Chapter 343: The Holy Phoenix Shows Its Power
The elven army retreated to the ruins of Valley Town in an orderly manner, using the ruins of Valley Town to resist the orc army.

Thranduil calmed down and did not go head-on with the orc army. Although the elf army was well-trained and powerful, they were too few in number.

The orc army totals more than 20,000, while the elves and dwarves total are less than 2,000, plus the thousands of human militia. It would be foolish not to fight a defensive counterattack and instead confront the orc army.

In fact, the Orcs' army was very scattered and poorly disciplined, and could only make rough changes in their formation. If an elite cavalry unit took advantage of the Orcs' attack on the dwarves, elves, and humans and launched a surprise attack from the side and rear, it would be very likely that the Orcs' army would be directly crushed.

Unfortunately, the elves of Rivendell did not come, and the dwarf heavy cavalry had suffered heavy casualties in the head-on conflict with the orcs.

The Orc army has surrounded the Iron Hills Dwarves, and another part of the Orc army is attacking the Elves. Compared with the Elves, the Dwarves fought very bravely, and the heavy infantry was unstoppable. The Dwarves holding shields and spears launched a counterattack against the rushing Orc army.

The heavy infantry's counter-charge directly defeated the charging Orc army, but after losing its impact, the heavy infantry could only continue to defend and accumulate strength before launching another charge.

But even with the dwarves' physical strength, they would be exhausted after only three or four times.

On the other side, the situation of the elves relying on the Valley Town was much better. With the help of the sacred phoenix in the sky, the orc army attacked three times in a row but failed to break through the crumbling city wall.

Originally, the orcs wanted to use the giant catapults, but Thranduil commanded the phoenix to burn the catapults and the giants to death.

The dwarves on the high wall also saw the crisis. A dwarf in the dwarf expedition took the lead and said, "I am going to fight outside the city. Do you want to join me?"

"I go!"

"I am coming too!"

"Let's go together!"

The dwarves immediately became active and shouted that they wanted to join the battle.

"Stand by!"

Thorin's voice came coldly.

"What?" The dwarves almost thought they had heard it wrong, and looked at Thorin in disbelief.

"Are we going to sit here and watch our fellow tribesmen being killed?"

"I said stand by!"

After saying this, Thorin turned around and walked towards the throne in the hall.

"The dwarves can no longer hold back. Without the dwarves to hold the elves back, can the elves survive?" Gandalf came to Thranduil and said.

"The Elves will not stand idly by," said Thranduil.

After saying that, Thranduil immediately led a cavalry unit of more than a hundred people to launch a charge. At this time, the orc army, which had just failed in the siege, retreated again.

"Elf cavalry, follow me and charge!"

Swish!
Hundreds of elven cavalrymen drew their swords, and Thranduil rode a giant horned deer and led the way, rushing directly out of the dilapidated city wall. The giant horned deer, which had been naturally awakened by Richard, was extremely majestic, and its huge antlers directly lifted up the orcs in front of it, and its sharp antlers instantly pierced through them.

——【Aura of Thorns! 】

A spiritual light flashed on the chest of the giant horned deer, and a layer of green light immediately appeared on the bodies of the elven cavalry following behind it. The weapons of the orcs who attacked them along the way not only failed to cut through the green light, but were instead injured by the green thorns.

The orc army had never thought that the elves would charge, let alone that Thranduil would lead more than a hundred cavalrymen to charge. The giant horned deer rushed forward and instantly crushed the orc army. The elven cavalry behind followed closely, killing a large number of orcs wherever they passed.

These elf cavalrymen were not only equipped with swords and spears, but also had longbows. As they charged, they kept shooting arrows. They kept firing arrows, and corpses were everywhere they passed.

Under Thranduil's leadership, the Elven cavalry was like a sharp sword, piercing through the Orc army quickly, and countless Orcs were driven to flee. In the sky, the sacred phoenix spread its wings, and countless fireballs fell into the Orc army. For a moment, the flames surged, and a large number of Orcs were directly burned to death.

In just a quarter of an hour, Thranduil led his army to break through the enemy's formation, and then rushed towards the orc army that was besieging the dwarves of Iron Hill.

