The Ultimate Evolution

The fierce battle throughout the night was a great test of the will and military strength of both sides. Both the Middle-Earth alliance and Sauron’s army had suffered great losses. However, although the casualty figures of the attacking side were far higher than those of the defending side, the advantage was actually with the attacking side.

Why? Because the gap between the military forces of the two sides was simply too great. The Middle-Earth alliance only had 6000 troops, so even if the casualties of Sauron’s army outnumbered the opposition’s by 10 to 1, it was still not something the Middle-Earth alliance could bear. When the casualty rate of an army exceeded 40%, the army would surely collapse – and the defending army was already very close to this threshold. If it were not for Knight and the contestants fighting tooth and nail to support the defending army, they probably would have collapsed already.

Hence, it was now a contest of willpower, a competition to see who could last longer, could endure more!

The key now was whether Sauron’s army could find a breakthrough point. Once an opportunity for melee combat was created, their advantage would be on full display. Sure, seven levels of walls sounded formidable, but once the first level was breached and the battle progressed to a melee fight, it would only be a matter of time before the city fell.

Sauron’s army had only recuperated for less than an hour before Gothmog, who was seeing red by now, once again ordered them to battle. The goal was the Great Gate of Minas Tirith! That was because, although Grond the battering ram was no more, it had managed to give the Great Gate three good hits before it was destroyed!

They were three unbelievably powerful hits, giving the Great Gate of Minas Tirith some horrible damage. Three conspicuus dents could now be seen on the Great Gate, as if a giant wolf had taken three large bites out of the gate. The three dents were so big that five people could comfortably lie down in each.

And that was not all. Two deep cracks had also appeared on the Great Gate, crossing each other in a twisted ‘X’ shape. The scene behind the gate could even be seen through the deeper parts of the cracks.

The Great Gate of Minas Tirith that had been destroyed to this extent obviously would not offer much more resistance. That prompted Gothmog, who had almost gone berserk, to start a frenzied assault on the gate, looking to bring it down at all costs.

However, under the desperate, all-out resistance of the defending army, Sauron’s army found that they were unable to transport even ordinary battering ram to the gate because there were simply too many corpses in the way. In the beginning, the defending army had poured oil on the corpses to burn them, but when they found that the corpses were forcing the Orcs to carry the battering ram forward, they decided to ignore the corpses, letting them form a natural obstacle.

At this time, under Sheyan’s order, Sanzi, rather reluctantly, gulped down a bottle of ‘Grima Wormtongue’s Saliva’ to make a very simple suggestion to Gothmog.

The Great Gate of Minas Tirith, though magnificent, was only 20 metres high. After such a brutal battle in the area in front of the gate, the corpses that fell from the City Wall, the thousands of dead Orcs and the wreckage of Grond the battering ram had all already formed a pile that stacked up to a height of more than 10 metres.

Sanzi’s suggestion was to keep making the pile of wreckage and corpses higher by adding soil to it, until they created a slope high enough to climb to the top of the wall.

Sanzi suggested that the Ringwraiths should continue to harass the enemies that had congregated around the Great Gate. In order to avoid any danger to the Ringwraiths, they should just dive down and unleash their screams of terror to bring fear and chaos to the enemies without actually engaging them. At the same time, the Orc and Uruk-hai soldiers should take the opportunity to rest, while the Orc labourers and slaves who lacked combat power would each carry 20 pounds of soil to the Great Gate with baskets made from vines. If all went well, within the hour, the insurmountable wall would become a traversable terrain.

After the plan was proposed, Gothmog did not voice his opinion, but it immediately received the support of all the major Orc generals.

That was because Sanzi’s proposal would liberate their soldiers from an unnecessary bloodbath. Although it meant that the lowly Orc slaves and labourers would risk their lives, it was not something which concerned them.

What happened next was shocking. Sauron’s army only had two thirds of their warriors remaining, and those were tired soldiers, but the Orc slaves and Orc labourers were fresh forces. Unlike the warriors, they were all glowing with health and vigour, and their task was simple and required no technique. They only had to charge to the gate, pour the soil, then run back.

