The den loomed ahead.
Lira and Jay moved toward it with caution. After fifteen minutes of navigation through rocky terrain, they found themselves at a floral that overlooked the den's entrance.
Jay knelt, pressing both palms flat against the ground. Her eyes closed as she extended her earth sense, feeling for vibrations, mapping the den's structure through the subtle tremors that living beings give of from movements.
Her expression shifted from oncentration to concern.
"I can sense over twenty-five vibrations," she said quietly.
"That's manageable." Lira said.
"Well, that's the problem." Jay's face carried genuine worry now. "I can sense a heavy vibration. And two that are a little less heavy."
"Betas?"
"And a confirmed alpha."
The words settled between them like stones.
Lira's gaze moved to the den entrance. Seven wolves were visible at the perimeter. Lira processed that number against their earlier kills. They had taken seventeen down. If there were twenty-five plus in the den added to the seven here... "An estimate of thirty total." She blurted out.
Something was strange about the beasts movements. They were restless and agitated as they paced, circled, and snapped at each other. The scouts and beta hadn't returned, and the pack knew something was wrong.
They were mobilizing.
...
"So," Lira said after a long silence. "How do we do this?"
Jay stood, brushing dirt from her knees. "Direct assault. Hit them hard before they organize."
"That's suicide." Lira shook her head. "We take them out stealthily. Pick out the F-ranks, and thin their numbers before the alpha knows we're here."
"Stealth takes too long. They're already on alert."
"And charging in gets us killed."
They stared at each other, neither backing down.
Finally, Jay sighed. "Compromise?"
"Compromise."
"We take out as many as we can quietly," Lira said. "But once we're spotted, we go loud. No half measures."
"And when the alpha shows up?"
"That will be decided when facing it."
Jay grinned despite the situation. "That's your plan? Decision upon encounter?"
"You have a better one?"
"No. But I wanted to hear you say it."
...
Lira positioned herself in a cluster of dense flora about fifty meters from the den entrance. The vegetation here grew thick and tangled, crystal leaves caught light in ways that made her silhouette harder to distinguish.
She drew an arrow, nocking it carefully. Not one of her aether constructs. Real ammunition for the opening shot. She needed the kill to be clean and quiet.
One of the seven F-ranks had ranged ahead of the others, investigating a scent. It stood isolated, separated from its packmates by maybe ten meters.
Perfect.
Lira exhaled slowly. Her breathing was steady as she drew the string back and aimed for the base of the skull.
She released.
The arrow cut through the air with barely a whisper. It struck true, punching through hide and bone, severing the brain stem. The wolf dropped without a sound.
The remaining six noticed immediately.
They froze, processing the impossibility of silent death, then turned as one toward where the arrow had originated.
The six charged as thier massive bodies closed the distance with terrifying speed, their crystal spines caugth the day's light as they moved, with their jaws already open.
Upon reaching two meters from Lira's position.
The earth erupted.
Spikes burst upward in sequence, timed perfectly to the wolves' momentum. Two were impaled mid-stride, the weapons punching through their bodies with devastating force. The spikes lifted them off the ground, holding them suspended like grotesque trophies.
The other four managed to stop, their claws digging trenches in the earth as they skidded to avoid the trap.
But Lira had already moved.
She'd drawn four arrows while the earth spikes were forming, her hands moved with efficiency. The moment the surviving wolves came to a stop, she released.
Two arrows struck one wolf in the head, the impacts close enough together that the skull cracked from combined force. It dropped.
Another arrow caught a second wolf square in the eye socket, driving deep into the brain. That one collapsed mid-step.
The third wolf took an arrow to the shoulder, the weapon punching through muscle and lodging against bone. The beast howled in pain and anger.
The fourth wolf dodged.
It twisted with desperate agility, the arrow passing so close it clipped fur but found no flesh. The beast's survival instinct had saved it, a fraction of a second's difference between death and survival.
But Jay was already there.
She'd closed the distance while the wolves were focused on Lira, moving across the ground with her earth affinity muffling her footsteps. She manifested a spear mid-stride, the weapon forming in her hands like it had always existed there.
She drove it through the dodging wolf's chest.
