The Triceratops charged, the floor trembling under every step.

  “Scatter!” I shouted, diving sideways as it barrelled down the corridor like a runaway tank. It ploughed through benches and display panels, horns tearing them apart like cardboard. Sparks spat from crushed fixtures as the lights above flickered.

  Siva darted right, blades flashing. He carved deep lines into the creature’s flank, but the Triceratops barely reacted. It turned with a violent snort, thick breath steaming through its nostrils, and I realised its hide wasn’t just tough. It was armoured, plated with bone and heat-hardened scales, layered like a living bunker.

  Shawn raised a hand. The floor under the Triceratops rippled, then surged upward. A pillar of earth slammed into its front leg, twisting it off-line. The beast stumbled, bellowed, and smashed its skull into the wall so hard the ceiling cracked.

  “Keep it off Shah’s team!” I yelled, already drawing another arrow.

  I fired for its eye. The arrow struck, then skittered away as if it had hit glass. A faint blue shimmer flickered across its skull and vanished.

  Of course it had a damn shield.

  The Temple fighters chose that moment to push. Augmented limbs gleamed as they surged in from the west corridor, weapons drawn, spells gathering along their hands. One lifted an arm and a streak of kinetic light snapped toward Siva.

  Shawn intercepted it with a twist of his scythe, redirecting the blast into the ceiling. Concrete dust and grit rained down over all of us.

  Shawn lifted his free hand and closed his fist. The Temple fighters dropped at once, crumpling in on themselves like someone had pulled the strings out of them. The [Soul Gem] at Shawn’s neck pulsed with a dull glow.

  We didn’t have time to unpack that. It was what it was.

  “Shah, pull your people back!” I shouted.

  “We can’t hold here!” she yelled back, voice tight. “There’s another one coming from the west wing!”

  Of course there was. Because one dinosaur was never enough.

  Siva vaulted over a fallen display, landed on the Triceratops’s back, and jammed both blades into the seams between plated ridges. The beast roared and spun. Siva clung on for three full seconds before the motion threw him off. He hit hard, rolled, and came up with one blade left, the other skittering out of reach.

  I scanned the corridor, thinking fast. We needed it blinded or slowed. I needed something that did not rely on punching through armour.

  My eyes locked onto a red wall-mounted fire extinguisher.

  I aimed and shot.

  The arrow punched the extinguisher dead centre. It burst with a hiss, blasting white powder into the air. The cloud swallowed the Triceratops’s face and horns, coating its skull, filling its eyes, choking the air around it. The creature reeled, shaking its head, snorting in angry confusion.

  “Now!” I shouted.

  Shawn surged forward. His scythe arced up and in, the curved blade biting into a softer joint where the neck met the shoulder plate. It cut deep enough to tear through tissue that was not meant to be exposed.

  The Triceratops bellowed, stumbled, and then finally collapsed. Its full weight hit the floor with a crash that travelled through the building like a drumbeat.

  For half a second, nobody moved.

  Then Shaheerah’s people let out weak cheers that sounded more like relief than victory, and the corridor answered with another tremor from somewhere deeper inside.

  Siva groaned, recovering his stance. “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”

  I glanced at a broken exhibit map still clinging to the wall, the lettering half-smeared with soot. “We need a roof route. Now. Before the sequel arrives.”

  Shaheerah waved her team forward. “Maintenance stairwell. Two halls over. It leads to the roof deck. Move!”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  We moved.

  The corridor beyond was half-lit and thick with dust. The air tasted like concrete and burnt plastic. Behind us, the second Triceratops bellowed, closer than it should have been. Its footsteps followed with slow, steady certainty, crushing everything in its path.

  We hit a service door and shoved through into a narrow stairwell.

  It wound upward, tight and loud, every step echoing. The building creaked around us like it was arguing with itself about whether it wanted to stay standing.

  Halfway up, the wall exploded inward.

  A horn punched through the concrete, missing Siva by inches. He reacted on instinct. One slash across exposed flesh, then he threw himself back as the horn withdrew with a scrape that made my teeth ache.

  “Go!” I barked. “Move, move!”

