The kids needed to keep earning Points and, more importantly, combat experience. We also needed to figure how monsters would react to Micah and I. I was hoping it would be the same as always, but I could also see them ignoring us entirely, like they did with cats and dogs, or mobbing us like we had some kind of permanent omnidirectional Draw Attention.

I might have kept Gavin inside to prevent others from noticing his ghostly crown, but putting his helmet on completely concealed the insubstantial band.

If we were stuck here for a few hours, there was no reason not to go out.

Well, no reason except the internal voice screaming at me that we didn’t know these monsters, Camo Guy said they were nasty, your kids are gonna get hurt and-

I was learning to ignore that voice. Not because it was wrong - far from it - but because it was a way for me to ignore the bigger worry: how will my kids manage when I can’t be there to help them?

Gavin had repeatedly tried to get combat experience against the mobmu, and time and again I had stopped him. I’d told the kids to take leafenrats and badblankets down with ranged abilities, before the monsters got close enough for them to use their weapons.

The kids would have gotten hurt if I’d let them fight the monsters at close range… but if I had, they almost certainly would have felt confident enough to take the easiest path out of the Mandatory Trial, and Micah would still be able to count to ten on his toes.

I had to be okay with my kids getting injured. It would, or should, be temporary. Gavin’s healing was excellent now, and he even had Cure Disease. If we splashed a little water on the wound to get out any major foreign objects, anything but a gut or head wound could be totally erased in seconds. Even if a monster managed to sever a limb or finger, as long as we were quick about taking down the monster and holding the dismembered part up against the stump, Healing Touch would heal them together nicely. None of us had suffered lost body parts yet - aside from Micah, during the Trial - but Gavin had still helped heal injuries like that as we’d defended Fort Autumn from mobmu waves.

Not to mention, we’d have a big group: Sueann had gone to take a nap, but William was accompanying us, and he had invited Kat and her infant. I’d offered both adults Money to purchase a better weapon from the Shop. William had taken me up on it and now wielded a serviceable sword instead of his table leg, but Kat had quietly demurred.

At first, I’d thought she was just trying not to be a burden, and I’d tried to insist she take the Money.

“I can’t spend it right now, anyway. Go ahead!”

Kat gestured at her front, where she’d tied a laundry hamper over the top of the infant carrier for extra protection. “I won’t be able to swing it. I’ve been listening to what y’all said. I think I need to get some more Points and get a ranged ability. Something I can use from far away.”

I thought about arguing - none of the ranged abilities synergized well with Healing Touch - but decided she was right. It was what she needed, just like the laundry hamper was a sensible choice, even though it limited her range of motion. She was trying to get an infant through the apocalypse; her smart decisions would be different than most people’s.

I offered her an encouraging smile. “We’ll get you those Points, then.”

The external door to William’s building had been barricaded, so we made our way to the central courtyard and out through one of the gates. A woman called out to us as we approached. “Residents?”

“Yes’m!” William called back.

My Mom Senses tingled, and I turned to glare at my eldest, certain that he wouldn’t be able to let the half-truth pass. Sure enough, Micah was already opening his mouth to issue a correction. He shut it with a surly expression as I stared him down.

The woman took a quick count, then handed William a stack of index cards, each stamped in multicolor ink with the image of a giraffe holding a sign with the words “A+ Work!” “These are your passes back inside. Keep them safe.”

Pointy squeaked from inside the metal purse Micah had forged for Cassie. “You may place them in here with me. There is adequate space, and they will be well protected.”

I wondered what Pointy would think of the fact that there were seven passes, when she could only detect five people, but didn’t ask. I wanted the turtle as functional as possible while we were out. Even with Cassie’s new Overlay skill to alert her to danger, even with Pointy mentally crippled, the turtle was probably still more likely to notice threats than my daughter.

Outside the gate, a line of people were purchasing food and water from the defenders; those who didn’t intend to stay weren’t being allowed inside. Those who did want to relocate were being redirected to the north gate, where someone with Insight was conducting interviews before allowing them in.

We weren’t immediately rushed by a wave of monsters. I’d thought that was unlikely, but I’d wanted to be ready for anything, and I’d been fully prepared to scoop Micah up and dash back inside to safety if I’d needed to.

The area directly surrounding Cozy Grove was fairly clear. While we saw a couple monsters pop into existence, they were quickly pinned down by a flurry of various missiles and hampering abilities. We were at least able to confirm that the monsters weren’t targeting Micah and I specifically, but there wasn’t any real way to test if they could still sense us before we attacked; there were too many people around, attacking each monster the minute it appeared. We’d have to wait until we were further out.

The onslaught of missiles was enough to take out most monsters, but when a stabcrab spawned, I saw just how tough the things were. The armored monster rocked back with each impact, but didn’t fade away or even take visible damage. As I was wondering what it took to kill it, a man with sledgehammer leapt off the walls and raced over. He paused when he got close, cupping a hand to yell “Ready!”

