[hawke21]

The way I do it is to make the deal with the dragon first, then go to the Fire Giants lair. After talking with the king about the belt of Ironfirst, talk about the dragon. Agree to fight the dragon and about that point in the conversation, the dragon should appear. At this point, you should have three options to either attack the dragon, attack the giants, or attack both. Choose to attack the dragon. The dragon is much harder to kill than the giants, and they will help you kill her. Once she's dead, you'll either talk to the king, in which he'll say you didn't fight very well and attack you, or they'll just attack you outright. They should be damaged from the fight with the dragon and therefore, not as difficult to take out.

One trap to avoid, after you kill the dragon, lead the king away from her body. I once killed him and he fell on the dead dragon. Because of this, I could not click on his body to get the Ironfirst belt. Instead, I could only click on the dragon.