Chapter 16: Deathjaw

This was not supposed to happen.

For as long as The Courier could remember, he had only felt this overwhelming terror towards one other creature he had the misfortune of encountering in his travels. Since those monstrosities were effectively immortal, he felt reasonably sure that any sane person would be pants shittingly terrified by a single inhuman abomination capable of ignoring any combination of wounds until it was physically incapable of moving. Having survived against an army of the possibly undead creatures in the course of a week long game of cat and mouse after being enslaved to a madman, plenty of Six's nightmares were still haunted by their raspy breathing and eerie glowing green eyes months after escaping their dreaded lair. After all, what kind of person wouldn't be afraid of those undying abominations after coming as close as he had to being killed by and turned into yet another one of those faceless monsters?

Although he never did find out the answer or care to start looking for one such individual, he felt reasonably confident that anyone who could stare down the behemoth Grimm tunneling somewhere underneath the streets without a hint of fear probably wouldn't be too scared of a legion of immortal mutants either.

Six looked to his partner once more in the hopes that the faunus woman might have enough bravado to challenge the mighty beast while he made his escape thanks to what he referred to as her 'magical bullshit armor'. Unsurprisingly, she was still unwilling to move a single muscle after spotting the enormous Grimm and the subsequent threat Six gave her. The sight of the once brash girl that had been all too ready to start meaningless arguments with him for the pettiest of reasons brought him some joy, but not enough to make him forget about how he was completely and utterly screwed.

Not only was there a big, fuck-off sized Grimm whose head was as large as the room the two travelers were standing in, but The Courier knew it was only a matter of time until it found them, accidentally or otherwise. Six silently cursed himself for trying to scare her into submission upon recalling how his actions came to getting them devoured. He had already discovered that the Grimm were attracted to pain and suffering, but he had yet to determine if the abominations were attracted to any other negative feelings. The rumors he heard about the Grimm made no distinction between emotions, only going so far as to say that any of the 'negative' ones would attract their attention.

Ordinarily he would have been inclined to test that rumor out immediately, but given how his potential test subject could swallow him whole and had teeth thicker than his arm, Six made the wise decision to wait to conduct any experiments until he found something less likely to eat him alive.

A less intelligent, more SCIENCE! inclined, or just an outright suicidal individual would have wasted no time in testing such a hypothesis. Those individuals were also busy being dead and wouldn't have been of much use to him. Even if they weren't, they most likely would have found the possibility of unleashing the Deathjaw on a populated settlement to be far more entertaining than finding a way to kill it.

That chilling thought sent a shiver down The Courier's spine and finally spurred him into action, even if it was only to see what his partner believed they should do.

"You uhh… wouldn't happen to know what our odds of outrunning giant Deathjaw is, do you Antlers?" The Courier asked Julia, careful to keep his voice down in case it somehow heard him.

The thousand yard stare she adopted upon hearing his question quickly shot down his first idea of dealing with the Deathjaw as quickly as he assumed it would go horribly wrong.

"Okay, so running away from it on foot isn't going to be an option." Six mumbled as he brainstormed for more ideas. "I'm guessing killing the fucker would be just as likely to get us both killed?"

"You want to fight that thing?" Julia shouted at him in shock.

Before she could say anything else and possibly expose their presence to the giant Grimm, Six quickly covered Julia's mouth with both of his hands and tore into her for her reckless actions.

"Keep your fucking voice down!" He growled at her, his Terrifying Presence freezing the faunus as she tried to pull away from him. "That thing is fucking blind, but I don't have a damn clue if it's deaf. Let's try not to tell it where to find some fresh meat, Antlers."

The Courier waited for her to give him a nod of understanding before letting go of her mouth. "How do you know that thing is blind?" She quietly asked him.

"No room for eyes." He whispered, before noticing his partner's confusion and explaining himself further. "You saw that thing's head, right?"

"Yes." Julia replied.

It was large, and flat, with only it's skull splitting maw and oversized bulbous nose facing in the direction its head was pointed. She hadn't been able to give either of these characteristics of the Deathjaw much thought, as the Grimm's finely honed teeth and the thick plates of bone white armor covering the top and bottom of its head had been the main features of the abomination that she was able to notice.

"Unless the damn thing has its eyes buried somewhere underneath the sand where we can't see 'em, then I'd say the Deathjaw is probably blind." The Courier told her. "That of course would imply that it doesn't need to see, so it probably relies on that giant honker on its face or some damn good ears to make up for its lack of sight."

"How does any of that help us against a Grimm that large?" Julia growled as loudly as she dared.

"Well, unless either of us shit ourselves or make too much noise, then the Deathjaw probably won't ever know we're somewhere nearby." He mumbled, a plan already starting to form in the back of his mind as he spoke.

"That's great!" The faunus quietly mocked, The Courier flipping her off as he continued to think.

She gave him a few moments to explain himself and was met with overwhelming silence as he lost himself in thought. "How will knowing that help us get away from that thing?" She asked him, his inaction annoying her more than anything he could say.

"We might not have to do a damn thing." The Courier answered her. "A creature that big probably wouldn't find a place this cramped too comfortable for long..."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Julia indignantly asked.

Six looked up to the hole in the roof for a moment as he looked for his answer. He let his gaze wander to a long stretch of rope that he had thrown into the middle of the room while searching through it earlier and picked it up as he eyed the hole once more.

"I think the big guy might leave us alone once he finishes cleaning up around here." The Courier hummed. "But just in case, I want to get up on the roof and make sure nothing nearby will lure it over here. We might also be able to see what the hell the damn thing is doing too."

