As the Rataan Soldiers once again accurately pinned an orc's eye socket with a crossbow bolt, the Red Lion Legion's efficient and ruthless slaughter began.
An orc, just realizing what was happening and reaching for the short blade at its waist, had its head smashed into an exploding berry by Ogha's greatsword, skull fragments mixed with brain matter splattering into the fire, sending up a foul-smelling black smoke.
The chaos lasted less than three minutes. When the last orc was pinned to the rock wall by a spear, the resting room had become a swamp of orc flesh and blood.
The orc soldiers would never have expected to be attacked inside the Lonely Mountain, and without any preparation, they were naturally no match for the Red Lion Legion.
Ogha stepped over the scattered orc organs and walked to another exit of the resting room. The stone door frame was vaguely carved with dwarvish writing.
If Thorin and his companions were here, the dwarves would immediately recognize that this dwarvish text meant "Durin Forever Bright."
At this moment, dense footsteps could be heard from outside the stone door, interspersed with the creaking of other stone doors being raised and the shrill chirping of orcs.
"Check for injuries. Those lightly wounded, take the heavily wounded back the way we came. The rest of you, follow me and continue upwards."
Ogha issued the simple command. Among the Rataan Soldiers behind him, only three who had been wounded by orcs in the recent melee voluntarily stepped forward.
Two soldiers had several cuts on their arms, and the remaining soldier had an injured ankle. He walked out of the ranks with reluctance.
He had been simultaneously attacked by several orcs, which led to his more severe injuries.
The soldiers' wounds had been simply treated by themselves, and they had also taken antidote moss to neutralize the poison on the orcs' weapons. But even so, they could feel the stinging pain, and blood still slowly seeped out from under the clean gauze.
However, he did not choose to conceal his injuries and insisted on staying with Ogha's team.
This was not because he was cowardly or unwilling to continue fighting, but because he knew that with his injured ankle and limited mobility, he would surely distract his comrades, forcing them to protect him and bringing them more danger.
Therefore, he did not say anything, but simply unfastened the Redmane Flame Flask, hand crossbow, and matching bolts he was carrying and handed them over to his other comrades.
The other two Rataan Soldiers with arm injuries made the same gesture. After they had properly handed over their items to their nearby comrades, they went to help support the Lataan Soldier with the injured ankle and retreated in the direction they had come from.
At the same time, the commotion made by the orcs outside the stone door became clearer and clearer.
Ogha calmly commanded, while pulling a Redmane Flame Flask from his waist: "Reform the ranks, prepare your crossbow bolts."
The Rataan Soldiers quickly reassembled and stood in formation. The next moment, the stone door was roared open by a strong orc, creating a gap.
It looked through the gap, and the next moment, a crossbow bolt plunged into its forehead, causing the orc to roll its eyes back and fall backward.
The gap created by the pushed-open stone door was not small but also not large, just enough for Ogha to throw out the Redmane Flame Flask.
So Ogha immediately pressed his side against the door crack, preventing the stone door from being pushed further open. His shoulder plate even scraped, producing sparks.
Heavy breathing and jostling sounds came from behind the door. Ogha roughly estimated that at least thirty orcs were blocking the passage outside the stone door.
Then Ogha threw the Redmane Flame Flask in his hand through the door crack. The clay pot arced and landed not far from outside the door. After a brief explosion, a scarlet wave of fire instantly shot into the door crack like a serpent's tongue.
Screams and the smell of burnt flesh permeated through the stone door. An orc tried to swat away the flames on its body, but the viscous flames covered its palm, and its entire arm directly carbonized into a charred, withered branch.
Before the flames from the Redmane Flame Flask had extinguished, Ogha actively pulled the stone door open.
The Rataan Soldiers, who were already prepared, simultaneously fired dozens of hand crossbows the moment they saw the orcs outside.
The orcs in the passage who had not yet been burned to death had just opened their smoke-reddened eyes when steel arrowheads pierced their foreheads. Crossbow bolts penetrated skulls or cervical vertebrae, nailing the twitching corpses to the rock wall.
The orcs at the end of the passage, unaffected by the Redmane Flame Flask, tried to draw their short bows and retaliate, but the crossbowmen's second wave of arrows had already arrived. Crossbow bolts drilled into their bodies, taking their lives.
Seeing that the orcs in the passage were mostly cleared, Ogha issued another command: "Shield wall, push forward!"
