Arrows rained down from the sky like silver locusts, and screams echoed throughout the camp.
The moon had just risen, and most of the mercenaries were still awake, so they reacted quickly when they were attacked.
But they were suddenly attacked at night and the mercenaries were still in chaos.
Because, at night, their fighting ability is no match for the Noldor Elves.
In this thin moonlight, humans could not see anything in the jungle at all. They could only see the Noldor warriors appearing and disappearing in the woods like ghosts.
But the Noldor elves still shot their arrows without missing a target. The elves were the darlings of the night, and the moonlight was enough for them to see everything clearly.
Moreover, the long pointed ears give the elves much stronger hearing than humans. Most elves can even identify the location by sound and conduct blind shooting - this is why Lisadilan can always detect the enemy before Leon, especially at night.
Dumbledore pushed himself up from behind the low wall and quickly looked out.
The camp was located at the bottom of the mountainous area. A few dozen miles to the west was the gentle slope of the Dengil Mountains, and to the east was the Noldor Forest - the forest side also had a gentle slope upwards.
The campsite itself is a relatively flat open space.
But this means that the Noldor coming from the direction of the forest can shoot arrows from a high position.
Dumbledore's current location is at the easternmost part of the camp, close to the edge of the forest.
From his position, he could see at least hundreds of Noldor warriors moving through the jungle, and there seemed to be more than a dozen Noldor Twilight Knights in command.
The Twilight Knight is covered in silver armor, which is relatively conspicuous.
There are more than ten Twilight Knights that can be seen.
Dumbledore was somewhat desperate. He did not expect the elf army to arrive so quickly and on such a large scale.
He had once entered the depths of the Noldor Forest and encountered the Noldor troops. He knew what those Noldor commanders in silver armor meant.
Several years ago, he had followed the First Battalion of the Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet to explore the territory of the Noldor - they believed that the Noldor might have built a city in the forest and wanted to explore it.
After advancing nearly a hundred miles into the forest with difficulty, this group of more than 200 people armed to the teeth were ambushed at night by a Noldor patrol of about fifty people just after they set up camp.
With a five-to-one number ratio, the First Battalion of the Ebony Gauntlet Knights of course accepted the battle without fear.
But the outcome of that battle was that the Ebony Gauntlet Knights, who had five times the number of people, were completely wiped out.
Among the Noldor patrol that led to their annihilation, there was a commander in full silver armor, the Noldor Twilight Knight.
Dumbledore still clearly remembers the scene at that time - the Twilight Knight ordered the Noldor Rangers behind him to disperse into the woods, and then he stood in place and shot and killed more than twenty people in succession with his terrifying archery skills.
Dumbledore could have sworn that it must be the fastest archer he had ever seen - the Twilight Knight shot thirty arrows in three minutes, and almost every arrow took a life.
The heavy chain mail and the black pointed helmet provided almost no protection against the arrows fired by the Twilight Knight.
At the same time, continuous arrows were shot from all directions of the forest. The Noldor Rangers kept changing their positions in the forest, and the Ebony Gauntlet Knights were shot without any ability to fight back for a while.
In three minutes, nearly a hundred people died from the arrows of the Noldor.
And that was only fifty Noldor...
Then, the Twilight Knight put down his bow and even threw away his quiver.
Just when he thought that the terrible archer had no more arrows to worry about, the Twilight Knight drew the long sword behind him and charged towards them.
Dumbledore watched helplessly as the slightly curved sword killed five of his comrades in less than ten seconds - all of them were top fighters.
However, their hammers and swords could hardly break the strange and ancient armor on the Twilight Knight.
Then all the Noldor Rangers appeared from all directions, and fifty Noldor actually surrounded the Ebony Gauntlet Knights, who were still three times their number.
Soon, only half of the members of the First Battalion of the Ebony Gauntlet Knights were left alive...
They finally retreated.
Being able to collapse only after half of their men were killed in the battle, the Ebony Gauntlet Knights are already considered the top elite among human armed forces.
But all they achieved was killing seven or eight Noldor Rangers.
The terrifying Twilight Knight, his silver armor stained blood red, continued to chase them.
Dumbledore escaped from the forest with a dozen people with great difficulty, and thus became the Knight Commander of the First Battalion of the Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet. The First Battalion was almost wiped out, and Dumbledore was the only noble knight who escaped.
Over the years, Dumbledore had greatly increased the proportion of crossbowmen in his ranks, and had been dealing with the Noldor at the edge of the forest, but he had never seen the Twilight Knight again.
In other words, even if he encountered one, he would not try to attack.
Without a ten-fold advantage in numbers, Dumbledore would not easily provoke a Noldor patrol of more than forty people. He already knew how terrifying the Noldor archers would be when they formed a certain scale.
Most of the time, he was dealing with lone Noldor warriors or hunters; or he led an army of more than a hundred people to kill small Noldor scouting teams of about ten people.
The First Battalion of the Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet also gained considerable benefits under Dumbledore's caution. Since they had always fought small-scale battles with small losses and high gains, the First Battalion had gradually reorganized itself into a force of more than 400 people over the years.
