The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 183 The Generous Dwarf

"What? The Dragonhawk Knight! Where is he? I'll go and fetch him myself!" Thorin Oakenshield exclaimed excitedly upon hearing the report from his nephews, Kiri and Fili, his excitement rivaling that of when he first obtained the Arkenstone.

“Uncle, he’s waiting for you on the walls of Irube. He says he needs your help with something important,” Kili said quickly.

"I'm going to see him!" Thorin rushed out, leaving his two brothers, still somewhat dazed, to eat his ashes behind.

It's no wonder Thorin was so agitated. When he first formed the Lonely Mountain Expedition, what a motley crew he had! Dwarves who were good for nothing but loyalty and tenacity. If Thorin had even had one dragonhawk rider, even if he couldn't seriously injure Smaug, he could have at least fought him to a standstill until Roland and his army arrived to provide support. In that case, Laketown might not have been destroyed.

"Your Highness, greetings!" Yad bowed deeply upon seeing Thorin, who was wearing a crown.

"Welcome, brother! I thought the dwarven dragonhawk knights had vanished from history! To see a dragonhawk knight again is truly..." Thorin's eyes welled with tears of excitement. In truth, the dwarves' lack of high-end combat power was extremely serious. If you really counted, Roland's Swiftstream City could now completely hold off the entire dwarven race with the strength of a single city! This was because the dwarves now had almost no experts above the fourth rank, let alone peak sixth-rank professionals.

One has to admire Thorin's incredible luck. He encountered King Bard, who was capable of slaying dragons, and Roland, who led the Knights. Otherwise, it would have been a miracle if that third-tier melee mage, "Gan Tofu," had been able to defeat Irubel.

"Your Highness, please hurry and save the other brothers..." Yad said anxiously.

"Others?" Thorin was taken aback.

“We have 14 dragonhawk knights… but because we accidentally invaded the airspace of a kingdom called Lagrang… their dragon knights forced us to retreat and detained the others… He said you should give them an explanation…” The burly dwarf, Yad, actually became embarrassed.

"...Lagrange...Swiftstream City...Dragon Knights? It should be Caslo...You flew right over their city?" Thorin asked, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Actually, we haven't even flown over that city yet, we've just skimmed over another one..." Yad said awkwardly.

"Oh! Descendants of Turin! By the beard! My God! You have actually invaded the airspace of both the Kingdom of Akvia and the Kingdom of Lagrange at the same time... Thank goodness the human archers of Swiftstream City didn't riddle you with bullets!" Thorin covered his face, questioning his existence.

"Don't you know that you can't just cross the skies of other city-states?" Thorin was utterly exasperated, completely exasperated by these stubborn dwarves.

“Forget it, Thorin, let’s go see King Roland and King Whitewing. Not all dwarves have your political talent, so it’s understandable that they don’t pay attention to these things,” Balin stepped forward.

"Alas, this is the only way..." The proud Thorin finally bowed to reality once again. If he wanted to maintain the dwarves' few remaining allies, bowing down at the right time was the only option. Thorin had already suffered from having enemies everywhere. The dwarves, who had become estranged from the elves, could no longer afford to lose their human allies.

……

"Greetings, King Roland. It's a pleasure to see you again. I wish you good health." Thorin appeared at the gates of Swiftstream.

"Welcome! Thorin, King of the Mountain, welcome to Swiftstream City." Roland also greeted him with a smile as he came out of the city.

“Your Highness, I would like to discuss with you the compensation for the rudeness of these Dragonhawk Knights,” Thorin said humbly.

"Although we have signed an alliance, this incident is indeed your fault! Your Highness, is it reasonable for you to ride a wyvern and swagger through someone else's airspace?" Roland's smile vanished as he addressed the serious matter; the dragon's roars had almost broken his composure. "I'm sorry, Your Highness Roland, the dwarves will do their best to compensate you," Thorin sighed apologetically.

"Is there anything you need? If it's something we can do, we'll do it for you," Thorin said sincerely.

"Your Highness, the equipment..." Yun Feng suddenly appeared behind Roland and transmitted his voice using magic.

"Holy crap! Absolutely amazing! They even managed to catch this pot!" Roland's eyes widened in disbelief. He had been worried that the equipment had been issued too late, leaving the soldiers no time to familiarize themselves with it, but the dwarves had come to provide assistance so quickly...

“Ahem, it’s like this, Thorin. We have nearly 500 soldiers here who don’t have suitable equipment…” Roland said with a strange expression.

"No problem! A full set of equipment made of dwarven steel! As long as you don't tell me it's for 500 knights, I'll take care of the equipment for all other troops!" Thorin thumped his chest, his eyes full of pride. Apart from not being able to afford equipment for 500 knights, the dwarves could easily equip thousands of heavy infantry.

"A knight?" Roland instantly understood what he meant. Indeed, a knight's full set of equipment included a lance, a sword, full body armor, a shield, and most importantly, a horse armor! The amount of armor that covered a warhorse was incredibly high; even if a dwarf were to arm 500 human knights, it would be a headache for them.

“Twenty knights, thirty cavalry, and some infantry,” Roland casually reported the number to Thorin.

"That's good! No problem, we'll definitely use the best steel for you!" Thorin's beard twitched.

"I wonder if you can forgive me, Your Highness Roland?" Thorin said somewhat embarrassedly. Indeed, these iron weapons were insignificant to the dwarves; clearing out some of their inventory would be enough to arm them to the teeth.

“Of course, I forgive them, and you can take them back. However, I suggest you teach them a lesson. No city is a place where you can fly freely. If there were giant dragon-hunting crossbows here, they would have been shot down by now,” Roland said solemnly. After speaking, he ordered his men to release the dwarves who were being held captive in the city.

“You’re right! I think they’ll remember this lesson!” Thorin nodded in agreement. As a dwarf, he knew all too well the destructive power of the dragon-hunting crossbows, which were built in Middle-earth specifically to defend against dragons, let alone dragonborn.

“By the way, Thorin, you’d better go check on Los Sannier across the river… Their situation is dire. They’re still trying to gather the scattered residents, and your men almost scared away the entire city.” Roland turned and reminded him.

"..." Thorin was speechless. How was he supposed to compensate this guy? Thorin could already picture the people of Los Sannier scrambling to escape. If he said there were no losses in the process, even the goblins probably wouldn't believe it.

"Thank you for letting me know. We'll go check the other side right away..." Thorin said with a mournful face, his eyes filled with deep heartache.

……

"Alas, the poor king of the mountain has to take the blame for his own brother, tsk tsk tsk!" Roland clicked his tongue in amazement.

"There's nothing we can do, it's normal for dwarves to do something like this!" Yun Feng shook his head helplessly.

(End of this chapter)