Dan Shanahan backed up slowly, rifle still pointing toward the city of frogs. The dragon had decided to charge the cave entrance instead of heading for the surface. He wondered if it could smell the party of strangers.

He wouldn't be surprised. Animals had keener senses than humans. Something that didn't want strange smells in its territory might attack as if provoked.

He didn't see any of the patrols changing to follow the dragon. He thought about the options available to him as he backed up.

He wished they had found some LAW rockets to use, but it had been hard enough getting the rifles and other equipment from the dealer that Wyndham had dug up with her talent. The last thing the guy was going to sell them was an anti-tank weapon without a lot more trust between them.

And they hadn't time to build that trust.

The fact that Shanahan had resorted to threatening the guy couldn't have eased the way either.

Shanahan decided the best thing to do was try to close the cavern. He just needed a support to crash into to cause a cave-in. How hard could that be?

The dragon landed at the mouth of the cavern. It stared at the tiny person backing away from it. This wouldn't even be a meal. It started to squeeze its bulk into the tunnel to snatch up its snack.

Shanahan pulled the trigger on his rifle. He aimed for the snout leading the rest of the nightmare. He saw small divots blowing up, but it looked like the bullets weren't doing more than making the thing mad.

They should have grabbed armor piercing rounds for the extra stopping power.

The dragon opened its maw. A beam of liquid roared out as it glared at its fierce prey. It wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight when it was burning in acid.

Shanahan dodged back from the glowing fluid. He held a hand over his face as fumes started filling the enclosed space. He dropped the rifle to hang on its sling and ran up the tunnel.

Would the fumes go up if he set off a spark? Did he want to find out? Did he really want to test how tough his two spirit weapons made him?

He decided that he should stick to a weapon that wouldn't cause the air to explode around him.

He gripped a dagger of rock sticking out of the ground. He wrenched it loose with a jerk of his hand. He had to buy time for the others to climb out of the cavern. He turned the rock until it was a javelin with the pointed end facing his enemy. He threw the piece of rock as hard as he could.

The makeshift spear went through the head of the dragon. It roared its displeasure and pain loud enough to echo to the surface. It writhed at the pain from the stabbing, but it was trapped inside the cavern and unable to do anything but move forward and try to finish the battle before it died itself.

Shanahan moved back. He didn't know how much of a wound he had administered, but had seen men try to fight with lethal wounds. He doubted that something that big would do anything less.

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He needed another piece of rock to throw so he could pin it in place. Let the frogs use other tunnels to get around the mesa.

He picked up a misshapen boulder lying loose on the cavern floor. He took aim and threw it down the shaft at his enemy. The dragon's head whipped out of the way to let the rock hit its shoulder. The mass dropped to a new position on the cavern floor as the dragon roared again.

Burning fluid blasted the cavern. It burned strips of stone away as the dragon struggled to focus on its fleeing prey. It charged up, using the acid as a lance to clear its path.

Shanahan brought both hands against the side of the cavern. He felt the power of his spirit weapon rush through his muscles, It crashed against the rock and splintered the initial impact area.

Cracks ran up the rock, forming fissures, splitting pieces from the roof of the cavern. The mesa settled a few feet in a new position as the top of the tunnel rushed down to meet the floor. The dragon backed from the landslide as the pieces formed a pile in front of it.

Shanahan jogged from the ramshackle wall as he rushed to catch up with the others. Once they were back on the surface, he and Wyndham could get away from the weirdness this other world held.

Hurting deadbeat dads seemed easier and better than running from a monster in the dark.

Acid ate at the blockade. He glanced over his shoulder as he rushed from the battle. He couldn't tell how much time he had, but figured it couldn't be long. He needed to be ready for when it actually cut through.

He wondered if he had room to shoot into the fumes without getting caught in a backlash.

Did he want to try it? It might settle things for good.

Shanahan took up a shooting position behind a natural counter of stone. He aimed down at the dragon spraying its venom everywhere. He pulled the trigger once to see what would happen.

The bullet crossed the distance on a trail of flame. The tiny spark hit the cloud of yellow fumes from the burning rock. It looked like nothing was going to happen. He didn't see where the projectile had gone from where he knelt.

He decided to try again. If this time failed, he would run up to the next piece of cover before he was boiled alive.

He pulled the trigger and sent a burst flying down at his enemy like angry hornets. He saw at least one of the bullets ricochet from the spark of its passage. Then that end of the tunnel went up in an expanding ball of flame.

Shanahan ducked behind his counter and rolled into a ball and closed his eyes. He held his breath as the wave of flame washed over him. He waited for silence before getting to his feet and looking for his target.

The dragon burned across that section of the cavern. He gagged slightly at the smell. He decided to retreat before a secondary explosion happened.

Shanahan jogged back the way they had blazed from the surface. He didn't need Everett to climb up the central shaft. He had already used the Fist to dig into rock with his bare hands. He could do that with this place just as easy.

He was more worried about Wyndham than himself. She was using her talent to do things, but he wasn't sure that was the right way to do things. He didn't talk to her about his misgivings. He didn't see any way that would help anything.

She had her way of doing things, and he had his. He supposed that was the way things should be. He didn't want her trying to muscle someone, and she didn't need him to find marks.

He doubted what they had found would make things better for Grandview, or the Wu Chi. There was a civilization buried in the mesa. They could come up to the surface and try to take anything they wanted.

He doubted they would be able to take much before the surface factions got their acts together and decided a counter-invasion was in order. Then a bloodbath would ensue.

He doubted that Grandview would be able to make peace with the frog people. That didn't seem to be their style.

It wasn't going to be his problem. He doubted he and his partner would be around long enough for that to be more than a could have been. And he doubted Grandview would go for an open war. It didn't seem to be his style.

He would probably seal the frog people in the mesa and try to make sure they couldn't tunnel out. That would be a pain if more dragons were unleashed. Their bad breath cut through the rock, so just pinning the enemy in didn't seem to be a workable solution.

Shanahan paused to listen. He didn't hear anything but the crackling of flames behind him. His group must be running fast and silent to avoid any trouble in the tunnels as they headed for the surface.

He could punch holes in the surrounding walls until he found the central shaft. He decided to save that for an emergency. It was better to follow the tunnel and try to catch up with the others before they made it to the top.

There was still some water flow in the walls. He had been lucky his stunt with the roof hadn't caused the strange water and its deadly fish to drop on him and the dragon in the middle of their fight.

And he didn't know what would happen if he decided to let the water just flow into the main cavern. Was there enough there to flood the tunnels, or would it just cause the frog people to head up in search of more?

That was something he was going to leave to Grandview to decide after they were gone.