Chapter 649 650: Counterattack on Mordor

"Fro...Frodo, sir...wait, wait for me..."

Inside Mordor, on the gravel path leading to the rear Mount Doom, Sam, panting and catching up, shouted to Frodo ahead.

The closer he got to Mount Doom, the greater the influence of the One Ring on Frodo.

At this moment, his face was pale and his pupils were unfocused; he had clearly reached his limit, but it was as if he had lost all physical sensation, walking like a zombie towards the end of the gravel path.

Seeing Frodo in such an abnormal state, Sam was naturally worried.

As for Sam, because of Gollum's mischief earlier, he had unintentionally lost the emergency rations, Lembas, that the wizard had given him.

Therefore, he hadn't eaten anything for many days, and he had expended a lot of energy in the spider's lair earlier to save Frodo.

As a result, he was now hungry and cold, coupled with the fatigue of the journey, his condition was not much better than Frodo's.

In this situation, he was still concerned about Frodo's safety, which led to a lack of concentration and he stepped on a protruding piece of gravel by the roadside.

Screaming, he rolled down the hillside.

"Fro...Frodo, sir..."

Sam, who had bumped his head and bled on the gravel slope, looked up helplessly, only to find that Frodo, whom he had been thinking about, seemed not to have heard his scream and continued walking forward in his previous posture.

Instantly, fatigue, hunger, grievance, and other negative emotions surged into his heart, making this simple Hobbit shed tears.

"Caw, caw, caw..."

Just then, a harsh, strange laugh reached Sam's ears. He turned his head and saw an ugly "monster" with thin limbs and a huge head, clinging to the rocks on the slope.

"It's you!" Sam glared angrily at the other party.

He would never forget this monster—Gollum—who had caused great trouble to him and Frodo's quest to destroy the One Ring.

He heard that the other party used to be a Hobbit, but this was not worthy of sympathy.

"Bah, you foolish servant, you will die here, your corpse will rot into the ground, and eventually become unmourned bones..."

Before Sam could make a move, a string of vicious curses came from Gollum's mouth.

Then he ignored Sam and chased after Frodo along the slope.

"Oh no...Frodo, sir, is in danger...He still needs me..." Sam quickly realized that Gollum still had ideas about the One Ring.

That is to say, Frodo, who held the One Ring, was now in great danger.

So, after some self-encouragement, Sam, whose belief was once again firm, slowly got up and, relying on his tenacious willpower, limped after Frodo in the direction he had left.

...

"Ring-bearer, you have finally arrived!"

At the necessary pass leading to Mount Doom, a tall figure wrapped in demonic energy blocked Frodo's path.

Beneath the black robe, this person's hands wore nine dazzling rings.

"Interesting, he even brought a little mouse..." Just as the dark figure was about to take the tenth ring hanging around Frodo's neck, his body suddenly paused.

Then he turned to look at the side of the mountain and, with an open hand, Gollum, who was hiding in the shadows and coveting the One Ring, was lifted up.

"Pl-please spare me..."

Looking at the empty eyes beneath the black robe, Gollum, whose neck was choked in mid-air, trembled and begged for mercy.

But the dark figure seemed unwilling to listen. With a squeeze of his five fingers, Gollum was instantly crushed into a ball of minced meat and scattered on the ground.

The whole process happened too quickly for him to even scream.

On the other side, death occurred right before his eyes, yet Frodo still seemed not to have seen it. His pale eyes remained blankly staring at the void ahead.

"How uninteresting. Your soul seems to have been completely corrupted, turning into an empty shell, devoid even of fear..."

Sauron originally wanted to find some amusement in Frodo, but after noticing his state, he instantly lost interest, and his tone even carried a hint of pity.

Yes, the dark figure blocking the pass was Sauron.

After learning that his last Orc army had been annihilated by Mike's human warriors, he changed his strategy.

He wanted to retrieve the One Ring to exact his revenge on Mike and the human warriors.

