A yellow streak of light barrels past us, stops, and doubles back to stop in front of me. “Alex! Have you seen Cottontail???” Megan asks, seeming agitated.

I get a sinking feeling, “No… why?”

“She disappeared!”

----------------------------------------

I manage to calm Megan down after a few minutes of reassurance. Yes, I still have Cottontail on my list of Branded. Yes, I can find Cottontail on my Partner Map. The Showbunny in question is with Jonny’s and Gale’s team, making it obvious what happened.

“It looks like Gale ran into trouble and used my Brand Summoning Token to pull Cottontail to their location,” I explain.

“Gale is in trouble!?!” Megan looks equal parts relieved and distressed by my guess, fidgeting while hopping from foot to foot as arcs of electric anxiety leap from her fur to ground themselves in the dirt. She's clearly a hair's breadth from rushing off on her own again.

I stop the energetic Denki Nezumi from scampering away, saying, “They know better than to pick a serious fight without us. While the Misty Grove is dangerous, I doubt there’s anything there they can’t escape from. Either Gale activated the Token by mistake, or she needed a strong Third Tier’s assistance. Regardless, we can’t possibly make it to them in time to lend a hand. That’s why I gave them the Summoning Token in the first place.” Internally, I'm wishing we could've left one of Flou's bodies here to fill us in on the situation. But then, Gale's team would be one Flou short of full strength.

My words seem to finally do the job of bringing the panicked mouse girl down to a manageable level of concern. By then, the rest of Suka’s team finally reaches us. The Flamestalker kicks through the air with consecutive explosive double-jumps while holding our favorite frog girl in her arms, bridal-style. Dura barrels our way at a dead sprint to keep pace, kicking up a cloud of dust behind her as she runs with all the speed and unstoppable momentum of an ancient human truck.

“Alex! Good, you caught her before she ran off again,” the Flamestalker breathes a sigh of relief as she lands, gently depositing Sue on the ground while Dura skids to a halt nearby. The Ogre's dust cloud from hitting the 'breaks' would've enveloped us if not for a wave of Gabby's wand that blows it away.

“I wasn’t just ‘running off.’ I was going to save my sister,” Megan retorts.

“Easy, Zippy. If Alex is calm, then everything is fine.” The wolf girl has that right. If I honestly believed the others were in desperate need of my assistance, nothing could keep me from tearing apart the Misty Grove to find them. “Let’s report in so we can relax for a while and still have time to get a good night’s sleep in before tomorrow.”

“The mutt is correct. Sharing information about the day’s encounters is of paramount importance to future success,” Gabby says while adjusting her spectacles.

Megan rolls her eyes. “You just want to hear about the monster evolutions we fought, don’t you?”

Gabby doesn’t blink. “Shamelessness is the privilege of the strong.”

Dura’s gaze lands on the Witch’s new ensemble and says, “New pretty robes! Gabby ‘volve?”

“Congrats, Shortstack,” Suka tells the Gobliness who preens at the complimentary nickname.

“What wondewful news!”

“I bet you just made Alex stupidly more powerful, didn’t you?” Megan assesses with a narrowed gaze of grudging respect.

The Witch takes their congratulations with aplomb and nods to Megan, smiling as she replies, “In a contest of contributions, I certainly wouldn’t bet against this pretty little green Shortstack.”

“Believe me, I learned my lesson about taking dubious bets the other day,” Suka cheekily reminds us of the time not too long ago when she gambled about my proclivity to gather monster companions and lost against Gabby. “But next time it’ll be your turn not to bet against me.”

“What’s that?” Gabby mockingly cups her long, pointed ear as if straining to hear something faint, “Is it a puny Second Tier buzzing in my ear like an annoying fly?”

“Tch. Just wait until tomorrow.” Suka can’t deny it, so she takes solace in the fact we’ll be facing enough Third Tier opponents tomorrow to ensure her next evolution. As a Flamestalker, she needs definitive wins to progress. “In the meantime, let’s appreciate how many creepy fucks my team killed today.”

