“Get back,” Dez said as the monster dived down like an enormous falcon.

Rory wanted to ask where exactly he was supposed to go when the roof wasn’t that big to begin with, but he moved anyway. He was glad he did so.

The Dreadraptor had aimed its claws downwards as its dive neared its end. Dez had been throwing fireballs at the creature, which had swerved away from most of the blasts with an agility that belied its great size. At the last moment, Dez threw himself off to one side. The Dreadraptor’s talons crushed down on the roof with enough force to shatter the area upon impact.

Rory held on to the steel fence with all his strength as the whole building shook again. He needed to act, not cower and barely hold himself together.

But then again, he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. Dez hadn’t been able to hit the monster. How could Rory, who was far weaker and slower, strike the creature when Dez couldn’t?

As the Tyrant flapped and swerved away, well before Dez recovered his footing and resumed throwing dark flames after it, the smaller Dreadraptors now approached them. Dez took out a few, but Rory stepped forward. This was what he had come to the roof for.

He raised his staff high and activated the Harmonic Blizzard again. The skull’s sockets glowed deep blue and the wintry storm burst out to cover the whole roof with sleet and ice, the vicious wind slicing into Rory and ruffling his clothes. It had the exact effect he needed it to. The blizzard’s force repelled the smaller Dreadraptors, the cold hampering their ability to fly.

Of course, Rory had to pick what to reinforce in return for the destruction he was causing. It was an easy choice. The roof had become a little unstable thanks to the Tyrant’s attack, so he aimed all the creative energy towards re-establishing its structural integrity.

The blizzard had no effect on the large Dreadraptor. It tore through the stormy winds, the sleet and ice doing virtually nothing against its bulk and power. The monster carved its way through and attacked the roof again.

Only difference this time was that it aimed for Rory.

He scrambled and tried to run. There was no way he’d have made it without Dez intervening with more black flames burning through the cold storm. Silver lining of Rory being the Tyrant’s target was that Dez had more time to aim and hit the monster.

For once, his Abyssal Inferno struck the Dreadraptor. The creature screamed as Rory fell to the ground, his hands over his head. Everything around him shook violently. Even though he didn’t feel himself get torn apart by those giant claws, he was sure the roof would collapse and take him with it. Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened.

When he looked up, he saw the Dreadraptor flying off with one of its talons ablaze in black. It wasn’t enough. Far from it, the tiny inferno died as he watched, the Tyrant’s flight putting out the fires.

Rory ground his teeth together. They were going to need a lot more firepower to take that giant bird-monster down. If only it would stay still for longer than a few seconds.

Nearer at hand, Dez was busy throwing black fireballs at the smaller Dreadraptors trying to get to them. Poor guy had to be getting closer to using up all his Mana. Rory rose to his feet against the aches and pains pushing him down, then reactivated his Harmonic Blizzard to keep the littler monsters off the roof.

“I need more time to take out he big one,” Dez said over the raging winds.

“I know,” Rory said. “But I don’t know how to get you that time. It moves too fast and if your flames can’t hurt it, I don’t know if any of my ice will do anything either.”

“My flames can hurt it. I just need to be able to use more than I thought.”

The giant bird-monster was making another turn towards them. Even with his eyes reduced to slits in the wintry gale, it wasn’t difficult to see. Nor was it difficult to hear the Tyrant’s screech over the blizzard’s raging. Rory tried to steel himself. Somehow, they needed to stop the gigantic Dreadraptor, force it slow down enough for Dez to work his magic.

“Have you not done enough?”

The new voice made them both look up. Rory’s eyes widened a bit at the monster. It was talking to them. This must have been how it had conversed with Adam.

And all the while, it was still diving at them.

“Go,” Dez said.

He ran as the monster aimed for them, pulling Rory along with him with considering whether Rory could keep up on his own. Dez threw a cursory blast of black fire, but they missed. At least the monsters’ claws didn’t get them, though the shaking at the impact did throw them to the floor.

“Will you continue to run?” the Tyrant asked. It hadn’t flown off after the last attack, instead turning to face them, its steps shaking the building. “Will you continue to scurry in useless motions?”

Dez stepped forward. “You picked the wrong people to try and eat, birdbrain.”

