Ned’s shout had drawn all the others here. Sue, May, Miles, Evelyn, and Allen had all joined the rest of them, watching the upright monster floating across the ground towards them.

It was a Thunderclaw Knight. Rory imagined it had to be his Sigil of Knowledge passively filling his mental coffers with relevant information. It also told him that these creatures were known to wield swords and shields, giving credence to their Knight moniker, though Rory couldn’t see either yet. The name was still apt, however.

Their newest foe was constructed from the same metallic, navy-blue rocks. But instead of a crablike body, the Thunderclaw Knight had humanoid build with a smaller torso but thicker and longer limbs. There was a head too, shaped like a diamond with the long end pointing up at the dark sky, three glowing eyes staring at them unblinkingly.

The Thundershells they hadn’t managed to kill approached their master, highlighting the sheer difference in size—the Knight was easily five times as big.

“Anyone else think it’s a good idea to not confront it and just run?” Ned asked.

“We’re not running,” Trish said, her voice a low growl. “Don’t you remember? There’s no point in running if they keep pursuing.”

“We’ve got a car, besides which, I’m pretty sure Miles is bringing out the other van. We can leave.”

Evelyn cleared her throat. “I still vote on leaving.”

“Dez,” Viv said. “What do you think?” Still got enough gas in the tank to take on that thing?”

He didn’t immediately answer. The approaching monster radiated danger, and Rory could almost taste the sensation of an impending storm threading through the air. Even a tiny movement might set off a lightning blast. But there was no real proof. For all they knew, it was little more than a powered-up version of the Thundershells.

“All my instincts are screaming at me to get out,” Dez finally said. “But I agree with Trish.”

Trish grinned. “Of course, you do.”

“Then we need to probe carefully,” Viv said. “Figure out its strengths, weaknesses, and the extent of its capabilities.”

Rory swallowed. “Best to be careful, yeah.”

He wasn’t sure how he felt about the impending confrontation. With the Thundershells, they’d had a plan. But the Knight had appeared too quickly for them to figure anything out, besides just being so different from the Thundershells. He wasn’t sure they could wing it and still win.

The Thunderclaw Knight floated through the main gate and stopped, surveying them and the mostly-destroyed substation. “You have destroyed nearly all of my minions.”

Its voice was inflectionless and tinny, like it was speaking from a great distance, and it displayed nothing at the loss of its subordinates. Maybe it didn’t feel emotion in the same way humans and so many other creatures did, or perhaps voice wasn’t one of its methods of expressing it. But it felt closer to uncaring than an inability to express itself.

Dez stepped forward. “What do you want with us?”

“Nothing.”

“Then we’re free to leave?”

“I will allow no such thing. You must surrender your Sigils, including the ones you possess in your souls. My minions may have failed to retrieve them, but their death is only a blessing. The Sigils I will obtain will only be stronger now.”

Viv glanced at Rory. “You know what it’s talking about?”

Rory nodded. “It means us using our Sigils have made them advance in Tiers, so they’re stronger now.”

She grimaced, then stepped past the mound of debris, setting her face in a scowl. “If you stand against us, we’re going to do to you what we did to your minions. Still want to fight?”

There was a light tug on the hem of Rory’s trousers. He looked down to see Truck urging him back. Rory took a tentative step down the debris’ slope, the donkey’s snout rising to meet him halfway, making sure none of the others noticed him. Thankfully, they were all awestruck by the Thunderclaw Knight.

“I suggest you avoid a clash with this creature,” he whispered. “It is well beyond your capabilities at the moment, and for the foreseeable future too.”

“How are we supposed to get out?” Rory hissed back, keeping his gaze fixed on the Knight. “It wants to kill us!”

“Distractions, perhaps. Or a heroic sacrifice on someone’s part. I am only here to observe what interesting choices you and your group will make now that you are aware of the relevant information.”

The idea of a heroic sacrifice made Rory cringe. They were trying to stay alive, not die. “Can’t you just use your Sigils? Get us out of here?”

“And have my Observation License revoked? I think not. And you risk elimination too.”

“What?”

“If outside interference is detected, it often comes to pass that all involved parties are… removed from the equation altogether. We mustn’t risk such a thing.”

