He and Fenrir reached the demons before the formation could respond to the sound of approach.
Not because he moved silently — the inner forest's terrain was not forgiving of complete silence at pace. Because the inner forest's ambient field was interfering with the scouts' ability to read incoming presences at range, the dense, ancient essence of the environment masking the approach signature in a way that the outer sections did not.
The lead Grade Four turned when they were ten metres away.
Too late for anything useful.
Fenrir's shoulder hit it with the full committed momentum of a Grade Three wolf that had been accelerating since the moment Damien sent it forward, and the impact produced the result that Grade Three committed weight produced against Grade Four resistance when the Grade Four resistance was caught in mid-turn.
The second Grade Four had more time.
