Connor and Thor dove to the side as the grenade hit Leviathan center-mass. The deafening explosion hurled a superheated shock wave back over them, and Connor was rolling away, throwing an arm over his face. Vengeful and defiantly holding his ground, standing fully against the blast, Barley slammed in another grenade, closing the chute with a hate-filled curse and then he had leveled and fired again.
Mushrooming flame... Barley reloaded, raging, screaming. Thor staggered to his feet, hurling aside the M-16. And understanding instantly, Barley unslung the M-79 grenade launcher and tossed it. Thor caught the weapon in the air, immediately snapping open the breech. In a flash he tore an antipersonnel grenade from the belt over Barley's back and shoved it into the chamber. He flicked it shut with a snap of his wrist as ... Leviathan roared and leaped ... Thor and Barley spun, firing together.
The twin concussion slammed Leviathan back hard against the ground, bathing it in flame. And, as if in slow motion, Thor and Barley silently ejected the spent grenade canisters and calmly reloaded, stepping grimly toward the Dragon.
Brute force had met brute force.
Staggering and weak from the electrical surge, Leviathan rolled and tried to gain its feet, finally standing. It glared and then reached through the flames as if to embrace and Connor knew that this was a stand to certain death; Leviathan would either retreat here and now or they would die fighting where they stood and there was nothing else, nothing ...
White flames blazed before glaring green eyes. Then Thor sent a grenade into the Dragon's armored chest, turning the beast as flame erupted from its mouth to cascade down the passageway ...
Missing ...
The blazing white plasmic deluge streamed fifty feet to the side, impacting a sloping limestone wall. The concussion scattered broken stone across the tunnel, staggering Barley into Thor who caught him and effortlessly pushed the lieutenant back to his feet.
Barley raised his weapon again as he landed, enraged even more, to fire his rifle with flame blazing until the clip was empty. He followed instantly with another grenade, bringing down the far roof of the tunnel with the mushrooming concussion.
Committed to the stand, Connor snatched up Thor's fallen M-16 and raised it to his shoulder. His finger froze on the trigger, flame pouring from the barrel, the three of them and the Dragon, flame to flame, firing, firing and Connor realized he was screaming but he couldn't think of it as he glimpsed the blazing black shadow twisting, striking with an uncontrolled eruption of flame that streamed from its mouth to mushroom over its head. Twisting and shrieking, Leviathan struck blindly at the explosions and flames, convulsing beneath the continuous, thunderous impacts.
Fire in the air, thunder met thunder.
Then the Dragon bent and bellowed, staggering forward. And with a roar Connor realized that weapons weren't enough would never be enough to stop this thing and, guided by a desperate death instinct, he swung the aim of the M-16 toward the electrical substation located close to the side of the beast.
Holding a steady bead, he began firing.
Instantly the substation's power cylinder exploded to scatter molten steel and electric blue bolts across the Dragon, a spider web of blazing tendrils of electric fire that cascaded over Leviathan's armor, spiraling over the beast in crackling, iridescent bolts that impacted the opposite wall like a cannon blast, violently shattering steel plating and stone.
It was too much.
Leviathan shrieked, hideous face raised to the ceiling.
“Hit high!” Barley screamed, firing instantly.
With savage shouts of rage, Thor and Barley sent five, ten, twenty grenades into the tunnel mouth within sixty seconds to create a howling holocaust, a violent white world that brought the roof, floor, and walls together in a descending, molten mass of burning rock and steel. Connor heard himself shouting with last-stand madness, firing, firing the rifle until the weapon was suddenly and stunningly silent.
You're out, something told him, but Connor couldn't stop, continued shouting and waving the barrel for a full three seconds before he could gain even a dim shadow of control. Then, grimacing against the heat and smoke, he ripped out the rifle clip.
It took Connor a shocked moment, staring vividly at the empty magazine held right in front of his eyes, before he could recognize the fact that he was out of ammo. Breathless, fighting to calm himself, Connor raised his face to glare at the flames.
“Hold it!” he shouted, falling against a wall. With a curse Barley fired another grenade, the explosion all but lost in the roaring volcano at the tunnel entrance. The heat wave that swept over them scorched Connor's face.
“Hold it, Barley!” Connor screamed.
Barley paused, his weapon smoking. Breathing hard, sweating, the lieutenant shoved in another APG but didn't fire, keeping a cold aim as solidly as a statue. His chest was heaving.