"Fire!"
Following Kenneth's command, the Kingrick Royal Army soldiers unleashed a dense volley of arrows, sweeping through the charging orcs and wargs like a sudden storm, impaling them like hedgehogs.
However, these hedgehogs were lying motionless on the ground, very quiet.
"What did you scout?! You didn't discover such a large fortress; are you blind?!" The orc captain grabbed the scout from earlier that day, his large, dirty hand gripping the scout's neck tightly as he lifted him, roaring furiously.
The orc scout's pupils constricted in terror, his body trembling, but he dared not resist, only managing to utter a few syllables with difficulty: "I… I don't know."
"Get out!" The orc captain threw the scout to the ground, and the surrounding wargs immediately opened their blood-soaked mouths, eager to pounce.
Soon after, the sounds of flesh and bone being chewed could be heard.
The orc captain glared angrily at the sturdy Haight Fort, noticing that it was even equipped with more lethal ballistas, and the number of defenders was far greater than he had imagined.
To capture this fortress, they would need siege ladders and battering rams, but having barely slipped through the Elven and Human Kingdom's defenses, how could they possibly carry such cumbersome items all the way to the distant western lands of Minhiriath?
The orc captain looked at the ridiculous iron sword in his hand, then at the solid city walls.
This fortress was an existence that they, with their current equipment, could not possibly breach.
The orc captain watched as orcs and wargs, under his command, continuously charged the city walls only to be cut down by the rain of arrows, a surge of impotent rage filling his heart.
Cunning and hateful wizard! The orc captain wished he could cut off the opponent's head and then stomp on it.
But retreating now would not only earn him the contempt of other orc captains who had been subjugated by force, but also leave him without the courage to face his true orc leader.
So he roared: "Forget that fortress, you fools! Destroy all the buildings outside the fortress for me; that wizard must pay a price!"
On their way here, the orc captain had seen a small waystation and a watchtower guarded by only a few Humans.
But it was precisely because the orc captain wanted to directly attack the Erdtree that he had overlooked these two structures.
"Awooooh!"
Upon hearing their captain's command, the orcs immediately abandoned their charge on Haight Fort.
They had long realized that their small, broken swords could not inflict any damage on this fortress, so they turned and ran the moment the orc captain gave the order.
After all, destroying the almost unguarded waystation and watchtower was much easier than charging a fortress with a ten-in-ten chance of death.
"After you've destroyed everything, surround the fortress. I want to see what else that wizard can do, staying inside the fortress forever! Humans always need to eat and drink!" The orc captain bared his teeth ferociously at the fortress, his crowded facial features twitching with anger.
Kenneth Haight, who had been standing at the edge of the battlements observing the situation, watched the orcs abandon their attack on Haight Fort and breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Then he smiled at Fili, Kili, and Dwalin, the three dwarves who were still standing on wooden crates shooting arrows at the orcs who hadn't retreated in time, and politely thanked them: "Thank you very much for your help. The rest can be left to Arthur, Your Majesty, and Nepheli Loux."
Kili merely nodded in response, then continued to shoot arrows at the orcs below.
Fili and Dwalin, whose archery was relatively poorer, stopped their actions. Fili, as the representative of Durin, also jumped down from the wooden crate and said with a smile to Kenneth Haight: "Opportunities like this, where life is not threatened and we can slaughter these orcs to our hearts' content, are rare. I should be thanking you, sir Haight."
Then he asked with some concern: "sir Arthur is outside, will he be alright? I think once those orcs retreat, we can rush out to meet them."
Kenneth Haight smiled upon hearing this: "Thank you for your kindness, but please trust Arthur, Your Majesty, and moreover, Nepheli Loux is guarding him. What we should be more concerned about is how many orcs will escape tonight."
Dwalin said: "I have witnessed sir Arthur's strength, but whether or not we help has nothing to do with his strength. I said, we dwarves will not stand by and watch our friends fight outside while we comfortably sit inside the fortress. sir Haight, Fili and I share the same idea. Later, when you hear the sounds of battle from sir Arthur's side, let Fili and me down the city wall."
Kili also turned back and added: "And me."
Kenneth Haight raised his hand and stroked his golden beard. He looked at the dwarves, who had expressions of "no matter what you say, I will go out and help," and finally smiled helplessly, nodding: "Alright, I will send two soldiers with you to support sir Arthur."
This way, Haight Fort would still have the demi-human collective controlling the ballistas and four Kingrick Royal Army soldiers, which was the absolute minimum number of fortress defenders that could not be reduced further.
