Without mentioning that Thorin and his crew were being hunted and finally managed to escape under the giant eagle waved by Gandalf, let us turn our attention to the poor Roland children.
"Damn, where do so many goblins come from?" Kaslo looked at the goblins rushing from behind in surprise.
Roland's mouth twitched. If he hadn't been fooled, it would have seemed like old Gandalf had killed a fat guy in the Goblin Town in the Misty Mountains. He seemed to be called the Goblin King or something...
"Fuck! Damn Thorin! You all ran away and brought disaster to me!" Roland realized that he was taking the blame for Thorin and his group.
"Retreat! Retreat!" Roland said hurriedly. It's not that he hadn't thought about counterattacking, but he felt that there was no benefit in turning around and fighting. If he lost, he would lose face, and if he won, he would lose money (his men would definitely suffer heavy casualties). There was really no need to do a losing business.
So, such a spectacular scene appeared on the eastern foot of the Misty Mountains: about four hundred fully armed elite humans were running around in the woods and bushes, and behind them were thousands of weak goblins with thin arms and legs chasing them wildly, howling like ghosts and wolves. Both sides put all their efforts into a unique marathon.
"Shoot back!" Caslo suddenly yelled.
He was guarding the rear, noticing that some of the strongest goblins had nearly reached the slowest-running Flood Infantry. Immediately, at his command, the knights and Badanian archers swung their horses and drew their bows. The knights unleashed the first hail of arrows, only to sparsely mow down a dozen or so goblins. Such a high accuracy rate made Roland scramble to his face. The descending Badanian archers were truly impressive. A hundred sharp arrows flew from their bows, instantly slicing through the goblin vanguard as if gnawed by something. A large number of goblins collapsed to the ground, and a closer look revealed that most of them had been shot in the throat or heart.
"Great! As expected of a knight specializing in shooting!" Roland exclaimed in his heart. "Ah, damn it! A knight! I've been fooled by the heavy armor of the Badaniyan archers again!" Roland blushed. "Well, it's not my fault! I can only blame them for being so deceptive."
"Sir! The infantrymen can't keep up!" Caslan suddenly shouted.
"What?" Roland heard this and took a closer look. Sure enough, the Flood Infantry were walking with difficulty and panting heavily. Seeing them sweating profusely, Roland's heart sank.
"We can't go on like this!" Roland thought to himself.
"The rear army turns to the front army! The whole army forms a battle line!" Roland suddenly shouted.
Renault's eyes widened. What was going on? Had his lord gone mad? Was he planning to die? If he really turned back to fight, apart from Kaslo on his dragon, Renault was probably the only one present who would survive.
Roland was certainly not crazy. You have to know that it was not only the torrent infantry who had lost strength after the long chase. The goblins with their short legs were also exhausted. Sure enough, the "huge waves" chasing behind them had become "small streams", and in the distance, small waves of goblins were running towards them frantically.
Great! These silly kids didn't even care about their formation in order to chase people, and they just scattered into small groups to chase.
"The refueling tactic is good, refueling is good, I like refueling the most!" Roland grinned.
"Torrent Charge Formation! Form the formation!" Roland shouted.
And then… the Swiftstream Infantry were completely bewildered… Roland slapped his head, speechless. The system only gave him 200 men, when even the lowest-level Swiftstream Infantry formation required 300 men. Others might not know, but Roland knew that a Swiftstream formation of 30 men in a row and 10 men in a column was incredibly powerful. Ten such formations could crush a hundred-man knight order—and that was a legitimate knight order! Especially in this world, professionals weren't everywhere; they were still a relatively rare sight.
"100 people in a row! 2 people in a column! Go ahead!" Roland could only give detailed instructions.
Upon hearing the order, the torrent infantrymen hurriedly smashed their large shields into the ground. The torrent infantrymen in the first row placed their lances flat and leaned against the shield wall. The infantrymen in the second row also smashed their shields into the ground like the first row, but they tilted their shields 30° to the left, leaving an arm's length of space. They placed their lances diagonally on the shields and drew out the maces from their waists.
