“You all hear that?”

“Of course we did,” a spirit answered. “We are a hive. If you…”

“Whatever! Did you all hear that part of the human calling us a God?”

“Uh…she did?”

“The hive is filled with idiots!” the spirit cried. “Of course she did! She said only a God may create. That’s us!”

“Wait, wait, wait,” another spirit argued, “just because we can create does not make us a God.”

“Of course we are! The human say only a god can create. We created You-Who-Are-Not-Bear, Smoky and the pups. That’s what we are! THE HIVE IS A GOD!”

“You’re jumping to conclusion. We don’t know what the hive is.”

“We do now. We are…”

“Would you all shut up? The humans have reached Smoky.”

“Uh…aren’t they a little too fast? The other group was much slower.”

“Didn’t you hear the warrior say they got information from the human who escaped us the last time? That’s what we get for failing to kill everyone who entered the tunnels.”

“Yeah, and we should change things up to confuse these humans.”

“Uh…how do we do that?”

“No idea! It’s just an idea.”

“No idea! It’s just an idea? Stop speaking nonsense you; that made no sense!”

“Yes it did,” the spirit said. “We have no idea what to do, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do something. Something must be done so…”

“Uh…shouldn’t we be concentrating on the humans?”

“Who is this idiot who keep saying uh…?”

“That ‘Uh’ idiot is right. We should take care of the humans first. The question of what we are can come later.”

The spirit after Godhood was not happy but the rest of the hive were by now concentrating on the party of humans who had just entered the room of Smoky’s. Similar to the room above, the group entered the room in formation. The two warriors came in first, followed by the hunter and the human named Useless. The mage, Kyla, came in last. The party waited and the hive did not disappoint. Smoke began coming into the room from the back tunnel and began to form a shape. As the smoke became a wolf, the hive saw some of the humans smiling. They were looking forward to this.

The wolf was made of blue smoke this time and the hive could see the humans standing sideways, no doubt worrying about Smoky disappearing and attacking from behind. Their worries were for naught as this was not how this Smoky fights.

The smoke wolf tilted its head slightly upwards, opened its mouth and a ball of pure blue light appeared. It tilted its head down and suddenly, the ball shot out and hit one of the warriors. The warrior flew backwards into a wall. The remaining humans watched in horror as the warrior fell dead onto the ground, leaving an imprint on the wall. Then the room got a lot colder.

The mage, Kyla, immediately cast a counter-spell. She put both hands on the ground and several small fires burst out. The room got warmer and the humans found they could move normally again. They did not waste time.

The remaining warrior banged his sword to his shield, drawing Smoky’s attention. Then the smoke wolf felt pain. Smoky looked to its side and saw five arrows imbedded in its body. All five arrows exploded and Smoky was knocked down to the ground. The ground moved as the earth looked to swallow Smoky. The air spirits controlling Smoky made the smoke wolf disappear before the earth could do its job.

The humans stood back to back in the middle of the room, looking outwards for the wolf to reappear. They had clearly prepared for this. The wolf surprised them by appearing right above them. It was spotted almost immediately and the humans dispersed. Smoky shot the blue ball right at the group but it was too late; the humans had escaped the surprise attack. Smoky landed and found that it had made a tactical mistake.

It was now surrounded by the humans.

The mage immediately cast a spell and the ground beneath Smoky rose but instead of trying to swallow the smoke wolf totally, it just encased all four of its feet. Smoky was struck! Useless threw a bottle; the hunter shot arrows after arrows; and the warrior banged his shield, enraging and preventing Smoky from launching attacks against the range attackers. Soon it was over. Smoky had been defeated and just like You-Who-Are-Not-Bear, the body of the smoke wolf began to glow. The light condensed after spreading out slightly and a small blue crystal appeared on the ground. It was slightly bigger than the one left behind by You-Who-Are-Not-Bear and it was in a different shape.

The mage, Kyla, Boss of this group of humans, looked at her fallen comrade. She looked concerned but unsurprised when the warrior’s body began sinking. “Useless, prepare another scroll.” The human with the bag did as ordered and when she was ready, the mage continued.

“To Magister Garnock Blueowl,

Found second monster as reported by Brand. Defeated it but lost Kane. Looked like it an Elemental Wolf Spirit. Wolf was blue. Blue crystal left behind. Feel Mana from it. Kane’s body disappearing into the ground. This is an unholy place. Going to 3rd floor.

High Mage,

Kyla Sacredhunt”

The humans turned to leave the room and as they did so, some of the spirits in the hive rejoiced!

“Are you ready?”

“Yes!”

“Are you prepared?”

“Yes!”

“Are you…”

“What are you idiots doing?”

“We are preparing ourselves! The humans are coming down so it’s time for us fire spirits to show our stuff. Our beast is ready and waiting!”

“You don’t have to celebrate it!” Some of the spirits complained. “Smoky just lost!”

“Oh please! You know what we fire spirits been doing so far? Nothing! There’s no fire anywhere near here! We now finally have a chance to do something. We have been waiting for this!”

“You may have to wait a little longer.”

“Uh…?”

“The humans…they just made a wrong turn.”

The hive focused back on the humans and saw that they had indeed made a wrong turn. The third floor was a floor with many rooms and tunnels. Twisting turns could led them back to their original starting point. Not only that, the humans were now going very slowly, no doubt worried about ambushes. As the humans took another wrong turn after the first, the fire spirits couldn’t help but go,

“Oh no.”