When the next day rose I was awoken by the ringing of church bells. The giant sword legged spider had clambered atop the church to ring the bells to call the people to the sermon. I was more than happy to attend the first Sunday service post-Event, squeezing through the double doors to take a position at the back of the nave.

  The room was dark, having been built more like a concert hall than a chapel, lacking any exterior windows and its three screens and stage lights dark without power. The only light came from two old oil lanterns that had been hung from the stage lights by thick spiderwebs, and the only seating was a couple rows of moldy padded metal chairs. Despite the lack of any crosses or anything to point towards this room being a proper nave, the feeling was right. This dim shadow of its former self still carried the faith as Father Granfield mounted the altar with an old bible in hand.

  Despite the room being full of animals and monsters, it lacking all the modern amenities this room had been built around, and there not even being a cross anywhere in sight, it was one of the best services I'd been to. Father Granfield's voice filled the room, filled with a conviction that seemed to touch everyone in the room, soothing even as it inspired. The songs were clumsy and awkward at first, everyone trying to find harmony with their new voices with bodies that weren't always the best for singing. Yet by the third song, harmony was again being found and the voices of dozens of monsters filled the room like a rumbling storm. Miracle of miracles, pulled from the back were several pieces of Eucharist bread and a bottle of sacramental wine that despite all expectations, had weathered the years. The wafers were stale as drywall, and the wine obviously close to going off, but everyone still partook as those who had hands offered the sacred meal to those who did not.

  By the end it was obvious to me that this ancient ritual of gathering had returned a feeling of normalcy to the gathered parish. It had lifted much of the stress of the last week from their backs as the service came to a close and they began to mingle. Pushing my way to the front where Father Granfield was already beginning to politely excuse himself, I flag him down to ask him to let everyone he preaches to today to meet me just outside of town for a way to earn enough experience to level up before tomorrow. He's understandably worried about it, but I let him know it should be relatively safe. The priest agreed to let people know and hoped I was right about its safety.

  Picking both Matilda and Damian out of the crowd of monsters I picked them both up and exited the building, beginning to slither West along the highway towards the west side of town. It wasn't long before Damian began to ask questions about what I was up to.

  "So I happened to overhear you talking to the priest," he gave his little cat ears a flick, "I also heard several other people discussing if they were going to take you up on the offer. How exactly are you planning to level up dozens if not hundreds of people to get enough experience to evolve before tomorrow?"

  "Well, admittedly it's mostly theory at this point, but I feel confident enough on the theory to try and let everyone who wants to try and exploit it." I admit a bit shyly, "You remember how Anna mentioned something haunting the steel mill yesterday?"

  "No," Damian stated firmly, looking at me like I was weird for remembering something that long.

  "You believe it's a boss and think that we can do something similar to what we did to the last one," Matilda stated, skipping over the trail of breadcrumbs I'd planned to lay to lead them to the idea.

  "Well, yeah. I know that all of us got the rewards with one of us getting the bloodline reward. I figure if those of us who have already evolved act as a frontline and all the unevolved help hold this thing down, there will be scores of people getting a special evolution who wouldn't otherwise. Hopefully, that will make this area a lot more resistant to monster attacks like we saw at Stonewall and help keep people from dying."

  "That fight with the scorpion was hardly low risk Joe," Damian hissed, stomping on the top of my head repeatedly. I didn't feel it so I let him vent, "In case you forgot we came a hair's breadth from disaster multiple times fighting that damned bug!"

  "True. However not only are we evolved, but we will likely have at least half a dozen other evolved people helping back us up." I pointed out, "It should be way easier for us to handle this fight."

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  "Assuming it's got a body shape that would even allow us to employ such a tactic or something that would counter it getting mobbed." Matilda started peaking over the rim of my hat to glare into one of my eyes.

  "Which is why we are heading over there now to poke our nose in and find out what we are dealing with ahead of time." I chirped with a smile. "It shouldn't be too hard with a stealth expert, a fine lady with dozens of living observation drones, and a living battering ram to help us get out of dodge if things go wrong."

  Damian groaned loudly, tugging on his ears in frustration before stomping on my nose a few more times. "Fine! But you owe me one for this Joe!" He points a clawed finger at me, "And if whatever is in there eats me I'm haunting your ass!"

  "I'm not going to let it eat you," I roll my eyes, "and I'm sure both myself and Matilda will be able to hold it off if it does somehow bypass your super stealth."

