Author: Kenneth James | Banner: Christian Salabert

[Continued from Match 95]

Godzilla led Rodan, Anguirus, and Gabara – against the ogre’s will – towards Tokyo. Already visible above the city was the Vortaak Mothership, the Xilien Mothership floating nearby as well, much to Godzilla’s surprise. The King of the Monsters hadn’t expected such an alliance to ever occur. The aliens who invaded the Earth, his territory, were often solo attacks with no connections between them. Before he could march forwards, the sea floor before him burst open, sending the Monster King falling backwards into the surf. He quickly arose from the water to see the colossal form of Megalon make himself known. The huge cockroach-like being clashed his drills together in threat and let out a loud roar of challenge. (more…)

Author: Joshua Reynolds | Banner: Christian Salabert

Planet X. It had been a host for thousands of battles. Over a dozen races had laid a claim on the world in the past, the latest being the treacherous Xiliens. No doubt the planet would continue to be a hotspot for alien wars, but today, there would be no battle for ownership of the planet. The resources had long since run dry, the last drop of water gone years ago. However, the planet was still useful. It was a perfect spot for an alien base to be used as a headquarters during the next invasion attempt of Earth.

Year after year, aliens returned here to lick their wounds. First there were the Xiliens. Then the surviving Kilaakians followed suit. After their failure, the Nebulans retreated here, and soon helped the Seatopians flee the Earth and regroup there as well. Those dastardly Third Planet Aliens were the next in the never-ending line. It repeated like this for decades, race after race sent packing from the Earth.

What was stopping their high-tech weapons and ruthless, galactic demons? A single creature: Godzilla.

The Leviathans would fail in the late 1990’s. The Millennians tried in 2000 and were sent packing. The Xiliens tried again in 2004, but failed once more. Nothing could seemingly stop this endless line of failure. Many races now believed the Earth was being protected not just by Godzilla, but an even higher power. Some races, the most feared of the universe, were afraid to even enter the Milky Way galaxy. It was now said to be cursed. Any race beyond human to set foot on Earth would fall into obliteration.

But the Xilien warlord had one last beacon of hope. They sent word out to any party who wished the Earth would be theirs. It was no longer a matter of simple invasion, but pride. How could such a weakly armed, small planet defeat the most powerful races in the universe, even with the aid of Godzilla? No, it couldn’t be allowed. So the leader summoned them all. To any race that would listen, he proposed a final assault on the Earth! Combine their technologies! Put their differences aside! Kill Godzilla! Destroy human civilization!

And it was here that they had already made their mistake, for the Xiliens had enslaved a monster beyond their scope of power. Their ancestors may have been able to tame a lesser of its kind, but today they were playing with more than just fire. Its long lost brother, god rest its soul, may have been known as a planet killer, but he was a galaxy killer. But a time of hibernation allowed it to be captured and “controlled.”

The three-headed serpent perched on top of a massive cliff, his six eyes looking down at the series of bubble-like structures sitting on the surface like blisters. It blinked and wanted to attack, but couldn’t. In all three of his serpentine heads, Grand King Ghidorah housed a brain. The Xiliens controlled his body only. They couldn’t tame the raging, angry mind of the serpent. For too long he was forced to watch what they wanted, attack what they disliked and destroy victims far too fast than he liked. Unable to move, the King of Terror could only look at the other space monsters summoned to Planet X for this grand meeting of vile minds.

He saw Gigan and Megalon, respective representatives of the Nebulans and Seatopians. He somehow had memories of his fallen brethren joining forces with a cyborg much like this one. Then there was Orga, a hulking brute of unbridled power and pawn of the Millennians. And who could forget Cyber Godzilla. The dumb Leviathans actually believed their resurrected iguana was the true Monster King. And then his six, crimson eyes saw the last creature: A skeletal warrior, sitting in solitude. It looked like an undead fiend, body entirely black with skeletal armor.

Unable to move of his own will, Ghidorah could only think and dream up the ways he’d slaughter every one of them and their masters. It would only be a matter of time.

The hydra was taken from his thoughts by the arrival of more alien craft. The Simeons, or Aliens from the Third Planet of the Black Hole, offered no new monster to the party, just their high-tech weaponry which was beyond that of the other races. They were even the source of the control device implanted in Ghidorah’s central brain that allowed the Xiliens control. The monster felt himself stand up and move, being controlled like a child’s toy. It was something he hated more than life itself.

His body turned, looking in the distance. He could feel the muscles in his wings start to move, he was preparing to fly. Then he heard the sounds of the other space monsters. Their assault was soon to begin. This enraged the monster monarch even more. He focused his mind, trying his best to free himself of this godforsaken slavery. His feet left the ground and he was soon flying against his will.

