The sound of the Harrier scraping its talons against the skylight was like nails on a chalkboard the size of a car. It was a grating, metallic screech that set their teeth on edge, each scrape a promise of imminent violence. Dust and small fragments of grime rained down from the massive glass-and-iron-filigree window high above, a prelude to the destruction to come.
Alistair Finch stared up, his face a mask of pure, primal terror. "It's trying to get in," he whimpered, stumbling back from his excavation site. "It's going to break the glass! We're trapped! We're all going to die!"
The panic in his voice was contagious. Elara raised her sabers, her eyes wide as she scanned the ceiling, looking for a shadow, a sign of the monster about to descend.
"Ben! Analysis!" Kai snapped, his voice a sharp command that cut through the rising fear. He pushed Alistair behind a large display case of colonial-era muskets, forcing the terrified man into cover.
Ben didn't need to be told. His silver-lit eyes were already fixed on the skylight, his Insight skill processing the scene with inhuman speed. "The glass is half-inch-thick safety laminate, reinforced with an iron frame," he reported, his voice tight but steady. "Under normal circumstances, it could withstand a hurricane. It cannot, however, withstand a nine-hundred-pound monster with diamond-hard talons. Structural integrity is failing at the southwest corner. The frame is buckling. We have... less than a minute."
A loud, sharp CRACK echoed from above as a web of fractures spread across one of the glass panes. The Harrier shrieked in triumph, the sound muffled by the glass, and redoubled its efforts.
"We can't fight it here," Kai said, his mind racing. "Not in the open. Alistair! Is there a basement? A sub-level? Anywhere to hide?"
"Hide?" Alistair repeated, his voice trembling. "There's no hiding from the Silent Death! It tears through walls! It-"
"Professor!" Kai yelled, grabbing the old man by the shoulders of his tweed jacket and forcing him to make eye contact. "Panicking is how we die. Helping me is how we live. Is. There. A. Basement?"
The sharp, commanding tone seemed to break through Alistair's terror. He blinked, a flicker of his old, curatorial authority returning. "Yes," he stammered. "The archives. Below this hall. They're shielded. Reinforced for preservation. The entrance is through my office, behind the main staircase."
Another deafening CRACK from above. A large chunk of glass, the size of a dinner plate, broke free and shattered on the marble floor, spraying them with sharp fragments. The Harrier's enraged, blinded head appeared in the hole, its hooked beak snapping at the air.
"Time to go," Elara said, already moving towards the staircase.
"The vault!" Alistair cried, pointing a trembling finger at the hole he'd dug. "The Echo! We can't just leave it!"
"We'll die if we stay for it!" Kai countered, pulling him towards the stairs.
"Wait!" Ben yelled. He fumbled in his satchel and pulled out his last remaining glue bomb, "A parting gift!"
He lit the fuse, waited a perilous two seconds, and then hurled the flask upwards with all his might. It sailed through the air and, with a perfect arc, flew through the hole in the skylight, landing somewhere on the roof outside. There was a soft thump, followed by the familiar, satisfying sound of the device flash-hardening. The Harrier let out a new shriek, one of frustration and confusion, as it likely found its talons or a wing suddenly and inexplicably bonded to the roof.
It had bought them precious seconds.
They didn't waste them. Alistair, his focus now on survival, led them at a surprising speed, scrambling behind the grand, sweeping staircase. He pushed on a section of ornate wooden paneling, which clicked and swung inward, revealing a dark, narrow doorway that was completely invisible from the main hall.
"In here! Quickly!" he urged.
Elara and Ben plunged into the darkness. Kai was about to follow, but hesitated, his eyes drawn to the hole in the floor. The vault. The Echo. He could feel it pulling at him, a faint, resonant hum that vibrated in his bones. Leaving it felt wrong, like abandoning a part of himself.
With a final, shattering roar of metal and glass, the Harrier tore a massive hole in the skylight and dropped into the hall. It landed with a ground-shaking impact, a mangled, furious beast of leather and metal, its talons still covered in the sticky, hardened resin of Ben's glue bomb. It stood amidst the shattered display cases, its blinded head swiveling, sniffing the air, screaming its rage at the empty room.
Kai didn't think. He slammed the secret door shut, plunging himself into the same darkness as his friends, just as the monster's head turned in his direction. The last thing he saw was its beak opening in a soundless, furious roar.