Chapter 372: Cannonjaw Crocodile IV

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:

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!