Originally, Wayne thought that in the face of his proposal, it should be Prince Thorin who would be the first to complain.

But before Thorin could speak, the young and vigorous Fili and Chili stood up and asked:

"Mr. Wayne, you seem to be very confident in your own strength, and you look down on the dragon Smaug who defeated the dwarves, why don't we try it and see if anyone is bragging."

Wayne was not angry when he heard this, he glanced at Prince Thorin and Balin, and saw that the two dwarves in charge did not stop him, and the gray-robed wizard Gandalf also had an interested expression, but Bilbo was quite anxious and looked like he wanted to persuade.

He smiled secretly in his heart, since this is the case, let's stand up first.

Wayne maintained a flat expression on his face, and looked at Chili and Fili, these two young dwarves were not yet a hundred years old, they were both young people who had escaped from the Lonely Mountain and came to the birthplace of the Blue Mountains, they had not participated in the Battle of Moria, nor had they seen the real Smaug, and they had no real concept of the evil dragons that their ancestors said.

They are Thorin's nephews, the children of Thorin's sister Dis, the youngest dwarves of the House of Turin.

In the original book, these two young dwarves died in the battle of the Five Armies in order to protect Thorin, along with their uncle, which also led to the death of the Turin clan and Thorin's lineage, and the name of the King of the Mountain was inherited by Thorin's cousin Ironfoot Dain.

Wayne thought about it, and instead of agreeing to Chili and Filip's challenge, he clapped his hands together, made a crisp sound, and then said to everyone who was looking at him:

"Since everyone has doubts about my strength, then, I will prove myself with practical actions."

"It just so happens that everyone is full, let's have some exercise after dinner."

With that, he didn't care whether everyone wanted to or not, took the lead in getting up from his seat, and then left the banquet hall and came to an indoor training room on the first floor.

As a warrior who advocates martial arts, of course there is such a well-equipped training ground in his manor, but unfortunately, even if he stayed in Middle-earth in the past, he mostly trained in the field and rarely used it.

However, the old Ford is very well managed, even if it is not used often, it is still clean and tidy, with all the equipment for training.

Wayne reached out and took a wooden sword from the weapon rack, then said to the dwarves behind him:

"Come on, dwarves, and have a fight."

"Although swordsmanship is only the most inconspicuous part of my strength, if I don't defeat you thirteen dwarves within five minutes, then I will accompany you to the Lonely Mountain without any compensation, how about it?"

As a dwarven prince, heir to the Turin clan, and revered by the dwarves as Thorin Oak Shield, Thorin has always been proud.

Now when he heard that Wayne, a human, was going to challenge their thirteen dwarves, and said that he would defeat them all within five minutes, even if he was a prince, he felt quite angry.

After glancing at the dwarves behind him, Thorin took the lead in stepping forward, picked a wooden sword from the weapon rack beside him, and spoke:

"No, Wayne, we'll beat you."

"If you lose, the contract will remain the same, and we will still give you a fifteenth of the gold."

"But you can't be so arrogant anymore and look down on dwarves!"

Wayne smiled and nodded, seeing that only the three dwarves of Thorin and Chiliferi had taken up arms, he decided to show his strength first, lest the other dwarves continue to watch.

So, he waited until the three of Thorin stood in the center of the training ground and stood opposite him, and instantly burst out with all his strength, and his body turned into an afterimage, and appeared in front of Thorin in an instant with a charging attitude.

The speed of this moment stunned everyone present, and Sony only had time. He crossed his hands against his chest, and Chilifili behind him didn't even have time to make any movements.

Wayne did not swing the wooden sword, but in Thorin's shocked gaze, he directly hit Thorin with his shoulder, and the strong force directly knocked the dwarf prince into the air, let out a cry of pain, and then knocked down the two nephews behind him like a rolling gourd.

The three dwarves all lay on the ground in embarrassment, piled together, without the calmness they had at the beginning.

Wayne did not continue the pursuit, but turned his head to look outside the training ground, and the spectators, who were all a little dumbfounded, did not blush and did not beat their hearts, and continued to speak:

"Gentlemen, I don't mean to speak wildly, or to say that there is no one in my eyes."

"It's just that with my strength, if it's just one or two enemies, I will basically be knocked down in an instant, so that you can't see my strength clearly."

And just as Wayne spoke, Thorin, who had just been knocked away, got up from the ground with a wooden sword, stared at Wayne with a surprised face, and then after thinking for a few seconds, he turned his head to look at his fellow dwarves with a serious expression, and shouted:

"Wayne is right, we underestimated him."

"Now, dwarves, take up arms and stand side by side with me against him, he is an unprecedented formidable enemy, an opponent worth fighting, don't let Wayne underestimate the strength of our dwarves."

After receiving the prince's order, the other dwarves no longer hesitated, and selected their weapons, shields, wooden hammers, spears, wooden swords, and wooden knives from the weapon racks, and walked to Thorin's side, and soon formed a defensive formation that could be used on the battlefield.

Then, the dwarves flapped their weapons and let out a roar of battle as they surrounded Wayne.

Facing the encirclement of these dwarves, the expression on Wayne's face did not change, he was still calm, he smiled slightly at Gandalf and Bilbo, who were still watching the battle outside the field, and then held the wooden sword, did not choose to dodge, and directly attacked the dwarves.

Although the dwarves of Middle-earth are much stronger than the humans of the wizarding world, they are at least twice as different from Wayne, who is open-minded, in terms of strength and speed, and even in terms of combat skills, such a flamboyant fighting style as dwarves, is also very different from the witcher's superb swordsmanship.

Therefore, the next battle was not as exciting as everyone imagined, or it was evenly matched.

