He braced, while at the same time grasping those antlers, trying to push them away from his chest, suddenly fearful that they might pierce his armor and his lungs.

The world tilted; no, not really, but George was suddenly looking down at the battle from above. He was lifted high above the stag's head; suddenly, the stag's back was right in front of him, an easy target for a glaive-wielder stuck atop the stag's antlers.

George gasped, one-handedly wielding the glaive while the other grasped the antlers, still trying to push them away. He aimed; he struck, a direct spear-like thrust straight down the back of the stag that had him caught in its antlers.

The stag roared, thras.h.i.+ng. George yowled, dropping his glaive in the pain, now devoting both hands to getting the antlers unstuck from his armor. He was swung to the left, to the right, then he was flying, rolling across the ground, finally freed from the antlers.

Someone caught him in mid-air and put him back on the ground gently. George turned, thinking it was Max, or Markus, or Song Chen…

But no. It was someone else entirely, with long, dark hair, and wide, dark eyes, and a cool, indifferent expression on her face.

Yes, it was a girl. George wasn't sure if he was supposed to be embarra.s.sed that he'd been saved by a girl, but mainly, he was just plain happy to be saved from hurt. "Thank you."

Having said that, he really wanted to know, who was she? He was quite sure he hadn't seen her on the Frontier before. That is, she wasn't one of the Sand People or the Encles. Maybe… was she a mercenary? Or one of the Iron Legion trainees?

"Keep your head down." She advised.

"Sure…" George began when an antler almost bashed him on the side of his head.

Oh. She meant that literally. George hastily ducked, knees bending and nearly giving way as he strove to avoid the attack.

Meanwhile the girl herself had leapt high and struck from above. She had a runic spear that glowed green, and it came down over the stag's antlers, aiming directly for its hind parts.

With a roar, the stag collapsed, front legs and back legs alike damaged too badly to hold itself up. As it stumbled, pikes and javelins from all sides hammered down and then it lay still.

"First hamstring. Then kill." She advised.

"That sounds like a wolfcat's advice." George found himself saying.

"Wolfcats are smart." She nodded, still calm and unperturbed, as she went on to target the next Wild.

George took a step back and a short breather to collect himself. Looking at the sheer amount of stags brought down in this Wave, they were going to be well-supplied with venison for quite some time to come. Looking at this from the wolfcats' perspective, it was almost like dinner had freely come throwing itself at them…

"Tier 4 incoming!" Song Chen shouted. "Pull back one step! s.h.i.+elds up!"

Of the two rows forming their front lines, the row holding pikes dropped their long spears and took up a second row of s.h.i.+elds. They plied that on top of the first, while the first ducked, doubling the s.h.i.+eld wall in height, turning the stabbing-and-poking match into a push-and-shove with a wall of steel in between them and the remaining Wilds.

"Auxiliaries! Reinforce the front line!" George waved them forward.

Behind him, a line of guys throwing javelins quit throwing spears and dashed forward to brace up the front line raising the solid s.h.i.+eld wall.

Out from the thin fog, the biggest stag yet emerged. Tier 4's were basically comparable in size to elephants and this stag towered over everyone menacingly.

It wasn't in a rush. Seeing the s.h.i.+eld wall in front of it, the stag dashed sideways, looking to outflank the defenders. The ground shook as it thundered to the side, until…

"URGHK!" there was a bewildered yowl and then a short, tense pause.

BOOM! There was a heavy impact that all of them felt.

"Tier 4 in the Pit! Raise pikes!" Song Chen barked. "Auxiliaries, back to the javelins!"

"HO!" the shouts that responded sounded more enthusiastic as two rows took up pikes and javelins again, leaving just one row of s.h.i.+elds on the front, the way they originally were.

"Another Tier 4 incoming!" Max called.

Song Chen observed the shape. "Hold position!"

Not going to respond? George peered at the incoming shape, and nodded. The way that stag was running, it was only going to…

"URGHK!" the second Tier 4 stag let out a short yowl as it, too, went down into the Pit.

"One more Tier 4 incoming! It's moving slow!" Max reported.

George and Song Chen observed it, then exchanged glances. "Scouts? Any more incoming?"

"All engaged!" Joshu shouted, firing his crossbow and reloading hastily.

George gave Song Chen a nod.

"Sortie!" Song Chen announced. "Max, Markus, I'm going for it!"

"On your flank!" Markus grabbed a heavy spear. "Mercenaries, with me! Outflank the Tier 4!"

"Legionnaires, with me!" Max called. "Clear the Tier 3's!"

"Pikes, pull back!" George called. "Shot and auxiliaries, hold your fire! Channels, on my mark…"

Song Chen, Max and Markus led the charge.

"Mark!" George shouted.

The front line s.h.i.+eld-bearers withdrew and offered the sortie force a nice gap to charge through. Song Chen, Markus and the mercenaries spread out and surrounded the wounded Tier 4. Max and the legionnaire 'mercenaries' finished off the remaining Tier 3's. George himself took up his holster of javelins and drew one out, darting forward to stand just behind the s.h.i.+eld line.

In these circ.u.mstances, long-range fire from ballistae was risky; George didn't want to risk them hitting their own people. Regular crossbows and javelins weren't going to be much good either. For that reason, George had them hold off. But he himself was capable of launching heavy javelins with thrice the strength of an ordinary man. That kind of power should at least be able to make a difference if he could time his shots right.

"Three seconds!" George shouted.

"Ho!" Song Chen acknowledged.

George timed his shot, then threw the javelin directly for the stag's chest.

The stag lowered its head to meet it with its antlers. There was a jarring sound…

Song Chen pounced. Markus pounced. The entire mercenary force pounced. Having been given a clear timing of when it would happen, all of them waited for precisely that moment to strike when the javelin distracted the stag's attention.

n.o.body quite knew who killed the stag, in the end. Between all of their weapons scoring hits at practically the same time, it was impossible to tell who exactly scored the killing blow, or whether it was the c.u.mulation of all the damage that did the job.

"Tier 4, down!" Markus announced.

"Tier 3's cleared!" Max announced.

"All Wilds down!" Joshu yelled. "We're clear!"

"What of the next batch!?" George asked.

"Down to ten Tier 3's. Sorry, nine." Joshu told him, squinting. "They're getting slaughtered out there."

"Slaughtered? By who?" George blinked.

"By the School Sky Fortresses. They've been shooting at the Beast Wave all day." Joshu explained. "They've been firing on them from above all the way from goodness-knows-where."

"So these stags here…" George trailed off.

"These are just the ones that got through." Max nodded. "And it looks like that's all we'll need to deal with today. We can hold the line until the last Wild falls, just to be sure, but I don't think those remaining Tier 3's are going to get close enough to meet our pikes. The airs.h.i.+ps, the ballistae and the crossbows will take them down long before that."

"So…" George hesitated.

"Yep. Our job here's pretty much done." Max patted George on the shoulder. "Congratulations, George. We've won."