Chapter 372 Human Courage
"Legolas, Gimli, come and help us, we must hide the ship quickly and set off at once."
After shooting down the passing Ringwraiths, Aragorn and Boromir immediately realized the seriousness of the matter.
Until the One Ring and Sauron perished, the Ringwraiths would not truly die; they could only be defeated, only to return soon in new armor.
As the Ringwraiths were killed, the crisis they brought was resolved, but a new crisis arose.
The Ringwraiths will not lose their memory. They will remember where they were killed. If they continue to stay here, the enemies will come to find them sooner or later.
So they quickly hid the boat, without even taking a rest, and set off immediately.
They walked until dawn, and when the weakest Hobbit in the team could no longer hold on, the team finally took a break at Boromir's suggestion.
At this moment, the group has entered the border of the northern plateau of Rohan. It is still relatively safe here and the war has not spread here.
However, it is far from the point where we can relax our vigilance, as there are still many threats nearby.
For example, the Uruk troops that moved along the edge of Fangorn Forest.
Another example is the war zone in Beihetao.
Near a forest, Aragorn took the lead and suggested: "Let's make some fires. We need to warm ourselves up and rest for a while so as to save our strength for the next journey."
Without Gandalf, the current leader of the team is Aragorn, who has taken over the wizard's duties.
"Walking... Do you know which way we're going to go next?"
Gimli recalled the terrain to the south and felt a little discouraged.
"A maze of rugged hills, a rotten, stinking muddy swamp. I heard there are many ghosts in the swamp. Do we really want to take this road?"
"Yes, this is the way we are going." Aragorn nodded in response.
"Stop complaining, dwarf, and save your energy for the journey."
Gimli was a little unhappy to hear this.
"Oh, stop complaining, okay, okay."
He shook his head, just as Pippin came back and dropped a pile of firewood.
"Where's Frodo?"
Pippin asked, looking left and right.
Legolas, who was sitting nearby, suddenly stood up.
"Something is not right, Aragorn."
"I feel an evil approaching."
Aragorn immediately turned serious.
Elves are naturally endowed with a strong sense of evil, and this statement must not be ignored.
"Go find Frodo."
…
“Come here… come here…”
Inside the woods, Frodo was strolling in an abandoned building, looking a little lonely.
But the ring on his chest was very active. It tried its best to radiate power and corrupt the team members.
It is not a random temptation. The Lord of the Rings has its own considerations for the objects it wants to seduce.
First eliminate the other three hobbits.
Then there are the dwarves. I don’t want dwarves either. They are too stubborn and difficult to deal with.
Elves, that elf is no good either, his resistance is second only to the Hobbit, so he is not easy to deal with.
Then there is Aragorn, the descendant of Isildur.
But looking at his appearance, he is much stronger than his ancestors. He had gone through a test before. Frodo wanted to give the ring in his hand to Aragorn, but Aragorn refused and asked Frodo to keep the ring well.
Then there is only one person left.
Boromir.
In this team, he is the only one who can be said to be a real human being.
He is not as innocent, kind and insightful as the Hobbits, nor as stubborn as the Dwarves, nor as otherworldly as the Elves. He is also not as good as Aragorn, who has the Dúnedain blood that makes him the king among men, and has the otherworldly temperament that comes from living in Rivendell for a long time.
He is just an ordinary human being.
And he is a human being with huge responsibilities, heavy thoughts and enormous pressure.
From the very beginning, the target chosen by the One Ring was this seemingly ordinary human commander, but even so, it was not easy to bewitch him, especially when there were other people present.
But now the opportunity has come.
"None of us should act alone, Frodo."
Boromir gathered some wood for the fire and said, "I know what is in your heart, and why you are alone..."
“But is all this really necessary?”
Under Frodo's fearful gaze, he gradually became obsessed and his tone was no longer gentle.
Finally, he made the mistake of getting angry at his companions and trying to seize the One Ring so that he could use it to defeat Mordor.
"Lend it to me for now, lend it to me, I will return it to you when I am done with it!"
But it was all in vain.
"No, Frodo, come back, I..."
After a noisy moment, Boromir knelt on the ground, looking at the place where Frodo disappeared after putting on the ring, his heart full of regret.
"What on earth have I done?"
Boromir covered his face, shedding tears of regret.
He realized that he seemed to be the last straw that broke Frodo's back.
"Frodo, I'm sorry!"
"Frodo!?"
Frodo ignored the shouting behind him and just ran away.
Yes, the ring did not fall into Boromir's hands, and its bewitching action encountered an accident and failed.
But its purpose has been achieved.
Although I didn't succeed, I didn't lose either.
Going south along the river, on the west side of the "North Bridge" connecting the Northern Hetao and the Northern Plateau, a team of Orcs who had just bypassed the hilly area near the waterfall were planning to cross the river to join the attack on the Northern Hetao city.
Suddenly, the orc captain raised his hand and signaled his subordinates behind him to stop.
“I feel it.”
He grunted and yelled, "Turn, quick, quick, follow me, full speed ahead!!"
"Frodo!"
