Over two meters tall, with terrifyingly knotted muscles and skin as rough and gleaming as oil, monstrous blood vessels surging beneath like dragons and snakes, coarse black manes blowing in the wind, and, of course, that indescribable stench to any human—all crowned by a pale, hog-like head seemingly riddled with swollen boils—this was the Orc Commander, Gasmor!

He hoisted his great-axe high, and instantly, the axe head became suffused with an intensely rich scarlet glow. Then, with a flash, that red light exploded outward, slamming into the surrounding Orcs like a shockwave, covering an area of at least four to five square kilometers.

The Orcs engulfed by the crimson blast simultaneously roared a sound beyond description from the depths of their throats! Then they raised their weapons high, the greed and fervor in their eyes so intense they seemed capable of dripping blood!

Gasmor’s Bloodthirst spell of this super-tier magnitude was, in terms of both coverage and intensity of stimulation, in no way inferior to a Wizard like Gandalf the White Robe, which reflected in another way why he could hold the position of Orc Commander.

The very next second, Gasmor’s great-axe slammed downward with a violent rush of wind. The back of the axe struck a wooden firing pin made of hard chestnut wood below, which instantly shot outwards. Following this, four black ropes, as thick as a child's arm, snapped out with a sharp crack in the air, then sprang into motion!

These ropes were braided from tanned leather, hair, the sinews of giant beasts, and refined subterranean creature grease. When pulled taut, they provided immense kinetic acceleration to the throwing arm, which then rotated in a wide circle, launching the boulder it carried!

As if receiving a signal, the one hundred and fourteen catapults surrounding all of Minas Tirith likewise hurled their massive stones! For a moment, the sky seemed to darken as vast clouds of projectiles rained down!

Minas Tirith had not endured the baptism of fire for nearly a hundred years, so the traces of peace were profoundly evident in the city built into the mountain, most clearly demonstrated by the exquisite, garden-like balustraded architecture climbing the slopes.

These structures radiated the sentiment of the Gondorians; under the sunlight, the buildings created rich effects of light and shadow, interplay between solidity and illusion. Compared to other enclosed architecture, the sunlight eliminated the dullness of solid walls, while round sculptures, high reliefs, and low reliefs created a unique decorative art.

Their only flaw was that they were as fragile as a newly initiated prostitute.

The first barrage from the Orcs' siege engines launched a cumulative total of at least eighty-seven tons of stone, striking the walls of Minas Tirith, rotating and tumbling with an initial velocity exceeding five hundred meters per second—faster than thunder.

The ornate structures instantly collapsed as if shedding their skin, the meticulous years, even decades, of effort by thousands of master craftsmen vanishing to reveal the ugly, solid wartime retaining walls, arrow slits, and troop tunnels within Minas Tirith.

The magnificent Minas Tirith had finally donned its ugly armor for close combat...

Amidst the shrill, drawn-out sound of horns, nearly forty towering siege towers appeared, each even taller than the giant catapults, slowly advancing toward the city walls.

The main framework of the towers was constructed from Iron Birch grown in the extreme cold of the Northlands. The innermost layer consisted of animal hide, clay, and branches, upon which half-orc priests poured the most basic Earth-to-Stone spell, exhausting their magical reserves. This was then overlaid again with hide, clay, and another application of magic. Consequently, viewed from a distance, these towers did not look like man-made objects at all, but rather like colossal, impregnable masses of bedrock slowly closing in!

Naturally, pushing these behemoths required Ogres possessing phenomenal brute strength. These creatures, with their pale gray, slack skin, though encased entirely in armor, harbored astonishing power within their bulky, massive frames!

The height of the siege towers perfectly matched that of the Minas Tirith walls. They carried the most elite Black Orc warriors; once they reached the ramparts, normal humans would stand virtually no chance—it would be a massacre, stark, unadulterated slaughter.

This was the Orcs' warfare: simple, efficient, and filled with a style of barbaric headlong assault.

Indeed, in the face of such overwhelming strength, no tactics were the best tactics; the sheer momentum of a frontal push was the optimal strategy!

No Contractor would enter the ranks of the first wave of the assault. While being the first to scale the walls brought great honor, the casualty rate for such vanguard warriors reached at least seventy percent.

With the battle reaching this stage, the only thing the Contractors belonging to Noah Space C could do was wait.

In fact, after all prior connections were ruthlessly wiped out, very few Contractors could hold a conversation with Gasmor. One managed by virtue of an artifact signifying his status as Saruman’s disciple, and this group also included Fang Senyan. The terrifying influence of +3 Legend Status was something even the Nazgûl and powerful Orc commanders could not resist.

