Roland and the gang planned to take the Old Forest Road north along the Swift River to Lonely Mountain. The upside? They'd avoid going through the Woodland Realm, so no beef with those elf archers living there. Plus, if things went sideways, Roland's crew would just get stomped anyway—the elves' jungle guerrilla tactics would roast his infantry, who lacked decent ranged attacks. And half of Roland's force was cavalry, which would hate slogging through dense forest—not all horses are elven moon-deer knights, after all.
So, Roland's army marched grandly down Old Forest Road. Big-shield Swift River infantry guarded the flanks, Lagrand knights and Bardania archers rode in the middle. Reno and Roland led the pack, and Kaslow—per usual—was holding down the rear.
"Ugh, why the hell are there so many spider webs here?" one Swift River infantry muttered, untangling his spear from sticky silk.
"No clue! Those webs are huge—maybe some spider-type monster?" a guy behind him answered.
"Could be… Watch out! But no worries—we got a whole hundred knights with us!"
"Still, why does this place feel off?" another infantry sounded wary.
Roland caught the murmurs behind him and started scanning around.
"Reno, what do you think?" he asked.
"Do I really have to say it? Something's definitely wrong, sir…" Reno looked grim.
Roland widened his eyes. He knew the Dark Forest was basically giant-spider territory. So Reno was basically saying they were about to feed themselves to giant spiders? Great.
"Eh, it's just a low-level monster, a Shadow Giant Spider or whatever. No big deal," Reno rolled his eyes.
Quick side note: monsters here rank like player classes—six tiers: novice, low-level, mid, high, super, and apocalypse-level. Flying dragons and giant eagles? Super monsters. Leviathan-level dragons? Apocalypse monsters.
"Yeah, but even low-level monsters are a pain. You think everyone's like you, the knight captain?" Roland grumbled.
"Whew…" hearing the spiders were just low-level relaxed Roland enough to start humming a tune.
…
"Sir! The webs are getting thicker!" a scout infantry ran up.
"Did we just stumble into a spider nest?" Reno's face went pale.
"Are you sure you know the way?" Reno asked Roland suspiciously.
"What kind of look is that?" Roland snapped.
"If it's messed up, it's Elrond's fault—not mine!" Roland grumbled.
"Or maybe it's not King Elrond's screw-up, but that evil spreading out here's worse than we thought… The east and west sides haven't talked in ages… Old Forest Road is basically abandoned…" Reno's face darkened with the thought.
"Ha. At this point, I'd rather blame Elrond for being unreliable…" Roland chuckled dryly.
"Battle formation! Now!" Roland took a deep breath.
"What now? Another fight?" Kaslow caught up, seeing the sudden formation change.
"This road's taken over by spiders. We have to break through!" Roland said with a sigh.
"Why not go around?" Kaslow frowned.
"No time! The Day of Turin's coming!" Roland sighed. Time was tight.
"What, you scared? You're a dragon knight—pull your dragon out and burn 'em all!" Roland suddenly remembered the dragon he'd been keeping on the down low.
Slap! Kaslow slapped his own face—been riding Sharmar horses so long he forgot he was a dragon knight.
Kaslow smoothly jumped down, pulled out a dragon flute from his collar, and played. A wild wind whipped up, the air tore open, and a blue dragon soared out.
"Roar!" The dragon's cry echoed, loud and sharp.
Boom! The four-meter-long beast crashed down, horses nearby panicked with neighs.
"Kaldo, long time no see," Kaslow patted his dragon happily.
"Roar~" Kaldo responded with a wagging tail that looked more like a happy dog than a giant dragon.
"Scout from the skies. Let's blast a path through!" Roland was filled with fierce determination. Why think complicated when brute force works?
So, the giant spiders nesting and hunting on Old Forest Road got rekt—from above came blade-like gusts shredding them to bits.
Hundreds carried torches, burning webs along the path, making the remaining spiders flee in terror. Damn, Shadow Giant Spiders might not be human, but they're so screwed. Burning down their "houses" while harvesting their crystals? That's demolition crew level, leaving no spider or web standing.
The surviving spiders looked up with eight tiny eyes, tears streaming. First time seeing dragons used to bully spiders. Forget fighting—they couldn't even touch the dragon. The humans below? Sure, maybe they could attack, but gotta have some serious luck. Look at those full-moon shaped mithril spruce bows, the five-meter-long pikes, the two holy knights radiating sacred battle aura, or that moving fortress of a shield wall… no way to break through.
Even their skills didn't help. Shadow stealth against holy knights? Joke. Within a hundred meters, those knights saw them like glowing lightbulbs. The knights didn't even have to charge—just swinging weapons with divine aura shredded a Shadow Giant Spider like paper.
Seriously, spiders just had to hide. For days, the Dark Forest spiders suffered deep in their souls. Any small noise could mean death screaming down from the skies.
Roland and crew got lucky, unaware they almost crossed paths with Dogurdo's orc army. They left just as the orcs passed behind.
"Dragon?" Azog looked surprised skyward. Had no clue there was a dragon here all this time—but unlucky for him, the dragon had a saddle and a rider. If he saw that, he'd rethink his attack plan, maybe even bring some anti-dragon crossbows—the best dragon-killers in Middle-earth, with special bolts deadly to dragons.
"Advance!" Azog shook his head, pushing the dragon thoughts aside to imagine tasting the Dwarf King's blood instead.
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