A piercing whistle came from ahead-the boy's signal that he was about to speed up!
Clearly, the boy had reached the same conclusion as he had! This was the signal they had agreed on beforehand: in a crisis, they would charge ahead regardless of everything else, letting whoever could break through escape!
That meant no longer conserving the Forest Deer's strength, no longer insisting on wide paths, and beginning to attempt more dangerous trails and steep slopes!
Hou Niao also felt the change in the forest creatures. Before, they had hidden in the shadows to ambush them, taking a bite if they could and retreating if they could not. Now, the abnormal creatures began attacking with no fear of death!
From his first entry into the White Poplar Forest, Hou Niao had known that its area was limited, after all. It was no remote mountain wilderness, and humans often passed through it, so the abnormal creatures were generally rather weak. They relied more on overwhelming numbers, employing a sea-of-beasts strategy.
Most were Mortal Beasts, with the occasional low-realm Demon Beast mingling among them. That was the overall situation of the creatures in the White Poplar Forest.
Demon Creatures were naturally a little weaker than humans of the same realm, so throughout his fighting here, he had yet to encounter a creature that required a second stroke of his sword. But once they stopped caring for their own lives and hurled themselves forward heedless of death, although he could still ensure his own safety with ease, protecting six deer sleds at once began to exceed his abilities.
Some of the border villagers were already wounded, but they held on. Though the Tiger God's appearance left them trembling with fear, the human desire to survive drove them to unleash even greater strength,