As a sword wielder himself, as well as the one expected to give commands, Charles found himself in the third row of defenders. Here, he was close enough to engage in battle if need be, but also far enough back to be able to assess the overall situation in real time.
Glancing around, Charles noticed that the men and women gathered around him were gripping their weapons very tightly, and sweat had begun to gather on their brows even before the fighting began.
Clearly, they were all extremely nervous.
Had he been some great general or war hero, now would be the time Charles would make a rousing speech to inspire his troops for the coming conflict, but sadly, he was neither. As such, the best he could do was shout out crudely, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I haven't eaten anything good since breakfast, so let's kill these damn beasts and roast 'em for dinner!"
While the defenders' nerves weren't completely put at ease, this confident outburst and crack of humour from their friendly Town Lord was enough to relax them somewhat and many of them began to breath a little more evenly.
In the next moment, the pattering of paws could be heard and the archers who were up on the rooftops began shouting, "Wolves! It's an Ash Wolf pack! I count at least 30 of them!"
Ash Wolves were one of the most common predators in the nearby region of the Great Western Forest. They tended to live in small packs of 20 to 40 adults, with 5 to 10 pups at most at any given time.
Like typical Wild Beasts, Ash Wolves rapidly progressed from birth through their Infant Stage, much faster than humans normally did at least. Then, they progressed at a rate comparable to humans in their Youth Stage before reaching their Mature Stage, where their growth tended to slow down dramatically.
The Infant Stage for Ash Wolves covered the Low to Mid-Rank First Order, while the Youth Stage covered the High to Peak First Order. Alphas tended to be Mature Stage Wild Beasts in the Low Second Order, while on rare occasions one might reach the Mid-Rank Second Order.
Packs led by Mid Second Order Alphas could be significantly larger than normal, reaching up to 100 in number with several other Second Order individuals among their ranks.
In short, even a small pack of Ash Wolves could easily take down a group of Body Tempering hunters led by a veteran Vein Opening Practitioner.
Fortunately, Ash Wolves were territorial creatures, so as long as one avoided trespassing in their domain, there was generally little to fear from these beasts as they had plenty of other prey to hunt in the Great Western Forest.
Of course, that was only under normal circumstances, and today was anything but normal.
As the pack drew closer, more and more of the defenders saw the half-menacing, half-panicked look in the approaching beasts' eyes. Right now, these Ash Wolves only had one goal, to get as far away from whatever disaster was behind them as possible, and if that meant going through the humans in front of them, that was exactly what they were going to do.
Complicating matters was the fact that the sun was getting low in the sky, and soon dusk would turn to dark, making it one of the worst times to be facing a fast-moving enemy approaching from the west.
As the Ash Wolves bolted past the western entrance to Redwood Town, making their way down the main road leading to the Town Square, Charles and the other volunteer defenders lifted their weapons and prepared to engage.
"Steady… steady…" Charles repeatedly called out, trying to maintain some semblance of cohesion among the defenders. Even without any military experience, the Town Lord knew that if he allowed everyone to simply act independently, the battle would be lost before it even began.
The entire pack of Ash Wolves was moving as a unit, so it was difficult to tell how strong each individual was; however, there were two among the lead wolves that were particularly large and menacing, so the experienced hunters among the Redwood Town defenders assumed both were Low Second Order, making them the biggest threats.
Charles didn't miss this either and shouted, "Archers! Target the big ones!"
Soon after, the Ash Wolves closed to within 200 metres, a distance at which the skilled marksmen on the human's side had a decent chance of hitting and injuring them, but Charles knew better than to take any chances, so he continued to wait.
It wasn't until the wolves closed to 100 metres, and the odds of hitting them rose above 50%, that Charles roared, "Fire!"
In the next instant, 20 or so arrows shot out from multiple directions towards the wolf pack. About half of theses sharp projectiles flew towards the suspected Alphas, while the rest were scattered across the other leading wolves.
With a distinctive *thunk*, roughly half of the arrows found their marks, turning one of the Second Order wolves into a pin-cushion, killing it almost instantly.
The other Alpha actually managed to dodge all but one of the arrows shot at it in an impressive display of agility. Injured, but not incapacitated, this large wolf howled loudly, seemingly urging its pack members forward.
Of the original 30 or so Ash Wolves, 6 were brought down with this initial volley, boosting the morale of the human defenders. Many of those who were feeling nervous even began to think that their job here might not be so difficult after all.
Charles didn't need to give the hunters any further commands now, nor was there any use in him trying to. They weren't military archers, so coordinating with one-another to maintain volley-fire wasn't something they were capable of after the initial attack.
What's more, these hunters all knew what to do next, each of them reloading as quickly as possible.
It was here that the difference in skill and experience became apparent.
The best hunters managed to fire another arrow before the wolves made it to the 50 metres mark, while those who weren't quite as competent only managed to get off another shot when the enemy got within 30 metres of the barricade.
The second spattering of arrows brought down another 8 wolves, while some of the traps that had been set up earlier snared another 2, essentially cutting the pack's size in half.
Ordinarily, if a wolf pack suffered such grievous losses against a foe, it would stop charging and turn to escape, but it seemed that whatever they were escaping from was too terrifying, so the remaining Second Order Alpha simply howled again.
As the wolves reached the outer edge of the barricade, they showcased their skill as forest predators and began agilely leaping across the scattered debris, slowing down no doubt, but still rapidly approaching the defenders.
Seeing this, Charles commanded, "Shields up! Spears out!"
The 16 defenders standing right behind the barricade moved to link their large shields and lifted them to form a wall, blocking the Ash Wolves path forward.
At the same time, the 11 spear and polearm wielders in the second row all brought down their weapons in the gaps above the shields, aiming them at the charging wolves.
Up until this point, the humans had enjoyed a relatively smooth engagement, without any great risks or missteps, but it seemed their luck had finally run out.
Perhaps due to inexperience, or perhaps because Charles had simply waited too long to give the order, the shield bearers failed to link together properly and some even got in each other's way, leading to there being a few noticeable gaps in the wall.
Although most of these gaps were quickly plugged by the shield bearers adjusting their arms, or by the spear wielders sticking their weapons into them, one hole wasn't closed in time and one of the Ash Wolves managed to leap through it, slashing its claws at the defenders as it passed through.
By complete coincidence, the defender who was slashed happened to be one of the Town Guard who had a set of metal armour, so despite being knocked back by the impact, he was otherwise unharmed and quickly got back up.
When the wolf that managed to break through the first line of defence landed, it was swiftly set upon by the nearest group of defenders, one of whom was Charles.
Being in the First Step Core Formation Realm, the Town Lord was much stronger than this Ash Wolf that was only in the equivalent of the Body Tempering Realm; but even so, Charles didn't dare to take any chances.
Working together with the 3 other members of his team, they surrounded and cut off all escape paths for this wolf, stabbing at it with their swords and axes from all sides to quickly to safely bring it down.
After slicing through the wolf's throat and confirming it was dead, Charles hastily lifted his eyes to check on the shield wall and was finally able to breath a sigh of relief.
The rest of the Ash Wolves had been blocked.
Most of the beasts were above the barricade now, tackling and clawing at the shield wall with an almost reckless abandon. Some of the more daring wolves even attempted to jump over the defenders, but after a few such individuals were stabbed with multiple spears and killed, the rest of the pack seemed to have learned their lesson and stuck to trying to make a frontal breakthrough.
While the wolves seemed contained, it wasn't all good news for the Humans. With the beasts now engaging them in a melee, the opportunity for the archers to interfere was severely diminished. It was now completely up to the defenders on the front lines to repel the rampaging beasts.