The fact that it was almost impossible for the enemy to create another earthquake had basically been confirmed, but the contestants on Sauron’s side still repeatedly inspected the the situation and assigned four people who were proficient in earth magic to remain on standby before sending out their ten newly acquired heavy trebuchets.

To be honest, Sheyan was really surprised that the alliance were able to redeem ten heavy trebuchets, because even after various discounts, the trebuchets would still cost upwards of 12,000 contribution points.

However, if the current progress was anything to go by, it would not take long for them to break even. Each time a stone was launched from a heavy trebuchet, even if it only hit the city wall, it would still give 5-10 contribution points.

Besides, a stone that was launched from a heavy trebuchet contained endless possibilities.

If it hit the passages in the city wall, it would surely kill more than one soldier.

If it made a building collapse, there would also be extra contribution points.

The large stones launched from heavy trebuchets were very destructive. All the non famous storyline characters that they hit were instantly killed. If the contestants got lucky and a stone struck the officers among the storyline characters, the profit was pretty significant.

Furthermore, if a stone happened to smash an enemy trebuchet located on one of the seven Minas Tirith walls, the trebuchet would basically have recovered half its cost with one shot.

In the absence of large-scale ground combat, the contribution points of the contestants on Sauron’s side were mainly converted from their previous relationships established in the world. In that case, 12,000 contribution points seemed a little too much.

That could only mean one thing – the experience of the contestants on Sauron’s side in the LOTR world was beyond rich. In fact, the Blu-ray Party must have encountered one or two unique experiences in this world. But since they were the party that the Realm recommended as the leader of the alliance, they must enjoy certain privileges.

The Orc army had also hastily constructed 5 trebuchets of their own, so the attacking side had 15 trebuchets in total.

Outside the outermost wall of Minas Tirith, the great fissure, several kilometres long, streaked across the Pelennor Fields like a long, curved scar.

It was due to this fissure that the attacking side were unable to set up their siege weapons at the optimum distance. Instead, they were forced back by 30 to 50 metres. The stones that the trebuchets launched could originally have reached as far as the wall encircling the third level of Minas Tirith, but they could now barely reach the City Wall, the wall of the first level. On the contrary, because the trebuchets of the defending side had height advantage, the extra 30 to 50 metres were not very significant for them.

(TL: The City Wall is the protective stone wall that enclosed Minas Tirith on its lowest level. http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/City_Wall)

However, after the actual battle started, the defending side found to their horror that the 15 trebuchets of the attacking side were causing a lot of damage to the City Wall! Although, as had been estimated by the defending alliance, about 30% of the trebuchet stones could not reach the City Wall due to insufficient throwing power, the remaining 70% of stones landed on the City Wall without exception!!

Compared to the previous assault where almost none of the trebuchets missed but their stones were evenly distributed on the first, second and third walls of Minas Tirith, the second and third walls were basically undamaged this time. However, the pressure on the City Wall had increased dramatically! Originally, it only needed to endure 33% of the shots, but it now needed to bear 70% of the total damage!

And unlike the previous scattered distribution of trebuchet stones, the trebuchets belonging to the contestants, under a unified command, were focused on a single spot! As we all know, to breach a city, there is no need to make all the walls of the city collapse; just making a hole in a section of the wall is enough. Therefore, the defensive pressure of the Minas Tirith side had also increased dramatically.

To alleviate this heavy pressure, they could only attack back!! The mountains of contribution points amassed by the defending alliance previously were now put to use! Knight immediately held an emergency meeting. Since they knew that the enemy had redeemed ten heavy trebuchets, they decided to redeem twenty light trebuchets in one go! They could only redeem light trebuchets because heavy trebuchets could not be placed on the walls and could not be operated by humans. They concentrated fire on the trebuchets of Sauron’s side.

The contestants of Sauron’s side were stronger individually and had a higher proportion of MTs than the opposition. It was in moments like this that the importance of having a large number of MTs was reflected! Amid the stones that dropped like rain, the MTs cast their Awakening Skills on the trebuchets one after another. The result was that only three heavy trebuchets were completely wrecked. The remaining twelve heavy trebuchets, though damaged, could still be used after repair.

Although Gothmog had a pig’s head, he was not a real pig after all. When he saw what was happening, he instantly mobilised the dark side’s ultimate weapon. The nine Ringwraiths rode into battle on their Fell Beasts!

