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Raymond nodded without hesitation. ”Again.”

The northern barricade opened.Garret’s team deliberately withdrew.

Another portion of the tide entered.

This time the defenders knew exactly what they were doing.

The second group was larger, nearly a hundred beasts, but the trap closed more smoothly. Hunters conserved arrows until the animals were fully compressed inside the kill lanes. Bronze Knights sealed exits.

Silver Knights attacked isolated high-value targets. Civilians behind the lines moved ammunition and reinforced barricades without needing officers to scream every instruction.

Raymond watched every part.

When one lane became too congested with carcasses, he changed the entry route.

When a Silver-class mountain catdiscovered it could climb along the roofs, he shifted hunters away and positioned Tristan above the next group.

When an armored boar nearly broke the southern barricade, Raymond ordered two wagons added behind it before the next cycle.

Every round improved, every round taught them something but the Beast Tide didn’t, it simply kept moving forward.

By the fourth cycle, the western district had become a slaughterhouse.

Bodies covered the roads, blood ran between stones. Broken arrows filled gutters, the smell was horrific.

But the people of Althoff had stopped retreating.

They were controlling the battle.

Raymond moved down from the warehouse roof and transferred the same strategy toward the central district, where the wall was beginning to fail.

Instead of desperately repairing every new crack, he ordered defenders to prepare another controlled opening. Boris resisted at first because deliberately weakening a second section felt like madness, but the western results had already proven the concept.

The central wall partially collapsed thirty minutes later.

This time, Althoff was waiting.

The first beasts entered and the barricades closed and kill teams moved.Divide.

Trap.

Kill.

Reset.

The method spread across the entire defense.

For the first time since the Beast Tide appeared on the horizon, Raymond stopped thinking about how many creatures were outside.

Thousands didn’t matter if only sixty could reach his soldiers at once.

The realization changed everything. The battle continued through the afternoon.

Raymond barely noticed the time passing. His voice grew hoarse from issuing orders.

Boris lost count of how many runners he sent across the town.

Jonathan’s armor became covered in dark blood.

Tristan stopped bothering to wipe his sword between engagements.

Garret’s shield was so battered that several deep claw marks had gouged through the outer plating. Ordinary guards who had been terrified during the first breach now understood exactly where to retreat and when.

Hunters learned which Magic Beasts required concentrated fire.

Civilians learned how quickly barricades needed to be moved.

Even the medical teams adapted, relocating closer to the active districts whenever the battle shifted.

Althoff was learning how to fight while fighting.

There were casualties.

Raymond couldn’t prevent that.

Three ordinary guards died during the early western breach before the new strategytook effect. One refugee hunter was killed when a Frostfang Wolf reached a platform. More than twenty people suffered injuries serious enough to remove them from combat.

Raymond knew every number. He made Marianne report them directly.

They hurt but compared with what shouldhave happened when thousands of Magic Beasts broke through a weak town wall, Althoff was surviving impossibly well.

Late in the afternoon, Raymond stood again over the map inside the secondary command station. The original defensive planhad been covered in new markings.

Entire sections of the outer wall had been crossed out. Several streets were now labeled as kill zones. Carcass buildup had blocked one western lane completely. Reserve arrows had fallen below half. Oil pots remained largely unused because controlled melee had proven safer.

Boris leaned against the table, exhausted but still alert. ”The scouts estimate we’ve killed more than seven hundred since the second wave began.”

Raymond looked up. ”Our losses?”

”Four confirmed dead now. Twenty-seven wounded badly enough to leave the line. More minor injuries.”

Raymond’s jaw tightened briefly.

Four people who had been alive that morning.

The victory didn’t erase that but the scale mattered. If they had tried holding the wall conventionally, Boris believed the losses would already be in the hundreds.

Raymond looked down at the map again. ”We keep using the streets.”

Boris nodded. ”The men understand the system now.”

”Good. Rotate them before exhaustion destroys what strategy saved.”

Boris gave a tired smile. ”You really do treat battles like managing a warehouse.”

Raymond stared at him. ”Warehouses are easier. The inventory doesn’t bite.”

Boris laughed despite himself.

Raymond allowed a small smile, then looked toward the street outside the command station.

The fighting had shifted farther north again.

Shouts echoed between buildings. Arrows flew from rooftops. Silver Knights moved through the blood-covered streets and something became clear to Raymond.

He had spent most of his time since transmigrating relying on the Systemto solve impossible problems.

Land couldn’t grow crops? System card.

No soldiers? Summoning tickets.

No rain?Artifact.

The System gave him resources.

But today, the System hadn’t given him a strategy. There was no magical notification telling him where to position barricades. No divine artifact that automatically killed the Beast Tide.

He had looked at what he possessed, understood what the enemy possessed, and changed the conditions until the difference in numbers stopped mattering.

For the first time, Raymond didn’t feel like a lucky bastard surviving because an overpowered cheat kept dropping answers into his lap. He felt like a lord commanding his own territory.

The thought lasted only briefly before another horn sounded from the northern quarter, reminding him that the battle was nowhere near finished.

Raymond straightened, grabbed the edge of the map, and looked toward Boris with renewed focus. ”Let’s go. They’re preparing the next group.”

Boris pushed himself away from the table and followed. Outside, another section of barricade opened deliberately. The beasts rushed toward what looked like weakness.

Raymond watched them enter.Then the gates of the trap closed behind them.

The Beast Tide had come to overwhelm Althoff with numbers.

Raymond had simply decided it would never be allowed to use them.