Yet it was not only the Auxiliary Army that was collapsing. Even Harald's own elite troops seemed to be slipping out of control.
That bastard Ulf, seeing the battle turning against them and the retreat showing signs of becoming a rout, actually led his Sparrow Corps—freshly rested and replenished, with much of its strength still intact—out of the central army formation without a moment's hesitation, withdrawing north first!
He left decisively and swiftly, without even leaving behind an adequate rearguard.
The Sparrow Corps' unauthorized withdrawal was like pulling a cornerstone from the most crucial support point of Harald's central defensive line.
The line, already hanging by a thread due to the collapse of both flanks and the wavering center, instantly opened up a massive breach! Carnford's forces captured the positions abandoned by the Sparrow Corps almost without shedding blood, then poured violently through the gap and swept outward to both sides!
It's over! Harald's heart turned icy. The carefully planned retreat, meant to preserve at least a shred of dignity, had completely become an avalanche-like rout!
As far as the eye could see, across the wilderness outside Carnford City, tens of thousands of Sauron soldiers, Auxiliary Army troops, and slaves ran madly north like a startled swarm of ants, casting aside their armor and weapons as they fled in all directions.
Flags were abandoned, drums and horns fell silent. The ground was littered with fallen and trampled swords, spears, bows, arrows, helmets, and armor. To run faster, many soldiers stripped off their heavy armor even as they ran, tossing it onto the ground with only one thought in mind: survival.
The provisions, tents, medicine, and vast quantities of siege engines and supplies that Harald had intended to secretly transport away under cover of night—all of it became Carnford's spoils of