Chapter 88

Chapter 88
{Ryanna’s POV}

Nyra and I watched from the front line of the gathered troops, our paws half buried in blood-wet snow.

The moon hung like a pale witness above us, useless and silent, casting the battlefield in long lifeless shadows. Just ahead, they crept. Hulking shapes that moved with unnatural speed. Death Wraiths.

At least twenty of them, maybe more circled us. Their eyes glowed several colours, no warmth in any of them. Just pure hunger.

Nyra sniffed the air beside me. “They’ve surrounded us.”

“I counted fifteen near the ridge,” I muttered. “However, many of them are probably within the trees. But these beasts never really attack with direction. Which means…”

She huffed. “...means there’s a leader. A commander close by.”

I nodded. “Where there are Wraiths this coordinated, there’s always someone guiding them.”

Nyra’s lip curled. “And to our benefit, they can't  be controlled from too far off.”

“Even if they can, they think they don’t have to. They think they can overwhelm us with brute force and numbers… Truth is, they might just succeed.”

She let out a dry laugh. “Come on, we don’t even fear the Wraiths anymore. That’s how crazy this war’s gotten.”

I smiled faintly, teeth peeking. “Well, we know how to kill them now, so I get you.”

“The poison?”

“That's the easy way.” I turned my gaze to the tree line, where something large shifted in the dark. “The hard way is their core.”

Nyra nodded grimly. “Still can’t believe each of those things has more than one heart shoved into it. Bastards took living wolves and forced them into that.”

The wind howled with a tense buildup. I stared straight ahead, catching a flicker of bone, sinew, and a snarl too wide for a normal mouth.

“And the worst part?...” I said.

“...We don’t have enough poison. Can’t waste what we do have, especially with their overwhelming numbers advantage.”

“Then we go with the old way.” She laughed.

I glanced her way, wondering if she was really this eager to fight or if it was simply thinly veiled concern for her wolves: “Yh… destroying the cores. We'll break the packs into squads of seven. They focus on isolating one Wraith at a time. Anyone we don’t take down first at least. While you and I keep the main horde busy.”

Nyra grinned. “Glad you’re such a tactician. Thought grief might’ve dulled your edge.”

I exhaled through my nose. “It tried.”

She turned, barking sharp orders. Her pack scrambled with speed and precision. Even in grief, they obeyed. Even with fear thick in their throats, they formed ranks.

By the time I stepped forward, the Wraiths were already charging.

One came first. It was fast — faster than most of these wolves could handle — its limbs too long, too many joints bending in the wrong direction.

Its howl sounded unholy, disorienting even. 

When it was close enough, I leapt, spinning mid-air and slamming my shoulder into its ribs. They crunched, and the thing screeched like metal scraping metal.

Behind me, Nyra barrelled into another. Her claws raked its face, ripping muscle off a warped skull. It didn’t bleed red. Something green… or black hissed out of the wound and sizzled on the snow.

‘Phewww… That's an Alpha for you.’

They kept coming.

One after another.

A dozen more.

I fought with everything in me. My claws split what could best be described as flesh. I dared not take my fangs anywhere near their rotting forms.

The Wraiths didn’t fall easily — each one took five, six, seven wolves working in perfect tandem to bring down — for anyone who wasn't an Alpha. Even then, they left wounds that festered within minutes.

All around us, wolves screamed and howled.

Nyra’s pack held their ground, but barely. They moved in their groups, coordinated like teeth in a biting jaw. They took down a Wraith, then moved to the next. But the Wraiths were built for death, their hide unnaturally thick, their bloodthirst too much. Two wolves got crushed under a single stomp just behind me.

One was flung into a tree so hard the bark cracked with him.

Another unit circled a Wraith whose leading leg was ripped off by Nyra.

It practically limped towards the other wolves, barely affected by the lost limb, like it forgot that it had happened.

These wolves had a vial of poison, ready to use it the second an opening was clear.

One wolf charged in as it swung, only to take the arm and pin it down awkwardly. Before it could swipe the other at it, two more wolves caught it too, their muscles bulging as they struggled against its overwhelming power.

Another wolf swiftly lunged at its legs, the force of the impact snapped it in the opposite direction, which was enough to bring it down.

An extra wolf leaped up, using the weight of his drop to bring the Wraith down finally. 

The weight of four fully transformed wolves was barely enough to keep it down for long… that would have meant defeat if that was their only strategy. But it wasn't.

Two more wolves propped their jaws open in a desperate effort to make sure they didn't snap at the other four. And finally… the last wolf flung the vial right in,  just as it overpowered the two wolves at its jaws.

“Impressive,” I muttered.

It convulsed, writhing in agony as it drew its final hoarse breaths.

But that was just one in many instances. A couple of units away, all seven wolves failed to execute their tactic and paid the price with their lives, putting more strain on other units.

“Rest well, your nightmare is over I muttered.” As I struck the core of a Wraith, located where its lungs would've been.

“We’re losing too many,” Nyra shouted, fur slick with blackened blood. She shook the remains of a Wraith’s jaw from her claws.

“They’re baiting us,” I said. “They want us here.”

She glanced at me. “You think this is the distraction?”

I nodded once. “I can’t smell the source. They're  too concentrated to get anything else.”

“But there has to be one,” she muttered.

“There is.” My eyes narrowed.

I tried to focus while she flanked me.

Ignoring the screams. Ignoring the stench. Ignore the wolf who’d just had his leg torn from his body.

After what felt like an eternity of doing nothing.

I tilted my head to the wind and inhaled.

I finally picked up on something else besides the rot and decay… Something subtle. Buried not too far off.

A sweetness you could say, compared to the blood and desperation that soaked the earth and snow.

A scent that didn’t belong here.

I opened my eyes: “Found you!”

“I’m going,” I said, already breaking from Nyra’s side.

Nyra didn’t even look back. “Don’t be long.”

“Don’t let them through.”

“I'll  do my best.” She said finally.

I dashed past the squad lines, fur bristling, eyes scanning. It wasn’t far. The scent was growing stronger — leading me around the ridge, beneath a fallen outcrop.

There was a fissure one could easily miss. A crack in the mountain’s base, barely wide enough for a hulking wolf to squeeze through.

I forced my body smaller, bones snapping tight into my half-form, and I successfully slipped in.

Inside, it was dark.

Nothing my enhanced senses couldn't overcome though.

I moved low, slow, my heart pounding in rhythm with each step.

The scent was strongest here.

“There you are.”