Chapter 282 Thorin Is Awake, the Art of Boosting Morale

The ice dragon led away enough war beasts, but the number of orcs far exceeded that of elves and dwarves, and the number was still increasing.

The golden armored troops of the elves suffered heavy losses. Thranduil rode his elk and fought and retreated to the valley city, killing dozens of orcs one after another.

When entering the city, Thranduil's mount used its antlers to fork eight enemies. Just as he cut off eight heads with one sword, the elk was unfortunately attacked by a bow and arrow and rolled to the ground.

The surrounding orcs quickly besieged him. Thranduil looked at the enemy with resentful eyes, and quickly stood up and fought back with his two swords.

His elven troops also retreated into the valley city and fought with the orcs in the city. The city suddenly became a battlefield for humans, elves, and orcs.

Outside the city, more than half of Dain's Ironfoot Army was killed or wounded, and even his wild boar mount died on the way to charge. The number of dwarf warriors continued to decrease amid the sounds of fighting, screaming and screaming.

In desperation, Dain had to order his troops to retreat to Lonely Mountain. What he couldn't understand was that he had never seen Thorin in the battle until now.

The dwarves were now facing enemies that were several times their number, and their morale was low. What they needed most was their king.

In the hall of Erebor, Thorin sat alone on the throne, staring at the gold all over the ground with lifeless eyes.

"When have we ever given up on our compatriots?" Dwalin walked up to the hall, his eyes tearful, "Thorin, they are bleeding and sacrificing."

"There are caves in this mountain, and we can rely on the terrain to ensure that nothing goes wrong." Thorin suddenly stood up, "Yes, yes, that's right, we have to move the gold deeper to ensure safety."

"Didn't you hear me?" Dwalin roared angrily, "Dain is surrounded, they will all be killed."

Thorin was stunned for a moment, and said indifferently: "There will always be deaths in war, there are plenty of people, but compared to gold Human life is not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning.

For gold, it is worth dying for so many people. ”

“Do you think so?” Aaron suddenly appeared in the hall and picked up the Arkenstone on the throne, “Maybe I shouldn’t have given it to you in the first place.”

“Put it down.” Thorin drew his sword and pointed it at the two of them, “Put the Arkenstone down and get out.

Get out before I kill you.”

Aaron shrugged and threw the gem into the pile of gold coins at his feet. Thorin immediately jumped down the steps and picked up the Arkenstone, and carefully protected it in his arms.

“Dwalin, what do you think of him now?”

“He looks like a completely different person.” Dwalin shook his head painfully, “He wears a crown and sits on the throne, but he is smaller than ever before.”

“I think so too.” Aaron shrugged and then took out his wand.

“What are you going to do?” Thorin’s face changed slightly and he was about to stop Aaron’s action.

"Expelliarmus."

The red spell hit Thorin, knocking the sword out of his hand and sending him flying backwards.

"Calm down, I'm not here to steal your gold." Aaron smiled, then pressed his wand against his temple, "I want to show you something."

A wisp of silver smoke came out of Aaron's head, and he waved his right hand, and a picture appeared in the magnificent hall, which was part of his and Bilbo's memory of searching for the Arkenstone.

In the picture, Smaug sneered triumphantly, saying that he had thought of letting Thorin take the Arkenstone, and then watched him being devoured by the gem and falling into destruction.

He even used his grandfather as an example, briefly describing how Thor became arrogant because of greed and ended up with his country and family destroyed.

As for the subsequent memories of the One Ring, Aaron dared not release them, as it would cause Bilbo a lot of trouble.

"See?

Thorin, you are following the old path of your grandfather."

Thorin couldn't believe it and shook his head blankly, "Impossible, this must be fake."

"This is true." Dwalin cursed anxiously, "Look at what you have become now?

Thorin used to be indomitable, a pioneer of the dwarves, and wanted to take back Erebor and restore the glory of the dwarves.

But now? He once fell into greed and madness, and even ignored the lives of his people.

You are the king, you have always been our king, and we have never doubted it before, but now we have to doubt it."

"It's not true, it's not true..." Thorin muttered to himself, repeating these words over and over again.

Dwalin saw him like this, with bitter corners of his mouth, and even crystal tears flashed in his eyes, but he was relieved in his heart, because he could see that Thorin had doubted money.

Aaron quietly gestured to him to go out and inform others to prepare for battle, while he played with the wand in his hand, thinking about what spell to use later.

But on second thought, he put the wand away again.

Illusions are much more effective than spells against money-obsessed neurotics like Thorin.

