“Are you ready?”

“Yes!”

“Are you prepared?”

“Yes!”

“Are you…”

“Can you guys please stop that? The humans are nowhere near us!”

“What’s taking them so long?” One of the fire spirits fumed. “The hybrids would have got here by now!”

“The hybrids weren’t worried about getting ambushed and killed.” One of the spirits replied. “The humans are doing the smart thing by being careful.”

“…Can we do something to tell them there’re no ambushes so that they can move faster?” the fire spirit asked hopefully.

“Of course not!” the hive chorused.

“How about some signs telling them the right way to go?”

“No!”

“What about…?”

“Wait, wait, hang on…,” a spirit interrupted. “Nope, they turn the wrong way again.”

“Ah….this is taking forever!”

“Which is good!” said one of the spirits. “We should do this on the first 2 floors as well. Its fun seeing them run around in circles.”

“Not it’s not!” said one of the fire spirits. “It’s boring! Our lizard is ready, get them…”

The fire spirit was silenced as the hive could now sense new energy at the entrance of the tunnels. The hive turned its attention to the entrance and found that the energy came from fear. The creatures the humans used to get to the tunnels were very afraid. After a short while, some creatures came within the range of the hive and the hive discovered the reason for the fear. The hybrids were back!

The hybrids were looking at the strange creatures in puzzlement, then one of them started to smell the air. The hybrid in question got on all fours and began sniffing the ground. The hybrid got closer to the tunnels and looked up in alarm. It gave a cry and the other 4 hybrids rushed to the entrance. They looked and smelled the ground before suddenly running into the tunnels. Knowing the tunnels well, the hybrids charged through and the hive suddenly realized something…

“Oh,” one of the spirits exclaimed. “Guys, I think the hybrids are trying to rescue us!”

A chorus of “Really”, “Great”, “Wonderful” came from the hive and then…

“What! No! Stop them! Stop…wait; we created them right?” the spirit said. “Let’s try to speak to them in their minds like we do each other. Get them to stop!”

“Uh…why would we do that?” one of the spirits asked.

“If they came down and stop the humans before they reached the last room, we fire spirits would have waited for nothing. Stop them!”

“…”

“What? Come on, let’s stop the hybrids!”

“…”

“What?”

“That’s so stupid the rest of us are in a total loss of words.”

“Oh come now,” one of the fire spirits said. “It’s not like the hive is in any danger here! Our lizard is ready! We are prepared! Let’s stop the hybrids!”

“You are not prepared. No one ever tested the beast yet.”

“We never had a chance to do so! Now we finally have a chance to do so!”

“You are not prepared!”

“We are prepared!”

“You are not prepared!”

“We are prepared!”

“You are not prepared!”

“We are…”

“Too late!” one of the spirits said. “The hybrids reached the end of the second floor.”

Indeed they were. Running at speed, the hybrids made good time through the second floor but they were not stupid. Upon entering the third floor, the hybrids stopped to a walk and began looking around. With their enhanced senses, the hive knew they would have no problems finding the humans and that was indeed the case.

The hybrids creeped silently into the twisting tunnels like the wolves they were and some of the spirits the hive had a feeling they never had before; they were enjoying this! They were looking forward to seeing a struggle between the humans and the hybrids they created. Several of these spirits immediately began discussing if the hive should make more creatures to fight any future humans who came into the tunnels. Some of the spirits even openly wondered if they could asked the earth spirits in the hive to create special rooms for the fights.

Then Kyla turned back to look into the tunnels. Amazingly, even though the two groups were still a distance apart, the mage had somehow picked up the fact someone was following the humans. The hive had no idea how as the hybrids were trailing the humans using only the scent of the humans and were even tracking the humans from the shadows. The humans picked up their pace and the warrior in front of the group shouted that there was a room in front.

“Defensive formation!”

The humans ran into room at Kyla’s shout and turned to face the tunnel they came out of. With the element of surprise gone, the hybrids creeped forward into the small room. There was barely enough room for all 8 of them but as the hybrids stood up on their legs, the humans somehow found room to take several steps back.

“What are they?” Kyla asked to no one.

The hunter was the one who answer, “Half-man, half-wolf; the rogue spell-caster made some sort of wolfman!”

The hive thought this was a stupid name. Wolf-man? It may explain what the hybrids were but surely they would come up with a better name right? Then the fight started.

3 of the wolfmen attacked the humans while one of them went to the side. The human warrior banged his shield again and all 3 of the wolfmen attacked him. With teeth and claws, they pushed him back and the rest of the humans behind him had to retreat. There was just no room for them to cast their spells, shoot their arrows, or throw their bottles.

In desperation, the hunter shot an arrow into the ceiling. Once the arrow hit, 5 smaller arrows shot down from it towards the 3 wolfmen. The wolfmen dodged the arrows but had to stop their attacks on the warrior to do so. Useless threw a bottle at the ground of the fourth wolfman. The bottle broke and flames shot out. Kyla lifted several small stones from the ground again and the stones flew at the wolfmen. This time, the wolfmen were unable to dodge.

The wolfmen had to retreat from the humans and the hive could see that the two groups were at a standoff. Neither group could attack the other without risk. The two groups looked at each other warily and the hive then remember something…there were 5 wolfmen! Where was the last one?

The hive focused and found to its surprise, the last wolfman was in a tunnel beyond the humans! The room the humans were in had 4 tunnels leading into it, one on each side. The humans and the wolfmen came through one of them and that tunnel was now behind the back of the wolfmen. There was another tunnel behind the humans and somehow the last wolfman had found a way into that tunnel without the humans knowing.

“Shadowstep,” one of the spirits said. “Just like that rogue in Brand’s group.”

The hive was surprised. The wolves never had “Shadowstep” so how did one of the wolfmen get it? Did it happen when the hive fused the pups with the energy? That would make a certain kind of logic but if that’s the case, could the hive not give a human some of a wolf’s skills? Several of the spirits strongly suggested the hive saved one of the humans to test this theory.

At some silent signal, the wolfmen attacked and they attacked together. Just as the 4 wolfmen in front of the humans went forward, the lone…”rogue” wolfman attacked from behind. Kyla was the first to go down. As her scream was heard, the rest of the humans faltered. The hunter tried to help his Boss and without his support, the 3 wolfmen broke the warrior’s defense. Useless was rushed by the fourth. The hunter was soon overwhelmed.

Just like that, though a sneak attack, the group of humans who had defeated You-Who-Are-Not-Bear and Smoky were defeated. 5 wolfmen managed to do something the hive could not and did it with some ease. The spirits in the hive rejoiced and celebrate. Well, most of them anyway.

“…we never get to do anything…”

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