“Yes,” I agree, “Let’s hear it.”

The fiery wolf girl gives us the rundown on what they faced under the mountain. Frankly, I’m flabbergasted. “It sounds like the spider bitch found some way to make Hybrids and went crazy. The things she’d doing to her own children!” There's even more war-crimes being committed underground than I thought.

“This ‘Tygge’ person…” Gabby considers with a puzzled frown, “I don’t recall an entry like this in the Book of Monsters but, from what you've said, it seems she was created by fusing scores of Darklings together until they passed some critical threshold. It’d be fascinating if it weren’t so disturbing.”

Privately, I agree. Although, I have to wonder whether this horrific Hybrid abomination is truly evil. She didn't ask to be created, after all. Tygge reportedly didn't use lethal force at several points when she could've killed someone, although she did almost execute Cottontail on accident. I'd probably have to talk to Tygge directly to establish her moral character one way or the other. Hmm. But that spider bitch under the mountain definitely has to go.

Suka grabs a bunch of eyeball grapes from a serving bunny bearing a bundle of them wrapped in leaves for convenience and nonchalantly pops one of the fruits in her mouth, “Welp, at least with how many abominations my group killed today, you can sleep soundly knowing you won’t have to face them in battle tomorrow. Looking at it from that perspective… you could say our party contributed the most today.”

Megan rolls her eyes but says nothing since they were on a team together.

“Ahem,” Gabby clears her throat for attention, “I gave Alex a Third Tier mark today, on top of several powerful abilities. Although I didn’t venture far, it’s unquestionably true that I contributed the most. Single-handedly, no less.”

“We fought a Third Tier monster and cleared out dozens of Weblings and hundreds of Servitors!” Suka argues with heat in her voice, “Without our efforts, we may very well have had those forces crawling up our asses after the battle tomorrow.”

True, that would be a worst-case scenario. I'd hate to have to fight another army after spending all our resources subduing the Wolves and Ogres.

“If I may,” Janine interjects, “The Lady Mayoress focused on the political sphere today, and still managed to acquire a potent healing monster, a secure trade route between Towns, post-war supplies, and several marks. Also, respectfully, your esteemed Witchy Mistress, but the Third Tier mark and abilities she gained from you were due to her own magical tattoo system. Those accomplishments should properly be attributed to Alex.” The Hobgoblin finishes with a dark grey blush as if embarrassed to be correcting the Third Tier Goblin mistress.

Suka chuckles. “She’s got you there, Shortstack.”

“Hmph,” Gabby responds to Suka, and then turns to Janine. “I won’t hold it against you this time because the simple fact of my evolution already trumps everything else. I'm worth a small army of Second-Tiers on the battlefield all by myself.”

Just when it looks like the argument is settled, our Denki Nezumi pipes up. “When Cottontail and Gale come back, they’ll have a mountain of Slime Cores to their credit,” Megan says, deciding to defend her lovers’ honor.

“What about Spindle?” I ask. This friendly competition is amusing; why not throw another hat into the ring?

“Tch, there’s no way,” Suka counters. “She’s on a mission to assassinate the Goblin Sheikh, or at least bring home Opal. While that’s great and all, neither of those things are that important (no offense to Opal). It’s not like she can totally turn that situation around to top all of us.”

““…””

We all take a second to register how much Suka is tempting fate before Sue rises to her tiptoes while peering into the distance.

“Hey, what’s that over thewre? Isn’t that Miss Spindle?”

I turn to see a group coming into view from the direction of the desert, but it can’t be, because there are way too many people. Then a glint of metal catches my eye—armored Lizardmen!?! Alongside them are the flying forms of a Bee Girl swarm, an impressively sexy Lamia, a green-glowing moth girl, a few pregnant Cactus girls, and a whole troop of Sand Goblins and Hobs. Then the icing on the cake comes into view: a hog-tied Sheikh carried by Hobs beside an exceedingly pleased Wicked Weaver Webling.

Suka stomps her foot and shouts, “Oh, come on!!!”