"Gûl-Agh!"
Azog looked warily at Luke, who had suddenly appeared.
Seeing him appear safely here, but not seeing the other Orc team, his heart sank immediately.
"Are you looking for this?"
Luke threw the Orc Leader's head in front of Azog.
"I've already sent that Orc team to hell; you probably won't be able to wait for them to arrive."
"Or I can send you to meet them too… Diffindo!"
Villains die from talking too much. Although Luke didn't consider himself a villain, he still attacked without hesitation, adhering to the principle of quick resolution.
If Azog, the Orc Leader, were eliminated here, the Orcs would temporarily be leaderless. Perhaps the subsequent pursuit and the Battle of the Five Armies at the Lonely Mountain would no longer occur.
Luke's magic was fast, and Azog's reaction speed was not slow.
Among Orcs, strength is revered, and Azog's leadership position was earned by killing countless competitors to reach the pinnacle.
Relying on his superior physical strength and reaction speed, Azog dodged Luke's spell, and for those he couldn't dodge, he directly pulled nearby subordinates to use as meat shields.
Seeing himself at a disadvantage, Azog raised his intact arm and fired a sleeve arrow from his wrist.
It was a Morgul Arrow inscribed with dark spells.
Luke was vigilant and immediately used a Levitation Charm to control a section of pine wood to block in front of him.
But this also gave Azog an opportunity. He directly pulled an Orc subordinate from a Warg, flipped onto it, turned, and fled.
The other Orcs and Werewolves also fled in disarray.
"Luke, don't let Azog escape!" the Dwarves shouted anxiously.
"Don't worry, he can't escape," Luke said unhurriedly, looking calmly at the fleeing Azog, as if he had been prepared all along.
The next second, Azog and the Warg, who hadn't run far, plunged into the mud, into a swamp that had appeared in front of the trap at some unknown time.
The Orcs and Werewolves behind them also followed, struggling in the muddy swamp.
Azog did not give up struggling. He directly stepped on the Warg to climb out of the swamp, then mercilessly used his subordinate Orcs' Werewolves as stepping stones, leaped high, and jumped to the other side of the swamp.
"Wizard, I remember you. You will be my lifelong enemy, Azog!" Azog stared intently at Luke, his arch-nemesis now shifted from Thorin to this Wizard.
His response was a dazzling spell.
"Bombarda!"
The immense explosive power blew open the mountaintop, which then triggered a landslide.
"Ah, the mountain is collapsing!" The Dwarves screamed in terror, as cracks had already appeared on the cliff where they were, threatening to disintegrate at any moment.
"Don't panic, our Giant Eagle friends are here!" Gandalf gave everyone good news.
No sooner had he spoken than a clear eagle cry echoed in the sky. Over a dozen massive Giant Eagles flew towards them, grabbing them and flying away amidst their exclamations.
Luke was also targeted by a Giant Eagle. Before he could react, it swooped down, grabbed him, and then threw him onto the back of another Giant Eagle.
Such an exhilarating scene made Luke gasp in surprise.
As everyone was carried into the sky by the Giant Eagles, the mountaintop and cliff below could no longer support themselves, quickly disintegrating and collapsing, carrying all the Orcs and Werewolves with them to their deaths, crushed and buried by the massive rocks.
"Hmm? He's not dead yet? Is he really that tough?" Luke had originally just taken out his Palantír to check if Azog was dead, only to see that he was still alive.
It turned out that during the landslide and fall, Azog had hooked onto the cliff face with the iron hook attached to his severed arm, avoiding being killed by the fall or crushed.
Could this be the destiny of a villain Boss? He just won't die until the grand finale?
Luke didn't believe it.
He patted the Giant Eagle beneath him: "Brother Eagle, can we discuss something?"
"Would you mind taking me down first? How about I go kill that Azog and then we leave?"
The Giant Eagle let out a clear cry and, without giving Luke time to react, instantly plummeted downwards.
The immense feeling of weightlessness made Luke's heart pound in his throat.
Meanwhile, Azog.
Having survived, he looked at his subordinates buried by the landslide's massive rocks and let out a roar of anger and unwillingness.
"Gûl-ghash, krum-ghâsh!" ("Wizard, I will have you pay for this in blood!")
"Are you calling me, Azog?" A teasing voice echoed from above.
Azog was startled and looked up, instantly seeing Luke flying down on a Giant Eagle.
Understanding the difference in strength, he turned to flee without a word.
But Luke didn't give him another chance to escape. "Diffindo!"
The spell instantly struck Azog.
Accompanied by a scream, Azog's body was covered in cracks, like shattered porcelain, with black blood continuously gushing out.
But even so, Azog still had one breath left.
"You're really hard to kill, Azog," Luke sighed, his eyes filled with coldness. "But no matter what, today is your dying day!"
"Diffindo!"
Azog's expression stiffened, his blood-red eyes gradually dimmed, and he completely perished.
Looking at the deceased Azog, Luke took a deep breath.
"Azog is dead. The trajectory of fate has changed. I wonder if the Battle of the Five Armies will still occur later?"
"Luke."
Gandalf flew over on a Giant Eagle, and the others followed.
Upon seeing Azog's corpse, the Dwarves cheered, celebrating the death of their mortal enemy.
Gandalf was also very pleased and approving.
"Luke, you have killed Azog, the King of Orcs. This news will quickly spread from the Orcs throughout all of Middle-earth. The title 'Foe of Orcs' truly suits you!"
"However, in return, you will also become the enemy of all Orcs. They will want to eliminate you quickly, so you must be prepared for that."
"I understand, thank you for the warning, Gandalf."
Luke nodded, but he felt no psychological pressure about it.
With Azog killed, the group did not linger and flew away on the Giant Eagles.
The Giant Eagles were messengers of Manwë, King of the Valar. They were large, intelligent, and could speak human languages. Their responsibility was to report news from across Middle-earth to Manwë and to assist the Free Peoples of Middle-earth against evil.
Gandalf was also one of the Maias subordinate to Manwë, so he had a good relationship with the Giant Eagle race and could summon them for help.
The Giant Eagles were very fast. The group rode them, flying over the Misty Mountains, and only stopped when they reached Carrock on the Anduin River.
As for why they didn't fly directly to the Lonely Mountain, on one hand, the Giant Eagles lived in the Misty Mountains, primarily responsible for monitoring the Orcs in the mountains, and were unwilling to leave the Misty Mountains' vicinity too far.
On the other hand, it was for the same reason as Gandalf: the Giant Eagles were also not allowed to interfere too much with the powers of Middle-earth, mainly assisting in the fight against evil.
Luke could only sigh in exasperation at this.
Isn't this just like Journey to the West, where everyone has to undergo countless trials and tribulations over vast distances, instead of Sun Wukong just flying to the West to retrieve the scriptures in a single somersault?
After dismounting from the Giant Eagle's back, as Gandalf and the Eagle King were saying goodbye, Luke looked at the Eagle King's feather crest and suddenly had an idea, quickly saying:
"Gandalf, the core of your staff has never been found. Perhaps a Giant Eagle's feather could serve as your staff core!"