The clearing stank of mud and blood. What little light filtered through the stormclouds shimmered off the slick ground, turning the entire centre of the camp into a shadowed pit. Raif stood at its edge, his chest rising and falling as if it were the storm itself.
Hennick leaned heavily against one of the storage frames, his jaw clenched as blood seeped down his thigh. The cut was deep. Mira had done what she could to bind it, but it wasn't enough. Across from him, Goss lay on his back near the shelter wall, half-conscious, the left side of his torso wrapped in a sodden bandage of moss and bark. He hadn't spoken in minutes.
Raif moved between them, eyes scanning each face. The others gathered nearby, Lira crouched near Syl's shelter, stone knife in hand, eyes sharp; Naera and Kael stood just inside the shattered inner wall, their weapons lowered but ready.
"We can't take another hit like that," Eloin said quietly. He wiped mud from his hands and shook his head. "If it charges again, that wall's gone."
Kael knelt beside him, dragging his finger through the mud. He etched lines with swift, sure movements, paths, arcs, impact points. Raif crouched beside him.
"Here?" Raif asked, pointing to the left flank.
Kael tapped twice.
Raif nodded. "That's where it'll come from."
The orb pulsed from above the shelter, casting a pale orange glow through the mist.
[Warning – Core Barrier Integrity: 51% and Falling]
The message lingered too long. No one spoke. It was the first time this message as displayed. Raif wondered, if this was the first instance of the core being damaged. His mind ran wild, but he had to calm down. He couldn't let the unknown grip hold of him.
Rix broke the silence. "If we try to hold again, we're done."
Mira looked up from Goss's side. "So what then?"
"We trap it."
Everyone turned to Rix.
"We pull it in," he said. "Control the angle, force it to expose its weight. No more reactive flailing, we bait it."
Kael nodded once. Eloin was already scanning the broken edge of the wall, eyes flicking between intact posts.
"I've got a spot," Eloin said. "The brace near the fallen crates, it's weak enough to collapse if we anchor weight at the top. Give me a few hands and I can turn it into a trap."
Raif looked around. "Kael, Eloin, do it."
He turned to the others. "Naera, Mira, and I will draw it in. Rix, Lira, you cover the wounded and hit it from range if needed."
"And what if the Alpha doesn't take the bait?" Lira asked.
Raif met her eyes. "Then we die or find another way."
No one laughed. Silence grasped them as they moved.
The air grew quieter. Not still, never still, but more focused, like the jungle itself was holding its breath. Rain still fell, but softer now, pattering in a rhythm that seemed to mark time.
Kael vanished into the shadows. Eloin followed, slinging corded vines and bark lengths over his shoulder. Raif watched them go, then turned back to the shelter. His gaze fell on Syl, still breathing shallowly. Still alive.
He allowed himself only one breath.
Then he stepped out into the dark, ready to finish it.
The storm had faded to a thick drizzle, the jungle canopy dripping in slow, relentless rhythm. Lightning still flashed far in the distance, a dim echo of the fury that had soaked the clearing for days.
Kael crouched behind the partially rigged post, his hands coated in mud and sap. Eloin crouched beside him, using carved bone stakes to hold the frame in place. Their breath came shallow and quick. The trap would work, but only once.
Kael tapped the ground once with the haft of his blade. Eloin followed his gaze.
Through the misted gaps in the wall, a hulking silhouette moved. The Alpha had returned.
It moved slower now. One leg dragged slightly, its gait uneven from earlier wounds. But there was no mistaking the intent in its eyes. The glowing ribs along its side pulsed faster, as if its heart were beating from somewhere outside its chest.
Raif stood at the kill path entrance with Naera and Mira. Each held their ground. Mira gritted her teeth, her stone spear gripped tightly. Naera said nothing, but her posture was steady, her eyes trained.
"Here it comes," Raif muttered.
The Alpha didn't charge, not yet. It prowled forward, testing the wind, claws sinking deep into the churned mud. It was watching again.
Then, with a guttural grunt, it moved.
The ground trembled beneath its steps. Raif turned and ran first, drawing it in. Mira darted to the left, flanking wide. Naera backpedalled quickly but deliberately.
The Alpha gave chase.
Its movements were no longer wild or furious, it was calculating. It shifted between targets, hesitating for fractions of a second before adjusting. It knew which of them to pressure.