The view turns back to the forest.
Aragorn was the first to find Frodo and called out to him, but Frodo looked at him with fear in his eyes.
Then Aragorn understood and immediately knew what was going on.
"I swore an oath to protect you, Frodo."
He was the only one on the team to take the pledge, even though no one asked him to.
Frodo took off the Ring again and held it out in his hand, revealing himself completely to Aragorn.
And so, Aragorn faced his second test.
Noisy evil whispers sounded in his mind, and Aragorn's eyes became a little dull and a little scary.
He stared at the One Ring, slowly approached it, and stretched out his hand.
At this moment, if he wanted it, the ring would truly be his.
Frodo closed his eyes.
But the hand did not reach out for the ring, but took Frodo's hand and told him to put the ring away.
Once again, Aragorn passed the test.
Frodo felt warm in his heart and was about to say something when suddenly Aragorn drew the sword from his waist.
"Go, Frodo!"
Frodo was startled, and drew out Sting as well.
It is glowing.
"There's the halfling, grab him!"
The Uruk team rushed over after being called by the ring.
The captain gave the order: "Kill them all except the halflings."
"The halfling is there, chase him!"
Following the captain's orders, a dozen elite Uruks ran towards Aragorn to distract him, while nearly a hundred other Uruks rushed towards Frodo.
Ding! Aragorn chopped down several well-equipped Uruks and rushed back to defend.
Hundreds of Uruk elite soldiers...
He looked at Frodo who was fleeing in a hurry, and with a ruthless heart, he raised his sword high and shouted a war cry that made the Uruks feel fear from the bottom of their hearts:
“Levi!!!”
Then he jumped down from a great height, and with the King's Blade in his hand, he swept across a large area of Uruk who were briefly in panic and looked around.
The effect is remarkable.
"A bunch of scum, it's just a name, that person is not even here!"
The team leader who recovered first cursed angrily, without mentioning that he was distracted and subconsciously looked to the side.
At this time Legolas and Gimli also rushed over, and they followed Aragorn and fought their way out.
"Where's the little hobbit gone?"
Gimli asked as he swung his axe vigorously.
Aragorn also wanted to ask this question.
No matter how powerful they were at fighting, there were only three of them, and it was a miracle that they could hold off hundreds of Uruks.
Another group of Uruk elites followed the trail of the four hobbits.
And over there…
When Boromir heard the sound of fighting not far away, he no longer cared about his sadness. He immediately stood up and bumped into Uruk who was trying to capture Pippin and Merry. He immediately drew out his iron sword and killed Uruk on the spot.
But there is more to Uruk than just that.
“Go!”
Boromir pushed the two men and covered their retreat.
A circle of Uruks surrounded him, they swung their butcher knives and showed ferocious smiles.
“Get lost!”
Boromir struggled hard, using his ordinary iron sword to deal with the blades one after another in front of him, and then knocked down the enemies in front of him one after another.
Alone, fighting alone.
His clothes were stained red with his own blood, and his sword was covered with the enemy's sticky black blood. While fighting countless enemies, he took off the horn from his waist and blew it.
The sound of the silver horn engraved with ancient characters was extremely magnificent and loud. When it was blown, even though it was near the Northern Rivers, its sound could still be heard faintly in the land of Gondor.
Legend has it that in any corner of Gondor, as long as the horn is blown, reinforcements will respond, unless everyone is dead.
Even if it was blown outside Gondor, even if it was far away in the northern plateau, its sound was felt by the people of Gondor.
Including Faramir, who led the raiding party in Ithilien, and his father.
Minas Tirith, Denethor suddenly stood up and looked towards the north with wide eyes.
"The sound of the horn... Boromir!"
"I hear the horn sounding in the north. Boromir is in danger..."
"Is there anyone who can provide us with troops to support us?"
No.
The power of Mordor was unprecedentedly strong. Even if it was attacking the Free Cities on the other side, it could still send out tens of thousands of Orcs, tens of thousands of Haradrim humans, and a huge pirate fleet to attack from two directions respectively.
The front line was already extremely tense, with not even a single troop force left, even in the Ithilien region that Faramir was currently in charge of.
Denethor's heart trembled.
"No, no matter what, we must send reinforcements, someone must go..."
But how far is it from Gondor to the north of Rohan? Before the arrival of reinforcements, whether Boromir can survive depends on his own luck...
" What 's that noise?"
Inside the fortress of Beihetao, the commander of the defending army, who was planning a counterattack, raised his head.
He did not recognize the sound of the horn, but there were always some people in the Free Cities who liked to travel around and accumulated enough experience.
"I recognize it. It is the horn of Gondor. The commander of the White City of Gondor always blows it to boost morale when he goes to war."
A ranger who returned from the Crossroads stronghold gave the answer.
"The sound came from the direction of the northern plateau near the river."
"Also, the sound of the horn seems to be related to the Uruk team that suddenly turned around and left."
"What do you mean?"
"It's not easy. There aren't many of us here... huh?"
As he was hesitating, the commander suddenly looked towards the road on the east side extending from the Rhovanion Road.