Although the defending army on the City Wall was making every effort to snipe them down, it was not very effective. Due to the defending army’s disadvantage in numbers, they had not been able to rest, so most of them were exhausted by now. In addition, the storyline characters were using bows and arrows. Even though the physique of the inhabitants of Middle Earth was far superior to the humans on Earth, the repeated process of arching their bows again and again in a fierce battle that lasted throughout the night had depleted a large amount of their stamina. By now, their shots were weak and unthreatening.

What’s more, there were also the seven Ringwraiths and their sneaky dives, during which they would unleash their cries of fear. It was an attack that did not produce any tangible damage, but it greatly affected the morale of the defending army and the accuracy of their shots.

Therefore, at ten o’clock in the morning, following the emptying of the last basket of soil, a huge mound of earth was formed, standing tall like a small hill. It buried the so-called unbreakable Great Gate of Minas Tirith deep below it and nearly reached the top of the City Wall!

The unbreachable obstacle had now become an open path!!

As the seven Ringwraiths dove down, four carefully-selected elite Trolls wielding giant chain hammers and wearing full plate armours charged towards the mound. They were followed behind by a large group of furious, howling Uruk-hai who had already ran out of patience after being held back for so long!

The defenders atop the wall were scared out of their wits. Before the elite Trolls had even reached them, they were already nearly wiped out by the hand axes and javelins thrown by the group of Uruk-hai.

Looking from above, one would see Sauron’s army pouring into the first level of Minas Tirith like a black tide. Although the defenders above the other six walls could still attack them, the trebuchets were no longer effective at such close range. The defending army was already exhausted and had low morale. What’s more, a single Troll may be enough to break each gate of the other six walls!

However, the battlefield was abruptly set ablaze into a raging sea of fire!!

When the Orc army rushed into the first level of Minas Tirith, they suddenly found themselves engulfed by fire in every direction! The defending contestants were burning them indiscriminately!

Knight and the other defending contestants must have already realised last night that it was unlikely for them to hold the City Wall, so they had laid down a deadly trap in the first level of the city. Even the houses there had become fuel for the trap.

It was certainly a vicious move!

The others could only watch on as the fire raged, rising almost as high as the sky! It was thanks to the effective organisation of Jax that most of the contestants and the army vanguards that had rushed into the city managed to retreat in time, so they only lost a small portion of the army.

But now, they could do nothing but wait for the fire to go out. By the time they could engage in battle again, it was already close to two o’clock in the afternoon.

A vicious self-destructive fire managed to win nearly three hours of time for the Middle Earth alliance!

However, Minas Tirith had seven walls in total. One had been breached, but there were still six walls left! That means six opportunities for the enemy to start a fire! If each fire could buy them two hours, they would have won 12 hours for themselves, a considerable amount of time!

Furthermore, the defending army and contestants could hold each wall and resist for at least half an hour. If those were taken into consideration as well…to conquer Minas Tirith before the Rohirrim cavalry arrived would become a mere pipe dream!

At that moment, two pieces of news came from the Anduin River, one good and the other bad.

Something Sheyan had been wondering about had finally been answered, and that was why Skull, who had an agreement with Sheyan, had seemingly become non-existent in this war. Only now did he know that Noah Realm C had issued two special missions to ambush the two reinforcements coming to Minas Tirith’s aid.

The first was, of course, the Rohirrim cavalry. However, the ambush had failed. Not only that, the defending side had sent messengers urging them to come quicker, so they had hastened the pace and would be arriving to the battlefield at around 3 o’clock this afternoon, ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, Skull was part of the team that had been sent to ambush the protagonist, Aragon!

The protagonist Aragorn had acquired the reforged sword Andúril, which symbolized his right to rule as the king of Gondor, from the mighty Elf-ruler Elrond. Together with the Elven Prince Legolas and the Dwarven warrior Gimli, he had traversed the Paths of the Dead to Dunharrow to summon the Dead Men to war.

Skull had put on a spectacular display during the ambush. The team had suffered heavy casualties, but they had achieved their objective. Even by the most conservative estimate, the arrival of Aragon and the Army of the Dead had been delayed by at least 12 hours. The delay might even be as long as 24 hours.

Those extra 12 hours may very well be the key to victory!

