The wolf alpha came on day twelve, announcing itself with a howl that cut through the forest so deep and loud that the birds went silent and the smaller predators scattered.
He heard it before he saw it, and beside him Ravenna froze mid-step with her tail unwrapping from her leg in an instinctive fear response.
"What was that?" She grabbed his arm, her claws digging in slightly.
"Trouble." He scanned the tree line while calculating distances and escape routes, his borrowed knife suddenly feeling very inadequate. "Big trouble."
Regular wolves were Floor 1 standard, annoying but manageable even for weak candidates if they worked together. Wolf alphas were something else entirely, mini-boss tier monsters that showed up randomly when the Tower decided a floor needed culling. Most groups that encountered one lost at least half their members before bringing it down.
'This shouldn't be here because alpha spawns don't happen until day fifteen minimum, so what changed?'
He didn't have time to figure it out because the alpha broke through the tree line a hundred meters ahead and stopped, its massive head swinging toward them with the patient intelligence of something that knew it was at the top of the food chain.
The thing was enormous, easily twice the size of a normal wolf with frost coating its fur and pale blue eyes that glowed with something more than animal cunning. Winter Wolf Alpha, one of the nastier variants, capable of ice magic on top of the standard physical package.
[monster detected: winter wolf alpha]
[threat level: extreme]
[recommendation: flee]
'Thanks for the advice, System, real helpful.'
"Ravenna, run." He pushed her toward the trees while stepping forward to put himself between her and the monster.
She didn't argue or hesitate, just turned and bolted into the forest with the survival instincts of someone who spent their whole life running from things that wanted to kill her. Good, one less thing to worry about.
The alpha watched her go and then turned its attention back to him, lips pulling back from teeth the length of his fingers. It knew which one was the real threat because animals were stupid but monsters had just enough intelligence to recognize competence when they saw it.
'Fine, you want a fight? Let's fight.'
He stopped pretending because he was so fucking tired of it.
Twelve days of holding back, suppressing everything that made him dangerous because attention was bad and questions were worse. But there was nobody here to see what he could really do except a monster that was about to die.
The alpha lunged and he moved, not the careful measured speed he showed others but the real thing, eight years of combat experience condensed into muscle memory that didn't care what his stats said he should be capable of. He slipped under the alpha's bite by inches with his knife already moving, carving a line across its muzzle that sent blood spraying across the snow.
The alpha snarled and twisted, impossibly fast for something its size, and a paw the size of a dinner plate caught him across the chest. He went flying, hit a tree hard enough to crack bark, and was moving again before his brain finished registering the pain.
'Okay, still fucking strong, good to know.'
Ice formed in the air around the alpha, crystallizing into spikes that launched toward him like missiles. He dodged two, deflected a third with his knife, and took the fourth in his shoulder because there was no way to avoid it without stopping his momentum.
The pain was distant, manageable, something to be acknowledged and filed away for later. Right now all that mattered was the fight.
He closed the distance while the alpha was still forming its next attack, ducking under its snapping jaws and driving his knife up into the soft tissue under its chin. The blade sank deep, blood gushing over his hand, and the alpha howled in pain before throwing him off with a violent shake of its head.
They circled each other, both bleeding now, both measuring the other with new respect. The alpha was hurt but not dead, its supernatural vitality keeping it on its feet despite a wound that would have killed any normal animal. He was hurt too with the ice spike still embedded in his shoulder, but he survived worse and he wasn't done yet.
'One more hit, that's all I need, one good hit.'
The alpha charged and he met it head-on because sometimes the only way through was straight ahead.
He slid under its lunge at the last second with his knife finding the soft spot between its front legs where the heart pumped blood through its massive body. The blade went in to the hilt and he twisted, tearing through vital tissue before the alpha's momentum ripped him away.
The monster stumbled, took one more step, and collapsed with a sound like a tree falling.
[enemy slain: winter wolf alpha]
[system points: +500]
[administrator attention: level 2]
He stood over the body, breathing hard, blood dripping from his shoulder and his hands and probably a dozen other places he couldn't feel yet. The adrenaline was still pumping, making everything feel sharp and hyper-real, and for a long moment he just stood there and let himself feel like a High Ranker again.
'Damn, that felt good.'
He heard footsteps behind him, multiple sets moving fast, and he spun with his knife up before a familiar voice cut through the fog.
"Holy shit."
Adrian Cross stood at the edge of the clearing, flanked by six other candidates, all of them staring at the dead alpha like it was a dragon instead of a wolf. Behind them Ravenna was peeking out from behind a tree, her eyes wide.
"You killed that thing." Adrian's voice was carefully neutral while his eyes cataloged every wound on the alpha's body with expertise that didn't match his supposed background. "Alone."
'And you saw the whole thing, didn't you? That's not good.'
He lowered his knife slowly while letting some of the tension drain from his posture. "Got lucky."
"That wasn't luck." Adrian stepped closer, crouching beside the corpse and running a finger along one of the wounds. "That was skill, incredible skill. Who are you really?"
"Just a candidate." He met Adrian's eyes and let nothing show on his face. "Like everyone else."
The two of them stared at each other for a long moment, predator recognizing predator, and something passed between them that neither acknowledged out loud.
"We could use someone like you." Adrian stood back up and brushed off his hands, his smile perfect and warm and inviting. "Safety in numbers, right? My group is heading for the exit gate." He glanced at Ravenna with calculation poorly hidden behind courtesy. "You and your companion are welcome to join."
Every instinct was screaming to refuse, to take Ravenna and disappear into the forest and never see Adrian Cross again until he was ready to put a knife in the bastard's back.
But refusing would look suspicious and make Adrian wonder why he was being avoided, which would draw exactly the kind of attention he couldn't afford.
"Sure." The word tasted like poison while he forced himself to smile. "Lead the way."
Adrian's smile widened, and somewhere behind those empty eyes the calculations were already running.
The hunt was just beginning for both of them.