Six threw the rope onto a broken wooden beam dangling from the hole in the ceiling, failing to catch it on anything with his first throw. Julia then watched him in amusement as he stared at the rope in bewilderment before noticing why he hadn't managed to lasso it onto anything. The faunus found herself impressed that the Courier had survived as long as he had once as he struggled to coil the rope back into his arms and took several attempts to tie a sturdy knot to create one loop on one end of the rope. With his lasso ready to serve its intended purpose, he threw it at the roof seemingly at random and managed to ensnare his target on the first try.

Julia didn't bother to comment on his minor blunder as he pulled himself up the rope, traversing the eight foot climb far slower than she expected him to after leading their week-long march through the desert at a steady pace without showing any signs of fatigue unlike herself. Instead, she gave him a minute to climb up to the roof and plant both of his feet on the crumbling rooftop before using an aura enhanced jump to land right beside her partner who slumped over after witnessing her effortless display. She made sure to give him a smug smile as the Courier quickly straightened himself in an attempt to save himself from any more embarrassment.

"Fuckin' show off." He grumbled as he freed his rope and secured it on his waist in case he needed it again.

"It's a shame your aura hasn't recovered yet. If you didn't take so many of those chems of yours, you'd probably have gotten in back by now. It would have been much easier for you to make the jump that way." She half gloated, half chastised her companion.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Antlers." He shrugged, quickly glossing over her convenient misunderstanding.

The sound of something shifting the sandy streets below them and sway of the limestone roof underneath their feet silenced the two travellers' argument. Six and Julia turned towards the source of the disturbance, and sure enough, they could see a massive figure submerged in the sand as it moved through the streets beneath them. They watched it, rapt in fear, as the Grimm glided between the handful of buildings, the abomination purposefully avoiding the mass of bodies exposed to the glaring moonlight above them.

Six was the first one to break their silence, mumbling to himself as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. "Fuck, something's wrong."

"Six, what are you saying?" Julia questioned, taking great efforts to keep her voice below a whisper.

"Grimm eat people, right?" He asked her.

"Most of the time. Sometimes they just kill for no reason." She answered him.

"Shit." Was all Six could say to this new piece of information.

The Courier frantically searched through his inventory for something cheap, fragile, and particularly worthless to him as the Grimm continued combing through the streets. Despite believing that her partner had finally lost his nerve, Julia remained silent as he continued his search in the unlikely chance he had a plan. She found herself equal parts disappointed and angry when the Courier finally ended his search by pulling out a bottle of booze from the inside of his long coat.

"Just because we have to wait for the Deathjaw to leave doesn't mean this is the right time for you to get drunk." She told him.

The Courier stared straight at her, the light green lenses of his repaired mask peering into her soul while the man himself gave her the most offended look possible from behind his gas mask.

"Okay, let's get two things straight here Antlers. First of all, it's never the wrong time to get drunk." He explained.

"And the second thing?" She asked.

"It's kind of hard to drink from an empty bottle." He said, turning the bottle and watched a few stray drops of Baijiu that remained fall out and be soaked up by the battered roof.

"Fuck." The Courier grumbled. "Could've really used that right about now. Oh well…"

The Courier shushed his faunus partner before she could ask him what he intended to do with an empty bottle, remaining completely motionless until the Deathjaw headed towards the burnt corpses in the center of town again. He waited for the abomination to come close enough to turn away from the pile of charred meat before throwing the empty bottle directly at it.

Whether through a moment of uncharacteristic luck on the Courier's part, or perhaps thanks to the previous dose of Rebound he injected to himself earlier, the bottle landed directly on top of the faded pyre. The sound of the bottle shattering into hundreds of tiny shards was barely audible to the Courier or Julia, but not to the other creature. The Deathjaw froze for a moment upon hearing the noise, cocking its head for a moment and sniffing the air as if searching for something, and then swiftly dove underneath the sand entirely.

Six could only imagine the creature burrowing underground for one reason and one reason alone after attracting its attention, so he swiftly ran to the opposite side of the roof and dragged Julia alongside as quickly as he dared to run on top of the dilapidated roof. The small tremors that started to shake pieces of the roof and caused large portions of the surrounding building to cave in quickly filled the deathly silent air of the ruined village. The tremors did not stop at just knocking a few loose pieces of debris free as walls, support beams, and other structures within the village crumbled as the ground shook more violently with every passing moment.

There was only one thing that Six believed to be powerful enough to cause the entire settlement to shake with its every movement. When that very thing shot out of the ground from the center of the town, and as it sailed high enough into the sky to eclipse the moon with its hulking body, he finally understood why Julia had been so adamant about avoiding a fight with the Deathjaw.

In the brief few seconds it breached the sand he could see that the creature's head wasn't the only portion of its body sporting the armor-like growths of white bone. Every inch of its body was covered in a thick, red marked carapace of bleached white bone, each plate layered so that it would allow the Deathjaw to 'swim' with ease without compromising its defense, excluding its unarmored underside. The Grimm's head consisted of over one third of its body, with it's mouth large enough to swallow him twice over and as wide as he was tall gaping open, each foot long tooth resting inside its impressive maw more than capable of rending through both flesh and stone with ease judging by how the pillar of stone clutched firmly in its maw.

The rest of the creature seemed to solely consist of one long, thickly muscled tail. It too was covered in thick armor, and aside from the two fin-like clawed appendages that appeared to act as a dividing line for the creature's tail and the remainder of its body as well as its primary means of movement, consisted of no noticeable features. Time seemed to freeze for both the Courier and Julia as they watched the Deathjaw finish its ascent and lingered in the air far longer than a creature of its size should be able to, before both time and gravity seemed to remember its horrifying existence.

As quickly and suddenly as it had burst out of the ground, the Deathjaw plummeted towards the ground, twisting its body so it would land on its side, safely crushing two buildings underneath its hulking body in a deafening *crunch*. It laid there for a moment, giving the air a tentative sniff, before righting itself and slowly pulling itself to the nearby sandy streets so it could submerge itself once more.

