“Congratulations. You have defeated Ratanus the Gold.”


    I jerked back into consciousness at the sound of the announcer. Everything hurt, which was becoming a familiar sensation. Luckily, I didn’t see or feel any blood. After the announcer finished speaking, the arena transformed back into the Dragon’s Highway leaving both Grinny’s pumpkin car and my beetle wedged together in the middle of the road.


    “Are you okay Little Worm?” Grinny groaned.


    “As okay as I can be. What about you? I’m sorry I crashed into you. And shot you.”


    “I’ll forgive you, if you buy me dinner again, and maybe a strong enough drink to help me forget.” Grinny half coughed half laughed.


    “Maybe we should worry about getting unstuck first.” The front end of my car had been shoved right underneath Grinny’s wheels. My windshield was cracked in a spiderweb patter and the dashboard was folded in on itself.


    “No need to worry there. My beacon activated when we were dumped out here.”


    “What beacon?”


    “A beacon, Milo, is a tool used to send a signal to have somebody drag your vehicle back to the last garage you have visited. It is something you can have installed into your vehicle at a garage.” Tooty’s voice sounded low and more robotic, like a talking teddy bear whose battery was dying.


    “So you mean, a tow truck?” I asked.


    “Exactly. The idea is to not get stranded.”


    “That’s probably something I should buy when we make it back to the garage. Grinny, what is the beacon’s ETA?”


    “What the hell does that mean?”


    I sighed. “How long until help arrives?”


    “Oh. About an hour.”


    Placing my head against the window, I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the pain. “Well then I guess we wait.”


    —


    Within the first few minutes of waiting I nearly had a panic attack. I hadn’t thought about the Dragon’s Minions and what would happen if they came across us. Thankfully Tooty was able to put those concerns mostly to bed.


    “When a beacon is active, it shrouds everyone in the immediate area. All enemies and other drivers will pass right through you and will not become aware of your existence. It’s all done in the essence of fairness. It wouldn’t be as fun to have you die in such an anticlimactic way.”This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    I shivered at that last part.


    While none of the minions came around to verify the truth of what Tooty said, we were passed by a few other drivers and none of them seemed to notice us. In face one of them did go right through us as if we were ghosts, and there was no indication that they knew they had done so. It was definitely a weird moment seeing a pair of tires go right through your back seat and the rest of the vehicle pass through my body, even if I didn’t feel anything when it happened.


    —


    We heard the siren long before we even saw the tow truck. It was like hearing the ice cream man far off in the distance and listening as it came closer, anticipating when it would finally turn down your street. As the vehicle approached, I had to twist my body to see it which transformed the dull pain of my injuries to fresh stinging pain.


    The vehicle that pulled up was a metal square on wheels and resembled the cab area seen on a lot of industrial equipment, only with smaller windows. On top of it was a crane that carried one of those circular magnets that picked up large chunks of metal in a scrap yard. After the truck stopped the siren went silent and there was an electrical pop before a voice boomed out.


    “Are you the driver Venomgrin?”


    “Yes,” Grinny answered.


    “And you are aware that your beacon service only applies to you, correct? Any extra services provided will be added to your final bill.”


    “Yes,” Grinny repeated.


    Without another word, the magnet swung over and attached itself to the top of both cars with a loud kachunk. A moment later we were jerked up into the air and dragged back to the Dragon’s Mall Garage.


    —


    “This can’t keep happening,” I said as I was dragged headfirst out of the beetle by a Mechanitaur. This one was named Jori and had gray fur with random splotches of red. He wore similar overalls to Harvey, but had no nose piercing and was missing the tip of his left horn.


    Grinny dusted off her clothes and looked up. “What do you mean?”


    The Mechanitaur placed me on my feet and walked away to examine the vehicles. “It seems I keep crashing and getting hurt right after I start a quest. I think it''s time to go shopping for some upgrades for the beetle.”


    “That’ll cost some coin,” Jori said, not taking his eyes off the vehicles. “If you need some, you can always take some quests from the information dryad.”


    “Ooh, that would be fun,” Grinny said. “‘Course we can’t do much in our current situation. How much do you think it’ll take to fix all of this?” She gestured to the vehicles.


    Jori scratched the back of his head. “Hard to tell. At least ten thousand gold.”


    “Ten thousand?” I asked.


    “Ten thousand each. This is pretty extensive damage. Not to mention the extra service of bringing you here. That''s another hundred.”


    “We were right down the road.”


    Jori looked up. “A hundred is the base cost. After fifteen miles the price escalates per mile.


    Grinny shook her head. “That''s all more than even I have.”


    “How exactly are we supposed to get that much gold? If we can’t pay you, we won''t get our cars back, right?”


    “That’s right,” Jori said.


    “Well then we can’t go out on quests. Unless you can give me a quest to pay off the debt.”


    Jori shook his head. “Nope sorry kid. I only take gold. Been burnt too many times with uncompleted debt quests.”


    “Well then what are we supposed to do?” The realization hit me and I looked at Grinny who smiled as the same idea came to her. I shrugged. “I hope lady luck is on our side.”