"Lonely Mountain Expedition: Joined. Reward: 10 Badaniyan Archers. Recruitment is available at any time."
"Puff!" Roland nearly choked to death on his own saliva. What did he see? The Ba bow, hailed as the strongest archer in Mount & Blade... this was a fucking revamp.
After summoning these ten archers, Roland couldn't help but exclaim, "Ah! It smells really good!"
Let’s first talk about the high-level archer profession. The archer profession is divided into: apprentice archer, shooter, sharpshooter, eagle-eye archer, sniper and the highest level star hunter.
After taking another look at the equipment, Roland couldn't help but envy them. It was so luxurious... Mithril inner armor with silver mail on the outer coat, a Mithril Purple Bow in hand, 50 Star Silver Steel Armor-Piercing Arrows on his back, a Mithril Combat Sword hanging from his waist, and a fine steel arm shield on his left hand. The most outrageous thing was that he also had a one-meter-long fine steel armor-piercing hammer on his back... It was a good thing they were wearing mail armor, if they had changed into plate armor, they could be used as heavy infantry... Roland really wanted to pull them over and ask if they had forgotten their duties. They were really hurting the melee heavy armor professions by doing this...
Perhaps they saw Roland's confusion, but they didn't say anything. They just raised their bows and shot one arrow each in the dark. Then they brought back 11 startled birds as a snack for Roland. As for why there were 11 birds, it was because one arrow pierced two birds... Then Roland shut up and never mentioned whether these people had forgotten their job or not.
…
Early that morning, Roland and his men were waiting outside the woods of Hobbiton. His 100 apprentice knights formed a neat square formation, while 10 Badanian archers also mounted the fully-armored Shire warhorses produced by the system. Now they looked even more like heavy cavalry... Roland didn't care anymore. Putting aside the conspicuous longbows, just by looking at their attire, he would have mistaken them for melee units...
"Hi! Guys! I've been waiting for you for a long time!" Roland finally saw the late arrival of the expedition team.
"1, 2, 3...14. Great, Bilber still hasn't come." Roland counted the number of people and nodded. Just like in the movie, Mr. Bilber from last night had not decided to join yet, but he should be on his way now.
"Is everyone here? Aren't we waiting for Master Baggins?" Roland asked.
"No, everyone is here, he won't come!" Thorin said flatly.
"Hey, Mr. Roland, the army under your command is so powerful!" The dwarves praised, and even Gandalf looked at him in amazement.
"Thanks for the compliment. But I think Bilber will still come!" Roland said the second half of the sentence to Thorin.
"But it doesn't matter, he can catch up with us!" Roland glanced at Hobbiton and muttered to himself. After all, Hobbits are famous for being good at running.
"Oh! God of Forging! It's Mithril, Adamantine and Star Silver Steel!" Fili suddenly shouted.
"Oh, man, I spent a lot of money on their equipment, otherwise I wouldn't be so poor now..." Roland said lightly.
Everyone chose to believe it. After all, how could they possibly know about such an unreliable system?
"Hey! Wait! Wait!" Suddenly a voice came from far away. It was Bilbo Baggins running towards him.
The Badanian archers immediately raised their longbows, and several knights at the rear also raised their lances, ready to nail the fast-running dwarf to the ground.
"Oh! Master Baggins! Okay, put down your weapons, we are one." Roland looked at Bilber who appeared and showed a look of realization.
"Oh! Hello, Mr. Roland, Mr. Thorin, I've signed it!" After greeting Roland, Bilber quickly raised the contract to indicate.
"Yes, it's accurate!" Several dwarves came over to take a look, and after finding that there was no problem, they announced it to everyone.
"Then welcome to become the 14th member of the expedition!" Thorin opened his arms.
"14th? Wait, what about them..." Bilber pointed at Roland and the others in disbelief.
"We are mercenaries, Master Baggins!" Roland explained.
"They take their share of the reward," said Gandalf.
"Wizard, how do we get there?" Roland asked.
"Take the Eastern Road, then cross the Misty Mountains, and finally take the Old Forest Road along the Swiftstream north to Lonely Mountain."
"That sounds good, but the journey will definitely not be peaceful..." Roland looked into the distance.
"Alas... this journey is destined to be full of dangers." Roland thought to himself. He was familiar with the plot and knew that he would encounter many orcs later, and there would even be a battle between five armies.
"Sir, your army surprises me! I don't think I've seen their armor before..." Thorin, who was walking side by side with Roland, asked.
"Well, I'm a human from the East. This is the plate armor unique to our homeland. We were defeated in the battle with the Dongyi people, and our people began to wander in the north." Roland hurriedly made an excuse. After all, the plate armor from the system was too different from the armor in Middle-earth. They all looked like iron cans when put on. Only the chain mail on the Badani archers looked normal, and the plate armor on the knights looked more like the Milanese plate armor in his previous life.
…
"Sir! Enemies are approaching us! They are orcs!" A Badanian archer in charge of reconnaissance rode his horse at full speed and brought the bad news to everyone.
"Did you see clearly? How many people are there?" Roland asked hurriedly.
“There are probably around 300 people!”
"My lord, I think we should gather the knights now. After all, the power of the Knights mainly comes from group charges. Let the knights move, otherwise we will be the perfect targets if we are separated." Caslo rode his horse to Roland's side and advised him. He understood that Roland did not want him to show his identity as a dragon knight.
"Gather the knights! Crush them with our iron hooves!" Roland said viciously. After all, he had soldiers at his disposal, so he was not panicking.
Sure enough, hundreds of orcs soon rushed out of the woods in a chaotic manner, waving all kinds of broken weapons and charging at everyone. Roland even saw dung forks among them...
"Huh..." Gandalf let out a long breath. "Fortunately, it's not the Orc army from the Misty Mountains."
"Don't be too happy too soon. Perhaps our whereabouts and purpose have already been exposed." Roland poured cold water on him.
"Charge! Crush them!" Roland drew out the Dragon Slaying Sword and rushed out first!
As the trainee knights urged on, a riot of war energy flames enveloped their horses, armor, and weapons. As they charged, the knights gradually united their auras into a single entity, a nearly half-meter-long ray of war energy emanating from each weapon. This was the true difference between knights and cavalrymen. During the charge, the knights released their war energy, connecting themselves with the other knights as a whole. From then on, as long as their war energy remained fully depleted, they would share the damage and receive a bonus from the Knights' War Energy! They were now the Knights known as the Kings of Land Warfare!
"Bang--" accompanied by various dull collision sounds and the tearing sounds of spears entering the body, the Knights and the Orcs' vanguard collided with each other. Roland and his knights brandished their weapons and controlled their horses to tear the dozen orcs in front of them cleanly and neatly into pieces. The 10 Badanian archers behind him also raised their yew longbows. As soon as they raised their hands, an orc would fall to the ground with an arrow in the eye or throat. All the orcs who bypassed the Knights' charge were knocked to the ground by these ten people.
"So you're not going to help?" a Badanian archer asked the stunned group.
"Ugh! Kill!" The dwarves who reacted were shocked and quickly picked up weapons such as axes, swords, and hammers to meet the attack. Only Bilber stayed there at a loss. Gandalf picked up his staff and chanted a spell. The next second, a fireball the size of a human head flew over everyone's heads and hit the rear of the orcs.
"Beautiful! Finally not the battle wizard in the movie." Roland looked at Gandalf in surprise, and said to himself.