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

Chapter 222 Troll Pitcher
"Damn it! What the hell is this?!" Roland helplessly tore off a few vines from his body, his eyes full of frustration!

"Whoosh!" The sharp longsword was swiftly swung, and the surging battle aura quickly shattered the low-hanging vines. Omske had no choice but to put the longsword away.

"This road is even more difficult to travel than last time!" Caslo's eyes were full of worry. Last time, when they and their knights passed through, this road was barely passable, since it was already late autumn and the vegetation here wasn't lush. But now, as summer approaches, the bushes here are enough to make even the most elite knights despair.

"Dragon God..." Roland helplessly dismounted. Who could understand the pain of having a horse but not being able to ride it? Unlike Omske, who was a sixth-tier hero with powerful protective battle aura that was enough to push away these obstacles, Roland could only lament that he was unworthy of such treatment.

“Your Highness, you should walk. There are too many obstacles here, and you are surrounded by infantry. You would be quite conspicuous sitting on your horse…” Caslo said tactfully.

What he really wanted to say was that sitting on a warhorse in the presence of trolls was no less than being a target. Although there were many obstacles around, it did not hinder the trolls' precise spear attacks. They would always find a gap and throw deadly spears at tricky angles. Perhaps the spears were limited by the material and could not kill a fully armed elite knight, but trolls could poison them!
“Hmm, you’re right!” Roland nodded. He didn’t need to risk his life. He didn’t want to gamble his life on being as resilient as a dragon. Who knew what those trolls would add to the mix? This would undoubtedly be a disaster for Roland’s army, which had no priests or alchemists with them.

"Speed ​​up! We need to get through here quickly!" Balin brandished his battle axe and led the way. The atmosphere here was too oppressive. Dwarves might like to crawl through holes, but that didn't mean they liked narrow places.
"Crack!"

"boom!"

As the sounds of battle axes and longswords rang out, countless wood chips and sap flew up with the axe blades and sword points, and a path took shape at a visible speed.

……

"Whoosh~" Suddenly a sharp whistle came, and before Roland, who was puffing out his chest and puffing out his belly, could react, he felt as if his chest had been trampled by a galloping Charles warhorse. He felt a numbness in his chest, followed by a heart-wrenching pain.

"Enemy attack!" These were the last words Roland heard before he lost consciousness.

……

"Hiss!" Roland opened his eyes groggily. The flickering campfire in front of him provided him with ample warmth. A fur blanket covered him, and through the touch of his body, he could clearly feel that there were several layers of fur underneath him. However, his movement still aggravated his injured areas.

"Your Highness, you're awake?" Caslo asked in surprise.

"Oh! Dragon God! Your Highness, I am so glad you are safe and sound, otherwise I would be guilty of a thousand deaths!" Omske blushed with embarrassment.

"Tch! I almost thought you were dead, but it seems you're still quite resilient," the Smurf dragon who had been following Roland like a hanger-on spoke lazily. "What happened?" Roland groaned weakly a few times; all he wanted to know was what had happened to him.
“Uh… it was trolls, Your Highness. Trolls attacked us… unfortunately, they attacked you first… you were hit head-on in the breastplate by a heavy armor-piercing javelin, and then you passed out,” Caslo said with a guilty expression.

"Turin! Your Highness Roland, you should thank your plate armor. Its quality is excellent. If it hadn't successfully blocked the troll's attack, you might already be in the Land of Eternity," Balin exclaimed. Don't let Roland's plate armor fool you with its flashy appearance and color; it really does its job! At least in terms of defense, it doesn't disappoint the user.

"Cough cough cough! Water!" Roland helplessly stretched out his hand to ask for water.

"Your Highness..." Caslo quickly offered a water bag.

"Damn it! I've already dismounted, why am I still the first one attacked?" Roland muttered a string of taboo words as he rubbed the bruised area on his chest in frustration. His plate armor had been removed and placed aside, and it was clear that the troll's full-force attack had only left a white dot on the chest area of ​​his lord's adamantite armor. Roland had been knocked unconscious... (Roland: How embarrassing... I almost died even though my defenses weren't broken?)
“Well, maybe you should take a look at the unique color of that plate armor. No one would fail to notice you…” Balin nodded, a strange look in his eyes.

Roland turned to look at his plate armor again. In the firelight, the entire armor radiated a dazzling golden light, like the sun in the night... Now Roland understood why this had happened without anyone explaining it to him.

Such a flashy color on the battlefield is no less than writing "Come and attack me, I'm the leader!" Roland's armor is the most unique among all the types of people. Don't underestimate trolls; they are also intelligent beings, and they also know the principle of capturing the leader first.

"Where are those trolls? I'm going to take them down! They actually resorted to sneak attacks? Have they no sportsmanship? These jungle trash! They're useless!" Roland was furious and powerless, but he still couldn't change the fact that he had almost been skewered like a string of candied hawthorns by the trolls.

"They've been repelled by us. They left behind a dozen or so corpses, and our men suffered no casualties," Omske explained. It's ridiculous. Roland being taken down in one shot when caught off guard was already embarrassing enough. If they were prepared and still managed to suffer casualties from the trolls, they should reconsider whether this trip was even worthwhile. After all, dealing with a few trolls who only knew how to ambush was this difficult; fighting Moria's enemies would be even more impossible.

"Their equipment is terrible; even their javelins are made of wood. Although they are imbued with battle aura, if they were made of metal, the damage would be even more terrifying..." What Omske didn't mention was that if they had metal javelins, the Lagrang army might have already been dressed in mourning and started their feast on the spot.

"Luckily they didn't have smelting technology..." Caslo was also extremely frightened. Not to mention that Roland had knocked them unconscious, just looking at those wooden spearheads half-embedded in the large shields was enough to make one's scalp tingle. If the trolls had better weapons, their shields really wouldn't have been able to withstand more than a few hits.

"Terrible troll throwers!" Roland exclaimed in awe. These dark-skinned intelligent creatures, over three meters tall with arms reaching past their knees, showed Roland what it meant to be on the verge of death.

"Send the rangers out! I don't want any more trolls to be within my range next time!" Roland said with a dark face. He was terrified! He was almost dead. If the troll had aimed for his head... if the armor's defense had been weaker... if it had been a metal javelin... if the javelin had had more buffs... In short, Roland had a brush with death.

"Of course, Your Highness, the rangers can guarantee that no enemy will appear within a 500-meter radius of you!" Caslo hurriedly assured him. Just in case, he had built three more defensive rings around Roland. Although it was not foolproof, at least there were no obvious loopholes.

(End of this chapter)