[ Excerpt from Beast Bazaar — Shopping Worgs! ]

  To shoplins, a Worg is a pet, beast of burden, battle-mount, and sometimes even a food source, all rolled into one versatile creature. Naturally, when the shoplins relocated to their new home in the ZETTAMALL?, their new ecosystem was seeded with worgs. The two species got along like Ikana on fire... but soon a problem emerged.

  Thanks to their agreement with Management, shoplins at work enjoy perks from their faith-brands which often allow recovery from otherwise-fatal wounds. Worgs do not enjoy these perks. A shoplin who brings their beloved worg to work may not enjoy its company for much longer.

  Luckily for our shoplin, help has arrived. The shoplin billionaire Wogar Borkle has turned his brilliant mind to the problem, and with the help of a hand-picked team of engineers and worg breeders, developed an app to solve it. Low Priests who subscribe to Worgr receive a monthly supply of custom augmented worgs, freshly cloned and ready for deployment. At the Premium level, these worgs can be fitted with carts, performance enhancers, and cosmetic skins.

  Shoplins who take a liking to their shopping worgs augment them even further, adding more wheels and further stat increases. A worg who has earned all four wheels is a fearsome opponent indeed.

  Two car-sized wolves leapt through the glass and snarled at us, cybernetic parts gleaming in their black fur. They didn't move like normal wolves: the left one had a single metallic foreleg which ended in a wheel, giving it an awkward halting gait, while the right had both forelegs replaced and pushed itself forward on its back legs like a man with a wheelbarrow. A shoplin rode each one, sitting in a metal basket strapped to its back.

  They rolled towards us, growling and clacking. The shoplins screeched and readied their crossbows.

  [ SHOPPING WORG, Lvl. 2 ]

  [ SHOPPING WORG, Lvl. 3 ]

  Harmony looked nervous, but took a combat stance. "I can hold the left one..."

  "I can take—" Chaz began, but the worgs leapt before he could finish.

  It was a rough fight. Fryvern's Drake Form made Harmony tougher and stronger, not just spikier, and she tried to use that by clamping the worg's mouth shut with her claws. Since the worg was much bigger than her, that quickly turned into Harmony hanging on for dear life as it shook its head like a headbanger at a metal concert.

  "Gaah!"

  Chaz fared slightly better. His efforts to raise his Dodge had paid off, and the worg's snapping jaws failed to close on flesh. He'd also only just picked up a sword yesterday though, so he couldn't land a solid hit either. Beast Bazaar: Shopping Worgs increased a stat called Zanshin, which didn't seem to help.

  Ultimately, the fight came down to numbers. The worgs had shoplins and Expired on their side, but our crew was bigger and much better at awkward flailing.

  [ You have defeated a Shopping Worg! ]

  [ +1 EXP! +$10! ]

  [ You have defeated... ]

  Harmony wiped her brow. "These guys are like ten times bigger than the shoplins, but they're worth the same amount? This is bullshit!"

  Chaz prodded a worg. "They're not that tough once you get past the size..."

  I looked at the survivors still coming down the stairs behind us. Lex was leaning on the rail, trying to control her breathing.

  "You okay?" I asked.

  "I'll be fine," Lex said, trembling. "Just... staying in the back..."

  "Not so tough any more, right?" Kara asked, as she used her Deadphones-enhanced spear to take an Expired's foot off just in case. "We took them down quick!"

  Harmony stood proud. "That's because we've all got bots now!"

  "And most of the people who'd be bad at this are dead, I think," I added.

  Chaz shone his torch around the terminal, and stared. "Uh, bro? This might be a problem..."

  There shouldn't have been much outside, just a tunnel wall lined with advertising billboards. The tunnel road still split and flowed around the terminal, but beyond it lay a sprawling, empty car park. Walls just wide enough for Zettamall billboards dotted the space like thick pillars, obscuring our view of the furthest reaches. The car park spread on both sides of the terminal, covering an area at least the size of the mall above.

  Kara gripped her spear tighter. "What the heck? Is this a Lair?"

  "I think so," I said. "A screen upstairs said Lairs grow over time, and this one was here yesterday..."