Then it happened. His eyes closed! He controlled them! His rage was building every passing second, and with his rage, his psychic powers. He focused them even more. It took every ounce of his ancient, powerful mind, but something broke. His body fell from the air, falling against the hard surface like a rock. He did it. Somehow, he did it. He had freed himself of alien slavery! The ground shattered like glass underneath his golden body, but the hydra stood up. The space beast’s demonic cackle rang in the ears of alien and kaiju alike. The Demon of Destruction, the God of Devastation, was pissed!

* * * * *

“WHAT!? IMPOSSIBLE!”

Inside the meeting, the young Xilien leader looked on in shock. His eyes open wide, he spun around as he whipped out his laser gun. He pulled the trigger. A strand of orange fired, shooting a Simeon ambassador. 

“This is your fault! Your technology failed!” he cried as the alien ape fell to a heap.

The other green-faced, ape-like humanoids pulled out their weapons from their silver jumpsuits. In a second, the alien factions were pointing weapons at one another. 

The Kilaakian Queen sighed, looking at the screen. “Do you not see? Ghidorah is a space monster. But no match for the rest of our monsters.”

A human-sized Millennian bobbed its head up and down. Slowly the Simeons lowered their weapons. One of the aliens leaned over the corpse of the fallen monkey, grabbing its weapon.

“You’re a fool if you think your M-powers are a match for us,” Mugal, the lord of the Third Planet, declared, holstering the weapon on the left side of his belt.

Suddenly the orange suited Nebulan spoke up, watching as Mugal stepped away from the Xilien leader. “Perfect peace can not be acquired for any of us until Ghidorah is stopped. He will be the only one who gets peace should we fail.”

The Leviathan warlord’s eyes flashed green. “We agree with the cockroach people.” His comment made the Nebulan cast a dirty glance. “We must fight this Ghidorah.”

The Xilien leader began to laugh hysterically. “Says the guy who thought an oversized iguana was Godzilla!”

The hovering inhuman made his way close to the latex-clad young leader. Before he could close the distance, the Millennian outstretched a tentacle to block his path.

“Time for fighting between us will come later after humanity is crushed and Godzilla is killed. Until then, we must fight together, and start with this Ghidorah!” the Kilaakian Queen whispered.

The Seatopian Emperor Antonio had remained quiet during the whole situation. He stood back, dressed only in a white robe. Suddenly he shouted, catching the group of invaders off guard. He threw his fist into the air. “MEGALON!”

In response to the Seatopian, the Xilien shouted even louder. “MONSTER X!”

Mugal rolled his eyes and sighed. “Damn morons.”

* * * * *

Grand King Ghidorah wasted no time. He steadily approached the series of dome structures which housed dozens of invasion fleets. This time, they’d be destroyed. But suddenly, he found himself against an army. Appearing from the opposite side of the structure came the legion of alien kaiju bred for the destruction of Godzilla and humanity. The space demon cackled, his calls sounding as if laughter.

In a surprising move, Cyber Godzilla attacked first! The cyborg charged forward, rockets launching from its spine-mounted cannons. The explosives detonated against the galactic demon’s beautiful body, showering it with smokes and sparks. Through the destruction, the living cataclysm still marched undeterred. The hydra’s triple maws opened up, firing beams of swirling energy. The revenant leaped to the side, but the blasts hit Megalon. The insect god was thrust back, landing with a thud and kicking out in every direction. Orga retaliated, lowering his hulking form. His shoulder cannon charged with energy and fired, blasting the assaulting alien with a thunderous beam of death. The dragon’s clawed feet dug trenches in the rocks as he was pushed back by the incredible force of the assault.

As the assault ended and Ghidorah staggered, Gigan charged in from the side. The red-eyed mechanical nightmare swung wildly with his frightening blades. One slice tore a gash in flawless wings while another slashed into his golden chest. The apocalyptic dragon fired back instantly, red lightning surging from the clawed tips of each wing. The bolts smashed against the space dinosaur, engulfing the nightmare machine in sparks and smoke. As his ally stumbled back, Megalon leapt overhead! The drill-armed insect came down with his metal limbs and, like a hammer, they smashed into his foe’s crowned left head. A loud clang followed, but the unfazed space monster again fired his wing lightning. The guardian deity cried in pain, backing away before the center head fired his almighty Gravity Beam! The beam struck the burrower in the face, making the Seatopian God fall back again.

