> Lightburst transmissions to the AI in charge of the Clothes-Lovers’ planet have been at twelve times normal levels all morning, with several exceptionally lengthy transmissions. Keep your sensory organs trained. I expect trouble.

> -- Radio transmission from Voices for Non-Citizens

“Another twelveday, another monster,” I murmured.

Micah rolled his eyes. “Finally. It’s here! We’ve been waiting forever. I didn’t know if we’d even get a new monster today, since the Deadline was hours ago. Everyone’s even back from the Challenge! Are we going to go hunting now?”

The Challenge this week had been a little shorter than last week’s, but had still taken multiple hours. Some kind of weird maze? The Arsenal was still collecting information from the people who’d run it. Apparently there had been some new monsters inside, as well as the blade-armed bonefur monsters that had been present in the first Mandatory Trial and stolen Micah’s toes.

I grabbed my oldest boy around the shoulders, giving him a squeeze. “Not yet. Let’s wait for some more information. We can let other people run the risks for us.”

Micah made a face, but didn’t argue. We’d spent the afternoon relaxing in the Quarry, much to his frustration and impatience. He’d seemed shaken to hear that the bonefurs had been re-used, but it hadn’t deterred him from trying to push us out the door to gather Points and get stronger.

We waited another hour, having an early dinner as more information rolled in on the monster they were calling a rustpile.

It was a nasty, heavily defensive monster, a quadruped that looked like a big pile of red fur. Despite its appearance, the fur acted more like armor, deflecting slashing blows without taking damage, and flattening bullets like Kevlar. The fur on the underbelly was shorter and softer, easy to penetrate… but the monster had numerous nasty claws hidden within its hairy coat that were quick to reach out and attack if anyone came within range.

Piercing weapons, like arrows or spears, slid through the fur easily, but it was difficult to take the monsters down in a single blow. The Arsenal pinned a few down for vivisection and managed to determine that a hit to the brain - located about a third of the way down the monster, toward the front - would kill one instantly. Unfortunately, the monster’s voluminous fur obscured its body and made precision strikes difficult.

“It could be worse,” said Priya. “I mean, it will have its own challenges, but…”

“It’s pretty standard, if there’s not another shoe about to drop,” I said. “It’s no paraslug.”

“Thank God for that,” Priya muttered.

Everyone had been more stressed and tired, since the nightmarish slug creatures had arrived. No matter how many precautions you took, or how many people you had around, it was hard to feel truly safe.

“Well, shall we try them out?” I asked.

My friend grimaced. “May as well. I’ll take the kids to the bathroom, you start rounding up our group?”

“Sure.”

We’d nearly assembled our combat group in the courtyard when another Announcement came out.

New monster detected!

Micah groaned. “Do we have to go back downstairs and wait longer?”

Correction! New monster is likely a new Titan. Appearance similar to blade-armed monster from first Mandatory Trial and most recent Challenge, but larger in size. Tentatively designating it a “bonefur.” Sonic abilities and extreme speed expected.

“Hey! They’re using your name for the bad guys!” Gavin said.

I smiled at him. “They told me they would, as a courtesy. No one knew what to expect from the first Trial, and I gave them more information about the bonefur than their own teams gathered.”

“Should we go back down and wait?” Priya asked. “We’ve got the earplugs ready, after all…”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I frowned. It was true that we’d been expecting the bonefur’s appearance for a while, and we’d been gathering up everything we could to protect ourselves from its sonic weapon. Micah, who’d been prodding at me to get out and earn more points all afternoon, had suddenly gone uncharacteristically silent, and I could see from his wide eyes and white knuckles that he was freaked out by the news that the monster that had mutilated him was back.

The longer we wait before he engages one again, the worse it’s going to get in his mind… but that’s not a reason to rush into anything, either.

I shook my head. “They said these are bigger than the ones from the Mandatory Trial. Let’s give it a few minutes to see if there are any new abilities.”

“I’m sure the Arsenal will test earplugs and abilities, too,” George offered. “It’d be nice to know in advance if they work or not.”