After all, Kenneth Haight was not sure if the orcs were feigning a retreat, so he had to keep enough personnel.
Sending out four soldiers was also to ensure that these three dwarf friends of Arthur, Your Majesty, could safely retreat in a critical moment.
The orcs actually did not know that most of those who had just shot arrows at them from the battlements were the demi-human collective obeying Kenneth Haight's orders.
If the orc captain hadn't been blinded by rage, he would have noticed that although the arrow rain was formidable, only those orcs and wargs who had charged too far ahead and fallen into the ambush at the very beginning were killed.
After realizing that there were people in the fortress, the Orcs' losses were not as great as the orc captain had imagined.
Most of the arrows fired by the demi-humans did not cause fatal injuries; instead, the Kingrick Royal Army soldiers remaining in the fortress and Fili and his companions, who had come to help, caused more casualties with fewer numbers.
And where had that knight captain and the other soldiers gone?
The answer was that Arthur had arranged them inside the watchtower, ambushing alongside the Kingrick Royal Army already present in the watchtower.
Arthur and Nepheli Loux shared the same view. After learning about the Orcs' habits through Fili and his companions, they concluded that if the orcs could not capture Haight Fort in a short time, they would redirect their attention to the waystation and watchtower outside the fortress.
Therefore, Arthur had arranged the knight captain and some soldiers from Haight Fort here; he did not want this watchtower to be destroyed by the orcs.
The same applied to the waystation.
However, the waystation itself was not very large, and Sellen was there, so Arthur was not worried about anything happening to the waystation.
Furthermore, to ensure that nothing happened to Sellen, Arthur had Rogier and two Pumpkin Head Soldiers stationed in the spacious room outside Sellen's basement.
Why were there two Pumpkin Head Soldiers? One was from Haight Fort, and the other had been outside Sellen's door in The Lands Between.
Arthur, inside the darkened watchtower, watched the knight captain from Haight Fort, who was ambushing beside him.
This knight captain, who had fallen into the Bloodfiingers, heard the distant screams of orcs and wargs being pierced by arrows from Haight Fort, and his aura became somewhat agitated.
The whites of his eyes gradually filled with blood, and his hand restlessly gripped the cold hilt of his knight's greatsword.
Arthur stretched out a hand and pressed it heavily on the knight captain's thick shoulder plate: "Patience. There will be enough orcs for you to enjoy the slaughter. I will not stop you."
The knight captain heard Arthur's words, and his restlessness calmed down slightly.
Then Arthur took out a blood-red Knight's medal from his spatial backpack. The medal seemed to have been soaked in blood, and it was also engraved with Mohg's three-pronged curse spear symbol.
When the knight captain saw this Knight's medal, his breathing quickened, showing an unusual desire.
He noticed the knight captain's condition and smiled: "It seems you recognize this [Pureblood Knight's Medal]? That makes things easier. You should know how difficult it is to obtain, right?"
The knight captain nodded repeatedly.
Arthur held the medal and tossed it a few times, and the knight captain's gaze followed the medal's trajectory moving up and down in the air.
Arthur finally caught the medal, put it away, and then said in a stern tone: "If you want this medal, you must not be like a beast, unable to suppress the desire for slaughter in your heart. Otherwise, what is the difference between you and those orcs outside?"
The knight captain was silent for a few seconds, then said in a low voice: "I understand."
Arthur then nodded with satisfaction: "When the time is right, I will personally bestow the medal upon you. For now, you only need to obey my orders."
"Yes, Sir," the knight captain spoke again in a low voice.
Arthur looked at him and shook his head slightly.
He knew that the true object of allegiance for this knight captain, who had fallen into the path of blood, was not himself, but the power of Mohg's Great Rune within his body.
However, it didn't matter; serving Mohg and serving himself had no substantial difference.
But this knight captain's submission to him also indirectly explained one thing: those Bloodfiingers under Mohg, who were mad with bloodlust, might also obey his commands because of Mohg's Great Rune.
Although this group of tarnished who had fallen into the path of blood were very dangerous, if they could truly listen to him, then they would be a very strong fighting force.
Arthur had even thought about what to make this group of Bloodfiingers do: Aren't those orcs annoying because they can't be completely eliminated? Well, then let these Bloodfiingers, whose desire for slaughter is high, hunt them everywhere.
