Rory was glad it was a short distance to the Thunderclaw Knight. He could run to the monster without tiring himself out, which would be disastrous considering what he was about to attempt.

“You, mortal, are a different breed,” the Knight said with its sword still pointed at the sky, three glittering eyes fixed on Rory.

Rory smiled hard at it. He had accepted the risks, knew that it was unlikely he’d come out of this in one piece, if he was even alive when it was done.

The others were still scuttling around, not budging like he’d told them to. It had been a long time since he’d had to use his dad-voice—no, he was not going to worry about Alex right now—but Rory summoned his parental power and yelled at them to move. “Take the others and go. Get out of here. Now!”

Hopefully, they listened. Rory couldn’t pay them any further mind. His heart beat hard as he walked past the crater the Knight had carved out with its first barrage of incredible lightning. Despite the monster easily standing twice as tall as him, despite the feeling of doom solidifying in his guts, a part of him was excited to see how well his Sigil stood up.

The Thunderclaw Knight looked down at him. “Prepare yourself, mortal.”

Rory frowned. It was strange to see the Knight granting him time to prepare. Ignoring the sound of movement behind him, Rory tore off a section of his shirt and covered his eyes and ears up. His sight was non-existent, and his hearing had been muffled. It would do little against the effects of the monster’s attack, but it was better than nothing.

That was all he had time to do. Thunder split the sky, and a barrage of lightning crashed down.

Rory wasn’t sure what he was expecting. He imagined the light from his Weaving was surrounding him in a protective, glowing cocoon.

The heavy lightning hammered down like an oil tanker dropping from the sky.

A feeling of immense pressure settled on Rory’s shoulders, bowing him closer to the ground, though he resisted every inch. It couldn’t have been great for his aged body. Even with his eyelids shut tight, light burned through and seared his eyes, and the heat from the surroundings started boiling him alive. And of course, he was already deafened. His head was starting to pound as though the electricity was buzzing in his brain.

At least his Weaving was effective at keeping the electricity at bay, since all Rory felt were fleeting sparks flickering over him. Without his powers, he’d have been turned to ash in microseconds.

It stopped without warning. The immense pressure lifted, leaving Rory bent so close to the ground that he looked like he was prostrating himself before the Knight. He swallowed down a groan as he forced himself back upright. The air was burnt around him, the smell of char and burning slag infiltrating his nose, and he did his best not to gag.

Before him, a glowing Sigil lay on the half-molten ground. It had the same picture as the one on the Thunderclaw Knight’s shoulder, that of several lightning bolts crashing down from the sky to a single point.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of Heavenly Lightning. You can now call down the wrath of the storms.

[Umber III] allows high element manipulation, infection, summoning, infusing, crafting, and nullifying in a 5,500-meter radius.

Stats

Type: Element

Rarity: Exceptional

Tier: Umber III [0%]

Efficiency: High [70%]

Rory stared. He had just Woven into being a Sigil that was incredibly powerful. Umber III, with all the added abilities besides manipulation. They felt a little self-explanatory, but he would have dearly loved to find out what exactly the description meant by things like summoning or infection, or even crafting.

“Intriguing,” the Thunderclaw Knight said. It was a wonder he could hear the monster through his ringing ears. “It is as I believed. You are a Weaver, mortal.”

Rory looked up. The Knight still had its sword raised high overhead, pointing to the dark sky. It was a wonder rain hadn’t started pummelling them yet. “You… wanted me to Weave your lightning into a Sigil?”

“Correct.” The monster’s three eyes glimmered. “You will now Weave me more, mortal.”

“What?”

“You will be my Sigil Weaver, heretofore bound to create that which I demand. Do you not wish to live?”

Rory frowned. “What I wish is to leave.”

The Knight was silent for a while. That was fine. It gave Rory time for his mind to hurtle in all directions and find some way to take advantage of the situation.

He flashed back to the first serious conversation he’d had with Truck, the one where he had learned of his inherent value in the new world. His Weaving was a rare and priceless ability. People—and even monsters, it seemed—coveted it.

Rory wondered what the rules for looting were since the monster clearly couldn’t take it from via killing him.

“Make a Deal with me, Knight,” Rory said.

The monster’s glowing eyes blinked. “A deal? What reason would I have to deal with you or your kind? You will do as I order. There should be no other notion pertinent to you.”

“What if I refuse? Will you kill me? You won’t have access to a Sigil of Weaving anymore if you do something drastic like that.”

“That is inconceivable. You cannot.”

“Of course, I can. We’ve been fighting you to get away all this time. You think I’m going to suddenly stop just because I’m not dead yet? Sorry pal, but that’s not how this works.” Rory shook his head. “Make a Deal with me. It will be system-approved, which means we’ll both have to keep our ends of it. Does it hurt if both of us get to profit?”

“This conversation bores me. Prepare yourself again, mortal.”

Ah. The Knight’s plan was to hammer down so fast that Rory had no choice other than to create more Sigils. An effective idea too. All Rory could do was shout in protest as another barrage of lightning fell upon him from the sky.

Rory was once again bowed down under severe pressure. He tried pulling himself back upright, but the weight was not open to negotiation. It pushed him down, the lightning burning his eyes, singeing his clothes and the air around him, clogging his nose with the charred smell. When it stopped again, there was a similar Sigil as the first one, right on top of it.

The Knight had succeeded.

Rory didn’t move at first. His body felt battered. If he tried to rise, he might fall over to land flat on his face. But he was going to get up. He had enough Mana for one last effort. One last attempt at finding a way past this monster.

So, Rory pushed himself upright and used his Weaving straight on the Thunderclaw Knight itself.

