Iron beasts were an extraordinarily rare phenomenon — rarer by far than iron people.

The Research Institute's working theory on iron person bonding required two conditions: the person had to be deeply familiar with their vehicle, and they had to be present with it during the moment of mutation. Both conditions together were what made iron people uncommon. For iron beasts, those same conditions were even harder to satisfy — what animal could become meaningfully familiar with a vehicle?

Plastic Rabbit had never stopped puzzling Shen Cong. A rabbit bonded to a motorcycle — what was the connection? Now the Tentacle Monster added another impossible pairing: a star-nosed mole bonded to a subway train.

Unless Plastic Rabbit was kept as a pet on the motorcycle. The star-nosed mole is a foreign species — someone might have imported one as an exotic pet. Maybe it belonged to a train operator.

It was the only explanation that mapped even loosely onto the bonding theory. He filed it away without resolution.

More immediately relevant: the light rail cab in his possession was bait. When Plastic Rabbit's motorcycle had been in danger, the rabbit had felt it and gone into a frenzy trying to reach the vehicle. The Tentacle Monster would feel the same pull. The bonded vehicle in enemy hands was the only lure he needed.

He set the vibration sensor down at a good observation point, checked the surrounding terrain, and waited.

He didn't wait long. Five minutes. The sensor triggered — direction indicator pointing northwest.

Shen Cong dropped into a combat stance, Ape King Long Blade in hand, body coiled.

The ground beneath him split open.

The Tentacle Monster erupted from the earth — heading directly for him. He launched upward, clearing the attack, and landed watching the creature through the settling dust. Small calf-sized body. A cluster of tentacles ringing its nose, each about half a meter long, writhing with uncomfortable independence. Forelimbs massively enlarged, claws showing dark silver through the earth coating them.

Near-Heavyweight classification.

Respectable name. Profoundly ugly creature. One look at the twitching nasal tentacles eliminated every…