New students start from 'Game of Thrones'

Chapter 101 Slaying the Dragon

Deep in the dense forest outside the fortress, Radagast the Brown had brought Gandalf to his dwelling, intending to find some herbs to help his old friend recover from his injuries.

No sooner had the rabbit-drawn sleigh come to a halt than Gandalf stood up—his movements were so agile that there was no sign of his wounds at all.

"I need a horse. Help me get a horse..." Gandalf picked up his Elven sword from the sleigh and spoke loudly to Radagast.

"What?" Radagast stared at Gandalf in astonishment.

"Where are you going?" The somewhat eccentric wizard grabbed his staff and hurried after him.

"I must go to the Lonely Mountain to warn them..." Gandalf turned to look at Radagast.

"Thorin and the others have no idea who their true enemy is! I saw it with my own eyes in the fortress—the orc army from Moria is marching toward them, and their target is the Lonely Mountain!"

"Go find your friends too—your animal and bird companions. Tell them to spread the word: the Battle of the Lonely Mountain is about to begin!"

With that, Gandalf turned to head out of the forest. Seeing how resolute he was, Radagast handed over his staff and summoned a strong warhorse for him.

Gandalf rode the horse out of the forest and galloped along the edge of the woods toward the Old Forest Road.

"Gandalf!" Just as the Grey Wizard was focused on his journey, a voice called out from behind him. He reined in his horse, came to a stop, and turned to look.

There was Owen, riding his tall steed and catching up from behind!

"You're quite fast! I've been chasing you all the way from the fortress—lucky I have this hawk to track your location from the sky," Owen said, pointing to the hawk circling overhead.

"What a marvelous ability! Lord Owen, may I ask what brings you here?" Gandalf cast an envious glance at the hawk before turning to Owen.

"Lady Galadriel asked me to come and help you," Owen replied directly.

"What an honor!" Gandalf's face broke into a smile. Having a powerful warrior like Owen on their side would add a great deal of security when facing the orc army.

"Let's go! Lead the way—we need to reach the Lonely Mountain as soon as possible," Owen had no desire to linger and urged Gandalf to take the lead.

The two spurred their horses into a gallop once more. Neither of their horses was ordinary; they ran at incredible speed, cutting a journey that might have taken a full day down to half a day.

They encountered no danger along the Old Forest Road—not even the giant spiders from before were nowhere to be seen.

After passing through the Old Forest Road, they rode north along the Running River, and soon the town of Lake-town came into view in the distance.

At that very moment, Lake-town was enduring a catastrophe.

High in the dark sky, Smaug the Dragon circled above the town, while flames blazed fiercely throughout Lake-town.

"We're too late. They've already entered the Lonely Mountain—and they've enraged the dragon..." Gandalf stared at the rampaging Smaug, his face grim in the glow of the fire.

"Shall we go help? I've been wanting to see just how powerful this 'lizard' really is!" As Owen spoke, he took down the Elven longbow and a quiver of Elven arrows from his saddle.

With his sharp eyesight, Owen could clearly see Bard—the human archer—standing on a tower in Lake-town, firing arrow after arrow at Smaug with his longbow.

But the ordinary arrows bounced off Smaug's scales, doing no more damage than a mere scratch.

"The Elven longbow—Hailë's Beak? I never thought Elrond would give this bow to you!" Gandalf recognized the longbow in Owen's hand. It had belonged to Hailë, a legendary Elven figure, but had been sealed away for ages after Hailë's death.

"I didn't know its name, but from now on, it will become famous again alongside mine throughout Middle-earth!" Owen spurred his horse and rode toward Lake-town.

In Lake-town, Bard was making his final stand. He used his son as a bow rest, nocking the black arrow—passed down in his family for generations—on his son's shoulder. His eyes fixed on the weak spot on Smaug's left wing.

"Whoosh!" The black arrow shot straight toward the dragon's vital spot as Bard released his grip. But when the arrow—meant to strike a fatal blow—hit the unarmored weak spot, it bounced off once more!

"What..." Bard's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at Smaug, who showed no reaction at all.

"Foolish mortal..." A look of mockery even appeared on Smaug's ugly face.

"Do you think I wouldn't know my own weakness after all these years?"

"Roar..." With a roar that echoed across the entire Lonely Mountain, a red glow began to spread across Smaug's body.

At that moment, Smaug's pupils were like two molten rubies. Every scale was etched with Dwarven runes—once the pride of the Lonely Mountain's craftsmen, these protective runes now made him invulnerable to weapons.

"You have no more arrows, little lizard!" Smaug spread his wings and soared higher, preparing to breathe a stream of searing dragonfire directly at Bard and his son, determined to burn them to ashes.

"Whoosh—" A sharp whistle cut through the air as an arrow, its tip glowing with magical light, shot from the land outside Lake-town at incredible speed toward Smaug in the sky.

"Roar..." Smaug let out a cry of agony. "Who is that?"

The only response was another arrow. Like the first, it glowed with light, piercing through the runes on Smaug's scales, penetrating the thick armor, and embedding itself in the dragon's body.

Now Smaug saw the two figures in the distance. "A human... and a wizard..."

Smaug could sense a threat from the human warrior holding the bow—a threat that could kill him.

"Ha..." Smaug let out a loud roar, flapping his wings faster as he soared high into the sky. Once he reached a certain height, he dive-bombed directly toward Owen and Gandalf.

"Pesky little insects!" The dragon's voice made rocks crumble from the mountainside. "Die!"

The hurricane kicked up by his massive wings propelled his enormous body toward the land, and the gale it brought tore the burning Lake-town to shreds.

"The third joint of his left wing," the old wizard said, propping his staff on the ground as his eyes fixed on Smaug's weak spot. "He was wounded there by a ballista from Dale that spring—his reverse scale never fully healed."

Owen already knew Smaug's weak spot. He drew three arrows and held them between his left fingers, watching the diving dragon calmly. His gaze sharpened, and with his right hand, he fired the three arrows in quick succession—each infused with his powerful magic. The arrows shot toward Smaug at an unprecedented speed, leaving him no time to adjust his body to dodge. Smaug's heart was exposed at the end of the arrow's path.

The first arrow tore through the Dwarven magical runes and struck Smaug's heart. The second arrow plunged straight into his heart, channeling the powerful magic on its tip into the wound. Smaug's pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks. The third arrow pierced right through his body from his heart, carrying the dragon's blood across the sky before embedding itself in the mountainside of the Lonely Mountain.