Chapter 403: Ridgefang

Chapter 403: Ridgefang

Deo descended the last rungs quickly, keeping his harness clipped until his feet reached the ground. Tobin pulled him through the hut door and shut it. Jin heard the bolt slide across.

Three inside. Door shut. Jin moved clear of the threshold, where he could see both approaches. The narrow window was closed too. For now, he knew where his people were.

The first wolf came up out of the gully.

[Ridgefang Wolf]

[Combat Rank: 2 — 1-Star]

It was lean and long-legged, the grey of the ridge rock, with a ridge of stiff, darker fur standing up along its spine. It came over the lip of the crest on the east side and stopped, looking at Glitch.

Glitch was already on his feet, between the gully and the hut. The wolf didn’t charge him. It went sideways along the lip of the crest, low, keeping its distance, making Glitch turn to follow it. Jin watched it and understood. It wasn’t trying to beat Glitch. It was trying to keep him busy.

On the north side, the second wolf was at the fence gap. It came along the ridge crest in a long, flat run and turned toward the gap. Through the gap was open rock, and the hut door.

"Flicker. North."

She came off the hut roof in a Gale Dash, swung round with a crack of Crosswind Turn at the end of it, and came in on the wolf’s flank from an angle it wasn’t watching. Her Ember Shot hit it on the shoulder.

The wolf flinched. It jerked its head round and snapped at her, and broke its stride for a second. Then it came on. It had seen the workers disappear into the hut and kept coming toward the entrance. Fire on its shoulder wasn’t enough to turn it back. Flicker came round for a second shot and hit it again. It twitched. It didn’t stop.

It noticed. It just doesn’t care enough.

Jin backed toward the northwestern corner of the hut. The rock knuckle lay to his left and the wall to his right. The narrow approach between them would keep the wolf from circling him freely, and the door was only a few steps behind his shoulder.

He checked east. Glitch was holding the first wolf near the gully; Flicker had climbed after her second shot. Jin called her back toward the hut and set his feet. The north wolf came through the fence gap. He waited for its forelegs to reach, then placed a small Gravity Press patch beneath the landing, well ahead of his own position.

Its front legs folded. Its chest struck the stone and slid, claws scraping for purchase. Jin released the pulse as it recovered and extended the spear into the gap. He held the point low. He didn’t have to win a fight here. He needed a few seconds.

The wolf rose and moved left. The rock blocked that route. It shifted back toward the hut, found the spear still between them and made a short testing lunge. Jin jabbed toward its muzzle and stepped back. Its paw struck the shaft, knocking the point aside; a claw scraped his forearm before he recovered the spear. He caught his rear foot against the wall and moved it immediately. There was room for one more step. He knew exactly where the door was now.

"Glitch," Jin said. "When you can."

A glance east showed why Glitch hadn’t come. The first wolf was staying beyond his jaws, then darting at his flank whenever he turned toward Jin. Harden held, but abandoning that position would give it a route around the other side of the hut.

Flicker crossed the roof. Jin saw her angle toward the eastern wolf and sent his agreement through the bond. She dropped along the hut’s far side and curved into its flank. The first wolf was circling Glitch’s left, its eyes on his head.

She came at it from behind and to the right, off a Crosswind Turn that cut a corner Jin wouldn’t have believed possible a month ago. Her Ember Shot hit it right across the eyes.

Its head snapped away from Glitch. The opening lasted only a moment. He came across the gap between them in two heavy strides. His claws lit with Rending Dragon Claw, and he hit the wolf behind the shoulder, where the stiff ridge of fur ended. It went down beneath him. Glitch pinned it and bit behind the neck before turning toward the hut.

The second wolf checked its advance toward Jin. Beyond the spear point, its partner lay still and Glitch was coming toward the hut. It broke for the gap. Glitch reached the northeastern corner as it fled across the hut’s frontage. His tail swept into its hindquarters before it cleared the gap. It yelped, stumbled, and was through the gap and away along the ridge in an uneven, limping run.

"Glitch. Stop."

Glitch stopped at the gap, shoulders braced and tail held rigid. Jin wanted to send him. He could feel the wolf through Glitch’s Tremor Sense, running hurt along the crest. He wanted it farther away. But he didn’t know what lay beyond the next dip, and the crew was still inside.

He looked back at the hut door.

"Stay," he said. "Leave it."

Glitch stayed, and growled after it for a long time. He checked the northern dips through Flicker’s scouting view before knocking and saying his name. Marta drew the bolt. Tobin was white. Deo had opened the window slot a crack and had obviously been watching.

"One dead. The other’s retreated along the ridge," Jin said. "Stay inside while I check the scrub. I’ll keep the bird watching north when you come out."

"Right. Deo, you’ll finish the mast. Tobin, the last two cells." Marta gripped Jin’s shoulder briefly. "Good work."

Only after Flicker had checked both approaches did Jin clear them to resume. Glitch stayed close to the gap. They finished the job with the same routes watched. It took another two hours. Deo got the new sensor head on, and the mast’s light went green. Tobin connected the last of the battery cells, and the waystation called through on the relay to say they could read it.

Jin kept checking their positions between watching the approaches. Deo on the mast, Marta in the doorway, Tobin inside. Nothing else came. They walked back down the path at three, with Glitch pulling the empty sled. Jin reported the kill to the Association from the hauler, and the waystation said a patrol would pick up the carcass on its rounds.

The scrape on his forearm had begun to sting once he stopped watching the ridge. Glitch had a few tooth marks on his plating, and Flicker was simply tired. He cleaned the scrape in the hauler. Verrick looked at both beasts the next morning and found nothing that needed more than a day off.

[Regional Monitoring Service — Escort Contract: complete]

[Net to holder after expenses: 12,000 Credits]

He thought about the north wolf for days. Flicker had hit it twice. Both times, it had flinched and kept coming. She’d made the first wolf flinch at exactly the right moment, and that was what had won the fight. But against something that had already decided to come, her fire wasn’t enough.

She needed something heavier. Something she could put into a single point. He didn’t have it yet. But he had the Engine.

On Saturday, after a proper dinner, he gave her avatar the last portion of Cinderplume Moss.

[Cinderplume Moss — 0 portions stored]

Across the next two evenings, he used the cleared gallery to practise the flight lines that had worked against the bats. Accuracy and sustained effort mattered now. Her avatar had accumulated development through the earlier expeditions; with the moss and careful practice, her real body was approaching readiness to receive more of it.

On Monday, Verrick did a routine check on the real Flicker and wrote excellent at the bottom, again.

That night, Jin opened her panel.

[Controlled Sync — Flicker]

[Stored development: substantial]

[Recipient readiness: good]

[Projected result: Rank 1, 8-Star → Rank 1, 9-Star]

He made the transfer on Tuesday morning, after her movement and the panel both showed readiness. Warmth spread through the bond. Flicker held still on her perch until it eased, then shook her feathers and bent to inspect one wing.

[Flicker — Rank 1, 9-Star]

Nine Stars. The top of Rank 1. After a quiet morning, she made a few easy flights in the yard. Jin watched her land, shift her weight and open both wings. She looked comfortable. He kept the session short anyway.