The Orc army that was attacking the Iron Hills Dwarves had never expected that someone would attack from behind. The defenseless Orc army was directly pierced through by the powerful Elf cavalry.

There was a sudden chaos in the rear of the Orc army, and Dain discovered it at the first moment. Although they did not get along well with the elves and even had a grudge against them, this did not affect their efforts to fight against the Orcs together.

What's more, these elves are here to save them.

Thranduil led his army to charge forward, and with the continuous attacks of the Holy Phoenix, the orc army besieging the dwarves began to collapse. The Iron Hills dwarves also seized the opportunity and launched a direct counterattack.

In an instant, thousands of horses galloped, swords and spears were like forests, arrows rained down, flames burned, and the orc army could no longer stop the rout. Even the pale orc Azog kept commanding the battle flags to issue military orders, but he could not stop the rout of the orc army.

Seeing this situation, Thranduil immediately ordered people to blow the horn.

"Uuuuuuuuu~!"

The piercing sound of the horn spread throughout the battlefield. Thranduil led the way, pointed his sword at the orc army and said, "People of the Woodland Kingdom, drive out the darkness, destroy the Orcs, follow me!"

As Thranduil gave the order, the elven army, human militia and dwarf army followed suit and launched the attack.

"Holy Phoenix, drive out evil!"

"Holy Phoenix, drive out evil!"

Countless elves and humans shouted loudly.

A phoenix cry sounded in the sky. The cry was clear and contained the sound of metal and iron, and it went straight to the sky. Then the sacred phoenix suddenly rushed down, and scorching flames instantly erupted from its mouth. The cone-shaped flames ignited countless orcs, and those who still wanted to resist were directly burned to death by the flames.

At the same time, Azog looked angrily at the Phoenix flying and attacking in the sky, but he had no way to do anything. At this moment, a figure fell from the sky.

——【Curse of Weakness! 】

--【blindness!】

--【silence!】

——【Slowdown! 】——【Chain Lightning! 】

A series of spells were released, and the surrounding orcs had no power to resist and were directly electrocuted into charcoal. Only Azog was left alive. Then, the next second, a golden staff smashed down on its head.

Azog's head was like a huge watermelon, smashed to pieces with a bang. The red and white splashed directly out, scaring the orcs farther away and turning around and running away.

After Richard killed Azog with a stick, he raised his hand and hit him with another stick, directly hitting the battle flagpole that was as thick as his thigh.

boom!
The battle flag, as hard as steel, could not withstand the huge force and broke into pieces.

The ten-foot-high battle flag collapsed at this moment. As the command center of the Orc army, the collapse of the battle flag directly caused the Orcs, who were already in disarray, to completely lose control.

Without command, a large number of orcs began to flee. The elven army, dwarf infantry and human militia continued to attack. At this moment, the cry of an eagle suddenly came from the sky.

Then, a large number of black spots suddenly appeared in the sun, and these black spots were rapidly expanding. In the blink of an eye, these black spots turned into dozens of giant eagles flying over.

These giant eagles were messengers of Manwe, leader of the Valar. As soon as they appeared, they joined forces with the elves and dwarves to attack the orc army.

The powerful giant eagles roared past, and a large number of orcs were directly blown away by their wings or torn apart by their claws. The orc army, which had already begun to collapse, was like the last straw that broke the camel's back and collapsed completely.

Countless orc armies fled frantically, and the elves and dwarves continued to kill them. Wherever they passed, the corpses of the orcs were everywhere.

A large number of giant monsters and wolf riders fled in a hurry, and these monsters trampled on each other, causing heavy casualties. In the end, less than one-fifth of the orcs were able to escape.

On the plain at the foot of Lonely Mountain, corpses were scattered all over the ground, and blood had soaked into the land, turning the earth into mud.

After Azog's death, the Orc army was left without anyone to command it. Borg, who witnessed Azog being hit on the head with a stick, did not dare to seek revenge. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, he had to lead the remaining troops to retreat.

After Bolger began to flee, the Orc army also began to flee. Thranduil did not continue to pursue them. After a day of intense fighting, the elves had not suffered much loss, but they were very tired. He did not want to cause the elves to suffer losses by chasing the defeated army.