The Ringwraiths, undead creatures who walk in the mortal realm, felt no sorrow or joy. The only pleasure they had, they gained from killing. The creatures of darkness they rode on flapped their wings with great force, using the buoyancy of the air to quickly turn around and swoop down towards the huge, magnificent city of Minas Tirith. The Ringwraiths’ dark armours and the scales of the Fell Beasts suddenly glowed with a dense black light, a sign that they had started to silently cast spells!

The giant claws of the Fell Beasts could grab ahold of at least five human soldiers, then throw them down from hundreds of feet high. The shrill screams of these human soldiers as they fell through the air was a fatal blow to the morale of the defending army.

But the biggest damage to the defending army were caused by the howls of fear that came from the deep, dark mouths of the Ringwraiths. The sounds of the howls were not transmitted through the eardrums at all, but went straight to the enemy’s heart, arousing their deepest fear. It made them feel like death would be descending upon them at any moment. The Ringwraiths could draw strength from the enemy’s fear and become more powerful.

Every time a Ringwraith swooped down, it would cause the emotion of the soldiers on a whole section of the wall to boil like porridge, resulting in at least half an hour of chaos. What’s more, the defending alliance’s weakness in their lack of high-end combat power was finally showing. Even when multiple contestants joined hands, they could not cause the Ringwraiths serious harm! Even Gandalf could only drive the Ringwraiths away temporarily!

Three minutes. It only took three minutes of hesitation from the defending side for the Ringwraiths to destroy seventeen light trebuchets. The Ringwraiths had transformed into what the bards called in their songs the riders of the shadow dragons, the Winged Nazguls. Whenever their sharp claws or strong wings came into contact with the wood and metal that made up the trebuchets, they would cause devastating damage.

Knight gritted his teeth and passed down the order to gather a large number of contribution points to redeem the powerful Great Eagles to provide aerial support. These eagles were powerful monsters living in the Misty Mountains. Sheyan had had dealings with one of them during the mission to establish Party Ace, so he had a clear understanding of their might.

However, although the Great Eagles of the Misty Mountains were powerful, they had no chance going one-on-one against the Ringwraiths. Usually, two Great Eagles were required to best a Ringwraith, which means the defending alliance had to exchange for as many as 18 Great Eagles! Such a shocking consumption instantly squeezed the defending alliance’s contribution points dry!

But so far, the advantage was still with the defending side!!

The reason was simple. The first day of the siege was about to end, but not one dirty Orc had so much as touched the City Wall of the great Minas Tirith, let alone climb up on it! It was hard to believe that such a brilliant result could be achieved during the period when Sauron’s side was supposed to have the advantage. Considering this, and considering the Rohirrim cavalry reinforcements that would arrive 24 hours later which would completely turn the tables, the defending alliance could not help boiling with excitement. They were all looking forward to that moment.

However, it was at a time like this that ‘Grima Wormtongue’s Saliva’ showed its worth! The relentless bombardment of the ten heavy trebuchets had recovered a lot of contribution points spent by the attacking alliance, so they had bought a ‘Grima Wormtongue’s Saliva’. After the diplomatic officer specially cultivated by the Blu-ray Party took the potion, he managed to persuade Gothmog.

The 12 remaining heavy trebuchets of Sauron’s side retreated to the back at the same time. When the people on the wall thought they had won a great victory, all 12 heavy trebuchets started hurling some things at the muddy area in front of the Minas Tirith City Wall. The things they hurled were the pebbles and river sand collected from the Anduin river!

The trebuchets’ objective was to fill up the muddy area. The huge stones thrown at the area could also become natural shelters to take cover from the arrows and bullets from the walls. Perhaps you would think that the defending alliance could just organise the earth mages to cast ‘Quagmire’ again, but even if the spell worked, it would not be very effective when the natural conditions aren’t favourable.

What’s more, when a large group of earth mages cast spells together, it was very easily detect. The contestants of Sauron’s side were outnumbered, but their individual combat prowess was very strong. They may not be able to break the enemy’s magic formations, but they could easily interrupt or weaken the enemy’s spell.

That was because the ‘Quagmire’ spell had to be performed by using the earth element in the target area. The richer the earth element, the better the effect of the spell. Therefore, the attacking alliance could just do things that would use up a large amount of earth element in the target area in advance, such as summoning dozens of Earth Elementals. Before the earth element in the target area had naturally recovered, the effect of the ‘Quagmire’ spell cast there would become laughably low.