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

"Fire! Don't hold back your bolts!" Renault roared, his longsword flashing as he moved between the arrow towers, rallying the troops.

"Dot dot dot!" A Battanian archer braced his shoulders against the crossbow stock, and as the mechanism was pulled, a box of five fine iron bolts shot out.

"Pfft!"

"Pfft!"

With the sound of two arrows piercing flesh, an orc clutched his abdomen, curled up on the ground, twitched a few times, and then fell still.

Another unfortunate creature was shot through the thigh, and purplish-black blood gushed out like a fountain. It howled in pain as it fell to the ground, struggling desperately to crawl backward. The heavily armored orc overseeing the battle saw its unique figure, picked up its mace, and walked over with a sinister grin. As the mace was raised high, casting a shadow over its head, the wounded orc soldier let out a mournful howl.

"Pfft!" But before it could be executed by the oversight team, a heavy crossbow bolt fired from Lulong Fortress whistled through the air, piercing the orc elite who was holding a mace high in its terrified gaze, and then passing through two more people before stopping.

"Thump!" The raised hand fell weakly, the mace slipped from his grasp and landed on the ground. The orc war sergeant's knees buckled and he knelt down in front of the wounded soldier. The hole in his chest, as thick as a bowl, revealed the figure behind him.

"Ahhh!" The wounded soldier, terrified by the cruel scene, desperately retreated.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!" Several arrows suddenly pierced its head and torso, and it collapsed to the ground without uttering a sound.

Then more orcs followed in their footsteps, their purplish-black blood staining the land outside Lulong Fortress, and the winding flow of blood even dyed the moat a purplish-black hue.

……

"We've driven the orcs back!" a city guard ran up to Renault excitedly.

"Soldiers, remember, it's only temporary!" Renault emphasized. The tide of orcs had only receded temporarily; they would not abandon the fortress!

"Stay alert! Attack as soon as the orcs come within range!" Renault instructed.

"General, why don't you take a rest? You've been traveling all day!" As dusk fell and darkness descended, torches had already been lit on the Lulong Fortress, their faint light illuminating the surrounding wasteland.

"Okay, I'll take a nap first. Wake me up immediately if anything happens!" Renault didn't refuse, after all, keeping watch was more important, and without good physical strength, keeping watch was out of the question.

……

"Lord Lafitte Anthony, the orcs have retreated!" a soldier reported to Lafitte Anthony. "Hmm, I saw it. Our kill efficiency is appalling!" Lafitte Anthony nodded in agreement with an air of seriousness. Three or four hundred corpses below the city were their achievement for the day. Although it was a lot, compared to the huge north wall of the fortress, this efficiency was quite appalling.

“The orcs are feigning an attack! They are testing and probing our firepower!” Lafitte Anthony shook his head. This was an open scheme that was impossible to break, and they had no choice but to respond.

Lafitte Antony had no good solution to the two sides' inept fighting. Neither side could break the balance of the battlefield. The presence of the fortress shield rendered most of the orcs' siege engines useless, while the fortress's attacks were precise and powerful. After several rounds of fire, the orcs' siege engines refused to enter the range of the fortress's defenses (except for the wretched siege towers). In addition, the Ringwraiths were afraid of the Meteor Tower's attacks, and the fortress, due to its sparse manpower and wide defensive area, suffered from a pitiful attack density. It can only be said that the two sides went further and further apart in their competition of being the worst. Now, both sides are waiting for the emergence of a new variable in the war fortress.

“I’m waiting for reinforcements…” Renault murmured to himself, gazing at the horizon.

"The fortress's magic crystals will eventually run out..." Adonafi looked at Akhorn and let out a hoarse chuckle. To them, orcs were expendable resources, so they didn't care if they died.

"Whoosh!" The whistling stones flew over the Ringwraiths' heads. The Faith Shot technique made the already questionable accuracy of the "Orc-made" projectiles even more appalling. Both sides even said that if the fortress defenders died from the catapult attack, they would definitely be scared to death, since even a target as big as the fortress shield could float into the sky...

"Fight back! Fight back!" a junior officer roared angrily. After all, when had the men of Lagrang ever been humiliated like this? Just taking a beating without fighting back? That wasn't the style of a Lagrangian brute! So what were we waiting for? Our catapults would be even more convenient to attack them from our elevated position!
"Cepped the catapults!" General Reno's messenger stopped them in time. After all, not only had Lafitte Anthony noticed the stalemate, but Reno wasn't stupid either. How could he let the orcs succeed in their strategy of wearing them down? Trying to trick them with those paltry stones? Dream on!

As a result, the catapults of Lulong Fortress stopped their offensive for the first time, leaving the previously trembling orcs completely bewildered. After all, the terrifying catapults left a trail of blood with a single strike, and the smooth stone projectiles made them even more swift and powerful, making the catapults of Lulong Fortress even more intimidating.

"Kill!" But how could the orcs, whose brains were barely bigger than apricot kernels, possibly understand the deeper meaning? They brandished their weapons and surged towards Lulong Fortress from all directions, only to be quickly shot down by the soldiers in the fortress's arrow towers. The remaining orcs retreated as if startled. After this happened several times, the orcs also gave up. Although it was getting dark, the orcs' stamina had reached its limit. Soon, the retreating orcs began to set up camp around Lulong Fortress.

The generals on the city wall, who were eager to try, looked at the soldiers behind them and gave up their original ideas with wry smiles. After all, what was a Lagrange brute who was weaker than anyone else? However, thinking of the Ringwraiths squatting outside and the short-legged footmen behind them, the generals chose to follow their hearts.

"Tell the soldiers to take turns resting and eating, and to pay attention to the enemy's movements at night!" Renault instructed.

And so, every ten minutes or so, the arrow towers on the four walls would aimlessly fire a few long arrows covered in grease into the vast wilderness. Because they did not pursue accuracy but range, these Battanian archers tilted their crossbows at a 45-degree angle and then fired flaming bolts. The grease mixed with oil ignited a small clump of dry grass. In this way, these crossbow bolts became the only warning system for the Lulong Fortress to detect the movements of the orcs.

……

At this moment, Omske, who had been traveling for several days, suddenly felt a pang of fear. He took out his illumination crystal and looked at the map, realizing that he had gone too far. After thinking about it, he decided to travel back to the kingdom overnight, since as the kingdom's only mobile force, their mission was very important.

What Omske didn't know was that a group of people were already waiting for him with bated breath, and among them, Renault, who "missed" him the most, had almost dug up his ancestral graves.

(End of this chapter)