Raif skidded through the centre path, splashing through standing water. He yelled, waving his spear overhead. "Come on!"
The Alpha lowered its head and lunged.
It passed the first marker.
Kael's hands tightened around the coil of vine. Eloin mouthed a count: three… two…
Mira nearly stumbled but caught herself, then turned to hurl her spear. It bounced off the Alpha's shoulder, but it worked, it turned fully toward her.
Naera rushed forward, drawing it back on course.
Then Raif pivoted, cutting across the path.
The Alpha took the bait.
As it thundered forward, Kael pulled the cord.
The brace cracked. The mud-laced frame above groaned, then collapsed. With a heavy crash, the bone-weighted beam slammed down across the Alpha's rear flank.
A snarl split the air.
The Alpha buckled.
Its hind leg pinned beneath the trap, it twisted violently, snapping at the post, at the air, at anything. But it could not free itself.
The moment held, every heart in the clearing froze. The creature was able to think and plan, but it doesn't know enough. Traps and coordination between humans were something it was new to, it didn't know how to react even if it thought it was reacting correctly. In terms of strategic planning, it was nothing more than a baby, using its big body to create plans that it knew worked for itself. Now it faced something different, a smaller species. Humans.
Raif didn't hesitate.
"Now!"
Raif surged forward first, mud flying from beneath him. His spear was angled low, eyes fixed on the Alpha's heaving chest. Behind him, Naera and Mira moved in tandem, their weapons gleaming with water and streaked with dark fungal blood from the earlier fights.
The Alpha twisted.
Even pinned, it was faster than any of them expected. Its torso coiled like a spring, and with a thunderous growl, it slammed its front paw sideways, straight into Raif's charge.
He barely managed to duck. The blow skimmed his back, knocking him into the mud with a sickening thud. His spear went skittering out of reach.
"Raif!" Mira shouted, already pivoting. She launched herself to his side, dragging him backward.
Naera lunged in from the opposite angle, aiming a blow to the Alpha's exposed ribs. But it spun its upper body, and she had to leap clear to avoid the snapping jaws that closed inches from her arm.
Kael darted forward next. He aimed low, a blur in the rain. His blade flashed, and he struck at the sinew near the beast's pinned leg. A spurt of viscous, luminous fluid sprayed into the mud.
The Alpha howled, but then countered.
Its foreleg reared back and pounded downward. Kael rolled aside, just in time. The impact cracked the ground beside him, sending tremors through the shallow pool of rainwater.
Eloin shouted from the rear wall. "It's trying to loosen the frame!"
And it was. With every twist, every spasm, the Alpha was testing the trap, inching its body just far enough to shift its pinned leg. Not to escape. Not yet. But enough to fight.
Raif got back to his feet with Mira's help. His side burned, but he nodded. "Again."
The first charge had failed. But they weren't stopping.
Naera spat blood and tightened her grip.
They would not let this thing survive.
Naera was the first to shift strategy. She didn't charge again. Instead, she moved to the edge of the Alpha's vision, using the fractured wall posts and crates for cover. Mira caught her intention and mirrored her movement, circling around the opposite side.
Kael, now crouched behind a half-sunk log, raised his blade and pointed to the base of the Alpha's spine, exposed, the fungal sacs flaring in and out like a grotesque lung.
Eloin called out, "Focus the pressure! We hit together!"
Raif retrieved his spear, coated in mud, and steadied his breathing. "It's not just brute force," he muttered. "We need to pick it apart."
Rix, perched near the centre firepit with Lira, gestured sharply. "Look at its front paw, it's shifting weight off the pinned leg. It's going to try and pull free if we stall!"
Lira narrowed her eyes. "Then we don't stall."
Naera hurled a broken bark spear, aiming not to kill, but to distract. It lodged in the Alpha's shoulder. The beast snapped its head toward her, but that was the signal.
Kael launched forward, slicing behind the shoulder blade. Mira followed, thrusting low into the exposed fungal node near the ribs. The Alpha howled, spasmed, then reared back violently, shoving them away.
From behind, Eloin tossed a sharpened support beam like a javelin. It struck the upper haunch, cracking fungal plating.
"Keep circling it!" Rix shouted. "Disorient it!"
They moved like hunters now, not defenders. The Alpha tried to twist, but every motion met another blade, another strike, another pressure point. Still, it did not fall. It endured, lashed out, fought with an intelligence that unsettled even Kael.
