Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) by J. Langland Page A

long, I guess I've found a pretty good cave."  Suddenly the cave opened up into a larger cavern.  Nice, Tom thought looking around the cave, he was still too wound up to really appreciate the cave.
    Lancing pain!
    "Shit!" Tom yelled as what felt like huge knives ripped into his right arm and wing area.  The blow sent him off balance and forward.  He glanced behind him and saw something.  What it was he couldn't be sure, but it was big, bigger by far than himself, and it had a huge claw with which it had tried to slice him. 
    A five foot long snout was suddenly in his face, as the creature repositioned itself, blocking the only visible exit to the cavern.  The snout was very reptilian, and had huge teeth and mesmerizing eyes.  Behind the head was a long curving neck which eventually merged with a large scaly body with wings the size of th eR oc models Tom had seen in museums, and claws that looked like giant swords.  Shit, thought Tom, it looks like a dragon.  Quickly, Tom looked around the room, but he could see no other tunnels leading out.  Since he was still wound up over his encounter with Lenamare, and because the pain had given him a massive adrenaline rush, and since the fight or flight syndrome was definitely going full bore, and he couldn't do the flight part, he decided to fight.  Trying to think as little as possible about what he was doing, Tom put all his body strength into a back kick right to the nose of the dragon.
    Crunch, was the sound from the dragon's nose scales.  The dragon reared back and bellowed a horrendous roar of pain.  Tom had forgotten how his bull -like legs were very well suited for back kicks, and how much stronger he now was.  Put both of those facts together with the Tae Kwon Do he had learned, and he supposed he must have a pretty powerful kick. 
    Acrid smelling, steaming blood spurted out of the dragon's nose.  Infuriated, it opened its mouth and let loose a gusher of liquid.  The liquid fell on Tom's hide, and burned.  Did it ever burn, it felt like he was on fire.  Every nerve screamed in pain.  Without pausing to think, Tom leaped forward swinging his right hand in an open karate chop at the dragon's neck, just as his instructor had taught him, what seemed like so long ago.  He spread his fingers slightly, to get better advantage of his long nails.  Tom knew that if he stopped to think rationally that he would probably run, even though there was nowhere to go, but he was too keyed up from his imaginary scenarios with Lenamare, and was too pissed off at this damn dragon, to do so.  As easily as they had dug finger holds, his claws raked through the scales of the dragon, causing it to scream again. 
    This time the dragon's blood squirted on Tom, and if he had thought that the breath acid had stung, well this was somehow worse yet.  The dragon reached down and tried to bite Tom on the head.  Viciously, incisors bit into Tom's shoulder, one canine type fang punctured Tom's chest.  He gasped in new pain, as lancing bolts of agony shot up from the puncture wound.  Because of the puncture, he couldn't really use his left hand, not only did the tooth in his chest interfere with his pectoral muscles, but his left arm was partially in the mouth.  Everything went dark around him as the jaws clamped shut.  The small incisors hurt, but he hardly noticed them compared the fang in his left chest muscle, and the complementary top fang scraping along his left side.  The dragon's tongue kept poking Tom on the head as it tried to bring him into its mouth to chew him up.
    In a desperate attempt to avoid being eaten, Tom wildly swung his right fist towards where his own face would be.  He felt his fingers tearing into the softer underside of the dragon's jaw, ripping muscles and scales.  The dragon shuddered and screamed with its mouth shut.  With his head inside the mouth, Tom's ears rang horribly, painfully even.  He pulled down with his right hand, desperately using all