Wizard: This witcher is neglecting his duties.

Chapter 236 Establishing Authority

Wayne had assumed that Prince Thorin would be the first to voice his dissatisfaction with his proposal.

But before Thorin could speak, the hot-blooded young Fili and Kiri stepped forward and asked:

"Mr. Wayne, you seem very confident in your own strength and look down on Smaug, the dragon who defeated the dwarves. Why don't we have a match and see if anyone is just bragging?"

Wayne wasn't angry when he heard this. He glanced at Prince Thorin and Balin and saw that neither of the two dwarves in charge had stopped it. Gandalf the Grey also seemed quite interested. Bilbo, on the other hand, seemed quite anxious and looked like he wanted to persuade them.

He chuckled inwardly, thinking, "Since that's the case, let's establish our authority first."

Wayne maintained a calm expression as he looked at Chili and Fili. These two young dwarves were not yet a hundred years old. They were young people born after the dwarves fled the Lonely Mountain and came to the Blue Mountains. They had not participated in the War of Moria, nor had they ever seen the real Smaug. They had no real concept of the dragons that their ancestors had spoken of.

They are Thorin's nephews, the children of Thorin's sister Dice, and the youngest dwarves in the Turin family.

In the original story, these two young dwarves, along with their uncle, died in the Battle of the Five Armies while protecting Thorin. This resulted in the extinction of the entire Thorin line of the Torin family, and the title of King of the Mountain was inherited by Thorin's cousin, Din Ironfoot.

Wayne thought for a moment, then declined Chili and Philip's challenge. Instead, he clapped his hands, making a crisp sound, and addressed everyone watching him:

"Since everyone has doubts about my abilities, then I will prove myself with my actions."

"Everyone's full now, let's do some post-meal exercise."

Without waiting for anyone's consent, he took the lead in standing up from his seat, then left the banquet hall and went to an indoor training room on the first floor.

As a warrior who reveres strength, his manor naturally has such a well-equipped training ground. Unfortunately, even when he was in Middle-earth, he mostly trained in the wild and rarely used this place.

However, Old Ford managed it very well. Even though it wasn't used often, it remained clean and tidy, and was equipped with all the necessary training equipment.

Wayne reached for a wooden sword on the weapon rack and then said to the dwarves behind him:

"Come on, dwarves, let's have a contest."

"Although swordsmanship is only the least impressive part of my strength, if I don't defeat you thirteen dwarves within five minutes, I'll accompany you to Lonely Mountain without any reward. How about it?"

As a dwarf prince and heir to the Torin clan, Thorin was revered by the dwarves as Thorin the Oak Shield, and he was always proud.

Hearing that Wayne, a human, dared to challenge thirteen dwarves and boasted that he would defeat them all in five minutes, even as a prince, he was quite angry.

After exchanging glances with the dwarves behind him, Thorin stepped forward first, selected a wooden sword from the weapon rack beside him, and said:

"No, Wayne, we will defeat you."

"If you lose, the contract remains the same, and we will still give you one-fifteenth of the gold."

"But you can't be so arrogant anymore, looking down on dwarves!"

Wayne smiled and nodded. Seeing that only Thorin, Kilipiri, and the other three dwarves had taken up weapons, he decided to demonstrate his strength first, lest the other dwarves continue to stand by and watch.

So, after Thorin and the other two stood in the center of the training ground, facing him, he instantly unleashed his full power, his figure transforming into a blur, appearing in front of Thorin in a charging posture.

The speed of that instant stunned everyone present. Sony only had time to cross his arms in front of his chest, while Kirifeli behind him didn't even have time to make any move.

Instead of swinging his wooden sword, Wayne, to Thorin's astonishment, rammed his shoulder into Thorin's chest. The powerful impact sent the dwarf prince flying, letting out a cry of pain, before he rolled over like a gourd, knocking down his two nephews behind him.

The three dwarfs all lay sprawled on the ground, their initial composure gone.

Wayne didn't pursue them further. Instead, he turned to look at the stunned spectators outside the training ground. Without batting an eye, he continued, "..."

"Gentlemen, I am not speaking arrogantly or being disrespectful."

"However, with my strength, I can basically defeat one or two enemies instantly, so you can't see my true strength."

Just as Wayne was speaking, Thorin, who had been knocked away, used his wooden sword to support himself as he got up from the ground. He stared at Wayne with a look of astonishment, then after considering for a few seconds, he turned to look at his fellow dwarves with a serious expression and called out:

"Wayne is right, we underestimated him."

"Now, dwarves, take up your weapons and stand with me against him. He is an unprecedentedly powerful enemy, a worthy opponent. Do not let Wayne underestimate the strength of us dwarves."

After receiving the prince's order, the other dwarves no longer hesitated and took their weapons from the weapon racks—shields, wooden hammers, spears, wooden swords, and wooden knives—and walked to Thorin's side, quickly forming a defensive formation that could be used on the battlefield.

Then, the dwarves pounded their weapons and roared in battle as they surrounded Wayne.

Faced with the dwarves' encirclement, Wayne's expression remained unchanged, still calm and collected. He smiled slightly at Gandalf and Bilbo, who were still watching from the sidelines, then gripped his wooden sword and, without dodging, launched a direct attack on the dwarves' front.

Although the dwarves of Middle-earth are much stronger than the humans of the Wizarding World, they are still at least twice as strong and fast as Wayne, who is overpowered. Even in terms of combat skills, the dwarves' wide-ranging fighting style is vastly different from the Witcher's exquisite swordsmanship.

Therefore, the ensuing battle was not as exciting as everyone had imagined, or rather, it was evenly matched.