  I shone my light further down. A bus was still parked at a stop partway down the terminal, its door hanging open. Expired were still in their seats.

  "What's Rozinante do?" I asked Baz.

  "I can drive anything," Baz said, "and anything I'm driving gets upgraded."

  "Oh, I see what you're thinking," Val said. "Baz, can you give us a lift?"

  Baz nodded, and we crept towards the bus. The terminal doors opened from the outside, but we got through quietly by sending Chaz through the broken window. Forcing the Expired off the bus was louder. We heard too many growls and shoplin noises in the dark, and hoped they masked the sounds we made.

  Once the deed was done, we boarded. Those with ranged weapons sat by the windows, Harmony's crew took the back seat, and Val invited my party to join hers near the front. We had enough seats for everyone, but I stood anyway.

  Baz sat in the driver's seat, hands gliding smoothly over controls they'd never seen before. The doors were closed. The keys were turned. The engine roared.

  Baz had undersold Rozinante. Changes rippled out from the front: the outside turned black and hardened, the seats were wrapped in fancy red leather, and the bus rocked slightly as the tires got thicker and stronger. The side and back windows became shimmering force fields.

  Screens with a minimap and route details popped down from the ceiling, and a system window appeared beside Baz. As their fingers danced over it, the screens inside and outside the bus changed their destinations to "WOLVES I GUESS".

  Udon Quixote's voice laughed through the bus speakers. "Rozinante is online! Sally forth, champion!"

  The bus lurched forward. It was faster and turned better than a regular bus, but Baz took things carefully at first, winding through each aisle one by one until we saw something.

  The worgs turned up two aisles in.

  A pack of five burst around the corner ahead of us. Most had one or two wheels, and there was one with three that raced ahead of the pack, its remaining paw lifted off the ground for maximum speed. The shoplins riding them opened fire, and the shields started to crack.

  We fired through the windows as the bus plowed through the pack. The one-wheel worgs went down fast, and I managed to whip a shoplin off a two-wheeler with my arm. His worg didn't stop chasing us.

  Baz turned into the next aisle. The worgs gave chase, cutting between pillars to ram us as the shoplins tried to wear down the windows and tires. It was making my aim worse than it already was. I grabbed a pole to steady myself and kept firing.

  "Shields almost down!" Val yelled.

  People ducked just as the window fields collapsed. Lex stopped most of the next volley with Smak Rak, but she couldn't extend it over every window. Someone who'd moved too slow ate an arrow in the shoulder.

  "Ah, fuck!"

  Michael leapt out of his seat to tend to them, bot hands glowing. "I got it!"

  Another round of shots, and the two-wheel worgs fell. That left the three-wheeler chasing us. Baz stopped winding through the aisles and started accelerating around the car park's outer edge.

  "I'll get this one," Harmony said. She turned around in the back seat, lifted herself over the back until she was up against the window, and...

  "SKREEEENK!"

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  She roared like a tiny kaiju. A jet of flame blasted from her mouth and splashed into the three-wheeler's shoplin, blasting it off its mount. The worg stumbled in surprise, ate a few more bolts to the face, and went down.

  Baz hit the far end of the car park and started circling back around, heading for the other side of the terminal.

  Val peered through the darkness. "Damn, that wasn't the miniboss."

  "It'll probably have four wheels," I said.

  "Well, the shields are still recharging," Val warned. "Do we wait?"

  I shrugged. "Your call."

  Baz decided to take it easy, and started weaving through the aisles again. Everyone else took a breath and rested.

  "I feel a little useless," Manaia confessed from the back. "I don't have a ranged weapon..."

  Lex opened Snakpak. "I got some heavy metal stuff you can throw."

  "I'll take it!"

  Baz turned another corner and almost stopped the bus in surprise. Another worg was rounding the terminal from the other side.

  This one was a biped. He had two cybernetic legs which ended in skates, and two arms that ended in clawed hands. His head, especially the mouth, was too big in proportion to his body. More worryingly, he was taller than the bus and so muscled he was carrot-shaped.

  He was wearing little denim shorts.

