OLD-WORLD EXTRA-Chapter 372: Cannonjaw Crocodile IV

***

Elijah had returned, his objective complete.

He glanced around as he entered the blood-filled room, seeing his cohort members nearing death one by one.

Jake appeared to be on his last magazine, and Emma was desperately trying to protect Aria and keep her from an early grave.

Sofia was still firing her anti-material rifle, but her shots were losing effectiveness; her Aether reserves almost out.

Bang!

The Ranger fired another bullet, hitting the third and last cannon, but it deflected off to the right, tearing through the wall.

This was due to the construct's movements becoming unpredictable.

After it got over the shock of losing its second cannon, it seemed to sense its own vulnerability and fought with renewed ferocity.

Its fire rate hadn't decreased either, shooting rocket after rocket.

'...Fuckin hell.'

Upon witnessing that scene, Elijah almost felt like retreating, but he snapped himself out of that cowardly daze and adorned his Grim Veil.

[Cover me.]

He went right, and as he did so, a limping Quinn arrived at the platform, her skin all healed up, leaving only deep wounds inside her body.

She went left as the two attempted to flank it.

Quinn was in no shape to mount a proper attack; no amount of willpower would help her do that.

She wasn't Arthur.

So instead, she suggested that Elijah use her as bait.

At least her receiving an injury would matter this time.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The Cannonjaw turned its massive head at Quinn, falling for their scheme, and its jaws snapped shut inches from her head as she barely dodged it by dashing back.

"Spectral Scythe."

With a burst of energy, Elijah sprinted towards the Cannonjaw, his daggers glinting in the dim light while his scythe floated around his neck.

The construct tried to track his movements, wanting to kill him with its cannon, but quickly gave up, his blurred figure impossible to predict.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

'Giving up' didn't mean that it wouldn't shoot rockets, but simply that it wouldn't be accurate.

"...Fuck."

Boom! Boom!

The blasts nearly killed him but didn't, as it was randomly shot around his body.

He managed to avoid them moving with precision born of pure desperation, each rocket by a hair's breadth.

"Over here, you ugly bastard!"

Jake shouted, attempting to draw the beast's attention with a hail of bullets as he neared Quinn.

"Why are you focusing on that weakling for?!"

She joined his taunting match and rushed at the construct, hailing insults at it with each step.

"Is that all you've got, you overgrown tin can?!"

"You can't even aim straight, you pathetic scrap heap!"

"You're nothing but a rusty pile of junk!"

"I've seen rust buckets with more fight than you!"

They succeeded.

Whether it was due to her words or his bullets, they would never know, but at that moment, all they thought was:

'YES!'

'ALRIGHT!'

The feelings behind that thought didn't last long, however.

Quinn was about to regret grabbing its attention.

GRARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAH!

In response, it growled back and shot out its tail directly at her.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit!'

She panicked, her eyes locked on an incoming death.

It was too fast for her to dodge.

"Brace!"

But she didn't need to.

Jake activated the runes on his augmented suit, increasing his speed, which allowed him to reach Quinn before the tail could, pushing her away.

Thud!

"Ah-shit!"

He wasn't fast enough.

Jake only took her place as the tail struck him down to the ground, breaking his force shield

and leaving him out of breath, his gun no longer in his grasp.

With all his strength, he tried to crawl towards his fallen weapon, but couldn't.

The massive limb was dug into his back, tearing through his flesh.

[Emma do something!]

He pleaded, but she was too preoccupied to respond, barely able to protect Aria from the Berta Scorpions, her reserves depleted.

Bang!

Sofia continued to fire her AMR, but the round, like the last ten, went wide as the construct moved, every step unpredictable.

She lost her focus, strength, and Aether, which meant that she had also lost her Eagle Eyes, making her much less accurate than before, not even comparable.

It was obvious now that it was up to them, Elijah and Quinn, to win, to survive.

But Quinn didn't bother thinking about such a thing.

She didn't even look back when Jake sacrificed himself to save her.

Sure, he didn't do it out of the kindness of his heart, as he did it only to give her a chance to help Elijah deal the final blow, but ignoring him completely was something else entirely.

Yet even with that, she was still late, Elijah was already upon the construct.

So how was she going to distract it?

Taunt it again; her scream feral.

"YOU UGLY BASTARD!"

Apparently, that short sentence was enough as the enraged Cannonjaw turned its cannon

towards her.

Whoosh... Boom!

A rocket shot out and blasted the ground in front of her.

She flew back due to the impact, and this time her force shield protected her from being burnt

to crisp, but it couldn't protect her from the impact of crashing into the wall; the concussive dampeners in the suit not of godly state.

"Haaaah... haaaahhh... haaahhhaa..."

She lay there, barely conscious, her breaths coming in ragged gasps.

'Finally!'

Elijah, not knowing of her current state, took advantage of the distraction and leaped onto the

Cannonjaw's back.

Once he reached the top, he plunged his daggers into the joints of the remaining cannon,

using them as anchors.

He then used his scythe to repeatedly hit the dent formed by Sofia and Jake's many shots.

Clang-CHINK!

The scythe's tip pierced through, disabling the cannon without exploding it.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

The Cannonjaw growled in rage and twisted its massive body, trying to shake him off.

"Woooah!"

Elijah dove down and managed to grasp one of his daggers.

Stomp! Stomp!

But that wasn't enough, the construct was moving too roughly.

The dagger couldn't hold his weight as he pulled it off and tumbled in a roll, landing near its

gaping maw.

Before he could react, the beast snapped its jaws shut around him, swallowing him whole.

"No!"

Sofia screamed, firing her AMR in a futile attempt to stop the inevitable.

She was not about to lose her only rival!

And it wasn't only her, Jake began shooting as well.

He was just set free when the construct went mad, forgetting that it had him under its tail as it

swung it around aimlessly.

Emma was still fighting off the scorpions, making a dent in the horde that arrived and

protecting those behind her.

Meanwhile, inside the creature's mouth, Elijah fought to stay conscious.

The stench of blood, decay, and gunpowder was overwhelming.

He thought that he had grown used to it, as the outside stench was already suffocating, but

this was on another level.

It showed how there was always a stage above what he knew.

But that thought was lost on the current him as he struggled to process what just happened.

... What was he to do now?

Elijah could feel the walls of the beast's throat closing in on him.

It was going to crush him if he did nothing.

Yet he had no idea what to do.

His one dagger and abilities were more or less useless in such close quarters.

But then, as he was lost in thought, he saw it-a big, glowing Aether Core at the back of the

Cannonjaw's throat.

Again, this moment wasn't off celebration...

Above that core was a cannon.

And it was aimed directly at him.

'Cannonjaw Crocodile...'

In that moment, he was reminded of why it was called that.

Whoosh!