Chapter 1 The Grond

Although the Alliance side didn't immediately understand Sauron's intentions, they wondered what use there was in using precious catapults to fill in the ground at such a crucial time—even if the muddy area was filled, so what? The city walls weren't breached, and the strongest city in the continent wasn't famous for nothing. Were they trying to fill the first wall with orc corpses?

However, the Alliance side was also very clear that every second felt like gold, and the contractors on Sauron's side would definitely not waste their efforts. So, they continued to snipe the giant catapults below, regardless of the cost—although these catapults only aimed to bombard the area in front of the city walls and had already retreated beyond the range of the catapults on the walls of Minas Tirith.

At this time, the Knight ordered the snipers to target the operators of the giant catapults. Even though the Uruk-hai were tough, if one shot couldn't kill them, they would send two snipers to work together. If two couldn't kill them, they would send four, striving for a one-hit kill.

This attack undoubtedly caused the contractors on Sauron's side to bleed in their hearts, but what could they do after being shot? They could only grit their teeth and use a large number of contribution points to replace them. Finally, before sunset, the muddy ground outside Minas Tirith was covered with a thick layer of sand and stones from the Anduin River.

Immediately afterwards, a large number of orc slaves rushed up, each holding a wooden board, using the boulders thrown outside the city as cover, and using the wooden boards to pave a road leading to the gate of Minas Tirith!!!

As the strongest city on the continent, the city gate of Minas Tirith was, of course, extraordinary, divided into three layers:

The first layer was made of the body of a Muhrongoth oak tree, as famous as Treebeard, immune to any fire attacks!

The second layer was made of mithril mixed with lead, and almost all ranged attacks would be absorbed by this layer.

The third layer was made of hazel wood that was thirteen years old mixed with mithril threads. Legend has it that hazel wood that is thirteen years old can create the most powerful wands, and mithril threads, which are highly sensitive to magic, can permanently fix the four major magics of "brand new," "self-repair," "deflection field," and "high-level gliding" on it.

Therefore, attacking the city gate was a huge mistake, because the defensive power of the city gate was even far greater than the walls of Minas Tirith.

If a hundred boulders were to hit one spot on the walls of Minas Tirith, the walls might not be able to withstand such an impact. However, if these hundred boulders were to hit the city gate, everyone could pat their chests and say that it would definitely be safe and sound.

That's why the walls of Minas Tirith were known as the "Wall That Shall Never Be Broken." From the defenders' point of view, if the enemy focused on attacking the city gate, they could concentrate their defensive forces on one point, inflicting an even more powerful and direct blow on the enemies below!

But there were exceptions to everything. There was no city in this world that could not be breached. After a moment, the orc garrison outside the city began to roar deafeningly, the sound almost reaching the sky, covering all other noises.

They were shouting a single word at the same time, a sound that was devout and faithful, as if humble believers were shouting to an omnipotent god!!!!!!

Grond…

Grond…

Grond!!!

When the army of Mordor, led by the Witch-king of Angmar, the chief of the Ringwraiths, swept across Middle-earth, the biggest enemy they faced was the terrifying city gate defense of the kingdom's capital.

Therefore, under the personal intervention of Sauron, a huge and astonishing siege hammer was built with black iron mixed with mithril. Its length was as high as a hundred-year-old sacred tree, shaking with thick iron chains that shone with a blood-colored light.

The blacksmiths of Mordor worked for at least one hundred and seventy years to forge this terrifying weapon. Its tip was cast in the shape of a roaring wolf's head, ferocious, dark, and cruel. The gaps between the wolf's teeth were forever filled with terrifying flames, the high temperature of the lava from Mount Doom.

Sauron personally engraved dark runes on it, permanently fixing the four powerful destructive spells of "overwhelming disaster," "dispelling barriers," "area field deflection," and "wave of exhaustion." To commemorate the ancient Hammer of the Underworld, they named this siege hammer Grond. Four one-horned behemoths slowly crawled out of the southern swamps to drag it, surrounded by many orcs. The elite Hill-trolls from the mountains were responsible for operating the entire device.

The Grond siege hammer appeared before everyone in the twilight, as darkness was approaching but not yet arrived, heavily crushing the fertile land of the Pelennor Fields, in the posture of a world-conquering king of destruction.

