Bilbo watched Azog's head fall to the ground, and Thorin stepped on it before standing up from behind the orc's corpse with a look of disgust.
Then he hesitated and asked, "So… Azog just died like that?"
Bilbo felt it was somewhat unreal. According to the epic biographies he had read, Thorin should have fought a great battle with Azog, accompanied by Fili and Kili, and only then would he have difficultly defeated him.
But Azog died just like the other orcs he had seen on this journey, simply frozen by Thorin's axe and then beheaded.
After cutting off Azog's head, Thorin gasped for air, as if a great weight had been lifted. The mental relaxation made him feel the physical exhaustion that had been building up from days of tense nerves.
Upon hearing Bilbo's words, he forced a tired smile: "That's all thanks to the stone you threw; it was very accurate."
Bilbo said awkwardly, "But even if I hadn't thrown that stone, Fili and Kili would have definitely helped you stop Azog…"
Kili let out a hearty laugh and said to Bilbo, "At times like this, it's best to generously accept the credit."
Then Fili patted Kili's shoulder and said, "Although Azog is dead, the orcs in the Lonely Mountain are not. Arthur and Gandalf are still up there, holding them back for us. Give me a hand, and we'll throw Azog's body in front of those Orcs; they'll run away on their own."
If Thorin hadn't crushed Azog's head, which was frozen by the frozen shell axe's ice beads, Fili would have only needed to throw Azog's head onto the steps.
Thorin watched Fili and Kili drag Azog's body away before sitting exhaustedly on the ground.
Bilbo saw Thorin's appearance and asked with concern, "Uh, are you injured anywhere?"
Thorin shook his head slightly: "I just haven't slept much these past few days; I'm a bit tired."
Just then, hurried footsteps and the clanking of armor echoed from a tunnel somewhere. Judging by the sound, there were many people, immediately putting Thorin and Bilbo on alert.
Bilbo motioned for Thorin to hide behind an overturned wooden table, and the two cautiously peeked their heads out to look in the direction of the sound.
"Quickly report to Lord Azog!! Powerful Human soldiers with three terrifying beasts are catching up to us through the tunnels dug by the Earthworm!! The Earthworm has been killed by terrifying Human archers, and all the dwarves have followed us!"
The panicked voices of orcs came from inside the tunnel, making Bilbo and Thorin exchange glances.
As the footsteps grew closer, the figures of orc soldiers frantically fleeing appeared in a large tunnel, and behind them, the roars of lions and the angry shouts of dwarves also echoed.
Bilbo was silent for a moment, looking at the orcs who were pushing their compatriots down to escape, and then said, "They seem to be the army that attacked your father."
Thorin also nodded: "Yes, the general of the Red Lion Legion told me that after Smaug flew out, the Human knight named Ogha would lead the remaining soldiers and the three large lions waiting outside Ravenhill to support my father."
This was also why the Lion Guard never appeared on the battlefield in Dale.
Radahn not only anticipated that Azog would use the Earthworm to destroy Ravenhill but also expected this cunning and vengeful orc leader to send other Earthworms and a large orc army to attack Thráin's army again.
As for why the Lion Guard didn't follow Ogha into the Lonely Mountain from the start, it was because Radahn was worried that the Lion Guard would suffer losses at Smaug's hands, which would be detrimental to the subsequent rescue of Thráin.
Although this orc army that attacked Thráin was composed of armored elites, their numbers were not large.
After Ogha led the interference with these Orcs' initial surprise attack on Thráin, Thráin, who was already wary of the Earthworm attack, immediately reacted and cooperated with Ogha to sandwich this orc army.
What Thorin saw was merely a group of orc deserters whose courage had been shattered. Therefore, he loudly called out Fili and Kili's names, actively emerged from behind the wooden table, picked up his frozen shell axe, and charged towards these orc deserters, eventually succeeding in eliminating these orcs with Ogha and Thráin.
"Thorin!"
Among the dwarf soldiers, a sudden, unfamiliar yet familiar voice exploded in Thorin's ears, making his body tremble.
Thorin's hand, clutching the frozen shell axe, suddenly lost strength, and the crisp sound of the axe handle hitting the ground echoed for a long time in the depths of the Lonely Mountain palace.
He slowly turned, his war boots crushing the frost on the ground, but unable to crush that call that had spanned a hundred years.
