Kugugugung~~!!!
With so many boulders and logs tumbling down at once, the Orc formation was thrown into complete chaos. The tactic of using the terrain was definitely effective. The large rocks and logs gained montum and swept through the Orc ranks, crushing and killing an enormous number of enemies. Because they were clustered together, the damage was even worse.
Wahhh~~~!!!
Our side, watching this, cheered. It seed that at least a third of the enemy force was dead or wounded from this attack. Due to that blow, the enemies could no longer advance and began to falter. Since the falling rocks had landed in the center of the enemy force, they were now split in two.
"Now! Archers, deal with the surviving enemies in the front!"
At Aragorn's shout, the archers on the wall began loosing arrows. The enemies, unable to advance or retreat, stumbled about before being struck by arrows and falling dead. The Orc and Easterling commanders, trying to salvage the situation, shouted to calm their soldiers, but they were good targets for .
Pssh~!!
Thwack!!
"Kaak!!"
The arrow, fired with the imnse power of the greatbow, tore through the air at trendous speed, pierced the commander, went through the enemies behind him, and embedded itself in the ground. At this sight, the enemies beca even more disoriented.
Shwoosh~! Shwoosh~! Shwoosh~!
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
"Hurry up and pull yourselves together, won't you!"
At that point, deciding it was hopeless, the enemies began to hastily retreat over the scattered rocks. It seed we had taken down about half of the enemy force in this battle.
Wahhh~!!! Wahhh~!!!
At the sight, the people in Helm's Deep let out cheers loud enough to shake the gorge. And so, the first battle ended.
"Casualties?"
King Théoden looked around the wall, checking the damage.
"Other than a few people who injured their fingers while shooting, there are none."
"The gods have helped us… For now, have the soldiers eat and rest. We don't know when they'll charge in again."
Relieved, King Théoden gave orders to his soldiers. They began handing out hard bread and so jerky to the troops.
Since the enemies were out of sight, I thought about going down to eat, but the party had already co and was waiting for .
"Really? Are you guys just here to mooch food?"
Then Gimli grinned and said cheekily, "What can we do? Dragon mister's cooking is delicious."
rry added, "That's right, Lord Arkadzin's cooking is really good."
I was a bit exasperated, but I chuckled and let it slide. And since it wouldn't end with just them if I started cooking, I decided to take out several large pots and make soup. Aragorn then called over so won to help prepare the ingredients.
Once the soup was ready, Boromir, Éowyn, Aragorn, and Legolas distributed it to the soldiers and refugees. As expected, everyone's expressions brightened once they had warm food inside them.
After the soup was handed out, we also sat together to eat. I noticed Éowyn and Aragorn talking in a good mood, eating together. Since he wasn't engaged to Arwen like in the original story, it seed he was developing a good relationship with Éowyn.
"Hmm… The princess of Rohan and the king of Gondor…"
I didn't know what the future would hold, but in a way, this might even lead to a quicker union with Rohan.
Anyway, after the al, King Théoden sent out scouts. The scouts returned sooner than expected, reporting that the enemies still hadn't left the gorge entrance.
"Hmm… They're probably reorganizing to attack again. Can we use the ridge again?"
At King Théoden's question, Boromir answered, "The sa trick won't work twice. They're not fools either."
"Then now we must fight and bleed."
For the ti being, since there was no enemy movent, the soldiers were allowed to rest in shifts. By morning, the Orcs and Easterlings began clearing the bodies and rocks in front of the gorge to make a path. We didn't attack but simply watched them.
Once they had cleared enough, they began advancing again. Despite that many casualties, the enemy numbers were still large. In a normal war, if they had taken such heavy losses, they wouldn't be able to attack so soon—there would be morale issues and they'd need to reorganize. Probably, Sauron was pressuring them to keep attacking.
'Sauron is probably doing this to strike at Rohan's head, isolating Minas Tirith to make it easier to conquer.'
Indeed, Rohan was similar to a nomadic nation, with its territories scattered. If the capital where the king resided fell, it would be difficult to unite quickly. The enemy seed to be aiming for that.