All Six and the faunus he clutched onto could do during the creature's entire performance stare on at horror as it nestled its long tail back under and returned to scouring the streets once more.

Well shit. This is how it all ends.

I'm not going to die surrounded by the people I love… because I don't have anyone like that no more, or broken and battered where no one would ever know I died, or even managing to go out in one of those good ol' town-wide shootouts I used to get into back in my early days of wandering the Mojave. No, I'm going to get swallowed alive and shat out by something too big and stupid to even recognize just how lucky it was that I'm too small to turn it inside out with my bare hands.

And here I was thinking that the X-42 robo-scorpion was going to be the biggest bastard I ever had to deal with. Sure, the Deathjaw wasn't nearly as tall as that metal monstrosity, but the Grimm damn well had it beat in every other department and could definitely crush it with another bellyflop, if those pearly whites the Deathjaw was sporting didn't just bite off the entire chassis of that shitty robot in one go.

Fucking hell, how can such a huge thing even survive out here anyways? I haven't even seen, let alone heard, a single Grimm since leaving Vacuo 'cept for that one I fed Frost to. A creature that size needs to eat a whole hell of a lot to keep itself from starving, and there simply ain't enough food in a desert to hunt down that could keep it alive.

Unless that thing is the reason I haven't seen a single Grimm or person since leaving for Vale…

"Oh shit…" I mumbled as everything finally started to make sense.

That thing came from the same direction we did. Has it been hunting us since we left Vacuo? Was there a reason it decided to reveal itself now of all times?

Shit, there's plenty of answers, but none of them make any goddamn sense. I was about to rack my mind for something that could explain the Deathjaw's behavior, but Julia suddenly grabbed my attention the only way a woman could.

"Six?" She asked me, the softness in her voice about as comforting as the sound of a couple of pins being pulled free from a bouquet of grenades.

"Antlers?" Was all I dared to say as I wasn't sure what would piss off the girl wrapped in my arms, or where that sword of hers might end up going afterwards.

"Let go of me. NOW." She growled, and I of course obliged when I remembered that I gave her a submachine gun not too long ago. I wasn't afraid of her shooting me, just unwilling to risk her attracting the giant sand worm-fish… thing to where we were hiding if she tried to see if my armor could withstand a couple of 11mm rounds or not.

"Sorry. I was a little distracted." I said, hoping she wouldn't find a reason to bitch about keeping her alive like she seemed to do with everything else I did.

Thankfully, she seemed far too worried about the Deathjaw to complain. Well, complain about dragging her away from the edge of the roof that collapsed when that behemoth of a Grimm flung itself into the air…

"What the hell were you thinking?" She shouted in a hushed voice, her quiet rage carrying farther than I would have liked it to.

"I was thinking I would see if our friend down there was attracted to the sound." I explained, carefully walking over to the collapsed edge of the roof to see what damage the abomination was capable of first hand.

Unsurprisingly, the pile of corpses I threw the bottle at was gone. Not torn to pieces, or scattered when the big fella tried to get a mouthful from the charred buffet some bandits left for him, but GONE. The big guy must have swallowed up the whole batch of bodies in one go, not too much of a shocker after seeing how wide its mouth could open, but not exactly the most comforting thing to think about when that beast was still swimming through the streets below us.

The pair of buildings it used to break its fall weren't exactly a pleasant sight either. The Deathjaw hadn't flattened the houses it landed on, so much as it left a crater with only a few chunks of rubble sticking out of the sand. I couldn't see any pieces of the thing's armored shell sticking out of the sand either, which meant landing on a few stone houses didn't so much as tickle the fucker. Hell, it was nothing more than dumb luck that me and Antlers hadn't been on either of those two particular ruins when the giant bastard came crashing down.

"It looks like the big guy is really sensitive to loud noises, especially glass. Wouldn't be surprised if it could hear our footsteps too." I groaned thinking back at how close I came to getting myself killed. "At least we figured that much out before either of us made a run for it."

For once, Antlers didn't have a witty remark to smack around with. Instead, she looked like she was actually going to say something useful, so while she was doing that I studied our hungry friend as he searched through the streets for any prey. Rather than gliding in between buildings and taking care to avoid bumping into anything, it was starting to rub against anything it could smack its head against, sending a shower of debris down on top of it every once in a while.

Whenever it did dislodge something, it would dive under the sand for a moment before resurfacing in the other direction. From there, it gave whatever stones and rubble it would attempt to chew whatever caught it's interest to shreds, usually swallowing whatever it found without meaning to and coughing it up seconds later along with a massive glob of wet sand.

I didn't dare let the Grimm leave my eyes for even a moment once I realized what it was doing. The fucker might have been blind and more mouth than face, don't even ask me how small it's brain would be since there didn't seem to be much room between its rows of pearly whites and armored skull, but it sure as hell wasn't stupid. Only an abomination smarter than the average Yao Guai would ever think about looking around for its prey after losing track of them, and that was exactly what the Deathjaw was trying to do.

Couldn't see why it was going through so much effort for a lump of meat that would complain the whole time it was being digested and someone that was more metal than man, but then again, I wasn't much of one to complain about what anyone else ate. Some of the shit I've eaten in the past is stuff no sane wastelander would even consider putting near their mouths, and I ain't just talking about the Jet. Cass might have been right about how disgusting my Black Coffee is when you know what's in it, but I would rather die right now than live the rest without another mug of pulpy tobacco goodness.

Of course, with the way things are going right now, I might not have a say in the matter.

"Are you even listening to me?" Julia suddenly asked me.

"Yeah, sure." I agreed while hoping she didn't say anything important while I was distracted.

"Hey Antlers, you ever hear of a little game called 'The floor is lava'? I asked her, keeping my eyes glued to the Deathjaw as it kept on bouncing between buildings like a drunken fool.