As Ghidorah stood tall, golden beams washed over his body. Not far away, Monster X stood. The warrior’s eyes burned with hatred before firing again. The bolts, however, never landed their mark. The demon of the star’s light barrier protected him from such attacks, especially ones as pathetic as these. They reminded the King of Terror of his own, just much more inferior. The hydra smirked before cackling in glee. All three of his maws snapped open and fired back, shooting the Xillien vanguard in the face and shoulders with all three beams made famous for the destruction of worlds. The skeletal creature fell to a knee, crying aloud. As the assault stopped, Grand Ghidorah suddenly cried in pain. Behind him, the Nebulan cyborg had managed to drive both blades into his back!

Struggling, the planet destroyer lifted into the air. Before he could get too high, the Seatopian scarab suddenly smashed into his front side, driving his back deeper into the metal blades of Gigan. Megalon came back down, landing on his feet while his ally and target landed in a heap. The golden menace managed to separate himself from the scythe alien while firing his three Gravity Beams in every direction, forcing the insectoid to back off.

As the galactic terror stood up, Cyber Godzilla again came from the side. A blue beam of atomic fury launched from the beast’s maw. The beam washed over Ghidorah like water, unable to penetrate his shield. Before the cyborg could retreat again, the monster monarch fired his beams once more. In a flash, the three streams combined into one jagged beam of destruction! The beam ripped into the revenant’s head, splitting it like an orange. Flesh and Leviathan armor flew in every direction as the headless corpse fell uselessly to the side, gore spilling from where its skull once sat.

* * * * *

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” the Leviathan overlord cursed.

“Hey… that’s my line,” the Xilien leader complained, turning his gaze to the Leviathan’s outburst.

* * * * *

Orga looked at the mutant’s remains curiously. The hunchbacked freak groaned before stepping over the remains. The creature debated feeding on them to enhance his physical powers, but realized that such a frail monster had nothing to offer. As he slowly approached the three headed monster, a golden beam lanced through his shoulder and detonated, blowing off massive chunks. The malformed Millenian fell to the side, crying aloud.

By now, Monster X had recovered. The warrior shook his head angrily. As his lumpy ally fell, he ran through. He caught the King of Terror off guard and slammed two massive fists into his muscular chest. Not surprised, the hydra didn’t even humor the monster with a response. As another flurry of punches bounced off his golden scales, Grand King Ghidorah’s middle neck came down, wrapping around the hybrid demon’s throat like an anaconda.

The warrior began to struggle, but as the hold continued, his blows got weaker as his bonymaw began to foam. The alien kaiju had one last option and his eyes flashed, firing point blank. The beams sparked against his captor’s face. At this range, they were able to penetrate the barrier! This, however, only enraged the destroyer.

As the asteroid monster gasped and opened his maw for air, a horned right head shot down. The alien drake’s jaws locked around his foe’s in a sort of grotesque kiss. Before X could do anything, a Gravity Beam was catapulted down his throat and into his body! Ghidorah’s center neck loosened the hold so the beam ripped into his stomach, tearing it apart. Smoke and blood began to spew from the corners of the humanoid’s jaws before the jagged beam erupted from his groin.

The golden destroyer  separated his heads from the part-Ghidorah. The monster’s burning red eyes had dimmed into soulless orbs. He fell back, smoke spewing from his maw and burning groin. The once mighty Monster X was dead.

* * * * *

The Xilien leader’s brow twitched and a vein on his forehead pulsated like an overgrown tumor. Tears swelled in his eyes and his face darkened to a fiery red. The other aliens took a few steps away as his fists dropped. He lowered his pretty face, taking a deep breath. 

“Why…?” he asked, sorrowfully. “WHYYY DOES HE KEEP DYING?! WHYYY?!“

Mugal leaned over to the Nebulan Chairman, whispering into his ear. 

“Probably ’cause Monster X sucks.” 

The Chairman simply nodded in agreement.

* * * * *

Standing above the corpse of the skeletal demon,  Grand King Ghidorah cackled in glee, but his victory was short lived. Gigan and Megalon charged in from the side. The burrower’s mouth launched burning orbs of napalm, each one exploding on the dragon’s  side. The titan was bathed in fire, but a beat of his wings dispelled the deadly blaze. The alien assassin suddenly stopped and fired his cluster beam, but like many beams before, it failed to penetrate the gleaming shield. As sparks fell to their foe’s feet, the divine defender smashed his drills into his chest, making a drum-like sound. The mad king  lashed out with his left and right heads, clamping his jaws on twitching antennae. The insect squealed in pain, but was helpless as Ghidorah tore them off. Strands of green and yellow goo spilled from the antennae as the Seatopian beast fell away.

The cyborg  saw his old friend fall and shrieked in rage. His abdomen saw activated as he charged forward. Thrusting himself at the larger monster, the rotating blades cut a gash from  chest to groin. The hydra screamed in fury and jumped up. As the space dinosaur prepared to bring his huge blades down, two thrashing tails launched up between his legs. The spiked, mace-like tips whipped around his green neck like ropes. The cyborg cried aloud, but his body was dragged down as the monster monarch landed. 

