Rikbore eyed the behemoth dragon flying overhead. With only the sky around him, it was near impossible to estimate the true size of Jormag, but there could be no question that he was truly the colossal creature Trahearne had described. His motion across the sky seemed slow, but Rikbore knew that only his size created that appearance.
"We're supposed to take that down?" Rikbore muttered to himself.
"What was that, Rikbore?" Xandra's voice was muffled by the interior of the machine Rikbore stuck out the top of.
"Nothing," he replied. "Quick! Bring us about hard left if you can."
The machine had not slowed during his first look at the monster above, but now it skewed hard in a turn. The wooden beams the wheels lay down spat snow, mud, and rock out, slinging it across nearby Norn warriors as it traded momentum for a new direction.
As it spun, Rikbore reached down and seized the controls for the upper body, slinging it around in a left turn of its own. The movement of both lower and upper works sped the cannon around rapidly, allowing Rikbore to squeeze off a snap shot. The actinic flash blasted outward, streaking across the sky.
It came nowhere near Jormag, but then, Rikbore hadn't expected it to. Jormag's path had been taking him towards the low lying hill behind which Rikbore had hidden the beast, and atop of which Trahearne and the Norn leadership had been overseeing the battle. The blast hadn't meant to strike, it had only been intended to divert Jormag's attention away from the dragon's intended prey.
Rikbore felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as Jormag jerked in the air, changing his path, and craned a long neck around to search for the source of the interruption. He'd gotten Jormag's attention, alright. Now he just needed to survive it, along with Xandra and Znapp.
"Xandra?" he called.
"Yes?"
"Wherever we are, we don't want to be there."
"Where do we want to be?"
"Anywhere else. And we want to keep being anywhere else no matter where we are."
"I understand."
Xandra cancelled the turn, and began racing forward at an angle to Jormag's flight. He felt the beast of metal leap forward, moving even faster than it had before, bouncing and jolting with every small rock or icebrood body it ran over.
"Znapp?"
"I have diverted additional power to motivational uses. I sense there is some urgency to our being able to move."
"Yeah, you sense that right. How quickly can we fire the cannon?"
"I believe I have worked out an efficient means to replace and connect storage bottles. Perhaps every ten seconds?"
"I'm holding you to that."
Rikbore eyed Jormag carefully as the dragon swung about in an arc above the village of Kyesjard. An adjustment to his wings, and he began dropping downward, moving in a straight line towards the battle site. The dragon's jaw dropped, and even from the far distance Rikbore could hear a sucking sound.
Swearing, Rikbore dropped back inside the beast and slammed the hatch shut. He jerked the controls again, smashing his face to the viewport and watching the scenery swim by until he caught site of Jormag in the air. Making a fast estimate, he ceased the upper body's turn, slamming his foot down onto the trigger.
The searing beam flashed just past Jormag's eye, expending itself in the far distance. Again, however, the shot served a purpose. Jormag's head gave a jerk just as a powerful blast came out from his maw. It landed past the battle site, creating a long path of jagged ice crystals pointing up and back into the sky as if reaching back for it's origin. No one had been struck, but Rikbore shuddered as he realized what would happen to anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in such a blast.
The metallic beast he rode in gave another harsh jerk as one of the dragon's minions narrowly missed it with a far smaller, but more personal jolt of ice. The destructive power had vented its fury on the ground, spraying the golem with a shower of icy shrapnel.
"Xandra!"
"I know!"
Rikbore quickly jolted the cannon barrel down, and sent a devastating blast outward, rending additional attackers into char and debris. As he heard the clanking of Znapp swiftly working to change out bottles, he turned his eye back to the sky.
Jormag was wheeling back for another attack run. This time, however, there was no guesswork involved in figuring out exactly where the monstrosity was planning to lay down his attack. Jormag had spotted the strange centaur-like golem. The dragon was directing its path straight at the beast, and at Rikbore personally.
"Faster, Znapp! Faster!"
"That is not helping!" Znapp shouted back. A click emerged from somewhere near Rikbore's feet. "Ready!"
Rikbore leaned into the site. The fact that Jormag was both large and coming straight to him made aiming very easy. He hammered the trigger down.
This time, as the golem rocked back with the shot, Rikbore's aim was good. Having been more deliberate, and having Jormag himself make it easy, the bolt ran true. Rikbore blinked away darkened spots swimming in his vision, and glowered at the now hissing dragon.
Jormag swept past overhead, allowing Rikbore a good look. Several scales along the dragon's neck had been torn away, revealing torn and swollen flesh beneath. A slight glimmer that might have been blood flashed in the sunlight as Jormag roared out of sight.
"That was a hit!" Rikbore shouted. Beneath him he heard Znapp give a pleased shout of his own, even as Xandra whipped the golem into another jolting turn. "It didn't do much, but it was still a hit!"