“Is the donkey talking?” Allen was staring at the two of them

Rory didn’t get to smile and tell him how absurd that sounded. Dez and Viv had finished exchanging pleasantries with the Thunderclaw Knight. A confrontation was unavoidable.

The Knight pulled out a large, curved length of metallic rock from behind its back, and Rory realized it looked like a sword. Ah, so that’s where he kept it. Maybe there was a shield there too.

“Your end is here, mortals,” it said. “You have until I reach you to pray to your maker.”

It started floating towards them.

Sue cursed vociferously. The others activated their Sigils, images glowing on the back of their hands. For all the fear assailing him, Rory was proud to see that all of them had advanced in Tiers, the silver circles bounding their Sigils’ icons sporting multiple triangles.

Ned had his Burnwing appendages ready to fire, Allen’s hand was surrounded by a glob of water, and Trish crafted a pure-steel spear and stepped forward. Viv’s sword was bared and Dez’s fists were burning dark. They were ready to face their foe.

Dez raised a hand for attention. “Spread out and approach with caution. Keep your shields ready. Trish, better get used to your Sigil of the Warrior ASAP.”

Oh, interesting. Rory noticed the new surety in her step, the ferocity in her smile, the pure violence written in her stance. She was ready to fight, and now Rory understood why. It made him wonder what the others had received as rewards from the Achievement.

There was a commander-like authority to Dez’s voice. Even Viv, who’d never been that great at following anyone, listened to him without question.

The others pronged towards the Knight in three groups. Each headed by Dez, Trish, and Viv, the frontline fighters ready to take the brunt of whatever attack the monster might unleash. It would have been fine if they had worked out their healer problem. Rory was going to have to look deeper into it once they were free.

Sue placed herself in front of Rory, May, Evelyn, and Truck, her Sigil of Barricade gleaming and ready to be used when needed. Nice of her to stay behind to protect them, but Rory had his Weaving to count on.

Rory froze for a second. He did have his Weaving, a Legendary Sigil that could work against almost anything. Maybe there was a way out, and it was via him.

Dez was the first to step forward, the others following in his wake for a few steps before fanning out around him. He assaulted the monster first too. His fist burned with black flames, glints of bright blue racing through the blazing darkness, and he threw a firebolt at the approaching monster.

The Thunderclaw Knight didn’t react. A Sigil fired up on its chest—an image of a spiderweb of lightning, surrounded by a deep green circle and triangles.

Rory stared. That had to be one of the higher Tiers. Viridian, Truck had mentioned. Not good.

A blue hemisphere popped into existence around the Knight, a forcefield of electricity to keep him safe. Dez’s fire crashed against it and fizzled out in moments. The monster hadn’t been touched.

Dez growled, pelting the monster with more dark blasts. The Knight seemed overwhelmed for a moment as the black fires raged in an inferno around it, showcasing how strong Dez’s Sigil had grown. But the fires dissipated all too soon, leaving it unscathed.

Trish and Viv attacked next, throwing a steel spear and an arc of red energy respectively. The Knight stopped both. Sparks flashed, and both spear and arc slowed to hover a few feet from the creature’s chest. A deep brown Sigil was glowing on its shoulder. Umber, if Rory recalled correctly.

His eyes widened as both spear and arc turned until they were both facing the directions they’d come from. A faint flicker of lightning connected them to the Knight’s torso.

They hurtled at Trish and Viv.

Viv disappeared in a red flash, the others behind her scattering. Trish blocked the spear with a quickly-summoned shield of steel.

Miles shouted, “You big bastard!”

Just as he got ready to attack, Dez and the others looking to follow, the Knight raised its sword high in the air.

“Enough,” it said.

Another Sigil flared to life, this one right on its head. It showed several lightning bolts crashing down to a single point from the sky. Rory’s breath halted when he saw the colour—a deep, burnished, and gleaming red, like crystallized blood set aflame.

“Get back!” Rory shouted as he realized what the Sigil would do.

Lightning flashed. High above, a series of thunderous crackles preceded a blitzkrieg of lightning bolts hammering down together with the full wrath of the storm filling the heavens.

Lucky for them, Sue had realized what the Knight’s Sigil was going to do. She erected a flat barrier over Dez’s head, wide enough that it covered Trish too. Miles used his Sigil of Earth as well, supporting Sue’s barrier with a quick rampart of packed soil. It worked. The lightning barrage was momentarily slowed down.

