The humans charged at the command of The Grand. Even during the charge, the hive could see how well-trained the humans were. Warriors led the charge with those with shields in the centre. Behind them came the hunters and mages; hunters and mages that were shooting at the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger while running.

It never occurred to the spirits within the hive before but the spirits now realized there was a disadvantage in having a big creature; it was easy to hit!

Every arrow and spell casted by the humans hit the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger and several spirits within the hive suddenly, happily, realized that the Fire Hive may actually lose this fight. Several other spirits immediately began to argue that this was not a good thing. As usual an argument began but it was cut short when the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger arched its long neck back, puffing out its chest, before stretching its neck forward in a flash, and a huge burst of fire shot out of its mouth engulfing the humans in flames.

Of course the spirits within the hive had expected that the Fire spirits made their creature capable of shooting out flames but what surprised them was the reaction of the humans. The warriors with shields closed up and the other humans ducked behind them. The powerful flames hit the shields and were blocked. The powerfully-unique-fire-flinger looked surprised that the humans were not all burned to a crisp. Its look of surprise only lasted a moment as the humans immediately counterattacked!

Several of the spirits within the hive began shamelessly cheering as arrows and spells flew again, only this time the warriors got into the act. Swords cut into the legs of the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger and the Fire spirit controlling the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger had to retreat against the onslaught. The hive could see that it would love to attack but there was just no space for it to shoot out its fire. Then something heavy hit the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger on the side of the head!

The shot was an ice spell from The Grand. A big ice spike flew in the air and hit the creature on the side of the head. It was a beautiful shot and caused heavy damage to the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger. The powerfully-unique-fire-flinger was rocked backwards and sideways. As it was knocked back, the long tail it had instinctually swung. As luck would have it, the swinging tail knocked into the warriors in front of the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger. Coming from the side, the powerful swing was too much for the warriors and several of them were knocked down. The Fire spirit controlling powerfully-unique-fire-flinger looked at the downed warriors and couldn’t believe its luck. It quickly made a full turn and shot out another burst of flames.

Without the shields of the warriors, the fire flew through the line of humans and the hunters and mages behind were engulfed in the flames. The Grand immediately countered the fire by casting a spell that made the area cold. The hive realized that it was the same spell he casted against You-Who-Are-Not-Bear. The Fire spirit controlling the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger smiled, which to the humans looked at an evil snarl, because it knew what was coming. As it expected, the Grand waved his arm upwards and the water slicer appeared in front of him before shooting out towards the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger. The powerfully-unique-fire-flinger didn’t dodge but instead puffed up and shot out a ball of fire. Unlike the flames it shot out earlier, this was a ball of fire!

The fireball went through the water slicer like it wasn’t there and continued on towards The Grand. A barrier immediately appeared around the Grand and it blocked the ball of fire. The Grand immediately barked, “Be careful! The dragon shoots out fireballs when it puffs.”

“DRAGON?”

Like the spirits within the hive, the Fire Hive did not know what this dragon the Grand was talking about. The old man with the funny long hat smiled and explained. “You are the dragon. Dangerous Reptile, Arrogant Garbage, Odorous Nonsense!”

The Fire spirit controlling the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger flew into a rage at the insult! It leapt into the air and screamed, “WE TOLD YOU, THIS IS THE POWERFULLY-UNIQUE-FIRE-FLING…”

As they say, fortune favours the foolish. As the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger was in the air, the Fire spirit controlling it realized something; it can shoot its flames from up there! The humans were all down below it and it can shoot them all in the air! The powerfully-unique-fire-flinger immediately shot out several fireballs in succession. All the mages including the Grand casted barriers around them, but the rest of the humans weren’t so lucky.

The fireballs explode when they hit the ground and many of the humans were hurt by them. Mages can’t attack with the barrier so the hunters began shooting arrows at the floating powerfully-unique-fire-flinger. The Fire spirit controlling the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger ignored the arrows and kept on shooting the fireballs. The damage to the group of humans was immense and more than a few of the humans were killed. Finally, one of the mages had enough of seeing his friends and comrades died.

