The first wolf hit their defensive line like a battering ram.
Grimnir met it head-on, his axe swinging in a brutal horizontal arc that would have decapitated a regular goblin. The blade caught the wolf's shoulder, biting deep into muscle and drawing a spray of blood. The creature yelped and stumbled sideways, but it didn't fall.
"Tougher than they look!" Grimnir shouted, repositioning himself.
Two more wolves flanked left and right, trying to slip past the Hobgoblin's guard. Jessica moved without thinking, her new body responding with speed and grace she'd never possessed before. She thrust her crude spear forward, the sharpened point catching one wolf in its exposed ribs.
The wolf snarled and snapped at her, its jaws closing inches from her face. Jessica held firm, pushing the spear deeper until the wolf's movements grew sluggish. She kicked it away and readied herself for the next attacker.
"Jessica, on your right!" Kelvin's warning came just in time.
Another wolf lunged from the shadows, its trajectory aimed perfectly at Jessica's blind spot. But Kelvin was faster. He threw himself between his sister and the attacking wolf, taking the creature's weight full in the chest. They tumbled together across the cave floor, a mass of fur, claws, and desperate goblin limbs.
"Kelvin!" Jessica screamed.
The wolf's jaws snapped at Kelvin's throat, but the young Hobgoblin managed to get his arm up in time. Teeth sank through flesh, drawing blood, but Kelvin didn't cry out. Instead, he did something that surprised even himself—he bit back.
His Enhanced Bite skill activated instinctively. Kelvin's teeth—now much stronger thanks to his evolution—clamped down on the wolf's ear and tore. The wolf yelped in pain and released its grip, scrambling backward.
Kelvin rolled to his feet, blood streaming from his arm but his eyes blazing with fury. "You want to bite? Let's see who bites harder!"
Satou watched the chaos unfold from his position near the center of the cave, his mind working frantically. The wolves were smart—too smart. They weren't just attacking randomly. They were testing defenses, probing for weaknesses, coordinating their strikes.
The alpha hung back, watching. Learning.
Classic pack hunting behavior, Satou realized. The alpha sends in the subordinates first to tire us out and identify weak points. Then it strikes when we're exhausted.
That meant they needed to change tactics. Fast.
"Grimnir!" Satou shouted over the din of combat. "Fall back three steps! Draw them into the cave entrance!"
The massive Hobgoblin didn't question the order. He retreated precisely three steps, his axe weaving a defensive pattern that kept the wolves at bay. The wolves, sensing weakness, pressed forward—exactly as Satou had hoped.
As soon as four wolves crossed into the narrower cave entrance, Satou activated his Earth Manipulation skill.
The stone beneath the lead wolf's paws suddenly became slick mud. The creature's legs shot out from under it, and it crashed face-first into the ground. Before it could recover, Satou shaped the mud back into stone, trapping the wolf's front legs up to the shoulders.
The trapped wolf thrashed and howled, but it was stuck fast.
"Now!" Satou commanded.
The goblin fighters, who'd been holding back, waiting for an opening—surged forward with crude spears and clubs. They descended on the trapped wolf like a swarm of ants, stabbing and bludgeoning until the creature went still.
First kill.
But there was no time to celebrate.
The remaining wolves, seeing one of their pack killed, grew more vicious. The alpha finally moved, its massive form gliding forward with predatory grace. It didn't charge blindly like the others. Instead, it moved along the cave wall, its yellow eyes never leaving Satou.
It knows I'm directing the defense. Smart bastard.
The alpha lunged not at Grimnir or the other fighters, but directly at Satou, bypassing the defensive line entirely by launching itself off the cave wall in a leap that defied its size.
Time seemed to slow.
Satou saw the alpha's jaws opening, saw the saliva dripping from its fangs, saw death approaching in the form of five hundred pounds of muscle and fury.
His body moved on instinct.
Stone Spit activated. Satou spat three shards in rapid succession, each one aimed at the alpha's face. The first struck its nose, drawing blood. The second hit its shoulder, barely penetrating the thick fur. The third missed entirely as the alpha twisted mid-air.
Not enough to stop it.
The alpha slammed into Satou like a freight train, driving him to the ground. The impact knocked the wind from his lungs, and suddenly there was nothing but teeth and hot breath and the overwhelming certainty that he was about to die.
The alpha's jaws descended toward his throat and stopped.
Lyra had thrown herself onto the alpha's back, wrapping her arms around its thick neck in a desperate chokehold. The wolf snarled and thrashed, trying to shake her off, but Lyra held on with the strength of her evolved form.
"Get off him!" she screamed, her voice raw with effort.
The alpha reared up on its hind legs, giving Satou just enough space to roll away. He scrambled to his feet, gasping for air, his ribs screaming in protest.
The alpha slammed backward into the cave wall, crushing Lyra between its bulk and the stone. She cried out in pain but didn't release her grip. Her arms tightened, cutting off the alpha's air supply.
The wolf's movements grew more frantic. It spun in circles, slammed into walls, tried everything to dislodge the Hobgoblin clinging to its back. But Lyra held on like her life depended on it—because it did.
Satou forced his battered body to move. He activated Flame Spark, creating a small fire in his palm, and rushed forward. As the alpha spun past him, Satou thrust his hand directly into the creature's face, pressing the flame against its sensitive nose.
The alpha howled—a sound of pure agony—and finally, finally, its legs buckled.
Lyra released her chokehold and rolled away as the alpha collapsed, gasping for air, its face burned, its strength fading.
Satou grabbed a spear from a nearby goblin and, without hesitation, drove it through the alpha's eye socket and into its brain.
The alpha twitched once, then went still.
The remaining wolves now leaderless faltered. Their coordinated attacks dissolved into panicked chaos. Some tried to flee. Others fought with desperate fury. But without the alpha's intelligence guiding them, they were just animals.
The goblins, sensing the shift in momentum, pressed their advantage.
Grimnir's axe claimed two more wolves, each swing delivered with devastating precision. Jessica and Kelvin fought side by side, their sibling bond translating into perfect coordination ,where one attacked, the other defended, moving like two parts of a single organism.
The goblin fighters, emboldened by the alpha's death, swarmed the remaining wolves with numbers and sheer determination. It was messy, brutal, and costly three more goblins fell to snapping jaws but eventually, it was over.
The last wolf died with a spear through its heart, and silence fell over the cave like a heavy blanket.
For a long moment, nobody moved. Everyone just stood there, breathing hard, covered in blood—some their own, most belonging to the wolves.
Then one of the goblin fighters let out a shaky laugh.
"We won," he said, disbelief coloring his voice. "We actually won."'
The laugh spread. Other goblins joined in, the sound growing from nervous chuckles to genuine relief. They'd survived. Against all odds, they'd survived.
Satou collapsed against the cave wall, his body finally giving out now that the adrenaline was fading. His ribs hurt. His head throbbed. His mana was still dangerously low.
But they'd won.