A back-and-forth struggle where the humans held fast while stabbing at the Ash Wolves, and the beasts tried to break through the wall of humans, continued for a good 5 minutes before the surviving Second Order Alpha let out a long, loud howl.
Hearing this cry, the surviving wolves immediately turned tail and retreated.
Seeing the rabid wolves finally retreat, Charles first breathed a sigh of relief before hurriedly shouting, "Melee team, hold your positions! Archers, hold your fire! Let them go!"
While there was still a chance that these wolves would wheel around and attack again, after suffering so many losses, it was far more likely for them to take a detour around Redwood Town to avoid running into any more humans, a development that Charles was more than happy to let happen.
As for whether these wolves would cause trouble to some other human settlement in the near future, the Town Lord didn't have the luxury of worrying about such things right now.
It was still an open question whether Redwood Town could be protected, so Charles couldn't afford to care about others.
Wiping the sweat from his brow and glancing around, Charles was relieved to see that no one had suffered any serious injuries and that no one's weapon had broken. Of course, there were several people who had gotten banged up, resulting in some cuts, scratches and bruises, but these were all minor wounds that didn't really affect their combat capabilities.
It wasn't a perfect start to the defence of Redwood Town, but it was well within the bounds of acceptable. As such, cheers soon went up from everyone who had participated in the battle.
After letting the defenders celebrate for a short moment to vent their tension, Charles called out again, "Clear the corpses then get back into position! We've got a long night ahead of us!"
Ideally, a rotation would be set up among the defenders to allow some of them to fall back and recover while the others were fighting, but there simply wasn't enough of them to form two full shifts. At best, Charles figured he could let a quarter of their number take a short break while the others remained on alert.
Given that the fighting would only become more intense as time passed, it was likely that none of them would be able to relax much for the next few days at least.
Searching for a solution to this serious issue, Charles quickly noticed that there were many jobs here that could be done by non-combatants.
Hauling away the corpses of fallen beasts, retrieving arrows, expanding and building up the barricade, even distributing food and tending to the wounded didn't require any fighting skill.
Realizing this, the Town Lord quickly decided to send a runner to the Manor and Town Square to recruit more volunteers who could fill these odd jobs. At the very least, decreasing the number of things the defenders had to worry about would allow them to catch their breath between fights.
The longer the defence force remained combat capable, the longer Redwood Town would be able to persist. As for everything else, Charles could only entrust such things to others for now.
"Sir!" One of the hunters came up to Charles a short time later and reported, "We brought down a total of 22 Ash Wolves, where would you like use to bring them?"
Charles thought about it for a moment before deciding to turn to the local expert, "Senior Farah, do you have any suggestions?"
Although Farah had been present at the main road barricade ever since the start of the incident, she had not once taken any direct action. Even when one of the Ash Wolves broke through the barrier and landed within striking distance, Farah had remained indifferent.
In fact, Farah had been seated with her eyes closed from beginning to end, her giant sabre lying on the ground next to her.
This wasn't a surprise, though, as Farah had openly stated that she wouldn't get involved unless absolutely necessary.
As a Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate, Farah could have chopped through all of the Ash Wolves in the attacking pack in seconds if she wanted to, but given her condition, using her limited strength to bring down mere First and Second Order Wild Beasts that the town defenders could easily handle would have been foolish.
That said, it wasn't like Farah wasn't making herself useful.
As a former Commander in the Royal Legion, the entire deployment of Redwood Town's defences had basically been organized by her. Even when it came to deciding who got what weapon and who occupied what position in the lines, Farah had significant input.
Cracking open her eyes, Farah glanced over at the bloody wolf bodies and thought for a moment before suggesting, "Our time and strength are limited. Ash Wolf meat is tough and terrible tasting, so even under normal circumstances people rarely eat it. On top of that, their bones and fangs have no real use either as ingredients or weapon materials."
"You're saying we should just dump the corpses somewhere?" Charles asked.
"En," Farah nodded, "We'll be drowning in beasts soon enough, so we shouldn't waste our time on the ones we have no use for. The only thing I'd add is to haul them to the far side of town and either toss them into the river, or bury them in a pit. It's still early fall, so the corpses will start rotting if left in the open too long. The last thing we need right now is a plague spreading."
Hearing this, Charles nodded before turning back to the hunter and saying, "Load up the dead wolves onto one of the large wagons for now. When we get some more volunteers over, they can haul them away. As for how to dispose of them afterwards, we'll deal with that later."
The hunter nodded, feeling this was also the only option right now, but he hesitated for a moment as a certain thought came to him, then suggested, "Sir, why don't we drain the blood of the Second Order Alpha and spread it around? It might deter some of the weaker beasts from approaching."
This was an old trick that some hunters used to ward off herbivores and more docile beasts from their camps when they spent multiple days in the Great Western Forest. Charles was also familiar with the practice and was about to agree when Farah cut in, "Don't. That might work in normal times, but right now, it'll only attract stronger predators that are escaping from the depths of the forest, looking for a quick way to replenish their strength."
With a light shudder, the hunter realized his mistake, nodded in acknowledgement, and ran off to begin organizing the wolf carcasses.
"Haa… what a mess," Charles muttered aloud before scratching his head and shrugging, "Oh well, maybe Lucas will have some idea of how we can use all these corpses later."
Just like his wife, over the past year and a half, Charles had unconsciously come to rely on his little nephew for solutions to the big problems around Redwood Town. Even if he realized it wasn't appropriate to depend on such a young boy to solve these issues, Charles really couldn't help himself as Lucas always seemed to have the right answers to whatever was troubling him.
Shaking his head wryly, Charles turned back to thank Farah for her input, when he noticed she now had a slight frown upon her face. Having never been good at suppressing his curiosity, Charles decided to just ask, "Is something wrong, Senior?"
"En," Farah nodded, lowered her voice as she began thinking aloud, "Ash Wolves are quite intelligent even in the First Order, while those Second Order individuals should have known that the group of humans assembled here was far more powerful than their pack, yet they still tried to push through…"
"Weren't they just too panicked by the explosion?" Charles asked.
Farah kept her brow furrowed as she muttered, "Perhaps, but the explosion was several hours ago, so they should have regained at least some composure by not. Not to mention, they could have avoided us without too much of a detour."
"What are you suggesting?" Charles inquired directly.
Seemingly contemplating something, Farah remained silent for a while before shaking her head, "Tell everyone to remain alert, you never know what…"
Just as Farah was about to finish her thought, she abruptly stopped mid-sentence and jumped to her feet, making a great leap onto the roof of a nearby building as she turned her gaze towards the distant western skies.