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

Chapter 1053 Bleeding Hands...

"Boom!" An even louder buzzing sound rang out, and the distinctive Rohan horn bows began to fire. These elite, regular archers did not fire their bows indiscriminately like the militia and herdsmen, since the number of times a horn bow could be fired was not comparable to that of a flexible bow.

"Whoosh!" The barbed iron arrow flew through the air, creating a whistling sound.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!" Many orcs carried crudely made wooden planks in front of them, but the soft bows had little draw strength, and most of them got stuck in the planks and couldn't advance an inch.

"A shield?" Earl Lemon, who was overseeing the battle, asked in surprise.

“Those are logs split in two!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso shook his head. The Wasteland Orcs were originally a nomadic race. Orcs with clans would never bother with such things. Therefore, Wasteland Orcs mostly existed as cannon fodder for clan Orcs. They were only driven by those clan Orcs to be cannon fodder to fill gaps, and even became food when food was scarce. So naturally, they had no decent productivity. In layman's terms, it was precisely because of these massive numbers of “blood packs” that Orcs became the dominant force across Middle-earth!
"Pfft!" Rohan's renowned horn bow finally shone brightly! The heavy, triangular, armor-piercing arrow easily pierced through the orcs' simple wooden planks and embedded itself in their bodies! Instantly, a group of orcs collapsed to the ground!
"Good! That's it! Fire!" Count Lemon stood up excitedly and shouted, his flamboyant plate armor drawing attention.

"Drag him back!" Grand Duke Ocrean Yaso casually waved his hand. He was a fourth-tier knight, not someone who could be killed in a short time. With Grand Duke Ocrean Yaso and the other man keeping an eye on the high-level orc combatants on the battlefield, Count Lemon was definitely not in danger. However, this habit was not good and needed to be changed!

"Uh... why did you make me come back?" Earl Lemon, who was carried back by two knights, was clearly still in high spirits, looking like he wanted to jump out and chop a few more times!
“Your armor is too conspicuous!” Oakrian Yasso glanced at Count Lemon, then shrugged helplessly… After all, heavy knight plate armor with intricate patterns, gold ornaments, and clearly driven by magic arrays looks no different from a light bulb on the battlefield!
“Well…” Count Lemon glanced at Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso and Oakrian Liujin, then fell silent. He had almost forgotten that these two were noble sixth-tier gentlemen. Even the worst profession would undergo a dramatic transformation at the sixth tier, making them far beyond the reach of low- or mid-tier players who could easily be taken advantage of…

“Being a target is not a good habit!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso said calmly.

"This battle is going to be tough! The commander on the other side is a smart one!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso became interested for the first time because he discovered that the orcs on the other side were actually using a staggered charge. Although they were quickly routed and forced to retreat, the next wave of orcs would immediately rush up, and the scattered orcs would be intercepted by the wolf riders and regrouped to prepare for another attack.

"Won't the orcs collapse?" Okrian Ryukin asked in shock, looking at the wasteland orcs who were clearly being used as cannon fodder. The morale of the orcs was as mysterious as the brains of the greenskins. It could be as high as the Azog Legion during the Battle of the Five Armies, who fought to the death before their leader was killed, or as low as the wasteland orcs, who collapsed at the first touch... But they had clearly encountered the former.

“They have nowhere to retreat!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso pondered for a few seconds and suddenly realized something. “What have you discovered?” Oakrian Ryukin asked curiously.

"Those wasteland orcs have no choice! They either charge in or retreat and die under the scimitars of the wolf riders! They have no way out! You don't think these wolf riders, who live by plundering, would carry any supplies, do you?" Grand Duke Okrian Yaso sneered. Ever since these wasteland orcs were driven here, their fate was sealed! Lacking food and clothing, they had no way of returning to their lairs in the snow, and could only desperately try to capture human towns to survive!

"That's nearly ten thousand orcs, right? At least several thousand, isn't it? How can they just gather so many cannon fodder so easily? And then send them to their deaths like this? Is the chieftain on the other side out of his mind?" Okrian Ryukin said with a strange expression.

"They just sent them to their deaths back then! The Wasteland Orcs were the blood banks for the clans, and these Orcs weren't part of the clan's population, so the chieftains naturally didn't care. As for how they could just casually gather so many Wasteland Orcs..." Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso didn't continue speaking but instead turned his gaze to Earl Lemon.

"Hehe!" Count Lemon gave a polite but slightly embarrassed smile. After all, who cared about these things before? As long as they didn't gather in large numbers, the count's territory would generally not send troops to specifically hunt them down, and the militia would only simply drive them away. After all, the land belonged to the lord, and their lives were their own; three arrows in battle were considered enough to honor the count! And so, the number of orcs wandering the wilderness and jungles increased...

“…Sigh!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso and his companion exchanged a glance and shook their heads. If Roland's mission hadn't been to help his brother out of consideration for humanity, Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso would have really turned and left. The border baron's neglected military equipment and subsequent beheading were bad enough, but the border earl's counterinsurgency efforts were hardly human… This made Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso wonder if these southerners were even human? Weren't they just imposters?

“This time, the territory of Lemon is going to suffer a huge loss!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso said meaningfully. Oakrian Ryukin followed Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso’s gaze, not understanding what was going on, and saw pairs of hands covered in blood from being cut by bowstrings. At that moment, Oakrian Ryukin instantly understood the intention of the orc commander opposite him.

“What a brilliant scheme…” Okrian Ryukin shook his head. Archers are not professional archers who can draw their bows for an extended period of time, nor are they crossbowmen with unlimited firepower. After the soldiers using horn bows fired more than twenty rounds in a row, most of the archers’ fingers had already started to bleed!
"The soft bows are surprisingly durable!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso nodded. Although Rohan was somewhat lackluster, the militia of herders and farmers, armed in wartime, were truly formidable! The rain of arrows was swift and far-reaching. While their lethality wasn't great, the orcs' wooden planks were almost completely depleted. Few of the charging echelons had planks left, and the militia, after nearly thirty rapid volleys, were still full of energy! These steppe men, though lacking in combat skills, possessed immense strength. Combined with the ease of drawing the soft bows on horseback, the militia had unexpectedly become the main force!
"Have the soldiers take up their shields to protect our archers and militia! The orcs' targets are worse, but getting hit will kill them!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso roared. After all, the sight of the front-line soldiers standing there dumbfounded, watching the wolf riders hurl projectiles, was too gruesome to bear; to call it lax discipline was an understatement! Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso was now certain that the only ones in the entire Earldom of Lemon who could truly fight a tough battle were probably their Rohan Hussars, the very foundation of their kingdom!
"They're coming!" Amidst the militiamen's terrified screams, the orcs successfully approached the moat of Lemon Territory for the first time!
"God! What are they doing? These beasts!" In full view of everyone, the orcs threw the bodies of those shot beside them into the river one after another.

　Sorry guys, taking care of an elderly person in the hospital ended up getting myself sick too... Now I'm feeling better, I'm back to life! May my donations and monthly tickets come back to life!
　　(End of this chapter)