Chapter 340 The Last Fire Dragon Extinction
Woodland Kingdom.

After being discovered by Thranduil, Thorin's defense began to break.

Thorin was sarcastic towards the elves and felt that the elves owed them something. He also condemned Thranduil in the hall with rude words.

All I can say is that the elves have good tempers, otherwise these dwarves would have died countless times already.

But Thorin and his companions were soon punished. The Woodland Elves were not as polite as the Rivendell Elves and directly imprisoned all the dwarves.

"You will stay here and slowly decay. Hundreds of years is just a blink of an eye for elves. I have the patience to wait for you all to decay."

"Lock up all these dwarves!"

Thorin and his team, except Bilbo who used the One Ring in advance, were all captured and imprisoned.

Thranduil did not want Thorin and other dwarves to go to the Lonely Mountain. He did not favor the actions of these dwarves, and he did not want the Woodland Kingdom to be affected. After all, dwarves reproduced very quickly, and their population could multiply several times in a few hundred years.

No matter how great the loss is, the population can be restored. However, it is different for the elves. As an immortal species, it is difficult for elves to reproduce. It has been thousands of years since the end of the War of the Ancients, but their population has not recovered to that of ancient times.

In fact, the age of the elves has ended. Thranduil is well aware that the Fourth Age of Middle-earth is about to begin, and the Fourth Age is the age of mankind.

With the advent of the human era, the elves will naturally become more and more withered, which is why the elves of the Golden Forest and Rivendell choose to leave and go to Aman. However, the Silvan elves of the Woodland Kingdom are unwilling to leave Middle-earth.

When the elves were born, the gods liked them very much, after all, they were good-looking. The gods of this century have a serious tendency to be obsessed with appearance, so they invited the elves to Aman and allowed them to live with the gods.

At that time, some elves went to Aman, but some elves were reluctant to leave their homeland and were unwilling to leave Middle-earth. The Silvan elves were the ones who were unwilling to leave.

Now the Age of Elves is passing, and the Age of Men is coming, but these Silvan Elves still want to stay in Middle-earth.

Thranduil ordered the dwarves to be imprisoned, and at this moment, an elven scout arrived.

"Your Majesty, we have discovered a large number of orcs wandering outside the forest."

"Have they entered the forest?" asked Thranduil.

"At first, some orcs entered the forest, but were shot and killed by the alert scouts. Those orcs retreated, but they have been nearby." said the elf.

"Stay alert," said Thranduil.

After hearing that the orcs were coming here, Thranduil knew that things could no longer go as he thought. The actions of the dwarves attracted too many people's attention, and after hundreds of years, Sauron returned, and the orcs were ready to unite with Smaug of the Lonely Mountain.

Once the orcs and Smaug unite, the power of darkness will increase greatly, and the elves, humans, and dwarves will be in danger. Thranduil has a clear understanding of the situation on the continent, and after receiving the news from the orcs, he has guessed what these orcs want to do.

However, with all the old and new grudges added up, he would not let the dwarves have an easy time and would make them suffer. In the next few days, the dwarves were imprisoned.

Gandalf launched the expedition to the Lonely Mountain because he saw the crisis of darkness coming again, and wanted to kill Smaug before the two sides could establish contact.

Thranduil knew that he could not keep Thorin and his companions imprisoned any longer, so he ordered the elves in charge of guarding the prison to secretly let them down and let their guard down, allowing them to escape.

And to make it more reasonable, Thranduil held a banquet, and even the elves who were guarding the prison were invited and left. After no one was guarding the dwarves, Bilbo immediately emerged from his invisibility.

"Bilbo, it's really you!"

"Great! You are definitely qualified as a thief!"

"Bilbo, help us open the lock!"

"Hush! Hush!" Bilbo said in a low voice. "The elves have gone to the party."

"Keep your voice down and don't alarm them. I'll go find the key and rescue you!"

The dwarves immediately fell silent. Bilbo became invisible again and crept to the guard post, where the elves were already drunk.

Thranduil specially ordered people to send drinks to the guarding elves.