Both his fists flared with darkness. He threw blast after blast the Tyrant, but the monster only flapped its enormous wings, sending a miniature gale in Rory and Dez’s direction. The storm of disturbed air hammered through the black fire as though it was nothing, then struck Dez and Rory to throw them both off their feet.

Rory groaned where he landed, trying to bite down on the pain flaring all across his back. The monster was approaching with thumping steps, but there was no way Rory could rise with the pain clawing at him.

Dez was back up right, however. His fists were still burning, still ready to throw his burning with his Abyssal Inferno.

“You want it, birdy?” he growled. “Come get it, then.”

The Tyrant paused for a moment. “I have no intention of suffering any more of your pitiful flames than I need to. But consider, I will destroy his whole building if I need to, in order to get to you. Will you stain your hands with the lives of all the innocents just to appease your wish to die fighting?” The monster bared the teeth in its beak. “Consider carefully.”

Dez’s flames didn’t dim, but he had paused. The twist in his expression proved that he was caught between a rock and a hard place. He didn’t have an answer.

Rory forced his body back to its feet, promising himself that he’d take a good, long break back at the palace. “Let’s make a deal. I’ll give myself up, but only if you promise not to attack anyone here anymore.”

Dez shot him an incredulous glance. “What are you doing?”

Rory ignored him.

The Dreadraptor leaned forward, its large eyes glittering. “Do you expect me to believe such drivel?”

Rory sighed. “No, not really.”

He stabbed his staff forward. An icy bolt erupted from its skull as Rory activated the Sigil of Frozen Lightning. The ice flashed to the ground just underneath the Dreadraptor, its presence immediately activating the trap. A cage of lightning and ice flashed up, climbing up the monsters’ huge leg.

Too huge. With a screech, the Dreadraptor rocketed off the roof, tearing itself free from with its immense strength.

“So be it,” it said while flying higher and higher. “You will fall, along with all who chose to invite your kind to my domain.”

Rory frowned. The Tyrant’s domain? That big bird was getting too ahead of itself.

“What’s the plan?” Dez asked.

He was trying not to sound too scared, but Rory picked up the notes of fright in his voice. They’d fought together long enough for him to recognize it now.

“Hide in my blizzard,” Rory said, activating his Harmonic Blizzard with the same conditions as before. “It’ll give us some time to think about what we can do.”

Rory hadn’t tried to control his summoned storm’s flow before, but he did his best to localize it around them so that the wintry press of snow and ice cloaked their presence. He wasn’t sure how well it worked, but they got moving and the monster missed them, striking the roof instead.

Not that it was much better. Rory was sure he heard the floor breaking and chunks of rocks falling into the building’s interior.

“This does nothing but delay the inevitable,” the Tyrant said. Somehow, its voice reached them over the roaring winds. “Perish and know the error of your choices.”

Rory felt cold. It was going to attack again.

“We need to trap it again,” he said. “Somehow.”

Dez’s eyes roved everywhere as though he could find a solution to their problems somewhere. “Maybe we can lure it in and then trap it. Make it think we’re dead or something. Make it stop.”

“How? Who’s going to do it? You?” Rory shook his head. “Even if it was dumb enough to fall for something like that, we need you to shoot your flames, not play the corpse.”

“You have a better idea, Rory?”

Rory did not. That was the frustrating thing. But then, maybe there was something he could do. “I’ll use it on myself somehow.”

“What?”

“The Sigil of Frozen Lightning. Then when it gets me—”

“It’ll kill you. Even if you manage to trap it, we can’t risk something like that.”

“There’s no other option.”

“That isn’t an option.”

“That—”

“No!” Dez rounded on him, meeting Rory’s eyes with a furious look. Rory had never understood just how Dez could loom over someone with his size. “You keep saying stuff like how we’re the important ones because of our youth, but that’s not true. At all. Everything we’ve accomplished so far will fall apart if you die, Rory. It will. So don’t you dare die on us.”

Rory might have had something to say to that, but really, they didn’t have much choice against dying. Not when the giant Dreadraptor was still diving down at them with the full power of a crashing jet liner. They kept moving, though the space to do so was quickly running out.

“Use me.”

They both turned as the roof’s floor shook again at the impact, the Dreadraptor screeching out a shriek of annoyance at missing its prey.

