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

"Lower your voice!" the Grand Knight said softly, then gently pressed his hand down.

The group of heavily armored knights behind them immediately stopped, their eyes fixed on the pass ahead.

"My lord! They seem to be completely unprepared?" The King's Knight, with his crossbow cocked, whispered to the Grand Knight.

"I've discovered it! The pass has been in disrepair for years... and the soldiers are not adequately guarded! There hasn't been a single sentry in all this time!" the Grand Knight said, puzzled.

"Holy crap! What's going on? Did they abandon this place?" Apophis Breo had somehow crept over.

"...My lord, you are too reckless!" Olaf anxiously caught up, but since he was in stealth and couldn't speak, he stood on tiptoe and whispered his complaint.

“I came over to check since I saw nothing was moving for a while!” Apophis Breo explained in a low voice.

"I'm also puzzled. Why is this pass so lifeless?" The great knight looked puzzled.

……

"Strange! It's been so long and there hasn't been a single sentry post?" Olaf looked at the sky; the sun was about to set, and not a single orc's voice had come from the pass ahead.

"What should we do? We can't keep the whole army here!" The Grand Knight looked at Apophis Breo with a solemn expression.

“We have to take this place before sunset!” Apophis Breo thought to himself.

"We can't wait any longer! Attack!" Apophis Breo suddenly stood up and drew his sword.

"Kill! Charge!" The knights launched the charge first, and a battle aura emerged from their bodies, enveloping them. With the enhancement of the battle aura, their speed suddenly increased.

"Go!" Just as they were about to reach the pass and the city wall, the knights suddenly leaped up and instantly jumped onto the wall.

With a "whoosh!" Several blades of battle aura slashed through the air, instantly sealing off the entire area of ​​the city wall. A dozen knights launched their attack before even leaping onto the city wall.

"Huh?" When the knights climbed the city wall, they found that the entire pass was deserted. The empty city wall seemed to be mocking them, leaving the knights standing there dumbfounded, not knowing what to do.

"I..." The Great Knight had already mustered up his fighting spirit and was ready to wreak havoc when he discovered that the pass was empty. He felt like he had punched a cotton ball.

"What's going on! Attack! Advance..." Olaf, panting, gripped his halberd and climbed up, ready to fight to the death, only to find the pass empty.

"Ahhh..." A raven flew over their heads, as if mocking their incompetence and stupidity.

“I should have known those damned orcs wouldn’t be stationed in this cold weather…” Apophis Breo said with a dark face.

"Damn it!" Olaf, his eyes blazing with anger, rolled down the pass in a few quick movements and flung open the wooden gate from the inside.

"Someone come and help me open the door!" Olaf waved to the other soldiers.

"Hey!" Olaf unlatched the door, preparing to open the gate and let the soldiers in.

"Boom!" Just as Olaf reached out, the long-neglected door, whether due to a loss of support or something else, collapsed with a crash...

Apophis Breo and the knights on the pass walls all craned their necks to look down. Olaf, his face grim, struggled to lift his head, and then the group stared at each other in silence. "So, where is the enemy, sir?" a valiant warrior nudged Olaf.

"I also want to know where the enemy is!" Olaf retorted irritably.

"Ah! Orcs!" A brave warrior on patrol cried out as he fled from the pass fortress, a broken spear still stuck in his chest. The frightened soldier had even lost his halberd, and he stumbled out, clutching the broken spear in terror.

"Damn it! Watch out, they're down there!" Apophis Breo's pupils contracted.

"Help!" Olaf rushed over and laid the wounded man flat on the ground.

"Calm down!" Olaf anxiously checked his wounds as he unfastened his chainmail.

"Ah!" With a scream from the wounded soldier, Olaf pulled the spear that was embedded in his chest out.

"Alright, stop howling! Get up! Go and kill those cowards who only know how to hide in the gutter and ambush!" Olaf grumbled as he helped him put on his armor, then shoved his own halberd into his hand.

“Go, soldier! Play a little more and the wound will scab over!” Olaf shook his head. The horrific injury was actually just a visual illusion. The spearhead, deeply embedded in the chainmail, had long since decayed due to its age. After piercing through the chainmail, it couldn’t even break through the inner leather armor… He felt pain only from the impact.

"Kill!" Having found an outlet for their anger, the soldiers swarmed into the pass, indiscriminately hacking down every survivor they encountered. A few minutes later, with a final scream, the entire pass fell silent.

……

"Tsk!" Apophis Breo smacked his lips and circled the dragged-out corpse with some confusion.

“The numbers are wrong! Such a crucial pass has so few people?” Apophis Breo asked, turning his head, suspecting that some corpses might not have been moved out.

“That’s all, sir! A total of 27 orc corpses!” Olaf shrugged.

Apophis Breo then looked at the knights, who all shrugged.

“This shouldn’t be! This pass is no smaller than Swiftstream City, how could there only be 27 people? Have you checked the other passages?” Apophis Breo hurriedly asked, after all, the high pass has two passages, they attacked the uppermost one, and there is another passage below.

“Actually, these corpses are all orc soldiers from the passage below. There’s no one up there at all!” Olaf patted the weathered stone wall and sighed.

“We are lucky, Your Highness!” The Grand Knight knelt respectfully on one knee.

"It seems you are about to restore the glory of the King's family! This place has been completely taken over by us! The orc tribe that occupied this pass should have gone into the mountains to avoid the harsh winter. They will only return when the weather warms up! So only a few sentries are stationed here," the Grand Knight congratulated.

“That should be the case. Apart from that, I also can’t understand why no one is stationed here.” Apophis Breo nodded in agreement with the Grand Knight’s words.

“Just look at how drafty this place is, and you’ll understand why no orcs stay here! The outposts down below are a bit better.” Olaf pointed to the outpost buildings around the upper passage.

"The most urgent task now is to build fortifications! They will definitely come back when spring arrives, and we will inevitably have a major battle!" Olaf said solemnly.

"They probably won't attack us since we have a fortress to protect us, right?" the great knight pondered.

"Are orcs normal creatures? They don't even know what intelligence is... And you call this thing a fortress? You must have some misunderstanding about fortresses. Haven't you ever seen what Lulong Fortress looks like?" Olaf's eyes widened.