Lira and Jay hid in separate spots. Lira perched high in a sturdy tree with clear sightlines over the rocky clearing, with her bow resting across her lap. Jay had submerged herself in the earth using her affinity, her body phased into the soil like it was water, sensing vibrations through the ground.
They waited. Twenty minutes passed since their last kills. The tension stretched with each passing second, both women acutely aware that the den would retaliate soon.
The silence of the Scourged Zone pressed down on them, broken only by distant sounds of wind through crystal plants and the occasional call of creatures far from their position.
Then Jay felt it. Vibrations through the earth.
"They're coming," she whispered through their communication link, her voice barely audible even through the device.
...
Ten wolves emerged from the direction of the den. They spread out as they approached, avoiding clustering in ways that would make them easy targets.
But it was the leader that made Lira's breath pause.
It was visibly larger than the others, its shoulders broader, its movements carried authority that the F-ranks deferred to instinctively. The crystals along its spine glowed with brighter intensity, pulsing with internal light that marked it as something more than its packmates.
It was a beta, for sure. An E-rank at minimum.
What disturbed Lira more than its size or rank was what happened next. The pack approached the area where their dead companions lay scattered, the bloodied corpses were still fresh. The beta stopped the others with a low growl, preventing them from investigating directly.
"They're not following scent trails," Jay's voice came through the link, with evident tension.
The pack behaved differently under the beta's command. Instead of rushing in or investigating the bodies, they spread out in a wide perimeter, searching for threats before committing to any action. The beta's eyes scanned the terrain with intelligence that made Lira's stomach tighten.
An average E-rank beast operated on enhanced instinct. But a beast that had evolved into E-rank from F-rank? That carried something more dangerous. Intelligence. Experience.
Every variant was special. A beast born at C-rank might be powerful, but one that evolved from D-rank to C-rank developed traits and cunning that birth alone couldn't provide. The beta staring at the corpses of its packmates understood it was an ambush tactic.
It was being careful.
Lira waited, forcing herself to remain still despite the urge to act. Jay would make the first move. That was the plan.
The pack continued their cautious advance, the beta maintained position in the center while the F-ranks spread outward. They were searching for the threat, trying to flush out whatever had killed their companions.
Lira made her decision and aimed carefully, drawing on her aether to form four condensed arrows. The energy shimmered silver as she targeted two of the F-ranks that had separated slightly from the main group.
She released.
The arrows cut through the air with barely a whisper. Two struck one wolf in the head and neck simultaneously. The beast dropped without a sound.
But the other wolf was already moving, survival instinct screamed warnings a fraction of a second before the arrows arrived. It twisted mid-stride, the projectiles grazed its flank rather than striking vitally. Blood sprayed, but the wolf stayed on its feet, yelping in pain and alarm.
The pack exploded into action.
Jay had already committed to her ambush the moment Lira fired. She'd sensed the difference in vibrations among the eleven wolves, one signature that felt heavier. The beta.
Earth waves erupted beneath where the beta stood, multiple spears bursting upward in sequence designed to impale and kill.
The beta moved.
A calculated shift that carried it clear of the danger with minimal motion. The spears struck empty air, and the beta landed in a defensive crouch, already assessing the new threat.
It growled, low and commanding.
The pack scattered immediately, spreading out rather than clustering. The tactic forced Jay into direct engagement rather than picking them off from stealth.
She emerged from the earth, her body solidified as she surfaced twenty meters from where the beta stood.
One of the wolves broke from the group, charging toward Lira's tree with single-minded determination. It had tracked the arrows' origin, identifying her as a threat that needed to be eliminated.
Lira cursed under her breath and dropped from the branch, landing in a crouch as the wolf crashed into the trunk where she'd been. The tree shook from the impact, as bark splintered.
She drew her backup knife, the blade caught light as she settled into a defensive stance. Close quarters combat wasn't her preference, but the academy trained you for it.
The wolf rounded on her.
Behind her, Jay's voice carried across the clearing: "I've got the beta. Handle the rest."
"Easy for you to say," Lira muttered.
Four more wolves converged on her position, drawn by their packmate's aggression. Lira's mind raced through options.
Four wolves.
She moved before they could attack.
Lira somersaulted over the nearest wolf as it lunged, the beast's jaws snapping on empty air where her legs had been. She landed behind it, already pivoting as four more closed in from different angles.
