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5.63% Lord of the Rings: Warriors / Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Bree

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Bree

After a fierce battle, the remaining half-orcs scrambled back into the woods. Seeing this, Rynar decisively called off the pursuit, regrouped his knights, and prepared to continue their journey.

"Encounter battle: completed. Reward: 1 Zaltarion Royal Guard Paladin. Can be summoned at any time."

"Holy moly!" Rynar exclaimed, nearly blurting out the name of some mysterious plant in his excitement.

The Zaltarion Royal Guard Paladin was one of the most powerful units in the Middle-earth game. However, it was still the Third Age; in the game, these paladins only appeared in the Fifth Age. 

Their numbers were so rare that only dragon knights and other super classes came close. 

Even if they managed to muster a knightly order, they had never reached the minimum requirement of a hundred knights—at their peak, they had only about 87. 

After the Battle of the River Rush, their numbers dwindled to fewer than 50, almost causing their entire organization to break apart. This military unit was renowned for its attributes—holiness! 

The entire regiment consisted of genuine Paladins, unlike the Church's Knights who masqueraded as Holy Knights. 

Moreover, the quality of the knights was exceptionally high; most of them were at least elite knights, and a significant portion were even paladin leaders. 

The commander, Larius, was a holy hero.

Now, Rynar found himself with Royal Paladins at his disposal. He was so moved he almost cried. 

He couldn't shake the suspicion that the system was using his lifespan to gamble for rewards… 

Strictly speaking, the number of Paladins was still less than that of dragon knights. 

Many lords had dragon knights serving under them when Rynar logged into the game, and dragon knights could even form their own orders (unlike standard knightly orders, dragon knight orders had a cap of 50 members due to their rarity). 

Countless players dreamed of recruiting a member of the Royal Guard, but few succeeded…

Desperate to hold back his urge to summon the paladin and witness its might, Rynar pressed on with his troops.

"We're almost to Bree; let's take a break," Rynar said, glancing at the map and addressing Gandalf and Thorin.

"That sounds good; we can stock up on supplies. There won't be many opportunities to do that later," Thorin replied.

"Mr. Baggins! Tonight we can stay in an inn, and you'll get to sleep on a soft bed instead of the hard ground," Rynar teased as he rode up to Bilbo, who was on a pony.

"Oh, really? That sounds wonderful! You have no idea how hard the ground is inside a tent!" Bilbo complained.

"Haha, you can thank Gandalf for dragging you out of your cozy hobbit hole," Rynar smiled.

"Oh! What was I thinking? How could I agree to this adventure?" Bilbo grumbled.

"Because you have an adventurous heart!" Gandalf interjected.

"Haha, the wizard is right!" Rynar laughed.

Rynar was now eagerly anticipating the arrival of his Royal Guard Paladin in Bree. 

He had just chosen to summon it, and the system had conveniently informed him that the knight would be waiting for him there. Wait, a knight waiting for him in Bree?

"Oh no! It can't be Aragorn! He's the main character of the Lord of the Rings!" Rynar suddenly felt a chill.

---

Lost in thought, Rynar soon spotted the outline of Bree.

"Alright, everyone, let's enjoy ourselves!" 

---

"My lord, Zaltarion Royal Guard Paladin Reynard reporting for duty!" A handsome silver-haired man in his thirties strode up to Rynar with a commanding presence.

Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Rynar was internally panicking. A Royal Guard Paladin was fantastic, but Reynard? Not so much… He felt like he couldn't handle this knight.

In the game, Reynard was known as "Lord Thunder," and his existence was directly linked to the fall of the Zaltarion Empire and the devastating losses of the Zaltarion Royal Guard. 

He practically dominated the entire northern map's storyline and missions. 

His leadership triggered the southern march of the orcs, directly leading to the Zaltarion Empire's collapse. 

Yet, despite that, people remembered his glory on the battlefield, dubbing him the "Dawn of the North."

"Why did this troublemaking powerhouse end up under my command? Can the system switch him out for someone else?" Rynar internally lamented.

"Welcome, brave paladin! Welcome to our ranks," Rynar managed to force a smile as he greeted the knight.

