| Match 2: |
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| By: Forrest Freund |
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Iris and Destoroyah both land on Birth Island,
each knocking over trees and blowing up enormous clouds of dust as
they come to rest on the rocky ground. Both monsters begin to eye
each other, Destoroyah eyeing the smaller Iris with the desire to
kill, while Iris has an unreadable expression on his faceless head.
Both monsters begin to circle each other, both tensed for the coming
battle.
Destoroyah breaks the stalemate by firing his oxygen-destroyer
beam at Iris. The blast strikes Iris full force in the chest, which
is caught off guard by the sudden assault. Iris screeches out in
pain as the blast sears his flesh with almost white-hot agony. Iris,
after recovering from the attack, retaliates by lunging at Destoroyah,
right arm raised to drive the jagged spear point into his opponent's
flesh. Destoroyah braces himself for the blow, but it never lands,
as Iris flies up and over Destoroyah just before he is within striking
range. Before Destoroyah can recover, Iris does a quick 180 degree
turn in mid air, sends two of his bladed tendrils through the base
of Destoroyah's wings, then flies forward quickly, tearing huge
gaps in Destoroyah's wing membranes and snapping the bones before
the blades rip free. As Iris tears the blades out, Destoroyah screams
out in pain, and rage. Iris pulls his tendrils back in and pivots
in mid air, only to find Destoroyah charging towards him, screaming
bloody murder, with his tattered, bloody wings flapping ineffectually
behind him.
Destoroyah's claws connect with Iris's left arm,
tearing an enormous, ragged, bloody gash into it. Iris shrieks out
in pain, and reflexively takes to the air, trying to escape his
enraged opponent and trailing blood in his wake. When Destoroyah
tries to follow, he only snarls with pain as he tries to get his
ruined wings to work. Iris stops ascending, and looks down at his
grounded opponent. Gaining confidence, Iris lashes out with his
tendrils again, aiming for Destoroyah's head. Destoroyah senses
the tendrils approaching, and fires an oxygen-destroyer beam at
them, knocking them off-course. One tendril gets past the beam,
striking Destoroyah in the right half of his faceplate. Destoroyah
shrieks and responds to the attack by grabbing the tendril, pulling
on it with all his might. Iris, once again caught off-guard, is
pulled from the sky and strikes the ground, causing small fissures
to open up. Destoroyah then begins to pull the tendril, using it
to reel in Iris. Iris, sensing that he is in danger, responds by
sending out two of his tendrils, and, wrapping them around his foes
legs, pulls with all of his might. Now caught off balance, Destoroyah
falls to the ground. At the moment of impact, Destoroyah seems to
dissolve into a swarm of Crustacean Destroyah's. Just as suddenly
as Destoroyah breaks apart, the Crustacean Destroyah's begin to
swarm Iris, who is still recovering from the fall. The creatures
begin to claw, bite and sting Iris as he tries to get to his feet.
In desperation Iris takes to the air once again, flying at top speed
to try and dislodge the Crustacean Destroyah's from his body. The
sudden acceleration manages to dislodge half of them, but the rest
remain, and continue to assault him. Iris lashes out at the Crustacean
Destroyah's with his tendrils, knocking them off. Then, he lashes
out with one of his tendrils, impaling one of the falling crabs.
Iris brings the beast up to his right claw, and then drives the
point into the creature's shell. The Crustacean Destroyah screams
out in pain, but then is quieted as Iris drains its life energy.
As Iris absorbs the crab's life energy, the multitude of small wounds
the other crabs had caused to him stop bleeding and close up. Iris
drops the desiccated husk of the crab, which crumbles into dust
as it falls.
While Iris was fighting off his smaller bodies, Destoroyah
used the time to regain some of his energy, and had rejoined into
his flying form. Now noticing that Iris was distracted, he flew
up towards the other monster, murder burning in his eyes. Iris is
stunned to see that his foe has not only change form again, but
is now flying directly towards him. Destoroyah flies past Iris,
slashing his damaged left are with his wing blades, then circles
around for another run. Iris, no longer surprised, waits till the
last second, and then suddenly dives out of the way. As Destoroyah
flies over, Iris brings up two of his tendrils and fires his energy
beams at his foe. The beams rake across Destoroyah's belly, and
Destoroyah begins to plummet towards the ground. Iris pivots in
mid air, so he can watch his enemy splatter himself on the ground.
But when Destoroyah hits, he breaks apart into the many Crustacean
Destroyah's again.
Iris stares with amazement as Destoroyah once again
reforms into his giant form, with wings perfectly intact. Destoroyah
takes to the air once again, and with such speed that he is upon
Iris before he can react. Summoning all of his strength, Destoroyah
folds his wings up and body slams into Iris, knocking the both of
them out of the air. The two behemoths plummet towards the ground
in a tangle of wings, tendrils, teeth and claws, both snarling and
shrieking as they fall. They hit with such tremendous force that
enormous fissures open up, snaking away from the fallen monsters.
