Leviathan(142)

Connor moaned, bowing his head.

Leviathan stared, unconcerned, until Barley collapsed. Then it swung its ravaged serpentine head toward Connor, and Connor somehow felt the impact of the Dragon's unearthly hate. With a horrified shout Connor surged forward, trying to gain his feet. But he couldn't move.

Shocked, Connor glared down to see that he was pinned solidly to the ground by a steel girder. And fired by desperation, Connor cursed and tried to scramble out, shredding his legs on the steel. But his bones were held solid. And with a wild cry he searched for a weapon, saw the M-79 close.

In a breath Connor snatched the weapon up and cracked the breech, tearing-out the spent round. He fumbled frantically through Jordan's hysterical screams for the remaining grenade.

Couldn't find it.

It was gone ...

Connor's hands scrambled over all he could reach.

Leviathan roared, stepping closer. And then Connor saw the grenade on the floor. It was lying cleanly on the cement, in clear view ... between Jordan and Leviathan.

Leviathan's next shriek propelled Jordan hard into Connor's arms and Connor dropped the M-79 as he caught his son. The four-year-old was terrified and hysterical and Connor frantically took a moment to hold him close and closer. Then he pushed his son back, glaring with a father's dying, desperate love.

Leviathan lowered its head and growled, fifty yards away. The Dragon twisted its demon head, as if laughing, and Connor saw with a shock it would have to walk directly between the severed sections of the Norwegian power line to reach them. Jordan saw the beast and screamed, and Connor realized with horror what he had to do.

“Jordan!’' he screamed, pointing frantically at the phosphorous grenade. “Listen to me son! Listen to me! Get that grenade for Daddy! Please! Get it for Daddy!”

“No! No!” Jordan screamed.

Jaws gaping, Leviathan approached the severed sections of the Norwegian power line.

Stunned by fear and hope, Connor grasped his son by the shoulders, pointing frantically. “Jordan!” he screamed. “Please, son! Get that for Daddy! Please! Get it for me! For me!”

But Jordan only leaped and crawled farther into his arms and Connor groaned in utter pain as he pushed him back, knowing that everything, everything had come down to this single moment in time.

“Jordan!” he cried, eye to eye and heart to heart. “Do you remember how I promised you I’d kill the Dragon for you? Do you remember?'‘

Jordan shook his head. “No! No!”

“Yes!” Connor shouted, bringing their heads together as he had to bring their hearts together in order to survive. “Get that for me Jordan and I promise you 1’11 kill it! I promise! I promise!”

Leviathan opened its jaws, drawing breath.

Took another step.

“God help us!” Connor cried, throwing his face to the ceiling before looking down again. “Jordan!” He shouted. “Get that grenade for me now, son! Get it for me! For me! And I promise you I'll kill it!”

Shocked and crying, Jordan stared into Connor’s eyes. And, as if he'd been touched by a force even more powerful than his terror, he suddenly turned, gazing in utter fear at the beast. And then with a child's purest love and trust and essence, the boy tore away from Connor and leaped onto the walkway, running helplessly and screaming toward the Dragon.

And the grenade.

Leviathan's dark eyes blazed with inhabited hate as the child approached and then Jordan bent to snatch up the grenade. And for a stunning, frozen moment the child stared up, up into the face of the Dragon. And the Dragon glared down, fangs gaping, hating and threatening.

Connor gasped, shocked at the moment of unearthly stillness. But Jordan somehow held his place as the Dragon hovered before him, colossal and satanic and monstrous but somehow ... afraid...

Jordan stood, motionless.

Then Leviathan shrieked, staggering forward.

Instantly screaming in horror Jordan turned and leaped into Connor's arms with Leviathan following in his steps and Connor roared with love as he caught his son from the air, turning him away. Then in the next blinding split-second he caught the grenade from the boy's hand to slam it into the M-79, snapping the weapon shut and raising it simultaneously.

The Dragon roared, bending over them.

It stood solidly between the severed sections of the power line.

Connor desperately pulled his son's face close into his chest, aiming the grenade launcher dead-center between Leviathan's demonic green eyes.

They glared face to face.

Leviathan snarled, jaws twisting.

Connor frowned.

“You're extinct,” he rasped.

And pulled the trigger.

The grenade struck Leviathan's hell-born face to mushroom instantly over the severed sections of the supercharged power line, and as the chemical cloud hit the copper coils a blue-white bolt of lightning leaped instantly across, hurled over their heads like the Wrath of God to strike the Dragon hard in the chest and blast a hole through its monstrous form as the air coruscated white with the firestorm that continued, continued through galactic reptilian pain that raged across the cavern, raging until it was itself overcome by the white fire that surged over them in a God-roar that finally tore the Dragon's shriek to shreds in an amazing, blazing blast of unearthly power and justice and wrath.