The morning mist had yet to fully disperse, mingled with the stench of gunpowder smoke and scorched earth as it stubbornly shrouded the wilderness outside Carnford City.
Karl led several core staff officers up onto the main city wall, which had just endured a bloody battle but had already returned to a state of severe vigilance. Standing behind the tall battlements with telescopes in hand, they carefully observed the outer earthen-wall defenses opposite them, which the Saurons had just "captured."
Through the lenses, the scene was clear yet oppressive.
The shadows of Sauron soldiers moved behind the shattered earthen walls. They were busy clearing the battlefield and reinforcing the fortifications they had just won, but their movements carried an exhaustion and sluggishness they could not conceal.
There were no signs of fresh troops advancing in force, nor was there the suppressed, feverish agitation that preceded an assault. In the direction of the distant Sauron camp, there seemed to be more cooking smoke than usual, and it was more scattered. The soldiers were seizing the time to rest and eat.
"Looks like Harald intends to digest his gains today." A young staff officer lowered his telescope and spoke quietly, a trace of mockery in his voice. "To chew through that hard bone we deliberately handed them, they must have shattered more than half their teeth."
"The preliminary count is in, sir." Another staff officer in charge of verifying the results opened the ledger in his hand, his voice tightly reined in but excited. "From the ground before the earthen-wall position and atop the wall alone, we recovered more than nine hundred confirmed heads belonging to Sauron regular soldiers! As for the bodies of Auxiliary Army troops and slaves, they were countless—over a thousand intact or identifiable corpses at the very least."