As a hive, the Earth and Water spirits immediately knew of the misgivings but they ignored the rest of the spirits and went to work. They gathered the last of the energies and took hold of it. Unlike the past when the spirits just threw the energy on the humans, this time the spirits held on to it. As the Earth and Water spirits did so, the energy responded. The human caught fire and brownish flames engulfed the human. Once more, the demons’ chant began anew and the glow appeared on the human’s body. It was a carbon copy of what happened the first two times but when the flames died down, everyone could see that this change was different. The human was now huge. He was at least a head taller than before and his body was both wider and more muscular. The mutant looked at his body and a frown appeared on his face. He was displeased with his new body and complained about how disproportional his new body was.
The Fire Hive did not understand what the problem was. The mutant looked fine to it. Sure his upper body was twice the size of his legs but he was now stronger and bigger. What was the problem? Whatever problems he had, the mutant wasn’t about to let it interfering with the testing of his powers. He raised his hands and they turned brownish and soft. Pieces of his hands was dripping onto the ground and it took a moment for the Fire Hive to register.
“MUD!” One of the spirits screamed. “Seriously? You idiots gave the last human ‘Mud’ powers? What good is mud?”
“Well…water and earth gives you mud so it makes sense the human…”
“What good is MUD?”
“Who knows?” One of the Earth spirits finally admitted. “Since when do we care about the powers our creature received? Figuring out what to do with the powers is up to them, not us.”
“In other words you idiots just wasted our energy on…”
“Hey, what is the mutant doing?”
Unaware of the commotion within the Fire Hive, the third mutant was testing his new powers further. The mutant first tried to shoot the mud out of his hands and only a small steady stream of mud flowed out of his palms. He looked perplexed and then one of the demons shouted at him.
“Harden it.”
“What?” The mutant looked at the demon who shouted and the Fire Hive noticed that it was Hellmight.
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“It look like mud.” Hellmight said. “If it is then it could be harden. If not you can try to turn the ground to mud.”
“Flow? Flowing mud…” The mutant’s face brightened. “Yes, that could work.”
The mutant put his hands on the ground and two small pools of mud appeared. Seeing success, the mutants put more power into it and his arms began turning into brownish mud as well. The mutant looked pleased. Then the mutant’s looks turned to alarm as the transformation began turning his body to mud as well.
“I can’t stop it!”
His cry caused a panic among the demons. Several of them shouted advice but he was either too frightened to do it right or his power was too different because his body continued its’ transformation. The spirits of the Fire Hive looked on in fascination. This was something new and several of the spirits openly wondered what would happen when the transformation reaches his face; would the mutant die? That would be a waste of energy but the spirits were also intrigued. If it happened, this would be the first time one of their creatures die from powers that was given by the Fire Hive. That would be interesting.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the Fire Hive never got to find out as Hellmight decided to take matters into his own hands. The demonic black bear rushed forward and slapped the mutant on his head. The mutant fell on the ground and the less than gentle blow broke the flow of his power. His hands reverted back to normal and several of the spirits moaned in disappointment. As the mutant groggily got up, the spider demon who tested the flaming human earlier approached the mutant and touched him. The Fire Hive was ready this time and focused on the spell the demon was casting. The spirits surprisingly recognized it! The spell itself was new but the Fire Hive could see that the basis of the spell was the “Appraisal” spell they gave to the demons. The Fire Hive immediately understood what had happened. The spirits knew that the demons were having problems mastering the “Appraisal” spell so they must have changed the spell somehow. This spell was weaker, giving the caster less information than a normal “Appraisal” spell would, but it was easier to cast. Whatever the trade-off was, it worked as the spider demon told Hellmight the third mutant had some strange energy in him that she had never seen before.
“Did you guys hear that?”
“Yes, we did. This spider demon…what’s her name anyway?”
“Vozscars.”
“Voz-what? What kind of a name is that?”
“It’s a demon name.”
“A demon name? Since when…”
“They are demons so some of them decided that they should have new names to go with their new existence. Get over it.”
“…fine! Voz…scars said there is some new energy in the mutant.”
“Yes; so?”
“So what are we going to call this new power? We keep inventing things but we only give names to creatures; shouldn’t we give names to the powers we invent as well?”
“Uh…Mud Powers then!”
“That is a stupid name!”
“Forget it!” Another spirit said. “We invented new things all the time. Every creature in our home is new. It’s too troublesome to name everything.”
“If we don’t do it, the creatures would do it.”
“Let them.”
Just as the argument was beginning, the spirits within the Fire Hive sensed disquiet at the entrance of their home. Something was happening outside! The Fire Hive decided to check it out. It gathered energy and created an Eye on the slope of Mount Morningstar overlooking the human army. The Eye saw the human army and the Fire Hive saw that the army was in battle. It took a little while before the Fire Hive understood what was going on.
“Oh!” One of the spirits said. “It’s the Kin! They came to help us.”