As he watched in mounting unease, three hundred paces away, a red flash suddenly flared from a gap in the earthen wall! A plume of white smoke erupted immediately after!
"Whoosh—!!"
A piercing shriek tore through the air! A four-pound solid iron shot fired from a Minin Cannon came screaming in along a low, flat trajectory, moving so fast the naked eye could barely follow it!
It did not fly directly toward the trench where Thomas was stationed. After crossing roughly two-thirds of the distance, it struck the frozen ground ahead with a bang, throwing up a huge cloud of brown dust mixed with shards of ice!
Yet that was not the end. The iron ball did not come to rest after hitting the ground. Instead, carried by its remaining momentum and the hard frozen earth, it sprang violently forward and upward. Though slower now, its path had become impossible to predict. Like Death's marble, it came whistling down again—this time straight for a section of trench being dug on the left flank!
Bang!!!
Another muffled boom shook the ground beneath them. Thomas watched helplessly as the edge of that left-flank trench burst apart! Chunks of frozen earth, shattered stones, broken tools, and even fragments of human bodies were swept up by the blast and hurled backward toward Sauron's position like a torrential rain!
Mud and stones rattled against Thomas's helmet and shoulders, stinging fiercely. At the same time, bloodcurdling screams rose from the left flank. At least five or six people had been struck directly or caught in the blast of the ricochet; severed limbs and blood splashed across the trench.
"Ah—my leg! My leg is gone!"
"Help... help me..."
The wounded slaves and Auxiliary Army soldiers howled in despair, rolling about in agony in the freezing trench. But