You have discovered an Upgrade Engineer! At least one engineer will appear each race. Engineers can be added to your garage.
The second boss was now being engaged by the razor foxes. The giant bear and dog mounts also started slinking down the hill toward the boss.
We stepped to the top of the hill, coming to stand next to the others.
There was a hum in the air. The magic from the Taurin’s hammer was keeping the rain and hail away, but a fine mist still fell upon us. Donut kept her shield up.
“It’s about time you got here,” Genesis the womantaur said to me, sneering. “We were just discussing how we’re going to deal with this thing. We figure since those slimes got pasted, we’re doing a temporary truce for the rest of the race.”
“Yeah, we don’t want you dead just yet,” Rapture said. Her red curls bounced as she talked.
“Don’t worry, baby,” Nico the tiger said, talking to Penelope the pig. His voice was not what I had been expecting. It was nothing like Bautista’s. This was straight from the Jersey shore. “I’ll keep them away from you.” He glared at Donut. “Especially that one.”
“Excuse me?” Donut asked.
Penelope snorted suspiciously at Donut.
“Stay away from my girl, and we won’t have any troubles.”
“Carl, what is he talking about?”
The other boss had fallen to the side as the giant dog and bear ripped into it. The boss had one of the foxes in the black ninja suits in its hand and was shoving him face-first into his own pouch. The fox screamed.
At the top of the hill, the two bugbears and the creepy, thin Jugglers just stood there, watching. I spied Dwight, still inside his vehicle thing, which was stopped at the end of the line. I couldn’t tell from this distance where Lucienne was.
Next to us, Nico the Tigran was on a knee and rubbing the side of Penelope, whispering in the oblivious pig’s ear, still glaring daggers at Donut.
All of us, including the two womantaurs and the Taurin, watched this all, not sure what to make of the tiger man.
“Hey, hey, if Penny is in danger, you better bring her back to the truck!” a new voice called. This was Dario, the second Tigran, who hung out the side of their APV. This Tigran was noticeably thinner, and he had a massive amount of gold chains around his neck.
“She stays with me!” Nico roared back at his partner.
“Okay, whatever, dude,” the second Tigran said, holding up his paws and disappearing back into the truck.
“All right, that’s it,” the mercenary Taurin said. “By the gods.” He had a deep, deep voice. “We need a plan. I might be able to knock it off its feet with my hammer, but I am not certain. Not sure I want to risk getting that close.” He turned to us. “What do you think?”
Genesis gave the Taurin mercenary a sour look. “Aren’t you the hired help? Shouldn’t you go down there and take care of it for us?”
Pontiff was looking back toward our truck. And the GTO.
“Corcunda is pretty strong,” Pontiff said. “Why is he asleep?”
The two womantaurs didn’t answer for a long moment.
“How do you know him?” Genesis finally demanded.
“We used to work together,” Pontiff said.
“Yeah, Bucket Boy told us about you,” Donut said to the bull man. “He says you slapped him.”
The bull raised an eyebrow. “Bucket Boy? The kid? He’s here?” He grunted. “Yes, I used to be an ass. If I don’t get a chance, tell him I said?—”
“Stop talking to her!” Nico snapped at the mercenary. “You kill her if she takes one step toward Penelope! That’s an order!”
Donut scoffed. “Carl, everyone has gone crazy!” To Nico, she said, “I don’t want anything to do with your stupid pig, you roided-out, off-brand, clown-college mascot. I mean, really. I tolerated this nonsense because Daniel is our friend, but this is just too much. You’re no better than Sister Ines, who at least hadthe common decency to emulate a proper cat before my friend Louis?—”
“Stop. Everybody stop!” I said as I continued to watch the boss fight across the way. “Everyone be quiet. Christ!”