Carl coaches Bucket Boy to drive slowly through the pounding rain and hail because Donut’s enlarged Shield spell can protect the truck only imperfectly. As they crest the hill, Carl sees that Team One Fine Pig’s armored vehicle and the Lady Dominators’ convertible have stopped ahead under their own defenses. Carl knows the pause could become a trap, because the other teams might cooperate against the danger in front of them or turn on Carl’s group instead.

When Bucket Boy pulls up beside the Lady Dominators’ shield, Carl, Donut, and Bucket Boy get a better look at the assembled racers. Donut jokes about the unusually muscular group, and Bucket Boy recognizes Pontiff, a Taurin dancer-turned-mercenary who once mistreated him. Carl identifies Genesis and Rapture from the Lady Dominators, Pontiff from One Fine Pig, and Nico, a powerful Tigran racer, while noting that Pontiff’s vibrating hammer is helping protect the group from the storm.

Carl then examines One Fine Pig more closely and learns the team’s strangest and most important detail: Penelope, the team’s pig, is not a transformed person but an ordinary sow with divine protection from Taranis. The system information explains that harming or killing Penelope will mark the attacker for death by the thunder god, making her effectively untouchable. Carl also learns that Nico and Dario are both romantically attached to Penelope, while Dario sits in the truck glaring at Nico, suggesting tension inside the team.

Realizing how dangerous any fight around Penelope could become, Carl tells Bucket Boy to stay with the truck, watch for trouble, and avoid hurting the pig under any circumstances. Carl and Donut leave the shelter of the vehicles and pass Corcunda, who has been magically rendered unconscious in the Lady Dominators’ car. Once Donut recasts her shield against the hail, the pair advances toward the others and finally sees what has stopped everyone: the boss is sitting in the middle of the road at the bottom of the hill.