Bonny tucked herself to the wall as her Semblance informed her of a massive presence hurtling down the Retrograde's gluttinous harvester-maw. Dirt? Maybe a boulder?
No.
Bonny felt the strange ruffle of black feathers lightly brushing against her as a whole Nevermore, a forty meter-long creature large enough to pick up and carry grown Hunters and Huntresses in its talons, slid down the wormy Grimm's gullet, its beady red eyes staring at her pitifully as the two of them just narrowly avoided being dragged down with it.
It eats its own kind?! Bonny thought to herself, shocked. Sunlight poked through the roof of the vertical tunnel. The creature's mouth was still open. Breaking its teeth would've been fun, but there was no arguing that this was the best time to go if there ever was one.
"All ashore who's goin' ashore, lass!" Bonny said with an urgent tone, knocking the box of red Dust out of Rowan's hands and pulling the trigger on her cannon. The resulting explosion was...
magnificent.
Imagine every outrunning-the-fireball scene in every movie you've ever seen, times a hundred, and then imagine it inside a living thing, bursting like a fleshy balloon behind you as you rocket out of its mouth and into the atmosphere, propelled by the blast wave, with enough speed and force to peel the skin off your naked bones (if you didn't have Aura that is). The creature howled in earsplitting agony as its hide split apart but the sound never reached Bonny and Rowan as they climbed higher and higher into the sky, past even the clouds. At this point their flapping gums looked like a dog who'd stuck his head out a car window. Finally they came to a stop and they looked at the planet miles below them. Bonny's eyes widened.
"Well shiver me timbers," she said in a timid, disbelieving voice. "We're pretty blasted high, ain't we?"
Then they started to fall.
"Oohhhhhh
shit! Oh shit oh shit oh shit!" she cursed as she grabbed Rowan tightly. "Batten down the hatches, girl! Batten down the bloody hatches!"
They came in hot. Way,
way too hot. Doing everything she could to break their fall, Bonny started firing indiscriminately to slow them down, and to try and land back in the forest instead of crashing straight into Beacon. It didn't seem to work, at least not as quickly as they needed it too. As they rapidly approached their LZ, she caught sight of the Retrograde, still alive and thrashing despite its bottom half being peeled apart like a banana. That's when she got an idea.
"Hold me tight, Rowan!" she said. "We're gonna give this wormy son-of-a-whore his last heave-ho into Davy Jones' Locker."
After all, there was nothing softer to break their fall than a huge hunk of tenderized meat.
Gripping her cannon like a club, Bonny raised it above her head. She winced as she felt her muscles cry out in protest. Why? She shouldn't be tiring out this early! Had something in that worm's stomach depleted her Aura? Regardless, she swung it as hard as she could just as they fell on top of the Grimm's giant head, smashing it into the ground with the resulting momentum and finishing it off for good.
Bonny laid sprawled out on her back as the Dust cleared. She was
covered in Grimm goo.
Oh well, it'll dry off once the big thing dissolves, she thought. Which, given its size, might take a while. She sat up, trying to find footing in the swampy puddle of mashed Grimm beneath their feet.
"You okay, Rowan?" she said as she tried to stand up and give her a hand. "Everything ship-shape?"
Instead she ended up tripping and landing facefirst in the goo. She felt
so goddamned tired. What happened to her? She never wore herself out this quickly during practice. Her Aura was nearly depleted.
"You mind helping me up, lass?" she asked weakly. I think me old bones... me old
cartilage took more of a beatin' than we thought."
Then the ground started shaking. The earth was quaking. Bonny's mind (and body) were achin'. But who was makin' it? Bonny groaned.
"Oh
what now?"
Fish of Oblivion