Raif circled to the rear. The Alpha saw him, lunged. He jumped back. "We can do this," he whispered.
He wasn't sure if he was convincing the others, or himself.
Kael launched himself forward again, going low, aiming to slice across the tendons near the beast's trapped limb. But the Alpha shifted its torso and lashed out with its forepaw, not to crush, but to sweep. Kael's feet were taken out from under him. He hit the mud hard and rolled instinctively, coming up gasping.
Naera darted in from the opposite side. Her blade scraped across a ridge of bark-like fungal plating, but she couldn't find a gap deep enough. As she backed off, the Alpha's tail whipped around, slamming into a broken support beam that narrowly missed her head.
"We're losing ground!" Mira shouted, circling wide. "We need to reset!"
Raif moved toward Kael, reached down, and hauled him upright. "You good?"
Kael nodded, breathing hard, rain running down his face. He gestured toward the spine again.
"We're going again," Raif growled, steadier now.
From behind the ruined crates, Rix's voice rang out. "The lower flank, it's shifting more weight there. It's going to try snapping the post!"
Eloin was already moving to reinforce it with a stake, shouting, "Cover me!"
Mira tossed a chunk of jagged bark at the Alpha's snout, distracting it just long enough for Eloin to slam a bracing rod into place. The Alpha howled again, turning to try and bite, but Kael was already slicing a flank node, drawing its attention back.
Goss stirred from his prone position and called out hoarsely, "Don't go head-on!"
Mira charged again, not recklessly, but with full weight behind her step. She ducked under the Alpha's swiping claws, jammed a spear under the armpit, and twisted.
The Alpha roared, but she was already pulling back, panting, covered in slime and rain.
Naera joined her, back-to-back for a moment. "You all right?"
"I'm pissed off," Mira muttered. "But yeah."
Kael flanked left. Raif and Eloin prepared for another forward assault.
The air reeked of rot and heat and fear. But their formation was holding now, tighter. There was rhythm to it, strike, distract, pull back. And every time, the Alpha was just a little slower.
Just a little closer to falling.
Raif led the final charge, soaked in mud, blood, and rain. His breath was ragged, his grip on the spear trembling, but there was no hesitation. The Alpha snarled and writhed, its leg pinned, its body twisted and exposed.
"Together!" Raif shouted.
Kael was first to flank from the left, his blade low. Eloin moved to the right, gripping a shattered rib he'd pried from the perimeter wall, jagged and sharp. Naera sprinted in, circling to the beast's blind side.
The Alpha reared back and roared, spittle flying in thick strings. It slammed a paw forward, but it was sluggish now. Raif dodged under it, stabbing toward the chest, feeling the point skitter off bone.
Mira ducked beside him and slashed across the Alpha's underbelly. It howled and twisted. That was when Kael struck.
He leapt in, planted a foot on the twisted trap beam, and thrust his blade into a fungal joint just above the shoulder. The Alpha screamed, a sound more like a storm breaking than an animal's pain.
Naera darted in, dropped to one knee, and buried her spear beneath the rib cage, aiming for the pulsing growth at its core. It struck home. The Alpha convulsed.
Raif seized his moment.
With both hands, he plunged his spear into the exposed gap where bark and fungus split. The weapon sank deep. A shudder rippled through the Alpha's entire frame.
It sagged.
Still alive, still heaving, but collapsing.
Eloin gritted his teeth and rammed his makeshift weapon into the creature's throat. Kael struck again. Mira didn't stop moving. Naera rose and landed one last thrust.
Then, at last, the Alpha fell.
Its body hit the mud with a heavy, final exhale. The fungal sacs on its side dimmed and flickered, like dying embers.
No one spoke. No one moved.
Rain tapped against the ground. Soft. Gentle.
Then, the orb pulsed.
[Hostile Neutralised – Alpha Classification Confirmed]
[Major Threat Eliminated – Area Secured]
[Reward: +15 KE Earned]
Raif dropped to one knee, spear across his lap. Naera exhaled, long and slow. Kael wiped his blade on the wet grass. Mira stood over the corpse, chest heaving.
The clearing was silent but for the sound of the jungle breathing again.
The storm began to clear.
But a bolt of lightning ran through Raif's mind. He snapped up and turned towards Kael and Rix.
"Now!"