Father Cypriano resumed cranking the Gatling gun, trying to keep Heraclitoris in his sights. But, all he did was fragment more of the hearse's glass panels. For the she-demon, while still in her giant queen bee form, was able to just keep ahead of his line of fire. Making him waste valuable ammunition as a result.

Then, she noticed that he did not swing the Gatling gun in the direction of the driver's seat. Obviously, for fear of hitting Leif O'Reilly. So, she proceeded to dive at the latter!

But, the peg-legged Mexican War veteran was far from helpless. He had brought one of his double-barreled shotguns with him. Only, now, it had been sawed off to the same length as a Colt revolver. And, its ammunition consisted of rock salt mixed with ground-up holy wafers!

BOOM!

"AIEEEEEEEE!"

Heraclitoris spun around and around, in mid-air, completely disoriented. Allowing Leif to employ the horse whip to even further disorient her.

"That's..." BANG!

"...for..." BANG!

"...Sam!" BANG!

"And, this..." BANG!

"...is for..." BANG!

"...me!!" BANG!

Each crack of the whip struck true. And, each one caused the she-demon immense pain where she had already been wounded by the blessed iron bullets. Consequently, she found it increasingly difficult to stay aloft.

So, she did not even try. Instead, she resumed the form of a hundred-foot tall giantess and lifted up the hearse with her right hand, while severing the team of horses from it with her left!

The matched pair of Cleveland Bays quite sensibly galloped off. But, neither Leif nor the padre were any position to follow them. And, it was the former whom Heraclitoris chose to snack on first.

"Adios, pendejito!"

In snake-like fashion, her lower jaw elongated until her entire mouth resembled an inverted triangle. She then dropped the ill-fated gravedigger into it. Father Cypriano did not even watch her gulp before he closed his eyes and muttered a quick prayer on Leif's behalf.

He stopped when he felt the hearse beginning to tilt.

"What is the matter, little priest? Didst thou run out of sanctified projectiles?"

"Si y no," whispered the monster-hunter. He then put the remaining ammo clip for the Gatling gun on to his spare crossbow. Preparing to fire it literally straight down her throat!

tbc