The spirits within the Fire Hive had seen fights before; it was after all their favorite mode of entrainment. They had seen individual battles; group fights; even a huge fight when The Grand led over two hundred humans against them when they were still in the Kar Mountains. However the spirits had never seen a pitch battle before. They had never seen a battle where two sides were engaged on a big battlefield trying their best to slaughter each other. High up on the slope of Mount Morningstar, the Fire Hive had a bird eye view of the battle and the spirits within mostly agree on this; this was very different from what they usually see.

The humans had arranged themselves in several lines. Three lines of warriors were in front and almost all of them had shields. The Fire Hive understood this to be a variation of the shield wall it had seen human warriors used before. In the past when small groups of humans attack, there was almost always a human warrior with a shield leading the way. It seems that humans also deploy the same tactics in big battles with the difference being that the warriors were now standing shoulder to shoulder and holding their shields in a way that they overlapped with each other. Behind the three walls of shields were two further lines of warriors who were not holding shields but only swords. Further back were three other lines of humans; a line of hunters, a line of mages, and a line that consists of humans from all three classes. Several of the spirits within the Fire Hive began wondering if there was a reason the mixed line of humans was positioned in the middle of the human army.

The majority of the spirits however were more interested in the Kin. The Beastkin were a distance away from the humans and they were amassed in a long line facing the human army. Unlike the humans, the Kin were not in any formation and the Fire Hive could see the various types of Kin mixed together. Outside the Werewolves and Ratlings, the Fire Hive could also see the newer Kin like the Bullmen and the small Fox-kin. Surprisingly, the Fox-kin were riding on some sort of bouncing creature. The Fire Hive had never seen these creatures before, even during their recent visit to the Kar Mountains. The spirits within the Fire Hive turned their focus to the other creatures with the Kin and was disappointed. There weren’t any other new creatures except for some giant man-sized spiders.

Then there was a howl. It was a signal of some sort as the Kin began to move. The line of the Kin began to jog towards the humans and the spirits saw the humans responding. The three frontlines of warriors moved closer to each other and the hunters and mages behind them got their spells and weapons ready. The spirits had some idea of how humans counted distance and as the gap between the two forces getting smaller and smaller, the Kin began to run. The Kin closed the distance rapidly and when they were about eight hundred meters away, the humans acted.

There was no shout or signal but all of the human mages and hunters shot their spells and arrows into the onrushing Kin. Explosions rocked the rushing lines and Kin of all sorts fell from…wait, what? From the slope of their volcanic home, the Fire Hive saw it immediately. The Kin were not dying. Arrows were going through Werewolves and explosions had no effect on passing Ratlings; something was wrong. The spirits gathered their energy and focused sharply on the Kin. The rushing line of Kin disappeared. To be more accurate, the rushing Kin appeared about two hundred meters behind where they appeared to be. It was as if there was a veil over the field that made the Kin appeared nearer to the humans than they were.

“Interesting…” one of the spirits said. “Such large scale spell need a lot of power. How did the hive managed to cast such a spell so far from their home? You guys think they made a breakthrough?”

“No, look behind them.”

One of the other spirits replied and the rest of the Fire Hive saw what the spirit was talking about. Standing far behind the line of onrushing Kin was the five-tails fox. The focused Fire Hive saw the power coming from stationary fox and realized it was the caster of the spell. Whatever the spell was, the fox dropped it the moment the humans stopped shooting. The humans had noticed the trick but it was too late. They had already wasted their chance. The Kin was already before them.

The Kin crashed into the humans and for a moment, the human line buckled but the human warriors rallied and held on. The Fire Hive saw the battle unfolded before them and noticed that the humans were getting the better of it. Fighting side by side, the human warriors with their shield wall were holding off the Kin with coordinated movements. Then there was another howl and the Kin who were fighting moved back. Only then did the Fire Hive noticed that only the Werewolves and the Ratlings were fighting. Nimbly, they turned aside and dodged another kind of the Kin. Bullmen rushing on all fours crashed head first into the humans. This time the human line broke and the rest of the Kin rushed into the gaps.

However it was not enough. There were a lot more humans than Kin and although the Kin broke the line, the rest of the humans were already coming up to support their comrades. The Fire Hive could see the Foxkin busy casting healing spells but it would not be enough. They were just too outnumbered! A roar came from their home and for a moment, everyone stopped. Everyone on the battlefield looked at the opening of Mount Morningstar and the Fire Hive knew what was coming.

“Uh…”

Demons poured out of Mount Morningstar and in the lead were the T-Rex riding Onis! The humans adjusted to the oncoming threat by moving the two reserved line of warriors to the front but what was a certain victory had suddenly became interesting.

“Uh…”

Combined the Kin and the demons were still outnumbered but with their superior power and abilities, they now had a chance.

“Uh…”

A better than even chance.

“Uh…”

“Oh, what is it you idiot?”

“Uh…are the demons supposed to come out?”

“What?”

“Aren’t they supposed to stay inside and lure the humans in?”

“Uh…did we tell them to stay in?”

“Um…we forgot didn’t we?”

“…”

“…”

“…we did forget. We were too busy creating the mutants!”

“Oh no!”