The overwhelming superiority in skill and strength meant that even if Wayne faced him head-on, every dwarf would be defeated in one move when they met face to face with him. Their attacks were either precisely blocked by Wayne or skillfully dodged by him, and they could not cause any effective damage at all.

Even if the dwarves tried to use their bodies to grab Wayne and prevent him from dodging, Wayne could easily leap over their heads and jump behind them with his powerful jumping ability, leaving these short, strong men empty-handed.

Soon, in less than five minutes, the dwarf squad, which had been high-spirited, united, and confident of victory, was completely defeated and knocked to the ground, losing all power to resist.

Meanwhile, Wayne, who had been fighting them, remained standing in the center of the training ground, wooden sword in hand, not a drop of sweat on his body. He calmly looked at the fallen dwarf—or more precisely, at Prince Thorin among the dwarves—and politely asked:

"Prince Thorin, I think I've won this duel, haven't I?"

Upon hearing this, Thorin looked at his dwarf companions with some difficulty, and finally exchanged a glance with Balin. Each of them had been beaten black and blue, and four or five of them had been knocked unconscious, while the Witcher on the other side was completely unharmed and had not been hit even once.

To be honest, if Wayne hadn't been wielding a wooden sword, they would have lost long ago.

If time hadn't been running out and the opponent hadn't suddenly become more aggressive, knocking several dwarves unconscious, the match might not have turned out this way, looking so tragic.

Faced with such undeniable facts, Thorin offered no excuses. He sighed and said to Wayne:

"You won, Wayne. You are stronger than we thought."

"You have defeated us all."

"We dwarves value our promises, and I agree to the condition you have proposed."

"If you can kill Smaug, a third of the gold on Lonely Mountain will be yours, and you will become the best friend of all the dwarves of our tribe."

Although it was difficult to say such words of surrender at first, Thorin suddenly felt much lighter after saying them.

In fact, this expedition to the Lonely Mountain was less of an adventure and more of a gamble with a slim chance of survival.

When Gandalf proposed this expedition, everyone had little hope of its success and was even prepared to sacrifice themselves.

Therefore, only a dozen or so dwarves participated in this expedition. Otherwise, with Prince Thorin's prestige, he could easily have gathered dozens or even hundreds of dwarves.

But now, with a powerful figure capable of defeating all the dwarves single-handedly as his partner, Thorin suddenly felt that the success rate of this operation had increased significantly.

Although great swordsmanship does not represent a person's full strength.

But if Wayne in front of them wasn't lying, and swordsmanship was just his least impressive fighting style, then this human would definitely bring them more surprises in future operations.

Having received Thorin's promise, Wayne's smile widened. He reached out to Thorin, helped the dwarf prince to his feet, and said:

"You are a prince of great bearing, Prince Thorin."

"Tonight, everyone should rest well in my manor. After the new contract is signed tomorrow, we will set off."

"Please believe me, inviting me to join this Lonely Mountain expedition was absolutely the right choice."

"This operation will go more smoothly than you imagine."

Perhaps influenced by the confidence in Wayne's tone, Thorin, who had been under immense pressure and tormented by revenge, honor, and the obsession with reclaiming Lonely Mountain, also smiled slightly, nodded to Wayne, and said:

"I hope so, Wayne."

"Reclaiming Lonely Mountain has been the wish of our dwarf race for hundreds of years, and we are willing to pay the price for it with our lives."

After the atmosphere between Wayne and Thorin became harmonious again, Gandalf walked over with a smile on his face.

He smoked his pipe, expressing his admiration for Wayne's fighting skills, as well as the dwarves' unity and courage, and subtly mediating the relationship between Wayne and the dwarves.

As the initiator of the journey to Lonely Mountain, he naturally hoped that powerful people would join him. For him, defeating Smaug and Sauron was his most important goal.

Although he didn't understand Wayne at first and had some doubts, after the battle with the dwarves, Gandalf was arguably the most enthusiastic about Wayne joining him.

That evening, Wayne generously took out his treasured intermediate healing potions, not only healing the dwarves' injuries but also gifting a large bottle of these potions to every warrior who participated in the Lonely Mountain Expedition, including Gandalf and Bilbo.

Gandalf, a battle mage who only knew Flash and swordsmanship, was very interested in this magical potion and even asked Wayne directly if he would sell the potion or the recipe.

Of course, this request was rejected without question. It wasn't that Wayne was stingy; the main reason was that this potion came from the world of Azeroth and was virtually impossible to produce in Middle-earth.

The magical composition of the two worlds is very different, just like the herbs that grow in Middle-earth. Wayne tried to make Witcher potions using these herbs from the wizarding world, but found that all the herbs grown in Middle-earth had lost their effect, which disappointed him greatly.

The next day arrived quickly. After enjoying a hearty breakfast, Old Ford drafted a new contract for everyone.

Under Gandalf's witness, the contract was renewed by everyone.

After the contract was signed, the expedition to Lonely Mountain officially began.

When Wayne appeared before the dwarves riding the terrifying eight-meter-tall Deathclaw Robin, all the dwarves except for Gandalf and Bilbo, who had seen Deathclaw before, were shocked by this monstrous beast.

Those sharp claws, those powerful muscles, that scaled shell forged like steel, and that gaping maw filled with fangs.

No one doubted that if Deathclaw Robin wanted to, he could kill their horses with a single bite.

Although they hadn't witnessed Deathclaw's combat power firsthand, just seeing its appearance gave the Lonely Mountain Squad even more confidence in the success of their mission and in Wayne's abilities.

At the same time, a glimmer of hope also rose in the hearts of these dwarves.

Could they really defeat Smaug and reclaim Lonely Mountain this time?

(End of this chapter)