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

Chapter 895 The Cave of Corpses
"Tell me the details now!" Caslo patted Lance on the shoulder, comforting him while asking questions.

“The situation is terrible! We don’t even know where the enemy came from! The dragon knights can only scout from the air and find traces of soil being disturbed, indicating that these things crawled out from underground!” Lance shook his head and sighed.

"We lack sufficient troops and manpower to conduct in-depth reconnaissance. We can't even find a single assassin in the entire Pingnan City!" Lance said, his morale crumbling. With skeleton soldiers capable of ranged attacks below him and no assassins, Lance's scouts dared not even leave the city!
“…Hiss! You guys beat them up like this?” Caslo, who was walking and looking around with Lance, was stunned. After all, the tragic scene in front of him was nothing like the once elite Swift Infantry Legion!
"The Third Legion's detachments have been completely routed!" Lance said with some shame. The soldiers stationed in Pingnan City were from the Swift Third Legion, and these soldiers had basically lost their fighting ability.

“These Swift Infantry have already been replaced! If this continues, we’ll need women to go to the battlefield!” Lance said with some distress. As the first residents of the city, they were naturally able-bodied young men, and these men were all candidates for reserve Swift Infantry. After the militia was recruited to resist the undead army, most of the men in the city went to the battlefield. Now, most of those holding their posts are reserve militiamen, and the real elite Swift Infantry have basically all been laid off!

"Don't worry! I won't do anything here!" Caslo reassured him.

“Those damned things come out when night falls! We don’t even know where they’re hiding! All we know is that they’re everywhere at night!” Lance said, his body trembling slightly. The battle, where he was being suppressed by the undead, made him feel incredibly frustrated!

"Hmm, don't worry, I'll go take a look. You continue to direct the soldiers to reinforce the city defenses, I'll go scout the surrounding area!" Caslo pondered for a moment, then decided to go and scout it out himself. If there was anything that could kill him, he'd accept it! A sixth-tier dragon knight commander living to this extent was worse than dead!

"Be careful, we can't help you much!" Ravian walked over and sighed.

"Lord Caslo, shall I come with you?" Mogus, covered in dust, walked over, leaning on his spear. Last night, he single-handedly held off several breaches, causing thick smoke to rise all around. According to the law of no harm from smoke, these undead were of no use except for getting some paint on his armor!
"No need, you should get some rest! There might be another tough battle tonight, and we need every bit of strength!" Caslo shook his head. Although the Rock Hero Mogus was also a sixth-tier professional and had the ability to fly, that was based on consuming battle energy. Besides, no matter how fast a hero flew, he couldn't match the speed of a dragon knight!

"Then be careful!" Mogus looked at Caslo and finally nodded slowly.

"Hmm!" Caslo gestured to the crowd, summoned his dragon mount, mounted the saddle, and soared into the sky.

"I hope Caslo can find the root of all this!" Lance said sincerely.

……

"Kardo, have you found anything? The intelligence indicates that these skeletons have dragon power! I also sensed residual dragon power in those broken skeletons just now! What about you?" After leaving everyone's sight, Caslo frowned. Clearly, this situation was also troublesome for him. However, he couldn't show it in front of everyone. Now that he was alone with Kardo, he didn't need to pretend anymore.

“It’s dragon power! I’ve never seen that kind of dragon power before! It’s like the dragon power of an ice dragon, but it’s much colder and more sinister than an ice dragon!” Kaldo hesitated for a moment before speaking uncertainly.

“A demonic dragon? It doesn’t seem like it!” Caslo shook his head. After all, it wasn’t like there weren’t demonic dragons in the kingdom. How could he not know what kind of power source his little apprentice possessed? It was clearly dragon power, different from that of a demonic dragon!
"Sense the dragon's power! Let's find the last place they stayed and appeared!" Caslo narrowed his eyes; it seemed he would have to risk going deeper to investigate.

"...Here?" Caslo's eyelids twitched. He pointed to the dark cave beneath his feet. Clearly, the cave was far too deep; its opening was about the same size as the hole Azog had dug with the earth serpent during the Battle of Lonely Mountain! Moreover, the cave walls were covered with claw marks! Those claw marks had even worn the cave walls smooth! Standing here, Caslo felt as if countless undead were surging out.

“Yes, that’s right, it’s here! There should be other underground caves like this in other places, and they probably all lead to the same destination!” Kaldo said seriously.

"Hehe! Don't you think we're like the dungeons and heroes in chivalric novels? Except the heroes go to the dungeons to slay dragons, while I'm exploring the dungeons with a dragon!" Caslo chuckled self-deprecatingly.

“Slaying a dragon…” Kaldo looked at Caslo with a complicated expression, raised his chin to indicate, clearly he wasn’t angry because Caslo said the words “slaying a dragon,” but genuinely felt that Caslo might be going to slay a dragon on this trip.

"Surely I can't be that unlucky? How come all the good things happen to me?" Caslo thought about how he had walked on thin ice all his way, fighting Balrogs, battling heroes, and slaying Ringwraiths. He had never been inferior to anyone in his life! Your Majesty! Do you think I can reach the other side?

"..." Kaldo fell silent. Guess who gets most of the beatings when you have those good things happen to you?

"Come on up, let's go down!" Caslo patted his dragon, and Kaldo flashed into a small dragon and coiled around Caslo's shoulder.

"Be careful! Activate your Dragon Eyes!" Kaldo whispered, closing his wings.

"Hmm!" As Caslo opened his eyes again, his original eyes had turned into brilliant golden vertical pupils!
"The atmosphere here is disgusting!" As the dragon's eyes opened, the entire cave was laid bare before Caslo's eyes.

"Go!" Caslo drew his sword, planted it in the cave wall as a cushion, and leaped down, sliding down the sloping cave wall.

"Thump! Crack!" Caslo landed easily on the ground, but the strange sound under his feet startled him. He looked down and saw some fragments of bones. As he looked up, he gazed deeper into the ground...

"Holy shit!" Caslo was so anxious that he even cursed like Roland. The bones piled up on the ground in layers, forming a mountain of bones. Judging from the shape of these skeletons, it was almost certain that they were the culprits!
"Something's not right! Where's their soul fire?" Kaldo was taken aback. Skeletons without soul fire are called skeletons, while those with soul fire are called undead!
"These are all skeletons! How could they move without the support of the soul fire!" Caslo scratched at the bones on the ground, puzzled. The dark purple bloodstains on his claws showed that he was also one of the attackers last night!
"Something's not right! Why are the undead retreating? Shouldn't these things be fearless and reckless?" This discovery made Caslo lose his confidence.

"You're asking me? Who should I ask?! Ugh! Why does this feel so creepy?! This is a dwarf! This looks like an elf! This is a northern human... How come there are skeletons of all sorts of races?" Kaldor exclaimed in confusion.

"This used to be an ancient battlefield? Never heard of it! Could it be the spirits of heroes from the past of the Empire?" Caslo raised an eyebrow.

"Huh? You mean those corpses that were buried by priests can be summoned?" Kaldo scoffed.