Raif stood near the wall, staring into the trees. A thin drizzle had begun sometime before dawn, dotting his arms with cold. Mist clung to the lower boughs, wrapping the clearing's edge in a haze of grey. He didn't move. No one else did either. Not yet.
The air carried the weight of it. Even without a message, Raif had known.
They'd spent four days preparing. Rebuilding the wall. Forging weapons. Training until their arms went numb. Raif had seen it in every movement, every quiet glance, the way they all paused before leaving camp, how Goss tapped the edge of his club like a heartbeat, how Naera rolled her shoulder in silence, how Mira stood over Syl every morning like she was willing her to live by presence alone.
No one asked if they were ready. The answer would've been meaningless.
He shifted slightly, eyes still locked on the treeline. A shape moved, not an enemy, not yet. Just a bird disturbed from a low perch, wings flapping in wet silence. The clearing around him smelled like bark and damp earth, like moss cracked open. Raif didn't blink. He waited.
Soft footsteps approached from the treeline. Kael emerged without a word, his arms and shoulders damp with rain. He moved with urgency but not panic. When he reached Raif, he stopped and made a low, tight gesture, then pointed toward the jungle.
"Eyes?" Raif asked.
Kael nodded once, then opened his hands wide, fingers spread.
"Many."
Raif exhaled, tension biting into his jaw. He clapped Kael once on the shoulder, then turned back toward the heart of camp. The others were already gathering.
Under the main shelter, the group formed a tight half-circle. Rain dripped from bark eaves. Weapons rested nearby, some laid across knees, others gripped already.
Raif didn't raise his voice.
"Kael says we're being watched. It's starting. We hold the plan."
He pointed as he spoke.
"Kael, outer patrol, east and west edges. Signal if they shift."
Kael nodded.
"Naera, Mira, Rix, wall defence. Rotate if pressure builds. Mira, if anyone's hurt, you pull back to treat. Rix, you call positions if something changes."
"Got it," Rix muttered. Mira gave a short nod.
"Goss, Hennick, frontline breakers. Stay mobile. If they swarm one spot, you hit hard."
"Been waiting for it," Goss said, flexing his fingers around the haft of his club.
"Lira, stay near Syl's shelter. Cover the rear from there. If anything gets close, warn us early."
Lira's expression flickered. "I'll keep watch. Nothing's getting past me."
"I'm not letting anything ugly over the wall," she said.
"Eloin, repair runner. You see something break, you patch it. Same with fallback cover."
Eloin grunted once. "Already packed."
Raif let his eyes sweep the circle.
"I'll move where I'm needed. You all know what we've got, what we've built. If it breaches, we don't scatter. We hold. Side by side."
No one answered. They didn't need to. The sound of the rain filled the space where doubts might have lived.
And somewhere out there, the jungle watched.
They moved without further orders.
Kael vanished first, slipping toward the eastern edge like a shadow peeled from bark. Naera and Mira gathered their gear in silence and walked the perimeter's inner ring. Rix trailed after them, whispering something about wind patterns and pressure fronts until Naera shot him a look. He went quiet.
Naera slowed slightly as they neared the south corner. "You sure you're ready for this?"
Mira adjusted the strap on her spear. "I'm not here to be ready. I'm here to keep people alive."
Naera gave a faint smile. "That sounds a lot like being ready."
"You bleed, I'm dragging you back. No heroics."
"Deal," Naera said, though they both knew neither would follow it.
Goss adjusted his grip on the club, then bumped Hennick's shoulder as they walked toward the front fence. "Still think we're the ones doing the heavy lifting?"
Hennick gave a low grunt. "Only because we're the only ones who know how."
Eloin loaded his belt with split bark and moss bundles, muttering quietly to himself as he scanned each wall segment. He passed by Raif with a small nod and kept moving.
Lira lingered near the supply shelter, eyes shifting between the treeline and Syl's resting spot. She knelt by the girl's side, adjusted one of the woven mats, then straightened.
"Don't worry, kid," she muttered. "You picked a great time to sleep through chaos."
She glanced at the treeline. "Just stay quiet a little longer, yeah? Let me earn the nap next time."
"Call if anything moves," she said to Mira, who was already too far to hear.
Rix stepped up beside Raif, glancing at the orb. "It's changing its language. That's new."
"We adapt," Raif said.
"Or die interestingly," Rix muttered. He hesitated, then added, "Don't let it end here. We're close to something."
Raif looked at him, surprised by the edge in his tone. "That's not why we're fighting."
Rix nodded once. "Doesn't mean it's not true."
Raif remained near the orb. Its glow had dimmed slightly since morning, pulsing a muted yellow under the haze.
Then, it shifted.
[System Quest – Objective: Eliminate ???]
[Environmental Modifier: Rain – Visibility and Fire Efficiency Reduced]
The words lingered for half a breath, then shimmered, flickered, and changed.
[Assault Designation: Active Threat – Jungle Offensive]
[Objective Priority: Unknown Entity Present]
[Suggestion: Hold the Line Until Identification Completes]
Raif straightened, jaw tightening.
He raised his voice just enough to carry. "The orb's updated. Not just an attack, something else is coming. Objective's unclear. We hold until we know what."
No one answered. But from across the clearing, Raif saw heads turn toward the treeline. Weapons rose. No panic. Just readiness.
And still, the rain fell.
They waited in the hush that followed. Each heartbeat slower than the last. And though none spoke, each carried their own thoughts into the stillness.
Naera stood behind a section of the wall, hand resting on the spear she'd helped carve. She thought of the first time they'd arrived here, all splinters and fear. She didn't want to run again.
Mira adjusted the straps on her makeshift bracer, eyes flicking between Naera's post and Syl's shelter. Every breath she took felt like a thread straining. She couldn't lose either of them, not Naera, not Syl. Not again.
