Free Heir To The Nova (Book 3) by T. Michael Ford Page B

with the demon.
    “I don’t know what you just did, little man, but it didn’t work,” snarled the lion and he led another charge at me.
    The ice did have one unintended effect, however. The three-headed horror wasn’t immune to bad traction, and the charge stalled when the ram’s hoofs in the back couldn’t keep up with the clawed feet of the lion in the front. The entire creature slipped comically, feet flailing, and crashed to the ground in a pile. Sadly for me, that didn’t seem to hurt it in the slightest as it dragged itself back up. The lion was beside himself with rage, but the dragon seemed to be watching me with some detached respect.
    The lion opened its mouth and a huge river of flame poured out across the floor; and for a short while it looked like a standoff–his flame versus my ice enchantment. But he continued to pour on more and more heat, and I couldn’t replenish my ice. Eventually, the frost gave up the ghost and dissipated into vapor. Grinning evilly, the lion made a big show of sharpening his claws on the stone surface, and then charged again.
    My experience with the bull demon did train me well for dodging out of the way of bull rushes. Unfortunately, this monster was on an order of ten times larger. I did manage to bash one of the ram’s horns in the attack, and while it looked like it hurt, ultimately there was no real damage. Before I could process that information fully, one of the wings caught me and sent me flying backward into an already badly damaged pillar.
    Impacting the stone column, I felt like it gave a little too much and a few seconds later, I realized why. Previous hits had partially shattered the top of the pillar where it attached to the ceiling, leaving it free-standing and wobbly. When I crashed into the base, it destroyed what little structural integrity the stone had, and I found my legs pinned under a substantial chunk of granite. My legs didn’t feel crushed; the armor had done its job superbly again. But at the same time, I couldn’t move them either. Compounding the problem was my war hammer resting twenty feet or more away and out of reach, and I couldn’t even see my shield.
    Moving confidently toward me, the lion head chuckled as he hovered over me.
    “I believe you’ve run out of tricks, little man.”
    From somewhere above, I heard a cry of despair as Nia made another futile dive down in front of the monster, but she was too slow and weak to dodge effectively. The lion reached up and swatted her away with its huge paw, sending her tumbling far across the room to impact a thick tapestry. It promptly fell off the wall on top of her, and she was silent.
    “Now to peel you out of that pesky shell of yours,” he growled, extending a paw with five-inch razor sharp claws.
    The dragon head reared back as if she was going to hit me with another blast of acid. But as she let loose the blast, she abruptly changed targets. The gout of slime hit the ram head, and after a brief look of disbelief, his features–horns, face, and bone–all dissolved in a few seconds. With the ram head gone, she snapped her huge jaws on the neck of the lion, seven-inch daggers piercing hair and flesh. Shaking him like a rag doll, she twisted. A loud gristly crack sounded throughout the chamber, and the light slowly went out of the lion’s eyes. The huge head hung limply, a bloody mess.
    With both of the heads that controlled the creature’s mobility out of commission, the monster’s legs just collapsed under it. Thankfully, it didn’t roll on me, and I watched curiously as the great dragon head bent her long neck around to bring her face just inches from mine.
    “Why?” I asked shakily. Even sealed up in my armor, my mage sight showed me that rows of blood-stained teeth were perilously close.
    “Why, he asks? Because I want something from you, that’s why,” she hissed painfully. “I will die soon without the other two morons, but not before I get what I need…and don’t even