“Here they come.”
An elite army gathered from Rhovanion, Road Town and River Valley.
The various city-states reacted.
Then the enemy's doom came.
"We will send out troops and start a major counterattack."
"Split into two... no, split into five companies and rush from the north bridge to where the horn sounded."
"Take action now."
Buzz——
The horn of the Free City sounded, responding to the call for help from afar and announcing the start of a counterattack.
"rush--!"
The army in the city cooperated with the reinforcements outside the city to launch a fierce attack on the Orcs.
No, it should be said to be a cleanup.
Boom!
In this open brown land, tens of thousands of fully armored cavalrymen ran into Dol Guldur's army and cut through it.
The formation formed by the Orcs was completely unable to withstand it. Even the huge spiders were crushed by such a torrent of steel.
The only ones with some resistance were the ogres and the Ologs, but the number of these heavy units was small after all, and they were immediately pinned down by the separated troops, unable to launch an effective counterattack.
The situation changed instantly.
The siege of Beihetao will end today.
The gate of the city was opened, and the defenders inside quickly joined the reinforcements to fight together. At the same time, a thousand-man army consisting of five companies was sent to the north bridge and rushed to the direction where the horn sounded.
That forest full of dead leaves was where Uruk moved wildly.
"Stand behind me, little ones..."
In the woods, Boromir breathed heavily.
His current condition is really not much better.
Not only was his body covered with knife wounds, but he was also shot in the left shoulder by an arrow, leaving him unable to move.
But even in this severely disabled state, with only one arm still able to move, he still relied on his strong will to chopped down a dozen Uruks.
Until their captain arrived.
They were the elite among the elite and were considered very strong in Uruk. Their height was almost as high as that of ordinary humans.
He was very strong and had accurate archery skills. He and hundreds of other Uruks quickly defeated Boromir severely and nearly killed him.
Boromir is indeed very strong, but he is a human being after all. Even though he may be the most outstanding among humans, he cannot exceed the scope of humans.
If another legion champion wore the same equipment as him, he would probably be in trouble. In order to facilitate movement, he only wore light armor, and his shield was left where the others went ashore, so he didn't bring it with him.
The arrow shot by the Uruk captain was not fast.
If he had a shield, he could block it.
Even without a shield, he could try to dodge.
But no.
He couldn't hide because there were two more hobbits behind him.
Fear comes from human instinct and is inevitable, but bravery is one's own choice and it comes from inner strength.
Boromir chose to stand in front of his companions and block everything for them.
All the arrow wounds he received were on the front.
The orcs' arrows are highly poisoned.
Whoosh——
The second arrow came and pierced Boromir's side.
Enduring the poison from the arrow and the severe pain, Boromir once again burst out with strength with his only remaining movable hand and killed several Uruks.
But that’s where it ends.
Boromir fell to his knees, his consciousness fading away, and he could no longer move.
"Pippin, Merry..."
Boromir called out the two men's names tremblingly, and watched them being captured, but was powerless to stop them.
Looking at the butcher knife raised above his head and about to fall, an idea came to his mind.
Am I going to die...? At this moment when his life was about to end, he had no fear of death in his heart, only fear and regret for having messed up everything and failed his friends' expectations...
"Boromir!"
Whoosh——
An arrow was shot towards the captain of Uruk who was about to be executed, but he suddenly turned around and chopped it off with a knife as if he had gone crazy, which made Legolas, who shot the arrow, frown.
So he drew the two sharp swords at his waist and followed Aragorn and Gimli in front of him to kill.
Legolas and Gimli bought some time, and Aragorn quickly helped Boromir up.
"Aragorn..."
"I have an apple with me, a golden apple, and you know its use," said Boromir weakly.
"That's great, eat quickly!" Aragorn was visibly anxious.
"No, I messed up everything. I don't deserve to live, nor do I deserve to use this thing that represents the highest honor of the Free City and Levi's trust. Take it away, you will make better use of it..."
"Get up, Boromir!"
Seeing that this guy dared to be depressed at this time, Aragorn was really angry. He didn't even look for Boromir's golden apple, but directly took out his own and stuffed it into his mouth.
While doing so, he violently pulled out the two arrows in his body so that they would not hinder his recovery.
That was not all. After forcing the golden apple into Boromir's mouth and letting him chew it, Aragorn took out the bottle of healing potion he had received at the roadside fort and poured it into his mouth.
This set of operations almost suffocated Boromir.
"Stop, stop, I'm fine, I'm fine!"
Boromir, rejuvenated, rose to his feet at once.
"Then fight!"
Aragorn handed him the iron sword that had fallen to the ground.
Boromir took a breath and took the iron sword.
"Then... let's go!"
Yes, humans are destined to be imperfect, but they will always choose to fight until the end of their lives.
It's time to take action - to undo the mistakes you've made.
Buzz——
At this moment, a horn sounded behind him, responding to Boromir's call for help.
Boom…
The horses' hooves trampled the ground, making bursts of noise.
Reinforcements from Beihetao have arrived.
(End of this chapter)
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