"I thought you'd never ask!"
Qinglan's lips curved into a devilish smile, her eyes cold like winter. She sprang up beside me, holding Endless Night tightly with a trail of frost.
Rumble.
The ground shook again.
Fissures split across the street like open wounds, steaming dust rising as the familiar dorsal fin carved a jagged path straight toward the jeeps.
"Now!" I shouted.
Both of us leapt as one, vaulting off the hood of our jeep. My gauntlets roared with eight shells pumping in unison, blasting into the asphalt where the fin sliced through. The explosion of debris slowed it just enough...
Clang!
Qinglan's blade plunged through the earth with a frozen shriek, and a pale snout burst upward, locked in ice. Its skeletal jaws snapped inches from her, teeth scraping sparks against her sword.
My bastard sword came down in a brutal arc. Crack! The skull split clean in two, filth spraying across my coat. The carcass slumped back into the hole with a dying gurgle.
One down.