Sheyan pondered for a while after hearing the news. He then took a deep breath and said, “We’re about to see another bloodbath this afternoon.”

***

At this time, the redeemable items in the Source of Darkness hall had been refreshed. There were three legendary equipment!

The first piece of legendary equipment was a ring.

It was a very well-known ring. Back in the days, when Sauron forged the One Ring, he had also made three rings for the Elves, seven rings for the Dwarves, and nine rings for men. The nineteen lesser Rings were linked somehow to the power of the One, and were dependent on it. Their wielders could be controlled by the wielder of the One, and if the One was destroyed, their own powers would fade.

All the rings contained powers that even kings and heroes found intoxicating; few could resist their temptation. All the humans who received the Nine Rings were, without exception, powerful rulers of men on Middle Earth. However, while they were enjoying the powers brought by the Nine Rings, they were also corrupted by the rings at the same time, causing them to fall under Sauron’s permanent control. And so the Ringwraiths came to be.

Two Ringwraiths had fallen in the war for Minas Tirith. Because Gandalf had played a decisive role in their deaths, the loot the Ringwraiths dropped were not that amazing. The two legendary Rings of Power they wore were also taken back by Sauron.

The legendary ring that was made available to the contestants now was the Ring of Power once owned by one of the fallen Ringwraiths, Adûnaphel the Quiet!

(https://the-world-of-arda.fandom.com/wiki/Ad%C3%BBnaphel)

Its name was the Ring of Valor!

In order to seduce the rulers of men to wear the Nine Rings, Sauron not only gave the rings unimaginable power, he also named the Nine Rings according to the Nine Noble Virtues of humans: Humility, Honour, Sacrifice, Valor, Mercy, Nobility, Honesty, Spirit and Justice.

The rulers who wore the Nine Rings would become addicted to their powers. At first, the rulers would govern their own behaviours according to the names of the Rings, but therein lay the problem. The Rings commanded an absolute adherence to the virtues!

For example, when the Ring of Honesty was worn, the wearer could not lie under the power of the Ring, unable even to refuse to answer. This did not sound too bad, but everyone had bottom lines, and whenever an excessive demand crossed the bottom line, there would always be resentment.

The king who wore the Ring was at one time ridiculed by his enemy on the battlefield. The enemy crudely asked him how many times he could lie with a woman every night… The king was in his fifties, long past his peak, and there were no Viagra or something of the sort in those era, and he had no choice but to tell the truth under the power of the Ring… Ever since then, he was mocked by all as the impotent king. His temperament changed greatly after that. As his anger accumulated, he slowly descended into darkness…

In the same way, those who wore the Ring of Valor would tend to behave in a vicious and sinister way, like a snake that was hidden in the dark. They would have nothing to do with valor at all.

The Ring would increase all the wearer’s attributes.

Its first property was ‘Gloom’.

When the wearer was not exposed to sunlight, their absolute dodge rate would increase by 33% (both in dodging spells and physical attacks), and all the attacker’s hit rate bonuses would be nullified.

Under the sun, the absolute dodge bonus would disappear, but the power of ‘Gloom’ would still nullify all the attacker’s hit rate bonuses.

The Ring’s second property was ‘Soak’.

When the ring wearer was not exposed to sunlight and attacked with a long-range weapon, their range would increase by 100%. This effect would disappear under the sun.

When the ring wearer was not exposed to sunlight and attacked with a close-range weapon, their attack would acquire an AoE effect. Their attack would be imbued with the power of darkness which would cause 50% damage to enemies near the target.

The Ring’s third property was an active ability, ‘Nazgul’s Wrath’. It had a very short explanation. When the ability was activated, the wearer would become a loyal servant of the Dark Lord, Lord Sauron, and become a Nazgul walking between the mortal realm and the netherworld.

Only the wearer could see the rest of the details.

***

The second legendary equipment was a weapon.

The weapon had an even more bizarre origin.

In the movie plot, when the powerful Witch-King of Angmar was about to kill Éowyn, Merry had pierced the Witch-King of Angmar’s knee ligament with an extraordinarily sharp legendary sword, making the Witch-King fall to the ground. Éowyn seized the chance to stab the Witch-King at the spot between his crown and his cloak, thus slaying him. That fulfilled the prophecy that “not by the hand of man shall he fall.”