But being able to speak did not equate to being able to influence Gasmor. Just like now, the strange calm emanating from the Contractors within Minas Tirith signaled that trickery was afoot, yet no one could discern the nature of the trap!

Fang Senyan’s mind raced: "What is the core focus of this siege? It's the siege weaponry. Correct. Without these machines, no matter how sharp the Orcs' axes are, they cannot breach the astonishingly thick walls to inflict damage. The opponent cannot be blind to this! So, what method will they employ against these siege engines? These things also have hit points and defense values; they are definitely not paper fakes!"

"Brother Yan! Brother Yan!" Sanzai suddenly appeared beside him, whispering, "Kurutuo says he senses a massive surge of abnormal Earth Elemental power gathering inside the enemy city!"

Fang Senyan sucked in a sharp breath: "Could it be...?!"

Simultaneously, inside the city of Minas Tirith, nearly all Contractor leaders were gathered in the city’s dungeons. Their expressions were somewhat tense, yet tinged with anticipation.

Before them, the battle was being displayed in real-time. "Closer, a little closer! Almost there. Based on our extensive prior deductions and calculations, launching in seventeen seconds will inflict the maximum loss upon the enemy!"

A man who looked quite refined spoke calmly, but his trembling hands completely betrayed his inner turmoil.

Sir was notably present, positioned among those issuing commands. He turned to a woman dressed in an earth-yellow mage robe: "Onyxia, how are your preparations coming along?"

"The three large magic arrays are fully established, and an unexpected piece of good news has arrived: Gandalf came to offer guidance and modified the patterns of the arrays, allowing our output to be extended by an extra 23% beyond the initial projected time."

Sir picked up his stemmed glass and took a delicate sip of fine wine. He swept his right hand lightly through the air, and instantly, a clear image materialized where his hand passed—it was a cross-sectional terrain map of Minas Tirith, projected as if by an electronic computer! Contour lines and density data were perfectly visible!

"The power of science is truly magnificent," Sir murmured softly.

Upon learning that the decisive battleground would be within Minas Tirith, Sir immediately leveraged the advantage of his large team to discuss various methods of defense. One member proposed obtaining all available data on Minas Tirith for comprehensive analysis.

This individual’s original goal was to divert the waters of the Anduin River to flood the terrifying enemy below the city, and this intention initially garnered massive support.

Then, the entire Stockholm team used their powerful real-world connections and influence, combined with data provided in The Lord of the Rings, to create a precisely rendered deep terrain map of the area around Minas Tirith using a supercomputer.

After study and discussion, it was determined that a water assault was impractical. However, a Contractor with prior geological expertise put forward an idea: To attack Minas Tirith, the battlefield would necessarily be at the junction of the Pelennor Fields and Mount Mindoluana.

The formation of mountains is often the result of two tectonic plates compressing against each other. Where the force cannot be released downward, it can only uplift—from this perspective, the conditions for inducing a natural disaster were present.

The computer simulations further revealed that the deep structural deformation in this area was characterized by reverse thrust and right-lateral shear. After repeated confirmation, they concluded that the feasibility of engineering a controllable earthquake beneath Minas Tirith was extremely high. Although the geological conditions appeared stable, this stability rested upon several critical anchor points; destroying these points sequentially offered a high chance of success.

This sounds complex, but the principle is simple: imagine a vase on a table. To make the vase fall toward you, quickly saw through the two table legs nearest you. To make it fall away, quickly saw through the two legs farthest from you.

All variations are merely extensions of these simple laws.

Moreover, since Minas Tirith was built upon Mindoluana, the so-called White Mountains, the rock of this mountain was known for its hardness, meaning the chance of an induced landslide backfiring was very small, though not impossible.

After enduring thousands of simulations, they arrived at the optimal plan: combining gunpowder with magic. They would first attempt to detonate a large quantity of explosives in a specific area, followed immediately by the activation of magic to induce a minor earthquake. The energy released by the tremor would then propagate along the fractured zones previously created by the explosion!

The advantage of this method was that it balanced the power of both explosives and magic, significantly reducing the need for Earth Mages, and cutting the noise generated when they combined their spells by more than half, thus avoiding premature detection by the enemy.

Suddenly, Sir raised his crystalline wine glass and toasted toward the outside world in the dim, damp dungeon, smiling faintly: "Good luck, gentlemen."

As he made this gesture, the "Scourge of Nature" plan was fully activated!