Seeing the drunken elves, Bilbo walked up carefully and stole the key of the cell from one of the elves. Then he quickly ran back to the prison and rescued the dwarves with the key.

Soon the dwarves who regained their freedom began to move their bodies. The prisons where they were imprisoned were all single cells, where the small ones could only stand, and it was not comfortable to stay there for several days.

The dwarves who regained their freedom found an empty wine barrel and crawled into it, then fled the Woodland Kingdom directly through the river.

Just as the elves were feasting, a guard came forward and reported: "The dwarves have escaped."

Thranduil was not surprised to hear the news. He put down his wine glass and said, "Legolas, lead the team to clear out the orcs around here. Don't let them affect our banquet!"

"And the dwarves?" Legolas asked.

"Don't worry about them, just let them drift along the river. Since they choose to go to Lonely Mountain, let them go. We just need to do our own thing!"

Although he was confused, Legolas accepted the order and led a team of elves to the river mouth.

The dwarves rode on the turbulent river in barrels and finally stopped at a fishing port. Then, with the help of Bard, the dwarves entered the town of Long Lake.

After a simple rest for the night, Thorin said, "Now that everyone has rested, let's prepare tonight and head to Erebor tomorrow!"

"Thorin, it's still early. Should we wait for Gandalf?" Fili came over and asked.

"We can go there first or wait. If Gandalf hasn't come by the last minute, we can do it ourselves!" Thorin said.

Gandalf was in Dol Guldur at this time.

Dol Guldur was once the home of the woodland elves. After the defeat of the Second Age and the migration of the elves to the north, this place was abandoned. However, not long ago, an evil force occupied this place.

From the outside, it looks dilapidated and silent, as if there is no human or biological activity. However, in fact, everything here is an illusion.

Gandalf came here to investigate, and another wizard, Radagast, also came here.

"It seems that there is a concealment spell covering this place. His behavior shows that his strength has not fully recovered and he dare not appear in public."

"Radagast, go and give a message to the lady of the Golden Forest. We need support. We must force the enemy out! I will go in and investigate first."

"Well, be careful." Radagast said, and immediately cracked his whip, and the huge rabbit immediately took him away. Seeing Radagast leave, Gandalf immediately drew his sword, holding the staff in his left hand and the sword in his right hand, and entered the ruins.

After entering here, Gandalf soon encountered the hidden Ringwraiths. But facing Gandalf who was dual-wielding, the Ringwraiths were no match at all. Gandalf raised his staff, a bright light instantly rose, and then he slashed with his right sword.

The Ringwraith screamed and wailed as they hid in the shadows.

Then the staff in Gandalf's hand shone brightly: "Make all the dark dimensions appear here!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a silver-white light instantly bloomed in all directions with him as the center. The dazzling light instantly swept across everything. After releasing this spell, Gandalf consumed a lot of energy, but the spell was very effective.

Nine phantoms were driven directly out of the shadow world.

These Ringwraiths were once kings, the most powerful human enhancements of the past era. Even though they have lost their freedom and self-awareness, they are still very difficult to deal with.

Gandalf showed his power, holding a staff in one hand and a sword in the other to fight with these Ringwraiths. Gandalf cut off the arm of a Ringwraith with one sword, and then his staff emitted light, and the flames instantly enveloped another Ringwraith.

At this moment, a Ringwraith with hideous and terrifying armor suddenly attacked from behind.

"clang!"

The sound of metal clashing rang out, Gandalf blocked the Ringwraith's sneak attack and fled. There were more and more enemies around, and Gandalf didn't dare to fight them anymore. He wanted to escape first and wait for others to come and attack together.

These Ringwraiths were no match for Gandalf in a one-on-one fight. Gandalf wanted to escape, and the Ringwraiths could not stop him at all.

boom!
A heavy hammer suddenly came down, and then a pale figure appeared before his eyes, and a large number of orcs also rushed up.

"Light drives away evil!"

