When the wind passed, I wrenched the ax out of the ground and started forward. The Nachtmar, now half its original size and rapidly disintegrating, was trying to steady itself on four damaged limbs. The head came around, searching for me desperately, its final hope.

But instead I was its doom.

The mouth gaped wide before me. I swung from the shoulder. The ax tore the end of its snout off. I blinked away the slime and stepped to the side as the teeth slammed shut where I’d just been. I swung again, removing half of its bottom jaw.

The head struck the ground hard. I followed, striking, lifting, striking. Each hit took another chunk from its neck. The muscles of my arm burned. My blood was rushing out of my injuries. I stumbled, but kept going. The head rose, trying to get away, trying to escape the hungry ax.

Too weak, I couldn’t follow it. I was about to pass out. The Nachtmar was coming apart all around me, great chunks of the creature disintegrating and falling to explode on impact. I couldn’t reach its head, but its body was still here. I turned toward its torso and just in time to be hit by one of its falling limbs.

I found myself on my knees. The dragon had lost too much mass to remain cohesive and its body began to split and flow into dead nightmare slime. The dark body became translucent and I could see the opposite side of the street through it as it melted.

There…

Deep inside of the dragon’s chest cavity was a small, misshapen figure, manlike, the size of a child, only twisted and distorted, its limbs too long and uneven, its head too big. It was the actual alp, the actual form of the creature here on this plane.

It stared at me with big red eyes. It knew I was the cause of its failure, the cause of its banishment and future starvation, and its last act of defiance in this world would be to kill me. The remainder of the dragon’s body turned, angling itself to fall and crush me beneath. I lifted Lord Machado’s ax, and with all of the strength I had left, hurled it through the air. It spun, end over end, as the alp’s already gigantic eyes widened in fear. The ax split the dragon’s belly, but my aim was off and I only struck the alp on one side.

The alp let out a silent scream, bubbles appearing in the fluid around its mouth. It began to disintegrate around the ax wound, but it was still alive for the moment, and the melting dragon corpse took another tottering step toward me. I was about to be crushed.