Snap!

Aaron snapped his fingers, and the whole hall turned into dazzling gold. His figure also became transparent, replaced by a lifelike dragon (Hogwarts ghost version)

The gold coin under Thorin's feet turned into a huge golden vortex. He instantly fell into it and struggled desperately to climb up, but by chance he saw his grandfather Thor screaming in the deeper part of the vortex, which made people feel sad and cry.

At this time, Smaug's ghost appeared in front of him. It didn't say anything, but just grinned, and the sarcasm in its eyes was extremely obvious, as if to say that I knew that the descendants of Turin would definitely come here.

At the moment he was swallowed by the gold coin, Aaron lifted the illusion in time.

"Thorin, what's wrong with you? Are you okay?"

"It's okay, I just had a nightmare, it was very real.

It was so real that I even saw my grandfather waving at me."

Aaron laughed in his heart. Fortunately, the statue of Thor was the most abundant thing in Iluber, which provided him with enough materials to create illusions.

"It's good that you are okay, then you continue to guard the gold here!

Ballin and I are going to support the battlefield. Their loyalty to the king has never changed, but they can't let them watch their compatriots die in battle."

"Wait." Thorin stopped Aaron nervously, then took off the crown on his head and threw it into the pile of gold coins, "I'll go with you."

Aaron pretended to be surprised, "Have you figured it out?"

"I don't want to be like my grandfather. Gold will never be as important as my people." Thorin drew out his sword, took off the metal ornaments on his body, and walked towards the city gate.

At this time, the remaining Ironfoot Army was really unable to resist and was forced to the wall of Iluber.

As if he had seen the end of the dwarves, Azog immediately ordered the horn to be blown, preparing to launch the final general attack.

The dwarves on the wall felt very guilty. They did not want to be cowards. Just when they were extremely frustrated, Thorin walked slowly towards them with his sword.

Seeing that he could no longer bear it, Qili scolded Thorin: "I will not hide behind the stone wall forever and watch others charge into battle, and for us.

I am not that kind of person, Thorin."

"No, no." Thorin looked at his nephew with relief, "We are all descendants of Durin, and the descendants of Durin will not retreat in the face of battle."

He walked up to the crowd and said apologetically: "I have no power to give you orders anymore, but can you listen to me for the last time?"

The dwarves were silent, but they all stood up from the ground and clenched their weapons to show their attitude.

Aaron rolled his eyes. He admitted that the scene was very contagious, but if Thorin hadn't stopped them, they would have rushed out long ago.

"Ahem! I've prepared something for the dwarf army.

You charge first, I'll be there soon."

At this time, the dwarf army had no way to retreat to the foot of the lonely mountain. Dain ordered them to build a shield wall and prepare for the final desperate fight.

Seeing this, Asog temporarily let the orc army stay in place until several giant beasts came to the front row and then ordered people to blow the horn and launch a general attack.

With several giant beasts leading the way, the morale of the dwarves dropped immediately. Their shield wall could block the charge of the orcs, but the formation would be broken instantly with a swing of the giant beast's club.

Crossing the cold mountains and fog, reaching the deep cellars and ancient caves...

We need to set out before dawn to find the location of the beautiful gold...

The pine trees howl in the highlands, the strong wind roars at night, the flames spread mercilessly, and the trees roar like torches...

A melodious melody suddenly sounded in Ilubor. Aaron waved his wand and put the poems that Thorin and his men sang in the Shire on the entire battlefield like a band conductor, and made some slight modifications.

The orc army that was originally going to launch a general attack was confused and didn't understand where the tune came from.

But the dwarves felt an indescribable sense of home and country from the music. If they were a little panicked before, they were definitely ready to die now.

The dwarves took great pains, suffered a lot of hardships, and suffered a lot of grievances to take back Ilubor. They had to defend this dwarf kingdom even if they died.

Every dwarf clenched his weapon in his hand, roared with blood boiling, and wanted to fight the orcs immediately.

At the same time, Bombur, who had just carried a large horn on the wall, looked at the music conductor on the side in silence, "You have already done this, are you going to blow my charge horn or not?" "Why are you looking at me? This is called art, the art of boosting morale. My music teacher taught me a few war songs, but I was worried that you wouldn't understand, so I found a more down-to-earth one. At least in my opinion, there is no tune that can mobilize the emotions of the dwarves better than this." Aaron said proudly, "But your charge horn is the real order." Hearing this, Bombur nodded hurriedly, took a deep breath, and blew the horn hard.