She still had her dagger drawn, and she struck at the nearest wolf, driving the blade deep into its shoulder. The beast howled with agonizing pain.
But Lira wasn't done. She twisted the dagger viciously, feeling muscle and tendon tear beneath the blade, and pulled hard. As she wrenched the weapon free, another beast was already at her throat, with widen jaws.
She barely got the wounded wolf between herself and the attacker. The lunging beast crashed into its injured packmate, with both animals tumbling into a heap.
Lira aimed the dagger at the second wolf as it tried to disentangle itself.
The beast struck her down before she could complete the motion. Its massive paw caught her across the chest, as its claws raked across the leather armor she wore. The material held, but the force drove her to the ground hard enough to knock the air from her lungs.
The wolf came on her immediately, trying to close its jaws around her head.
Lira twisted her neck desperately, the beast's teeth snapped inches from her face. Hot breath washed over her skin. Saliva dripped onto her cheek.
She couldn't stay down. The others were coming.
Lira drove the dagger upward, burying it in the wolf's throat. Blood gushed over her hands, her face, soaking into her armor. The beast's eyes went wide with shock and pain, but it didn't die immediately. Its weight pressed down on her, crushing.
She twisted the blade again, feeling it scrape against bone, and yanked sideways with all her strength. The wolf's neck opened completely.
The body went limp.
Lira shoved the corpse off with effort that made her ribs protest, rolling to her feet as the remaining four wolves circled her. Blood covered her from chest to face, making her look like something that had crawled from a nightmare.
"Two down," she said quietly.
...
While Lira had been focused against five wolves, Jay had been engaged in her own battle.
The beta wolf and four F-ranks had spread out around her position, trying to surround and overwhelm. The beta commanded two F-ranks to charge directly at her.
Jay countered immediately, gesturing her hands forward. The earth rose in waves, as spikes erupted in sequence.
The wolves were smart. One dodged left, turning to flank her from that side. The other went right, creating a pincer movement. The remaining two F-ranks joined the attack, charging in from the beta's position.
Jay smiled at their tactics. The beta's intelligence was no joke. Instead of a direct all-out confrontation, it was trying to overwhelm her through pressure and multiple angles. It wanted her to leave an opening.
Jay wasn't joking either. She was E-rank in the field, and she had her own plans.
The four wolves charged at her, their speed making them blurs against the rocky terrain. Scourge wolves might not be overwhelmingly strong individually, but they had speed.
Jay didn't attack them head-on. Instead, the earth waves she'd activated earlier suddenly started vibrating. Seven spears shot from the stone formations, each one targeting a different wolf.
Two wolves were quick enough to dodge the four spears aimed at them with desperate twists and jumps. The other two barely avoided the remaining three projectiles, the weapons passing so close that the spikes scratched their hides.
The spears passed the wolves, halting when they reached Jay's position. But just as they stopped, they turned and started pursuing the wolves.
The wolves worked diligently, dodging the earth spears that followed them with relentless determination. But it was starting to irritate them, the constant need to evade, the inability to close distance with their actual target.
One wolf got frustrated enough to bite onto a spear that passed too close.
Its head exploded...
Brain matter and skull fragments scattered across the earth.
The others were confused by what had just happened, their attention were split between the pursuing spears and their companion's sudden death.
That confusion was a mistake. Two spears struck another wolf in the head simultaneously, the impact so devastating that it crushed the skull and pinned the lifeless body to the ground.
The remaining two wolves, seeing their packmates die, barely reacted in time. They dodged the spears coming at them, their survival instinct finally overriding confusion.
But from beneath where they stood, the earth shot upward. Massive spikes impaled both wolves on the spot. One died instantly as the earthen weapon pierced its head, lungs, and stomach in a single thrust.
The other was stuck on the spike, gurgling as blood seeped from puncture wounds throughout its body. Before it could suffer long, a stone bullet passed through its head, ending it.
All of this happened in less seconds.
The beta wolf had watched it all. From the beginning, Jay had seen through their plan and used it against them. She'd frustrated the beasts until one got irritated enough to bite the charging spear. Taking that moment of distraction, she'd shot a condensed earth bullet, exploding the head. The other beasts had watched the death of their companion, the confusion breaking their formation just long enough for Jay to eliminate them.
...