  Damian just sat down and grumbled as I continued to slither my way down the road, rather enjoying just how much easier the movement was and noticing that I was even making better time than usual. A half hour of travel found me digging a hiding spot for us as Matilda probed the steel mill and the surrounding fields of broken, frosted, and otherwise ruined solar panels. Damian simply sat glaring down at the mill with obvious nervousness.

  "It's a boss alright," Matilda stated, "The attached quest called it 'Heavy Metal', not surprising considering how much metal is down there, but I didn't get eyes on it. Probably in the building proper instead of out in the scrap yard. Would you mind terribly Damian?"

  "I actually mind a lot," Damian growled before sighing, "but I'll do it."

  "Hey," I move my body in front of the fluffy little raptor man, "Don't worry about it so much Matilda and myself will be there in seconds if things go south. We won't abandon you Damian."

  "I know," Damian sighs, "Doesn't mean I'm not terrified of something going wrong."

  Join the club I think to myself as I suddenly lose track of Damian and slithered back towards the hole I'd turned into a minor escape tunnel. We were just looking to get eyes on the boss and not actually fight it at the moment, my massive shiny body was rather obvious on the bright sunny day, so I'd need to remain fairly hidden unless things went pear shaped. I still wasn't sure if the bosses themselves had some way of knowing if someone entered their arena or if they were capable of leaving it, so the caution seemed prudent.

  Matilda joined me in the hole muttering, "I'm guessing he's inside, though keeping track of him while he's trying to stay hidden is near impossible. Still not seeing the boss itself anywhere, so it must be fairly deep inside. I'm fairly tempted to send a few of my moths inside to look for it."

  "It might spot them and react," I stated softly, "Knowing how it attacks would be rather useful, but hardly worth the risk if it provokes the thing into full offense and it chases after us. I'd much rather outnumber the thing a hundred to one and have it helpless before we poke at it too much."

  Wait, something's happening.

  The sounds of large amounts of heavy piping and tons of metal collapsing to the ground were audible even from out here. Through my tremorsense I could feel something absolutely massive moving, feeling nearly as heavy as Jorge, its form seeming masked and distorted through the thousands of churning impacts of stored metal falling. I could catch glimpses of limbs ending in serrated claws the size of scythes and thin spindly legs that seem far too thin for the absolute mass the vibrations were telling me they possessed. The noise and avalanche of metal was slowly drawing closer to the opened doors of the mill.

  My first proper view of the monster was a massive rusty red horn that was as thick around as I am and at least half as long emerging out of the almost hanger doors of the mill. Following it came two relatively short antennas, though still probably twice the length of a man, waving through the air and patting at the ground. At the base of the massive horn was a surprisingly horrifying looking mouth that put me in mind of a leech surrounded by thick heavy blades that I felt almost certain were capable of biting through even my metal hide. Massive eyes, that shone like polished rubies, were looking nowhere and everywhere as the titan's head fully peaked out of the facility. Towering armored legs followed, covered in man sized spikes of rusty red material and ending in those oddly mobile serrated claws I'd felt through my senses. The bastard was so massive that I was shocked it had somehow managed to fit itself in the facility despite it having doors to allow massive strands of metal to be brought in and out.

  "It's chasing Damian!" Matilda stated, her own antennas going rigid, "I don't think it can see him, but I think it's managing to sniff him out with its antenna."

  "Hop off," I ordered, "I'm going in."

  Slithering out of the tunnel I coil and Leap high into the air, looking down at the monster that easily out massed me from nearly a full one hundred feet above the beast. It paused in its pursuit to look up at me as I Focused on my Prehensile Tail to curl the blade into a massive sledge hammer and aimed it at the monster. With a bellow of, "Dynamic Entry!" I fired off a Focused Lunge through my tail and rocketed down at the beast like a missile.

  With swiftness such a massive bug shouldn’t possess, it shifted its stance and interposed its horn between my attack and its body. I slammed into it like a runaway train, and felt myself crumple against the beetle's horn as it stopped me cold. The massive explosive impact of my attack rippled through the bug, kicking off the rusty covering like a cloud, revealing a gleaming red carapace that shone like a polished ruby. Its spiked legs dug into the ground, refusing to let the monster be forced back, and surrounding itself in more dust as it redirected the force into the ground.

  I barely had a second to blink in shocked confusion as the giant bug no selled my attack before it countered, lowering its horn and flinging me through the sky at least as high as my own Leaps carried me. This, might be slightly tougher than I expected.