leaped into a knot of them, his downward slash landing with the force of a thunderclap, the impact staggering every goblin nearby. Another combat instinct, the jump attack, was now his to command.
"Continue forward!"
After dealing with the cannon fodder, Levi led the group as they continued to charge upward. Strangely, they encountered no more obstacles along the way.
"Where did the orcs go?" Kili asked, his voice laced with surprise.
"They couldn't have been scared off, could they?" Fili, ever the optimist, was the first to answer.
Thorin shook his head. "No, it's not that simple. Stay vigilant, watch your surroundings."
The group continued to advance, weapons ready.
"There's really not a single one."
Even upon reaching the very top of Ravenhill, they couldn't see another orc.
"I have a bad feeling," Dwalin, who had been silent all along, spoke with a low growl. "I feel like we're being watched by countless eyes, but we can't see anyone." He gripped the battle-axe in his hands tightly.
"Whatever the situation is, we'll know once we get up there and see," Levi said, his voice calm and unworried. "The command post is over there."
He approached the abandoned watchtower step by step, but the place was eerily quiet, without a single sound. The swarm of bats that had previously covered the sky and the large group of orc archers that had surrounded the platform had all now vanished, as if they had never been here.
Only the combined orc command banner stood there, flapping forlornly in the wind.
"Don't let your guard down," Thorin reminded them, his hand on his sword. "That pale orc is cunning and cruel. He must have some trick up his sleeve."
"Whatever trick he has, let them all come!" the dwarves beside him muttered, full of fighting spirit, surrounding Thorin and closely watching every movement around them.
"Levi, what do you think?" Thorin asked, turning.
"Levi?"
He was gone.
Click.
The sound of a mechanism being triggered drew the dwarves' attention.
Vwoom!
The orcs' command horn sounded automatically, and a flag signal was given. Down below, a line of the orc army advanced, only to be blown to smithereens by the stationed archers and the firework-crossbow squad.
"Huh...?"
Levi had seemingly discovered a new continent.
"Levi, what are you doing?" the dwarves all looked over at him, where he was now standing by the command console.
"Shh. I'm conducting research."
Click, click, click, click.
The sound of the mechanism being triggered kept ringing out, and the horn calls and flag signals changed continuously.
Looking down into the distance, they saw the orc army descend into utter chaos. Some units moved left, some right, some advanced only to be wiped out by the defending army, while others retreated and crashed into the formations behind them. Wargs poured out from tunnels on both sides, their mouths agape, looking around in confusion. Trolls ran out of a cave to attack to the left, only to run into a rock face, where they stood scratching their heads in bewilderment.
The entire battlefield instantly dissolved into a symphony of chaotic incompetence.
"Fun."