Holden stood at the edge of the monster swarm.
The Void Mantle hung around his shoulders, its null-space fabric blending with the dark. His left arm was wrapped in a rough bandage. The dagger wound was still aching him badly, but the bleeding had slowed.
About fifty feet ahead of him, a pack of Rank 2 Ridgeback Wolves moved loosely through the mud. There were at least thirty of them, each one the size of a horse. Its yellow eyes scanned the dark, and their ears twitched back and forth like satellite dishes, catching every tiny sound.
Holden walked forward.
He stepped over a fallen log, pushed through a patch of dead scrub, and entered the outer edge of the wolf pack.
The nearest wolf was eight feet away.
But it didn't look at him or make a sound.
Holden kept walking.
He passed between two wolves that were shoulder to shoulder. One of them sneezed, shook its head, and kept moving. The other lay down in the mud and started chewing on a bone.