The upper body spun in response to Rikbore's hand on the controls as he sought out Jormag. Frustratingly, he found himself unable to see the dragon through the viewport. With a growl of frustration he popped out of the hatch yet again.
He spotted Jormag immediately.
"Left!" he screamed. "Left!"
The golem slid sideways as Xandra jerked it around in reply. A crackling roar overwhelmed all other sounds and Rikbore's vision was filled with a world of white. The golem slammed into something, spinning it violently and Rikbore felt his ribs bash into the hatch frame hard enough to drive his breath from him.
Trying to catch his breath, he jerked his head around wildly, taking in a transformed landscape. Ridges and spikes of ice juddered upward beside the golem. Trapped inside some of these unnatural upward icicles he could see the murky shapes of Icebrood and Norn, along with the occasional Pact warrior. One such victim, a human, was screaming in an animalistic way as he tried to pull his lower body free from one such protrusion. The cream cut mercifully short in only a couple of seconds as the extreme cold raced upward, mercifully ending the warrior's life and pain.
"Rikbore!" Xandra's shout tore him away from the horror he was feeling over the sight. "Rikbore! We have a problem!"
"What is it?"
"Something does not feel right. We're still moving, but the golem is trying very hard to turn tothe right."
He glanced downward, over the side of the upper body, but he was unable to see anything but the top of the lower body. Twisting, he looked behind the golem, following the trail it was leaving behind in its motion. Among the disrupted jags of ice and rock he saw wooden timbers sticking up.
"We've lost some of the planks!" he shouted.
"We will not be able to take another hit like that," Xandra shouted as she nursed the golem into another turn.
"Then don't let it happen!"
Scanning the sky, he watched as Jormag swung around into a turn of his own. Jormag was fast, and powerful, but he paid for that speed with very wide turns. It took time to slow enough to be able to twist about and come back, and that gave Znapp time to change out bottles.
Rikbore spun the upper body, bringing the cannon in line for Jormag's next attack run. Gritting his teeth he waited until Jormag had straightened out, then smashed out another shot. Again, the bolt flew straight, striking Jormag across the face and causing the next gout of ice and death to smash into the ground off target.
Swearing, Rikbore rotated the upper works around yet again as he felt Xandra carefully bring the golem into a new path. Two shots had now hit Jormag, but neither had done much more than rip a few icy scales away. Despite the power of the gun, he wqas a mosquito to Jormag's sheer mass. He'd have to hit repeatedly, subjecting Jormag to a death of a thousand cuts. Jormag, however, needed to only get lucky once.
Squinting at the wheeling dragon, Rikbore made a snap decision. His foot smashed down on the trigger button well before Jormag had straightened out. He heard Znapp give a yelp of surprise and pain, but the sound was replaced by the hot oil in a pan searing noise of the cannon belching out another shot.
Jormag's twist in the sky suddenly changed. The blast had struck one of the leathery wings holding the monster aloft. Free of scaly armor, nothing had absorbed or deflected the aetheric energies this time. A large hole opened up in Jormag's flesh, accompanied by a titanic scream of pain, and the wheeling turn became a tight spiral.
"Ooh, you felt that one, didn't you?"
"Rikbore! A little more time would be appreciated!"
The Charr soldier found himself ruefully chuckling. "Sorry, Znapp. But trust me, that one was worth it."
Znapp's only reply was the sound of bottles being banged around into place.
Jormag had come out of the spiral. With one wing held a bit awkwardly, the dragon was making a wide, slow turn in the sky, clearly watching the golem that had done the damage and evaluating.
"Go ahead," Rikbore grinned. "Take your time."
The icy blue titan banked, coming back into a straight line run. Rikbore could see flaps of leathery skin rippling in the slipstream the dragon rode as it approached, and wondered whether the action would serve to worsen the wound. Still, it would hardly matter if it did. The lives of all three on board the golem couldn't depend on such an event. The only thing that could be counted on to keep them alive, along with the new life quickening in Xandra's belly, would be a shot that didn't just ground Jormag, but one that would kill him outright.
As Jormag streaked in, Rikbore waited, wanting to time the shot just right. Just as the great beast opened its maw, ready to breath out death once more, he stomped the trigger, shouting for Xandra to jerk right at the same moment.
Another shot rent the sky into overbright pieces, and again it landed, this time striking Jormag squarely on the snout. The shot carried not just a blast of energy, but a kinetic force akin to that which jolted the golem with every round, and Jormag's head rocked back just enough for his icy breath to fly overhead. It missed the mark, but Rikbore could feel an unnatural cold in his ears quickly flash from cold, to frostburn fire, to nothing at all.
Snarling, he jerked the upper body into motion, tracking Jormag as the dragon began another, slower turn. The change in pace gave him the chance he was hoping for and, with a vengeful scream, he triggered another shot, striking the wounded wing a second time.