Kael crouched low near a bramble patch, unmoving. His fingers rested lightly on the ground. He didn't think in words, only in motion, in warning, in tension rising. Something unnatural was approaching.
Rix leaned against a half-finished brace near the west edge. His mind raced. Pattern recognition, attack vectors, flora response. But beneath the analysis was something else: a pressure in his chest. Not fear, curiosity sharpened to pain.
Goss cracked his knuckles and looked down at the weapon in his hand. Thomund's memory ghosted behind his thoughts. Not again. Not if he could help it.
Hennick's stance was solid, feet wide, shoulders square. He wasn't thinking about dying. He was thinking about what came after, because they had to survive.
Lira exhaled slowly and traced a circle in the dirt with her toe. "Come on then," she whispered. "Let's see how stupid you are."
From the treeline, a shape shifted.
Raif saw it first, low, fast, and wrong. A Barkwolf burst from the underbrush, mud flying in its wake. Another flanked wide, silent but for the splash of its limbs in the soaked undergrowth.
"Contact!" Raif shouted.
The call snapped through the camp. Goss and Hennick surged forward, weapons raised. Mira and Naera pivoted, covering the flank. Rix ducked behind the inner barricade, already tracking movement.
The first Barkwolf slammed into the outer fence. The barkwood groaned but held. It snarled, pacing, trying to find a weak point. The second darted along the edge, probing.
A wet thud broke the rhythm, something landed atop the wall.
Veilback Mantis.
Its limbs clung to the bark, glossy and sharp. It hissed, front legs raised.
Lira was already moving, a sharpened spear in her hands. She thrust it upward, the tip slammed through the Mantis's midsection. It shrieked, flailing, then tumbled down between the layers of defence.
Kael pointed sharply to the left edge, Splinterhounds. At least three. They moved in bursts, skittering from cover to cover.
Raif shouted, "Hold formation! Don't overextend!"
Rain thickened. The ground turned slick.
A low hissing fog rolled in from the trees.
"Smogcoil," Rix growled. "It's covering their advance!"
Visibility dropped as the vapour drifted between stakes. Mira coughed once, then wrapped a strip of damp bark over her mouth.
Naera pulled back, wiping her eyes. "It's in my throat."
Eloin was already reinforcing the nearest brace, packing mud against the wobbling post.
Raif drew his weapon, stepped to the front. "Brace yourselves. This is the push."
Then Kael stopped moving. He crouched low, eyes fixed on the opposite edge of the clearing, southeast.
Raif followed his gaze. Movement.
A second wave of shapes darted through the haze. Splinterhounds, but not alone. Another Barkwolf. One peeled from the treeline, then another. They weren't charging the same side. They were circling.
"They're splitting," Raif muttered.
Naera stepped up beside him, adjusting her grip on her spear. "They're flanking."
Kael pointed again, quick and precise.
Raif didn't hesitate. "Naera, with me. Kael, guide."
He turned back toward the main group. "Rix, take over. Hold the line with Goss, Hennick, Mira. Keep the center strong."
Rix blinked, then nodded, stepping closer to the orb. "Understood. We'll hold it."
Raif turned and moved with Kael and Naera into the mist, their steps quiet, low to the ground. The forest beyond the fence opened like a wound.
Behind them, the rest of the group adjusted. Goss shifted to cover more ground, Mira kept her attention on the fallen and flanks, and Hennick braced the southern fence.
The rain continued to fall, and the clearing itself seemed to twist with the sounds of movement from all sides.
Raif moved low beside Kael and Naera, slipping through the mist as they trailed along the inside of the perimeter wall. The shapes Kael had spotted were not aiming for a frontal assault, they were moving to the opposite side of the clearing, trying to outflank the defenders.
"They're looping west," Raif muttered, ducking beneath a sagging support beam. "We stay inside. Don't give them an opening."
Kael was already ahead, silent and alert, scanning the shadows beyond the stakes. Naera flanked him, keeping close, her spear angled low.
From behind them, the east wall exploded in noise. A Barkwolf crashed over the top with a snarl, landing in a spray of mud inside the fence.
Lira shouted, "Inside! It's in!"
At nearly the same moment, three Splinterhounds hit the eastern barrier, slamming into bark and braced mud with terrifying speed.
"Keep it off Syl!" Mira called, already shifting.
Rix's voice cut through the confusion. "Form the line! Goss, left! Hennick, push the centre!"
Raif didn't stop. "We keep moving. They'll hold."
The western edge loomed ahead, the mist thinner here. Raif could see movement, darting forms, low to the ground, circling just outside the line of sharpened stakes.
"They're coming up on this side," Naera said. "We've got maybe seconds."
Raif nodded. "Then we meet them here."
They reached the western perimeter just as the first Splinterhounds came into view, low shapes weaving between ferns, their pale, segmented hides glistening in the rain.
One darted forward, leapt, and slammed into the barkwood wall with a growl. The stakes held. Another tried to climb, but slid back down, snarling.
"They're trying to breach," Naera said, steadying her stance.
Then the air shifted.
A larger shadow burst from the jungle behind the pack, longer, sleeker, its bark-like hide glistening with dark sap. It ran low, then launched into the air with terrifying force.
It cleared the wall.
It landed inside the perimeter with a heavy, twisting thud, claws tearing into the wet soil. Its jaws opened, a split line of teeth clacking wide and uneven. Rain steamed from its shoulders.
Naera swore. "That's not a wolf."
Kael was already circling right, cutting off its path.
Raif gripped his weapon tighter.
[Hostile Identified – Category: Splitjaw Stalker]
[Threat Level: High – Adaptive Flanker]