This giant hammer was over forty meters long and no less than ten meters high. A dark and gloomy light flickered on its pitch-black trunk. At least thousands of Uruk-hai surrounded it, and dragging it forward were dark one-horned behemoths, panting heavily and roaring angrily.

On the trunk of the Grond siege hammer were engraved seventeen names, all of which were the names of the last king of the capital city that the Grond siege hammer had powerfully breached. As darkness approached, the ghosts of the imprisoned kings would appear around these names, wailing miserably. And their pain and fear would add enormous power to the Grond siege hammer!

Obviously, the attacking side's timing and opportunity were also quite good. When the Grond siege hammer's speed allowed it to enter the range of the catapults on the walls of Minas Tirith, the sky would be completely dark. Darkness, in any case, has a great impact on the defenders who are good at using long-range weapons.

The orc arsonists, relying on the cover of darkness, arrived on the battlefield first. Everywhere they went, there were raging fires and billowing smoke, causing the defenders' shooting to be greatly interfered with. Darkness, smoke, and flickering light reduced the accuracy of all enemy attacks by at least 10%. For the Minas Tirith defenders, who relied entirely on long-range attacks to output damage, this was a very significant weakening.

At this time, from the main camp of Sauron's army, the nine Ringwraiths once again took off riding their terrifying Fellbeasts. Both the Ringwraiths and the Fellbeasts were extremely abnormal dark creatures. Since they were dark creatures, they would naturally not be affected by darkness!

However, the Great Eagles that could restrain them during the day were unable to maintain a high level of combat at night!

Because vision depends on the visual cells on the retina, and the visual systems of humans and birds are different. Humans have two types of visual cells: cone cells and rod cells. Cone cells in humans are divided into three types: red, green, and blue. Cone cells mainly function to sense strong light and color, in other words, to have visual and color perception during the day.

Rod cells mainly sense weak light, that is, to have light perception at night. However, most birds only have four types of cone cells and no rod cells, so they cannot see things at night. Obviously, the Great Eagles are neither human nor related to bats or owls. Therefore, this is a natural defect of the species, just like humans are naturally unable to breathe underwater like fish.

At this time, it could be seen that there was a reason why the Blue Light Team was chosen by the space to lead this battle.

The identity and status of the contractors were greatly related to their strength. Because Reef and Aziz had demonstrated extremely powerful strength, their status had also risen, and it was very convenient to inquire about things.

Fang Senyan learned from Reef that the Blue Light Team had specifically formed a think tank, and the offensive launched today was planned by them, claiming to be a four-pronged attack. As could be seen, the appearance of the Grond siege hammer was one prong, and the Ringwraiths' strength remained unchanged at night, but the strength of the Great Eagles from the Misty Mountains plummeted, so they could also be used as a main force of one prong.

"Then the third prong of attack...?" Fang Senyan pondered: "Should be what I deduced!"

At this time, there was a sudden burst of excited shouts from the Uruk-hai in the distance. It turned out that the Alliance side was not the only one with powerful mages. Zeus was in the limelight at this time. His specialty was gravity control. After this guy joined the Grond siege hammer team, he directly reduced the gravity near the heavy siege hammer to the lightest!

As everyone knew, the defenders would definitely try their best to interfere and gather on the section of the road where the siege hammer approached the city wall. After arriving under the city wall, the attack would not be so strong due to the shooting angle. Therefore, the section of the road from when the siege hammer entered the enemy's range to when it arrived under the city was the most tragic path to death. The longer it was delayed, the more people would die.

At this time, Zeus suddenly halved the gravity in the area near the Grond siege hammer, which not only doubled the movement speed of this behemoth, but more importantly, even the surrounding ogres, soldiers, etc. became as light as swallows, allowing them to dodge better!

While most of Minas Tirith's attention was focused on the advance of the Grond siege hammer, in the darkness, something huge seemed to be wriggling. It was not until it calmed down that sparks of flame ignited.

It was to ignite the fire basins for the oil bombs! And countless orcs were busy beside them.

Beside the fire basins, there were actually twenty-five giant catapults faintly visible!!