Crushing in terms of technique and strength, even if Wayne is facing him head-on, every dwarf will be defeated by a move when they face him, and their attacks are either accurately blocked by Wayne, or deftly dodged by him, and they can't cause any effective blows at all.

And even if the dwarves wanted to use their bodies to hold Wayne and make him lose his ability to dodge, relying on his strong jumping power, Wayne could jump directly over the dwarves' heads and jump behind them as long as he jumped slightly, making these short and strong men pounce in the air.

Soon, in less than five minutes, the dwarven squad, which had been high morale and united, convinced that they would win, was all beaten to the ground and lost the strength to resist.

And Wayne, who was fighting against them, was still standing in the center of the training ground, holding a wooden sword in his hand, and there was not even sweat on his body, looking at the dwarf who fell to the ground calmly, to be precise, at Prince Thorin among the dwarves, and asked politely:

"Prince Thorin, I should have won this battle, right?"

Hearing this, Thorin looked at his fellow dwarves with some difficulty, and finally looked at Balin, each of them was beaten to the point that his nose was bruised and his face was swollen, and four or five were knocked unconscious, while the witcher on the opposite side was not harmed by any injuries in his body, and had not been hit once.

To be honest, if it weren't for Wayne holding a wooden sword in his hand, they would have lost a long time ago.

If it weren't for the fact that the last time was about to end, and the opponent's attack suddenly became heavier, knocking out several dwarves, maybe this competition would not look so miserable as it does now.

In the face of such an ironclad fact, Thorin would not quibble anything, he sighed, and said to Wayne:

"You've won, Wayne, and you're stronger than we thought."

"You beat us all."

"We dwarves value commitments, and I agreed to the condition you proposed."

"If you can kill Smaug, a third of the gold on the lonely mountain will belong to you, and you will be the best friend of our Turin dwarves."

Although it was a little difficult at first to say such a confession, after saying this, Thorin's heart suddenly became much more relaxed.

In fact, this lonely mountain expedition is not so much an adventure as a gamble of life.

When Gandalf proposed the expedition, everyone had no hope that the operation would succeed and were ready to die.

Therefore, there are only a dozen dwarves participating in the expedition this time, otherwise with the prestige of Prince Thorin, dozens or hundreds of dwarves can still be easily gathered.

But now, with a strong man who can defeat all of their dwarves on his own as a partner, Thorin suddenly felt that the success rate of this operation had increased a lot.

Although strong swordsmanship does not represent the full strength of a person.

But if Wayne in front of him didn't lie, and swordsmanship was just his most inconspicuous way of fighting, then in future operations, this human would definitely bring them more surprises.

The smile on Wayne's face became even brighter after receiving Thorin's promise, and he stretched out his hand to Thorin, pulled the dwarven prince up from the ground, and said:

"You are a prince of grace, Your Highness Thorin."

"Tonight, everyone will rest in my manor, and when the new contract is signed tomorrow, we will set off."

"Believe me, inviting me to participate in this Lonely Mountain Expedition is definitely the right choice."

"This operation will go more smoothly than you imagined."

Perhaps infected by the confidence in Wayne's tone, Thorin, who had been under a lot of pressure in his heart and was tormented by revenge, honor, and the obsession of reclaiming the Lonely Mountain, also showed a smile, nodded to Wayne, and said:

"Let's hope so, Wayne."

"Retaking the Lonely Mountain has been the wish of our dwarven clan for hundreds of years, and we are all willing to pay with our lives for it."

When the atmosphere between Wayne and Thorin became harmonious again, Gandalf approached with a smile on his face

Smoking his pipe, he praised Wayne's fighting skills and the unity and courage of the dwarves, and in his words, he reconciled the relationship between Wayne and the dwarves.

As the initiator of the Lonely Mountain Trip, of course, he would prefer to have powerful people join, and for him, defeating Smaug and defeating the Demon King Sauron is his most important goal.

Although he didn't know much about Wayne at the beginning, and still had doubts, after this battle with the dwarves, Gandalf could be said to be the most enthusiastic about Wayne's joining.

That night, Wayne did not hesitate to take out his treasured intermediate healing potion, not only healed the dwarves' injuries, but also gave this potion to every warrior participating in the Lonely Mountain Expedition a large bottle, even Gandalf and Bilbo.

Gandalf, a battle mage who only knows flash magic and swordsmanship, was very interested in this magical potion, and even asked Wayne directly if he would like to sell this potion or formula.

Of course, this request was denied as a matter of course, not because Wayne was stingy, but mainly because the potion came from the world of Azeroth, and it was basically impossible to produce it in Middle-earth.

There is a big difference in the composition of the magic of the two worlds, just like the herbs it planted in Middle-earth, Wayne tried to make a witcher potion from these herbs from the wizarding world, only to find that the herbs grown in Middle-earth all lost their effect, which made him quite disappointed.

The next day was fast approaching, and after a hearty breakfast, old Ford redrew a new contract for the group.

In Gandalf's witness, the contract was re-signed by everyone.

After signing the contract, the trip to the Lonely Mountain Expedition officially began.

When Wayne appeared in front of the dwarves on a terrifying beast that was eight meters tall, Robin, Deathclaw, all of them were shocked by the terrifying beast, except for Gandalf and Bilbo, who had seen Deathclaw before.

Sharp claws, strong muscles, scaly shells cast like steel, and bloody jaws full of fangs.

No one doubted that Robin, the Deathclaw, would be able to bite the horse they sat down on with just one bite if he wanted to.

Although they have not seen the combat effectiveness of the deathclaw with their own eyes, just seeing its appearance, the people of the Lonely Mountain Team have become more confident in the success rate of this operation and the strength of Wayne.

At the same time, in the hearts of these dwarves, a glimmer of hope could not help but rise.

Could it be that this time they will really be able to take out Smaug and retake the Lonely Mountain?

(End of chapter)