Chapter 17: Not a Bird

A pillar of blazing red spewed forth from the creature's mouth, engulfing a column of trees and instantly degrading them to ashes as the Courier rolled to evade the attack.

"Fuckin' bird my ass!" The Courier shouted as he unloaded a hail of plasma into his airborne adversary as it hovered still, magnificent wings suspending it in the air as it bobbed up and down. The green orbs contacted their target, seemingly having no effect on the creature as they sizzled violently on the surface of the creature's carapace.

"Ahhh, what the fuck is this shit!?" Six dove behind a tree, narrowly avoiding a cascade of flames as they hurtled through the air, lighting the wall of trees alight behind him and practically disintegrating the ones at the forefront of the attack.

"Fuck!" Six cursed as he ran through the underbrush, trees as his cover. The beast's eyes trailed on him without failure as it hovered idly above the clearing. The damn thing looked like something he had once seen in one of those old 'Grognak the Barbarian' comics, a sort of odd mix between a bird and a goddamn dragon. It breathed fire too, just to rub it in.

Dragons were bullshit.

Especially when they have babies with mutant birds.

Speaking of mutant birds, Six was honestly surprised with the distinct lack of mutated birds trying to tear his head off back in the wasteland. In fact, Six had never in his life seen a mutated bird. There were ravens though, he saw a couple of them here and there. They served as good target practice.

The Courier fired at the airborne creature again, his plasma projectiles having exactly the same effect as they did earlier, just fizzling away harmlessly.

Holy fuck that would make some kickass armour!

Six tried bullets, but the 357. rounds from the Mysterious Magnum had no noticeable effect. He rolled to avoid the next column of fire the creature spewed his way.

'Weak points,' Six thought, 'It has to have weak points somewhere… the eyes!'

Six slid behind another tree. By now The Courier had figured out that the creature's mouth glowed red for about three seconds before it attacked, so that gave him some time to and flexibility to develop some sort of strategy. He aimed for the eyes, firing off two shots. Both missed the uncovered eyes, sizzling against its armour plating.

By now, the Courier had also managed to catch onto the creature's distinct lack of Grimm-like features; it wasn't covered in black and white from head-to-toe, but rather its grey-scale armour plates would cover most of the body. This thing didn't look like a Grimm, but what would Six know? He had only been here for like… a couple weeks or something. He couldn't really remember.

It was going to be hard hitting such small targets from so far with a plasma rifle. He rolled left to avoid the next attack and switched the microfusion cell in his rifle for a new one. Firing a couple stray shots at the creature, he continued shifting through the thinning treeline as he clipped a Stealth Boy to his wrist. A short resonating buzz sounded out as the Courier was enveloped in the device's modulating field.

If Lady Luck was on Six's side, this thing wouldn't have heat-based vision or anything of the sort, but considering the Courier's recent luck, it was probably safe to say it could still see him.

The Courier emerged from the treeline into the opening, still under the effects of the Stealth Boy, to gain more manoeuvrability.

"Hey, me." Six said, "Do you think it can see me?"

'Fuck you,' Six replied to himself mentally, 'Go kill it and stop talking to yourself.'

"Fine."

Fortunately, Six had managed to save a few .308 rounds. He pulled out the Gobi Campaign Scout Rifle and aimed for one of the beast's eyes. He drew his breath sharply inward, holding it and steadying his hands. The crosshair landed direct centre of the flapping creature's eye, Six tracing it as the beast bobbed up and down. His timing had to be precise to hit his target. Roughly 50 metres, 60 degree incline. The bullet would have to be placed around a metre above the creature's eye. The only unnerving part about it; the thing was staring him down with malicious intent. It didn't even have pupils; a blank slate of white, like a deathclaw's eyes.

"Don't fuck this up." Six whispered to himself as he pulled back on the trigger, the gun jolting in his grip as the bullet flew from the Gobi's barrel.

It squealed in pain, jerking its head from left to right in anguish as it tried to shake the pain. It grounded itself, using its wings to act as arms to support its talon-tipped legs as it renewed its gaze on the Courier. Its beak-like mouth snapped open as it let out a deafening screech, like that of a hawk but a lot louder.

His ears rang as the Courier tried to block out the piercing sound. It felt longer than it actually persisted; feeling like near to a minute of agonising ringing through his head. Something struck him from behind and his back was suddenly stinging violently. He rolled forward, the newly-formed cuts on his back aching like all hell as he stiffened back up, firing a blind shot from the Mysterious Magnum to where he had previously been standing.

The bullet struck a Beowolf in the leg, sending it to its knees; another finished it off as three more reared from the treeline.

'How the hell did it cut through my armour?'

Two more bullets put down the other Beowolves as more jumped from the bushes in the treeline into the opening.

He reached his hand around and dragged it across the stinging cut. When he brought it back to his eye line it was sheeted in blood.

"Fuck." Six vocalised his thoughts before he turned his head slightly to check on the big flying fucker behind him.

'Holy shit it's gone.'

Six was sent into a small panic as his eyes scanned the sky for his adversary, yet to no avail. Something clamped down on his shoulder, digging violently into the upper layers of his skin. Unable to see what had dug into his shoulder, he dragged his shoulder down; tossing the Beowolf that had swung for him over his head and onto the ground where it met its fate at the end of the Mysterious Magnum's barrel. More Beowolves encroached from behind.