Thráin's figure emerged from among the dwarf soldiers. The halo of the surrounding torches outlined the black bloodstains on his battle armor, which were from when Thráin killed an orc with his warhammer and it splattered onto him.
The old king's beard swayed with his movements, and his eyes, looking at Thorin, burned with a furnace-like intensity: "Let me see, which little mole is causing such a big commotion in the Lonely Mountain?"
Thorin staggered two steps forward, his trembling hands touching his father's familiar armor, his fingertips repeatedly rubbing the bloodstains, as if to confirm that this was not some figment of his imagination.
Finally, Thorin mustered the courage to meet his father's gaze, his Adam's apple bobbing: "Your beard needs trimming…"
Thráin, however, actively embraced Thorin tightly, leaving Thorin's hands, which had not felt his father's embrace for a long time, awkwardly suspended in mid-air.
Then Thráin released Thorin, looking at his son intently, and laughed loudly.
When he lowered his head, tears carved two bright furrows in his wrinkles. He struck the ground heavily with his warhammer, then gently stroked the wrinkles on Thorin's forehead: "The young man from back then has now become a man."
"Father…"
Before Thorin could finish speaking, Thráin suddenly grabbed his hand.
The old king said, "I heard from Gandalf that when you suggested reclaiming the Lonely Mountain, all those lords opposed you. Let's go! Let those old stubborn fools see if my son succeeded or not!"
Thorin did not refuse, allowing his father to hold his hand.
He looked at his father's back, as strong as it used to be, and his throat felt as hot as if he had drunk a glass of strong liquor. The pressure that had been weighing on his back also melted away like snow.
The news of Azog's death quickly spread among the orc soldiers in the Lonely Mountain. Without their leader, the orcs were like a pile of loose sand, quickly cleared out by the dwarves within two days. The interior of the Lonely Mountain was cleaned and rearranged to suit dwarf habitation.
And so, the grand feast began.
Thorin's first invitations went to Arthur and the people of the Golden Tree Territory, followed by Gandalf and Bilbo, and finally Bard and the people of Lake-town.
As for King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm and his Elven warriors, Thorin had not originally planned to invite them.
However, out of respect for Arthur, Thorin still held his nose and extended an invitation to Thranduil.
Because Bernal had also told Arthur and the others about what happened in Lake-town, the Ringwraiths' attack made Gandalf's heart, which had just relaxed after the dwarves reclaimed the Lonely Mountain, clench up again.
But Thranduil rejected Thorin's invitation, instead dropping the remark, "Rather than attend a dwarf's brass-scented dinner, I'd rather fight another battle with the orcs," before directly leading his Elf army back home.
Only Legolas and Tauriel remained due to Bernal's direct invitation, as these two Elves had indeed helped him contain the Ringwraiths.
Legolas, unsure of his father's attitude towards him, didn't want to return to the Woodland Realm with Thranduil immediately, so he accepted Bernal's invitation.
As for Tauriel, she had originally intended to politely decline Bernal's invitation and leave, feeling ashamed that she hadn't been of much help.
But Legolas stayed, and she was more worried that Legolas would get into an argument with the dwarves at the feast, so she had no choice but to stay as well.
Inside the Lonely Mountain at this moment, torches cast a molten gold glow on the vaulted ceiling of the banquet hall.
For the first time in one hundred and seventy-one years, the black iron chandeliers in the palace were once again adorned with fire and gold.
Long tables, suspended by chains forged from silver, hung in mid-air, and real rivers flowed across their surfaces.
Underground springs, channeled by dwarf artisans through the rock, surged in the grooves, supporting golden goblets brimming with mead.
The liquid bobbed and collided on the flowing waterways, and amber droplets that splashed out were deftly caught by drunken dwarves with their warhammers before they hit the ground, then guzzled down.
Dain stepped onto the throne platform, bits of roasted rock goat fat falling from his orange beard, and shouted, "Another barrel of ale for me!"
dwarf attendants, carrying oak barrels as tall as themselves, filed in. The moment the barrel lids were opened, the aroma of ale mixed with malt exploded, making Dain burst into happy laughter.
In the center of the long table, an entire beef carcass was roasting on a rotating silver spit, its skin a glistening caramel color.
