Toys

Burned Lake-town

A day has passed since the battle against the wainriders and the first death of a Nazgûl in middle earth's history, Tiberius doesn't know how a big deal that is and the unknown consequences it would bring to the legions because right now he is too busy preparing the legions to break camp before daybreak as they would soon begin their march towards Erebor along with the dwarven army.

----------------------------------

Tiberius POV

"How's your injury, Garen?

Looking at Garen's face he can see his swollen eye.

"It's fine, for some reason it's healing faster than I thought it would, you should have seen my face yesterday it was way worse than now, not only me even the other men's wounds are also healing at an accelerated rate than before, wounds that would take days to heal are just scars already."

Tiberius looked at Garen in surprise, now that he thought about it he felt stronger than before, he could fight longer without being out of breath and he even managed to defeat the legendary Nazgûl making it retreat before it died with the help of the dwarves.

"Yes we're different compared to when we just arrived, wounds healed faster, increased stamina, farther eyesight, and our bodies felt stronger too, I recall Gandalf saying something about Númenorean blood? We need to take his words seriously."

"I agree with you, your majesty, Gandalf words might be true, great changes came upon us and we must thoroughly investigate it's effects, but from what I can see it's been a great benefit to the legions but we must not be complacent, we don't know if there is any hidden consequence achieving such power."

Nodding his head Tiberius agreed with his friend, they don't know if there is any potential danger from their newly gained powers, after encountering the Nazgûl he remembered their history from Gandalf, they were men with great power and wealth but at the cost of corruption, if they were also corrupted by their powers he would rather die rather than being controlled by someone who calls himself a Dark Lord.

"For now be alert, be on a lookout for any men that act strangely."

Nodding his head Garen saluted before leaving to inform the centurions to report of any suspicious individuals.

After looking at Garen's departing figure he looked at the dwarves inside the camp, after arriving yesterday they occupied the tents of the fallen men, and with their short stature a couple of dwarves could easily fit inside a single tent.

The dwarves were already lining up as they prepare to march out of the camp, their discipline is as good or even better than the legions, they wore thick armors and held long spears and heavy shields. There was an entire line of cavalry on goats in the dwarven army, though the sight of dwarfs riding goats looked amusing he dared not to laugh after what he saw yesterday, those goats rammed the wainriders with their large horns, throwing both the horse and rider far.

"Impressive right?"

Coming right beside him is Dáin ll Ironfoot, the cousin of Thorin Oakenshield and Lord of the Iron hills which he learned is one of the strongest dwarf domains.

"Yes they truly are, even with the size of the legion it would be a difficult battle to win against your army without sustaining large casualties."

"Aye lad I bet you wouldn't even win! This here is the best soldiers of the Iron hills army, they are veterans of many battles and equipped with the best dwarven-steel, they were strictly trained since they enlisted and most of them here are more than a hundred years old."

Tiberius sweat nervously hearing his descriptions, an army of veteran dwarves wearing thick armors that are also far older than any human that ever lived back in Rome. Legionnaires spend a minimum of twenty-five years before retiring, nothing compared to the dwarves who have hundreds of years of battle experience. Though they are outnumbered by the legions it would still be a difficult battle to win.

Thinking on his mind he sighs in relief knowing that he did not betray Thorin or else he would have faced Ironfoot and his army. While looking at the dwarven army he spots dwarves riding on chariots pulled by multiple goats and ballistas also pulled by goats.

"Nice toys you got there."

"Aye lad! They are made by the best thinkers of the Iron hills and you would be surprised by their firepower."

"How so?"

The dwarf smiled while pointing at the weapons of war: "Those chariots are equipped with repeating crossbows that would continuously shoot twenty arrows until they ran out of ammo while the goats rams the enemy lines. That ballista over there shoot something I called twiddly widdlies, when the arrow flies through the air the back end would open up and spin deflecting any projectiles in it's path, then it would land on the enemies dealing a big blow! HAHA!"

"Wow....."

Tiberius' mouth was left open as the dwarf described their weaponry, the dwarves weapons are too advanced and deadly compared to any roman weaponry. It would take years of research to understand how they built such a fascinating weapon.

"I hope you can teach us how you built them or better yet we can purchase some instead."

"HAHA! Like them don't ya? Don't worry lad, for helping us dwarves reclaim Erebor I would gift you some of our toys, you don't know how much important that mountain for us Durin's, all dwarves would celebrate when the word spreads that Erebor was retaken."

Smiling at the dwarf Tiberius thanked him joyfully knowing that they will procure some weaponry from the dwarves.

The commander of dwarves and men sits on their mounts as they continued to observe their army break camp, after an hour, a long line of dwarves and men can be seen in the open field as the sun rises, the field was silent and only the sound of chirping birds and the wind blowing can be heard as the combined army of man and dwarfs awaits.

Dwedmar eron Khro hill Veloz! (Dwarves of the Iron hills march!)

Legions Forward!

The first one to break the silence was Ironfoot as their army march first followed by the legions of Rome from behind. As both armies marched towards the mountain Tiberius spots something near the shoreline.

"What's that?"

Galloping his horse towards the shoreline he finds a black spear stabbed on the sand.

"A black spear?"

Behind him Garen arrives with the Praetorians in worry as they wondered why their prince separated from the army.

"That's the black arrow!"

Garen looked in surprised at the object on the sand and explained it's origins and purpose to the prince.

"I see, this would be useful if that giant lizard ever comes back."

Tiberius smiled and replaced his javelin with the black arrow now knowing he has a contingency plan in case the dragon ever returns.

"That dragon will not know what's coming."