'One bullet left… you wanna reload that?' Six mentally inquired before loading 5 more bullets into the revolver and drawing Chance's Knife.

"Alright you rusty old shit… don't fail me now." Six said as he flipped Chance's knife into a reverse grip. He watched the movement of the three closest Beowolves with the eye of a vulture.

One lunged forward, followed closely by a second. Six ducked under the horizontal swipe from the first Grimm, diving head-first into the second advancing Beowolf and digging Chance's Knife cleanly through the creature's hide. Instead of withdrawing the blade, he kept it dug firmly inside and used his leverage to lift the now-limp body to block an attack from the third Grimm.

The attack carried little power and barely staggered the Courier as he put a bullet in the third Beowolf from behind his meat shield. Chance's Knife slid cleanly out of the second's flesh and Six spun just in time to counter the first Beowolf with a quick slash to its shoulder. He moved in close, driving Chance's Knife through the Beowolf's skull. The creature fell limp.

"Oh boy!" Six chuckled, "It's been a while since we've done this!"

Six counted at least eight more Beowolves and one Ursa. Luckily, they seemed around twenty metres out, having emerged on the opposite side of the clearing.

'Alright, don't forget about the big fucker… something that big can't just disappear.'

Six produced the Survivalist's Rifle from… somewhere. He took aim at the closest Beowolf and fired two rounds into it, the first staggering and the second suppressing the creature for good. He repeated the process for two more Beowolves as they began bounding towards him, reaching him before he could kill any more from range.

The Courier unsheathed Chance's Knife, forcefully dropping the Survivalist's Rifle to the ground, and bunny hopped the first Beowolf, the creature flying straight under his feet as Six planted his boots on the Beowolf that followed shortly behind its fellow Grimm, sending it skidding into the dirt face-first. He jumped off the skidding body and blocked a vertical swipe from a third Beowolf with his forearm, sending Chance's Knife into the bipedal creature's elbow. The Beowolf scooted backwards in pain and Six's gloved hand slipped from the knife's grip before he could retrieve it.

The Courier turned back to face the Beowolf he had jumped, just in time to roll and avoid a lunging bite from the creature. He drew the Mysterious Magnum and unloaded a bullet straight through its skull, the creature immediately collapsing dead before Six fired another round, this time into the other Beowolf lunging for him, the one he had landed on. Dirt caked its face and teeth before the new addition of a bullet hole was introduced to the collection.

The newly-wounded Beowolf came at him with fire in its eyes, vengeance in its claws. It swiped with its good arm and the Courier sidestepped, throwing his hands forward and catching the creature's head in his grip. He tore its head to the side, destroying its neck and quickly retrieving Chance's Knife from its elbow.

The fifth Beowolf was upon him quickly and clamped its jaws down on his forearm, tearing viciously at his flesh and passing clean through his armour. The Courier's nerve endings spiked as he let a bullet tear through his harasser, unfortunately clipping his arm in the process.

"Fuck." The Courier growled beneath his breath. A massive force suddenly crushed down on his back, sending the Courier to the floor. Despite the crushing pain encumbering his body, Six rolled onto his back to catch sight of whatever had hit him.

'Oh… the furry Yao Guai…'

The large bear-like creature reared, ready to bring its claws down in one fell swoop; a final blow to kill its prey.

Time slowed for the Courier as his mind kicked into overdrive, searching for ways to survive.

Roughly four seconds until impact…

Mysterious magnum? No, it fell from my hands when it hit me

I think I landed on the knife when I fell, my belly kind of stings… Not enough time to pull it out, nor enough strength or speed to get into a good position to use it.

The Survivalist's Rifle is on the floor somewhere five metres off, so that's a no-go.

So then… I'm out of options.

Well, he had to do something.

Six's hands gripped Chance's Knife and began to tear the old blade from his flesh. It stung like hell, removing the jagged edges from his mid-section so carelessly.

Two seconds…

The pain rifled through him and his arms fell limp for a moment, unable to fight the exhaustion exhibited from the pain he was experiencing.

One second…

Six pushed all his strength to his arms and legs, struggling to barely catapult himself towards the creature of Grimm.

Zero…

Was this really how The Courier was going to die? In some forest in a distant far away land, killed by some weird-looking bear. The damn thing wasn't even irradiated. If Six was going to die, he wanted to at least get killed by something he was familiar with. Hell, getting gang raped by Khans and starved to death in a jail cell whilst being fed on by malnourished puppies probably would've been more preferable to him.

'Holy sweet Mother Mary Jesus Christ Lord in heaven what the HELL was that!?'

A sudden flash of green saw the Ursa's head decapitated, flying from its body. Six managed to somehow freeze mid-lunge, despite his pained and whittled state.

'Hang on, who's Jesus? Who's Mary? What the hell did I just say… Ah well, at least I know who the Lord is!'

The Ursa's corpse toppled slowly to the floor. A girl stood behind the headless body, dark skin and emerald-green hair, dressed in garments of a similar shade. They were… fairly revealing, to say the least; definitely not designed for protection.

"Need help?" She smiled before a deafening screech filled the air

"Yeah…" the Courier sighed.

'Oh what a long day this has been…'