Carl and Donut secretly take Skarn’s gnomish telescope before leaving Hump Town. While Carl warns Skarn to bring other children to the Toe if bombing starts, Donut steals the scope from the roof without leaving the payment Carl intended. On the way out, Carl reflects on Donut’s upgraded sunglasses, which now detect surface and subsurface temperatures and may help identify changelings, traps, and weaknesses; Donut immediately uses them to notice that two dromedarian guards differ from the others.

Outside town, Carl, Katia, and Donut assemble the Royal Chariot and prepare to test Carl’s new missile launcher against Ruckus, the cyborg bird boss. Carl mounts a four-shot tube beside his raised seat and uses the stolen telescope and the map from the dead goose to locate Ruckus resting on a dune about half a mile east of town. Wanting distance to test the missiles’ second-stage range, Carl has Katia drive west, then studies Ruckus through the telescope. The boss description reveals that Ruckus was created by the bugbear treasure hunter Shamus Chaindrive to guard the search for the Gate of the Feral Gods, an artifact supposedly hidden in the Necropolis of Anser.

As Carl starts asking Mordecai about the gate and the artifact, the system briefly freezes and resumes. Mordecai explains that such pauses usually happen when dungeon rules are being reconciled, and he warns Carl that anything labeled “feral” is dangerous. Almost immediately after the glitch, Ruckus wakes, faces their position, and begins to launch. Then a full boss-battle sequence triggers, and Ruckus’s description changes: it is no longer a bereft minion, but a sentinel that has regained contact with the Akula and received new orders. Gwen messages Carl from the Water Quadrant to report that the ocean is violently bubbling, confirming that something major is happening below.

Carl locks his first missile onto Ruckus and fires, burning himself with the launcher’s exhaust. Katia drives the Chariot away while Carl watches the projectile track correctly, but the missile detonates early when its second stage ignites, proving the range extension does not work. Realizing the remaining missiles now have a much shorter range, Carl abruptly changes tactics and orders Katia to drive straight toward the incoming boss so the shots will land accurately. As Ruckus charges with its giant swinging buzzsaw, Carl locks his last three missiles onto the wing joint, neck, and saw cable connection.

Carl fires all three missiles at once just as Katia banks hard left. The missiles strike simultaneously and destroy Ruckus in midair, ripping off its wing and sending the bird and its huge powered buzzsaw crashing into the desert. Katia uses a sudden counterweight trick to keep the Chariot from flipping, and Carl admits he wanted the closer shot because he did not want to damage the “prize,” meaning the enormous saw. As they prepare to collect it, a quake shakes the world and a notification announces that Chris Andrews 2 has occupied the Akula’s bridge and liberated the Water Quadrant. Carl realizes Chris is now active in their shared floor, a major new development.