The clearing steamed with blood and rain. Pools of water gathered in the grooves of the mud, filling the footprints of those who had stood only moments ago. The storm had not lessened. If anything, it had grown worse, its wind howling through broken branches, hurling needles of rain into every exposed scrap of skin. Everyone had moved back from the wall, the unknown howl was dangerous, and while the shelter wasn't going to give much protection, at least it was something.
Raif stood still beneath the slanted overhang near the half-collapsed shelter. He watched Mira and Naera crouch beside Syl, whispering quietly. Lira had taken position outside the entrance, spear still in hand, eyes scanning the tree line. Rix moved along the perimeter with Kael, who remained wordless and alert, eyes flicking constantly between signs in the mud and movements in the fog beyond the fence.
Goss and Hennick sat with their backs against the a newly patched section of wall, it wasn't completed fix but Eloin was doing his best bit by bit. Their chests rose and fell with shallow, measured breaths. Hennick was keeping pressure on Goss's side, where bark and claw had torn through layers of bark-hide. The older man winced but said nothing.
Raif knelt beside them, his voice low. "Hold steady. Don't move unless you have to. I'll need you both to shout if anything comes through."
"We can still fight," Hennick muttered, his voice rough.
"No," Raif said. "You've done enough, but if the time comes for it… Fight."
He placed a hand briefly on Goss's shoulder. The man's skin was clammy with rain and blood. Raif didn't like the look of it. But there was no time to think about that now.
The orb pulsed suddenly from where it hovered in the shelter, flickering a deep, unfamiliar orange.
[System Quest – Objective: Eliminate Alpha Barkwolf]
[Assault Designation: Active Threat – Jungle Offensive]
[Objective Priority: Alpha Barkwolf]
Silence fell. Even the storm seemed to hush.
Raif rose slowly, the light from the orb reflected in his eyes. The message hung in the air like a noose.
Naera stood first, her spear held tightly in both hands. Lira shifted beside her, eyes wide. Mira's gaze moved from Syl's sleeping form to the rain-slicked treeline. Even Rix stopped pacing.
Kael was already at the wall, motionless.
Raif's voice carried. "We have confirmation," he said. "It's not over."
He moved quickly toward Kael, boots sloshing through sodden ground. As he neared, Kael raised one hand, sharp, precise. He pointed northeast, just past the far perimeter, where the tree line dipped into a cluster of broken-rooted ferns.
Raif followed his gaze.
It was there.
A shape, hunched and impossibly broad, low to the ground, moved with deliberate silence. Its bark-coated shoulders flexed like shifting timber. Glowing fungal veins lit the cracks of its body with pale green pulse. It stepped through the brush without making a sound.
Then it stopped.
Eyes caught the light, wide and unblinking. Not red like the wolves. Pale, like rot. Intelligent.
Raif swallowed. "This isn't just a monster," he thought.
He turned back to the others. "Positions," he said. "Everyone capable, now. This isn't like the others."
Mira stood without hesitation. She gave Syl one last glance, then jogged into the mist near the inner wall.
Naera moved slower, her breathing shallow. She tightened the strap around her armguard, jaw clenched. Lira reached out to her for the briefest moment, touching her shoulder.
"We'll be fine," Lira said. "Just stay close."
Naera nodded but didn't answer. She looked across the clearing at Raif, her expression unreadable.
Kael had already repositioned, perched near a section of mud wall where visibility was clearest.
Even Rix looked rattled. He had drawn his stone knife and crouched near the storage crates.
"This isn't a normal bark wolf," he muttered, mostly to himself.
Raif exhaled slowly, watching them move. Watching them prepare. He knew they trusted him, followed him, but the weight pressed harder with every step. Every glance. Every wound they carried.
The orb floated higher, pulsing in steady rhythm.
"It's thinking," Raif thought. "It's learning."
He remembered Thomund. Remembered the first bark wolf that had killed him. That thing was a beast. Wild, vicious, fast. It was already different from the other bark wolves that they had to face since.