Adam was standing in the middle of the storm, half-frozen but with a furiously resolute expression on his face. He pressed his hand against his heart. “Use that trap on me. It won’t know the difference. Once it’s got me, you can take it down after it stops flying around, right?”

Rory shook his head. Questions about what he was doing there crowded his tongue, but he pushed them down. “You can’t survive something like that. It’ll tear your apart.”

“You were ready to do it a second ago. Why are you stopping me now?”

“Do it,” Dez said.

Something seemed to pass between him and Adam. A kind of understanding, a silent exchange that this was for the best of all. Rory, ultimately, agreed. As many misgivings as he had about the idea of sacrificing someone, they didn’t have the luxury of finding other options. Not when the giant Dreadraptor’s next blow would break open the fourth floor.

“Get ready,” he said.

Rory had never used his Sigil on a surface like a person before. But then again, his target was the clothes on Adam’s body. The storm died momentarily as his Sigil of Frozen Lightning activated, covering the doctor’s chest with a jacket of ice. Adam quickly wrapped his arms around his torso, and Rory wondered how much it was from the cold and how much to hide from the Tyrant’s gaze.

There was no time to waste. The idea still made Rory apprehensive, but as the monster continued swooping down, he raised the blizzard again.

“Go,” Adam said. “I’ve got this.

“Adam…” Rory swallowed. “This is insane.”

“I think I’ve proven that I’m mad already.” There was a short, strangled laugh from him before stormy silence reigned. “I apologize for everything I’ve done. Take care of the others for me.”

He stepped away from Rory and Dez as they continued moving. Ah, so that was his plan.

As soon as Adam neared the edge of the blizzard, the Dreadraptor’s direction of flight changed. Rory could see how its shadow changed over the storm’s veil. It hadn’t recognized Adam yet.

At the moment of impact between the giant monster and the doctor, Adam threw himself at the Dreadraptor. Rory barely a had a microsecond to appreciate the incredible bravery before they made contact. The Dreadraptor screamed gutturally. Rory’s trap activated, the ice on the doctor expanding outwards to clasps the monster’s leg. Lightning flashed in a second later.

The monster screeched as it tried to fly off again. It failed. There was no way to break from the trap of ice and electricity, not when it wasn’t rooted to the ground anymore.

As violent arcs of lightning shot across its whole body, paralysing the monster so that it couldn’t even flap its enormous wings anymore, Dez stepped forward. Right. Now was their greatest opportunity.

Ignoring all intrusive thoughts about what Adam might be going through, Rory stepped after Dez. They attacked together, before the bird-monster pulled some hidden reserve of the strength to get away again.

Dez slammed it with blast after blistering blast of coruscating black flames. At the same time, Rory stabbed his staff forward over and over. All his icy bolts had been from his Sigil of Frozen Lightning, trapping the monster even more. By the time he got too tired to continue, the Tyrant was almost entirely covered in a web of ice, electricity, and dark fire with glints of blue.

“Nothing to say now?” Dez shouted as he pelted more flames at the monster.

The Dreadraptor thrashed for a moment before finally stilling. “You will not survive. Even if you defeat me, the others will claim your life.”

Rory looked around. None of the smaller flying monsters were coming at them anymore. In fact, most were flying away, a few glancing back at the fallen Tyrant before speeding up their retreat.

“It sure doesn’t look like it,” Rory said.

“This is nothing,” the dying Dreadraptor continued. “Your true challenges—”

Dez growled and slammed one last dark fireball right on the monster’s head. With a sickening, furious squelch, the Dreadraptor’s head exploded.

New Achievement!

Monstrous Vanquisher! You have successfully defeated an Elite-level threat. May the dangers in your life beware your growing prowess.

Rewards

Sigil of Leadership

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Leadership. As a testament to your brave leaderlike qualities, you can now influence your party to greater effect. Remember, you are responsible for them now.

[Cerulean I] grants a 4-point gain to Leadership per personal Tier. Stronger Leadership extends passive bonuses and perks to entire party in a 10-metre radius.

Stats

Type: System

Rarity: Exceptional

Tier: Cerulean I [0%]

Efficiency: High [73%]

Rory shivered where he stood as he received his new Sigil. It had the image of a hand holding a torch. Without hesitation, he absorbed it. He looked up, frowning at the burning carcass of the Dreadraptor. The monster was finally dead.