Suddenly, the underground’s champion cried in pain. His friend’s body had fallen directly on him, his saw still revving! The blades cut through the insect’s head and chest like a hot knife through butter. Exoskeleton was shred like tissue paper as the sharp teeth cut his top half into two pieces.

As  flailing arms ceased, the Nebulan war machine  realized what had happened as the piked tails released his neck. The cyborg pushed himself off the ground, looking down at Megalon’s head, which was now split into two pieces. The avian alien’s entire torso was now painted with green and yellow gore, along with bits and pieces of his ally’s brain.

* * * * *

Emperor Antonio took a step toward the screen. He reached up, grasping at the air as the screens showed what remained of his God. The man suddenly fell to his knees, sobbing. 

“Megalon… Rise… Megalon… Plea–“

Suddenly a laser blast sounded and the Emperor of Seatopia fell to the tiled floor, headless. Mugal spun his weapon in his hand before holstering it again. 

“Humans.”

The Nebulan looked over at Simeon.

 “Shame, I kind of liked him.”

* * * * *

The cyborg screeched to the heavens before he looked up at the snarling Ghidorah. The dreaded demon made him kill his longtime best friend and ally. Gigan suddenly stood up, his rage burning. The hydra’s three maws opened fire, but the Nebulan braced himself and protected his face with both mighty blades. Sparks and fire flew in every direction, and through the smoke, the ninja monster charged! Closing the distance again, the cyborg began to spin, swinging each arm out and whirling like a top. The demon of the stars was taken by surprise and cried in pain as the blades made short work of his majestic wings and flesh, fountains of crimson lifting from his build as enhanced blades tore into him like a can opener. The clawed tips of his wings fired again, but the purple lightning didn’t hamper the infuriated assassin this time.

Being pushed back by the rotating assault, the King of Terror finally jumped away. The upgraded killer stopped his spinning assault and examined his gory blades. Ghidorah’s entire upper body was covered in cuts of various size and depth, the biggest being a massive wound across his chest that actually exposed a few ribs. The dragon cried in pain, his left head coming down to lick the bleeding wound.

Gigan saw his chance and leaped forward, his right blade coming down like a guillotine on the left neck! The blade cut through the mid-section, cutting through muscle and bone with ease. The head was severed and fell to the rocky surface, flopping like a fish out of water. The other two heads golden cried in pain. The cyborg chicken cackled in glee, stomping the severed head into pulp underfoot.

As blood continued to spill from the star eater’s stump, the hydra’s eyes surged with malice. He cried in uncontrollable rage, meeting the avian in combat again. The cyborg swung with his deadly blades, but the  remaining heads came down. The terror’s center head clamped down on his visor. Applying pressure, the hydra made a crack form within the thought-to-be-unbreakable material. The cyborg cried, trying to pull away but suddenly Grand King Ghidorah fired his bolt directly into the cyclopean creature’s eye!

The red visor exploded into shards. The cyborg screamed in pain, falling away as sparks and flames spewed from his forehead. Blinded, the Nebulan weapon continued to flail about on the ground. His buzz saw activated instantly, but it was futile now. Ghidorah lifted his remaining heads and fired his Gravity Bolts again, combining them into one beam of destruction. The beam smashed against his foe’s spiked head, decapitating the pride of the Nebulans.

His body went limp and his saw turned off. The maniacal monster looked at the remains with disgust. Thankfully his stump had stopped bleeding, but he was growing tired. 

Then he remembered he had forgotten one! 

The hydra turned around, but what he saw wasn’t just Orga in the distance, but an abomination.

The brute didn’t attack him like the others had for a reason. He must have already devoured the remains of Monster X. His body was now void of any color, turned entirely black where his flesh was exposed. The Keizer’s armor, however, now adorned him head to toe. Huge, draconic skulls protected each shoulder and his head had sprouted skeletal horns. His tail had thinned and forked, turning into whip-like appendages. But this Orga monstrosity wasn’t done. Now it was feeding on the remains of Megalon. The destroyer of worlds couldn’t help but watch in awe. Only half of the insect’s gory remains had been devoured and changes were already coming. As the malformed mutant’s massive maw swallowed the guardian of the underground, the horns he had sprouted combined and elongated. They formed a single horn with a star-shaped tip and then two antennae sprouted from each side. His red eyes enlarged, turning into bulbous, blood-red eyes. The armor on his back began to change colors, becoming black and yellow like the fallen god’s.

