> Interesting news from the language analyst team. They believe they have cataloged over 1,728 distinct Clothes-Lover languages, but past Challenges have drawn together speakers of only a handful, clumping Challengers together geographically. It’s too early to say for certain, but both Falling Foliage and Stocky believe they have spotted multiple arenas where over a dozen languages are being spoken. Contestant distribution in this Challenge may have been completely random.

>

> – Radio transmission from Voices for Non-Citizens

I was too slow to dodge the falling droplet and was relieved when I didn’t feel anything other than a chill on my skin. Just… water?

Another drop impacted beside me, sending a splatter of muddy sand over my boot. Then a third hit behind me, and a fourth, a fifth…

Too many to count.

Oversize raindrops pelted down around us as we drew together, alarmed by this sudden, confusing change in our surroundings.

The craters in the ground were being refreshed, the dappled surface shifting swiftly with each impact.

Oh shit! The tracks!

In the second it took me to think of it, the wheelmarks from Cassie’s cloudcar had almost entirely vanished.

“No!”

I traced the tracks I could see with a hologram as they swiftly vanished, but soon let the ability fade. It would only tire me to keep it active, stealing energy I’d likely need later. I’d only followed the tracks around 30 feet so far, but even in that short distance they’d changed direction multiple times, a wandering, unfocused doodle across the landscape.

Where my companions and I had relied on careful testing to determine which obstacles were dangerous, Pointy and Cassie hadn’t had such tools. They’d been avoiding everything, no matter how circuitous it made their route.

Without communicating, Lindani, Sem, and Ha-yoon had drawn closer, each taking a direction and facing outward. It had only been raining for a few seconds, but it was already obvious that the fog was thinning as the cool water made the temperature drop. Previously, seeing ten feet away was a struggle, but I could already see clearly for at least thirty, even with falling rain and spraying sand disrupting my vision. Strangely, it was starting to get lighter. Above me, instead of solid white, I could make out a glowing disk that was brightening by the second, a cheerful sun as gleaming and yellow as a kindergartner’s drawing. If it had been a light rain, I wouldn't have been surprised to be the sun out, but a downpour like this should have come from a heavy thundercloud. Maybe the sun was just shining through a break in the clouds?

Behind me, Lindani gasped, exclaiming something in a language I didn’t know. Then she spun, physically pushing us as she cast anxious glances over her shoulder, continuing to talk. I didn’t need to know what words she was saying to understand that she was scared. But why? I swept my rear eyes behind us even as I let her shove me along. I could make out a shadow, but no detail. It was about the size of a two-story house, but it wasn’t moving. If not for Lindani’s reaction, I might have assumed it was a large rock.

Suddenly, I dug in my heels and grabbed Sem as he moved past. Lindani slapped my shoulder and barked something impatient, but I shook my head, pointing. “I don’t know what you see behind us, but I can feel something ahead of us. It’s about as big as a minivan and it’s not a plant. It’s not moving quickly, but it’s definitely moving.”

Lindani looked confused, and I cursed myself: of course she didn’t understand me any more than I understood her. I flickered a basic hologram in front of us, a simple silhouette. I couldn’t tell much about what was ahead of us, since it was moving and I’d never seen it, but I was sure about the size and I thought it was most likely a quadruped, lithe and predatory, like a wolf as large as a rhino.

Lindani bit off a few words, and I didn’t need to speak her language to know it was a curse.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Sem took a step back. The fog was continuing to thin, a few seconds sufficient to let us see the shadowy shape slinking in the distance. It didn’t seem to be drawing closer just yet. Actually… was it moving away? It was! It had moved out of my Life Sense range, but it was still mostly concealed in the retreating mist. Maybe it didn’t want to get closer to the thing Lindani had spotted? I could only hope. Monsters ahead, probably monsters behind… The thing Lindani had seen was easily four times the height of the nearby monster, but both were massive. Maybe we could cut to the side? But no… there was another shadow that way. And shit, there was a third. We were surrounded.

