Our story thus far: Lord Marshal Riddick, for reasons we have not explored but likely were nihilistic and perhaps a tiny bit oppositionally defiant, ordered the entire Necromonger fleet into the Threshold of the Underverse. Subsequently, our Riddick woke, naked, in a young lady's parlor. In another universe. Susan, the young lady in question, was not pleased, as Riddick's presence signaled that her grandfather, the anthropomorphic embodiment of Death, had gone on walk abouts, leaving the family business – represented by The Pale Horse and The Scythe – to her. Mounting the Pale Horse, Binky, she brought Riddick, clothed, to Death's Dark Realm.

As Susan is researching her Riddick troubles in Death's Dark Study, Lobsang, Susan's boyfriend and the son of the anthropomorphic embodiment of Time, arrived with grave news that Riddick's attempt to give the Necromongers what they want may be shredding the multiverse. He also lets slip that the Underverse is a real place where Necromongers go when they die. Realizing that Jack might in fact be available to rescue, Riddick decides to ride forth and save her. After mysteriously agreeing on "nine minutes," Susan kills Riddick. Our tale then took us to the Underverse, and Jack. Things are not going well for Jack. We returned to Death's study. Time has rolled back nine minutes. Riddick is not dead – yet – and instead is given dinner and a comfy bed.

The next day, Riddick and Susan visit a village that has suffered an attack of dragon. Riddick pulls two children from the wreckage and accompanies our Susan first to Sto Helit, which smells like cabbages, and then to a confrontation with the dragon. There, he meets a young police woman, who asks him to help with her inquiries, in exchange for beer. Riddick thinks that a fine idea. Then the dragons come back. Our story continues . . .

Chapter 11: In Which Riddick Slays a Dragon. Hopefully.

There was a whirlwind blowing from the portal. Riddick had to admit, grudgingly, that it probably could have ripped off a raven's outstretched wings. Might have ripped off Binky's wings. If he had wings.

How does he fly anyway? A swarm of doubt hit Riddick like a cloud of gnats. Fortunately, Binky didn't seem to notice as he swam, impossibly, through the wind. The raven and the rat were hunkered down in front of the saddle.

Okay, thought Riddick. Why am I doing this again?

He looked down at the ground, so very far away.

Right. Bad time to get off.

Faintly, he heard a scream. He risked a look over his shoulder. The wormy dragon was trying to buck a wolf – Angua – off it's back.

And then the other dragon noticed Binky. It snaked around in the air, powerful wings making their own powerful wind. Riddick untangled Angua's swordbelt from his neck. Realized he probably wasn't going to be able to buckle it around himself, settled for holding the sword in one hand. It was heavier than he'd expected.

"Squeak squeak SQEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!" The rat bellowed.

"What's he sayin'?" Riddick muttered to the raven.

"He says dragons always have one soft spot somewhere!"

"Where?"

"He doesn't know!"

"That's not useful!"

"SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!!"

"Bollocks."

"What?"

"He wants you to drop us off at the portal," the Raven screeched, "before you go kill that thing that's after us."

"That wind will rip you apart."

"Squeak SQUEAK squeak!"

"Ah. I misunderstood. He wants to drop you off before we go after the portal."

"Right," Riddick growled. "I'm gonna fight a flying dragon without a flying horse."

The raven hunkered down. "Look, man, I'm a coward too. But it's gonna get worse."

"Nice try, bird." But the bird's got a point. I'm going to have to mount that thing to kill that thing. A plan coalesced in Riddick's mind. He leaned forward, whispered into Binky's ear. "I think you understand me, don't you? Two passes. First, I throw the sword. Second, I jump. You get them to the portal, you come back for me, got it?"

Binky nickered, reared up, spun, and launched himself towards the dragon. It roared. The horse galloped through the air undeterred, directly at the dragon's head. Last second, he reared up again.

Riddick threw the sword overhand. It spun fast through the air, buried itself between the dragon's shoulder blades, deep. The dragon screamed. Binky moved fast away.

Damn. He'd hoped that would kill the dragon. It didn't. Still, it was clearly hurt. Blood – well, something liquid -- spurted from the wound.

Knowing he had to move fast before the thing got too slippery to grab, he squeezed Binky with his knees, pulled slightly on one rein. Binky banked gracefully, made another run. The dragon was diving toward the ground and didn't seem to notice.

Following Angua's example, he twisted in the saddle so that he was no longer gripping the horse with his thighs. Spared a moment of admiration for Angua, who had to have known what he didn't know about just how precarious this position was. Then the dragon was right there. He dropped.

The dragon noticed that. It bucked furiously. Riddick grasped Angua's sword with all his might with his left hand, dug his right into the dragon's scales and held on. Binky seemed to wink at him, and then almost danced in front of the dragon in a coquettish fashion. The dragon roared and sped after him, giving Riddick a moment to get his balance.

Rip out its throat. Right. He eyed the girth of the dragon's throat balefully. I can't reach around, so either I gotta crawl down or come up with a new plan.

Crawling down would put him in reach of those claws, which did not seem like a good idea. New plan. Wonder how deep down the spine is? He eyed the shoulder blades thoughtfully. Binky apparently decided he'd done his part for Riddick and accelerated fast. The dragon fell behind.

About two feet of the sword was sticking out of the dragon. Riddick let his right hand explore under the scale, which was about six inches long and four inches thick, jutting out from rough skin. He pressed two fingers into that skin, which was surprisingly cool to the touch.

Oh fuck me. This is easy. He pulled a smaller knife out of his belt, shaved off some scales over where he estimated the spine would be. The dragon didn't notice. Then he yanked the sword out. The dragon noticed that, screamed, tried to twist its neck around to snap at him. Riddick buried himself into the dragon's scales and it missed. It took a deep breath.

Now or never. Riddick gripped with his knees as well as he could, grasped the sword with both hands and drove it deep into the dragon. Felt something snap. The dragon screamed one last time. The giant wings shot up, almost blowing Riddick off its back. Then it fell.

From a great height.

Fuck me, I didn't think of that.

The dragon landed with a force that splashed through Riddick's bones. And then everything went dark.