The girl sputtered like I asked her to strip down to her skivvies, but she at least was smart enough to give me a straight answer before I pulled my knife out again.

"Yes. Why are you asking?"

"No reason." I answered her. By that point, the trembling had started to shake the roof again and both of us looked over to the Deathjaw to see it making a beeline straight for us.

For once I didn't need to tell Julia what the hell she needed to do in the face of certain death. Whether or not it was my warning or a healthy mix of common sense and pants shitting terror pushing her forward, I couldn't tell. Regardless of which it was that convinced her to haul ass with the Deathjaw bearing down on our position, she did another one of those fancy jumps that no one without her psyker bullshit could pull off and landed on one the of the buildings next to ours.

As impressive and infuriating as it was to see Antlers making a twenty foot jump like it was nothing to her, I didn't waste much time wondering how the hell she pulled it off. I had more important things on my mind to worry about as the Deathjaw was swimming through the sand with a purpose, and there was only one reason I could think of that the creature would be heading straight towards me. I quickly brought out my rope and lassoed it on some of the ruins the behemoth left behind when it landed and hoped with all of my might that I could jump to safety without the Deathjaw noticing me.

My leap to safety went about as well as I could have expected it to, with me damn near stumbling off of the rooftop when I jumped for my life and face planting against the crumbling wall I snagged my rope on. It was nothing short of a miracle that I didn't end up touching the sand beneath me, and not a moment too soon either. Goddamn Agility debuffs...

The moment I was able to right myself against the small pillar of stone I was dangling from, the Deathjaw finally acted like an apex predator instead of a helpless scavenger. Letting out a squeak that was almost comical coming from such a terrifying beast, the enormous Grimm leapt out of the sand, opening its maw wide in the hopes of devouring any prey it might happen to have caught, and crashed into the building Antlers and I were on mere moments earlier.

The Grimm easily crushed the ruins we had taken shelter in moments earlier. Before either I or Antlers could assume the behemoth had made a lucky guess that nearly cost us our lives, it started to sniff the air with that giant schnozz on the end of its otherwise sleek and hydro...sand-odynamic face.

For a moment, I thought it had lost us. I quickly changed my mind when the giant Deathjaw looked straight at Julia and ran its thick black tongue across its gleaming teeth.

I wanted to shout out a warning to my partner, but since making that much noise would have exposed my own position to the behemoth, there wasn't anything I could do but watch as it charged straight at the gal once again. The Grimm let out another high pitched whine as it charged her, opening its mouth as large as it could and swallowing any debris between it and Antlers. While there was no telling what Julia was thinking when she saw that big bastard running straight for her, judging by the way she kicked off of the pillar she had been standing on and fell face first on a fair sized chunk of stone away, I think it was safe to say she wasn't expecting a follow up from the Deathjaw so soon.

I wasn't ready for the abomination to recover so quickly either, but that didn't stop ol' big, white, and boney from covering over a hundred feet in under three seconds. The only other creature I knew of that could sprint as fast as the Deathjaw 'swam' were the bigger types of Deathclaws, not exactly the most comforting of thoughts, but it at least made it clear what needed to be done about it.

Julia also knew what she needed to do as well, as she had already made sure to abandon the flat piece of rubble she landed on earlier and jumped to another crumbling section of wall or some other broken piece of infrastructure that the Deathjaw hadn't demolished yet. Whatever psyker bullshit she was using to jump like a damn Ghost Person on Turbo failed her this time, because instead of landing on top of the battered ruin she had been aiming for, she instead slammed against the stone.

Lady Luck must have chosen to smile at her at that moment, because a normal person with shit luck like myself wouldn't have been able to find a strong enough handhold to support their weight after a rough landing like hers. Julia somehow must have been able to find a small divot or made one with some impressive strength on her part. That didn't mean she was out of the thick of things yet, as she was still dangling between life and death by the edge of her fingers while the Deathjaw continued its hunt.

As for the abomination itself, it proved its sudden attempt at her life wasn't a fluke like her close call had been. Hacking up a wet clod of sand once it killed the momentum from its failed charge, the damn thing didn't even bother sniffing around for the gal this time before charging her. I don't know if it heard her body smack against the ruined house she leapt to, but considering that the Deathjaw saw heading straight for her all the same, it didn't really matter.

While I had no idea what was running through the girl's mind as she looked down into the belly of the beast, I can say for a fact that I wasn't thinking at all when I pulled out my M.A.M.R. and fired at the abomination without even bothering to aim at it. Taking a second or two to aim while it devoured Julia wouldn't have made much of a difference for the effect I had on the behemoth sandfish-thing, as my shot hit it square in the head and bounced right off of the Grimm's armor before it could pounce on her.

That wasn't to say that the .50 cal bullet didn't have any effect on the big thing, however. The moment the boom of my rifle filled the air, the Deathjaw tried to halt its charge and seemed to completely forget about Julia. The big fucker still crashed into her since it was too big to stop on a dime despite having no issues reaching what I could only hope was it's top speed in an instant. Rather than the Deathjaw's rows of foot long teeth turning her into blood sausage like I expected them to, it was the beast's armored side that ended up hitting her. Not exactly the ideal, but far better than ending up as a snack for that monstrosity.

While I could only imagine how much it fucking hurt to have a few tons of ravenous abomination slammed into her, I assumed that whatever pysker bullshit the people of Europe used to protect them against bullets probably worked just as well against something big crashing into them with the same amount of force.

Whether or not it saved her when she was flung through a couple of walls once she was batted away, I didn't know nor care. Julia could deal with her own problems after I saved her ass. I had more than enough on my plate after stupidly making my presence known to the giant abomination. Once the creature did manage to stop itself, it didn't not hesitate to look straight at me, the sound of my gunshot providing it with exactly what it needed to find me.