However, due to that, the blade of Merry’s sword had melted away.

The weapon that had been made available to the contestants was not Merry’s extraordinarily sharp legendary sword, but its sister sword!

These swords were Barrow-blades obtained by Tom Bombadil from the tomb of the Barrow-wights. He later gave the swords to the Hobbits.

(https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Barrow-blades)

The blades were originally wrought by smiths of Arthedain during the middle of the Third Age for use in the wars with Angmar, so there were spells against the slaves of Sauron on them. They could also be considered long, broad daggers. They had black scabbards and gleaming leaf-shaped blades which were damasked with serpent-forms in red and gold. Fiery stones were set on the strange, yet light and strong, metal.

The weapon was originally wielded by Pippin the Hobbit, a member of the Fellowship of the Ring, but unfortunately, the unlucky Halfling was killed by a stone launched from a contestant trebuchet. Because the contestants who killed him were unlucky, or perhaps they had exhausted all their luck when they managed to hit Pippin by accident in the dark, the sword did not drop for them.

And thus, the now ownerless sword was accidentally stumbled upon by an Orc. Being the loyal Orc that he was, he immediately offered it to Lord Sauron.

Sauron did not hesitate to display it in the open to boost morale.

The ‘Sword of Western Royalty’.

Its first property was ‘Evilbane’. When encountering creatures or environments that were hostile to the wielder, it would glow with a soft light, and when the wielder attacked a creature of darkness (not necessarily with the sword), there would be a high probability of killing the creature in one strike. Even if the effect triggered against creatures that were immune to one-hit KO, it would still do a large amount of damage.

Its second property was ‘Tolerance’.

When the wielder was attacked by a hostile spell, the sword could absorb 70% of the damage. It could absorb up to three attacks before it became saturated.

Its third property was ‘Imprison’.

Every time the sword killed an enemy, the wielder could choose whether to imprison the victim’s soul in the sword. After the wielder had used the weapon to feed enough lives to the imprisoned soul, the wielder would be able to temporarily manifest the soul to help in combat.

For example, if you kill a Predator Elder with the sword, you can choose to imprison his soul. After you kill enough enemies and accumulate enough rage, you can summon the Predator Elder. If you prefer support types, you can choose to release the Predator Elder’s soul and kill Melody to imprison her soul instead… Of course, the stronger the soul, the more demanding the summoning requirements.

Only the wielder could see the rest of the details.

***

The third legendary equipment was a shield.

The origin of this legendary shield was a little strange. After Grond the battering ram was destroyed, its wreckage was left under the Great Gate. After the City Wall of Minas Tirith was successfully breached, the Orc slaves and Orc labourers had dug it out to continue worshipping it.

Why would they do that? Because Grond was named after the Grond warhammer, which was the personal weapon of the ancient Ainur, Morgoth! Even Sauron was once only Morgoth’s lackey, the Watson to Morgoth’s Sherlock, the Robin to Morgoth’s Batman!

(https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Grond_(Warhammer))

What’s more, no one knew that when the battering ram was forged, it had actually met with repeated failures. In the end, Sauron had no choice but to use a fragment left behind by the Grond warhammer as the core of the battering ram. Only after that was the forging successful. In order to make the battering ram sound powerful, Sauron had given it the name of Grond, just like the “Raptor” fighter jets, the “Bismarck” battleships, or the “Nimitz” aircraft carriers in modern Earth.

Sauron had tried to repair the destroyed Grond battering ram, but to no avail. However, he found that the divine artifact fragment he placed in the battering ram during its production had transformed. In the long years of it being the core of Grond the battering ram, it had breached countless capital cities, drenched in the blood of countless people, and had even imprisoned the vengeful spirits of 17 kings. Thus, it had finally evolved into an independent legendary equipment.

The fragment of the Grond warhammer used was actually from its handle, which means that it was mostly used to parry and block attacks. Hence, the indestructible fragment of the divine artifact had actually turned into a weird shield!

The shield’s name was ‘Grond’s Tenacity’!!

