It stopped.
Everything stopped in an instant.
The unceasing, soul-crushing thunder of heavy footsteps vanished. The rousing drums and fifes driving the advance also came to an abrupt halt after the final four rapid beats.
In the blink of an eye, utter motion became utter stillness. All that remained were the faint cannon blasts in the distance, the groans of the wounded, and the snapping of bloodstained banners in the wind.
This immense, dramatic silence, so contrary to the laws of the battlefield, created an indescribable, suffocating tension.
The chaotic Sauron formation opposite them had clearly been stunned by the sudden change.
The advancing blue wall—silent, endlessly taking casualties yet never stopping—had suddenly halted in perfect unison, as though it were a single man, only fifteen paces away from them—close enough to hear each other breathe and see the shock on one another's faces.
This was completely beyond their understanding and expectations. Many Sauron soldiers and slave soldiers instinctively stopped their frantic movements and stared blankly across the field, their faces filled with bewilderment and even deeper fear—they had no idea what these "silent devils" would do next.
The deathly silence lasted less than two heartbeats.
"Ready—!!!" Webber emptied every last breath from his lungs, unleashing perhaps the loudest, harshest, and most murderous roar of his life.
The cry even drowned out the scattered gunfire in the distance, carrying clearly to every corner of the company.
"Ready!" Peter and every soldier in the company roared as one, like precision machines with their final switch thrown. Their voices trembled with tension, fury, and resolve, yet merged into a killing intent that soared into the sky.
Clatter—clack-clack-clack-clack—!
A teeth-grinding burst of perfectly synchronized metal scraping and striking erupted! Along the first two ranks of the entire battle line, more than a thousand