In the stories, battles were glorious affairs. Warriors would courageously face-off against each other; Hunters would snipe at each other in a battle of wit and skill; and Mages would engage in a battle of power and destruction. Those were the stories. In real life, battles were chaotic affairs that go through several up and downs and the battle the Speaker now faced was no different. Seeing the reinforcement that was coming, the three Werewolves’ attacks became fiercer while the humans shrunk. For a moment it even looked to the Speaker that the humans would break and run for it. A loud shout from their leader put paid to that.

In an instant, the battle changed again. The retreating humans found their courage and the human closest to the Speaker went on the attack. He was a warrior who used dual swords and as he stepped in, he swung his blades simultaneously from each side. The Speaker had to jump back to avoid having her head cut off but her troubles weren’t over. The other humans also went on the attack and the Speaker found herself swarmed by the warriors. Something popped up from the ground. Everyone stopped and that momentary hesitation proved fatal for one of the warriors as claws flashed and a fountain of blood poured from his neck. It was Kinshra. The female alpha had ‘shadowstep’ back to the front and the surprise attack was enough to stop the humans’ momentum. However a look at the female alpha told the Speaker that this second jump had clearly taken a lot out of Kinshra. She was breathing deeply and the Speaker stepped in front of the female alpha, hoping to buy her enough time to recover. She was just in time as the moment was over and the humans renewed their assault. Then the humans were hit.

Led by the Alpha, the Werewolves tore into the humans like a small tidal wave and their momentum caused the human line to crumble like sand. Amazingly, the silly looking green bouncing creature was with them. The creature bounced off the ground and leapt straight into one of the human warriors using it’s body as a battering ram. The human met the creature with his shield but the creature used it’s long arm and threw a punch as it’s body hit the shield. The punch hit the warrior’s cheek and the human fell down heavily. The creature didn’t let up. It took a bounce off the ground and landed right on the warrior’s stomach. The force of the blow cause dust to rise around the human but the human wasn’t finished. His sword stabbed upwards and the Speaker saw blood. The bouncing creature was hit and it bounced away in retreat. The creature then began glowing and it spoke some gibberish. At least it sounded like gibberish to the Speaker. The small fox-kin sitting on it seemed to understand the creature well enough. The small kin immediately jumped off the green creature and did a roll on the ground when he landed. He pointed at the Speaker at the end of the roll and the Speaker felt reenergized. She was not alone. Behind her, Kinshra stood up taller and the Speaker realized the fox-kin was a Mage. The glow on the bouncing creature faded and it threw itself back into battle. Literally!

The bouncing creature launched another jumping attack and the warrior defended with his shield once again. This time though, the creature bounced off the shield into another human and then rebounded off the second human into a third. It was not done yet. The third human was actually behind the initial warrior it faced and the creature bounced off the human to hit the warrior from behind. The warrior fall face-first to the ground and the bouncing creature took the opportunity to celebrate, bouncing up and down with its arms raised in triumph. The Speaker found herself caught between congratulating the bouncing creature and scolding it for celebrating during a battle. The Alpha had no such problem. An angry growl from Treznor got the bouncing creature back into battle.

It was enough for the human leader. Proving once again he knew what he was doing, he shouted for a retreat. The Speaker immediately saw the reason. The humans had done what they set out to do. All the Spider demons were dead. Confused demons who didn’t even know what had happened to them and now they were all dead before they could meet their Creator. Rage boiled within the Speaker and she wanted to tear into the humans. A hand movement from the Alpha signaled her to stop. Treznor was going to let the humans go. For a moment, the Speaker thought of disobeying her mate but her instinctive obedience stopped her. Kinshra had no such problem. The rejuvenated female alpha ignored the order and went after the humans. The Speaker would love nothing but to follow but the stationary Treznor stopped her in her tracks. As much as she wanted revenge for the demons, she was not going to disobey her mate so publicly. Some of the other Werewolves had no such problem and followed Kinshra in her chase. Knowing her mate’s temperament, there’s going to be a reckoning on this sooner rather than later but for now the Alpha seems to have more important things on his mind. Ignoring the battle, he grabbed the Speaker close and clamped his jaw on the Speaker’s neck. The Speaker couldn’t help but smile at the strange show of affection by her possessive mate.

“I missed you too!”

***

In the underground forest of the fifth floor, the harpy Momo was kneeling before the Hive. She had delivered her message and was now awaiting a decision from her Creator. She was not alone. Several of the Kin were there, not least of who was the Fox Mother. She had been less than pleased when one of her children stowaway with the bouncing REM and had been waiting less than patiently for news of her child. The news from Momo had been less than pleasant for her and on that front, she was not alone.

“Well, those Fire idiots got what they wanted. The humans are coming after them.”

“Yeah but what’s an army? How many humans are there to make up an army?”

“It doesn’t work like that. An army is just a fighting force that fights primarily on land. The numbers don’t matter. It could be a few hundreds to a couple of thousands. Didn’t you pay attention to the Speaker when she was giving lessons?”

“Who pay attention to her? Beside she was giving lessons to the Kin, not us! Why should we…”

“My fellow spirits, let’s not get sidetrack and stick to the problem on hand please.”

“What problem? The humans are not coming for us are they? They are going for the Fire Hive…which is what the Fire spirits wanted in the first place.”

“Yes but according to the Speaker there are thousands of humans ascending on the…D.E.M.O.N.S. We could help out.”

“Uh…why would we want to do that?”

“We own them for the “nothing-untouched-killer-explosion”. I/we rather not let the Fire Hive be destroyed before we can pay them back for that spell.”

“What do you mean we own them for the spell? We didn’t ask for the extra spell. They gave it to us freely.”

“Still, they gave it to us after we tried to fleece them. Don’t seem right to let them get destroy before we pay them back.”

“Oh yes, what did the Speaker call this? Uh…”

“Honor”

“That’s right! We have honor!”

“We are honorable!”

“We have super honor!”

“We are the most honorable beings in existence!”

“Right…even though we wanted to cheat them in the first place?”

“Never happen! We never cheated the Fire Hive.”

“We never wanted to cheat them. Anyone remember wanting to cheat the Fire idiots?”

“No”

“Nope”

“Never”

“That’s right! It never happened!”

“…uh-huh, let’s get the Kin together and give them the message then.”

“Let’s do that. All together now…”

“WE ARE GOING TO WAR!”

End of Book 2