I didn’t see any scales on the creature emerging from the woods, but the way it moved on all fours looked exactly like a lizard. The other details—the long snout, huge teeth, and horns—were all present as well.
The monster might have had more horns than teeth, but even that wasn’t enough to mark it as unique. It was like someone had turned on a giant magnet in the middle of a junkyard. The features I thought were scales was actually a mismatched collection of debris. Some were welded together; others were hinged, but each of them overlapped something.
The one feature this particular dragon had that not all others did, was wings. Sweeping wings the color of rough steel. It flexed them a couple of times, blowing leaves into a low cloud around it.
All that was missing was the fire-breathing part, which I hoped it couldn’t do.
My hands ached for my rifle. If the thing took to the air, I wasn’t sure how I’d kill it. It could strafe us all day until every single one of us was dead.
From nowhere, the men of the village rushed past me, charging the beast with battle cries and bloodlust. I followed them, searching for anything I could use as a weapon. If I had to, I’d rip a big tree out of the ground and beat the monster with it until it was dead or I broke the tree.
And there were lots of trees and only one dragon.
Speed was my shiny, new toy, so I decided to play with it. I sprinted ahead, easily outpacing the others, but I still had no idea what I’d do when I got to the beast. Now that I was closer, I could understand how big the dragon was. I didn’t bother coming up with a number, but its abdomen was a little bigger than the alligator-fish the men had caught. With legs, it was much taller. Each wing, if it spread them out, would easily be twice as long as its body.
I skidded to a halt maybe 20 yards out from the monster and caught hold of a boulder. The stone had to be almost my height, but my newfound strength served me perfectly as I dug my fingers into it. My body strained with the effort of lifting it before I took aim. Then I sent the massive rock tumbling toward the attacking creature.
The boulder soared 50 yards on a direct course for the dragon’s head before it smashed harmlessly into a thousand pieces when the dragon blocked it with a wing. If boulders didn’t kill it, then I would have to up my game.
There would be no negotiation. There was no way to drive it off. It would have to be disassembled one piece at a time until I found something important and ripped it from its frame.
The dragon casually tossed an Ish-Nul man through the air, and I sprinted to catch him before he hit the ground. I snatched him mid-descent, but the damage was already done. He’d been opened up from forehead to navel. He was already dead.
I picked up his massive battleaxe, turned to the dragon, and roared to capture its attention. It ignored the peppering of arrows the women were delivering and the ineffectual blows from the men as it turned to face me.
Well, I had its attention now.
It flexed a few times, centered its body and head on me, and opened its huge maw so wide, I could have stood between its four-inch teeth. A swirling whirlpool of red, orange, and white ignited where I’d expected to see a tongue and darkness. It was a hypnotic painting, a masterpiece of destruction.
I knew exactly what type of technology was producing the beginnings of fire.
I’d seen a demonstration of it years ago. It was a particle cannon. There was a reason particle cannons were not used on the ground in an atmosphere. The cannons worked in space because the energy from the charged material would impact the enemy vessel, transfer its charge, and hopefully overcome its molecular bonds. Depending on the material hit, it would either disintegrate, explode, or catch fire.
In atmosphere, the particles would immediately transfer their charge to the air, turning it to plasma. The range was too short to be effective against targets more than a hundred meters away, but I was only about half that distance.
Shit.
An Ish-Nul warrior with a massive battleaxe appeared beside me. “I’ve got this, brother.”
But he didn’t have it. I knew he was a half-second away from becoming little more than a charred mess.
“Split right!” I ordered, shoving the brave soul away before he could swing his axe.
I sprinted to the left as the dragon unleashed its fire. The sound of the weapon discharging raised goosebumps on my arms. It rent the air and liquefied the dirt behind me in a hellish hiss of plasma.
Ahead, several men looked from the dragon to me, trying to decide if they should run or hide behind their shields. I could feel the heat of the plasma fire on my back, and it seemed the dragon was intent on roasting me rather than the Ish-Nul. If I kept running toward the men, they’d be turned to ash, so I made a hard right and headed straight for the mechanical beast.
This is just like killing a Xeno Queen, I told myself. There’s always a weak spot. I just have to find it.
As I ran under the dragon, it stopped breathing plasma and instead tried to stomp me. I saw its metal paw coming and easily dodged it. I dragged my new battleaxe across its belly, and the sound of tearing metal was at least a hundred times worse than nails on a chalkboard. The dragon reared its head and launched a torrent of plasma at me, and I sprinted sideways to avoid it. The heat almost vaporized a nearby shack and set a tree aflame.
I had to deal with this creature fast.