The arrival of the Ring-bearer happened to fill the void in his power.

"Power!! What a wonderful taste!!!"

"From this moment on, no one can resist me!"

"..."

After taking the One Ring from Frodo's neck and putting it on, the Dark Lord's body was surrounded by an even more powerful demonic energy.

At this moment, he had gathered the Nine Rings of Men and the One Ring. His power instantly swelled, giving him a feeling of omnipotence.

On the opposite side, Frodo, having lost the One Ring, finally "came alive."

He lunged at the Dark Lord with a ferocious expression, wanting to reclaim the One Ring.

However, it was clear that all of this was futile in front of the Dark Lord.

"I should have spared your life, but I heard you have a good relationship with the new Human King. So, you can only blame your bad luck..."

The surging power made the Dark Lord decide to collect some interest from the forces of light first.

His hands, now fully adorned with rings, reached out again, instantly lifting Frodo into the air.

As his five fingers slowly closed, Frodo, like Gollum before him, slowly bled from his seven orifices.

Just as Frodo's bones were about to be crushed, eight Ringwraiths, also clad in black robes, suddenly appeared before the Dark Lord.

"Reporting, my King, the new Human King has led the human warriors to Mordor. Shall we engage them?"

The eight Ringwraiths knelt on the ground, reporting the situation outside.

"Good, very good. I haven't even gone to find them, yet they are throwing themselves into the net!!! I want to see if that Human King can protect the others this time—"

Out of hatred for Mike, Sauron didn't even care about Frodo anymore. He left with the eight Ringwraiths.

"Frodo, sir...are you alright..."

After the Dark Lord left, Sam, who had followed and hidden nearby, quickly ran out.

Avoiding Gollum's minced meat on the ground, he helped up the barely breathing Frodo.

"The...the...the Ring..."

Frodo, already delirious, was still muttering about the One Ring.

"You're almost dead because of that ring. Maybe we shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place..."

Looking at Frodo's miserable state, Sam tearfully carried him on his back and continued to mutter, "Frodo, sir, hold on, I'm taking you home now. Don't worry about the One Ring anymore."

Little people have the survival wisdom of little people.

Sam never thought he was special, nor did he understand too many grand principles. His demands had always been simple: he hoped that he and his companions would be safe.

As for destroying the One Ring and maintaining peace in Middle-earth, in his opinion, it was not more important than the lives of his companions.

At the same time, a fierce annihilation battle was ongoing in the outskirts of Mordor.

Just as Mike had estimated, there were not many Orcs left in Mordor now, and most of them were old, weak, and disabled.

They were quickly surrounded by five thousand elite soldiers from Gondor.

Coupled with Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, and others leading the charge, the battle quickly turned into a one-sided slaughter.

"Die!"

As soon as Sauron appeared, he wielded dark energy, sending more than a dozen Gondor warriors flying.

For him, who now had few subordinates left, even some old, weak, and disabled Orcs were precious.

Naturally, he could not stand by and watch them be slaughtered by the human warriors.

Subsequently, the eight Ringwraiths also went to Aragorn and the others, respectively, to hold them back.

However, the Orcs' power was already gone. Even without strong leaders like Aragorn and Gandalf, the remaining Orcs still could not resist the charge of the Gondor soldiers.

"Sauron, I didn't expect you wouldn't flee in advance this time!"

Accompanied by a playful voice, Mike flew up and came face to face with the Dark Lord.

Instantly, the demonic energy erupting from the Dark Lord was suppressed by a few points.

"The first two times were just my carelessness, which allowed you to take advantage. It's still uncertain who will win today!" Although Sauron felt that the pressure Mike put on him had not decreased much, how could he soften at this point?

After all, one must not lose face even if one loses.

What's more, he had put everything on the line for this revenge.

He could not possibly admit defeat.

"I hope you can still be so stubborn later." Mike materialized his armor of light, and holy light shone in his hand, his posture suddenly becoming serious.