Carmina would feel a strange vibration flowing through her voice as energy seemed to drain from her. Both the slime and the jackalope would jerk their heads up in surprise when she began to sing, but they were still wary of one another as much as they were this new being in their midst. A soft, translucent orange glow suffused both monsters as Carmina's spell seemed to take effect.

But when she turned to head towards the screaming, neither beast followed her. Instead they went back to their previous staredown---yet that didn't last long either. Surprisingly, the docile jackalope was the first to make a move, leaping at the slime, and the gooey, spherical monster responded in kind!

As another fight broke out behind her, though, Carmina would come upon another Orc runt---Svarok---in the middle of being attacked by goblins!

---

As Svarok dodged the charging goblin's spear and smacked it over the head, she would hear a loud crack from the wooden stick in her hands. It wasn't broken, but its durability was certainly in question. That said, a nice welt was already showing on the goblin's stringy-haired scalp as it reeled back in a daze.

"Gank up on da orcling!" The scream came from the very same goblin who, moments ago, had been begging for his life. His companion shook its head and snarled at Svarok, holding its spear ready for another attempt. The first goblin tried to flank her, and swung its stone hatchet at one of her legs!

But over the goblins' shorter heads, she'd be able to see another Orc runt---Carmina---emerge from the bushes!

The rolling slime would've gone past the group, but Grunthor stepped into its path and swung for the greens! As his spiked club impacted the stony-scaled jello-ball hard enough to rattle his wrists, the slime let out a scream and arced back up the slopes. It narrowly missed the trunk of a tree, but instead crashed into a bundle of bushes near the leaning trunk. After a beat of silence, the branches parted once more and the slime emerged with what might've passed for an angry wrinkle above its eyespots. As it slithered back towards Grunthor it stopped about thirty feet away from him, and oozed over a pile of gravel.

Then, as the rocks beneath it were sucked up into its mass, it stretched itself up higher and formed a sort of funnel shape beneath its eyes.

One rock started to glow with a metallic yellow sheen---and then shot towards Grunthor not like a spitball, but a pro-baseball pitch!

---

Meanwhile, inside the cave, the Flak Beetle hadn't yet reacted to the mushrooms beneath it suddenly shooting their spores all over the place. When Lazash unleashed her Fire Bolt, however, it scuttled backwards further along the ceiling, into the narrow tunnel. It rustled the shell plates over its wings aggressively---but still, it did not attack yet.

Lazash would take a stroke from the lashing tendrils over her shoulder, drawing blood and leaving a stinging welt. Two other tendrils struck the spots where the spores had coated the stones, and immediately withdrew back into the mushrooms that had spawned them.

The Fire Bolt hit the mushrooms---and a leftover cloud of spores. In a phenomenon known as a "dust explosion," the fine-grains of fungal matter went up in a great "whoosh," though thankfully it wasn't exactly a "bomb." Nonetheless, Lazash and Vola were nearly blinded by the instant flash and felt their bodies come close to singing as the heat washed over them. The mushrooms, on the other hand, actually shrieked as they burned---not because they had vocal chords, but because of some property of air escaping their formerly swollen spore pods and tendril "mouths" as the flames consumed them.

Within seconds only blacked, shriveled husks were left. The Flak Beetle, having withdrawn even further from the flames, chose this moment to expand its wings and point its mandibles at the two Runts with a hiss.

They saw its glowing thorax expand as the light within it intensified. And then as the beetle released that pressure through its mouth, a second bolt of flame lit up the cave, racing towards them!