LOTR: The Mincraft Player

The Great Eagles were fierce in battle, and Beorn was strong as well. But combined, there were only seven or eight of them at most, while the orc reinforcements kept pouring in without end. The army from Mount Gundabad was still arriving, showing no signs of stopping.

The orcs had hunted skin-changers before, they knew the weaknesses of the great bear and could target them accordingly.

As long as they were willing to suffer some losses, it was still possible to bring him down. Though those losses might not be small, compared to a certain newly emerged formidable enemy, this was still something they could handle.

Aside from the skin-changer, those Great Eagles, however powerful and fierce they were, still couldn't take on ten thousand foes each.

In fact, if it hadn't been for Garrett eliminating all the siege-beasts in advance through various means, these Great Eagles might not have been able to sweep through the warg packs so easily.

Mortal strength always had its limits. But his power never seemed to run out.

"Go! Go! Go!"

At the foot of Ravenhill, Garrett led the charge, at the forefront, clearing out the orcs ambushing the area alongside the dwarves.

The path behind was already sealed off.

While the orcs were caught off guard by the attack of the Great Eagles, he had already taken the chance to block the road leading to the enemy's command center, cutting the orc army off outside the wall.

Now, the orcs outside couldn't get in, and the orcs inside couldn't get out, the continuity of the battlefield was broken, dividing it into smaller isolated zones.

At the moment, however, those orcs inside didn't look like they wanted to leave anyway.

The orcs hidden among the ruins surged out, raising their blades and crossbows, charging forward all at once.

Most of these ambushers had come from the deep pits of Khazad-dûm. Unlike the orcs of the Misty Mountains, they were darker in nature and more vicious.

But even so... He raised his shield, deflecting all the incoming projectiles with a loud clatter, then drew his longsword and charged into the orc horde, each sweep taking down multiple enemies.

From the southern edge of the ruins, he carved his way north. Realizing he had gone too far, he turned around and carved his way back south.

After cutting through back and forth like that, the orcs, who had long been trapped in the depths, were terrified into retreating.

What kind of new breed of Man was this?!

Just then, a new skill orb dropped, Armor Break, which he quickly absorbed and upgraded to level 1.

[Armor Break learned]

[Armor Penetration, as the name suggests, allows the next attack to ignore armor and deal direct damage after a brief charge-up.

Note: Attacks cannot be made during the charging period.

Charge time: approximately one second.]

"The path up is this way!"

Seeing Garrett about to go for another full sweep, Thorin quickly pulled him back and pointed out the route.

Even he had become the voice of restraint when facing Garrett's enthusiasm.

"Right, let's go!"

The lowest-level orcs had almost all been cleared out. The remaining stragglers could be handled by the dwarven shock troops with ease.

Climbing the stairs, Garrett pressed upward without pause, killing orcs where he found them, slaying wargs as they appeared.

Some orcs tried to destroy the path, but the next moment, stone blocks reconnected it. Others tried blocking the way with debris, but the obstacles barely lasted a second before being smashed through.

A bunch of mobs trying to block a player with creative mode access?

Wishful thinking.

Whoosh.

Suddenly, several arrows flew toward them. He turned his head and saw a group of small, wiry creatures emerging from behind a pile of stones by the road.

Goblins.

Even the goblins from Goblin-town had joined the battle.

"Haha! You're already surrounded!"

As everyone's attention was focused on the goblins behind, another group of goblins shrieked and jumped down from above, brandishing curved blades and crude weapons for an aerial ambush.

But the moment Garrett looked up and drew his longsword, they realized, they might have made a terrible mistake.

"Wait... It's that one..."

The words were cut short. The goblin was still in mid-air when it was slashed away by a single flaming sword strike, its body landing ablaze off to the side.

When the goblins finally saw the face of the dark-armored warrior below, they suddenly understood what they had gotten themselves into.

Maybe it wasn't the other side that was surrounded.

"Retreat! Quickly!"

Some goblins immediately turned and fled.

But it was already too late.

Moments later, over a hundred goblin corpses littered the path, most were burned, while a few had been killed by dwarven weapons.

A new skill orb dropped, Leaping Blow, which Garrett absorbed on the spot without hesitation.

[Leaping Blow learned]

[While locked onto a target, leap and strike while landing to deal area damage and briefly apply a Weakness debuff to affected enemies.]

"Keep moving!"

After clearing out these goblins, dragged out to serve as cannon fodder, he led the group onward, charging upward.

Strangely, though, they encountered no more resistance along the way.

"Where did the orcs go?" Kíli asked, puzzled.

"They couldn't have just gotten scared and run off, could they?"

Fíli, as usual, was the first to respond.

Thorin shook his head. "No, it's not that simple. Stay alert, watch the surroundings."

The group continued their climb.

"There really isn't anyone here..."

Even all the way to the top of Ravenhill, Garrett didn't see a single orc.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

Dwalin, who had been silent all this time, now spoke uneasily.

"It feels like countless eyes are watching us, but I can't see anyone."

He gripped his battle-axe tighter.

"What's going on? Let's just go up and see."

Garrett, however, didn't seem worried.

"That over there is the command platform."

He stepped closer, bit by bit, but the area was eerily silent, not a single sound to be heard.

The sky-darkening swarm of fell beasts from earlier was gone, and the orc archers that once surrounded the command post had vanished, as if they were never there at all.

Only a lone orc war banner remained, fluttering in the wind.

"Don't lower your guard," Thorin warned.

"That pale orc is cunning and cruel, he must be planning something."

"Whatever the plan is, let them come at us!"

The dwarves around him were filled with battle spirit, encircling Thorin and watching every twitch of grass or movement of wind.

"Garrett, what do you think?" Thorin asked.

"...Garrett?"

Where was he?

Click.

The sound of a triggered mechanism drew the dwarves' attention.

Vmm.

The orc horn of command began to blow on its own. A signal flag was raised, prompting a formation of orc troops to march forward, only to be instantly wiped out by the stationed archers and firework crossbow units.

"...Huh?"

Garrett looked like he had just discovered a whole new world.

"What are you doing?" the dwarves called over.

"Shh, I'm conducting research."

Click click click click.

Mechanism after mechanism triggered in sequence. The horn signals and flag commands kept changing.

Looking down the mountain, they could see the orc army falling into total disarray, some veered left, others right, some charged forward only to be blasted away by the defenders. Others ran backward, crashing into their own formations, creating chaos everywhere.

Wargs poured out from tunnels on either side, jaws open, looking around in confusion.

Cave trolls emerged from caverns and charged left, only to slam into a rock wall, scratching their heads with puzzled looks.

The battlefield instantly devolved into complete mayhem.

"...This is fun."