The elemental had vanished but still the dragon fought against something invisible. Perhaps its eyes could see what Rik's could not.

Its movements became slower and jerkier. They had a spasmodic feverish quality. A man landed in the trench beside Rik. It was Karl Mandrake, yet another massive gun in his hands. Carefully he took aim and fired. The heavy bullet smashed into the dragon's flesh and this time Rik noticed what he had not before. The wound was bigger than it ought to be, even given the bore of the Wyrm Hunter's weapon. A huge chunk of scales had been blown away and something metallic, perhaps splinters of a metal shell glittered where they were embedded in flesh.

The dragon bellowed again, but there was a wheezing quality to its roar now that had not been there before. Its long neck looped spastically, its jaws snapped at random. It raised itself to its full height. From nearby a cannon roared. Some gunner had managed to swing his weapon back into action. Its ball impacted on the wounded dragon, knocking it over backwards. A monstrous gout of blood erupted from its shattered ribcage. Its tail twitched.

Relief flooded Rik as he realised the creature was dying. There was a chance that they might get out of this alive yet.

"It's dead," Rik shouted to Karl Mandrake.

"It was dead from the time I first shot it."

"How can you be so certain?"

"The bullets were laced with dragonbane and notched so they broke up on impact. The poison was spread all through its body. It was only a matter of time before it went down."

"The cannon shot might have had something to do with it too."

Karl whipped away his mask. His brutal features were twisted in a crazed feral grin. "Aye, they might have," he said. "But I reckon you and I might still get medals for this."

"Do notched bullets really split up?" Rik asked just to have something to say.

"Aye - it's a nasty thing to do, but so is lacing them with poison in the first place."

Rik could not disagree with that.

 

 

Sardec leapt aside as the Wyrm raced by. He roared at the Foragers to take cover and prayed that none of them would be crushed. Moments later the out of control monster vanished down the street into the smoke and flames. He took stock. A bunch of corpses lay nearby. Smoke filled the air. Next to a wall a group of uniformed men had their hands held high while Weasel and the Barbarian stripped them of weapons. They were forcing the enemy soldiers to turn out their pockets and their purses as well, and Sardec saw no reason to stop them.

From somewhere up ahead a horn sounded a long sad note. He heard cheering and screams and then more cheering.