“So how do we use this?” Jakob asked.

“No idea!” The human mage Jundal only shrug when the rest of the group looked at him in amazement. “Maybe someone from the Magical Research Society can tell you but I never even heard of such a thing before.”

“So this crystal is something new?” Boss asked.

“Or something dangerous,” Jundal replied. “Whatever it is, it’s something above mere warriors, hunters and mages like us. Let’s finish this hunt and bring it back to the councils. They will be able to tell us more.”

“As if the high and mighty would ever share information with the likes of us,” Luca said. 

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Boss said. He took the crustal from Jakob and pocketed it. “This hunt has already been more troublesome than normal. No telling what other surprises this place has in store for us. Let’s not forgot we still need to bury…”

The warrior stopped talking halfway. His eyes widen as he noticed the sinking bodies of his dead comrades. This got the rest of the humans looking at the bodies as well, and all of them looked disbelievingly as both bodies were now almost halfway into the ground. The hive remembered these looks well. The first hunter that entered the tunnel had the same look when he found the dead bear.

“Wha…what is this cave?” The hunter named Hollie almost screamed out.

The rest of the humans looked at each other in shock. The hive could feel the fear rising among them. It was good energy. The hive wasn’t sure why but it guessed bodies sinking into the ground must be very unusual for the humans to have such a reaction. Finally, Boss nodded his head and wordlessly headed further into the tunnel. Behind him, the rest of the group looked at each other before one after another, they joined their leader down to the second level.

“They are coming down,” one of the spirits in the hive said. “What we do now?”

For once, there was no comeback from the rest of the hive. Finally, one of the spirits said. “We do what we always do. We used what our power and survive.”

“How?” Some of the spirits asked. “They are right above us!”

“We have the smoke! Let’s use our energy on it.”

“Uh…what good will that do?”

“All the air spirits gather!” The spirit said. “No idea if this will work but let’s find out!”

From the tunnel at the back of the third room, the humans found a gentle downward slope that went down to the second level.  The two warriors, Luca and Boss took the lead and at the bottom of the slope, they found a long pitch dark tunnel.

“Who were these bandits that made this hideout?” Luca exclaimed. “By the Gods, look at this tunnel!”

“Jundal, throw a light down this tunnel.”

Jundal did as Boss ordered. The light at the end of his stick floated and with a hand signal from the mage, it rushed down the tunnel. The group of humans looked at the light till it blinked out of existence.

“It’s out of range.” Jundal said.

“How long is your range?” Boss asked.

“Over 300 meters and from what it looks here, there’s still a long way to the end.”

“Then this tunnel is even longer than the one on top.” Boss said. “Let’s go.”

The mage Jundal casted another light on his stick and the group slowly went down the tunnel. After all that had happened, they were taking no chances and were alert for any danger. There were none.

After a tense walk, the group entered a room at the end of the tunnel. Similar to the rooms above, this room however was at least 4 times bigger. As the group had almost expected by now, there is a tunnel at the back of the room but the room itself was empty. All the humans were relieved and they relaxed…for all of a second.

Smoke began coming into the room from the back tunnel and then the smoke began to form a shape. The humans looked on disbelievingly as they began to recognize the shape in front of them. The legs, the body, the head, the fangs, and the teeth; the smoke had become a wolf. A wolf made of smoke that was at least a head taller than even Luca, the tallest of the humans.

Before the humans could recover, the beast before them disappeared. Turning into smoke again, the humans saw the trails of the smoke drifted quickly to the back of the room. The smoke reformed into the wolf and the beast attacked immediately. Smoky claws slashed at Jundal who was at the back of the group. The mage cried out as blood was spilled onto the ground. The hunters responded first.

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Two arrows flew towards the wolf…and went straight through it. This got the wolf’s attention. Ignoring the fallen mage, it leaped at the hunters. With a range that surprised the humans, the wolf managed to claw at the hunter named Hollie but when it turned to do the same at Jakob, the hunter jumped back and released an arrow at the wolf. The arrow went through the wolf but the hive noticed the move was the same one the hunter had did earlier against You-Who-Are-Not-Bear. Then the warriors joined in the fight.

Luca did an overhead slash that went through the wolf and Boss became a blur again. He sidestepped a claw and cut the body with his sword. Boss felt impact and immediately shouted out to his comrades.

“Magic! Magical attacks work!”

Boss had saw that normal attacks were not working against the smoke wolf and had immediately tried a magical attack. The hive couldn’t help but admire the human’s ability. The warrior Luca gave a cry and his 2-handed sword burst into flames. He stepped forward infront of the wolf and began attacking. The fight was now truly on.

Luca slashed several times against the wolf and the hive could feel that these strikes were now stronger than his normal attacks. Strangely however, they had no effect on the wolf. As Luca gave a cross-slash that went through the smoke wolf, the beast immediately counterattacked. The head of the wolf extended at the warrior and before Luca could retreat, the wolf’s head dissolved. For a second, the head of the warrior was engulfed by smoke then the warrior dropped to the ground, missing a chunk of his head.

“No fire attacks!” Jundal shouted on the ground. “It’s made of smoke!”

The head of the smoke wolf reformed and quickly decided on its next course of action. The hive had learned from its earlier defeat by these humans. It knew it had to cut down the number of opponents it was facing and the best way was to finish off the injured. Between the humans Jundal (who was on the ground) and Hollie (who was still standing), the smoke wolf turned to the injured hunter. The smoke wolf disappeared and it reformed behind the injured hunter, a claw slashing the moment it appeared. The hunter had noticed the movement of the smoke of course, but in her injured state she was unable to dodge the attack that killed her.

That was too much for Jakob. The hunter ran towards the tunnel nearest to him; the tunnel at the back of the room that would had led him directly to the hive. The smoke wolf jumped at the retreating Jakob. Knocking him down from behind, the form of the wolf disappeared and the smoke engulfed the entire body of the hunter. When the wolf reformed, the hunter was dead.

The wolf looked at the two remaining humans and saw the Jundal throwing something at Boss. Boss looked shocked and Jundal had a sad smile on his face. The mage used his long stick to stand up and stepped forward to stand before his leader.

“Use the Scroll of Recall, Boss. I will hold it off”

“Jundal…”

The mage shook his head. “You got your mission Boss, your real mission. That comes before anything right?”

Boss opened the item in his hands and began chanting. The hive had no idea what he was doing but it intended to stop him. The smoke wolf disappeared and appeared at the side of the two humans. Ice immediately encased the wolf. The hive saw the mage Jundal deep in concentration and noticed how the temperature of the room had dropped drastically. The wolf tried to disappear again but found that the ice around it was preventing that. Then in a small burst of light, Boss disappeared. Before he disappeared, the human looked at Jundal. To the hive, Boss looked sad.

The ice encasing the smoke wolf disappeared soon after and the mage collapsed on the ground. He had spent the last of his energy allowing his leader to escape. The smoke wolf stepped towards the mage who looked up at him in awe. The mage smiled and asked.

“What are you?”

He was still smiling when the wolf engulfed him in smoke.