The spear punched through ribs and heart, emerging from the beast's back in a spray of blood. The wolf tried to cry out, but all that escaped was a gurgle as its lungs filled with blood.
An arrow shot through its head, ending it cleanly.
The wounded wolf with the shoulder injury tried to flee, limping on three legs, making for the den entrance to alert the others.
The earth grew around its feet like living things, stone wrapping around its legs, immobilizing it completely.
Jay raised her right hand slowly.
The earth responded to her gesture, growing into spikes that pierced the wolf's ribs and neck simultaneously. The beast tried to cry out, but the spike through its throat turned the howl into a strange gurgling sound that faded quickly.
Silence returned.
Lira moved to retrieve the arrow the wolf had dodged, pulling it from where it had embedded in the ground. She added it back to her quiver and counted quickly. Twenty-five left.
She glanced at Jay. "We're not harvesting yet."
"No." Jay was already moving toward the den entrance. "That fight made noise. They're aware."
Both women left the corpses where they lay and proceeded into the den itself, knowing their brief battle would have drawn attention from whatever waited inside.
...
The den's interior made Lira stop mid-step.
She'd expected darkness, maybe crude tunnels dug into earth and stone. What she found instead was... almost beautiful.
The main chamber rose twenty meters overhead, ten meters wide at its broadest point. The walls were lined with naturally occurring crystals that grew in geometric patterns, their surfaces caught and refracted light in shades of blue and violet. The illumination was dim but constant, painting everything in soft luminescence.
It was breathtaking in a way she hadn't anticipated.
"Lira."
Jay's voice pulled her back to reality.
Eight wolves had appeared from a side chamber, alerted by the intrusion. They stood in a loose formation, eyes fixed on the two humans who'd killed their mates.
Jay knelt immediately, both palms pressing flat against the stone floor.
The earth rose.
Waves of solid stone erupted like ocean swells frozen mid-crest, moving toward the wolves with unstoppable force. The formations were exactly ten meters wide and seven meters in height, rising from two sides simultaneously.
Front and back.
The wolves found themselves trapped in a stone cage.
Lira understood immediately. Jay wasn't trying to kill them with the trap. She was containing them.
Lira pulled five arrows from her quiver, coating each one in shimmering silver aether. The energy enhanced the weapons beyond their physical limitations, making them faster, sharper, more devastating.
She drew and released in one smooth motion.
Two arrows caught one wolf in the neck, the impacts so close together they looked like a single strike. The beast's throat opened with blood spraying across the stone walls.
The other three arrows split between two wolves. Two pierced one directly in the head, killing it instantly. The last arrow barely grazed its target as the wolf twisted desperately, the projectile pulled blood but missed anything vital.
The trapped beasts weren't passive. Some howled, the sound echoed through the chamber. Others threw themselves against the stone walls, their crystal spines striking with enough force to chip the barriers.
Jay recreated the walls as fast as they destroyed them, keeping the wolves contained through sheer determination and aether expenditure.
Lira formed seven aether arrows this time. The strain made her head swim slightly, but she pushed through.
She released all seven at once.
Four wolves died instantly, struck in critical points before they could react. One took injuries, with the arrows punching through its shoulders but missing vital organs.
The last wolf dodged entirely, showing the kind of agility that came from genuine desperation.
Jay stopped recreating the walls. The stone barriers began crumbling as she shifted focus.
Two earth spears manifested from the floor beneath the surviving injured wolves, rising with brutal speed. Both weapons caught their targets in the head, the impacts lifting the beasts off the ground before gravity brought them crashing down.
The last wolf, the one that had dodged everything, stood alone among the corpses of its packmates.
It made the smart choice and ran deeper into the den.
Lira didn't pursue. Jay laid arms on ground once again as the wolf made a break, summoning spikes that impaled it lifting it slightly off the ground.
Lira leaned against the nearest wall, breathing slightly hard. "Fifteen down."
Jay was scanning the chamber with her earth sense extended.
Lira recovered enough to ask the question that had been building: "Can you just collapse the whole den?"
Jay turned to stare at her with a look that bordered on judgmental. "I'm only at Guardian level, Lira. Even a Sentinel would be stressed collapsing an entire den of this size."
Lira pinched the bridge of her nose. "No collapsing then?"
"No. We'll have to take them on directly."