Now, I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to reading other people's emotions, but even I could tell the Deathjaw was confused when it turned to look at me. The bastard obviously didn't expect there to be bite-sized meals still walking around, and if the couple of squeaks it let out as it tried to stare me down without any eyes was any indicator, it was probably asking itself if it missed anything else.

A smart person would have tried throwing another bottle to distract the abomination long enough to reposition so they wouldn't have been eaten alive once the Deathjaw finally figured out what to do. I… am not a smart person. Not only that, but I only had the one empty bottle I chucked earlier with me. The three bottles I had left were still full, and there was no way in fucking hell I was going to throw away some perfectly good booze no matter how much easier it would have made my life.

I also could have done something rational like running for my life, trying to distract the monster by throwing a rock or some, or anything else would have done in my shoes. Instead, I screamed "BRAHMINSHIT!" at the top of my lungs after noticing how one of the strongest weapons I have ever had the honor of wielding didn't even leave a scratch on the behemoth and I loaded a special round in the hopes something with a little more kick could do some damage to it.

Unsurprisingly, the giant abomination charged straight towards me after I vented some of my frustration at it, opening its mouth wide open and waggling its thick black tongue in anticipation of getting a taste of an all-American wastelander. I took a deep breath as certain death bore down straight towards me and fired off another shot aimed straight at the only unarmored part of the Grimm I had been able to find. If it had been a normal shot like the first one I hit the Deathjaw with, then I was sure the enormous monster would hardly have noticed it was even shot. Unfortunately for the big bastard, the .50 BMG I fed it was packing quite the explosive punch of flavor.

I was only moments from being eaten alive when my shot detonated inside the Deathjaw's giant maw and recoiled away from me, accidentally beaching itself in the process. The beast collapsed on the ruins of the houses beside me, it's unarmored stomach fully exposed and making for one hell of a beautiful target as it writhed in agony. The abomination was in too much pain to react as I pulled out one of the bottles of Rushing Water I cooked for emergencies and, since this definitely qualified as an emergency, I pulled up my mask a bit and downed the whole thing in one go. With a flood of energy rushing through me that not even Rebound could match, I swapped the magazine in my M.A.M.R for some armor piercing rounds to ensure my shots did some damage regardless of how little they actually hurt the monster.

The first two shots I fired off tore through the soft black skin of the Deathjaw's underbelly with ease. It was only when the third one struck that the beast remembered I was still there and turned itself over to protect its vulnerable stomach. Then, with all the dignity of a Thorn combatant that had his teeth punched in by a gecko, the injured beast spat out its severed tongue along with a clod of sand that was dyed black with its blood, rivulets of the dark fluid oozing from its jaw leaving similar stains on its once flawless armor.

For the briefest of moments, I thought that was going to be the end of my fight with the Deathjaw. If it had been any other creature that had been forced to cough out so much of its own blood, then it surely would have recognized the threat I posed to it and fled before I could do any more harm to it.

Instead, I was able to see first hand why the Grimm as a whole were feared by the people of Vacuo. Rather than running away from me, the behemoth cracked whatever passed for it's serpentine neck and smiled at me.

While it is true that I am a lot of things, none of them flattering, suicidal is not one of them. Foolishly brave, sadistic, murderously insane, hypocritical, greedy as hell, and no-good liar are all names I wear proudly like a badge of honor after all the shit I've gone through, but I had no intentions of adding suicidal idiot to that list.

Not for the sake of saving someone I particularly wouldn't mind getting eaten alive, at any rate.

So, it should come to anyone that knows me well enough that I abandoned all hope of fighting that monster alive and sprinted away from it going as fast as my chem-addled body and the Jet and adrenaline cocktail still flowing in my system could carry me. My movements were less about grace, and more geared towards moving as fast as I could without tripping over my own feet and becoming an easy meal for the pissed off abomination that had finally overcome the shock of losing its tongue and started to hunt me down like a rat in a maze.

I didn't get far before the beast caught up to me, I was only trying to go for distance instead of trying to evade it through the rubble scattered throughout the scorched settlement after all, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Hearing the horrifying squeaks and shattering of rocky debris coming from the giant Grimm, I had just enough warning to throw myself to the side in the middle of my sprint to evade the monster as it dove to the spot I had been mere moments ago.

I didn't even bother gloating at the fucker when it whiffed as any time spent not running away meant that I had that much less time to prepare the Deathjaw's next attempt on my life. Sure enough, I had only managed to take a handful of steps before I could hear the familiar coughing sound coming from the beast as it hacked up another ball of wet sand and assorted rubble before that damn squeak and the sensation of the very ground trembling underneath my feet informed me that the abomination was still chasing after me.

The Deathjaw once again tried to leap out of the sand to swallow me whole, and having recognized that the creature didn't have much else in the way of attacking me, I threw myself to the ground and tried not to think about how long the abomination's shadow lingered over me after its miss. The creature crashed into yet another crumbling building, completely demolishing it and using what was left behind of the house to come to a full stop.

Instead of having a good dozen or two yards between me and the massive abomination, I had only a scant few feet separating me and the creature that damn well intended to feast on my flesh and metal bits in retaliation for what I did to it. The abomination was surrounded by rubble, as was I, and I didn't dare move a single inch and expose myself to the enormous monstrosity. I could hear the beast sniffing around for any trace of my scent, apparently having lost track of me now that I was lying flat on my stomach, and there was no doubt in my mind that it would not stop its blind search until it found me.

Even as it tried to sniff me out, it gave a few exploratory bites to the empty sand and chunks of stone around it as if it expected to get lucky with one of them. Considering how much ground it could cover with each bite, I knew that it was only a matter of time until it found me. The only thing I could do was hope the creature would continue its search away from where I was hiding, and knowing just how lucky I was, I materialized a mini-nuke inside of my long coat in preparation for when I was finally found.