“KILL THAT DRAGON!”

Bravely, the mage released his barrier spell and casted an attack against the spells against the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger. His lone spell was useless and the Fire spirit controlling the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger was enraged by him calling it a dragon. It shot out a fireball that blew the mage into pieces! Seeing the death of the courageous mage shamed the others. All at once, the other mages released their barriers and with shouts of “KILL THAT DRAGON!” filling the air, they casted their attacks against the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger.

Enraged by all the insults, the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger shot out a volley of fireballs. The room rocked with explosions but the human hunters and mages were undeterred and kept on firing. The spirit controlling the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger knew it was taking too much damage up in the air and landed. The remaining warriors charged and the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger puffed up.

“The dragon is puffing again!”

The warriors formed up at the warning and the Fire spirit controlling the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger held its attack. From experience, its fire won’t do anything against the shields, but then it remembered what happened earlier.

The powerfully-unique-fire-flinger quickly made a fast turn, swinging its body around. Using the momentum, the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger swung its tail against the warriors. The human warriors saw the tail coming but there was nothing they could do; the force behind the move was just too great. The humans were knocked down but the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger didn’t stop and instead continued its turn. When it finished the full turn, the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger shot out a burst of flames at the humans. The humans screamed.

The Fire spirit controlling the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger was feeling with itself when it felt the danger. The giant flying lizard looked back and saw that The Grand was approaching the Fire Hive. The mage must have slipped away during the fight to attack the hive itself. The powerfully-unique-fire-flinger puffed up and shot a fireball at The Grand. The Grand saw the fireball coming but instead of erecting a barrier, he simply melted away in a pool of water. The fireball flew past the position where The Grand was…STRAIGHT ON TOWARDS THE FIRE HIVE!

To the spirits within the hive, it was a disaster in some slow motion as they watched the fireball hit the Fire Hive…and exploded. The Fire Hive was knocked down and the powerfully-unique-fire-flinger disappeared in a puff. Even the spirits that had been cheering were stunned.

The Fire idiots were done in by their own fireball!

Just as the spirits within the hive were still wondering if they should be cheering, The Grand walked up to the broken Fire Hive. Even 2 floors down from them, the hive could feel the Fire spirits within their hive. It seems the fireball not only damaged the hive, the damage was such that repairing the hive themselves was impossible for the Fire idiots. Strangely, the hive felt that they could do it.

“Formed up,” The Grand spoke to the remaining humans. “We’re taking this matrix and leaving.”

The spirits within the hive were surprised by this and a human warrior went up to The Grand to ask the question the spirits were asking.

“Leaving? Boss, we’re leaving? You don’t really believe what that spirit beast said, do you?”

“Of course not!” The Grand looked very pleased with himself as he shouted at the room. “It was a lie and it’s not even a good lie. I know you’re still here dark mage and you are a fool if you think I would fall for such a simple trick. I have you cornered and right now I am doing to take this interesting creation of yours back to my city to see how you created it. Don’t you worry though; I shall be back and then YOU WILL DIE!”

The spirits within the hive were now worried. It was one thing for the humans to win, it was another thing altogether for them to take the Fire Hive away. The spirits within the hive could feel that this would be bad news for them and they had always trusted their instinct.

The Grand was now telling the humans to group together and that they would be leaving after a short rest. It seemed that the humans can’t teleport everyone out of the tunnels which made sense as there were still 18 of them left. The spirits within the hive knew they needed to stop The Grand from taking the Fire Hive and thought of ambushing them on the way out but the choice was taken away when several Hellhounds and Explosion Bat came into the room. It seemed that the creatures of the Fire Hive had come to the aid of their creator.

Seeing this, the spirits within the hive gathered their energy and spoke to all their creatures, “Kill all the humans!”

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