  We ran the rest of the stairs like the steps were on fire.

  At the top, we burst through the final door onto the roof.

  Hot air hit us. Smoke drifted in ugly sheets. Beyond the roofline, the skyline stretched out in the distance, familiar shapes under a hazy sky.

  Below, the noise was a mess of roars, Temple shouts, and spellfire. The Science Centre was collapsing into chaos.

  “Options?” Shawn asked, breathing hard.

  “There’s a bus parked beyond the trees,” Shaheerah said, pointing. “If we can make it there, we regroup.”

  “Great,” I said, looking over the roof edge. “One problem. That’s a twenty-metre drop.”

  Rafi, one of her younger casters, stepped forward with shaking hands. “I… I can do it. [Mass Feather Fall]. But I don’t know how long I can hold it.”

  “It doesn’t need to be long,” I said. “Just enough for us to not die on impact.”

  Rafi swallowed and began casting. Glyphs flared around us, faintly golden, like feathers caught in wind. The weight in my legs loosened, the world subtly shifting like gravity had decided to take a smoke break.

  “Everyone ready?” Shaheerah shouted.

  “Not remotely,” Shawn muttered.

  The rooftop access door burst open behind us.

  A Temple fighter stumbled through, covered in soot, eyes wild. Another followed. And then, snapping at their heels, a half-burned raptor surged out, jaws open, smoke curling off its back.

  “Jump!” I yelled.

  We ran.

  My feet hit the lip, then air swallowed me.

  For a heartbeat my stomach tried to climb into my throat, then the spell caught. We did not fall. We drifted, slow and light, bodies hanging in the air while chaos framed itself beneath us.

  We landed scattered near the road. Some rolled. Some stumbled. Rafi hit the ground and immediately dropped to his knees, gasping like he had just poured out his soul into the spell.

  Siva’s landing was less graceful. He half-tripped, swore, and stayed down a beat too long before pushing himself up.

  Behind us, the rooftop filled with firelight.

  Somewhere inside the building, something roared again, deep enough to rattle glass. The skeletal T-Rex was no longer just guarding a doorway. Shadows moved high against broken walls, and I caught a glimpse of bone and flame through the glass walls, shifting through shattered structure like it was climbing.

  Temple fighters were still inside. I could hear them shouting. I could hear spells going off. I could also hear screams that ended too quickly.

  Shaheerah grabbed my arm. “We need to go. Now.”

  I stared at the Science Centre, my childhood haunt, now a smoking trap full of monsters and desperate people.

  “Chris?” Siva called.

  “I can’t let it spread,” I said quietly, and my voice sounded steadier than I felt.

  I drew a single [Boom] arrow and set it to the string.

  My fingers hesitated. The building wasn’t empty. That was the part I could not dodge. But if even one of those things got out into the city…

  Shawn didn’t say a word. He just stood behind me, watching, as if he understood the weight and hated it too.

  I released the [Boom] arrow.

  The arrow arced and struck near the dome of the Omni-Theatre. The explosion lit the sky, blooming into fire that raced across the structure. The sound followed a heartbeat later, a hollow rolling boom that hit my chest like a second pulse.

  The Science Centre went up in flames.

  For a moment, I thought that was it.

  Then, through smoke and fire, a roar rose, deeper and angrier than before.

  We ran and made for our vehicles.

  Shaheerah’s team piled into the bus parked down the road. The engine kicked, doors slammed, tires grinding over gravel as it pulled away.

  Siva revved his motorbike. Shawn climbed onto the Phantom behind me.

  As we pulled off, the Science Centre burned in the rearview. Firelight reflected off smoke, turning it gold and red, making the whole ruin look almost beautiful from far enough away.

  The roar came again, shaking the air.

  Shawn twisted to look back and let out a low whistle. “You know… one day, I’m going to ride that thing.”

  “Not if I burn it first,” I muttered, opening the throttle.

  The road stretched ahead, hot and cracked and endless. Behind us, the Science Centre was dying.

  But the sound that followed told me the system wasn’t done.

  Something inside the fire had survived.

  And it was angry.