If this was going to be the end of me, then you damn well better believe I was going to make that fucker regret taking a bite out of me. Wasn't sure if I'd take it down with me, but I'd have happily settled for blowing off half of it's jaw all the same. I knew exactly how much it sucks having half of your face ripped off thanks to that one White Legs bastard in Zion, so you better believe that if this was how it all ended for me, I was going to make the rest of its life pure hell.

As it turned out, it wasn't my natural bad luck that screwed me over, but my own short-sightedness that attracted the Deathjaw's attention. The moment I materialized the martyrdom device, the behemoth turned to stare straight at me. It didn't seem too confident that it was me that had made the noise had attracted its attention, either me fiddling with my Pipboy or embracing the diminutive weapon of nuclear proportions, but that didn't change the fact that it was now dragging its way towards me with it's stumpy little fins.

Whether or not the creature was enjoying itself as it drew itself closer to its intended prey, I couldn't tell. By this point I was able to smell its foul breath in full force, the stench of rotting flesh from something long dead with an edge of cooked meat from its most recent meal making it harder to breathe despite the filters of my gas mask ensuring that the air I took in was mostly clean. Didn't do shit about the heat, wetness, or overall unpleasant taste that I experienced with every silent gasp of air I dared to take, but I suppose an air freshening feature would have been too much to ask for given how much use I got out of it.

Still, the breath of a hungry predator wasn't exactly the kind of thing I wanted to experience in my last few moments. The Deathjaw simply didn't care what I thought about things, in fact, it almost seemed surprised when it accidentally brushed its nose against me. The thought that it hadn't noticed me before never even crossed my mind until then, and of course the little bit of hope I felt was overshadowed by the crushing sense of defeat that came from losing it so quickly.

It was just as I was tempting the idea of pulling out a second mini-nuke to ensure the Deathjaw would think twice about the next thing it tried chewing on when I heard the sound of salvation bark to life from somewhere behind me. The burst of gunfire that filled the air was nothing short of beautiful, and the giant bastard that had just opened its maw to give me a play bite it wouldn't ever be able to forget honed in on wherever my savior had been hiding until now. Apparently Antlers decided to return the favor of saving her ass, and not a moment too soon.

It was only when I remembered that I was still in between the abomination and my partner that I came to the unfortunate realization I was not safe yet. In fact, Julia probably put me in even more danger by trying to save me, considering what I had just materialized in my pocket.

Getting eaten alive, while not the best way to go, wouldn't have been too much of a bitch to deal with considering the atomic case of heartburn I was ready to ram down the Deathjaw's throat. Having the beast accidentally trample me on its way to snack on Antlers was an entirely different matter.

I didn't have any time to think about how best to escape being flattened by the massive Grimm, as it wasted no time in letting out yet another toy-like squeak to announce its next charge. Using shrill noise to camouflage my movements, I tried my best to roll out of its way before it barrelled over to wherever Julia was waiting for it.

The damn thing still slammed into me with the full force of a pissed of Deathclaw Matron after watching the head of each of her hatchlings burst in a shower of bone and brain, but despite feeling like each and every one of my ribs had been shattered into dust, I was still alive to complain about it. Not only that, but I had a great view of the ass end of the Deathjaw as it charged straight for the crumbling pillar that Julia was standing on.

Instead of instantly abandoning the high ground she was perched on, she emptied the entire magazine in what looked like a desperate attempt to bring the giant down. As much as I wanted to laugh at her attempts to bring the beast down with such tiny bullets when my anti-material rifle couldn't do fuck all to the behemoth, the results of her spray 'n pray left me too awestruck to do anything but stare. Somehow the magical bullshit bullets that were loaded in the 11mm submachine gun I gave her were not only capable of melting solid steel, as I had seen earlier when escaping The Camp, but also capable of blasting off pieces of the Deathjaw's thick layer of armor. The small rounds weren't able to pierce through the abomination's armor completely, but they at least did something to it. That was a lot more than could be said about a .50 BMG round from the Mojave.

I bit down my protests against the crock of absolute bullshit I was witnessing, instead choosing to pull myself back up to my feet and swap the magazine of .50 cal rounds I had loaded in the M.A.M.R for one of the fancy magical ones the Xiongs gave me. I chose one of the at random and quickly loaded it into place without bothering to check what it was, as I found the fuck-off huge Grimm to be a bit more worthy of my attention.

I had a great view of the thing as it made a pass at Julia, jumping out of the sand in her direction as she nimbly leapt away from it and landed on a nearby wall that had fallen flat into the street at some point since the Grimm's arrival. She didn't fire any more shots at the Deathjaw as it reoriented itself to rush her again, and for once I felt bad for the gal, namely because it was my fault she couldn't do shit against the beast anymore. I did only give her the one magazine to work with after all, and since she had been quite insistent on carrying no other weapons beside that sword of hers I didn't need to be a genius or half-ways smart to know how much she probably regretted not taking an 11mm pistol off of my hands when I first offered a few to her.

The girl still kept her calm despite the colossal cock-up she had to work around, and she once again evaded the Deathjaw effortlessly. The enormous creature didn't look like it had lost track of her or any intentions of facing me again, but that didn't mean the feeling was mutual on my part. Thanks to Julia's little display, I finally had a bit of distraction to work with, plenty of distance between me and the behemoth, a weapon loaded with bullets that could finally do some damage, and a trump card that was waiting to reveal itself to the overgrown worm.

It wasn't exactly the best load out I ever had at my disposal, or anywheres close to what I would have preferred to take the damn thing out, but since my odds of finding a MIRV fully loaded with Tiny Tots mini-nukes were next to none, I had to make do with what I had available.