Larger versions of Megalon’s mandibles formed on each side of his gapping maw. The deity’s feet vanished into the Millenian’s huge maw and his jaws clamped shut. The final change came at last as his massive arms began to change. They widened and became metallic, transforming into gigantic versions of the burrower’s drills!

* * * * *

The aliens watching the battle unfold dropped their jaws. It was an awe-inspiring sight. The Xilien leader stepped forward, looking at the screen.

“Orgalon X…”

* * * * *

The chimera of three kaiju released a roar louder than that of any other. A howl unheard of, it would send fear through any other monster, but not Ghidorah. Not the King of Terror! The now two-headed titan stepped forward. This was the last of the alien’s slave weapons and then he’d kill them for trying to tame his might!

The hybrid fired first, but not with just a single attack. His bulbous eyes fired bolts of alien energy at his gigantic foe while the star-tipped horn launched a jagged beam of electrical bliss! The two attacks swirled around one another before striking the mad king, strong enough to penetrate the shield! The hydra stumbled back, crackling with energy. As the attacks ceased, the planet killer unleashed his own Gravity Beams.

The freak lifted its mighty, metallic arm. The drill protected his snaggletoothed face, breaking the beam into splinters. As sparks rained to the rocky ground, the chimera moved forward. Its forked tails beat the ground as brilliance came from its armored shoulder. Just as the powerful concussion beam fired, the golden demise leaped into the air. Even with shredded wings, he was still able to fly!

He flew over the alien and rained death down upon it, the beams breaking through the bone armor, beetle-like shell and dark flesh. Orga screamed in pain, but as the demon of the stars landed a distance away, the gapping wounds already started to close. The ultimate alien looked at his prey and its mouth belched out a shower of small, car-sized red orbs. The napalm bomb assault pounded Ghidorah, exploding on contact and sticking to his golden flesh. The golden dragon stumbled away, his flesh caught aflame. 

The evolved alien moved forward, his horn firing another jagged bolt of electricity. The bolt shot through the tattered left wing membrane, punching another hole big enough to birth a whale. The two headed monster screamed in agony again, but did the only thing he could: trade beams. He launched his Gravity Beams again, targeting the star tipped horn. The beams hit their mark, blowing off the star-shaped weapon. The chimera cried in pain as the horn fell from his skull, disintegrating into dust as it fell. The bloody wound closed, but the horn didn’t grow back.

The drake realized this as the smoke cleared. The hydra charged forward, but beams began to leap from the red compound eyes. The beams, no longer combined with the electrical bolt, failed to penetrate the barrier this time and splintered against it. The hydra closed the distance, but suddenly the massive freak lifted both arms. The huge arms combined, turning into a huge, rotating drill. The sound of its spinning was louder than thunder and the behemoth thrust it forward. The super dragon  just managed to dodge, leaping to the side. His wings fired their purple lightning, ripping the energy into mutated flesh. Just as the space monster’s feet stomped the ground, the grotesque creature’s shell lifted apart to reveal huge, insect wings.

With a quick flap, Orga leapt into the air. The abomination flew slowly before coming down, unable to attain flight for long. Like a falling rock, the mismatched menace smashed the ground from several hundred feet up. He came down facing the King of Terror and again spat a volley of napalm bombs. Grand King Ghidorah quickly reacted, flapping his gargantuan wings as hard as he could to generate hurricane-force winds.

 The winds caught the bombs and flung them back onto their creator! They detonated on contact, covering the brute with a blanket of fire. The giant stumbled about, patting out the flames licking its armored body. As it did so, the golden demise fired another volley of his Gravity Beams. The beams struck the right shoulder piece, shattering the draconic skull ornament.

The bone exploded, spewing alien blood and fire into the air as the former Millenian cried in pain, stumbling away. Its eyes fired again, but the bolts failed to pierce the barrier once again. The scourge of the stars  pressed the assault, marching forward as his jaws and wings showered the abomination with firepower. Pushed back by the assault, Orga found himself against a massive cliff face. With a thunderous cry, the beast leaped forward and pointed his gigantic drill into the rocky ground. The drill began to spin, chewing up the rock and catapulting it at the advancing monster. The quick attack worked in making the space beast cease fire. Closing his wings to protect his faces from the shower of debris, the hydra left himself open to attack. As the drills chewed up the ground, the shoulder cannon fired again!

The beam, this time much closer to Ghidorah when firing, knocked the King of Terror off his feet! The dragon’s back smashed against the ground, his body skidding across the uneven surface. As he finally began to stop, the hydra’s remaining heads shook, clearing the cobwebs before looking back at the mutation, now several hundred meters away. The two headed monster managed to recover and stand, his heads cackling with hatred. The hulking abomination before him roared, banging its metal hands together. As the hydra stood up weakly, the behemoth charged in as fast as its bone-clad legs could carry him.

