“Wow, did you all see that?”

“Of course we did. We are a hive. If you saw it, so did the rest of us!”

“Did you see that arrow splitting into pieces or that human throwing that ball of fire?”

“The human alpha called that human “Jundal”. He threw that fireball.”

“The alpha is called Boss and he called it a “spell”.”

“More interested in what the human Boss told that other human.”

“You mean that “archery skill”? Don’t we have archery from the hunter we absorbed before?”

“Skills are special abilities creatures can do. The archery must be the bow and arrow weapon the human called Tare did. So the “archery skill” must be special abilities that Tare human can do with his weapon.”

“Sound about right. So some of these human skills need certain weapons to operate, that night explain why the humans have so many.”

“Boss also said something about languages.”

“Later. The humans have reached the second room. Let’s see what else we can learn.”

As the hive discussed the situation among them, the humans had reached the entrance of the second room. Same as before, the human with the big piece of metal went in first but this time there was no attack from the wolves. The wolves had all pulled back into the long tunnel. In fact, the hive noticed that the wolf pups had already entered the third room.

“Uh…what do we do if the fighting goes into the third room?”

“Good question…we never thought of that.”

“What question? If they enter the third room, we kill them.”

“Kill who?”

“What?”

“Who do we kill? The humans or the wolves?”

“Uh…good question? Both?”

The humans entered the long tunnel and the hive heard several of them grumbling about how dark it was getting. This was news to the hive. When the hive built the tunnel, it took the original tunnel linking its’ first room to the outside as an example. The height and width of the tunnels linking to the second and third rooms were exactly like the tunnel linking to the outside. The hive never bothered with anything like lighting because well...the original tunnel didn’t have it. The human called Jundal casted a spell and the tip of his wooden stick glowed. The humans continued on.

Halfway through the long tunnel, the wolves attacked. The lead wolf jumped on the human with the big piece of metal while 2 other wolves slipped past the human. The tunnel was only wide enough for 2 of the humans but the human holding the 2-handed sword had a hard time fighting in such close quarter with Boss beside him. The hive then noticed the 2-handed sword was longer than the sword of Boss. 2 more wolves managed to go past the lead human. This time, the 2 wolves went in opposite direction.

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One of the wolves attacked the group along with the first 2 wolves while the other wolf turned and attacked the lead human from the back. The human turned to fight off the wolf. He was holding his sword and big piece of metal apart to fight off attacks from both directions. The hive then noticed a third wolf sneaking behind the human. One of the humans shouted a warning. He was too late.

The sneaking wolf bites on the leg of the human. The pain of the human gave the hive a burst of energy and the human used his big piece of metal to knock back the wolf biting his leg. It was a mistake.

Seeing the opportunity, the two wolves he was fighting jumping on the human. Without the charge of a bear, the human managed to stay on his feet…then the third wolf came back. The third wolf attacked the good leg of the human and took a bite out of that leg as well. With both legs injured, the human fell and the 3 wolves jumped on him.

The human called Boss gave a cry and suddenly became faster. The hive didn’t know what skill was used but without question Boss was faster than before. His sword blurred as it nicked a wolf before reversing and cutting a second wolf. Both wolves had to back off and the human with the 2-handed sword kicked the wolf that had been cut. The humans needed no invitation to fill up the gap.

Boss rushed forward towards his fallen comrade while the human with the 2 short swords fill up for him. Boss was a blur as he rushed forward and stabbed one of the wolf dead from behind. The other 2 wolves jumped back as Boss swung his sword towards them.

Behind him, the human with the 2 short swords went to work. In the small confined space of the tunnels, the hive noticed that his weapon was perfect. The human darted in slashing and stabbing the wolves, and then darted out of range before the wolves could counterattack. The three wolves were quickly cut down and the group as a whole went forward to support Boss. Seeing the group of humans together, the last 2 remaining wolves ran off further into the tunnels.

The hairless human knelt beside his fallen comrade and put a hand on his throat. He looked up at the faces of the group and shook his head. The human with the big piece of metal was dead. The hive felt a wave of energy from the group, an energy that was different from the death of the human. The hive was wondering about the energy when one of the humans started to say something in the language the hive did not understand. This time Boss did not stop him. Once the human stopped, Boss spoke to the group again.

“Just 2 more wolves and the pups are left. Let’s just get this done and…then we bring Donn’s body back to his family.”

This time there was no cheer. The group of humans headed further into the tunnels without a word. Behind them, the body of the human named Donn began sinking into the ground.