Chapter 24: A Hard-Won Victory

"…" Rynar stared blankly at Ravenhill, lost in thought.

"Caslow!" Rynar cried out in anguish.

Hearing his lord's call, Caslow quickly shook off a swarm of bats and sped towards Rynar.

"Take me to Ravenhill!" Rynar shouted in anger.

Caslow, who had just landed, nearly tumbled off his dragon. What kind of death wish was this? 

There was no way Caslow was going to take his lord up there. It was suicide! Even Reynard, the head knight, wouldn't survive up there. 

"Screech~" A loud eagle cry echoed in the sky.

"The Great Eagles have arrived!" Bilbo exclaimed excitedly.

"Roar!" Beorn descended from the sky, transforming into a massive bear using his nature magic.

"Roar!" 

With a gust of wind, a towering troll had its head swiped off by Beorn's paw. 

The enormous body plowed through the battlefield, leaving a bloody path among the orcs. His thick fur provided him with unparalleled defense.

The Great Eagles dove down, their massive talons tearing through the war bats in the sky, clearing the air in an instant.

The brown-robed wizard Radagast waved his staff, casting wide-area wood spells. Thick vines sprouted from the ground within a mile radius, entangling the orcs. 

The prepared dwarves and soldiers of Zaltarion quickly plunged their weapons into the orcs' bodies.

…

Clang! With the sound of a blade cutting through an orc's neck, Thorin suddenly realized there were no orcs left in front of him.

In Dale, Bard and Thranduil had also slain all the invading orcs within the city.

Legolas, standing atop the archer's tower, continued to fire his arrows enthusiastically, but then noticed that no orcs were left alive in his line of sight. 

Only the groans of wounded humans and elves remained. He hesitated for a moment, then leapt down from the tower…

…

Thud! Rynar rolled to the ground, instinctively trying to dodge any possible attack. As he looked up, he saw Caslow's evasive gaze, and a twitch formed at the corner of his mouth.

On the vast Ravenhill, aside from the collapsed orcish banner, used by Azog to command his forces, there wasn't a soul in sight. 

Through the mountain's smoke, the orcs could be seen retreating.

"They're fleeing, my lord!" Caslow said, shaking his head in frustration.

"Azog is a cunning one," Caslow thought with a sigh.

"Why would they retreat when they had the upper hand?" Rynar was puzzled.

"They don't want to face our knights on the plains," Caslow scoffed at Rynar.

If the orcs hadn't retreated, Caslow wouldn't have dared to bring Rynar up here. 

With his high vantage point, Caslow had long noticed the orcs' hesitation when the Great Eagles and Beorn arrived.

"To defeat our knights in this terrain, the orcs would have to pay a price of at least ten thousand lives. Don't forget, my lord, your knights are led by a captain of the Zaltarion royal guard paladins! 

These are not ordinary men bearing the title of knight—these are one hundred genuine second-tier warriors," Caslow explained, spreading his hands.

"Besides, even if the orcs won, they'd be left in tatters. And now that we control the skies, I could rain down the wrath of dragons on them without the war bats to stop me," Caslow continued, clearly understanding the situation.

The orcs had their own calculations. They were fighting for Sauron, but not to the point of decimating their own race. 

Azog's forces had only brought light arms for this surprise attack. Even the reinforcements from Gundabad were the weakest of the bunch. 

Who could have predicted so many unexpected variables? 

A knight corps was already a challenge, but then there were the two paladins, and the Great Eagles that tore through the war bats like paper. 

To top it all off, there was a dragon rider! Was this even a fair fight? 

When Azog saw the dragon, he was terrified. If he hadn't fled when he did, he'd have been sliced into orc chunks by wind blades. 

As soon as the Great Eagles arrived, Azog made up his mind—run! Fleeing meant survival. Staying meant certain death.

As he fled, Azog couldn't help but suspect that this whole battle was a trap meant to decimate the orcs. 

If not for the fact that the elven, dwarven, and human armies were too small, Azog would have believed that someone was plotting against him.

…

Thump! Rynar dropped to his knees in front of the fallen bodies of the Rapid Infantry. 

Their path had been short; from their first encounter with the orcs to their total annihilation, they had advanced less than a mile. 

On this battlefield, barely 500 meters long, lay the corpses of nearly two thousand orcs and three hundred Rapid Infantry. 

Every Rapid Infantry soldier had fatal wounds on their front, meaning they had kept charging forward, even in their final moments.

"Azog! Bolg! I will kill you both!" Rynar swore with hatred.

The knights and Battanian archers silently moved the bodies of the Rapid Infantry, laying them out separately. 

The atmosphere was suffocatingly heavy. Their brothers, who had fought beside them, now lay cold and lifeless. 

Every person present clenched their teeth, their faces grim.

Rynar and his men dug into the frozen ground on Ravenhill, burying the Rapid Infantry there. 

In life, they had fought to defend the ridge. In death, they would stand eternal vigil, guarding the peace of these mountains.

"Congratulations, host! You have successfully won the Battle of the Lonely Mountain! 

Participation rate: 87%! System update in progress! Task panel loading…" For the first time, the system was actually updating!

"Update complete! New system features unlocked: Shop, Quest Hall, Storage."

"Battle of the Lonely Mountain rewards being distributed…" The system hadn't finished yet!

"Reward: A River Running Town! The host can manifest this town at any suitable location." Finally, the system notification ended.

Rynar was stunned, but in a good way. He had just lost three hundred Rapid Infantry, which greatly weakened his forces. 

But this reward was a huge boost. A town? 

That was like a lifeline for Rynar, who had no permanent territory. And not just any town—this was a River Running Town!

This wasn't just a random name! 

In the game, only towns along the River Running could carry that name, and they allowed the recruitment of the special Rapid Infantry units. Earlier

Riverguard, a town around River Running was one of the most important places in Zaltarion Empire.

 Normal imperial towns could only recruit regular troops like Imperial Guards, but Rapid Infantry could only be recruited in towns along the river.

What's more, this was a real world, and the combat power of the Rapid Infantry had been proven in war. They were absolutely a core fighting force.

Rynar already had a plan for his new town. He would build it at the mouth of Long Lake, where the game's River Running City once stood. 

In its early days, it was just a town. Rynar was determined to revive the glory of Zaltarion, starting with this town! But first… he had to discuss payment with Thorin.

Clapping the dust off his hands, Rynar mounted his horse and rode towards Thorin, who was gathering the remains of the dwarven warriors in front of Erebor.