With that thought in mind making me feel far less stupid about lining up a shot on the big bastard, I waited patiently for the Deathjaw to face me as it turned towards Julia before pulling the trigger. The *boom* of my rifle instantly caught the behemoth's attention, keeping it frozen for a split second as it figured out where the noise came from and allowing my shot to hit it right in the middle of it's armored skull. My shot clearly hit the bastard and for a harrowing moment, I thought I picked out a magazine of armor piercing rounds instead of one of the bullshit ones I intended to grab.

The ear-splitting wail the Deathjaw let out just as I flung my M.A.M.R. around my back soon informed me that I had indeed chosen the right kind of bullet to use against it. When a large section of the creature's skull exploded in a shower of bone splinters as a torrent smoke burst out its head, I made a mental note to check to see which type of ammo caused the beast so much pain. I was fairly certain it was the gas one, but I still wanted to make sure so I could know which magazine I needed to treat with the utmost caution so I would not end up like the Deathjaw.

The massive Grimm continued to shriek in pain for what felt like an eternity, flailing around in pain with little care about the ruins it was slamming the now unprotected portion of its head into. The abomination looked like it had lost all sense after having its skull nearly split wide open, but unsurprisingly the creature seemed to be able to focus on one thing in particular. That thing was the minor annoyance that had wounded it so horrifically, or more specifically, me as I strode towards it giving it a double handed New Vegas Hello.

Blinded by rage and uncaring about whatever happened to it so long as it was able to take revenge on me, the Deathjaw let out a twisted screech as it ran straight towards me. We were a fair distance away from each other, but thanks to the creature's immense size and insistence on tearing me to shreds as quickly as possible, I had only five seconds to act before I was devoured.

5

Not really worrying too much about how much time I had left on my hands, I pulled out the mini-nuke I had materialized earlier and checked to make sure it was capable of doing what I needed it for.

4

The label on the side read 'Big Kid'. That would definitely do the job. Possibly do it too well, but then again, when your opponent is a giant mutant sand worm that swims through sand like a lakelurk on Turbo, I'd like to say that there is no such thing as overkill.

I turned the oblong explosive around in my hands so that way the warhead was facing the ground and dropped it. The Deathjaw was halfway to me when I dropped my saving grace, but I wasn't too worried since the big bastard didn't seem to have noticed I had in store for it.

3

With the miniature nuclear explosive careening towards my feet, I did what any sane person would do after dropping a small, semi-rounded object, and punted it with all of my strength. Thanks to the changes my body went through at the monitors of the loons of the Big Empty, the mini-nuke sailed towards the charging Deathjaw and I was fairly certain I only broke three of my toes from kicking the fucking thing as hard as I did, a clear improvement from the last time.

2

The mini-nuke headed straight towards the Deathjaw and with the massive abomination none the wiser about the misery headed its way, I drew the 11mm pistol that was strapped to my leg and activated VATS. I had less than thirty feet to between me and my target, the Grimm only ten more feet farther than that, but since there was no telling how much Rebound or Rushing Water was running through my body, I did not want to risk missing my target and lose my life just because I wanted to feel badass. So it was with great reluctance that I forfeited control of my body in favor of letting Vault-Tec guide my aim, more than likely leaving me paralyzed for a good while afterwards, which is why I never bothered using VATS most of the time.

Since I was more or less guaranteed to die if I did miss the shot, whether through my own fault or VATS, I wasn't too worried about the consequences for once. Knowing that pulling the trigger wouldn't change my fate made it a whole lot easier to think about how I was probably a little too close to the blast zone for safety…

Wait a minute. That's a Big Kid, not a normal mini-nuke. Doesn't a Big Kid have a bigger blast radius?

1

...fuck.

*KA-BOOOOM*

By the time the blinding white light of the mini-nuke died down to bearable levels for the only unharmed witness of the explosion that spawned it, another black cloud of ash that marred the night sky above Vacuo. The new plume of smoke wasn't nearly as large as the one that had first drawn Six or Julia to the ruined town, but from so close to the carnage it left behind, it looked no less menacing to the faunus woman who had been fortunate enough to look away from her partner long before he nearly blinded her.

"Six?" She called out to her partner, her voice wavering in fear but still loud enough to reach the carcass of the now headless Deathjaw before her.

The answer she waited for never arrived. Against her better judgement, she abandoned the small untouched corner of the devastated house she took shelter behind and approached the giant Grimm's half buried remains.

Pieces of armor that had formerly been protecting the Deathjaw's head, and more than likely a few chunks of the creature's skull itself, laid half buried in the sand surrounding the corpse from where they had buried themselves upon landing. It was easy to tell which side of the ordinarily bone white shell-like layer encasing the Grimm's body the explosive scarred, as the few sides that were not scorched black from the blast were soaked wet with its blood. Now that she was able to look at the carnage the Courier had wrought with the Steam Dust round he had accidentally used, she was able to appreciate just how destructive he could be for once. Remembering the painful shriek the beast let out that tortured her heightened senses made her grimace, but Julia still surveyed the damage despite her mounting resentments towards her brash companion.

Finding him was a simpler feat than she expected it to be, as the Courier had not been turned into a fine red stain splattered across the sand like she believed him to be. Instead, she could easily see him using the belly of the Grimm's carcass to brace himself as he injected his right leg with a syringe of glowing yellow fluid, another four empty syringes rammed into his chest in between the gaps of his armor as the man continued to mend his wounds.

At least, she hoped he was trying to take care of whatever harm came to him from being so close to the detonation he caused. The only other thing she could imagine him doing was injecting more of his so-called 'chems' for the sake of getting high. After having risked his life to save her own, she would have liked to think he wasn't as horrible of a person as Alex believed him to be.

The sight of the once unstoppable psychopath tending to his wounds was oddly comforting to her, especially after triumphantly walking away from his fight with Major Ironwood or when escaping The Camp despite the wounds and broken bones he suffered from them. Despite her partner having been injured, Julia was glad to see that even he needed rest every now and then. It certainly gave some credit to his earlier assumptions that he didn't trust her enough to lower his guard to sleep around her, however small it actually was.

