Stampede

Despite the heavy casualties suffered by the slaves under the precise and ruthless shooting of the guards, their corpses fell like harvested straw, some even sliding down the steep passageway, a truly gruesome sight.

In desperation, some slaves dragged up the corpses of their companions or those who had fallen in front of them, using them as human shields in front of or above them to try to block the deadly lead bullets that could come from anywhere. The whole scene was filled with nauseating bloodshed and desperate struggle.

However, driven relentlessly by the Sauron soldier behind them and threatened with death by arrows from behind, this army, forged in blood and flesh, continued to inflict its slowest and most brutal advance toward the breach in the city wall at the summit.

The heavy Shield-carts, pushed with all their might by the slaves, creaked and rolled over layers of corpses and slippery pools of blood, finally reaching the narrowest and most treacherous "throat" section of the passageway.

The terrain here was even more challenging than expected. Although the Shield-carts were built to the maximum capacity of the passageway, the road surface had become extremely rugged after continuous fighting and the accumulation of corpses.

One of the Shield-carts's wheels suddenly sank into a crater half-covered by corpses, while the other side got stuck on a protruding rock.

No matter how much the slaves behind screamed and shoved, the Shield-carts only shook violently a few times, groaning under the strain, but remained motionless.

"Hurry! Push harder! Push harder if you don't want to die!" A slave leader who looked like an overseer cursed anxiously, whipping the exhausted slaves pushing the carts with a wooden stick.

Just as several slaves, their faces flushed, were pressing down with almost all their weight, and the Shield-carts seemed to show signs of loosening, a slave who happened to be looking up and catching his breath glanced up unintentionally.

That one glance froze his blood instantly!

At the crenellations of the city wall above, two soldiers were working together to operate a simple lever device. A huge, jagged rock, requiring two people to hug, had been pushed to the edge of the wall and was about to collapse!

The shadow of that boulder, like the gaze of death, loomed over the narrow passage below.

The slave's pupils suddenly contracted, his mind went blank, and he opened his mouth wide, but no sound came out.

The next second!!

"Boom!!!"

The boulder broke free from the city wall's restraints and rolled down the steep hillside with tremendous force!

It bounced and crashed against the mountainside, producing a deafening roar, and its speed increased rapidly!

"Hide..." The man only managed to utter half a syllable of scream.

The boulders rolled down relentlessly! The Shield-carts, stuck in the choke point, was the first to be hit!

The heavy Wooden Shield was as fragile as paper before the absolute power of the boulder, and was instantly smashed into pieces, with wood chips flying everywhere!

Immediately afterwards, the boulder rolled relentlessly over the area behind the Shield-carts and over the nearby horde of slaves who were unable to dodge!

"Pfft! Snap!"

The terrifying sounds of bones shattering and flesh being crushed rang out in rapid succession.

At least seven or eight slaves didn't even have time to scream before they were crushed into a pulp by the boulder, or their bones were broken and they died on the spot from the flying wood and stones!

Blood and bits of flesh instantly stained the narrow area, creating a horrifying scene of death.

Then, the boulder, covered in blood, crashed heavily into the middle of the passageway with a muffled thud, completely blocking the way forward.

The slaves who had narrowly escaped death were utterly devastated by the hellish scene before them and the overwhelming, suffocating stench of blood.

Suddenly, a deep and long gong sounded from behind the Sauron Army, piercing through all the noise and screams on the battlefield.

To the slaves struggling on the brink of death in the tunnel, this sound was like heavenly music! It was an order to retreat!

The slaves, who had been mechanically charging forward in despair or trembling in panic, were stunned for a moment, then burst into cries and screams as if they had survived a catastrophe. They turned around and frantically fled backward and toward the hope of survival with all their might!

However, the narrow passageway instantly became a new death trap.

The people in front suddenly turned around and collided violently with those behind who were still surging forward due to inertia or were at a loss!

Panic spread like a plague, and the instinct for survival overwhelmed the last vestige of order.

People pushed and trampled each other, their cries, curses, the cracking of bones, and screams of agony filled the air.

The person who fell was instantly engulfed by countless feet and could no longer stand up.

Corpses and living people were entangled together, completely blocking the already narrow passageway, and the retreat turned into an even more tragic trampling.

On the city wall, Otto calmly observed the utter chaos below.

He raised his hand, stopping the soldiers around him from instinctively trying to fire.

"Cease fire!" his order was clear. "Conserve your arrows and ammunition!"

The officers on the right flank clearly made the same judgment, and the dense gunfire and the sound of arrows piercing the air quickly subsided.

The defenders were given a brief respite, leaning on their weapons as they silently surveyed the human tragedy unfolding below.

Watching those slaves who had just been forced to charge at them now being driven into a corner by panic and the narrow terrain under the Sauron's own retreat order, being squeezed and trampled to death by their own people.

The chaos in the passageway lasted for quite some time until Sauron's main force sent out Supervisory team to forcibly clear and disperse the crowds blocking the way using even more brutal methods, which barely managed to open a bloody path.

The surviving slaves, like frightened birds, scrambled back to their starting position, leaving behind layers upon layers of twisted corpses in the passageway.

As the last slave scrambled and disappeared at the other end of the passageway, a brief, deathly silence fell over the battlefield.

Only the lingering smoke, the overwhelming stench of blood, and the corpses filling the narrow passage silently testified to the brief but brutal battle that had just taken place.

Otto slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, his tense nerves relaxing for a moment.

He looked around and saw a mixture of exhaustion, relief, and a hint of numbness on the soldiers' faces.

"The first round is over," he muttered to himself, but his gaze was already fixed on the massive wolf-head banner in the distant Sauron Army formation.

He knew that an even crueler test was coming soon.