Grand King Ghidorah suddenly cackled in fury and lifted his heads. He charged forward, firing bolts from his maw and wings. The attacks exploded on the chimera’s armored hide, each strike blowing off chunks of flesh and chipping the boney armor. The two eventually collided, but the incomplete abomination’s huge maw sprang open, over triple its original size! The creature bit down on the crowned right head. Quickly, the exposed black flesh began to change to golden, overlapping scales! Trying to devour the monster monarch,, the abomination began to drag in more of the head until he was down to the base of the neck. The center head kept firing, blasting at the beetle-like shell and breaking it in numerous places. Suddenly, from the abomination’s shell, replicas of Ghidorah’s wings sprang forth.

The dragonic devil realized what was happening and bit down on the side of the DNA mimic’s face. He ripped at the bulbous eye, making the jaws open to scream, before pulling away, tearing with him the creature’s huge eye. The features the Millenian had adopted from Ghidorah began to wither, returning to black flesh and beetle-like armor. The chimera screamed in frustration and waded forward, reaching out with its huge arms to try and grasp his prey.

As its jaw hung wide open, the King of Terror offered it a different type of meal. His maws opened fire, firing their Gravity Beams. The beams combined into one and were aided by the hydra’s wing lightning. The assault speared into Orga’s massive mouth and the creature screamed in agony as the blast ripped through its body. The monster stumbled back, but its gapping maw was unable to close as a ball of fire raced up.

Suddenly, its back exploded, tearing apart as Ghidorah’s attack ripped through it!  The expanding fireball ripped through the grotesque alien and, finally, a secondary explosion tore it in half. A tremendous shockwave made the planet destroyer stumble back as the napalm bomb stored deep within its body detonated! The chimera whined, flailing about but its body was self-destructing. Another explosion tore out what remained of its belly, making it fall forward. Remaining upright only because of its huge drills stabbing into the ground, the creature’s skull finally exploded.

Chunks of flesh and armor rained down upon the golden monster as he watched the horrifying thing collapse, its entire body slowly disintegrating into ash. What remained of Orga burned in a blaze caused by its very own napalm, but the demon of the stars wasn’t finished. Tired and angry, he turned around, his crimson eyes narrowing in on the alien domes a short distance away.

* * * * *

Inside the base, the extraterrestrials felt a shiver run down their spines. 

They were doomed. 

“This is your fault.” Mugal declared, pointing his weapon at the Xilien and firing, killing the youthful alien instantly. “Wanted to make sure I got to do that before him.”

As the others looked at the remains of the Xilien, several began to flee for the exit. The Nebulan Chairman and Kilaakian Queen remained behind, knowing full well that an enraged Ghidorah was something no mortal soul, alien or Earthborn, could escape.

“Perfect peace, here we come,” the Chairman declared, closing his eyes.

* * * * *

Without remorse, the super dragon monster launched a Gravity Beam at the structures. The alien buildings were obliterated in less than a second, thousands of lives ended in a brilliant flash of light. Nothing was left after the golden bolt was cast down upon it, just a blazing inferno of twisted ruins. The hydra was tired. He cackled in wicked glee, having a strange feeling of satisfaction. It was a day of carnage unlike any other.

And most importantly, he was free. And once again he could destroy the galaxies that dared spawn him. The King of Terror, the Galaxy Obliterator, the Planet Destroyer… Grand King Ghidorah was back!

Winner: Grand King Ghidorah

Author: Blake Davis | Banner: Stephanie Hughes

Despair.

That is what one feels when torn from the angelic grace of hope. That is what one feels when cornered by the hulking essence of death. That is what one feels when the realization of no survival, no chance and no possibilities sink into the soul. Most tend to avoid such a dark disease at all cost and they succeed. Unfortunately, like death itself, it cannot be avoided forever. And when the time comes, an unholy fate awaits.

Peaceful, yet soothing chants were sung softly throughout the sacred land of Infant Island. Such heavenly songs echoed out from gentle vocals. These vocals belonged to the Cosmos. They sang for their graceful lepidopteran deity, Mothra, who wearingly rested upon her massive egg within her temple. The cool gentle breeze of the wind flowing through the air, the beautiful divine white glow cast the moon above from a clear sky, the sensation of peace and harmony… It was everything the deity could ever want, one final peaceful night. Life was slowly robbing the goddess, honorably discharging her of her duties and leaving them to the Earth’s next hope. With complete acceptance, the deity calmly waited to leave the world, knowing that her time would end very soon.

Though life is gentle and patient when taking, death, however, is not.

