Chapter 44

Carl, Donut, and Mordecai watch a broadcast recap of Donut's recent fight against the crawler Lucia Mar in a village. The footage shows Lucia's strategic use of teleport traps, her two massive rottweilers, and Donut's creative escape using illusions and spellcasting to ultimately kill Lucia's larger dog Cici. The chapter ends with an interruption as a frightened male mantis arrives seeking Carl's help, claiming someone is coming for him.

Carl, Donut, Mordecai, and Mongo gather to watch the broadcast recap of Donut's battle against Lucia Mar. The fight takes place in a small village where Lucia has set teleport traps throughout. Lucia attempts to ambush Carl and Donut but Carl teleports away to a panel, leaving Donut to face Lucia alone between her two rottweilers: the massive Cici and smaller Gustavo 3. Donut evades the initial attack, creates a wall of fire, and flees to a raised treehouse pub. Lucia follows and hurls the NPC Samantha at Donut. They clash inside the pub, where Donut triggers a snare trap pinning her in place. She damages Lucia with magic missiles and a fireball before Lucia's larger dog Cici enters the burning pub. Donut casts a series of spells—Entourage for illusions, an invisibility potion, and Hole to create a gap in the floor—which causes Cici to fall through and be severed from her body when Donut closes the spell. Lucia transforms from her skeletal form to her beautiful form upon seeing Cici dead, declaring that all must die and showing signs of mental instability. The broadcast ends as Lucia is shown having killed the bear bartender and other NPCs. The daily announcement reveals there are now 66,000 crawlers remaining, with the Butcher's Masquerade event mentioned as mandatory for the top 50. Bomo then rushes in with a frightened male mantis who claims someone is coming for him.