Midnight Monster Caper, Chapter I of an RF3 Story

Midnight Monster Caper



It seemed like just another tranquil autumn evening in Trampoli as I harvested the last of my pumpkins, beautiful, plump, level 10 grade pumpkins that would become the most delicious of pies once I got them to my kitchen. This year my contribution to Trampoli’s Harvest Festival would be top notch with the beautiful pumpkin pie I had planned.



With nightfall came the harvest moon in its beautiful orange hue as I worked diligently in my kitchen. I was just getting ready to take the plump pumpkin pies out of the oven when the silence of the night was broken by the sound of shattering glass. At first I paid it little thought, broken windows were a common occurrence with my rascally monsters always playing their destructive games outside.



But as I walked into the living hall I discovered everything disarray. Books, monster materials, potions, and tools were strewn across the floor.



“What on – OOF!” I exclaimed as a lump of scrap iron made contact with my forehead.



I quickly looked over to see some kind of tanuki with a large bag over his shoulder foraging through my mining chest. THIEF!



“Take your paws out of my chest!” I yelled, stomping my way towards the critter.



Suddenly it glared back at me with glowing eyes and before I knew it there were four tanukis running around my house! In my surprised state I frantically chased after them throughout the house, lunging and leaping all over the place like an angry toad. I finally managed to corner one in the upstairs bedroom, but upon grabbing it by its tail the creature simply vanished. An illusion?



Not five seconds later my attention was drawn to the sound of my oven’s alarm and my memory snapped back like a rubber band.



“SWEET WOOLIES ON A POGO STICK, MY PIES!”



With every ounce of energy in my body I dashed and tumbled down the stairs, then made a desperate leap into the kitchen. Hastily, I opened the oven door… and found it empty.

Then from behind came a whistle. I glanced back to see that thieving tanuki balancing a stack of precious plump pumpkin pies with its tail, MY stack of pies!



“Treacherous tanuki dog!” I shouted as I bolted right the thieving monster.



Before I could land a strike on my foe, it cleverly grabbed one of the pies and threw it into the air. I immediately reacted by diving towards it with my arms extended outwards, sliding myself across the hard wooden floor.



“Got it!” I shouted proudly to myself.



Then with a big SPLAT my face was given a close and creamy encounter with the pumpkin pastry as the tanuki jumped off the back of my head and made its escape out the broken window. I clenched my fists tightly as my face rose out of the pie, which now bore an imprint of my infuriated expression.



“That's it... I've HAD it!”



After shaking the pastry bits off my face I kicked my front door open and stomped outside. It was pitch black. I looked up and saw nothing but dark clouds covering up the light of the stars and harvest moon. My instincts told me right away that something bad was going on around here…



Suddenly I heard an eerie laugh break out followed by what sounded like my Little Golem, Knox, blasting away in cannon-mode. Then two beastly roars rang out in the darkness, followed by flashing lights of shellfire and magic bursts. The ground began erupting all over the field as another monster’s chilling cry filled the blinding warzone. I could barely make out the shapes of the intruders and my own monsters as they engaged in battle across the farmland. It was a chaotic mess of monster warfare in a blinding field of darkness and smoke.



I’m sure most of my monsters were as blind as me at the moment, but that didn’t stop them from doing their best to protect the homeland. I could hear the rage and defiance in their howls as they fought on.



Unsure about how dangerous this situation was, I decided to run to the barn to check on the rest of my monsters, but as I neared the door they burst open with that rascally tanuki dog knocking me down as it fled the shed. Moments later my Chitter, Chip, came running after it as I tried standing back up. By the time I finally got back on my feet they were both long gone into the darkness of the violent night.



As I started to give pursuit after them the blinding darkness abruptly cleared with a powerful blue light that pierced through the night sky like a spear. Before I could even look up at the source of this magnificent light a huge fireball descended from the sky and struck me down. In the brief moments of consciousness I had left, I stupidly reminded myself about forgetting to put on armor… and then all was quiet.



When I came to the next morning I was, predictably, back in the infirmary with Lara giving me a scolding look. As usual she had another long lecture for me about how careless I am… Thankfully Stella came in to bail me out, but the news she had to share wasn’t very good. During the night a powerful storm had brewed in the skies and a pack of monsters raced through the town, causing havoc along the way. My farm looked like a disaster zone unfit for life.



My eyes widened as I remembered what happened last night, and with that I excused myself in my typical rude manner, which was running out the door as Lara yelled at me.



Normally I wouldn’t be in such a hurry… actually no, that’s a lie… I’m always in a hurry to get out of there… but this was urgent. I had no idea what shape the farm was in or how badly injured my monsters were. So I ignored the burning wounds that were still healing and raced back home to find out.



Stella was right – my farm was a disaster zone. It looked like the Sechs Empire had just used it for target practice with their army of tanks. After a few moments of just standing in awe and complaining about the work I’d have to do later, I ran straight for the monster shed. Empty.



Damn… This wasn’t a good sign… They must’ve gone after the beasts that attacked the town. Granted, I would have done that myself… if I hadn’t been hit by a giant ball of fire… There was no time to fret over it though; I had to go find them at once!



I ran to the house and tried opening the front door, but it wouldn’t give way.



“Must be jammed.” I thought aloud, “Come on, come on!”



My fists started pounding on the decorated wood surface of the door in my frustration. Ten minutes later and it simply stood there, unshaken by my onslaught. Finally I just gave up and kicked it… and with that, the rest of the house collapsed on itself… and then the door finally opened…



“This really… just isn’t my day.” I muttered.



A few hours of shifting through rubble got me nothing. My tools, my armor, my weapons, my elixirs – gone, all gone! I had nothing left. That devious thievius tanuki must’ve ransacked the place!



So clearly, I had nothing else to lose now… I went over to visit Kross (I’m still the only one who bothers) and asked him if he could build me a decent-sized shack while I was gone… “on vacation.” There were plenty of leftover materials he could use at ground zero. As usual he simply nodded with a weak smile and went right to work.



With that settled I left the cheery town of Trampoli and entered the dense forest country beyond. I was going to have to rough it in the wild as I searched for my “merry” band of monsters, who were probably getting themselves into loads of trouble right now. I was probably getting myself into loads of trouble… but that’s just how we rolled…



- Mars
M