The black iron ball that howled from the muzzle of the fortress's four-pound Eagle Cannon was like Death's merciless finger, carving a low, lethal arc through the gloomy sky. With a shriek that tore through the air, it plunged headlong toward the densely packed Sauron infantry column below, dark as a river of black!
"Pfft! Crack! Smash—!!"
There was no earth-shaking explosion—only a sudden eruption of dull, sickening sounds of bones cracking, sinews snapping, and flesh shattering at the point of impact!
It was the rawest, most savage collision imaginable: iron against flesh and bone! The heavy solid shot carved a path through the crowd, and wherever it passed, lives fell like wheat stalks beneath a scythe.
Shields twisted and shattered like paper. Iron-reinforced Leather Armor and Chain Mail were as good as nothing before such absolute force. Several spears, curved blades, even half a broken shield, were hurled into the air by the tremendous momentum, tracing brief, ominous arcs beneath the bleak daylight before falling helplessly back down.
Amid the surging tide of black heads, a bloody, mangled corridor was instantly swept clear along the cannonball's path!
Within that corridor, severed limbs, shattered weapons, and fragments of armor lay mixed together. Blood swiftly soaked into the early-spring earth, not yet fully green, forming a dark-red, horrifying "road."
The soldiers struck directly did not even have time to scream. Those grazed by it, or struck by flying fragments, let out shrieks so agonized they scarcely sounded human.
The Sauron formation visibly rippled and fell into disorder, like water struck by a massive boulder. Yet the well-trained Sauron officers immediately roared furiously amid the bloodshed, using the flats of their blades—and sometimes outright slaughter—to cow the soldiers on the verge of collapse.
"Hold the line! No disorder!"
"Those in the rear!