Phong knew he had to think faster than fear.
If they stayed here and tried to hold Camp Orthrus the normal way, they could probably do it for a while. The defensive lines were solid, the camp was not weak. Dominic, Alex, Janet, Séline, Camille, the lizardmen, the Tortura, all of them could fight.
But it would cost far too much.
The fight ahead would be a slow grind with bodies on the ground by the end of it.
Phong looked over the camp.
At the fighters catching their breath.
At the lizardmen treating wounds.
At the Tortura in the trees, already watching the forest again.
At Dominic and Janet.
At Alex.
At the half-frozen lime-oak, the barely finished camp, the people who had trusted him enough to come here.
And under his breath, he swore.
"We already had one unwinnable enemy." His jaw tightened. "Two if you count Em. Three since the Phoenix killed without caring."
He looked toward the dark line of the crescent forest.
"So… fuck it. Let's antagonize the fourth one."
Before anyone could stop him, Phong reached into his pouch and pulled out the last of the seeds from Lyon. The same seeds scraped from the biome on the back of Horns of the Earth, the very same that had become the elf children.
Dominic saw what was in his hand and went still.
Janet's eyes widened.
Alex turned sharply. "Phong."
He did not answer. He simply walked to the outer perimeter of camp, to a point just beyond the strongest inner line and just inside the place where the Soerai would have to smell it first if they came again.
Then he planted those seeds.
When Phong stepped back, he looked toward the forest and lowered his voice to a whisper.
"That should make them hesitate," he said. "Hopefully."
The silence behind him was immediate.
Then Alex was there. She did not rushed him with a weapon in hand. Worse. She came at him with anger.
"You used them," she said.
Phong turned.
Alex's face had gone hard in a way he did not see often unless blood had already been spilled. "You're using the scent of the elves to scare the Soerai off."
"Yes."
"That means you're using Horns of the Earth's children as hostages."
The words hit hard because they were true. Phong looked at her and did not deny it.
"If it keeps people alive, yes."
Alex stared at him like she did not know whether to shake him or scream at him.
"That is not your choice to make."
"It is if I'm the one planting them."
Her eyes flashed, almost as if she was confused of what to do. That got everyone's attention fast, because Phong almost never answered her like that. Normally he yielded ground. Normally he redirected, softened, waited patiently and let her burn through the first strike before meeting her with something steadier.
He didn't do that this time.
Alex stepped closer. "You are gambling with the wrath of a Titan because you're scared."
Phong's voice stayed low, but it did not bend.
"Yes."
That shocked her more than denial would have.
He took one look at the camp, then back at her. "And I'll carry the wrath of the bull if I have to. As long as my people live."
"Your people?"
That only made Alex angrier, because she understood exactly how much he meant it.
"And when that wrath doesn't stop with you?" she shot back. "When it lands on all of us anyway?"
Phong's mouth tightened.
He did not raise his voice.
He spoke with the conviction of someone ready to die on the spot:
"Then that mean they stepped over my dead body to get to you."
Phong held his ground.
Alex realized it too.
That he was not going to give this one to her just because it was her. That he was not stepping back into the gentler role he usually took when they clashed. And that was the first time she had run straight into how stubborn he could be when fear and responsibility got tangled together.
Their very first big fight.
It was real enough that the whole camp felt it.
Alex's hands curled into fists at her sides.
For one terrible second, Phong saw the thought flicker across her face. Rage. The ugly human desire to break something when words could not force it to make sense.
But Alex was still Alex. She was sharp enough not to obey the worst thought just because it arrived.
So instead of doing anything reckless, she turned on her heel and stormed to the far edge of camp, digging her phone from her pocket as she went. Her shoulders were rigid, her whole body vibrated with contained fury.
Phong let out a slow breath after she was gone.
Then he went to the lime-oak, leaned against the trunk, and slowly sank to the ground.
He closed his eyes, press twingo fingers to his temples. And sat there like a man who had not won anything at all.