Now, Dumbledore saw the Twilight Knight again, and he understood the outcome of this battle again...
According to his experience, a Twilight Knight would probably lead a mixed Noldor force of fifty men.
Now that we see more than a dozen Twilight Knights , the total number of Noldor warriors outside will not be less than six hundred.
The total number of human mercenaries in the camp was about three thousand - also a five-to-one ratio.
The number of people was the same as that year, and they were attacked by the Noldor again after they had set up camp, at night when the moon had just risen.
But these mercenaries were a mixed bag and could not be compared with the original Ebony Gauntlet Knights.
In fact, Dumbledore was not very willing to go deep into the Noldor Forest, but the Ebony Gauntlet Knights could not ignore the king 's request, so he originally planned to let the mercenary groups take the lead - especially the famous Griffin Sword Mercenary Group.
But he did not expect that the large army of Noldor would appear at the edge of the forest so soon, and the Griffin Sword Mercenaries had not arrived yet.
In the past, when I captured lone elves at the edge of the forest, I never saw the large army of the Noldor coming so quickly...
Inside the tent, the mercenaries were busy putting on their equipment and were unable to launch a counterattack for the time being.
Most of the Ebony Gauntlet Knights in charge of night watch were fully equipped, but no one dared to show up.
A row of people soon formed under the low wall near the forest, most of them were members of the Ebony Gauntlet Knights.
They all took a similar posture to Dumbledore - leaning sideways against the inside of the low wall, using the crossbows in their hands to shoot back.
Only the wooden wall, which was more than half a foot thick, could block the arrows of the Noldor, so they rarely showed their heads and almost shot blindly when they fought back.
But this is the right way. Although this kind of blind shooting does not produce much results, it can at least buy time for the mercenaries in the camp and prevent the Noldor from directly breaking into the camp.
The Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet did have much more experience in dealing with the Noldor, and although they were caught off guard and suffered a lot of damage in the first wave of arrows, they quickly made the most correct response.
But behind them, the mercenaries who rushed out of the tents had no such awareness.
In just a short while, hundreds of people were shot and fell to the ground. Most of them were mercenaries who had just emerged from their tents. As soon as they stood up, they were shot down by the Noldor...
Wailing and groaning sounds came one after another.
The Noldor army was now getting closer. Some Noldor warriors shot arrows, so that few people in the camp dared to show their heads. Another few hundred Noldor rangers formed a loose array thirty meters outside the camp.
It was a long horizontal line, with two Noldor working together in a group, one holding a shield for defense and the other holding a bow for shooting.
It seems that this is to continue long-range suppression.
But this way of fighting in formation is rarely seen among the Noldor.
Because although this would give them a better shooting position, it would also cause them to lose their greatest advantage - concealment in the woods.
The various mercenary groups finally began to fight back, crossbow arrows shot at the Noldor's formation, and the poorly equipped mercenaries gradually moved closer to the low wall on the west side of the camp.
"Follow me..."
Dumbledore glanced through the crack in the wall again, then waved to the nearby Ebony Gauntlet Knights to follow him.
The mercenaries did not understand the intention of the Ebony Gauntlet Knights and thought they were going to attack the Noldor from the side, so they stepped forward to take over the shooting positions against the low wall.
But Dumbledore actually had the intention to retreat, and he did not tell the mercenaries that he was going to retreat.
He knew that these mercenaries would not retreat, and the mercenary leaders would not obey orders so easily - the price offered by Ulrich was enough to make these mercenary leaders gamble everything.
Moreover, the mercenaries didn’t know enough about the Noldor - the mercenary leader who was shot dead by an arrow just now was a typical example.
The Ebony Gauntlet Knights began to crawl along the low wall, gradually moving to the north of the camp, and then continued to retreat along the low wall on the north.
A few minutes later, Dumbledore quietly left the camp with the Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet and retreated to the wilderness west of the camp.
All the trees in this area have been cut down, leaving only low tree stumps and undulating slopes.
Dumbledore abandoned all the mercenaries in the camp and quickly retreated with the Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet, continuing to retreat westwards to the Dengier Mountains.
He only brought out more than 300 people, which were the vast majority of members of the First Battalion of the Ebony Gauntlet Knights who were currently able to act.
This is the right choice.
Half an hour later, Dumbledore led the three hundred people to the gentle slope on the side of the Dengier Mountains. At the top of a hill, they could see the camp opposite from afar and could still vaguely hear screams.
At this time, a cavalry group came from the south of the camp. It was not large in size, with about three hundred people.
However, the only cavalry that can move quickly in the mountains are the Noldor...
The elven horses bred by the Noldor elves are probably the only mountain .
Dumbledore was glad he made this decision.
Perhaps it was dishonorable to flee without a fight, but the way the Noldor fought in array showed that they had no intention of allowing any humans to enter the forest - this was rare and very unlike the style of the Noldor.
Given the powerful fighting capacity of the elves in the forest, they should have allowed the mercenaries to enter the forest.
But they attacked the camp directly and blocked the way to the forest with an array.