Rory was too blinded by the light to see what exactly went down, but he did catch the shadows of his companions retreating. Just in time. With a quick crack, the lightning broke through the barrier and struck the ground, the explosion hammering the area.

It was bad enough that the debris piles started falling apart. Rory had to scramble back with the others, hardly able to see thanks to the lightning flash. The he could see again, he found that the ground before the Knight had been hollowed into a crater, the earth glowing as though the lightning had heated it to near-melting.

“How long will you run from the inevitable?” the Knight asked. “Death is unavoidable.”

The others disagreed. Ned threw water that fizzed to steam before contact, Allen shouted at the monster to no effect, and Miles flashed his fire at it to no avail.

It was Trish who made real progress. She positioned herself behind Mile’s half-broken earth rampart, then summoned a shield of rubber to ward off the lightning from the Knight. Then she blasted it with concrete.

Rory’s breath caught. The Thunderclaw Knight had actually been caught. Trish’s streams of grey liquid travelled through a pipe she had summoned to get the liquid through the flickering barrier of electricity. Ingenious. The heat from the electricity rapidly solidified the concrete, petrifying the monster’s limbs together.

Brilliant.

Dez and Viv took full advantage. With his own rubber shield, Dez rammed through the Knight’s barrier, then hammered it with an unrelenting barrage of his dark flames. A black inferno burst to life all over it, blue light glinting all over it like new-born stars. With a red flash, Viv teleported behind the monster. Her sword flared as bright as the Knight’s lightning before she hammered it into the monster.

Unfortunately, the Knight wasn’t done. As the combination of attacks from the others reached him, it summoned another blistering lightning barrage, the Sigil with the read circle glowing bright as a star on its forehead.

The only difference was that the eviscerating bolt landed right on top of the Thunderclaw Knight.

If the previous instance had been blinding, this time, Rory felt as though his eyes were being gouged straight out. A sever, shocking head spiked into his skull. He managed to see enormous electric sparks bouncing off the Knight to lands all among them, the others screaming as the ground erupted and arcs of miniature lightning shot everywhere.

Trish and Dez were sent flying, Ned falling into a hole in the ground. When Rory caught a stray spark flashing at him, he flinched and activated his Weaving instinctively.

An act the Thunderclaw Knight spotted.

Rory met its eyes, suddenly feeling like he was about to be subject to interrogation via a hundred volts. He didn’t even see his new Sigil. There was a certain kind of knowledge there, like the monster had suddenly arrowed in on what it had been searching for. Not good.

It approached again. The Thunderclaw Knight didn’t seem to care that small chunks of its body had molten off. Instead, it raised his sword high, the red Sigil burning as it readied to summon another devastating storm of bolts.

Truck had been right. This monster, this Thunderclaw Knight, was well beyond them.

Rory stepped back nervously. As the dust settled, he was able to survey the extent of the damage with a quick glance. Dez was groaning on the ground, though he didn’t look overly hurt. However, Trish’s shoulder was bent awkwardly, and she was badly burned, though the rise and fall of her chest at least said she was still alive. Still, Rory swallowed. Those wounds were awful.

But the worst was Viv. She was lying senseless farther off behind the Knight. Electric burns covered her as well, worse than it was with Trish, steam curling off her body.

Something in Rory snapped. He squared his shoulders and stepped forward, catching sight of Sue, who had erected another barrier to protect Miles and Allen. “You guys, take the others to the van they found.”

“What are you going to do?” Sue asked.

“Stall this monster for as long as I can.”

“Are you nuts?” Miles had never sounded as scared as he did now. “You’ll die. For real.”

“Maybe. But I’ve got faith in my Weaving. Besides, that thing’s right, you know. I’m old. I’m going to die at some point anyway. But you young folks need to keep things going. So, make sure you all live. Get to the van you found and get out.”

Lightning flashed overhead, ready to hammer down. Sue continued protesting, Miles tuning in as well, but Rory tuned it out. Even Truck brayed, unwilling to voice himself even at this possible moment of final parting. Rory ignored that too.

But the heavens were silent for the moment, ready to see the outcome of this finale. Ready to see the final fight against the Thunderclaw Knight.

Rory was ready too.