The Rataan Soldiers instantly retracted their crossbows and retreated, then the shield soldiers moved forward, two rows of tower shields forming an iron wall and pressing forward.
The two or three surviving orcs huddled behind their comrades' corpses, throwing everything they could, but they were deflected off the shield edges.
When the shield wall reached these last few orcs, spears suddenly thrust out from the gaps, snagging into the orcs' collarbones and pulling downwards, splitting their chests and hearts in half.
"Keep moving forward!"
Meanwhile, in the throne room, Azog, sitting on the Dwarven King's throne, suddenly looked up, his iron hook scraping against the armrest of the throne.
The next moment, one of his orc scouts stumbled in, eagerly shouting to Azog: "Intruders on the lower level! All humans…"
Azog sneered and stood up, but then slowly sat back on the throne: "Humans? Those rotten fishmongers from Lake-town?"
The reporting scout frantically shook his head: "I, I don't know, they wear red armor with lions carved on it, and the arrows they shoot are incredibly accurate, as if they can curve…"
Azog's single eye narrowed into a slit. He suddenly kicked the scout aside: "Useless trash, those humans are the elites who attacked Ravenhill and Dale. You can't even recognize that."
The scout, after rolling to his feet, trembled like a sieve, fearfully prostrating himself before the Dwarven throne, not daring to speak, afraid that if he said one more word, Azog would take out his anger on him and kill him.
Azog narrowed his eyes. It was clear that he had just realized that the tunnels created by the Earthworm were not only usable by his orc army.
He was about to send out those massive Olog Trolls to kill all the invading human soldiers underground, but the command was swallowed back before Azog could utter it.
No, perhaps I can use these humans… that Dragon cannot only enjoy the benefits its master brings it without paying any price.
Azog looked in the direction of Smaug's gold hoard, a cold smile on his face: "Send out soldiers, lead our 'guests' to the Dragon's sleeping chamber."
After several charges, Ogha and the Rataan Soldiers he led also keenly noticed that the orcs seemed not to be in a hurry to engage them. Instead, whenever they wanted to go to a certain place, a large group of orcs would rush out, while the number of orcs appearing in another direction would be much smaller.
It was as if they were deliberately guiding them to a certain place.
After Ogha split the orc in front of him in two, he looked up at the orc who had not fled far and was now looking back to see if the Red Lion Legion had caught up.
Although he didn't say anything on the surface, he was already sneering in his heart.
"Where in the Lonely Mountain are you trying to lead us? It's truly hard to guess, Azog."
One of the Rataan Soldiers behind Ogha also whispered, "Lord Ogha, these orcs…"
Ogha raised his hand to interrupt him: "Hmm, Lord Radahn is truly prescient. Continue to follow those orcs according to the original plan."
"Yes."
Inside Smaug's lair, Smaug, who had been resting with his eyes closed in the mountain of gold coins, naturally noticed Ogha and their invasion, but he disdained the trivial matters between orcs and humans.
If dwarves had come in, it might have piqued Smaug's interest.
However, as the commotion caused by the humans and orcs got closer and closer to his lair, Smaug could no longer sleep peacefully as before.
He raised his head from the mountain of gold coins, his Dragon eyes revealing a dangerous glint, and said with a comical laugh, "Azog, do you think I don't know what you're doing?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a door leading to the Dwarven treasury was impatiently pushed open by the orcs, who noisily rushed in.
And not long after they nervously entered, Ogha led the Rataan Soldiers in.
Small mountains of gold coins and jewels were piled high, reaching the vaulted ceiling, and every coin reflected Smaug's Dragon body coiled at the peak.
The wealth accumulated by the dwarves over hundreds of years, under the light of the treasury hall, practically stung the eyes of Ogha and his men.
Even Ogha and the soldiers of the Red Lion Legion, who possessed extremely strong psychological fortitude, were momentarily shocked by the wealth before their eyes.
After the orcs had lured Ogha and the Rataan Soldiers in, they immediately hid in fright, terrified of being seen by the Dragon.
Ogha, with a clear objective, gazed at Smaug's black body, which rose and fell with his breathing, and raised his hand to signal his soldiers to spread out.
After all, gathering together when facing a giant Dragon was truly a very foolish thing to do.
The Rataan Soldiers silently climbed the gold mountain, drew their crossbows, and steadily aimed their arrows at Smaug.
Smaug took in the movements of these humans and couldn't help but mock them.