An unholy screeching quickly crushed the heavenly chanting, silencing the Cosmos with layers of fear in mere moments. Alert, dimmed blue eyes lit up brightly as the peace that was prized so dearly to the goddess was stolen away. Silence had fallen onto the island, an eerie silence that quietly promised death. Chirping angrily, the holy moth gave forth a challenge to the source. And without hesitation, the source gladly accepted with a unique reply.

Massive crimson explosions of micro-oxygen tainted the island, leaving chaotic destruction upon the sacred land. The island trembled greatly from the force of each explosion. Natural land formations crumbled, plant life vaporized and flamed craters slashed the ground. Thick smoke and dust clouds swallowed the floating mass of rock, with the eerie silence slowly washing over once more. Flapping her mighty wings softly, Mothra took flight through the skyward opening of her temple and headed toward the location of her challenger. As the screen of dust and smoke faded, the goddess halted her advancements, surges of terror stabbed throughout her entire body as the identity of the source was revealed.

Hellish bat wings stretched out widely from the corners of an armored devilish back. Pulsing in a molten glow was an amber hue horn that was attached to the forehead. Ghoulish jaws filled with numerous needle pointed teeth slowly opened, releasing a thick mist of micro-oxygen from its blood-hued fortress body. An evil devil-like, axe-structured head slowly reared back, unleashing another unholy cry. The source was none other than the taker of life itself…

Destoroyah.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, the protector of peace shook off the paralyzing fear that had captivated her and begun flapping her wings greatly. Powerful gusts of wind rammed against the towering abomination with heavy applied force, causing the devil to actually stagger back from its standing. Given the chance to land a strong blow, twin golden beams quickly struck home upon the target’s chest. Screeching cries of pain raged loudly as the Oxygen Destroyer personified fell to the ground. The Queen of Monsters, however, continued to rain down her antenna beams heavily on to the fallen beast. Due to the power of the divine moth’s never ending assault, dust slowly consumed the visual sight of the colony creature in mere moments. After a minute of attacking, the lepidopteran brought her beam shower to an end.

Watching from a safe distance were the Cosmos. A slight warmth of relief softly comforted them, feeling that the threat was defeated. With no cries of pain, or any attacks coming from the slowly dissolving screen of dust, Mothra as well was beginning to feel at ease.

A haunting cackle lowly hiss broke the silence, as if mocking the moth goddess and her recent efforts. Destoroyah was standing with no hints of pain or any visual evidence of wounds. The supersonic flyer  felt herself edging back as cold shivers crawled down her exoskeleton. The Cosmos were stunned to see the creature standing as if everything their god had done was nothing but mere child’s play to it!

A chilling hiss crawled from the demon’s maw; it could taste the very essence of despair and death slowly overflowing from the deity. Oh it was such a delicious joy to bear, to make even a deity quake in terror. Although the Perfect Lifeform wanted to dine into such a feast, it had an objective in mind. It was to completely dominate and destroy life, to wipe out everything in existence. That included hope, for hope was one of life’s greatest traits. The vanguard of extinction sensed this hope and it was right within the cave behind the insect. That was its primary target to send into oblivion.

Flashes and sparks of molten energy slithered across the demon’s axe shaped skull; the crimson scourge was not going to let a dying goddess stand in the way of its objective.

A monstrous lavender-hued beam hellishly lashed out from its twisted  maw, tearing into Mothra’s right wing. Howls of agony reached the heavens as the mammoth moth felt her wing shredded away by micro-oxygen properties. Falling out of the sky, the radiant defender crashed heavily into one of the craters made from the devil’s earlier attacks. A hole he planned on turning into a grave.

The ground trembled and cracked from each step the hellish fortress took, advancing toward the weakened moth with a mind filled with dark intent. Molten energy crackled and sparked from the demon as it unleashed multiple strikes of its Oxygen Destroyer Beam. Fur burned. Flesh eroded slowly on a microscopic level. Blood gushed and spilled onto the ground. Cries and shrieks of pain and suffering clawed the skies above; the goddess could feel her life being ripped out of her gravely injured body. The bloody sounds of a life being crushed into extinction… It was the most beautiful music that had ever fallen upon the cruel crustacean’s ears. 

Gargled chirps weakly sound, almost as if choking, struggling for air, for life. Clamping down around the moth’s neck with its massive demonic tail, Destoroyah sadistically smashed and flung the divine emissary around like a child’s toy. It flung her against the scorched ground. It flung her against massive piles of stoned rubble. Over and over, heartlessly cackling from the mass enjoyment of her pain, Serizawa’s nightmare would make the holy beast understand that no form of life would escape its wrath.

Ten minutes passed.