  [ BORKLEVORE, MUTANT PREMIUM REWARDS WORG

  MINIBOSS (SUPERVISOR) ]

  "Something really heavy, please," Manaia said.

  Borklevore began to skate towards us, another worg pack racing behind him.

  "Shit!" Baz veered into the nearest aisle and started accelerating away.

  Val turned to me as we held on. "That's not four wheels, Will!"

  "I said probably, alright?!"

  Baz hit the end and turned towards the terminal, hoping to avoid getting surrounded. Those on the side facing the worgs opened fire. The lesser worgs fell back, but Borklevore looked completely unconcerned. He was zooming towards us with a smile on his face, arms lazily swinging like a cartoon character.

  He turned between two pillars to cut the corner and casually caught up to us. The mutant claws buried themselves in the back of the bus, and suddenly he was hitching a ride behind us.

  "Shit!" I aimed, but I couldn't get a clear shot...

  As the others in the back dived away, Harmony tried to shoot fire again...

  Borklevore's hand plunged into the bus, closed around the first thing it touched, and dragged Michael outside. He barely got time to shout.

  "MIKE!" Reg screamed.

  Borklevore threw Michael behind him. We got a brief glimpse of Mike flying towards the worgs, reaching out for us, before the giant swung his arm back for round two.

  Harmony freaked out and blasted Borklevore in the face. He shifted his grip and climbed around the bus to avoid Fryvern, reaching into a side-window instead.

  Those nearby opened fire. Manaia threw a dumbbell at him. I moved closer and fired over their heads, into the giant's torso. As the bus roared around the terminal, Baz tried to jump the curb and ram Borklevore into the wall.

  The worg kicked off just in time, turning the potentially fatal blow into a merely embarrassing trip on the curb. The bus raced forward again, into the car park on the other side.

  "We have to go back!" Harmony shouted. "We can still get Mike—"

  Something exploded behind us. The floor shook.

  [ You have defeated a Shopping Worg! ]

  [ You have defeated a Shopping Worg! Yum! ]

  [ You have defeated a Shoplin Worghoon! ]

  [ You have... ]

  [ You have received a Death Daddy Well This Just Happened Crate. ]

  We went quiet with shock as our crate windows updated.

  "Wh-what just happened?" Kara asked.

  I tried to ignore my heart pounding and focus. "This isn't working any more..."

  Val's crew exchanged messages, and then she turned to us.

  "Listen!" she said. "We have an idea! Mall Minotaur lets me trap enemies near wherever I'm standing. If we can keep him near a wall, Baz can get him."

  That seemed like an incredibly risky thing to ask of a teenager, but the plan had one huge advantage, which was that it was available immediately.

  "I'm in if you are," I told the others.

  Kara and Chaz nodded. Lex looked up from where she'd been sitting, white-knuckle gripping the seat.

  "I think we can do it," she said. "The actual worgs are dead. We'll be fine. Right?"

  "We'll be fine," I reassured her. I didn't sound believable, but Lex was ready to cling to anything.

  Baz raced to the far end, parked by a billboard ("BURGER KONG: I'm Going Ape!"), and opened the door.

  I raised my voice and called to the passengers. "Hey! We're fighting that guy up close! If you want to help, this is your stop!"

  My party followed Val's out, while Harmony's remaining crew hopped out the back window. Most of the other survivors joined us, out of either confidence in their new OddBotz or fear of getting snatched. Those with only ranged weapons stayed back, near the bus.

  "We just need to keep him here when he turns up," Val said uncertainly.

  "What's the range on this thing?" I asked.

  "About fifteen metres? It doesn't move with me, but it'll go away if I leave. Everyone else can go in and out but I gotta stay... Oh, and attacks from the outside won't do much."

  "Don't worry, we'll stay," Harmony said. There was a fire in her eyes. "This fucking bandicoot is going down."

  "Hell yeah," Reg said. "Rad Dog, gimme the brawler build."

  Rad Dog gave a thumbs-up and started shadow-boxing. Reg straightened up, smacked his fists together, and assumed a fighting stance.

  A howl echoed across the car park.