When the enemy attack began again, we loosed arrows as before to stop their approach as much as possible. I again climbed to a high spot and sniped commanders. If I saw soone giving orders, I shot and killed them imdiately.
But even with the commanders dead, the enemy charge continued, and they began setting up ladders against the wall. Seeing this, Aragorn shouted.
"Ladders! Spearn, prepare!"
This was also sothing I had told them: when a ladder is placed, the spearn behind the archers would form teams, each taking one ladder, and they would stab or push the climbing enemies to prevent them from coming over. The advantage of this thod was that roles were clearly divided, so the archers didn't have to abandon their bows and draw swords to deal with the climbing enemies.
'It's optimized role division.'
The sa went for the gate. The wooden gate seed like it would break easily, so I had taken sandbags from my inventory, filled them with sand, and stacked them up. Even if trolls ca, they wouldn't break through easily. So we could minimize the troops stationed at the gate.
I wasn't idle either. I kept targeting commanders, and when a ladder looked especially dangerous, I would shoot an arrow that pierced multiple enemies at once, delaying their ascent. Also, before the enemy could fire the large crossbow bolts ant to hook onto the wall, I shot and disabled them.
Because of this, not a single Orc or Easterling managed to get over the wall; they all died. As this continued, they must have grown frustrated—they tried to bring up a large bomb, but I sniped it and detonated it, preventing them from using it to collapse the wall.
And so the siege continued for five hours. The enemy couldn't even breach the first wall, let alone the gate. But one problem arose: as so many enemies died, the bodies began piling up at the base of the wall, gradually lowering the height needed to climb over.
The enemy must have realized this too, because they started bringing the rocks from our earlier rockfall and their own dead to pile up under the wall. This was a tactic to effectively remove the wall's height. It was an incredibly brute-force and crude tactic.
"Wow… There's no way around this. I never thought they'd co at us like this."
Aragorn, realizing the danger, shouted an order to his soldiers.
"Oil barrels!!"
At that, the soldiers threw large barrels of oil down over the wall and poured more oil below. Then Aragorn shot a flaming arrow and set the area beneath the wall on fire. This was rely to buy ti.
"Fall back!! To the second wall!!"
At Aragorn's order, the soldiers quickly moved into the second wall. Boromir was the last to retreat, fighting off Orcs. The shield I had given him seed to be serving him well.
Once Boromir was inside the second wall, they closed the entrance and stacked sandbags to block it. The second wall of Helm's Deep was very high, so the tactic used at the first wall wouldn't work here.
The second wall was defended in the sa way as the first. The interesting thing was that because the second wall was high but narrow, the space was limited, allowing the soldiers to rest in shifts. The downside was they couldn't kill as many enemies as at the first wall.
What differed from the original story was that there were far fewer casualties. Almost all the Elves had survived too. Since they had defended so well without major losses, the enemy numbers had noticeably decreased—though not to the point where we could face them head-on.
"Everyone, just hold on a little longer."
Aragorn encouraged and comforted the weary soldiers.
As we were defending hard, suddenly the enemy's rear beca noisy. When I checked, I saw giant Ents and nurous Rohan soldiers advancing into the gorge behind the enemy. At their forefront, Gandalf in a white robe, along with Éor and Théodred, were attacking the enemy's rear with the Rohan soldiers.
So I told Aragorn.
"Aragorn!"
When I called, Aragorn looked at . I pointed with my finger in the direction of the reinforcents. Aragorn quickly went to the wall and looked where I was pointing.
"Reinforcents have arrived! They're attacking the enemy's rear right now!"
At that, the people let out cheers. Then Aragorn said to King Théoden.
"Now! We must charge while the enemy is in disarray."
"You're right. Bring the horses!"
King Théoden hurriedly prepared the horses, removed the sandbags blocking the gate, opened it, then mounted up and charged the enemy.
"For Rohan!!!"
