- Friendship Is Aura: When Lucario and Luna enter the underworld to rescue Celestia, the Mane Six use the Elements of Harmony to raise a barrier around the Gates to prevent any more of Tartarus' Mooks from being released to wreck havoc.
- The God Empress of Ponykind: Icewind holds off Sombra's army long enough for Fell-Hoof to escape back to friendly territory. He gets killed in the process, but takes dozens of Sombra's minions with him.
- The Hill of Swords has Shirou pulling these a couple of times. First against the 70,000 strong army of Albion, then against Myoznitnirn, her army of Alvises and Jomungard.
- The Weaver Option:
- After Dark Eldar assassins wipe out the majority of a division's leadership and the army is on the verge of routing, Major-General Gorgias rallied a few thousand soldiers and a single crippled tank. His forces were able to delay a major Biel-Tan offensive for nearly an hour, buying the rest of the Imperial forces vital time to regroup.
- Constantin Valdor orders the rest of the Will of Eternity's crew to evacuate as a major daemonic force attempts to prevent it from firing again. He singlehandedly kills thousands of lesser daemons before super-charging the ship's core for the final shot, which kills him and a Daemon-Prince.
- Dance with the Demons: When an army of Kobra cultists is invading the Wayne mansion, Alfred and other four members of the Batfamily get armed and position themselves in front of the bedroom where Catwoman is recovering from an assassination attempt. They guess they'll get eventually overwhelmed, but they are ready to fight to the bitter end.
- In the Tamers Forever Series Beelzemon, MegaGargomon and SaberLeomon and SlashAngemon try to hold off Daemon while Rika, Renamon and the dying Takato escape to the Digital World.
- Auggie says this to a Behemoth to protect an unconscious Luso in The Tainted Grimoire. He got interrupted by it's attack but succeeds anyway.
- In Guardian, Lady Ginnem orders her swordswoman sister to save Lulu just before she dies. Imogen obliges by making a last stand against the skeletal fiend that none of them have been able to touch and orders Lulu to flee, holding the creature off long enough for her to do so. Jecht and Auron later find her body when they check the cavern for survivors.
- A Thing of Vikings: As his men slowly die in the face of overwhelming numbers, Spitelout and Kingstail make sure to hold the line to allow the waveskimmers carrying refugees to pass the bridge safely, dying in the process.
- Queen of Shadows: During the fall of the last human refuge in Kyushu, Toguro personally faces Ikazuki in a duel in order to buy time for the populace to evacuate by sea. Deconstructed, however, as Ikazuki points out that the duel is only keeping him busy, while his troops are free to keep attacking.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Tydal's actions in the Tydal vs. Tirek arc of The God Squad. In order to buy Twilight and her friends time to make it to the Tree of Harmony Tydal, the last member of the Squad with his magic, stands before Tirek alone and declares that Tirek will not pass so long as he is alive, holding off the monster even at the cost of his own life.Chrysalis: "He held the line. Till the bitter end."
- I Did Not Want To Die
by Kalash93 revolves around this trope, and it is simultaneously badass and heartbreaking. - Inner Demons: When Rarity, Apple Bloom, and Spike are attempting to escape from the castle, they're confronted by Trixie, who attempts to take them back into custody. Rarity tells the others to run and holds off Trixie in an attempt to buy them time to escape, despite knowing full well that she can't take Trixie in a fight. Despite a power up from the Element of Generosity, Rarity is defeated and recaptured, but Spike and Apple Bloom escape.
- During the Final Battle, the Royal Guard — led by Shining Armor and Cadence — fight any of Queen!Twilight's forces that make it out of the Gates of Tartarus, keeping them from attacking Ponyville.
- Mimic's Dying Moment of Awesome in the Pony POV Series is built around this. During the "Origins" arc, it's shown that after Celestia and Luna first attempt to defeat Discord ended with him shattering the Rainbow of Light and killing Galaxia, Mimic held him off long enough for her daughters and their allies to escape. Naturally she dies, but in addition to ensuring their safety, she also becomes the first mortal to ever injure Discord in a fight.
- The Dark World arc reveals that Queen Cadence's Last Stand occurred when she decided to take on Discord and his enforcers — the Discorded Mane Six — all at once in order to buy time for her changeling subjects to escape. Like Mimic, this leads to her death, but she goes out with a bang.
- In Naruto: the Secret Songs of the Ninja, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, Hanabi and Temari are caught by Orochimaru while attempting to escape from his base. After Orochimaru reveals Naruto's secret to the girls, he realises he doesn't have to hide it any longer and, after his attempt to intimidate Orochimaru into backing off fails, he activates the Kyuubi power and tells Sakura to take the others and run while he holds Orochimaru off. He nearly dies, but is saved by the last-second intervention of Kakashi and Hinata.
- Advice and Trust: Triumphantly declared by Rei towards Zeruel. Due to a monumental moment of stupidity on Gendo's part (he had fired Shinji and Asuka because they had won a battle by ignoring his orders) she is forced to fight it alone. Despite the massive power difference she makes her best to hold it back, and refuses to lie down, even though Zeruel was trashing her. Then Shinji and Asuka hijacked an Eva and came along to help her. Zeruel attacked them... And Rei went berserker and killed it.
- The Child of Love: Declared by Rei towards Gendo when she deploys her energy shield, slams him against the opposite wall and states he will not cross it.Rei: "Yes. This is the A.T. Field. The barrier of my soul. And you will not cross it. You will not hurt Ikari-kun's family."
- A Crown of Stars: Declared in the Final Battle for Gendo of all people. The Big Bad is trying to annihilate them by bombarding them with dozens of missiles. Shinji and Asuka must fly across the Atlantic Ocean to destroy all missiles and the launch complex. Meanwhile Gendo spreads the Unit-01 energy barrier around the city they are protecting and swears he will hold the shield and defend the city.