  Borklevore had recovered and was skating towards us. His health bar was still eighty percent full, and he was no longer smiling.

  "AWOOOO!"

  Harmony roared back. "SKREEENK!"

  Val raised her foot. "Let's fucking go! Maze Expansion!"

  She stomped just as Borklevore got into range.

  Golden lines of light raced outwards from her foot, tracing the outline of a maze across the floor before rising up to form a faint cube around us.

  Harmony blasted Borklevore with the flames again, and I backed her up with my hand cannon. The worg braked and stumbled backwards to avoid the flames, almost slipping on his wheels. His back bumped into the cube...

  The bus engine roared, and Baz burned rubber. Now we just had to survive against a giant.

  Harmony's flame breath had to recharge between uses, and she couldn't keep it up. As soon as the flames died, Borklevore leapt forward and slammed his fist down. Harmony jumped away just in time, but a wild backswing sent her tumbling across the concrete. She screamed in pain, or rage, or possibly both.

  There was no time to regroup. Borklevore was already swinging again, and we were all potential targets. One survivor was slapped straight out of the cube. Another was grabbed, decapitated with the worg's teeth, and tossed at a third.

  Chaz dodged a fist and slashed his sword across it. Borklevore howled in fury and focused the next few swings on him, creating an opening for the others to move in. I aimed my cannon at his face, hoping to keep him distracted.

  Borklevore wasn't letting us corner him that easily. His wheels spun and he whirled around in a circle, arm outstretched; Chaz and a few other people who didn't duck in time were smacked away again.

  Chaz bounced. "Motherfuck—"

  Kara ducked, rolled awkwardly, and held up her phone. "Eldritch Brand!"

  Another Darksynth-infused blast of energy splashed across Borklevore's chest. As he reeled, I fired again and hit him in the eye.

  Borklevore yowled and stumbled backwards, wheels slipping. We finally had an opening.

  "Get the legs!" I screamed.

  The worg was fast, but every time we put him in an awkward position he'd lost his balance. Being on the back foot was even worse when it had wheels on.

  Val and Manaia reached Borklevore first, grabbing his shins and yanking in opposite directions. The worg hit the floor. Other survivors ran in to help, and his legs were lifted in the air.

  Borklevore howled and began to thrash. The rest of us attacked, shooting and stabbing as much as we could before he inevitably got up...

  Lex ran into Val's cube, reaching into Snakpak. "Hey!

  She pulled out a chain.

  I caught on quick and grabbed one end. "Yeah! Give me a hand!"

  The others saw what we were up to and shoved his legs together. With Lex and Khan's help, I wrapped the chain around them as fast as I could. Val and Manaia grabbed the ends with us, and we pulled it tight.

  "Oh! Oh!" Kara reached into her Purpose Pocket and focused. The pocket glowed from within, and her hand came out holding a hefty padlock.

  "Yes!" Click.

  Borklevore had less than half his health remaining. We had to hope he was weak enough for this next part.

  The light of distant headlights and the roar of an engine began to fill out space. Borklevore looked up, and his eyes widened.

  Baz had driven as far away as possible, and now they were accelerating towards us.

  Most people stopped attacking and ran out of the cube while they could. Val backed away towards the edge, to at least get out of the way—

  But with the attacks stopped, Borklevore could easily move again. He threw his body at Val and grabbed her.

  Val screamed and struggled, legs kicking. Borklevore roared and squeezed.

  Crunch.

  The cube disappeared.

  Val was tossed through the air. She hit the concrete and lay there, unmoving.

  "Shit!" I started running. No Death Daddy crate appeared yet...

  Borklevore rolled onto his stomach and began to drag himself out of the corner with his claws. A spiteful hand reached out and grabbed me next.

  I struggled, but his grip was like a vice. Borklevore unhinged his jaws...

  And jerked backwards. "Ruff?!"

  Manaia and Reg had grabbed the chain around his legs and started pulling.

  He roared and struggled. He let me go to use both hands, digging his claws into the concrete and pulling with all his might.

  I scrambled backwards. Too close—

  Rozinante rammed straight through us.