"You're alive." The faunus woman sighed in relief, too drained to hold herself back from showing some concern for the deranged mailman.

The Courier looked up from the needle sticking out of his leg, looked like he was about to retort to her painfully obvious assessment, and seemingly thought better of it. "Yeah, I am. Was a little touch and go there a couple of times, but we somehow managed to take this big bastard down." He slapped Deathjaw's stomach as if daring it to start trying to eat him without its head.

"Anyways, I think I've had enough 'fun' for today, Antlers." The Courier said, slowly rising to his feet as he braced himself against the Grimm's body. "Let's get the hell out of here before anything else decides to show up."

"Sure, but I don't think any sane Grimm or person would want to be anywhere near a Deathjaw this size." Julia said, silently allowing her partner to take the lead.

"Well, where I come from, the local wildlife tend to travel in packs." The Courier informed her, before taking on a more playful tone. "Guess we're lucky this one preferred to hunt alone, huh?"

Six turned back and prepared himself for whatever jab his antlered partner had prepared for him, but instead saw Julia frozen in place with a look of sheer terror plastered across her face.

"Please tell me these things aren't supposed to travel in packs, Antlers." He said.

Both Courier and faunus locked eyes, their shared silence saying more than either of them could with words. Neither one of them knew much about the species of Grimm they barely survived, and neither of them were willing to wait and find out anything else.

"We need to leave."

"Fuck this place!"

With both of them in agreement, the two travellers left the demolished village as quickly as their legs could carry them. Six didn't remove both the syringes that were still sticking out of him, and Julia didn't bother to acknowledge that she fell behind in perfect lockstep with the man she worried about killing her mere hours ago. Compared to the possibility of facing down multiple Deathjaws should they waste any more time in the dead settlement, their own issues were minor annoyances in comparison.

At least, that was the explanation both of them settled for before returning to their usual arguments the very next day.

IT was disappointed.

The GLUTTON had failed, slain by the WANDERER and the INFERIOR, but its failure had been expected. That wasn't why IT was disappointed.

While IT was truthfully surprised when the GLUTTON had challenged IT after having slumbered for so long, it's appearance was little more than a chance to reaffirm ITS superiority over the ancient giant. Forcing the GLUTTON to test the WANDERER, while amusing for a time, had become boring before long. Not disappointing, but simply boring until the very end.

The DREG that IT had been forced to retrieve due to the PAWN'S orders wasn't what disappointed IT either. Although letting the DREG'S wasteful existence continue was an annoyance, there was still the potential for the DREG to grow to be useful to HER in time. IT still would have preferred to slay her rather than save her, but IT had ITS orders.

Letting the DREG survive was simply an annoyance fostered on IT by a piece that had no idea it was being played like all the others. IT hated the PAWN, and only the knowledge that IT would be HER first choice in disposing of the LESSER in service to HER made the thought of working with one of those vain creatures bearable.

No, what truly disappointed IT was the revelation IT had learned about the WANDERER.

HER newest object of intrigue turned out to be far more ordinary than IT had assumed him to be when he first drew ITS attention. That alone was enough to make IT lose interest in the new potential piece on the board, but sadly, IT had orders.

As much as IT wanted to rend the WANDERER'S flesh from his bones and teach him what true fear looked like, IT could not act yet.

IT had orders, and as much as IT hated them, IT would wait until IT could finally act should ITS assistance be required.

IT could only hope the LESSERS would fail as spectacularly as the GLUTTON did.

Then IT could finally put down yet another contender for the title IT had rightfully earned...

15 days, 3 hours, 7 minutes, 18 seconds...

15 days, 3 hours, 7 minutes, 19 seconds…

15 days, 3 hours, 7 minutes, 20 seconds…

Author's Corner:

Alright, and there y'all have it. Another chapter where Six blows himself up, and another ruined settlement left in his wake.

Before moving onto the comments, I would like to give a huge thank you to most of the good ones were taken for both Beta Reading this chapter and putting up with my bullshit in the process. Here's to you mate!

Editor's note:(I was born from a cold dark void for the purpose of editing these chapters. Hopefully soon I will return.)

Comments:

Rusdov: Quick! Pray to almighty Deadeye Ricky to save your sorry ass, six.

It's a dark day when it turns out the psycho addict that is dumber than a pack brahmin wasn't exactly wrong about what he was bragging about, even if he didn't know what the hell he was talking about in the first place.

TigerTrainerXD: Also, did you take inspiration from that giant, clown-faced monster in Madoka Madoka Magica that kills Mami? The one with all the sharp teeth and the big red nose?

Nope, although after looking that thing up, I can certainly see some similarities. I actually took inspiration from the Graboids of Tremors for the Deathjaw's behavior/prey sensing abilities and Monster Hunter's Nibelsnarf for the primary looks, mixing in a bit of Graboid on the tail end for good measure.

"Guest": I am loving the story so far, it is easy to follow and it is compelling. I like this story compared to the rest. Most fanfics I seen involving Courier Six and RWBY is played out again and again. (Comment continues, I'm not putting it all in here.)

I'm not going to lie, my original plans for this story had things starting out like that. Then I took a month long break from writing the first chapter, realized I hated it, and tried starting something a little different that I instantly fell in love with. I don't mean to rag on the standard formula when it works so well but as you all have already seen, there are some things that simply cannot be done without thinking outside of the box... or getting shitfaced drunk and setting it on fire.

BONUS!:

Ancient Deathjaw

Level: 50

S: 9
P: 3
E: 10
C: 1
I: 4
A: 6
L: 3

Alright, that's enough from me. Thank you all once again for sticking around for as long as you have!