Zheng Zha carved back and forth through the line of Uruk-hai, no less than two or three hundred falling beneath his blade. Whether swinging horizontally or charging atop his steed, while his blade aura couldn't entirely nullify the innate battle-qi, sheer brute force allowed Zheng Zha to overpower them. By the time the blade aura enveloping him shattered for the first time, Zheng Zha had already activated his "Explosion" state, pouring an increased surge of his Vampire energy into the skeletal warhorse.

In his standard state, Zheng Zha was already capable of slaughtering masses of Uruk-hai. Now, utilizing the "Explosion" state, his strength and speed had multiplied far beyond mere multiples—it was a doubling of ten times. A single downward slash, amplified by the momentum of his blade aura and raw power, was enough to cleave an Uruk-hai clean in two, even if they raised their battle-qi. Instantly, the rate of Uruk-hai casualties spiked dramatically. By the time Zheng Zha regained his bearings, the surrounding enemies were scattering in terror, as if facing a monster, and his own limbs felt unsettlingly weak.

This wasn't a duel, after all.

This engagement had devolved into something resembling warfare on a massive, clustered scale. The shattered corpses littering the ground attested to the fact that Zheng Zha had personally slain hundreds, perhaps more. These weren't the lesser Orcs; these were Uruk-hai capable of wielding basic battle-qi—one such creature was equivalent to more than a dozen human soldiers.

Thus, after obliterating that immediate wave, a palpable exhaustion settled over Zheng Zha.

"Hah... Zhan Lan, can you hear me? Give me an update. Send me the deployment map for the Uruk-hai."

Zheng Zha let out a heavy breath.

Zhan Lan’s voice quickly responded. After confirming, she linked the entire battlefield situation directly into Zheng Zha’s consciousness via a psychic scan. From the edge of the forest to the shoreline, he could see…

Uruk-hai figures still dotted the landscape everywhere.

Of course, countless Uruk-hai corpses lay strewn across the ground. Zheng Zha’s contingent had accounted for about three to four hundred kills. Along the route already traversed, there were over three hundred more Uruk-hai bodies, and still, five to six hundred remained, engaged in battles against the members of the Reincarnation Squad and the scripted characters. Zheng Zha noticed Zhao Yingkong running down from a distant slope; judging by her expression, something significant must have happened to her, yet no one else seemed to be in distress over there.

"Zhan Lan... what just happened to Zhao Yingkong? Why does she have that expression?" Zheng Zha urgently asked Zhan Lan while galloping the skeletal steed through the throng of beasts.

Zhan Lan paused for a long moment before murmuring, "No, it's not just the Nazgûl that can evade psychic scans... and that expression, seeing her make that face... perhaps she encountered that person..." Regardless, this was private business. Though deeply puzzled and concerned, Zheng Zha immediately forced himself to refocus, channeling energy from his charged Mithril Ring to replenish his internal strength and Vampire essence.

He swiftly circulated his internal energy through the Primordial Unity Qi Art while still mounted, roughly restoring his physical stamina. Then,

The silhouette of an Uruk-hai immediately materialized before him once more. The beast only registered the thunder of hooves behind it.

Before it could even turn, the Hu Po blade swept out, cleaving its upper torso and shoulder clean in two.

The rest of the group was deep in a melee, surrounded on all sides by attacking Uruk-hai. The scripted characters proved reliably formidable; Aragorn, Gimli, and the Elven Prince Legolas had all felled large numbers of enemies, unfazed by close or long-range combat. The Reincarnation Squad members varied in capability. The strongest was undoubtedly Richard, who had developed his own 'Mad Warrior' skill. He relentlessly charged and hacked with his enormous axe. Though sustaining minor wounds constantly, any blow from his axe, even if blocked by a shield, carried such immense force that it drove the Uruk-hai—shield and arm included—back into its own body. It seemed Richard had somehow activated his 'Mad Warrior' technique.

Next was Cheng Xiao. He wielded a Mithril sword obtained from the Elves. It was evident he had received formal training in fencing and combat techniques. While his attacks appeared unimpressive, every strike managed to fell an Uruk-hai. After ten such attacks, the beasts recognized this man of understated skill as dangerous and began subtly keeping their distance. Only Ganeer seemed stingy, not even employing his standard 'Frost Age' state, instead resorting to mere ice spikes for offense and ice shields for defense, making his combat appearance somewhat ragged.