Destoroyah having landed on top pins Iris under him. Iris struggles
to get free, but Destoroyah uses his tremendous bulk to force him
down. Destoroyah lunges with his jaws at Iris's head, but Iris manages
to shift just enough to move his head out of harms way. Instead,
Destoroyah clamps his vicious jaws on Iris's left shoulder, biting
down hard. Iris screams out in pain as Destoroyah's teeth puncture
his shoulder muscles and reach the bone, causing a small torrent
of blood to emerge from the bite wound and into Destoroyah's mouth.
Enraged that anything would hurt him that severely, Iris manages
to wrestle his right arm free and drive it into Destoroyah's left
eye then twists the tip and drills it in further, causing a grisly
spray of blood to erupt from Destoroyah's eye socket. Destoroyah,
maddened by the pain, is forced to release his grip and fly backwards
to escape. Iris gets to his feet and also flies backwards, so as
to distance himself from his rabid opponent. The two monsters stare
each other down, Iris examining his ruined left shoulder and now
useless left arm, and Destoroyah fuming at being half blinded. Destoroyah
roars out in uncontained furry, then begins to advance on Iris.
Iris brings up his tendrils to prepare to fire, but notices that
Destoroyah's horn in glowing. Realizing that Destoroyah is about
to use a new attack, Iris evades barely in time as Destoroyah's
horn cutter beam slices past his left flank. The beam misses Iris's
body, but does sever one of Iris's tendrils, cauterizing the wound
as it goes.
Destoroyah flaps his wings and charges Iris, who
is distracted by the pain of his ruined tendril. Iris, eyes turning
blue with anger, trusts one of his tendrils straight at Destoroyah.
Destoroyah, blind in his left side, doesn't notice the tendril and
is struck in the throat. The blow acts like a clothesline, and Destoroyah
falls to his right, and crashes, rolling through the trees as if
they were toothpicks. When he comes to as stop, Destoroyah tries
to get his bearings, but instead feels a searing pain in his right
arm and wing. When he tries to move them, he can't. As Destoroyah
looks over, he sees Iris floating above him. Destoroyah roars when
he realizes that two of Iris's tendrils have rammed trough his right
arm and wing, pinning him to the ground. Iris thrusts two more tendrils
out, this time through Destoroyah's left arm and wing. Destoroyah
tries to pull free, but Iris lands on his chest. Iris, still furious
about losing one of his tendrils, drives his good right arm through
the bottom of Destoroyah's jaw, pinning Destoroyah's jaws shut.
Iris then begins to siphon off Destoroyah's power. Destoroyah begins
to wither slightly as Iris begins to heal his injured left arm and
shoulder. Distracted by feeding, Iris is caught off guard, as Destoroyah
suddenly breaks apart into his spider/crab form again, freeing himself
from Iris's grasp. Destoroyah's crab bodies distance themselves,
then rejoin into their final form. The two monsters stare each other
down, Iris visibly recharged from feeding, while Destoroyah is considerably
weakened from so many shape changes and from taking so much damage.
Iris brings up his tendrils and begins to charge them up with Destoroyah's
horn cutter.
Destoroyah, barely able to keep himself up, can only
half-heartedly retreat as Iris lashes out with a virtual storm of
cutting beams. Most of the beams fail to hit, but two find their
mark. One takes off Destoroyah's left wing and arm, while the second
slices his right leg off at the knee. Destoroyah collapses to the
ground, blood pooling up around his severed limbs. Destoroyah tries
to get up, but can't, as he realizes that he is fatally wounded.
He manages to call up enough strength to raise himself up on the
bloody stump of his right leg and his remaining arm. Destoroyah
looks up to see Iris slowly advancing on him, tendrils lashing about
in anticipation. Destoroyah tries to gather enough energy for one
last oxygen-destroyer beam, but the blast fizzles out in his mouth
as his arm slips in his own blood and slides out from under him.
Destoroyah collapses, but manages to raise his head to look at Iris,
who is looming over his prone body. Destoroyah growls once, but
is struck by one of Iris's tendrils across his muzzle. Iris brings
all of his tendrils to bear on Destoroyah, and, opening the tips,
begins to charge up several oxygen-destroyer beams. Then, in a blaze
of blue-white energy, Iris begins to immolate Destoroyah's prone
form with a torrent of energy. Destoroyah screams out in pain, but
soon grows quiet as his mind slips into oblivion. Iris continues
to unleash the brilliant streams of destructive energy until there
is nothing left of Destoroyah's corpse but an ashen husk. Iris lowers
his tendrils and lashes Destoroyah, causing the blasted shell to
crumble like burnt paper.
Seeing his foe so thoroughly dead, Iris raises his
head, shrieks at the heavens, and then takes to the air, his tendrils
whipping up a cloud of ash as he vanishes into the sky.
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