The Sandbuster charged.
Its claws tore furrows through gold and stone alike, sending coins spraying through the air as its massive body barreled forward. The ground shook under its weight, and the heat rolling off its scales made the air shimmer.
"Move!" Lucian shouted.
Another blast of glowing sand erupted from the dragon's jaws, slamming into the cave floor where Snotlout had been standing a heartbeat earlier.
Snotlout screamed as he dove aside.
The sand hardened instantly, glass surging up around his legs in jagged, translucent spikes. He flailed, trapped mid-step.
"Guys—GUYS—little help?!"
Astrid was already moving. She grabbed her heavy axe and brought it down hard against the glass.
CRACK.
The glass shattered, splintering outward like brittle ice.
She struck again, faster this time, breaking Snotlout free as more sand hissed through the air.
"It's fragile when it first forms!" she shouted. "Hit it fast!"
Snotlout scrambled away, pale. "I officially hate sand and glass."
The Sandbuster reared back, chest expanding, throat glowing faintly again.
Lucian's eyes narrowed.
"Spread out," he ordered. "Don't cluster."
The group obeyed instinctively, scattering across the cavern floor. Eric barked commands to his guards, who moved into formation without hesitation, shields raised.
"Shields up!" Eric snapped. "Front line, with me!"
A blast struck the shields head-on. Glass bloomed across the metal, cracking and spiderwebbing but the guards held, boots digging into the ground as the force shoved them back.
Lucian didn't look away from the dragon.
"Don't touch the gold," he added sharply. "If you don't want to be its target."
Fishlegs ducked behind a fallen pillar, eyes locked on the Sandbuster's head. "Lucian!" he shouted. "It pauses between breaths! There's a delay!"
The dragon's throat dimmed.
Lucian saw it.
"Good," he said. "That's our opening."
Merida loosed an arrow not at the dragon's body, but at the ground beside it. The shaft struck stone with a sharp crack, sending sparks and debris flying.
The Sandbuster turned toward the disturbance, snarling.
She fired again and again. Each arrow landed just wide, herding it, steering it.
"Over here, ya big ugly lizard," she muttered, adjusting her stance."Aye, that's it…"
"Force it toward the sand wall," Lucian said. "North side."
They moved as one, pressure and noise guiding the beast backward. Another blast fired but this time it went wide, hardening harmlessly against stone.
Lucian's gaze flicked upward again.
The crystal ceiling.
The way the light refracted unnaturally and then it clicked.
His breath caught.
"Sunlight," he muttered.
He remembered the text from a dragon manual he'd skimmed late one night. Sandbusters burrow deep for a reason.
They feared the sun.
"Merida," he called sharply. "The ceiling. Break the crystal."
She glanced up, then back at him. "Ye sure?"
"Very."
Merida didn't argue. She planted her feet and fired.
The arrow struck glass.
CRACK.
A fracture spread but didn't shatter.
She fired again and again. Each impact deepened the web of cracks, shards flaking off and raining down.
The Sandbuster roared, sensing something wrong, blasting heated sand wildly as it backed away.
That was when Flynn groaned.
"Ugh… did anyone know where the treasu—"
He opened one eye and saw the dragon.
"WHY IS THERE A DRAGON?!"
The Sandbuster turned instantly, its jaws flared. Lucian moved without thinking.
He grabbed Flynn by the collar and yanked him backward as the blast scorched the ground where his head had been moments before, glass erupting in a violent bloom.
Lucian shoved him behind a pillar. "If you scream again," he snarled, "I'll knock you out myself."
Flynn swallowed hard and nodded furiously.
Nearby, the Stabbington twins had woken up as well, struggling against their bonds.
"What is that thing?!" Runo snarled.
"I don't care!" Rudi snapped. "Untie me and I'll kill it!"
Lucian didn't even look at them. "You'll stay right there."
Merida drew one last arrow. She took a breath and released.
"One more!" Merida growled.
The crystal ceiling shattered.
Glass rained down as a shaft of sunlight pierced through the opening, cutting across the cavern like a blade.
It struck the Sandbuster's flank.
ROAR!!
The dragon screamed as the spot where the light touched its scales reddened instantly, the skin blistering as it recoiled in agony. It thrashed, claws tearing at stone, wings beating frantically as it retreated toward the sand wall.
Another roar echoed through the cave, fear this time, not rage.
With a final, furious blast that sealed part of the tunnel behind it in glass, the Sandbuster dove into the sand and vanished, the ground collapsing in its wake.
Silence fell.
Broken only by heavy breathing.
Lucian lowered his sword slowly, eyes still fixed on the place where the dragon had disappeared.
Flynn peeked out from behind the pillar. "…So.... Just checking, are we all still alive?"
Tuffnut, who had ended up sitting beside him amid a pile of coins, turned slowly.
He stared at Flynn for a long moment.
Then he kicked him in the head.
Flynn yelped.
"OW—!"
Tuffnut nodded, satisfied. "Yep, that hurt. Means you're alive."
Ruffnut leaned over, inspecting Flynn like a curious animal. "Science."