The wolves approached with visible caution now, wary of the creature before them that had just killed one of theirs in close quarters. Among the three was the one she'd scratched with aether arrows at the beginning and the one she'd stabbed in the shoulder.
The uninjured wolf made the decision to attack first, charging at her with desperate speed.
Lira coated her feet in aether, the energy shimmered silver around her boots. The boost to her movement speed was immediate. She dodged the beast's lunge, the massive jaws snapping on empty air where her face had been a fraction of a second before.
She countered instantly, driving the dagger toward the wolf's head. But the blade was already blunt from repeated use against bone and hardened hide. It barely pierced the skull, scraping across hide rather than penetrating.
The other two beasts charged while she struggled with the first.
Lira made a split-second decision. She coated the dagger itself in aether, the energy making the weapon's edge shimmer with destructive potential. She pulled backward with all her strength, the enhanced blade tore through the wolf's head from forehead down to snout.
The beast's face split open.
The wolf that had taken a scratch at the beginning was already at her side. Its massive paw swung in an arc too fast to fully dodge.
Lira coated her side in aether, the defensive layer forming just as the claws made contact.
The impact was still devastating. The aether cushioned the blow enough that the claws didn't dig in, but the force sent her flying. She crashed into a nearby tree with bone-jarring violence, the trunk cracked from the impact.
"Damn wolves," Lira gurgled, spitting out a massive amount of blood. Multiple ribs had cracked from the collision. Her vision swam. "If it wasn't for the aether coating, the claws would have also dug in."
Both remaining wolves were charging at her.
Lira tried to stand, but her legs weren't cooperating. The impact had done more damage than she realized.
She made a decision.
Her hand grabbed stones and crystal fragments from the ground near her, anything solid she could reach. She infused them with aether, the energy making each piece glow faintly.
She threw them all at once, her aim was pathetic from her seated position.
The charging beasts were confused by her actions. Stones and crystals? Those would barely tickle, especially with such a weak throw.
They were wrong.
The projectiles exploded right in their faces. Not massive detonations, but concentrated bursts that filled the air with shrapnel and blinding light. Both wolves yelped, they broke stride as they pawed at their eyes.
The beast with the scratch was the first to open its eyes, blinking away tears and debris.
It met its demise as an arrow struck it cleanly through the head.
Lira aimed an arrow at the wolf with the injured shoulder, it was still struggling to see clearly. She released without hesitation.
The arrow buried itself in the beast's eye socket, driving deep into the brain. The wolf collapsed mid-step.
Lira slumped back against the tree, her bow falling from her fingers. She'd used two of her actual ammunition, but that was the least of her concerns. Her ribs were definitely broken. Blood filled her mouth from internal damage. Her vision kept fading at the edges.
"Quite the pathetic state you're in."
Lira's head turned slowly. Jay stood a few meters away, her expression carrying amusement rather than concern. She was covered in blood too, but it didn't seem to be hers.
"Here," Jay said, pulling a vial of healing potion from her belt and tossing it.
Lira caught it with trembling hands and drank it in one desperate gulp. The liquid burned going down, but warmth spread through her chest immediately. The broken ribs began knitting back together, the process was agonizing but necessary.
...
Earlier, while Lira engaged the beasts, Jay had killed four of the wolves and was now facing the beta.
Now the beta stood alone, its amber eyes fixed on Jay with something that might have been respect mixed with hatred.
Jay cracked her knuckles, "Just you and me now."
The beta's response was immediate. It charged with speed that made the F-ranks look slow by comparison, closing the distance in heartbeats.
Jay coated her feet in aether, the energy shimmering beige around her boots.
The beast's jaws snapped at where Jay's throat had been, but she'd already shifted position, the aether-enhanced speed allowed her match the beta's velocity. They were in an attack-and-dodge confrontation now, each trying to find an opening in the other's defense.
Four earth spears materialized behind Jay, hovering in formation. She gestured, and they shot forward with incredible speed.
The beta dodged them effortlessly, its body control allowed it to twist mid-stride, changing direction without losing momentum. The spears pursued, but the beast stayed ahead of them through pure agility.
The wolf couldn't get close to Jay because of the pursuing spears. Every time it tried to close distance, it had to break off to avoid being impaled. The harassment was effective, but it wasn't ending the fight.
