Breakthrough

The twenty Carnford cavalrymen ahead, who had been "bleeding" the enemy with bows, arrows, and blunderbusses, keenly caught the sound of a completely different charge horn behind them, along with the sudden surge of shouts and footsteps like a mountain torrent bursting forth.

They glanced back and saw that their own infantry line, which had still been fairly orderly, had now transformed into a surging tide of dark blue and steel, rushing down the slope at astonishing speed and charging straight toward them.

"Don't block the way! Mount up! Fan out to the flanks!" The Sergeant Major leading them was highly experienced and immediately realized that his squad was positioned just ahead and to the side of their own charge path.

He gave the order without hesitation, his voice sharp.

The twenty cavalrymen moved with lightning speed. They swung back into their saddles, pulled the reins, and deftly turned their mounts around. Like streams splitting apart, they galloped diagonally toward the open ground on both sides of the battlefield, clearing a path for the unstoppable flood of infantry behind them.

Before the dust kicked up by the hooves had fully settled, an even more terrifying sight burst through the haze and appeared with startling clarity before the Sauron people who had just managed to catch their breath.

Derek had only just withdrawn from the irksome cavalry harassment that clung to him like a bone-deep infection, barely managing to steady his lines. He was about to order his men to reform and fill the gaps, but when he looked up toward the slope revealed after the cavalry moved aside, his pupils suddenly contracted, and all the blood in his body seemed to freeze in an instant.

The "army" that had been slowly pressing forward in relatively orderly ranks, following the drumbeats