The world narrowed to teeth and pain.
Lior's vision wavered, the heat of the alpha's breath smothering him. Its jaws were a vice on his arm, pressure threatening to crush bone.
"Get off him!" Elyra's shout cut through the ringing in his ears. An arrow slammed into the alpha's flank, the shaft vanishing up to the fletching. The beast barely flinched.
Kael dashed in low, daggers flashing. He slashed at the tendons in the beast's rear leg — dark blood spattered his face. The alpha turned, dragging Lior with it like a rag doll.
Ryn planted his feet, spear braced. "Hold it steady!"
"I can't—" Lior's voice broke into a growl as the beast jerked him.
The spear struck true, driving into the alpha's ribcage with a crack of bone. The monster howled, loosening its grip for a heartbeat. Lior wrenched free, rolling backward and clutching his mangled arm.
"Behind you!" Elyra's warning came too late — another smaller beast lunged from the mist. Kael tackled it mid-air, the two crashing into the rotting undergrowth.
The alpha, enraged, reared up. Fungal growths along its spine pulsed with sickly light, and the air thickened with the stench of decay. Mist coiled tighter, and something in the forest seemed to… shift.
Lior forced himself upright, ignoring the scream in his muscles. He met Elyra's eyes — she saw it too.
This wasn't just an animal. The forest itself was feeding it.
"We end it now!" Ryn barked.
They moved as one. Kael feinted left, drawing the alpha's head down. Elyra's arrow struck the base of its skull. Ryn's spear rammed through its throat. And Lior, summoning the last shred of strength, drove his blade straight between its eyes.
The alpha staggered… then collapsed, shaking the ground.
Silence fell.
Then — deep in the mist — came another roar.
And it was bigger.