Across the camp, Dominic caught Janet's eye.
He did not need to say much.
She understood immediately.
Janet jerked her head lightly toward Séline and Camille. The two women followed her without question, moving after Alex with the easy quiet of people who knew how to approach an angry woman without poking the hornet nsst.
They found Alex near the edge of the camp where the frozen light from the tree still bled pale over the ground. She had not called her parents yet, but the Vogel's number was already on the screen. She was just staring at it, breathing too sharply.
Janet stopped near her first.
"He's an idiot sometimes," she said.
Alex shot her a look. "That's not helping."
"No," Janet said. "But it is true."
Séline folded her arms. "He acted out of fear."
Camille added, "And desperation."
Alex looked away.
"I know why he did it."
"That's why you're angrier," Janet said quietly.
Because that was the heart of it.
If Phong had done it for pride, or stupidity, or some cold tactical thrill, Alex could have hated the act cleanly. But he had acted too rashly because he was terrified of losing people. And that made it harder to argue with Phong unless she was willing to rub salt in his deepest wound.
Alex's jaw worked once.
"He doesn't get to decide alone."
"No," Janet said. "He doesn't."
That eased something, just a little.
Back by the tree, Dominic walked over to Phong and sat down beside him. It somehow reminded Phong of that time when Dominic visit him in the ER, carrying a bag of Pepsi.
He reached into a pack, pulled out a Pepsi from some emergency stash Phong had not known he kept, and cracked it open.
The sharp hiss of the can broke the quiet.
Dominic took one sip, then handed it over.
"Drink. Sugar might help with the headache."
Phong accepted it with a tired glance.
For a bit, the giant said nothing, for he knew Phong well enough not to start with a lecture.
Finally, Dominic spoke.
"I know what this was."
Phong looked out across the camp and did not answer.
Dominic kept going anyway.
"Trauma. Fear. A wound too deep to properly healed by time and love."
That got the smallest flinch out of him.
Because again, it was true.
Dominic rested his forearms on his knees.
"I know losing someone important scares the hell out of you," he said. "And I know today you made a choice out of desperation."
Phong looked down at the can in his hands.
"I didn't have a better one."
"I know. Truth be told. If it was me, I'd do the same. And so would Alex."
Dominic said it plainly, maybe even too blunt as if he was stating a fact.
"Then why?"
Phong asked.
He was met with an even more blunt answer from the giant, "Because Alex has her fear too."
That made Phong look up.
Dominic's voice stayed steady.
"She's scared of losing you."
The words landed heavier than the whole argument had.
Because Phong knew that too.
Knew it, and still had not made room for it in the moment he planted the seeds.
Dominic leaned back against the tree slightly and let out a slow breath.
"Looked. It was not what you did. It was how you said it. You tried to put our safety above our emotions. You think, logically, we would be fine losing our farm boy as long as we get to live. Better alive than dead. Heh... The world did not work like that. Not everything could be answer with logic."
He stopped for a moment, before landing his palm on Phong's shoulder.
"So whatever wrath that floor boss decides to drop on us for this, we take it together."
Phong was quiet.
Dominic turned his head just enough to meet his eyes.
"I respected your choice to plant those seeds."
There was no judgment in the sentence, no approval either. Still, it carried the weight of a mountain. Because Dominic rarely said anything in that serious tone.
"Now you show my choice to stand by you against a floor boss the same courtesy."
Phong stared at him for a second.
Then longer.
The Pepsi was cold in his hand. The camp around them still tense. The future still ugly.
But the words stayed.
At last, Phong let out a breath that sounded almost like something breaking and settling at the same time.
"…yeah," he said quietly.
Dominic nodded once, like that was enough for now.
And under the frozen lime-oak, with Camp Orthrus waiting for the next assault and the scent of dangerous seeds already sinking into the soil, the two men sat in the fading light and let the silence hold what words could not.