"Let's hope his troublemaking abilities didn't come with him… 

Otherwise, the Battle of Five Armies could turn into a nightmare with extra enemy reinforcements. 

That would be quite a scene," Rynar thought about this guy's built-in enemy reinforcement buff.

"Reynard, can you still unleash your Divine Command Aura?" Rynar suddenly recalled the most crucial aspect.

"Of course, my lord! If you need me to, I can activate it right now," Reynard replied respectfully.

"Thank goodness," Rynar sighed in relief.

 If the Zaltarion Royal Guard Paladin's Divine Aura had been omitted by the system, he'd have to consider a return policy. 

This aura was invaluable, granting all allied units within a certain range increased resistances, stamina, morale, and health, while also infusing their attacks with holy attributes. 

As one of the top paladins, Reynard's aura could cover a radius of 500 meters centered around him, benefitting all allies within that range.

In a world like Middle-earth, where group buff spells were scarce, a Divine Aura was a game-changer—if used wisely, it could effectively double combat power.

"Th…Reynard!" Rynar nearly slipped and called him Lord Thunder out of excitement.

"My lord!" Reynard stepped forward.

"Caslow and the Battanian Archers will protect me; you'll lead the knights," Rynar waved his hand, handing command of the knights to Reynard.

After all, this guy had commanded millions of players in the game, so leading a mere hundred knights would be a piece of cake. 

Rynar didn't possess any command buffs, and Caslow was a dragon knight with no experience leading ground knights. 

Meanwhile, Reynard had an aura ability—he was like a guiding light in the dark.

"Understood, my lord. May the light of Zaltarion shine upon us," Reynard humbly replied.


Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Reynard Story

Rynar looked at Reynard and sighed. In truth, he thought Reynard had a truly tragic life—bearing the weight of everything alone, yet unable to stop the fall of the Empire.

In fact, he might have even hastened its demise...

The Lord of the Rings was originally an open-world game, where any action a player took could potentially alter the main storyline. Reynard's story began from this very concept...

At the start, Reynard was just an insignificant NPC. He arrived at the northern territories carrying the orders of the Zaltarion Royal Guard Paladin Corps to scout the movements of orcs, half-orcs, and other evil factions. 

At that time, Reynard was weak and vulnerable, and the player lords soon took notice of him. 

Their enthusiasm exploded—after all, here was a lone Zaltarion Royal Guard Paladin! 

This meant they could gain favor or even possibly recruit him! 

So, Reynard's reconnaissance mission was completed by a wave of eager lords.

Instead of returning to report his findings, Reynard stayed in the northern territories, thanks to the influence of the players. 

Soon, waves of players hoping to recruit a Royal Guard Paladin trekked to the north. 

Under the game's AI algorithms, Reynard started assigning quests. 

And just like that, a new main storyline was born out of the players' actions. 

By the time the players realized what had happened, Reynard had already become the Governor of the North! Forget about recruiting him—just getting to see him was an achievement.

That was the good part. The most absurd thing was that players, in their rush to gain favor, had completed countless quests, skyrocketing Reynard's reputation.

Do you know how insanely high Reynard's reputation got? 

Imagine this: tens of thousands of players in the northern region constantly boosting his reputation. 

Someone once compared Reynard's fame to that of Emperor Gary Karr of the Zaltarion Empire, who had a reputation score of 200 million. 

Reynard? 500 million! 

Even the Emperor was so intimidated that he made Reynard a king, but Reynard didn't accept the crown of the King of the North. 

Instead, he chose to become the Governor of the North, overseeing all affairs in the region. From that moment, tragedy began...

With a coalition army of millions of players, Reynard led a campaign against the orc fortress of Gundabad. 

However, they were ambushed by the orc tribes and evil creatures from the Misty Mountains. 

That battle was apocalyptic, lasting half a month, and ultimately resulted in the defeat of the player coalition. 

Nearly every northern lord's army was decimated, leaving the north defenseless save for a handful of NPC troops. 

The battle was officially named "The Empire's Dusk" and recorded in the game's chronicles. 

At its peak, the Zaltarion Empire had controlled nearly all of Rhûn and most of Rhovanion. 

