“Is…every…monster…in the…Arena…out to get…us?” panted Neph next to where I’d once again slung my head near Ferdinand’s waist, this time just acting as his belt, rather than ineffective mail; with the memory of the pain of having my strands cut still tingling through my neural pathways, I wasn’t interested in risking myself any more than was absolutely necessary. Still, since I’m nowhere as fast a runner as any of my companions, returning to my role as makeshift minotaur clothing greatly reduced our delay as we got going: my frame might be superhumanly flexible and agile, but power and endurance are low on the list of necessary requirements for a zero-gee asteroid miner.
“Every monster that I can sense through my connection to the Circus satellite,” answered Ferdinand, his voice as pla