Lira went quiet, thinking through their options. She muttered mostly to herself: "I'll have to switch to aether constructs to conserve ammunition. And the dagger's chipped from earlier."
"This will be good training for us," Jay said with a wide grin.
Lira could only think: How is she enjoying this?
...
They moved deeper into the den, navigating from chamber to chamber.
The structure was more complex than surface observation suggested. The wolves had dug tunnels that connected multiple levels, creating a network of passages and rooms that formed a genuine cave society.
They encountered wolves in pairs and small groups. Four died in the first hour of chamber-to-chamber fighting.
They'd walked maybe a hundred meters when Lira realized just how extensive the den was. Jay had sensed the size when mapping it earlier, but experiencing it firsthand was different. The beasts had built something almost architectural here, chambers that served different purposes, tunnels that formed defensible chokepoints.
They had infrastructure. A society.
Jay had been hunting long enough to earn her E-rank promotion, but she hadn't taken many quests involving Scourge Wolves. They were weaker than most F-ranks individually, mostly hunted by beginners. They didn't yield much in materials.
But she understood now. Their strength wasn't individual power. It was intelligence and coordination. The pack made them dangerous.
After clearing another small chamber, Lira voiced the question that had been bothering her: "Isn't it disturbing that the wolves are becoming scarce?"
Jay stopped walking, as Lira's observation triggered genuine concern.
Lira continued: "There should be fourteen to sixteen left minimum. Yet we aren't being swarmed."
"Shit," Jay said quietly.
Seven wolves appeared from behind them. Seven more emerged ahead, blocking their forward path.
But it wasn't the numbers that made fear spike through Lira's chest. It was what stood among the forward group.
Two beta wolves, easily distinguishable by their size and the brighter glow of their crystal spines.
And the alpha.
Seven meters tall. Three meters wide. Dark fur that was somehow not knotted but smooth, like flowing water. Crystals along its spine that stretched a meter in length each, glowing with internal light that pulsed like a heartbeat. Deep amber eyes that carried intelligence. Fangs that made the betas' teeth look like a cub's by comparison. Claws that spanned a meter in length, capable of disemboweling with a casual swipe.
But what made it truly terrifying was its demeanor.
The alpha wasn't aggressive. It stood calm and still, watching them with the patience of something that knew it had already won.
"The alpha beat us in intelligence," Jay whispered.
"Couldn't you sense their vibrations?" Lira asked, barely above a whisper herself.
"No. The wolves obviously laid still in underground chambers we don't know about and—"
"It was on the alpha's command," Lira completed the thought.
Understanding settled over both of them. The alpha had read their tactics, recognized the threat, and set a trap. It had positioned its pack to cut off retreat while keeping the strongest fighters in reserve.
Jay's arms became coated in earth, the material spreading from elbow to fingertips like armor. "Well, we've no choice but to fight."
The wolves didn't attack. They just stood there, growling low, waiting for their alpha's command.
"I hate being looked down on," Jay said, staring straight at the alpha who was, quite literally, looking down at them from its superior height.
Lira manifested five aether spears and fired them all at the beasts behind them, the ones blocking their escape route.
The wolves dodged the moment they saw the attacks coming, splitting left and right with coordinated precision.
But Lira had expected that.
"We can't fight them in here," she said, grabbing Jay's arm and pulling her into a sprint toward the den entrance.
The F-rank wolves gave chase immediately. Lira noticed that both the alpha and the two betas didn't move. They just watched, letting their subordinates do the work.
"Why did you just yank me?" Jay questioned as they ran.
"Because we can't fight all of them in here, Jay," Lira replied.
All eleven F-ranks closed in fast. Earth spears rose from the ground, impaling two wolves and grazing several others. But the rest charged through the attacks, destroying the spears with their momentum.
Lira shot aether spheres backward, the projectiles detonating against pursuing wolves. None were seriously injured, but it bought seconds.
They rounded a corner and the entrance came into view maybe fifty meters ahead. But despite their efforts, the beasts were closing the distance. They seemed to be deliberately pacing themselves, staying just behind rather than overtaking.
"Lira, keep running," Jay said.
Then she phased through the ground, her body sinking into the earth like it was water.
