Aldrath's response to the spear wall's defensive success was the response of a commander who understood that the problem was not the wall but the approach.
He deployed his archers. Twelve hundred longbowmen and four hundred crossbowmen, the combined force's full ranged capability, positioned on the eastern bank's high ground where their elevation provided the arc that the arrows needed to fall behind the spear wall's front face and strike the warriors from above, the angle that the round shields' forward orientation could not cover.
The arrow storm began at the ninth hour of the fourth day.
Sixteen hundred ranged weapons firing in disciplined volleys, the arrows rising in the coordinated arcs that massed archery produced, the sky darkening with the density of the volley as the shafts reached their apex and began the descent toward the Horde's positions.
"TOHR'TERRA!"