This one was worse.
Not because it was stronger. But because it waited.
A jagged crack of thunder tore across the sky, white light flashing through the trees. For a moment, the Alpha was fully visible, looming, soaked, scar-scored. Its claws sank into the mud with purpose. Its body didn't twitch or shift.
It watched.
The rain beat harder, drumming against wood and flesh.
Raif moved behind the closest barricade, just beside Kael. "See anything else?" he asked.
Kael didn't speak. He tapped the ground with two fingers, then mimed a circling motion with his hand.
"Flanking," Raif translated aloud. "Possibly two or three."
Mira ducked under a brace of woven vines. "West or north?"
Raif looked to Kael, who pointed west, then north, pausing. He shook his head, uncertain.
"They're testing," Raif said. "Just like the Splitjaw. It's all connected."
Lira wiped water from her eyes and leaned her spear against her shoulder. "They've learned from us."
Rix let out a breath that could've been a laugh or a curse. "No. Worse. They've been watching us."
Syl stirred faintly behind them. Mira glanced back but didn't move. The shelter was barely standing. There'd be no saving her if the wall gave in.
Raif closed his eyes for one second. Let the sound of the storm fill the silence. Let the weight of leadership settle fully across his shoulders.
"I cannot lose anyone. No one will die today," he thought.
When he opened them again, the Alpha was gone.
Kael tapped the wall.
Raif turned and whispered, "Positions. Now."
Thunder cracked again. The clearing, broken and waterlogged, braced for war, as war came.
It began with a roar.
Not the Alpha's.
One of the lesser bark wolves lunged from the underbrush, slamming against the east wall, a newly fixed point. It rebounded off the mud plating, then leapt again, scraping its claws along the wet bark as it tried to find purchase.
Naera was first to respond. She darted toward the impact point, spear held high, her steps kicking up water with each stride. Mira followed, stone axe in hand, courtesy of Hennick, weaving through the barricades.
On the opposite side of the clearing, another crash sounded. A second bark wolf, accompanied by a leaner, four-limbed creature, another Splinterhound, thrashed through the perimeter.
"They're splitting us!" Raif called. "North and east!"
Rix adjusted his stance, shifting into the gap between two support beams. "I'll hold the middle!"
Lira glanced at him, soaked to the bone. "You better."
The Splinterhound howled, its joints flexing with unnatural grace as it lunged at the mud wall.
Raif turned to Kael. "Stay sharp. That Alpha's still out there."
Kael nodded, then vanished into the shadows behind a thicket of crates and broken timber.
The eastern wall cracked.
The bark wolf, through sheer force of repetition, had weakened the structure enough to open a path. Mud splattered. Bark splintered. The creature tumbled through with a snarl.
Naera didn't flinch, she was waiting for this moment. She struck with precision, jabbing her spear under its jaw. It howled and twisted, catching her shoulder with a wild swing. Mira intercepted, swinging her axe low and wide, slamming it into the wolf's flank.
They didn't just fight, they controlled space. Mira drew the wolf back toward a narrow point between the supply crates. Naera pivoted, jabbing low and forcing it into a tight funnel. Their training hadn't been formal, but their instincts were now aligned.
Raif could see them from his vantage. The coordination between Mira and Naera was seamless. Every motion felt rehearsed, born from days of surviving together.
But the Splinterhound was coming.
It leapt clear over the northern barricade, landing just short of the shelter. It's nostrils picking up the scent of the weak.
Syl cried out.
Lira launched her spear. It struck true, lodging into the creature's upper spine, but it didn't fall. It spun toward her, frothing with rage.
Raif moved.
He dashed across the central clearing, flanked by Kael, both silent and deadly. They split paths as they neared the north side. Kael went wide, drawing his stone knives, while Raif tackled the Splinterhound head-on.
Their blades met bark and sinew.
More crashes sounded along a different part of the wall, two more bark wolves were now battering the weakened corners, working together. They struck in rhythm. Not wildly. With a plan.