To Dumbledore, this could only mean one thing - the elves were confident that they could wipe them out, and were using this method to prevent them from escaping.
That means that the armies of the Noldor will appear on the other sides, and perhaps only the Dengil Mountains in the west will be free of enemies.
Dumbledore confirmed this after seeing the group of Noldor cavalry.
If nothing unexpected happens, there will probably be a cavalry like this in the north of the camp...
The Noldor used an army of about 1,200 people to surround the 3,000-man mercenary army from three sides!
The elves are unwilling to let the humans here leave alive!
So Dumbledore did not stop and led his troops westward again, retreating towards the Dengier Mountains.
Unlike the mountains in the Noldor Forest that are covered with tall trees, the Dengil Mountains are a typical stone mountain - the soil layer of this mountain is relatively thin, there are a lot of stones underneath, so the vegetation is also relatively thin.
Most are shrubs and relatively low.
There are big trees, but they are sparse because the rock layer inside the mountain is very fragile. Landslides are likely to occur when it rains, making it difficult for big trees to take root.
It was once said that there was a gold mine on the top of this mountain, but after several landslides, no one dared to go to the top of the mountain anymore. However, farmers panning for gold can often be seen at the foot of the mountain.
Perhaps it was for this reason that the Noldor did not take root in the Dengil Mountains.
So this direction is indeed safe if the Noldor do not continue to pursue.
After a difficult night's march, Dumbledore and his troops stopped at the top of a hill on Mount Dengier.
This place is at least fifty or sixty miles away from the camp.
It was already daybreak, but Dumbledore was in a dilemma.
A Noldor cavalry of about three hundred men appeared in his sight.
The Noldor cavalry actually chased after us?
They must have followed their footsteps and found themselves here; in the soft mountain soil, the footprints left by the Ebony Gauntlet Knights were very clear.
Considering the deep hatred between the Ebony Gauntlet and the Noldor, this is not surprising.
But Dumbledore's first brigade did not get any rest and had been running in the mountains all night, so they were now exhausted.
Besides, in this kind of mountainous terrain, even if you want to run, you can’t outrun the Noldor elves…
He could only order the troops to defend on the spot.
Fortunately, they were located at a high place and there were not many big trees around, so at least they had a geographical advantage.
The Noldor cavalry were probably also very tired. They discovered the Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet, but did not attack immediately. Instead, they dismounted at the bottom of the hill, probably to rest before fighting again.
…
"My Lord, this is a letter from His Highness Islandil..."
The dusty Lisadilan returned to White Hart Castle again and brought back a strange letter to the lord.
"You've seen your people so soon?"
The lord was a little surprised. He didn't expect that letting Risadilan try it would actually have an effect.
"I only met an elder of my clan. He knew I was serving you and gave me this letter. He said that His Highness Islandir was also looking for you, my lord."
Lisadilan seemed a little excited. He probably saw hope of returning to the tribe.
His tribesmen did not make things difficult for him and allowed him to be a messenger, which was obviously an excellent signal.
The letter was written on a piece of art paper, snow-white and cut into a perfect square.
There are light green patterns on it, which are extremely complex and form a mysterious pattern.
This was probably the emblem of Islamdir, but it was not printed on it. Instead, it seemed to be embedded in the paper.
This technique is amazing. This piece of paper is probably worth a lot of money. It is worthy of being framed and used as a decoration.
But there were not many words on the paper. It seemed a waste to use such a large piece of paper to write only a few words. I guess Islandil had a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The words were written in the middle of the paper, and each line was extremely neat.
The letter that Islandil wrote to Leon was short and only mentioned two things.
First, he wanted to know why humans attacked the Noldor Forest in such a large scale and what the purpose was.
Second, he wanted to know whether Leon was willing to live in peace with the Noldor.
The signature is Islamdir Aino.
"You call him His Highness. Is this Islandir a prince of your clan?"
Leon was a little curious. The names of these Noldor lords seemed a little confusing...
Of course, he also hopes to live in peace with the Noldor.
"His Highness Islandil is the crown prince of the Ainor family, but his father has retired for three hundred years. If we use human terms, he would have been one of the three elven kings. But he has never worn the crown, so we have always called him His Highness. He is a respected leader. Although he exiled me, I still respect him."
Risadiran had no intention of being unhappy with Islandir.
"In that case... Lisadilan, tell your tribesman that I asked you to personally deliver the letter to Islandir. I hope you can meet Islandir and apologize to him. Perhaps you can return to the tribe because of this."
Li Ang said.
"Thank you, sir... I will take your reply to my people. He is waiting for me a hundred miles to the south. My lord, if I am absolved of my guilt, I will still serve you. I also remember my promise."
There was a rare smile on Lisa Dilan's face.
The lord nodded, found a neat piece of parchment, cut it into a square in the same way as Islandil, and wrote a reply in the middle of the paper.
Also write a few lines neatly.
But this time, he signed it as 'Leon Leonardo Pendragon'.
"Unfortunately, this letter arrived a little late. I feel that those mercenaries are in great danger... Lisadilan, you must see Islandir as soon as possible."