Bombur, wielding a jewel-encrusted carving knife, pounced on it. Sparks from the dripping fat burned small holes in his clothes over his belly, but he ripped off a leg of meat, completely oblivious, and stuffed it into his mouth. Mushroom dices and other vegetables mixed into a stuffing peeked out from the meat's crevices.
"Slow down, Bombur! You've already eaten half a cow! And before that, you drank a whole barrel of ale! How on earth can your stomach hold so much food!" Bombur's brother stared at him in astonishment, shouting loudly.
On the other side of the long table, Fili looked at his brother Kili with a conflicted expression, wondering whether to pull his drunken brother off the table.
At this moment, Kili, clutching a wine pot, jumped onto a chandelier by stepping on a wine barrel, hooked his boot tip onto the lamp frame, and shouted down to Legolas, who sat uncomfortably beside Arthur, "Hey, Elf! I invite you to a drink!"
He then aimed the wine pot at the silver cup in Legolas's hand, filling it without spilling a single drop.
"Elves don't drink dwarf wine, they can't leave the Lonely Mountain gate!"
"Drink! Drink! Drink!"
Seeing this scene, the dwarves throughout the hall pounded on the tables and cheered, singing the newly composed lyrics.
Bernal frowned slightly at Kili. He didn't mind the dwarves making such jokes with him, but it was clear that the relationship between the Elves and dwarves was not yet good enough for such behavior, and Legolas was his invited guest.
Just as Bernal was about to speak up to help Legolas, Legolas raised an eyebrow and was about to lift the wine cup to drink it all.
But before Legolas's hand could touch the wine cup, Tauriel, sitting on his other side, snatched the cup and drank it all, then inverted the empty cup onto the table. The splashed wine foam turned into a rainbow in the chandelier's halo.
"Good!"
Seeing the female Elf drink so boldly, the dwarves burst into cheers.
Kili, on the chandelier, looked at Tauriel's appearance, somewhat stunned, while Fili took the opportunity to pull his drunken brother down from the chandelier and make him sit properly.
Legolas whispered to Tauriel, "You didn't have to drink that for me."
Tauriel whispered back, "I just couldn't stand the dwarves' overbearing way of pressing drinks."
At the end of the long table, Thráin picked up a mead-filled wine pot, put his arm around Thorin's shoulder, and poured him a drink.
Thorin wiped away the wine obscuring his eyes, then picked up a wine pot and poured a drink for his own father.
Arthur, Gandalf, and Bilbo were seated near Thráin and Thorin. Gandalf quietly took a sauce-covered piece of roasted meat from a distant platter on the long table for Bilbo, making the hobbit thank him repeatedly.
Gandalf asked with a chuckle, "I saw you were lost in thought just now. Were you thinking about something?"
Bilbo chewed the delicious roasted meat, and only after swallowing did he reply, "Yes, I was thinking about how to describe this feast when I get back. Perhaps I should write: 'This is the dwarves' night; even the stones are singing.' What do you think, Gandalf?"
Gandalf nodded, "A wonderful description, Bilbo."
Arthur then joined their conversation, asking Bilbo, "Have you thought about how to title the beginning of this journey?"
Bilbo nodded without hesitation, "Of course, I've thought about it. It's called 'An Unexpected Adventure.' But I'm wondering how to make my descendants believe that a hobbit who couldn't fight once helped the Lord of the Lonely Mountain with a stone."
Thorin, who had just finished another pot of mead, heard Bilbo's words and laughed heartily, "The Lonely Mountain will record your help; you don't have to worry about that."
While Bilbo and Thorin were talking, Arthur quietly said to Gandalf, "Gandalf, I have two things I want to show you."
Gandalf looked at Arthur's mysterious demeanor and asked curiously, "What good things are they?"
Arthur cleared his throat, placing the rings Bernal and Igon had given him in his palm, and showed them to Gandalf, saying, "It's because I don't know either, so I came to ask you. These are the rings Bernal and Igon found on the Ringwraiths they killed. I feel there's something like a curse on them, and I don't dare to easily remove the curse, so I came to ask you if you know the origin of these two rings?"
Rings of Power, specifically the Nine Rings of Men!?
Gandalf's expression changed to shock the moment he clearly saw the rings. He then abruptly looked left and right, and upon realizing that no dwarves had noticed what was happening, he immediately grabbed Arthur's wrist and made him put the rings away.
At the same time, he whispered to Arthur, "Never let humans know you have these two rings."