"Push! Push them back!"
"Hold the line! Hold!"
"Spears out! Spears out!"
Charles had no idea how many times he had shouted these lines and other similar ones tonight, his throat now raw and his voice hoarse. He was bloodied, exhausted, and approaching desperation as he stood with the first line of defenders, trying to hold back the charge of an entire herd of Wood Deer.
Normally, Wood Antler Deer were docile First Order Beasts that scattered at the first sign of humans; but right now, dozens of them were frantically smashing against the shield wall set up on Redwood Town's main western road.
The only fortunate thing was that most of the herd was made up of females or fawns and lacked the species' characteristic antlers, making them slightly less dangerous.
Despite his body crying out for him to retreat and rest, Charles grit his teeth and held his ground, stabbing and slashing with his sword whenever he found an opportunity, bashing the beasts with his shield the rest of the time. He didn't dare to show any weakness here, for if he did, the entire line of defence would surely collapse.
The reason for this was simple, even though his breathing was ragged and his limbs felt like they were about to fall off, Charles was actually in better shape than any of the others around him.
As someone in the Core Formation Realm, Charles was both stronger and had greater stamina than any of the other militia behind the barricade, most of whom were only Body Tempering Practitioners with a few here and there being in the Vein Opening Realm.
These brave men and women had been fighting almost non-stop against wolves, boars, deer, foxes, bears, and many other manic beasts for hours and were clearly at their limit. Many had collapsed from injuries or exhaustion, and 7 had even succumbed to their wounds.
Ordinarily, in a small place like Redwood Town, when someone died for any reason, everyone mourned their passing, so 7 people dying in a single night was an unprecedented tragedy, made all the worse by the fact that this was just the death count from the main barricade.
There were surely many others who had died fighting at the other 5 barricades, and Charles didn't even want to think about how many people fleeing from the local villages had perished while trying to reach Redwood Town.
The only things keeping the line from breaking were the simple facts that their families were behind them, and there was nowhere to escape.
If they turned their backs and ran now, the rampant beasts would surely overrun them in an instant. With the choice being fighting for a slim chance to live, or fleeing and being trampled to death, it was an easy decision to make.
As for why this herd of Wood Deer was desperately trying to push past this wall of humans stabbing and slashing at them; well, that was due to the even more ferocious battle which was raging just behind them.
About 100 metres back from the herd of deer, a massive Whip-Tailed Cougar was locked in a deadly melee with a single human woman.
Given Farah's combat capabilities, it should have been easy for her to dispatch this Low-Rank Fourth Order Beast, but this was already her tenth battle tonight, and given her condition, she could now barely exert a third of her peak strength.
In fact, just keeping the Whip-Tailed Cougar pinned down was already taking everything Farah had, giving her no time to spare any thought to the defence line which was on the brink of buckling.
The cougar growled menacingly as it put power into its limbs, leaping off the ground as it lunged at its much smaller foe.
Having anticipated this move, Farah dodged right and made a large sweeping cut with her sabre.
Seeing the bloodied blade approaching its flank, the cougar twisted mid-air and clawed at it with great force.
Both combatants were off the ground when their strikes met, so both were sent tumbling, the cougar smashing into the ruins of a nearby house, destroying what was left of its wooden frame, while Farah tucked her limbs tight and flipped twice, somehow managing to get her feet under her and land upright.
In this exchange, Farah had obviously come out on top, but even with this impressive feat of flexibility and agility, she still slid back through the dirt several metres before coming to a halt.
Breathing hard, Farah lifted her blade and pushed off the ground again, hoping to close in fast enough to deliver a fatal blow to her enemy before it could get back on its feet.
Unfortunately, her exhaustion was simply too great, slowing her down just enough for the cougar to recover and lash out at her with its signature tail.
Unable to shift her momentum in time, Farah was forced to awkwardly reposition her sabre to block the incoming attack, just barely managing to deflect the whip-like assault away from her while being pushed back again.
Damn it, if only I had my armour, Farah grumbled to herself, deeply regretting having pawned off her chest plate and vambraces all those years ago. After settling in Redwood Town, she never imagined she would be in a situation like this as she was many times stronger than any human or beast she could reasonably encounter.
Seeing no need for her armour, Farah had sold it off to raise some funds to start her butchery, only keeping her trusty sabre because it was a gift from an old superior and had sentimental value.
By now, the Whip-Tailed Cougar had come to recognize this small foe was a serious threat to its life, so it was acting more cautiously, slowly trying to circle Farah in order to find an opening to strike while not daring to show its back.
Little did this beast know that if it did show its back and retreat, Farah would have happily let it go.
Seeing her opponent acting warily, Farah against cursed as fighting a cautious enemy was much harder than battling a reckless one.
Just then, a faint new rumbling echoed from the west.
Frowning deeply, Farah didn't even need to extend her Soul Sense to realize that another group of beasts was approaching.
She had to end this battle as quickly as possible, lest she be overrun.
Steadying her breathing, Farah knew she had to take a risk in order to escape this predicament.
Placing her left foot forward and lowering her stance, Farah lifted her sabre above her head, gripping it tightly with both hands.
Slowing shuffling her feet forward, Farah closed the distance between her and the cougar.
At the same time, the cougar seemed to have sensed that this would be the final clash as well and growled lowly, creeping closer with its muscles taut, ready to pounce at any moment.
Like this, the two opponents shut out all distractions as they approached one another.
The moment the gap between them shrank to less than 15 metres, a distance just beyond what either of them could cross in a single bound, Farah stomped her leading foot hard, as if she was about to leap forward.
The Whip-Tailed Cougar's instincts flared when it saw this aggressive move and it pushed out with all its strength, baring its fangs and claws viciously.
At that moment, though, Farah did something completely unexpected.
Instead of shoving off from the ground to meet the cougar head on, she shifted all her weight forward while keeping her left foot firmly planted on the ground, sliding her right foot past it as she whipped her arms out, hurling her sabre at an astonishing speed.
As the blade spun through the air, the cougar's eyes shrank as it flailed wildly, just barely managing to swat at the blade with its front claws, deflecting it away and avoiding a deadly blow by a hair's width. Even so, it was now completely off-balance and had a new, bone deep gash across one of its forelimbs, completely incapacitating that leg.
Once the cougar landed, it would surely tumble miserably, but it knew that as long as it could quickly get back up, it would have a decisive advantage against its two-legged foe.
For a human, losing a leg would be a death sentence on the battlefield, but for a quadruped like this Whip-Tailed Cougar, it could still move somewhat effectively even without one of its limbs.
Now that its enemy had lost its metal 'claw', the cougar felt it could tear the pesky human to pieces at will.
Unfortunately for the cougar, before it could even hit the ground, Farah had closed the gap between them.
When she threw her sabre just now, Farah hadn't stopped moving for an instant, instead using the momentum of the throw to spring off her right foot and charge in like a shadow behind the blade.
Drawing a dagger she kept as a backup weapon, Farah dodged past the flailing claws of the cougar and drove it into the underbelly of the beast. Dragging the dagger forward along with her own momentum, she ripped through half the beast's abdomen before the blade snapped from the stress.
Caught in an awkward posture, Farah could only throw a light kick to the ground to redirect herself, more or less just falling away from the cougar.
However, although Farah managed to avoid all of its claws, she failed to dodge its wildly flailing tail, suffering a direct hit to her left shin.
The two combatants fell to the ground once more, and again they both struggled to get back to their feet; but this time, only one succeeded.