Part of the plan was that only the wolves would enter the Ruler’s territory at first.


    This would force the Ruler to consider the situation carefully while conserving resources. If the hydra focused too much on trying to kill off the wolfpack, she might deplete too much power that would be needed to defeat the larger army on her border.


    Sure enough, although Luna raced forward with her central nose uncovered by the small gas masks she and her allies had been given, using her sense of smell to narrow down the location of the Ruler, she did not begin to smell the telltale odor of sulfur yet.


    After a few minutes of running, she felt a pulse of power from the direction she was running in. The Ruler had just used Dominion. The hydra’s territory had expanded, almost certainly pushing the border outwards to try to force the army waiting at the edge to retreat backward and buy time and space. But still, the air around the wolfpack did not turn toxic.


    The plan is working so far…


    The Captain had anticipated that after the first engagement with the wolfpack, in which the hydra had successfully achieved the death of two young wolves and the serious injury of one of the two Master Forest Wolves, the Ruler would underestimate the wolfpack as a threat on its own and not deploy any significant force to stop them from advancing.


    More worried about conserving energy to fight the larger army, the multi-headed snake would perceive the wolfpack, entering the territory on its own, as a sort of sacrificial pawn in the larger game of chess. There was little point in focusing too much on them—assuming that the hydra still had not realized what the real threat of the wolfpack was.


    Luna turned to lead the wolfpack in a slightly roundabout route, no longer running straight at the Ruler’s apparent location. She did this to conceal the fact that she had a nose full of scent that would allow her to find that exact spot and also to triangulate the location more precisely. This way, even if she had to suddenly stop using scent to track—such as if the Ruler turned the air to poisonous gas again—Luna would still have a good idea of where the Ruler was.


    For several minutes, the Wolf Lady led her pack in a wide arc through the Ruler’s territory. Nothing changed during all that time.


    Finally, however, Luna got a whiff of the smell of sulfur. She immediately stopped breathing through the head that had no gas mask. She telepathically informed the rest of the pack of the presence of poisonous gas, so that they would know in case their masks stopped working or were dislodged that they would need to hold their breath.


    And she grinned.


    Too late…


    The wolf had already pinpointed a fairly exact location for the Ruler. Now she led the wolfpack in a charge straight toward it.


    It took them only a few minutes to narrow the distance to nothing. Passing through a trio of trees, Luna saw the Ruler’s lair. A wide-mouthed cave that sunk into the Earth. The aura around it was so thick that Luna could actually taste it without needing to draw too close. This was definitely the place.


    She and the wolfpack slowed and ultimately stopped running just outside of the cave. Still, neither the Ruler nor her forces came out to meet them. Perhaps she was waiting for the poisonous gas to do its work—or hoping that the wolfpack would venture into the dark cave so that they could be subject to ambush by her and her army of snakes.


    Very well. They had a plan for that, too. Even with the plates of armor the wolves wore, the first resort was not to enter a dark, secluded, unsecured location that would undoubtedly be full of convenient ambush points.


    Luna began howling and started running again, and the pack followed her in both. For a few minutes, they raced in circles around the cave. It was large, but not such a large and strong base that the next steps of the battle plan would not work.


    The wolf pack stopped running and howling when Luna spied the first projectile flying through the air. The pack was only a mile or so deep into the territory, though they had traveled sideways by more than a mile. It was within the Royal Fisher Army’s effective striking range.


    The pack scattered to avoid impact as huge balls of fire, lightning, and rock flew at the cave. Some struck, some missed, and at least one flew directly inside of the mouth of the cave. The blows were incredibly loud and quickly chipped away at the structural stability of the entrance. After a few minutes of bombardment, the roof of the cave fell in. Several minutes later, the entire above-ground structure had collapsed into a sunken pile of rubble.


    Luna and the wolfpack howled loudly again to signal that the army should stop so as to waste no further energy. This would also tell the army that they should enter the territory now.


    The sound was barely out of their mouths before the pile of rubble exploded outward from the place where it had been, opening the subterranean portion of the cave to the air.


    There goes the idea of waiting for them to run out of oxygen, Luna thought.


    A minute passed. The wolfpack stood at a remove of twenty feet, most of them staring into the darkness of the hole in the ground while a few looked in other directions, keeping watch against any sneak attacks.


    Then Luna saw them.


    Everyone, be ready! she sent telepathically to the entire pack.


    Dozens of rattlesnakes and a much smaller number of leeches and lizards, turtles and iguanas, marched up from out of the depths.


    Behind them, there were more and more of the same, seemingly endless eyes staring up at them from out of the darkness. It was intimidating, even knowing that the rest of the army was on its way.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Then, toward the back, a huge shape became visible to Luna’s eyes.


    Eleven heads positioned relatively tightly together. Eyes that burned with hatred. The presence was not comparable to that of the King, of course—but it was still heavy and monstrous.


    What it might lack in when compared with James—power—the hydra seemed to Luna to make up for with pure malice. She suppressed the urge to shudder. They were facing an enemy Ruler. She was in charge of her pack right now. This presence was something basic that she would have to get used to.


    The first lines of reptiles and leeches did not approach closer to the wolfpack once they emerged from the cave into the sunlight. Instead, they moved to the sides of the entrance to make way for the others. Every movement was calm and ordered.


