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

Chapter 207 Dragon Rider General

"Farewell!" Roland waved to the centaurs who had seen him off a hundred meters away in the forest, then led Nyx and the knights on their journey home.

"Sigh, I wish we could play a few more days~" Nyx snuggled against Roland's chest, looking a little dejected. Young, carefree, and mischievous girls always love to play, especially the idle nobles...

"Once the kingdom is settled, I will take you to explore its magnificent landscapes and witness the changing times together!" Roland held the reins in one hand and embraced the beauty in the other, as if he had reached the pinnacle of his life.

"Whoosh!" Suddenly, a sound of something cutting through the air came from behind.

"clang!"

We should thank Roland for his life-saving nature; wherever he went, he never forgot his divine shield—Arial! The arrow that struck Arial instead shattered him to pieces. A divine weapon is a divine weapon! It is far beyond the defilement of ordinary iron!

"You're courting death! Fearless Spirit!" Roland activated the great shield in his hand, and a gentle wave swept over the knights centered on Roland. Roland had pre-emptively applied a buff to protect his knights from negative status effects.

"Orcs!" The knights' expressions changed, and they all surrounded Roland and Nyx, instantly forming a thick steel "wall" around them.

"Kill them!" Roland couldn't fight because he was holding Nyx in one arm, so he could only give orders. As for offensive holy magic, Roland didn't intend to waste his battle energy. He knew exactly how powerful his attacks were.

"Your Highness, be careful! Reinforcements will be here soon!" The leading knight was unwilling to attack. These knights were already struggling to protect their king and future queen, let alone launch an attack. At this moment, the captain of the knights was filled with anger and embarrassment. He was angry because he couldn't use his longsword to cut down these invading scum, and embarrassed because the king had been attacked on his own land... What a disgrace! Fortunately, Roland reacted quickly, otherwise Roland might have been killed by the assassin like San'er! In that case, even if these knights committed seppuku in a minute, they wouldn't be able to make up for the loss.

"Fire!" The enraged knight captain waved his hand. Today, I'm going to play dirty! You like archery? Fine! I'll have a duel with you! Target not accurate? No problem! We have plenty of arrows! Thick plate armor! Shoot me all you want! If you pierce me, I'll consider it bad luck, but one arrow from my pointed, armor-piercing arrow will leave a bloody hole in any of you little karakos! Today, we knights are not to be trifled with!
"Om~"

"Boom~"

"Clang, clang~"

Like a symphony, it resounded across this solemn battlefield. You could never have imagined that a duel between knights and orcs would turn into such a spectacle! One fought desperately but couldn't pierce the knight's plate armor, while the other racked his brains but couldn't hit the orc...

Roland and Nyx, peering through the gaps in the shield, exchanged bewildered glances, their faces utterly speechless...

“Your Highness… I think the knights’ archery skills should be improved… What do you think?” Nyx cautiously glanced at Roland’s face, which was as black as the bottom of a pot.

"You're right! My dear Grand Duke! They really need some proper training!" Roland's voice was icy cold, his eyes filled with embarrassment and anger.
Hearing Roland's words, the knights tightened their collars and quickened their pace, but their accuracy... worsened! "Can't you aim properly?" Roland finally snapped, exasperated after watching these brave knights fire arrows with the effect of projectiles instead of horizontal shots. Could someone tell him if those arrows, deviating hundreds of meters, were for real? Who shot that? What a genius!

"Let's rest! Let's wait for reinforcements!" Roland said weakly. The knights' achievements before him had completely blinded him. Just look at the fallen orcs! Roland would swear on his lower body that there were no more than five! And the jungle where those orcs were located had been riddled with hundreds of arrows! The orcs had even begun to retaliate with the knights' arrows...

Roland casually pulled out a stray arrow that had fallen through the gap in the shield and glanced at it: "Well done, gentlemen! I received an attack from my own armor-piercing arrows! Are you worried that the enemy doesn't have enough arrows, so you're sending them more?" Roland shrugged and put away the stray arrow. After all, even a large and powerful city like Swiftstream couldn't afford to waste it like this!
"My dear, I miss those Battanian archers!" Roland suddenly missed those fierce barbarians terribly. Although they were somewhat menacing and often did nothing of interest, at least they were professional! Ten Battanian archers could send this small group of less than 100 wandering orcs to meet the Dragon God in less than 5 minutes.

"Sigh... I wish this would end soon!" Roland groaned inwardly as he listened to the tinkling sounds like raindrops on banana leaves. He should have just let the centaurs send him back... In this desolate place, stuck with these two idiots, Roland was miserable!
The knights were even more distressed! Although they longed to impale those orcs with their lances, they dared not move because of the presence of the two princes! Forming a human wall was their only option.

……

"Hooray!" In less than ten minutes, reliable reinforcements finally arrived!

"Boom!" Kaldo exhaled a cloud of cyan energy, followed by a ball of light that expanded at the point of impact! Cyan wind blades danced wildly in the sky, cutting the entire thicket to pieces and finally leveling it to the ground.

"A forbidden spell! The Breath of the Wind?" Roland's eyes widened. This meant that Kaldor had reached the peak of his youth! Similarly... Caslo had also advanced along with the dragon's growth!
"Congratulations! Your Excellency Dragon Knight! You've taken another step towards becoming a Dragon Knight Commander." Roland congratulated him with a smile. That's right! Caslo had quietly reached the fifth rank! The growth rate of the Dragon Knights is truly despair-inducing... Back then, we agreed to stay at the third rank together, but they all abandoned Roland and advanced. Thorin is probably at the fourth rank by now! After all, with the Arken Gem, a treasure that provides a training buff, Thorin breaking through to the fourth rank was a piece of cake. He's probably on the verge of reaching the fifth rank now.

"Sigh..." Roland sighed.

"We've startled you! We're too late to save you!" Caslo said, feeling extremely guilty.

"It's alright! You arrived just in time. If they had been any later, they would have wasted hundreds more of my arrows..." Roland rubbed his head, feeling both a headache and a financial pain! It was all money!
“Well, they’re just not good at shooting…” Caslo tried to explain to the knights.

All the knights cast grateful glances at them, as if they were looking at their reborn parents or raising their children again.

"No need to explain to them. This is the first time I've seen a knight shoot a stationary target like this... It's an eye-opener." Roland finally understood today what it meant for life and death to be determined by fate, and wealth to be bestowed by heaven! Hitting a target is a matter of luck, and killing someone is entirely a matter of chance.

“Uh…” Caslo was speechless.

"Wait a moment, Your Highness, the remaining knights of the Knights Order will be here soon!" Caslo had no choice but to change the subject. You see, when the magic signal flare went up, everyone was on tenterhooks. Caslo was just the first to arrive; Omske was leading a large contingent of men rushing behind them.

(End of this chapter)