"Crack, crack~" The friction sound of armor plates echoed in the dark forest. Dwarf warriors wearing heavy plate armor and holding dwarf shields formed small circles, surrounding the elven rangers and archers.
"Pay attention to the treetops!" Roland looked up at the dense ancient trees and reminded them.
"Pay attention to the treetops! Be careful of sneak attacks from orcs!" The person next to him immediately conveyed Roland's order.
In fact, Roland was very foresighted. Sure enough, one of the teams discovered the orcs hiding in the treetops while advancing. They clung to the tree trunks, short blades in hand, quietly waiting for the coalition soldiers to pass by, and then jumped down...
However, after Roland's reminder, in front of the prepared coalition forces, these little tricks of the orcs could only be said to be funny. Not to mention that in the perception of the sixth-level professionals, each of them was as bright as a light bulb, even the elves in the coalition forces could use their sharp eyes to spot the orcs hiding in the treetops, and then easily shoot down those "targets".
The journey was uneventful. The harassment from small groups of orcs almost never stopped, but no large-scale battles occurred. It can be said that the orcs successfully delayed the actions of the coalition forces with a small number of troops.
"Oh! God! Can't these filthy scum just come out and fight?" Vanerwei, who had just chopped off an orc's head, said in agony. He had had enough of these scattered orcs! Each one was either hiding in the treetops or in the caves, waiting to attack the coalition soldiers.
"They tried to hold us back!" Omsk said helplessly, holding his chest.
"Huh? Does that mean they will have reinforcements?" Roland was stunned.
"Even if there are reinforcements, they won't come too quickly. Now, apart from the Misty Mountains, the only one who can support them is Mordor! I think they should want to withdraw their troops to defend the Dol Guldur fortress and wait for reinforcements, and shrinking the defense line to summon soldiers... you know, that takes time." Omsk shrugged.
"What are we waiting for! Let's charge straight ahead! We can't let them gather their forces!" Thranduil narrowed his eyes. If the Ringwraiths gathered all the orcs who had fled in all directions to defend Dol Guldur, the coalition forces would have no good way to capture the fortress.
"It's too late. They should have gathered a lot of soldiers. A blind charge now will be useless. We should proceed steadily and at least prevent them from launching another surprise attack." Roland said as he glanced at Iovia.
"Ahem! What's with that look..." Iovia said awkwardly. It seemed like she was the only one here who had been backstabbed twice...
…
"Your Highness..." Omsk came to Roland's side and seemed to be hesitant to speak.
"What's wrong?" Roland asked in a low voice when he saw that no one was paying attention to them.
"What do you think of the coalition's action?" Omsk looked at Roland seriously.
"What do you think? What's wrong? Did you find anything wrong?" Roland's expression also became serious. Although he brought a small number of soldiers this time, they were definitely the elite troops of the Lagran Kingdom. The loss of a single soldier would make Roland feel distressed for a long time. If something went wrong, Roland said he could go to the rooftop to queue up for the reopening.
"Our goal this time is to capture Dol Guldur, but our military strength is insufficient to support us in capturing it!" Omsk said slowly.
"How could that be? We have four level six warriors, plus this army composed purely of professionals. How could we not break through Dol Guldur?" Roland breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that Omsk was worried about this problem.
"But the enemy has three Ringwraiths! And the Breath of Death, who is best at group combat, is waiting for us there!" Omsk said pessimistically.
"But you can stop them, right?" Roland looked at Omsk and said.
"But the Ringwraiths may not fight us directly. They are familiar with the terrain and can completely avoid us and slaughter low-level soldiers! It's not that I am pessimistic, Your Highness! As the strongest fighting force in the Kingdom of Raglan, I need to be responsible for you and the other soldiers going out to fight!" Omsk said firmly.
"Then what should we do? Tell them? And then the coalition forces go back? They won't agree... Thranduil dreams of returning here; and Eowia wants revenge. He wants to kill all the creatures of the dark camp here." Roland fell silent after he finished speaking.
"What they do has nothing to do with me. I just hope that you won't charge too far forward and lead our people to drive away the enemies around you. That way, even if something happens, our soldiers will be enough to hold on until I can come back for support!" Omsk whispered.
"Well... let's do this. It would be great if we can successfully capture Dol Guldur, but if anything unexpected happens, I will lead the soldiers to hold the position and wait for your return!" Roland nodded in agreement. Once a fight broke out, Omsk would definitely not stay behind, so he was bound to keep a distance from the Lagran army, and all Roland had to do was to protect his own safety before Omsk arrived.
"Omsk! Remind the elves!" Roland shouted at Omsk who was about to leave. Regardless of whether the elves' pride could hear him or not, as an ally, Roland decided to remind them.
…
"Roland, do you really think so?" Van Erwei came to Roland's tent and lifted the curtain and walked in quickly.
"Pull the curtains, it's windy at night!" Roland rolled his eyes helplessly.
"Don't interrupt, answer me properly!" Van Erwei insisted.
"You already knew the answer before you came here, didn't you?" Roland said to him meaningfully.
"It's not just you. Iovia and Thranduil should also understand, but they just don't want to admit it." Roland continued lightly.
"You mean... Dol Guldur is a huge trap!" Vanerwei said with difficulty.
"A trap? Not really. It's just a meat grinder at best. We might be able to capture it, but that depends on how much casualties you elves are willing to pay?" Bard and White Wing came at him one after another, and Bard spoke bluntly.
"Don't look at me like that. We can't possibly spend all our wealth for the elves' city. That won't do us any good. Dol Guldur is a hidden danger to us, but it's not fatal." Bai Yi sighed and told the truth.
"I can understand..." Vanerwe said dejectedly. He knew that humans would not pay a heavy price to retake Dol Guldur. As White Wing said, Dol Guldur was just a hidden danger and was not fatal at all. The deadly orc army had already been crushed by them at the foot of Lonely Mountain. Faced with Dol Guldur, which did not have to be eradicated, humans and dwarves were certainly unwilling to pay for the elves.
"I'm sure you'll bet against it. If Balin knew about this, he'd turn around and leave with the dwarves..." Bard scratched his head in annoyance. The dwarves were certainly willing to fight the orcs to the bitter end, but only when necessary. If fighting for the elves meant suffering heavy casualties, the dwarves wouldn't mind withdrawing. After all, the relationship between the two races wasn't exactly great...
"Let's take it one step at a time. Now we can only hope that the attack and defense of Dol Guldur will be easier, otherwise the coalition forces will disband, and the tentacles of evil will still spread across this land." Roland rubbed his brow.
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