    Everything was slow and quiet until the Ruler began to draw near to the light. As she drew closer to the entrance, the hydra began to sway side to side, so that every forward movement of hers brought rattling noises—implicit warnings of how dangerous the snakes were, especially to a Race that had no innate resistance to venom.


    Light fell over her more and more, confirming the presence of eleven heads and revealing more features. Brown, silver and gray scales, including some in a diamond pattern on each of the hydra’s backs. The hydra’s size was less impressive to Luna. She was only slightly taller than Luna herself, despite being constantly “reared up” from Luna’s perspective—moving in a posture that exaggerated her size, as Luna’s size would be exaggerated if she stood up and managed to balance on her hind legs.


    As the shape of the Ruler finally became visible in the light, Luna Identified her.


    Eastern Diamondback Hydra Queen Silk, Lv. 32


    Of course she out-levels me, Luna thought. As much as she had sought to catch up to the King and his most powerful servants, she was still not quite at that tier of power yet. Luna had intended the fight between herself and the enemy Ruler to be a one on one duel, but now she had doubts. Perhaps if I waited for Samuel…


    The former Sewer Alligator Monarch would undoubtedly be a match for Silk. But an image of Romulus’s unconscious body flashed through Luna’s mind’s eye and stiffened her resolve.


    It is for me to take vengeance for his injury, she reminded herself. No one else.


    Then the hydra began to speak.


    “Since you knocked at my door, I hope you are all prepared to be our guests for what remains of your lives,” the hydra said, speaking through all of her heads at once in a tone that somehow rang through the bones of the listeners. “We have no wish to kill you all quickly. You should know that you have entered a land of potent poisons. Death comes when we wish it to, not sooner.”


    She emerged fully into the light, and Luna felt the full intimidation of being in the presence of a Ruler.


    Still, she could not allow that weight to fall equally on the other members of her pack. They could not disgrace themselves by running from this fight—even as she could not help but wonder how long it would take the Royal Fisher Army to arrive. The wolfpack’s job now was to make certain that the Queen did not retreat back into her lair. That mainly meant surviving until the bulk of the army’s other groups could arrive to provide support.


    The situation had been made deliberately tempting for the hydra—the wolfpack was an enticing enough target to get her to strike now, rather than trying to continue hiding.


    Hopefully it was also strong enough to survive contact.


    We can do this, Luna sent telepathically. We will not lose to some smelly snakes who had to hide in a hole in the ground and wait for the army to blast them out of their hiding place. No one here has to behave heroically. The pack only has to endure for ten minutes before backup gets here. And remember, once the army arrives and we do engage more closely, the hydra herself is mine!


    Luna did not seriously think any of her pack members were eager to tackle the hydra, but the reframing in her message seemed to do what needed to be done. The wolves’ postures became more aggressive, teeth bared, hackles raised, as they stared at the army of reptiles.


    “Nothing to say, then?” the hydra asked in a bored tone of voice.


    “I hope you have made peace with your gods,” Luna replied in a voice so aggressive and angry that it surprised even her. “You will be with them soon.”


    She found herself charging forward, straight at the hydra, against her own wisdom and the strategy she had just been outlining to the pack.


    A shadowy shape appeared in between herself and the hydra, and Luna only managed to slow down slightly before she struck it.


    Eleven shadowy heads leaned in to try and bite at Luna’s flesh, and she lunged forward, ignoring the fangs and jaws and using her own to grab the Manifestation by the necks. With a single chomp from all three jaws, she crushed the Manifestation’s necks and ripped them viciously from the body, dispersing the Manifestation into black smoke in an instant.


    It had taken much longer the first time she confronted one of these things, but Luna’s power and motivation had taken a jump since the last time. She was fighting for revenge, for her pack’s survival, for the King and the Royal Fisher Army—for everything that was dear to her—and the enemy Ruler was still playing these petty tricks. She had already been angry, but she grew hot with rage in an instant at being intercepted.


    As the smoke dissipated, and Luna found herself facing up to the hydra and her hundreds of snakes, the wolf found the courage in her rage to challenge the multi-headed creature.


    “Can you actually fight?” she snarled. “Or is it all just cheap tricks?”


    The hydra let loose a cold chuckle that made her body rattle with every sound that escaped.


    “You want a one on one engagement with me?” Silk asked. “I suppose you were too impatient to die before. You want to join your friend in the grave.”


    Luna had to control herself for a moment. She had an intense urge to throw herself directly at the hydra, but that was obviously the point of the provocation—to try and produce another rash attack like the one Luna had initiated before.


    After a moment, when it had become apparent Luna was not taking the bait, a huge swell of aura rose around the Queen and then just as suddenly dissipated. A dozen more of her Manifestations appeared interspersed with her rattlesnakes and other soldiers.


    “There,” the hydra said, her tone almost bored. “Now I can defend my children and play with you.” Silk moved away from her troops and off to the side, her long intertwined coils slowly pressing her forward until she was twenty feet from her army.


    Luna looked back and forth between the hydra and her army, trying to gauge how quickly they could—and whether they would—come to her defense, as well as how much she would be adding or detracting from her pack’s odds of survival by engaging the hydra right now.


    The snakes did not seem to be moving on their own to engage the pack.


    “Unless you are afraid,” Silk added.


    That was when Luna made up her mind and charged.