Since Bloodfiingers are as bloodthirsty as life itself, there just happened to be the orcs, an annoying and unkillable race, to satisfy the Bloodfiingers' desires.
As the saying goes, evil people are dealt with by even more evil people.
Of course, Arthur was not yet sure if all Bloodfiingers, like this knight captain, would obey him because of Mohg's Great Rune; he still needed to verify this issue.
But for now, the orcs that had already arrived needed to be dealt with first.
Arthur had already heard the strange cries of the orcs and the low growls of the wargs as they broke into the outpost.
"Destroy those watchtowers and tents! If you find any Humans hiding inside, tear them to shreds!" The orc captain's command came through.
Arthur patted the knight captain's shoulder, who was almost unable to endure, signaling him not to suppress his desire for slaughter any longer and to begin the massacre of the orcs.
A red light flashed in the knight captain's eyes. He drew the knight's greatsword from his back, then kicked open the watchtower's door.
The iron door opened outwards with a "boom," hitting the nose of a warg that was cautiously approaching, having smelled Human scent, causing it to let out a startled "Awoo!"
The pupils of the orc sitting on the warg's back instantly dilated. Before the scene inside the door could register in its eyes, a crimson light of blood, like a tide, engulfed its vision.
It was a dazzling scarlet, as if countless drops of blood had instantly condensed, transforming into a blood mist that filled the entire world. Its vision began to blur, and its consciousness was mercilessly dragged by a giant hand of darkness, sinking into a bottomless abyss.
The surrounding orcs witnessed this sudden, bloody scene. Their screams intertwined with the frightened howls of the wolves.
The orc's corpse, along with the warg beneath it, was split in half, a bloody mess sprawled across the doorway.
The bodies of the other orcs around them involuntarily recoiled, their footsteps shuffling over scattered stones in confusion, creating a panicked sound.
The scent of blood permeated the air.
Even the orc captain was startled by this bloody scene, but just as he was about to roar, he was interrupted by a sudden sound of footsteps.
"Thud, thud…"
The footsteps were not loud in the noisy environment, but each step of the iron boots seemed like a heavy hammer striking the Orcs' hearts, the echo lingering in their minds.
The knight captain's figure slowly emerged from the watchtower, his movements steady and deliberate.
He held the knight's greatsword, stained with orc black blood and fragments of internal organs, with both hands. With a gentle swing, the filth scattered like autumn leaves onto the solid ground, leaving a trail of deep bloodstains.
"I said, tear him to shreds! He's just a Human Knight, what are you fools afraid of?!" The orc captain suppressed the unease in his heart and roared furiously.
The orc closest to the knight captain, under the captain's command and pressure, raised its axe and blade, which were less than half the length of the knight's greatsword, and charged forward.
But what the orcs did not expect was that the knight captain charged even faster, no, he crashed into the crowd of orcs with an almost insane resolve.
"Raise my sword, blood—surge!"
Amidst the flying dust, the knight captain's roar, like a beast's howl, tore through the battlefield's dullness. The knight's greatsword in his hand unleashed one blood-slash after another, the blood-light blossoming amidst the Orcs' astonishment.
Just as the knight captain attracted the attention of most of the orcs, the Kingrick Royal Army soldiers hiding in the other watchtowers began to show themselves above the watchtowers.
Two soldiers stood on each watchtower. They raised their already-strung crossbows and pulled the triggers.
"Whoosh—!"
The familiar sound of arrows cutting through the air came. Not long ago, the orcs had heard arrows making this sound at the fortress below, shooting down their comrades.
The Kingrick Royal Army soldiers fired in turns. Their accuracy was countless times higher than that of the demi-human swarm at Kenneth Haight's fort, who could barely draw their bows. The first volley alone caused the orc captain to lose about twenty of his members.
A warg, lucky enough not to be hit in a vital spot by an arrow, was enraged by the pain of its wound. It roared at the soldiers firing crossbows from the watchtower, then charged to the door below the watchtower.
The next moment, the watchtower door also swung open outwards, and a cold, sharp broad-headed spear met the injured warg, sinking deep into its skull.
A Knight, dressed similarly to the knight captain who had fallen into the path of blood, emerged from the watchtower, carrying a golden-yellow greatshield and a long spear.
He first gave the other knight captain a cold glance, then snorted and raised his long spear, pointing it at the chaotic orcs, and loudly called out to the four soldiers who had been ambushed behind him: "Don't let that Knight who has fallen into evil ways snatch our first achievement from Arthur, Your Majesty."
"All units, march with me!"