After cutting her way through the crowd of weaker Wild Beasts, Farah engaged the enormous Stonehead Python, slashing out with her sabre wildly in hopes of bringing this battle to a quick conclusion.
Unfortunately, between her old and new injuries, and her extreme exhaustion, Farah was now finding it difficult to bring out even 10% of her full strength, far from enough to end the life of this Peak Fourth Order Beast in a single stroke.
In the end, Farah found herself stuck in another grueling battle of attrition.
Despite her battered condition, Farah was still stronger than her opponent by a small margin, but the Stonehead Python's scales were particularly hard, and it was surprising agile for a beast its size, so even after a good 15-minutes clash, she had failed to inflict any real damage on it.
Worse yet was that Farah's left leg was no longer hurting and instead had started going numb.
Although she had managed to push through the pain of fighting with a heavy sprain at first, if her leg stopped responding at all, she would lose almost all mobility and the snake would likely turn the tables on her, reversing the roles of predator and prey.
Just as Farah was contemplating making another suicidal attack to try to bring down her opponent, like she had done with the Whip-Tailed Cougar, an incredible burst of aura flared up behind her.
This burst caused both her and the python to freeze in place; in fact, it caused every beast in and around Redwood Town to halt everything they were doing and lift their heads towards the eastern sky.
Aside from Farah, all the other defenders at the barricades and hunting throughout the western quarter of town remained ignorant to the new arrival, but they soon realized something was off when the frantic and vicious Wild Beasts they were fighting all came to an abrupt halt.
No one dared to relax, however.
All the humans used this moment of peace to either deal fatal blows to beasts they were fighting or to retreat and catch their breaths.
Had the defenders been less exhausted, some might have tried to launch a counterattack given this rare opportunity, but with their stamina all but gone, re-forming their defence lines seemed like the better option.
While the various beasts had no idea what the strange flying creature approaching them was, Farah immediately recognized it and couldn't help cheering to herself, It's about damn time!
With such a massive disaster having occurred, Farah knew that some kind of rapid response team would be deployed to investigate, most likely using one of the kingdom's few Skyships.
As a former Commander in the Royal Legion, Skyships weren't an unfamiliar sight to Farah, though she could count the number of times she had actually ridden one on one hand given how expensive they were to operate.
Nevertheless, Farah had estimated that a ship could arrive in Redwood Town from Rockwell City in about 15 or 16 hours if they didn't skimp on Spirit Crystals.
However, upon glancing at the position of the sun, Farah realized that something was wrong as it had only been a bit more than 12 hours since the initial explosion.
Even at maximum speed, it shouldn't be possible for a Skyship to reach this place from the capital.
Narrowing her eyes, Farah focused her Soul Qi into her eyes to enhance her vision and stared hard at the Skyship, soon noticing a red hue reflecting off of it. This might have been from the early dawn light, but the colour seemed a bit too dark for that to be the case.
A crimson Skyship? Could it be…
Farah immediately had an idea about which Skyship this was, and more importantly, who it belonged to.
If it really was 'her', then Farah could put down all her worries; or at least, most of her worries as she would still have to face the wrath of her former teacher when she found her here.
Just thinking of the punishment that would be in store for her made Farah want to run away.
As such thoughts were flashing across her head, Farah suddenly heard a faint slithering sound coming from behind her and turned around to see she wasn't the only one thinking of slinking away.
The Stonehead Python was cautiously retreating back towards the outskirts of town, obviously having been frightened by the aura coming from the Skyship.
This wasn't surprising, though, as beasts typically had sharper senses than humans did. Feeling just how much stronger this new enemy was, the snake had no desire to get anywhere near it.
Seeing this, Farah's expression turned cold as she shouted, "Oh no you don't!"
Kicking off the ground, Farah swung her blade viciously, aiming for the snake's slightly softer underbelly, forcing it to re-engage her in battle.
Now that she knew help had arrived, Farah no longer felt the need to act recklessly. All she needed to do was pin down her opponent long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
Farah's shout was like a crack of thunder, shattering the eerie silence and jolting the surrounding humans and beasts out of their stupor. As the battle re-commenced, the overall situation quickly reversed, with the Wild Beasts now trying to get away from Redwood Town and scatter into the surrounding fields rather than invade the settlement.
When the human defenders noticed this, something inside of them snapped and shouts began to ring out, "They're fleeing! The beasts are fleeing!"
"After them!"
"Don't let these bastards get away!"
"Fight!"
"Kill!"
It was as if all the grievances and anger that had been piling up over the last night had suddenly found an outlet for release, causing the humans to become bloodthirsty as they broke ranks and began attacking the beasts, determined to cut them down.
Of course, not all the defenders were eager to switch to offence at this juncture, but once one person jumped out from behind the barricades and began shouting, others inevitably got swept up in the frenzy.
Soon, everyone who could still move was chasing after the fleeing prey.
At the forefront of all these people was Charles, the Town Lord, who had been under the most pressure all this time with the exception of Farah. He had built up the most stress, so he was also the one who most needed this release.
Farah was a trained soldier with decades of brutal combat experience, while Charles had never fought a battle like this before, so it was understandable that he was less able to act rationally in this situation.
Farah noticed what was going on around her, but she already had her hands full keeping the Stonehead Python from escaping, so she had no energy or attention to spare to stop her fellow defenders from rampaging.
Fortunately, this berserker charge didn't last for long. Everyone was truly exhausted by this point, but even if they had been in peak condition, trying to keep up with the fleeing beasts would have been all but impossible.
Unfortunately, despite the bloodlust induced chase ending just minutes after it began, a large number of people were injured, with some even dying as the defenders lost any semblance of cooperation and coordination, exposing themselves to greater danger than when they had maintained strict defensive formations.
When Charles calmed down and noticed this, he couldn't help cursing himself for being so reckless; though, to be fair, the likelihood of this having happened was equally high with or without him trying to stop it.
Such was the nature of war.
With no other options at the moment, Charles raised his hoarse voice and yelled, "Fall back and regroup! Fall back!"
As the defenders began returning to the barricades, some leaning on their allies for support, while others carried the dead along with them, everyone finally began noticing the Skyship which was now descending towards the centre of town.
Realizing that help had arrived, many wanted to cheer but were simply too tired to do so. As such, once they made it back to the relative safety of the barriers, most just collapsed to the ground and laid there, unmoving.
Helpers with some first-aid knowledge rushed over to treat the injured, while other non-combat volunteers brought over water, offering it to the weary fighters.
Seeing an uneasy calm settle over the temporary camp, Charles was torn between wanting to return to the Manor to see what was going on, and thinking he should remain in place just in case something happened.
As for moving out to assist Farah against the wagon-sized snake, Charles took one look at the battle and shook his head, realizing he would only be a liability if he tried to interfere.
Looking around at all the faces surrounding him, most of them exhausted, some of them no longer breathing, Charles felt a deep sense of powerlessness and frustration.
He had always been more comfortable mingling amongst the townsfolk than acting as their Lord, so Charles knew almost every single person who had died here today by name, and that pained him greatly.
It was also a cruel reminder of just how dangerous the world really was, even in a place as sleepy and peaceful as Redwood Town.