Like the others, Rory couldn’t not stare at the monster for a second. Its head reminded him of giant, carnivorous dinosaurs, except with a toothy beak instead of lizard-like jaws. A crest of feathers topped its head, and evil eyes glared with malevolence.

The next second, they attacked. Dez went first, blasting the creature with waves of his Abyssal Inferno, Evelyn and Rory following soon after with their Pyroclastic Hellfire and icy bolts, respectively. The entire front of the hospital collapsed, rubble and debris piling on the enormous raptor until it screeched an angry, ear-tearing retort before retracting itself.

“Upstairs,” Rory said after dragging in a dusty breath, trying his best not to cough. “Quick, before it comes back.”

They ran. The entrance hall was ruined. Its walls were cracked, broken furniture and lights strewn everywhere alongside the detritus of people moving off as quickly as they could.

No one else was there beside Rory’s group. He could hardly care just then, of course. All Rory could focus on was getting to those stairs that led to higher ground no matter how much his body protested.

It took a monumental effort, but Rory would be the last person to complain. He struggled against the weight of his reluctant limbs and torso, against his lungs failing to keep with his oxygen needs, against the cramps and aches shooting up everywhere within him. Only when he reached the landing of the second floor did he plop to the ground in relief.

“They’re alive!”

The hushed voices made Rory raise his head. As expected, there were people higher up. Some staff, but mostly patients in various paste-green outfits. Seemed that Adam hadn’t been lying about everything, at least.

All of them looked fearful and horrified, and for the moment, Rory forgot his anger. He recalled the other two nurses trying desperately not to commit to whatever plan Adam—and perhaps Jesse too—had cooked up.

“Where are they?” Dez had walked up to one of said reluctant nurses, using his size to intimidate the man. “Tell me, now.”

Vern cowered before him. “I don’t know, I’m sorry! They left upstairs in a hurry. Please, don’t hurt us.”

Dez stepped away, his scowl twisting into something like guilt before reaffixing itself. Rory had managed to rise by that time, surveying what was visible of the floor to determine if Adam and Jesse really were missing among the bunch. He couldn’t see them in the throng of frightened patients, but the crowd was big enough to hide them easily.

“It’s alright,” Evelyn said. “We’re here to help, not hurt.”

“Those monsters are going to get us,” one of the patients said. The octave of his voice rose higher with every word. “The door’s been broken down. There’s nothing stopping them. We’re doomed!”

Evelyn’s voice remained firm. Rory wondered if it came from her experience dealing with all manner of patients. “There’s us. We’ll deal with them. Don’t you worry, everyone will be safe and sound by the time we’re done.”

“That’s right,” Rory said. “We’ve been beating and surviving monsters for almost a week now. Those birds outside aren’t anything we haven’t faced before. Trust us, you’ll be fine.”

“Not so sure about that,” Sue muttered. It was too low for most to hear, but they came to Rory’s ears anyway. She was staring out the window.

Before he could counter her words, Trish, who was at the other window, shouted, “It’s coming in again!”

They didn’t get any time to react. The gigantic monster did attack once more, slamming itself against the hospital building with another violent shriek. Everything shook like an earthquake, and Rory was nearly thrown off his feet. The lights in the building went off.

People screamed. Heavy panic fell upon everyone as the giant monster continued screaming its lungs out.

“We need to distract it,” Dez shouted over the pandemonium.

Just as he finished, another horrendous shriek preceded a grinding, tearing sound. Rory turned just in time to see the talons the size of small cars crashing through the walls as the building shook again. Rory did fall this time, his head going woozy at the impact.

“We can’t stop it,” someone yelled, a horrified rendition of a voice he recognized. “There’s nothing that will work. We’ll die at this rate.”

“No, we won’t, Jesse.” Evelyn’s voice was the opposite of Jesse’s. “I’ve lost enough. I’m not losing anything more.”

“Did you even see that thing outside?”

“Why’d you do this, Jesse? We could have dealt with this differently if you’d warned us. If you’d told us the truth.”

“This was the only way to survive, Evy. The only way we could make it out alive. Feed the monsters something besides us and the patients.”

Another horrific impact. The whole building shook, dusty plaster and pebbles of debris raining down upon them all. Several smaller monsters tried to infiltrate the building, but Sue and Trish were on them, using their Sigils of Steel and Barricade to deadly effect.

Dez tried to fire his flames at the big one, but there was no clear opening. His Abyssal Inferno flashed harmlessly against the concrete walls. He ran to the gash the monster had carved in the walls, then threw his blistering flames outside, though he threw himself back a second later. The monster attacked yet again, this time slicing down from above, the wall nearly shattering apart at the impact.

“You see.” Jesse was openly sobbing now. “We’ll all be killed.”

“No, we won’t,” Dez said.

As Rory groggily got back to his feet, he recalled the conversation he’d had with Viv just before they’d attempted their last impossible mission. “You don’t believe in us,” he said. “But we’ll show you. You need to have some faith in your fellow survivors.”

“Dez, go to the roof,” Evelyn yelled, holding onto the wall to stay upright. “I’ll keep them in line here.”

Dez dashed off without argument.

Evelyn approached Jesse with her Sigil of Pyroclastic Hellfire already glowing on the back of her hand. “Are you going to cry, or are you going to do your duties?”