Jormag staggered in the air, then slid backward as he lost all forward momentum. Twisting, the two holes in his wing joined, and then the wing tore completely, the leather membrane no longer taught but instead a flapping, loose streamer hanging from the meaty bones that had held it tight.
Rikbore could feel the ground quake beneath the road and wheels on which the golem ran as Jormag smashed to the ground. A cloud of ice and snow blasted upward, obscuring sight where Jormag had struck. For just a moment, all seemed still.
Jormag swarmed out of the cloud in a twist, lurching upright with a teeth baring snarl on his lips. He shook himself, then fixed the battlefield in his vision with a baleful glare that Rikbore could feel go right through him. He threw off the shudder of terror that threatened to unman him, and tossed a grin right back.
"Now we're even, bastard."
Jormag lurched forward, racing forward on four legs, his wings packed tightly to his back. Beneath him, Rikbore could feel Xandra's reply to the challenge as she turned the golem straight toward Jormag and put on a burst of speed to match.
No longer airborne, Jormag's approach was much slower, granting Rikbore the luxury of two more shots before Jormag was in range of his own weapon. Both struck, one glancing off of Jormag's belly scales, the other drawing a burnt streak along a leg. Neither, however, seemed able to do significant damage.
Jormag's jaw dropped, and Rikbore braced himself for what was to come. He heard a roaring sound begin to swell, watched as a mass began to form down Jormag's throat, and knew that there was nothing to be done. Jormag was too close. No matter which way Xandra turned now, it would be too late.
Hands grabbed his legs, and Rikbore felt himself jerked off his feet. He slammed downward, striking the side of his head against the hatch as he fell back into the golem's interior. He didn't even have time to register the fact his head was hurting when the golem was suddenly transformed into a gyrating, spinning bit of debris.
Everything seemed to come unglued. Bottles floated in the air, then suddenly arced away to smash into metal sides with a flash of sparks. He saw Znapp float upward, then bash downward again, striking the floor with his hip in a painful way. From the corner of his eye Xandra's arm waved amidst a flash of stars threatening to overwhelm his vision completely. It was a world of chaos, noise, and pain.
Then everything became still. Rikbore lay in place for a moment, wedged painfully between the cannon and the seat he had previously been seated in. Once he was certain everything had stopped moving, he groaned, and struggled to push himself upward.
"Xandra?"
Rikbore heard no answer in the suddenly quiet world. Alarmed, he began looking around the debris strewn insides of the golem.
"Xandra!"
He saw something shift beside his leg. Fixing his eyes on the motion, he quickly recognized Znapp.
"Znapp!"
The Asuran male shoved himself upright, then gave a strangled cry of pain, falling back into a prone position. Both hands clamped down on his hip, and Znapp bit down on his lip hard enough for Rikbore to see blood as he tried to strangle down a second scream.
"Znapp!"
Pained, Znapp cracked open an eye. "My hip," he squeaked.
Rikbore nodded.
"Xandra?" Znapp asked.
"I don't know."
"You have to…"
Whatever Znapp was about to say, a shudder running through the golem interupted it. As the machine shivered and groaned, Rikbore and Znapp locked eyes.
"Jormag."
Painfully, Rikbore pulled himself up. He shoved against the hatch, which stubbornly refused to budge. Giving up on that, he dragged himself up to the viewport and stared outward.
"Oh, you bastard," he muttered.
Jormag was coming straight at them. No longer running, the more sedate pace seemed not just confident, but smug. Triumphant. Rikbore realized in that moment that Jormag was just as aware as he that the blow had been crippling. Now the dragon need only take his time, gloat, and finish the golem from close enough to make it a very personal victory.
"Znapp," Rikbore spoke softly, slowly. Fear had been replaced with something else. He felt outraged at Jormag's contempted. More than that, he felt tranquil, at perfect peace with himself and the world. He could see it with perfect clarity, how everything had come to this moment, and he knew what to do."
"Connect all the bottles."
Voice filled with pain, Znapp grunted. "We'll blow the leads," he cautioned.
"So be it."
With a squeal of pain, Znapp drug himself back to the jury-rigged collection of bottles that fueled the beast with the aetheric energies of the Mists. Shaking fingers began pulling rods, tubes, and wires into place, forcing connections to lock with a slow, but determined effort.
Rikbore shook his head, trying to clear his vision. Something had begun dripping down over one eye. He had little doubt it was blood, though he could not say whether it was the result of his crash into the golem from before Jormag's blast, or from the pounding that had resulted after. With a twist that made his head swim for a moment, he forced his way back into the seat and his foot found the trigger as he continued to watch Jormag approach.
"Xandra?" he asked, one last time.
Hearing nothing, he snarled. With a jerk, he smashed the control for the upper body sideways, felt it slew in response. He watched Jormag's head, larger than most houses, open up, saw the cannon line up with the dragon's throat. With a scream, he stomped down on the trigger.
The world exploded, and then he knew nothing.