The rain of Fire and Ice Bolts tapered off, although the monster remained stuck in place: I assumed people with Burden or a similar ability were keeping it pinned. The man stepped forward, repeatedly slamming his hammer into the monster’s carapace.

I activated Analyze.

I had time to get quite close; the monster didn’t die quickly. The man with the hammer was lucky that the people on the walls were holding it in place for him as he struck, because it took four blows before I even started to see cracks in the monster’s armor, and five more before the carapace shattered, briefly exposing the monster’s softer insides before it faded from existence.

What I found out was fascinating to me. I’d looked at monsters before, of course, but of the six I’d seen previously, five - the leafenrats, badblankets, bladetails, mobmu, and slimes - were obviously carnivorous. They could have been designed for the Maffiyir, conceivably. The rams weren’t carnivores - had flat teeth and only rudimentary claws - but their helmetlike skulls were still built for combat. If they existed as animals elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly fought, either against predators or territorially against fellow rams.

The stabcrabs were different. They were herbivores, and not territorial ones. I was almost sure of it. Sueann had been right when she told me that they didn’t really have weapons. The monster had a thick disc-shaped central body, with six legs spaced equally around it, giving it no obvious front. Its legs reminded me more of the legs of a chunky spider than a crab. Earth crabs tended to have legs that attached to their bodies from beneath, with knees that rose, at most, only a bit above their eyestalks. In contrast, the stabcrab’s legs formed a near-fence around its torso, with knees that rose high above its body. When it moved, each leg moved in a way that looked nearly mechanical, and my eyes were drawn to the divots its feet left in the blacktop.

Even as I saw the clear evidence of their legs’ power, Analyze was working to supplement my observations. I could tell that while the crabs could tilt their legs at nearly any angle, the pavement-cracking force could only be directed downward, relative to their torsos. Their biology wasn’t anything I was familiar with; muscle alone couldn’t create the kind of motion I was seeing. If anything, it reminded me of a spring-powered catapult with the way the legs slowly drew back, then jetted forward almost too fast to see. Wasn’t there an Earth shrimp with arms that did something similar?

I’d made a catapult with my dad as a kid. We’d only gotten to play with it for two hours before I’d broken my arm and my mom made my dad take it apart, but my memories were vivid.

I didn’t want to be in front of those legs.

Fortunately, the legs were clearly built to help the monsters climb, rather than to deal damage. The force they could put out was brutal, but unless the stabcrabs knocked someone prone, they’d be more likely to injure than kill.

Of course, it would be hard to stay upright with a hole smashed through your foot or a chunk gashed from your calf, but I thought people would be able to prevent that, mostly. Even if a baseball bat wouldn’t harm the monsters much, it would certainly knock them away. The monsters’ torsos were probably two feet across, and their legs rose a little less than two feet above the ground. Even with the crabs’ thick armor, I was confident that they weighed less than a human. We were strong enough now to keep something like that away fairly easily.

What was the best way to kill them? The monster’s underside had been hidden from me, but I had gotten a glimpse of its internals as it faded away. Analyze made the most of that brief look, noting that multiple curving tubes were angled toward its underside. Any orifices it had must be on its stomach.

“Can you flip them?” I asked the guy with the hammer.

He lifted an arm to wipe sweat from his face. “I can, but they’ll flip right back. Their underside still seems pretty tough. Don’t see much point.”

I nodded. I didn’t agree that there wasn’t a point, but I could test my theories myself and let people know when I returned.

We headed out of the safe area around the apartment complex.

“Alright, kids. I’m going to let you fight the new monsters.”

“Really?” Micah sounded shocked.

“Yeah. I want you guys to get experience fighting things we aren’t already familiar with. So… how do you think you should do it?”

Gavin shouted an answer immediately. “Be careful!”

“Careful is good. What does being careful mean?”

That was clearly a tougher question, and he didn’t have a quick answer. Cassie gave it a go. “Make my shell?”

I squeezed her hand. “Your shell is strong, and it’s a good idea to make it if something tries to hit you… but you shouldn’t make it right away. Once you make it, you won’t be able to move, and if the monster wasn’t going to get near you anyway, it will just make you tired for no reason.”

“Oh.” Cassie shrank into me, nervous.

“What else might being careful mean?” I asked.

“Try our abilities on it before it gets to us?” Micah suggested.

“That’s a good one for you and Cassie. What about for Gavin?”

Even Micah was quiet.

I took pity on them. “How about… not rushing ahead by yourself? When you run ahead, you can get surprised by more monsters you didn’t see, and you get farther from your friends. Try letting the monsters come to you, rather than running at them. Okay?”

“Okay,” Gavin said.

Kat watched me, eyebrows knit together. She glanced down at her infant, nestled close against her chest. We were keeping Kat and her baby in the center of our group, where she’d be trying to tag monsters with thrown pebbles for Points. She would also provide backup for Gavin on healing if anyone got hurt.

The younger woman shook her head. “When people told me being a mom would be hard, I believed them. I sure as sugar didn’t expect this.”

“You and me both,” I told her.