Jay placed her hand on the earth, coating it in compressed stone mixed with crystal fragments. She shot toward the beast, her affinity allowing her to move across the ground with minimal noise.
She closed in on the beta as it dodged one of her strikes, noticing her approach a fraction too late. But before she could capitalize, the beast had to twist away from one of the pursuing earth spears.
Jay wasn't giving it breathing space. She continued closing in with strikes, the spears pursuing from different angles, creating a web of threats the beta had to navigate.
This went on for at least five minutes. Neither fighter gaining significant advantage, both burning through stamina and Jay in aether, in measured expenditure.
The beta finally committed to a counterattack. It raised its massive paw and struck at Jay with force that would have shattered bone.
Jay countered immediately, her earth-coated forearm intercepting the blow. The impact scratched the compressed stone lightly but didn't break through. She used the contact to her advantage, striking the beast's paw away and creating an opening.
One of her spears caught the beta's flank, but it shattered on impact against the beast's hide. The natutal armor covering its body was dense enough to break the weapon, though the collision left a light scratch.
The beta ignored the minor wound and struck at Jay again, committing fully to the exchange now that it had closed distance.
Jay shifted her weight backward, dodging the attack by inches. The earth beneath the beta rose suddenly, striking upward into its abdomen. The impact didn't pierce through the dense hide, but it lifted the beast slightly off balance.
Jay didn't waste the opportunity. The earth grew around the beta's body, trapping it as more stone rose to encase its legs and torso. The beast tried to break free, thrashing with desperate strength, but it was submerged too deep.
As Jay reached the trapped beta, she struck its head hard with her earth-coated fist. The impact made a crunching sound. She kept bashing, each blow landing with precision.
Multiple spears crashed into the beast's back simultaneously, the concentrated assault overwhelmed its natural defenses. At first, the weapons left only scratches. Then wounds followed as the hide began to give way. The wounds started cutting deep, and eventually, all impacts were hitting bone.
The wolf was tough. Even with its skull fracturing, even with spears piercing its spine, it didn't die quickly. But Jay put in the effort, continuing the assault until the beta's eyes finally went blank and its body went limp.
Jay stood over the corpse, her fists bloodied and shaking slightly from impact. She looked around the battlefield, counting corpses.
"Ten down," she said to the empty clearing.
Her eyes found Lira's body slumped against the tree across the clearing.
...
Currently, Lira was finishing the healing potion, burping after the final swallow. The effects were working slowly but steadily, her broken ribs knitted back together with each passing second.
"We make quite the pretty good team, hehe," Jay said, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"News, Jay," Lira replied, her voice still rough from blood and pain.
After a moment of silence, Lira spoke again: "Let's harvest the beasts."
"You should rest more," Jay started.
"I'm okay," Lira interrupted, extending her hand. Jay helped her to her feet, supporting more of her weight than Lira wanted to admit.
"If you say so."
They spent the next twenty minutes harvesting the corpses. F-rank crystals, some usable hide from the beta, teeth. Jay's dimensional storage ring absorbed it all.
When they finished, they found a relatively clean boulder and sat, both women breathing hard from exertion.
"Do we return, or..." Jay let the question hang.
Lira sighed, understanding Jay's intention immediately. "Why do you want to take on the den, Jay?"
"It's part of the mission," Jay said, though her tone suggested that wasn't the whole truth.
"No, Jay," Lira said tiredly. "The quest was 'hunt for materials,' and we've got seventeen kills total. That's more than enough."
"But more means clearing the den for others' safety, plus more cash-in."
"You just want to fight the beasts," Lira said flatly.
"We'll be quick, I promise," Jay said, her enthusiasm was barely contained.
"There could be an alpha there. A D-rank variant who could potentially be a C-rank."
Jay's eyes only lit up further. "Please."
Lira could only sigh. She was about to make a bad decision. She knew it. Jay knew it. They both knew it, and they were going to do it anyway.
"Okay."
"YES!" Jay rejoiced, actually jumping up from the boulder. "You're the best!"
"Yeah, yeah," Lira muttered, already regretting her agreement.
They gathered their equipment and headed toward the den, both women knew they were walking into something significantly more dangerous than anything they'd faced so far.
But sometimes, friendship meant supporting your friend's terrible decisions.
Even when those decisions involved potentially picking a fight with a D-rank alpha. With death.