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point, but for now Alpha Wolf Platoon seemed to be holding out fine. Even with their diminished skills they kept the enemy at bay with carefully placed shots.
    But then the low howl sounded again, audible even over the din of gunfire. And then something huge leaped out of the trees, coming right toward her.
    Selene and everyone else around her dove in every direction as the boss slammed to earth, trying to pin them under its massive bulk. It missed, but the impact shook the ground beneath them.
    She rolled to her feet and took aim, switching her rifle to full auto with one practiced motion. Selene unloaded the rest of her magazine into the gigantic beast, but the creature barely even flinched.
    Yusuf was right. The boss monster was huge, at least the size of a bus with monstrous, pronounced fangs the size of her arms. Anyone on the receiving end of those would be dead before they could even realize it.
    More of her troops trained their guns on the boss and opened fire, but the creature quickly leaped away into the undergrowth, out of sight.
    “Do you want us to burn away the brush?” Gavin asked her over the radio link.
    “Wait. We don't know what else it out there that we might disturb, and we don't want to flush it out. Not at a time like this.”
    Many types of creatures weren't immediately hostile, but would become so if they were disturbed. Selene hadn't seen any so far, but setting fire to the area around them was a good way to stir them up. One wrong move and they could have hundreds of monsters swarming their position alongside the boss.
    “Watch yourself,” Yusuf warned. “One of the things I noticed the last few times was that it likes to make a straight charge out of the undergrowth, and it's pretty much impossible to stop then.”
    Selene heard the brush to her left suddenly crack, and then another loud howl filled the air. She looked on with a mixture of awe and horror as the gigantic creature charged out and grabbed one of her troops, crushing him in its jaws. Bullets seemed to do nothing to it.
    And for some reason, Selene lost her cool. She advanced forward, blazing away at the thing's head with her assault rifle on full auto. Her gun clicked empty, and she quickly changed magazines.
    But her actions caught the attention of the boss monster, and Selene suddenly realized she had just made a terrible mistake. The gigantic fen wolf reared back, preparing to pounce at her.
    And then it howled, almost like it was in pain. That was when Selene realized a significant number of her platoon was beside her, closing the distance with their own guns blazing. Even something as tough as a boss monster couldn't stand up to that kind of barrage. The fen wolf fell to the ground, shuddered once, and died.
    “Man, are you trying to commit suicide?” Gavin asked her as the area went quiet.
    “I guess frustration just go the better of me,” she replied. “No big deal.”
    No big deal. But was that actually true? Her actions might very well have gotten her killed, and then it would be back to square one. Could she really claim it was frustration with a straight face, or was it something deeper?
    “That should be it for now,” Yusuf said, cutting in on her thoughts. “The attacks usually stop after we kill the boss.”
    “Got it. Alpha Wolf, hold the perimeter to make sure we don't get any more surprises.”
    As the rest of her platoon acknowledged and went back to their positions, Selene went to a knee, brooding. What had she been thinking, charging the boss by herself? Was she starting to go mad with frustration?
    And if she was, could she keep in under control when it counted?

4
    Look Before You Leap
    N ora couldn't quite describe the way she felt when she heard the news.
    Ghost Battalion's commanders had been called before Hydra's military council to discuss a future operation. That in and of itself didn't surprise her, since they might as well hash out the details while the unit was resting and refitting. As soon