But because of the fallout from the Empire's Dusk, the evil forces of the Misty Mountains and the Northern Wastes launched a counterattack, leading to the fall of the Rhovanion region. 

The entire area, save for the Woodland Realm of the Elves, the Lonely Mountain Kingdom of the Dwarves, the human territories of Dale and Lake-town, and the Governor's seat in River Running Town, was lost. 

The Zaltarion Empire's connections with the outside world were cut off, with no aid from Gondor or Rohan to the south, nor from Arnor in the north. 

Surrounded by the forces of Mordor and the northern evil factions, the Zaltarion Empire collapsed, leaving only the lands north of the Sea of Rhûn intact. 

The empire was completely shattered.

Despite this, Reynard did not give up. He rallied the NPCs and players into another army and, to everyone's amazement, marched south. 

In the Forest of Leaves (formerly Mirkwood), they clashed with the orc coalition. 

Both sides, taken by surprise, quickly grabbed their weapons and greeted each other with violence. 

More and more forces joined the fray, including human players, NPCs, elven players, dwarf players, and even orc players. 

The battle in the Forest of Leaves was utter chaos, with countless lords' territories destroyed and uncountable soldiers lost. 

But in the end, Reynard emerged victorious, successfully capturing Dol Guldur, and the human coalition claimed victory.

At last, the Kingdom of Zaltarion (it no longer qualified as an empire, now smaller than even a single province from its prime) reconnected with the rest of the human realms. 

Constantly relying on teleportation arrays was no longer necessary, as the kingdom now directly bordered Lothlórien and Gondor.

You would think that after all this, things would calm down, and they could focus on rebuilding. But! Would Reynard still be Reynard if he didn't stir up more trouble? 

That wasn't his style! And so, Reynard's grand third war—the Battle of the Pass—began, and it too was immortalized in the game's history. What happened, you ask?

Well, Reynard realized that constantly heading south to communicate with other kingdoms wasn't sustainable. 

He decided to find a breakthrough in the west. 

After some searching, he found it—the Old Pass of the Misty Mountains! Reynard contacted Rivendell and launched a feint, leading a massive army south while coordinating with the elves to capture the pass in a pincer movement. Everything seemed to be going great, right? 

But! The Forest of Leaves suffered again. Countless lords' territories were trampled over once more. 

The entire forest became a war zone, with dwarves and orcs from the north, elves, humans, and half-orcs from the south, Zaltarion knights from the east, and elven rangers from the west. 

The chaos in the forest was indescribable.

Finally, when everyone had calmed down and returned home for a few days of peace, Reynard wasn't finished. 

He noticed a vulnerability in the orcs of the north and, after coordinating with the Woodland Realm and the humans of Dale and the Lonely Mountain, he sparked the Second Battle of Five Armies. 

This too made it into the game's chronicles.

In Reynard's chaotic leadership, the Zaltarion Empire became a mere kingdom. 

The elves of Lothlórien were left weakened, and the human player lords of the Forest of Leaves had their lands plundered over and over. 

The evil factions of the Misty Mountains became self-conscious from the constant defeats. The northern orc kingdoms and orc players were left in shambles. Why, you ask? 

Because during the Second Battle of Five Armies, Reynard pulled off another surprise attack—this time on the orcs' stronghold of Gundabad. 

And what did he do? He stole the head of the orc king! 

Oh, he left the body behind, of course. After all, you shouldn't borrow too much. 

Following his principle of "returning what you borrow," Reynard very considerately returned the head during the middle of the battle, tossing it into the orc ranks. 

The orcs fled in terror, and Reynard's forces gave chase…

By the time Rynar crossed into this world, Reynard was still busy preparing for another grand campaign, apparently planning some new event. 

Now that Reynard was here too, Rynar just hoped he wouldn't start something big again. 

He barely had any troops left as it was. 

Back in the game, when Rynar was just a viscount with only two thousand men under his command, his territory had been completely plundered after one of the battles in the Forest of Leaves.

"I just hope… tomorrow will be better," Rynar sighed quietly as he watched the setting sun.


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