Seeing that the elves did not pursue them anymore, the human militia also stopped, while the dwarves continued to chase for a while, but when they found that they could not catch up, they also stopped and began to clean up the battlefield.

The elves have already started to live and cook, and they took out fine wine to distribute to the human militia. They even sent some supplies to the Iron Hill dwarves.

Soon bonfires were lit in the camp. The elves' camp was relatively quiet, while the dwarves were already drunk and the humans were also laughing and talking. Only the Lonely Mountain remained silent.

Dain went to meet Thorin, but the two had an argument and ended up parting on bad terms.

Dain was very dissatisfied with Thorin for not sending troops. He led a large army to support Thorin and help him when he was weakest, but Thorin did not help them when they needed him most.

This disappointed Dain very much, and he finally understood what Gandalf said. Thorin became like his grandfather, and he firmly believed that with the Arkenstone, he was the King under the Mountain, the King of the Dwarf Kingdom of the Lonely Mountain.

However, Dain and Thranduil reached an understanding.

When Gandalf arrived at the banquet, the scene was already very lively. Gandalf had just gone to see Thorin, but Thorin still insisted. The giant eagles also participated in the banquet. Bard specially took people to the Long Lake to catch thousands of pounds of fish, roasted them, and used them to entertain the giant eagles.

Thranduil also prepared various fruits and drinks. The giant eagles were originally going to leave after the battle, but Thranduil kept them. Richard came here on purpose to get acquainted with these giant eagles.

He planned to discuss with these giant eagles and try to bring a few pairs of giant eagles to leave Middle-earth with him.

However, as messengers of Vilamanwe, these giant eagles did not want to go to the world Richard mentioned, so they directly rejected Richard. After getting the giant eagle's answer, Richard was not surprised, so he asked them for a feather.

Of course, while chatting with these giant eagles, Richard quietly left a secret mark on the giant eagle. Since the giant eagle was unwilling to go with him, he planned to secretly go to the giant eagle's nest to touch a few eggs.

Richard was very familiar with stealing eggs. He had stolen a lot of dragon eggs and brought them back for breeding. Most of the gold and silver dragons had their own forces, and Silver Crown City was one of them. There were not only more than a dozen silver dragons but also a large number of dragon vein sorcerers, so stealing eggs was very difficult.

So Richard had mostly stolen eggs from five-colored dragons, copper dragons, and brass dragons. Now stealing eggs from giant eagles was just a return to his old ways.

Thranduil and Dain discussed and decided that after repairing the weapons and armor of the orcs on the battlefield, half of them would be left to the humans in Valley Town, and Thranduil would prepare enough food for them to eat for a year.

At the same time, Bard prepared to repair the two towns of River Valley Town and Long Lake Town.

After the dragon threat was eliminated from River Valley Town, the fertile land here could produce a large amount of food, while Changhu Town also had prosperous water transportation and various fish. The two towns had inherent complementary advantages.

The elves, the dwarves of the Iron Hills, and the humans quickly reached a simple alliance treaty. The three parties reached an agreement and tacitly did not discuss an alliance with Thorin, the King under the Mountain.

This war made them see clearly the greed and stubbornness of the King under the Mountain. Thorin got everything he wanted, the throne of King under the Mountain, a large amount of gold, and the incomparable Arken gem, but he also lost the honor of the dwarves and all his allies.

Even his own people began to distance themselves from him and were no longer willing to serve him.

The news that Smaug was killed and the orc army was repelled quickly spread throughout Middle-earth, but not as many dwarves scattered around the world chose to return to the Kingdom under the Mountain as expected.

A large number of dwarves chose to go to the Iron Hills, while others continued to wander in the human world.

Thorin and his grandfather's behavior disappointed many dwarves.

Thranduil was ready to leave with his wife's relic, the white gem necklace, and his son Legolas followed his father back. He was rejected by the elf Taril.

Legolas was in a very depressed mood after suffering a broken heart.

Thranduil sighed, and at this moment he suddenly realized that he had paid too little attention to his son over the years.

"Legolas."

Legolas looked up at him.

Thranduil looked up at the stars in the sky and said slowly: "Your mother has always loved you very much."

"Better than anyone."

“More than life.”

After a moment of silence, Thranduil continued, "Including me."

(End of this chapter)