However, the passage was narrow, allowing only a few men abreast, and the planks had become treacherously slick with blood and trampling.
The defenders' muskets never ceased firing. Lead balls shot from every angle kept cutting down the attackers. Men were constantly hit, screaming as they fell into the trench below, only to be skewered by the dense forest of upward-pointing wooden stakes waiting there, their wails turning utterly heartrending.
Some did not die at once. They struggled futilely upon the stakes, watching helplessly as comrades from above kept falling onto them, crushing them beneath fresh weight and worsening their agony, until they bled dry or drew their last breath in despair.
"Wooo—wooo—wooo—"
Three long horn blasts sounded from the Sauron rear. In an instant, the sky darkened! Tens of thousands of light arrows rose like swarming locusts, and after reaching their apex, came pouring down upon Carnford's earthen wall with scalp-prickling whistles!
"Shields up! Take cover from the arrows!"
The defenders atop the earthen wall had been prepared. They swiftly ducked behind arrow-proof boards and parapets, or raised the large shields they carried.
The dense arrows crashed down like a torrential downpour upon the wall's wooden boards, sandbag ramparts, and water-soaked quilts used for cover, producing a string of dull thud-thud-thuds. In the blink of an eye, those defenses seemed to have sprouted a layer of weeds.
Though this rain of arrows inflicted limited casualties on the well-concealed defenders, it effectively suppressed the firepower on the wall, buying precious seconds for the Sauron infantry's charge.
Seizing the chance, more Sauron soldiers howled as they rushed across the planks and stepped onto the stretch of ground beyond the anti-cavalry trench, closer to the earthen wall. But this was Carnford's minefield, littered with landmines and caltrops.
Karl stood atop the main