"Bagong will be responsible for covering the shooting! Renault, you lead the Knights to find an opportunity to attack them!" Roland said seriously.
"Okay, sir!" Renault led the knights away.
"We should be in the Dark Forest now, right?" Roland asked Kaslo.
Kaslo took out the detailed map given by Elrond and compared it for a long time: "My lord, we should be at the edge of the Mirkwood now."
"Yeah." Roland responded.
"Clang!" Roland drew out the Dragon Slaying Sword and urged his warhorse to the front of the formation.
"Soldiers! Brothers! We can't run anymore! We are just lambs to be slaughtered after losing our strength! So we can only fight with our backs against the wall! I ask you to hold our position with me! Tell the enemy! The glory of Lagran has never disappeared! The soldiers of the empire are still fighting! Are you willing?" Roland shouted.
"For the glory of the empire! Long live the empire!" everyone shouted in unison.
"Kill!" The 5-meter-long chevaux de frise was thrust across, and the hundreds of goblins that rushed forward were immediately strung together like candied haws. Seeing the goblins behind rushing forward, the heavy touch of the spears in their hands forced the first row of torrent infantry to decisively give up the spears in their hands and picked up the maces at their waists. The second row of torrent infantry behind them then put down their spears.
"Bang!" With a loud bang, a torrent infantryman swung the mace in his hand and hit the head of an advancing goblin.
"Shoot at high speed!" Kaslo shouted quickly when he saw more and more goblins coming up and moving towards the flanks of the infantry.
"Hah, hah, hah!" The archers of Badania quickly gave up accurate shooting and quickly poured out the arrows in the quiver at the fastest speed. Soon a quiver of 50 arrows was empty. At this moment, the archers of Badania were grimacing and rubbing their cramped arms.
The effect was obvious. What did 5,000 fine iron arrows even mean? Just look at the twitching goblins in front of you. Roland estimated that at least several hundred goblins had merged with the earth in the rain of arrows.
The torrent infantrymen who were swinging their maces suddenly felt empty in front of them, and realized that there were corpses everywhere in front of them. The goblins who died in the rain of arrows were still okay, but the corpses that fell in front of the torrent infantrymen had piled up into a small hill. The ones in the front either had dozens of holes in their bodies or were objects that were smashed into unknown shapes by the hammers.
The first row of rapid infantry quickly stepped out from the pile of corpses, pulled out their lances, and stood in a row again, forming a shield wall.
"Woo~Woo!" A low horn sounded, and the knights led by Renault poured down on the horizon. The goblins trapped in the middle were in chaos and fled in all directions.
"Everyone charge!" Roland saw that the time was ripe and ordered the entire army to charge.
The Flood Infantrymen drew their shields, held their spears, and charged forward in a single row. Behind them, the Badaniyan archers on their warhorses sheathed their longbows and removed the meter-long mithril armor-piercing hammers from their backs...
"Damn it! If anyone says they are shooters in the future, I will get angry with them!" Roland said with a twitching eye.
…
"Does this count as a battle?" Roland asked rudely.
"It can be considered as such... After all, there are nearly two thousand goblins lying here... But, can goblins be considered as a victory?" Renault flattered Roland with a dark face.
"Well, at least the number of people counts!" Roland waved his hand, looking like he was saying, "I don't want to hear it."
"Let's go! It's time to go to the final battlefield..." Roland sighed as he gazed into the distance. What was coming would eventually come. He wondered if the outcome of this battle would still be as he knew it would be...
"Congratulations, host, for completing an exceptional battle! The enemy and our casualties ratio is 2457:0. Reward: 100 Flood Infantrymen."
"System YYDs! Well done!" Roland looked at the reward given by the system, which was exactly the troops he needed most, and couldn't help but get excited.
"All troops, listen up! Target: Lonely Mountain! Move out!" Roland said with high spirits as he looked at the 100 Swiftstream Infantrymen coming to support from afar.