Aragorn and Boromir also mounted up and followed King Théoden, charging the enemy. Behind them, all the Elves also ca out and began killing the enemies.
The Orcs and Easterlings began to panic as enemies closed in from both sides. They were completely isolated in the gorge with nowhere to flee.
The Rohan army following King Théoden and the Elves pressed in so hard the enemy couldn't regain their wits, and from the rear, the Ents were kicking and trampling the enemy. Furthermore, the army that had co as reinforcents from the rear was mopping up the survivors.
Thus, before long, the enemy army was completely annihilated at Helm's Deep.
"Rohan!" "Rohan!" "Rohan!"
The people cheered loud enough to shake Helm's Deep. King Théoden bowed his head and expressed his gratitude to the Elves and the Ents.
"Thank you so much for your help."
Then Haldir said to King Théoden, "It was an honor to fight alongside you. But this war may not be over yet."
"Hmm… That may be so. We don't know how Sauron will act next…"
While they were talking, Treebeard, who seed to be the leader of the Ents, said, "We must return now, Human."
Then Gandalf said to the Ents, "Thank you for your help."
"We cannot fight the Balrogs directly. We leave the rest to you, Wizard."
Leaving those words, the Ents began slowly walking back toward Fangorn Forest. King Théoden and his n once again bowed their heads to show their gratitude.
Now, the Rohan soldiers and Elves began cleaning up. They gathered the bodies of the Orcs and Easterlings and burned them. Because there were so many, it took a considerable amount of ti. But if left as they were, disease might spread. Helm's Deep reeked of burning bodies.
"Huh… No end to them."
Gimli grumbled at the sight of so many enemy corpses. During the cleanup, the bodies of Elves and Rohan soldiers were also found. Their bodies were separated, and after the cleanup was finished, they were given proper funerals.
After that, we rested briefly, then led the people back to Edoras. Strangely, Edoras was intact. It seed the Orcs, knowing there was no one there, simply left it alone. Rohan was very fortunate in that regard. King Théoden had the soldiers roughly settle things in and let them rest.
A day passed, and the next day, King Théoden, his vassals, and Aragorn's party gathered to discuss future plans. Aragorn gave his opinion.
"They may target Minas Tirith. If the Balrogs are there, Minas Tirith won't be able to hold out either."
At that, Boromir added, "That's right. Minas Tirith will likely beco the biggest battlefield."
"I understand what you're saying. But we don't know when that will be."
At Théoden's words, Gandalf spoke, "King Théoden, it probably won't take long."
"But that's just speculation. I can't raise an army blindly."
Théoden's position was understandable. Rohan's territories were scattered, making it difficult to gather soldiers. And even if they managed to gather them, maintaining a large army in this small city of Edoras was not easy. So unless there was solid information, it was hard to mobilize the army.
As I said before, Rohan was a nation similar to a nomadic people, so to so extent I understood. But considering how long it had been and that they had been attacked multiple tis, I wondered if it wasn't ti for a change.
'It's hard to defend like this, and hard to gather an army. Why do they keep doing this? Is it tradition?'
While I was thinking this, Boromir said to King Théoden.
"I will go to Minas Tirith. If sothing happens, I will light the beacons quickly."
At that, Gandalf decided to go as well. "I'll go too. There have been strange rumors circulating in Minas Tirith lately."
King Théoden then provided Boromir and Gandalf with horses. As they were about to leave, bid farewell by the party, I also mounted a horse and followed. My business here was done, and if I stayed, I'd probably only end up cooking.
The three of us traveled toward Minas Tirith for a good while. When it got dark, we set up camp. Boromir asked Gandalf, "That strange rumor you ntioned circulating in Minas Tirith… what is it?"
Boromir seed bothered by what Gandalf had said. Honestly, I was curious too.
"They say the Steward has lost his mind. There are rumors that he talks to a strange black stone in empty rooms, and that his words and actions have beco very eccentric."
"That can't be. My father…"
Hearing their conversation, I could roughly guess. It seed that the palantír, which should have been in Saruman's hands, was with Denethor.
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