The beasts kept chasing Lira. Jay emerged behind the pack and manifested twenty earth bullets, firing them in rapid sequence.
Three wolves died instantly, the projectiles punching through skulls with rifle-like force. Four more took injuries that sent them tumbling into their packmates, momentum and mass creating a collision that slowed the entire group.
The remaining wolves stopped and turned toward Jay, only to for three among them meeting their demise. Earth spears had shot through their heads.
Lira had stopped running too. She'd pulled her bow and had drawn the string, forming four aether arrows that shimmered with condensed energy.
She released.
Two arrows impaled one wolf in the head. The other two caught another beast through the chest, piercing its lungs and heart.
Eight of the eleven were down. Three remained.
The surviving wolves looked between the two humans on opposite sides, their advantage had reversed, their escape routes cut off.
One charged at Lira. The other two went for Jay.
...
The wolf reached Lira and snapped its jaws where her head had been. She'd already moved, dodging left with aether-enhanced speed. Her feet were coated in silver energy, matching the beast's agility.
They entered a deadly dance. The wolf struck, Lira dodged. It feinted left, she read the motion and countered right. Neither could land a decisive blow, but neither was giving ground either.
...
The two beasts reaching Jay hesitated for maybe half a second, some survival instinct screamed warning.
Jay didn't give them time to reconsider.
She hit the first wolf in the head with her earth-coated fist, the impact making a sound like stone hitting stone. The second wolf bit onto her left arm, trying to clamp down, but its teeth couldn't pierce through the layered earth coating enhanced by aether.
Jay ignored the beast hanging from her arm and started punching the wolf, bashing its skull repeatedly. The bone cracked, then fractured, then caved in completely. The wolf died with its brain exposed.
The moment her arm was free, the second wolf was already at her face, jaws open wide to bite it off.
Jay raised an earth wall that caught the wolf by its open jaw, the sudden barrier pushed it backward with force.
The beast broke through the wall but Jay had already committed to her next attack. Multiple spikes rose from the ground, piercing its head and chest simultaneously.
...
Lira was still in her chase with the final wolf, dodging another strike as it tried to catch her with its claws.
Two earth spikes suddenly impaled its hind feet, the weapons appearing without warning and restraining the beast completely.
Lira took the opening. She coated her bow in aether, the weapon shimmered with silver, and struck the wolf's head repeatedly.
The fifth strike split the skull open, ending it.
...
Before they could even acknowledge their victory, Jay was struck.
The impact came from the side, crushing her right ribs and throwing her completely out of the den entrance. She hit the ground hard, rolling several times before coming to a stop near a rock cluster.
Lira only had time to react instinctively. She coated both fists in aether, crossed her arms in an X-guard, and manifested multiple aether shields in layers before her.
The strike came anyway.
Despite every defense, she was sent flying straight out of the den entrance, crashing into the nearest tree with bone-breaking force, the trunk cracked from the impact.
Her arms shattered on contact, despite the aether coating. Her sternum cracked. Multiple ribs broke. Her vision blurred immediately, her onsciousness threatened to fade.
She tried to stand, but her body refused to cooperate.
Jay appeared beside her suddenly, pressing a vial against her lips. "Drink."
Lira gulped the high-grade healing potion desperately. It burned going down, but the effects were immediate. Her vision started returning as bones knitted back together with agonizing speed, the breaks healing in seconds rather than weeks.
"I thought you got struck," Lira managed between gasps.
"Yeah, I did." Jay smiled despite the situation. "But you're in worse shape than I am."
Lira forced herself to sit up, wincing as her sternum finished fusing. "What happened?"
"The alpha struck both of us." Jay's smile faded. "Can you fight?"
Lira tested her arms, flexing her fingers that had been shattered moments ago. The healing potion was high-grade enough that she felt almost functional already. "Yeah. I should be able to."
"Good." Jay stood, offering her hand. "They're here."
Lira took the hand and pulled herself up. Despite the effect of the potion, she could still fill her ribs cracked.
From the den entrance, the alpha emerged into daylight.
The two betas flanked it on either side, and behind them came the remaining F-rank wolves. However many still remained.
The alpha's amber eyes fixed on them with that same terrible intelligence.
It was calm as ever, but dangerously so.