While running back, two Orcs who had faked their deaths knocked Éomer to the ground. After the team had driven back the Orcs with the ram, they retreated from the new assault upon the gate. The Orcs soon got close enough to Hornburg and attempted to break the gate down with tree trunks, but were scattered by a small attack team led by Aragorn and Éomer from a postern-door that ran between the brink of the cliff and the wall of the Hornburg. But when they got closer they were met with a volley of arrows and rocks which made them break ranks. After moving past the dike the Orcs approached the fortress of the Hornburg and sent arrows into the fortress.

The Orcs quickly overran the first defense of Helm's Dike, but sustained many losses to the rearguard, 'filling up the dike to the top'. The army would arrive at the fortress at midnight on March 3. The army of Saruman, ultimately consisting of of Uruk-hai, Wild Men of Dunland, Orcs, and Half-orcs, was reinforced on the way to the Hornburg, due to casualties in the Battles of the Fords of Isen. With the arrival of Théoden, the defenders' strength was just under three thousand men, allowing the defences to be fully manned. A local captain called Gamling the Old led the garrison of about a thousand men. As Théoden rode west, he met Ceorl, who informed him of Erkenbrand's defeat, unable to meet Saruman's force head-on with his small force, Gandalf advised him to ride straight to the Hornburg where many of the people of Westfold were taking refuge in the Glittering Caves.

After being freed by Gandalf from Gríma Wormtongue's influence, Théoden rode for the Fords of Isen where Erkenbrand was battling Saruman's Orcs.

Thats no orc horn