A storm of light burst out from his hand and attacked the monster, who floated backwards a few inches, though not before bits and pieces of it started dissolving.

Rory could hardly believe the sheer amount of light coming off it. His retinas had already been burned by the lightning, and he was sure he’d need spectacles after this was all done.

“Your feeble attempt will not work,” the Knight growled. “You wish death? So be it.”

It pulled the large sword further back. Rory’s heart started struggling as though it wanted to escape where his body couldn’t, thanks to the onset of tremendous fatigue. If this was to be his end—

Shouts erupted behind him at the same time as a fireball exploded on the Thundershell Knight. Miles flashed past Rory, throwing a stream of fire at the monster, who groaned and fell back under the surprise assault.

“Get back!” Dez shouted as he ran past Rory’s other side. He was back up, both fists blazing with black flames. “This bastard is going down.”

He blasted the monster so hard, it flew several feet back. But it didn’t fall. The Knight had dug its feet into the ground, and after stopping its backward momentum, it pulled itself forward with heavy, scorching steps.

“It seems death is all that you foolish creatures seek,” the Knight said. “I will end you and rid the plague you have visited upon this Plane. Die!”

Dez was undeterred. “Is that right?”

The Knight raised its sword high, then slammed it down hard. Both Miles and Dez evaded the blast, and though Rory tried to fall back, he was far too slow to avoid the shockwave that rippled outwards.

It blasted him off his feet and hot pain washed his back when he landed down on the debris, sure that he had broken a few ribs if not worse. Nevertheless, he raised his head to see that Dez and Miles were still all right, still upright and fighting the Knight.

Rory was amazed at seeing them work together. Dez kept the monster’s main attention while Miles attacked from the flank, and both of their flames rose higher and higher in blistering combination of black and brilliant orange. The constant use must have raised their Sigils’ Tiers really high. Rory could feel the heat baking him even from that distance.

Unfortunately, the Knight was still too strong. It was attempting to summon its electric forcefield again. That wasn’t good. If it went up, the monster would be safe from harm again.

Thankfully, they had found a counter to that. A jagged-ended rod flew in from nowhere, spearing through the Knight’s thin torso and stabbing into the earth behind it. It groaned in frustration. All the electricity it had been using now coalesced into the rod and dug into the point where it was impaled. The Knight had been effectively grounded.

Rory only had to look up to see Ned flying back. Trish must have still been down, so Ned must have pulled the rod from the huge pile of debris behind them.

“Insolent pests,” the Knight growled, trying to rise and failing. Dez had trapped it well. “You will suffer.”

“Really, now?”

The voice set Rory’s heart thundering in his chest. Through a wave of heavy pain, Rory watched Viv drag herself into the fight. She was still horrifically injured, blood still dripping out of her myriad wounds, but for some reason, they didn’t impede her.

As the Knight swung its sword to make Dez and Miles retreat a little, granting itself space to raise its sword high, Viv rushed in. The Sigil on the monster’s head flared, and she slashed a burning red arc at the creature. She teleported right onto the rod sticking out of its guts, and with a vicious swing, she sliced off the monster’s right arm.

The Knight screamed, jerking to throw off Viv. It tried to right itself, but Dez and Miles swooped in. Streams of dark and bright fire exploded into being all over the Knight, turning the entire into shifting dance of daylight and dusk.

Viv joined them for the final salvo. Her red energy sabre flared and pulsed with increasing frequency. She pulled it back, then stabbed it forward as though the monster was right before her instead of a few feet away. But that was fine. The crimson geyser of energy that erupted from her struck the monster like a missile, combining with the flames to start off a detonation that shook the whole area.

The Knight screamed as he was blasted back. Rory’s eyes widened as the enormous stream of virulent energy carried the monster to the small field of transistors, setting off a series of explosions that rocked the whole area.

Viv staggered back, breathing hard. She was making her way towards Rory, still somehow upright and moving despite her wounds. “Rory, are you nuts?”

Rory had no idea how to answer that. Now that the exhilaration from the monstrous fight was dying down, he was finally starting to realize the pain wasn’t going away any time soon.

Strong hands grabbed him by the armpits. “Easy does it,” Allen said. “I know you’re hurt, but don’t worry, we’ll get you up and running in no time.”

“Didn’t I tell you all to run?” Rory gasped out.

“I have half a mind to run you over, dear,” Viv said. She looked like she didn’t know whether to be angry or concerned. “Where’s Evelyn?”

Before Viv could get her answer, Allen froze and shouted a warning. Dez and Miles, who had been approaching them looking haggard and exhausted after the fight, now whirled along with Viv to look back at the explosion. Rory was already staring.

The Thunderclaw Knight’s profile was rising in the shadows of the distant blaze.

Miles made to rush after it, but Dez grabbed him by the arm before he could charge off. Viv was frozen, staring at the rising monster in the distance, while Allen resumed slowly dragging Rory back. Apparently, most of them were of one mind.

The Knight screamed. It was an unearthly sound, an Otherworldly noise that made the air shiver.

“We’ve got the van,” Sue yelled behind Rory.

Rory turned his head to see that they had indeed brought the van. He hadn’t been able to hear it thanks to the ruckus of the battle against the Knight. Ned honked the Cadillac from farther down the road. In short order, they all dragged themselves into the vehicles. Those who couldn’t move on their own like Trish and Rory were pulled in by those who could.

“Everyone in?” Ned asked.

“Yeah,” Miles said. “Go, go, go.”

The van went off, the Cadillac following close behind. Rory found himself in the van’s back with Viv sitting beside him, Trish and two unfamiliar people—had to be the workers they’d found unconscious in the substation—slumped nearby.

As overwhelming lightning turned the dusk to day, they escaped from the site of the battle.