It truly was a strange shield. It was abnormally deformed, like a piece of steel that had been doused in water halfway through the smelting process. The reason for this could be traced back to when Morgoth was defeated by the Valar in the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age.

(https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/War_of_Wrath)

The Valar bound Morgoth with the chain Angainor, beat his Iron Crown into a collar for his neck, and used their fiery rage to destroy Morgoth’s warhammer. Morgoth was thrust through the Door of Night into the Timeless Void, never to return since.

Meanwhile, the incarcerated warhammer had exploded violently. A fragment from its handle flew out of the explosion and dropped into the magma. The heat of the magma neutralised the Valar’s fiery rage, and that was how such a fragment of the warhammer Grond, which should have been completely destroyed, was left behind.

Sauron found it while forging the One Ring at Mount Doom.

The first property of ‘Grond’s Tenacity’ was ‘Rage’.

When the wielder of the shield received damage, the damage would be affected by the rage of ‘Grond’s Tenacity’ and would be forcefully reduced. The reduction value was calculated as {wielder’s Physique – attacker’s Physique}. If the wielder’s Physique was lower than the attacker’s Physique, 25 points of damage would be reduced. (The damage is calculated in the same way as Sheyan’s ‘Death Lament’, but with much lower precedence).

The second property was the ‘Source of Pain’.

Pain corrupts, but also stimulates!

Whenever the wielder received damage, it would remind ‘Grond’s Tenacity’ of the moment when it was burned by the Valar’s fiery rage, so it would give the wielder extra protection. Every time the wielder received damage, they would also receive +3 defence and +1 HP recovery/second. The effect could be stacked up to 15 times and would last for 30 minutes!

The third property was the active ability ‘Grond’!!

This shield was originally a fragment of the ancient divine warhammer Grond, so it could still manifest the terrible power of the divine warhammer! At the cost of 2000 points of HP, the wielder could summon an illusion of the ancient divine warhammer Grond to launch a terrifying attack on the area 30 meters ahead.

This attack contained four powerful destructive spells – ‘Doomsday’, ‘Break Enchantment’, ‘Area-Wide Deflect’, and ‘Wave of Fatigue’ – which would raise a bloody storm amid the enemies!

At the same time, the attack would form a strong shield of darkness around the wielder’s body to protect them. The durability of the shield of darkness would be equal to the total damage the wielder caused in this attack. The shield of darkness would last for a minute or until it was shattered.

If a life was lost to this attack, then the HP spent to activate the ability would be replenished.

Only the wielder could see the rest of the details.

***

There was no denying that some legendary equipment were stronger than others, just as there were different levels of strength among Temperers.

Obviously, none of these three legendary equipment could compare to the legendary spear that Sheyan had seen before, Gungnir.

The most powerful one among them would probably be ‘Grond’s Tenacity’. Besides having an insanely powerful property that was comparable to Sheyan’s innate ability, it was the first equipment Sheyan had seen that could continuously restore HP. Furthermore, it was a fragment of an ancient divine equipment, so maybe it was possible to upgrade it back to a divine equipment again. After all, a billionaire who had gone bankrupt was still more likely to become a billionaire again than an ordinary person. It was the same principle.

Next should be the Ring of Valor, one of the Nine Rings given to men. Needless to say, 100% increase in range was absolutely godly for any long range contestants. It was almost the most ideal bonus. Many a time, the range of a long range contestant would decide their life and death! There was even an active ability to transform into a Ringwraith! It was a great equipment no matter how one looked at it.

The ‘Sword of Western Royalty’ was the weakest among them, but if the wielder managed to imprison the soul of an amazing creature, it could very well leap to first place instead! Furthermore, it was very effective against dark creatures. If it was utilised well, it could be an awesome weapon in certain worlds.

The problem was that the prices of all three legendary equipment were shown as “???”. According to the explanation given, to view the specific price, one must possess at least half the contribution points required! Setting such a bar was rather weird, but it also showed that the prices must be astronomical.

The Rohirrim cavalry would arrive in less than two hours. The contestants had stopped their meaningless attacks and were using the chance to rest. They were also exchanging the contribution points they had received after the fierce battles so far for things targeting the next battle. After all, fighting against cavalry on a plain was always undesirable.