Jesse didn’t reply immediately, staring at the ground in shocked horror. Rory remembered it had only been a few days since Evelyn herself had been in a similar situation at the bank. Her whole life had upended after the lich had killed her family. Yet, she had rallied herself and killed the lich back.

Rory had no time to see if Jesse would make a similar recovery. He turned to the others. “Trish, Sue, help Evelyn. I’ll go with Dez.”

The rationale behind that was simple. If Dez was going to take down the giant monster, he needed space and time to do so, and he’d only be afforded that if the smaller birds weren’t coming after him. That was where Rory and his Harmonic Blizzard could help.

Hopefully, Evelyn and the others would be able to handle the patients and the people who remained behind.

Rory struggled to climb the stairs. His legs were aching, and his back had a violent cramp, and all it did was make him realize just how unsuited he was to that kind of effort.

On the fourth floor, they found more patients being taken care of by a few nurses. They all cowered at the sight of Dez and Rory rushing up, the building still shaking under the raptors’ assault. It wasn’t just the giant one here. Several of the smaller variants were doing their best to crash through the blocked and barricaded windows.

Dez halted all of a sudden as one window broke and a monster shot in, pushing aside the cabinet blocking the entrance just enough to squeeze in through the gap. It didn’t make it far inside. Dez threw a ball of black fire that consumed the raptor entirely.

“You shouldn’t have come,” Adam said from farther down the hallway. “This is happening because of you!”

Dez rounded on him, fists still flaming. “What?”

In the dim light, he was merely another shadow in the darkness. But Rory wasn’t going to forget that silhouette anytime soon.

“They just want you,” Adam said. He grimaced ad the building shook under another vicious attack again. “You were supposed to be the sacrifice. You would have been enough to appease them for the time being. We’d have gotten to live if you’d just lay down your lives. Why don’t you get it?”

Insane. The man had gone mad.

Rory shook his head. “We’ve worked and struggled too hard to get here to just give it all up now. This monster isn’t getting us. None of them are.”

Adam cursed them some more. It was obvious he’d made some sort of deal with the bird creatures. Something along the lines of giving Rory up to the monsters in return for sparing the lives of Adam, and potentially the staff and patients in the hospital. Maybe the giant raptor was capable of conversing like the Thunderclaw Knight had been.

All of a sudden, the doctor seemed to deflate. “I didn’t think there would be anyone capable of fighting. I didn’t realize you’d be… this strong.”

Rory shook his head. “Stop worrying about that and start helping. You want your patients to survive, don’t you?”

Another violent shriek brought on another judder. Everyone was thrown sideways thanks to the giant monster’s attack. Rory fell to his knees, losing track of things in the gloom.

More creatures burst into the fourth floor. Patients and staff cowered where they could as Dez did his best to take them all out. There were too many, though. Even as Dez killed two monsters, one of them tore into a patient and eviscerated his body. Another patient had his head crushed by a monster.

Adam screamed. Rory couldn’t tell if it was shock, fear, or anger. He tried to throw icy bolts with his staff, but he was even slower than Dez. Too. Many. Monsters.

A javelin appeared, flashing past Rory to spear through a raptor trying to snap at a nurse. The monster was trapped against a wall, its wing pinned to the concrete.

“What are you two waiting for?” Trish asked from behind. “Go, get the big one.”

“What about downstairs?” Rory asked.

“Evelyn’s got it,” Sue said. “She’s using her lava.”

Rory could imagine that having a significant effect on the monsters downstairs. The building hadn’t shaken for a minute or two either. She must have gotten the giant one as well.

Trish and Sue started turning the tide on the fourth floor. In the darkness, Sue’s electric barricades threw up meagre light that was reflected in the flashes of Trish’s axe swings. Whenever the monstrous birds tried to attack anyone at a distance, an electric barricade would stop them in their tracks, a subsequent javelin dealing a killing blow. Closer up, Trish’s axe took care of any raptor that got too close.

“Let’s go,” Dez said.

Rory noticed that Adam was gone. Biting down on his curse, he hurried after Dez to the roof, glad that the little pause had replenished what little energy he had.

The sight awaiting them stopped him in his tracks.

From up high, Rory was able to see that the whole building was completely surrounded by monsters. They flapped and flew in every direction, shooting through the air like missiles aiming to destroy the hospital. Smoke was coming off several points, their lower edges gleaming orange and red thanks to Evelyn’s lava, forcing the monsters to reconsider their approach.

But it was the largest of them all that made Rory forget to breathe for a few seconds. The giant raptor above them was the size of an aeroplane, shrieking its way through the air with a guttural screech. It was nothing more than an enormously blown-up version of the smaller raptors—wings that could hold a house each, a dinosaurs covered in feathers, and a crocodilian tail that ended with a fanning crest of feathers that Rory would have called pretty if he hadn’t been afraid of dying just then.

Rory’s Sigil of Knowledge was finally able to focus on it enough to inform him that it was called a Dreadraptor Tyrant. It liked swallowing its prey whole in its giant mouth. Its wings had a structure similar to bat-wings, with small claws at the tip, but—Rory shook his head. Useless information.

What he needed to find out was how to kill the thing.

From far, far above, the gigantic Dreadraptor loosed an almighty scream, making the air shiver. Then, it dived down for the kill.