Aya, the only member capable of large-scale area attacks, summoned venom whose potency was considerable. However, for unknown reasons, these poison hornets seemed incapable of harming the Uruk-hai, who appeared entirely immune to the toxin. Consequently, Aya, possessing almost no close-combat prowess, was reduced to fleeing alongside the Hobbits.

Zheng Zha’s movements, however, were spectacularly dramatic. His flame-belching skeletal steed and the crimson longsword in his hand dispatched more than a dozen Uruk-hai in the first few strikes. Any Uruk-hai directly in his path would never see a second cut. Just as he prepared to charge into the main mass, Aragorn bellowed, "Don't worry about us! We're fine here! Go help Boromir! He’s protecting that Hobbit, quickly!" Zheng Zha immediately heard a distant horn call, long and resonant. Legolas shouted too, "That's the signal from Gondor calling for reinforcements! Go!" Saying this, he drew an arrow and shot down several Uruk-hai besieging Zheng Zha, who fell instantly, pierced through.

Zheng Zha roared back, "Everyone, watch yourselves! If you can’t hold, fall back! I'll go assist Boromir and return!" With that, he reined in the horse, swung its head around without hesitation, charged toward a large tree, and leaped directly from the saddle onto its branches, reaching the treetop. Then, with a push of the skeletal steed’s hooves, he vanished from sight.

On the other side, Boromir’s situation had indeed reached its breaking point. While he wasn't protecting Merry and Pippin exactly as in the original narrative—because of Pippin's demise, only Merry remained behind him—they were now burdened by the presence of a woman from the Southern Continent Squad, Aya. Both were nearly useless in combat, leaving Boromir at an absolute disadvantage. He couldn't afford to let a single Uruk-hai past him, and more kept arriving from the front. If he struggled before, having two liabilities made it impossible.

"Run! Both of you, run!" Boromir yelled as he watched the Uruk-hai numbers swell, hacking down an attacker charging forward, intending to turn and flee himself.

When Boromir finally turned, he saw Aya wearing a look of bitter resignation. Over a hundred Uruk-hai were closing in on the trio from behind her. They were encircled front, back, left, and right—there was nowhere left to run. Boromir's inherent strength was already slightly less than Aragorn's trio, and now weighed down by liabilities, he couldn't even escape alone.

Just as Boromir felled two more Uruk-hai and prepared to speak again, a giant figure, nearly eight feet tall, emerged from the ranks of the enemy. This tall Uruk-hai was covered in bulging muscle and radiated a battle-qi far more intense than the average brute, clearly marking him as a minor leader among them.

The Uruk-hai leader fixed a cold stare on Boromir, then produced an Elven longbow. He slowly drew the string, and what chilled Boromir most was the sight of two arrowheads nocked together—the leader was employing composite explosive shots.

The bowstring twanged. The two arrows crossed paths in flight; the rear arrow struck the tail of the front one. With a sudden boom, the rear arrow detonated, while the front arrow shot forward at an invisible speed, piercing straight through Boromir’s left chest and lodging in Aya’s thigh. Both collapsed instantly.

Zheng Zha saw this exact scene unfold as he approached. Seeing Boromir fall and the other Uruk-hai surging forward to surround them, he pulled hard on the reins and leaped down directly from the treetop. The skeletal steed landed squarely on the heads of several Uruk-hai, its iron hooves driving down with gravity's aid, crushing those few brutes into pulp. This wasn't the end; Zheng Zha channeled his internal power madly into the Hu Po blade, then executed a horizontal sweep. The scores of densely packed Uruk-hai surrounding him were sliced cleanly in half without so much as a grunt.

Without looking back, Zheng Zha pulled a 'Three Pure Ones Talisman' and an 'Ice Condensation Pill' from his storage ring, tossing them backward. "Aya, put this on him! You absolutely cannot let him die. If he's about to die, feed him this pill immediately! Be careful yourself!" Having said this, he reined in the horse, preparing to charge the Uruk-hai captain before him.

But the Uruk-hai captain had already drawn his longbow taut, two arrowheads still gripped on the string, aimed directly at Zheng Zha’s heart… He leaped down.