Closer now. Its head was less than a hundred yards away. The world around me was on fire. I aimed at the long sinewy neck and held the trigger down. I could barely make out the ripple pattern of impacts, and that was only because the beast was coated in its own fiery breath and when the slugs hit, the nearby splash of slime put out the fire. It turned quickly, spinning as something got its attention from behind, and as it did, a spray of glowing ooze splattered across the Strip from its shattered wing.

It was bleeding. It was shrinking. We could do this.

Then I realized what had gotten its attention. The Nachtmar was taking fire from the area around the Last Dragon. Hunters! They had to be low on ammo and hurting, but they weren’t giving up. There were dozens of figures moving around the front of the conference center, leapfrogging their way forward, pouring a continuous stream of gunfire into the monster.

It was a valiant effort, but they didn’t have anything left big enough to really hurt it. Abomination empty, I dropped it onto its sling and reached over my back for Lord Machado’s ax. This had to work. It was our only hope. Still running, I headed straight for the nearest piece of dragon. One of its forearms was touched down ahead of me, claws dug deep into the sidewalk, balanced as it turned its long neck over its shoulder to launch a stream of fire at the Hunters.

Ax freed, I lifted it overhead and charged. I swung downward with all of my might, aiming for the claw. One finger was as big around as a log. Lord Machado’s ax struck and sliced right through the alien meat like it wasn’t even there. The ax sparked when it hit the sidewalk beneath. The claw fell away and a flood of slime came pouring out. The Nachtmar screamed so loud that it almost knocked me out.

“Suck it!” Then the other couple of tons of worth of claw came off the sidewalk and hit me like a train.

Spinning through the air, I saw sky, then ground, then sky, and then I hit so hard.

It took me a moment to blink myself back to reality. The pain was unbelievable. I’d landed on my side. There was no air left in my lungs. I was twenty feet away from where I’d just been. I could tell because the severed claw was still there.