Rix shouted from his post, "They're synchronising hits! They're trying to collapse the frame!"
The defenders scrambled. Naera ducked low as another wolf burst through a muddy gap, narrowly missing her with its snapping jaws.
"This isn't random," she called. "They're forcing us to divide, making us leave our posts!"
And it was working.
Kael caught one of the wolves with a sharp jab to the back of its knee joint, slicing tendon, then vanished again, luring the creature further from the shelter.
Raif growled as he drove his blade into the throat of the Splinterhound, but the creature didn't fall instantly. It lashed out in death throes, clawing deep into Raif's forearm before collapsing.
The pain sent a white-hot surge through him. For a moment, he staggered, clutching the wound. His grip faltered. The blade nearly slipped.
A brief tremor of fear cracked through his focus, but then he steadied. Not because the pain faded, but because there was no time to feel it.
"Status?" he called, backing away.
"Wall's holding, barely," Lira shouted.
"Shelter's clear," Mira said.
"For now," Rix added. "But they're not done yet."
The howl of the Alpha had yet to come. But its plans were already in motion.
It advanced with the silence of something that didn't need to announce itself. From the northern treeline, it surged forward, head low, limbs churning through muck and fallen limbs, its form almost blending with the trees behind it. The fungal glow along its ribs shimmered like firelight behind a wet veil.
Raif had only enough time to shout, "North wall!" before the beast smashed into a partially reinforced section.
The mud wall held, barely, but splinters flew in every direction. A section crumpled inward.
Rix was the first to respond, darting closer to intercept. "It's breaching!" he yelled.
Kael was already moving, angling toward the flank, knives gleaming wet in his fists. Naera was two steps behind him. The Alpha burst through the breach with terrifying force, sending debris and bark scattering like arrows.
Raif rushed forward. Goss and Hennick followed, against better judgement.
"Fall back!" Raif shouted, but Hennick didn't stop. He hurled a stone-headed spear toward the Alpha's flank. It thudded into thick bark plating with no visible effect.
The Alpha pivoted, fast.
Its paw swung wide, claws catching Goss square in the ribs. He hit the ground hard, breath gone.
Raif reached him, dragging him back with Mira's help. Blood soaked Goss's side.
Hennick lunged to cover them, only for a second paw to catch his thigh, raking deep. He dropped to a knee, snarling in pain.
"Pull him back!" Raif shouted. "Kael, now!"
Kael leapt from the shadows, blades flashing. He slashed across the Alpha's eye, drawing a burst of thick, luminous fluid. The creature reeled, staggering.
Naera darted in, stabbing at its side. Her spear found softer flesh, punching through fungal bark, but the Alpha twisted, its head crashing into her shoulder and flinging her backwards.
It didn't press. It stepped back into the shadows.
Then it watched again.
Rix cursed under his breath. "It's not just attacking, it's reading us."
Behind him, Lira held her ground. Her eyes locked on the Alpha with a mix of disbelief and disgust. "That thing... it knew she'd move to attack its side."
Raif looked from the injured to the treeline. The Alpha didn't move. The storm lashed its back and shoulders, but it stood unaffected.
He could feel it. The pattern. The strategy. It had pulled back not out of fear, but calculation.
A sharp crack echoed as another bark wolf rammed the opposite side of the wall, a feint that failed to break through. Still, it had timed it with the Alpha's assault.
"They're coordinating," Raif said aloud, the words tasting bitter.
The group gathered near the shelter. Mira bent beside Goss while Hennick grit his teeth, half-standing with support. Naera rubbed her shoulder and tried to steady her grip.
Raif turned toward the light. "Everyone regroup. We've got more coming."
Lightning split the sky. For a moment, the clearing was a battlefield frozen in time: mud-slick and bloodied, ringed by hostile eyes in the dark.
Kael stood unmoving, posture rigid. Then, without turning, he pointed two fingers to the west.
Raif followed the motion.
The Alpha was no longer watching.
It was gone.
He knew it wasn't fleeing.
It was preparing.
"We're not done. Not yet."