A single tear in the skin of the Leviathan would send them all up in a plume of flame, but the leather surface was strong, and Deryn doubted that the spray of bullets could rip through, at least not for a while.
The flechette bats were being fed what must have been their fourth round of metal spikes. What Deryn thought had been bad earlier had gotten far worse as the bat's numbers were cut in half, and then again, and again, until only about a tenth of the original flock remained. But the girl still had hope, for the captain must have something up his sleeve. He was barking commander of the ship after all and he bloody well didn't get there for nothing.
"Blisters!" She swore as the ship was hit yet again by some sort of mechanic projectile. The barking contraptions were drills of sorts that were fired on to the ship and proceeded to drill through the skin. Well, attempted to drill through: all of the drills so far had been taken out by the air cannons. Nasty blighters, those Clanker machines were. They must have been specifically engineered to target hydrogen breathers like the Leviathan herself.
Then there came a sound that chilled her to the bone. A single hydrogen sniffer had barked, and the sound was so ominous that Deryn was sure that it could be heard throughout the entire beastie. All went silent, that is, except for the Leviathan's Clanker motors and the enemy flying machine – only one remained.
Not even to the good part yet :D
Review, review, review!