He wanted to converse with the leading human, to know his name and enslave his soul: "Little ant…"
Smaug's guttural voice made the gold coins clatter and slide, and the magic in his Dragon speech made the air feel thick like honey.
Ogha felt cold tendrils trying to pry open his skull, and his thoughts became somewhat sluggish.
"Kneel. Offer your name, and I shall bestow upon you the grace of licking my Dragon claws."
Ogha's temples throbbed, Smaug's Dragon speech echoed continuously in his mind, giving Ogha an urge to speak his name.
But a cold sneer suddenly formed on his lips beneath his helmet, and he gestured for attack.
The moment the Rataan Soldiers pulled their crossbow triggers, Ogha himself immediately drew back his greatbow, which was engraved with the Redmane emblem.
Countless steel crossbow bolts tore through the air, but Smaug didn't even bother to move, and the arrows bounced off the black Dragon scales on the Dragon's body as if hitting hard metal.
Only Ogha's gravity arrow caused damage; the arrow, imbued with gravity magic, exploded into a purple vortex the moment it touched the Dragon scales, tearing tiny cracks in three scales on Smaug's chest.
This time, the giant Dragon finally fully opened his vertical pupils, his golden eyes contracting into pinpricks from anger.
The last time he felt pain was when that overconfident human lord shot him with a wind crossbow years ago.
"INSECTS!"
Smaug's roar unleashed a tsunami of gold coins, and the Redmane Soldiers curled up behind the gold mountain, trying to stabilize themselves so they wouldn't roll down with the coins.
Ogha, on the other hand, plunged his knight's greatsword into a nearby stone pillar so he wouldn't be swept away by the falling sea of gold coins.
He spat out a gold coin from his mouth and roared, "Second round! Shoot at its scale cracks!"
But Smaug's chest swelled, the air around him seemed to be instantly sucked dry, and a crimson light emerged from his mouth, as scorching Dragon fire surged from his hideous maw.
This Dragon's fire was more violent than Ogha had anticipated.
The first stream of Dragon fire was almost white, instantly liquefying the gold coins in its path, and turning fist-sized sapphires into blue smoke.
The mountain of gold coins where the Red Lion Legion was hiding turned from solid to liquid in just a few seconds.
Two Rataan Soldiers decisively raised their shields and leaped out of cover, buying time for their comrades.
However, their shields melted into molten iron within five seconds, and then the two brave Rataan Soldiers, without even making a sound, were enveloped by the Dragon fire, their bodies shattering into black powder before they even hit the ground.
But because of these five seconds they bought, all the other soldiers managed to dodge the scorching Dragon fire in time.
The second stream of Dragon fire turned dark red; this was Smaug's mockery.
He deliberately slowed his breath, sweeping it horizontally little by little towards Ogha's location, so Ogha could witness firsthand how the Dragon fire torrent would engulf him and his soldiers, making them experience double panic and torment, both physically and mentally.
But fortunately, the direction of Smaug's second Dragon fire breath happened to be exactly where those orcs were hiding.
These orc Soldiers immediately took off running, bursting out from their hiding places.
But Smaug did not stop because of this; he had never intended to let these orcs, who had disturbed his rest, off the hook.
If it weren't for his alliance with Sauron, Smaug would even have planned to kill that white orc after eliminating these insects who had invaded his room.
One orc after another, as soon as they escaped from their hiding places, were engulfed by the Dragon fire, turning into running torches, which also allowed Ogha to see a glimmer of hope in the gaps of the Dragon fire: the gold mountain where Smaug was located.
He took advantage of Smaug's attention being slightly focused on the screaming orcs, and once again drew his greatbow to its full extent, only this time the target of the gravity arrow was no longer Smaug, but the ground beneath him.
Ogha swiftly shot three gravity arrows at the gold mountain beneath Smaug's feet; they burrowed into the mountain of gold coins, causing a collapse that made Smaug lose his balance and slide down.
Because this Dragon hadn't soared in the sky for over a hundred years, he actually forgot to spread his wings and fly up at first.
"Retreat in the direction we came from!"
Ogha seized this opportunity, roaring orders to his soldiers.
Just as the last Redmane Soldier leaped out of the Dwarven treasury passage, Smaug's breath surged from the passage.
Ogha listened to the occasional orc screams from within the passage and the constant shaking of the Dwarven palace around him, knowing that the unlucky orcs were currently being used as targets for the enraged Smaug's wrath.