On the hot, blood-soaked battlefield, while the impossibly powerful catapults were relentlessly hurling stones, and the colossal siege towers were mere tens of meters from the walls!!

To the west of the vast Pelennor Fields, fully three to four kilometers from the main engagement, a deep, muffled, immense roar erupted from beneath the ground. Immediately following this, seven or eight vents appeared near the source of the blast, spewing yellowish-brown plumes of sand smoke fifty to sixty meters high toward the sky!

Then, terrifying sounds continued from below—sounds indescribable, causing every person on the battlefield to lose their footing. Next, everyone watched as a fissure appeared where the initial explosion occurred, rapidly extending toward the center of the battlefield!!!

The fissure was initially less than half a meter wide, but it rapidly lengthened and widened as the earth shook, eventually expanding to dozens of meters across! It advanced slowly, majestically, and irresistibly, taking an arc that swept across the plain battlefield below Minas Tirith. Under the pressure of this terrifying natural disaster, the morale of the Orc army instantly plummeted to its lowest point; they clutched their heads and fled in panic. However, nearly half of the catapults, which could not be hastily moved, vanished into the black depths of the earth's fissure.

This was only a minor earthquake, but the consequences were seismic!

Minas Tirith was now protected and encircled by this abyssal, arc-shaped chasm, nearly twenty meters wide and extending for over six kilometers. Anyone attempting a ground assault on the city now had to detour an extra five or six kilometers around the left or right sides!

The unfathomable fissure stood like a ghastly scar across the Pelennor Plains!

What made the situation even more awkward was that the fissure had sliced across the plain only one or two hundred meters from Minas Tirith, meaning the twenty-odd siege towers that had approached the walls were now severed from the main host! To rescue them, one either had to navigate around the terrifying rift or attempt to cross this abyss-like gap!

Following extreme shock and awe, the morale of the defenders suddenly soared. Immediately, the tall, unadorned White Tower emitted a dazzling, brilliant light—a trick achievable with just twenty Contractors proficient in the basic arcane art: Light. This maneuver, which would normally have been scorned by the personnel of Noah Space C as ostentatious superficiality, instantly elevated the morale of the city's defenders to its peak in this specific context!

At that moment, the cry of "Miracle!" erupted throughout Minas Tirith. Hundreds of catapults within the fortress-like city rained stones mercilessly upon the trapped siege towers whose retreat was cut off. A large contingent of Contractors, mixed with a heavy cavalry force of over five hundred men, surged out from the city gates, apparently carrying something. Their target was the Ogres responsible for pushing the giant siege towers—if not kicking them when they were down, when else?

The Half-Orc Commander Gasmor felt a sense of being utterly lost when faced with this situation, but as a mighty leader serving Sauron, he quickly recovered from the shock of the natural disaster. He mounted his hyena steed and galloped everywhere, rallying his troops!

Under his direction, the half-orc army on the plain immediately split into two detachments, one on the left and one on the right, bypassing the terrifying rift of death to engage the enemy, or perhaps to rescue their kin. Looking down from the sky, it resembled a giant black crab extending its two pincers to viciously clamp down on the enemy below the city.

However, Minas Tirith, relying on its high ground advantage, had clearly observed Gasmor's movements. The troops and Contractors who advanced outside the city safely retreated before the half-orc reinforcements could arrive, without even engaging in a probing skirmish. But Fang Senyan saw clearly: everything they carried out of the city was thrown down upon their withdrawal.

Those items were hundreds upon hundreds of waterskins. The water from these skins was splashed onto the ground, pooling together. While it wouldn't cause a flood, it certainly saturated the ground, especially since the Pelennor Plains were naturally fertile with grassland!

The next step was simple. On the first tier of the Minas Tirith battlements, the Earth Contractors who had caused the earthquake reunited. They began casting spells using magic arrays again. However, the spell cast was not a powerful one, but another low-tier spell, much like the Light spell:

"Mud Pit."

This spell was considered low-tier because its effectiveness was massively dependent on the environment; it couldn't be used on a desert, nor on a complete body of water; the drier the location, the worse the effect.

Its effect was merely to create a wide area of large mud pits, one to two meters deep. The spell was primarily devised to counter cavalry charges. But this meant that the Orc armies moving to rescue their comrades would face the awkward predicament of slogging through kilometers of mire, and the elite Black Orcs transported by the siege towers, if they tried to escape, would also have to struggle through the swamp!

And they were all well within the firing range of the Minas Tirith defenders! Constrained by the movement speed reduction from the Mud Pit spell, they had become living targets unable to effectively retaliate!