A dazzling light flashed, and the orcs who rushed out from the darkness were directly stabbed by the strong light, screaming and fleeing in all directions.

Without these orcs blocking him, Gandalf immediately ran out, and the Ringwraiths and orcs behind him also reacted and chased after him.

Gandalf hit the rock wall with his staff and knocked it down. The huge rocks killed many pursuing orcs and blocked the road.

Gandalf, who had successfully escaped, was about to breathe a sigh of relief when suddenly there was a space fluctuation in front of him.

Boom!

A void illusion like a huge pupil of an eye appeared in front of him and stopped Gandalf.

"Sauron!"

Gandalf couldn't help but exclaim.

"You can't get away, wizard!"

"Light cannot defeat darkness!"

In the endless darkness, Sauron's voice echoed in his soul, and the rolling black fog came, ready to drown Gandalf in an instant.

The discovered Sauron ordered the pale orcs to lead the orc army to march towards the Lonely Mountain. On the other hand, after receiving funding from the mayor of Long Lake Town, the dwarves also began to march towards the Lonely Mountain.

Under the last rays of the Durin New Year, the dwarves found the back door into the Lonely Mountain, and it was Bilbo's turn to steal the Arkenstone.

But facing the giant dragon Smaug, Bilbo was obviously too naive, and the smell on his body was quickly discovered by Smaug.

The dwarves who stole the gem had to fight with Smaug here. As the largest and last fire dragon in the Third Age, Smaug was undoubtedly very powerful.

However, the huge palace of the kingdom under the mountain allowed these agile dwarves to take advantage of various complex terrains to hide. Smaug's huge body was very inconvenient in such a complex environment.

After several attempts at spraying flames, the dwarves were not burned to death. Instead, the dwarves successfully ignited the furnace, melting a large amount of gold into liquid, hoping to use the scalding gold to burn Smaug to death.

Richard sat on the dome of the palace, watching this cat-and-mouse game. As a fire dragon, Smaug could not be harmed by molten gold or even boiling magma.

At this time, Smaug's form was fully revealed. Richard discovered that Smaug was a flying dragon, and its front claws were connected to its wings.

The molten gold completely enraged Smaug. Smaug no longer trembled with these dwarves. He decided to take revenge on the humans in Lake Town first.

The huge Smaug rushed out of the Lonely Mountain and flew directly to Lake Town, and the people of Lake Town began to flee.

Smaug's huge figure appeared in the sky, and then the fire dragon opened its mouth and spewed out a ball of fire. The raging fire instantly set Lake Town on fire.

At the same time, Bard, who had already arrived at the observation deck, picked up the last black arrow and aimed at Smaug with the help of the wind crossbow. At this time, Smaug exhaled several times, and the endless flames turned the Long Lake Town directly into a sea of ​​fire.

A huge gust of wind roared in, and a giant dragon flew over. Seeing Bard on the watchtower trying to resist, it immediately mocked:
"A human who dares to resist?"

"What do you think your weapons are for? To tickle me?"

The arrogant Smaug lowered his flying altitude, wanting to play a trick on this human. After seeing Smaug approaching, Bard instantly discovered the missing scales on Smaug's chest.

"Grandpa didn't lie to me. He shot the dragon. The missing scale is proof of that!"

At this moment, Bard's heart became calmer. He immediately pulled the trigger in his hand and shot out the spear-like black arrow.

The black arrow seemed to have eyes and instantly penetrated into the skin not covered by dragon scales, leaving Smaug no chance and piercing his heart fiercely.

"what!!!"

Smaug let out a scream, and his huge body struggled to fly into the sky.

But at this moment, a figure appeared above the dragon's head, and the next second a scepter shining with golden light smashed heavily on Smaug's head.

Smaug, who was flying, felt a sharp pain in his head. The powerful force directly knocked him down from the sky and crashed into the water. Smaug's eyes lost their luster at this moment, and his huge body also lost its vitality.

The most powerful and last fire dragon in Middle-earth in the Third Age died.

ps: I am too busy with the renovation of my house, so I will only update once today.

(End of this chapter)