I nodded decisively. “Right. But… assuming we can rely on our hearing protection, and the Arsenal doesn’t detect anything new… are we all okay with heading out in a half-hour?”

“Two new things in one day…” Priya shuddered, then exchanged a glance with George. “That’s nasty. Hope it means a quiet week after this. But yes, our family’s okay with heading out.”

Slowly, the rest of our combat group offered their own agreement. None of us wanted to go out, but we wouldn’t win this stupid thing by hunkering down behind walls. The rustpiles were each worth a whopping 382 Points, after all! That made a single one worth as much as 16 mobmu or 32 leafenrats. Oh, sorry… 382 Points before Ruler bonuses. Since Gavin was Flip’s vassal, and we were all his followers, we lost a ton of Money to ruler taxes, but we each had about a one-in-three chance to earn double Points from any monster. Of course, the more abilities you had, the more Points each new one took, so Micah and Gavin would still need the equivalent of thirty or more solo kills to snag a ninth ability, and we wouldn’t be letting them engage solo. Still, the combat group let us fight safely and quickly… if they got their new abilities in three or four days instead of one, who cared?

The Points doubling each twelveday makes it really difficult to get too far “ahead.” You have to keep fighting each new threat as it arrives, or you might not be ready to face the one after that. I sighed. It’s too bad Money doesn’t go up nearly as quickly.

Earplugs or beeswax does not eliminate damage from sonic attack, but does reduce it substantially. Zone of Silence eliminates damage. Other sonic manipulation abilities of varying efficacy.

Bonefur’s reach is larger than it appears. If you are within thirty feet of the monster, you are in range for melee attacks.

“Doesn’t sound like they found anything new,” I said. “Escape Plans C or D should still be viable, depending on whether we’re in an open area or close to buildings.”

“Sure, but don’t get too gabby when you call it out, okay? The less you Challenge folks say, the better!”

I couldn’t help but wince at Veronica’s verbal jab, even if the woman’s lazy grin suggested that she hadn’t meant any harm. She and her board game group had joined us after the terrifying encounter with the mutated D-Rex. Clint and Doreen hadn’t been the only ones uneasy about sticking around, and we’d had to do a little recruiting to stay up to strength.

We made our way out onto the streets, easily handling the old monsters and cautiously engaging the new rustpiles.

The new monsters were tough enough to be frustrating, shrugging off abilities with minimal damage and keeping physical attackers cautious with the cruel claws stealthily hidden beneath their mounds of fur.

“Anything this furry should be easy to set on fire,” Micah said, glaring at a patch of smelly smoke drifting off the monster’s side.

“And it’s not fair that they’re hiding their hands. That’s cheating,” Gavin agreed.

“Less whining, more dodging!” I snapped, using my Telekinesis to tug Gavin toward the side. “Monsters are still dangerous, especially new ones.”

“Ms. Priya’s pulling it away,” said Micah. “She’s got it. We’re fine.”

“You are until you’re not,” I said. “If you can’t focus, you'll have to stay at the fort.”

Micah heaved a gusty sigh and Gavin looked resentful, but they stopped arguing while monsters were still alive and put a little more effort into staying out of the way.

We didn’t find an easy method to take the rustpiles down from range, but we figured a number of things out. Draw Attention worked, confirming the monsters had a front and a back end, in spite of their near-circular appearance. Their hearing was spectacular, so they could often defend from attacks against their rear anyway, but using sound-manipulation abilities - like Micah’s Sonic Blast - clearly upset them. If they couldn’t hear properly, all their claws would extend and flail wildly. This was dangerous in its own way, but not as effective as the rustpile’s usual precise strikes.

Melee was the best way to take them down: stabs from swords or from spears sliding easily in between strands of fur, while slashing attacks rebounded off and blunt damage did almost nothing.

We fought until near sunset, then started making our way back to the fort in good spirits. Miracle of miracles, we hadn’t had to tangle with a bonefur, and we’d gotten far more effective at taking down the new rustpiles. We’d taken some injuries, yes, but nothing that a little Healing Touch couldn’t fix.

As we passed the Pylon, however, I stopped cold.

“What the hell is that?”