Even as I scanned ahead for a safe route out, my vision augment let me watch behind. More and more people were becoming visible as the mist faded, although I hadn’t spotted anyone I recognized. I could also finally see more than the shadow of the creature that Lindani had urged us to flee from.

It was fairly far from us - maybe three hundred feet? - but the mist around it was clearing more quickly than the mist elsewhere. It still wasn’t perfectly visible, but I could make out a shape, bloated and gargantuan, like a beanbag chair as large as a house. Could it even move? A second later, I realized its massive bulk was shrinking, and quickly. How…?

Something occurred to me, and I flickered Analyze, reviewing my memories, thinking about the angle of the falling droplets.

“That thing is clearing the mist. I think it’s making the rain, spraying it out somehow like a whale or giant firehose.” I flickered a few simple images, trying to communicate to Lindani as well. They weren’t very good - I didn’t have Priya’s art skills - but it seemed to get my point across. “I don’t know what it’s going to do when it’s done, but I bet it’s going to be a lot worse than a little rain. I think we’re going to have to pick one of the monsters hemming us in and fight our way free.”

“That one,” Ha-yoon said, pointing. “We walked that way and killed the ball bugs. It is safer.”

I nodded, and took a step in that direction, only to have Lindani make a noise of surprise and dismay. I turned to face her, raising my eyebrows. She didn’t respond immediately, seeming to war with herself, then bit her lip and mimed driving a car wheel, then pointed back in the opposite direction. Not quite back to the grotesque form, but far too close for comfort.

Cassie. She saw Cassie.

“That’s… that’s my daughter,” I said. “I have to go.”

Ha-yoon stepped away, bowing slightly. “I wish you the best.”

I nodded. I couldn’t expect anyone else to follow me into danger to save my kid, and the Korean girl was just a kid herself: fifteen, maybe sixteen years old. “Good luck. Stay safe.”

I started jogging in the direction Lindani had indicated, and was startled to see both she and Sem following. I glanced over my shoulder, wanting to let them see the surprise on my face. Lindani’s answering smile was tight, but Sem laughed. “YOLO, hey? I do not think I could keep up with Ha-yoon anyway.”

“Thanks,” I said. The word was too simple to hold the gratitude I wanted it to, but I think Sem understood.

I tried to focus on our route, steering us around dangers. Worryingly, as we passed a younger Hispanic-looking man, I sensed a swarm of the giant roly-poly monsters around his feet. They were still alive, but not moving, even with prey within feet of them. Did he have some kind of stealth ability, or were the little monsters just too scared to move?

I didn’t like the implications of that, although I was relieved to see the man jog out of their midst to follow us, unmolested.

Whatever that thing in the middle is, whatever’s around the edges… they won’t be unbeatable, right? They have to be beatable, technically. Still, I should put my sword away and take out my gun. My shield is one thing, but any plan that involves me getting close enough to that thing to stab it… no.

We’d gotten a better look at it by now. Navy-blue-and-brown mottled skin was stretched over a quadrupedal frame. The monster had its ass in the air, kind of like the downward dog yoga pose. An extremely long, thick tail was thrust into the sky above it, and the monster’s bulk contracted in regular pulses as it shot water into the air above. A dangerous-looking head lay flat against the earth, shaped kind of like an alligator's. I’d had some hope that the monster would stay ungainly, even after it drained itself of water, but that hope was waning. It had lost a lot of mass already, but there was no sign of loose skin. Its belly was still swollen, but its previously-puffy legs now looked dangerous and muscular.

Alien bullshit, I thought.

Then, I saw something that drove my angry thoughts from my mind: Cassie’s cloudcar, apparently stuck in the hollow left behind after a mega-mole attack, wheels spinning in the soggy sand. As I watched, Bigkitty reared up on her hind legs, throwing her weight against the back of the car to push it free.

I opened my mouth to shout, then thought better of it. Judging by the effort the thing in the middle was putting in to clear the mist, I assumed it hunted by sight. But then again, so did humans, and we still paid attention when something close to us was obnoxiously noisy.

I flickered another basic hologram in front of Cassie, trusting Pointy to notice it even if my daughter didn’t.

Hold on, Cassie! I’m almost there!