The loud impact flooded the air as a heavily injured and bloodied Mothra lifelessly laid upon the cracked and crumbled land. Tattered wings spread out in a jerked form. Missing legs tainted the damaged island widely. A gashed-in, dim blue eye rested roughly on the ground, soaking in a mildly small puddle of spilled blood. Gazing coldly over its shoulder, the living Oxygen Destroyer  looked onto the creature. No movements presented itself; nor were signs of life displayed. A part of it felt disappointed. It was having so much fun, though knowing that the moth was dying, the microbial monstrosity  thought that the ancient god would put up a better fight. Slowly, the demon turned its sights back on its objective. A lavender-hued Oxygen Destroyer Beam discharged from the fiend’s foul maw, blasting through the cave that had hidden the temple. Ancient formations that held paintings of the Cosmos and Mothra’s history were reduced to rubble, with the dust settling from the attack. It came into view…

There it was… The egg.

Hope. Life.

The Cosmos could only watch helplessly as the taker of life marched forth unchallenged. Sparks and flashes of molten energy crackled and surged out. Needle jaws slowly opened, revealing death’s lavender power brimming over as a thick mist of micro-oxygen streamed from both sides of the demon’s maw. But before the demon could unleash its destructive weapon, a heavy pressure slammed against its right side. Unable to calculate what was going on; the monster was already down on the ground! A low groan hissed from its maw, the destructive devil couldn’t understand what had hit it. Either he was focusing on its target too much to pay attention, or whatever had struck it was too quick. All in all, it did not matter. 

Destoroyah had already decided to erase whatever had struck it from the realm of existence.

Shaking off the sluggish daze that surrounded its vision, a heavy breeze brushed against him carrying millions of golden scales along with it. With its vision settling back, cold eyes opened widely in shock. Such a thing was impossible: Mothra was still alive! A heartless screech filled with hatred raged out from the hellish beast as it felt a grand greeting of pain pierce its body repeatedly. Bolts of lightning lashed out from the angelic protector’s  tattered wings, surging through her golden scales and guided straight upon the downed fiend. The bolts tore and drove through the nightmarish creature, blasting through its chest with extreme intensity. The goddess was willing to die for her offspring; she had already understood that once her assault ended, she would then forever leave the world. But if anything else, she would deny death as long as she could if it meant saving her unborn child’s life.

Dark cumulonimbus clouds drowned the once heavenly night sky, flashes of lightning snaking through the massive abyss over the damaged island. Winds whirled and whipped aggressively, a blinding fury of heavy rain pouring down. It was a typhoon.

Bloodcurdling shrieks of pain continued to scream out from the demonic crustacean as the divine moth turned up her assault, launching her antennae beams into fray to increase the damage output. Blood spouted and sprayed from the massive bloody hole that was once an encased chest. The grueling agony, the monstrous pain, such sensations were overwhelming! Molten sparks of energy coursed around the devil’s head furiously. It refused to be beaten, especially by a weak deity who was already at death’s door! Crimson energy burst from the devil’s horn, slashing across the mammoth moth’s upper body in a hideous display of raw power. Thrashing through the harsh rejection of the reflective scales, crimson energy compressed itself into the form of a katana. And with a mighty heave, the living weapon  thrust the blade through the exoskeleton of the goddess completely through.

Wing movements slowed down. The seemingly drowning waves of scales and bolts of golden lightning came to a halt.

Rising up, the nightmarish fortress stood from the now drenched and muddy ground, sensing no extreme danger. The crimson katana faded, allowing the impaled lepidopteran to rest onto the monster’s horn, bloody gargling pants groaning out wearingly from its throat. The nightmarish beast couldn’t believe what had taken place. It hadn’t seen such ferocity in many years. The only monster that had ever presented such power was… 

Godzilla.

Taking one step forward, the colony creature felt its body stumble slightly downward before catching itself. The grave chest wound was too deep and painful to make any physical advancement. It spent most of its strength enduring the punishment and keeping its complete form intact. But with a handful of reserved energy left, one hit of its Oxygen Destroyer Beam would be enough to send the egg into oblivion. Molten sparks once more summoned around the demon’s skull, the cruel creature was ready to take another life. Before releasing its attack, scales lightly fluttered around the monster.  The terrifying titan quickly disarmed its attack, discharging the energy down to its tail which swayed against a nearby boulder, causing a mildly large explosion. 

He noticed that the scales reflected energy properties; if he had released its beam, he wasn’t sure how the outcome would unfold. But in some part of its corrupted mind, he knew that it would have worsened its situation somehow. Destoroyah felt an inner rage boil hotly down within its empty soul, how could a dying creature withstand so much?! It was the taker of life! The physical manifestation of death! The nightmarish symbol and embodiment of despair! If there was life, it would crush it. If there was resistance, it would send it into the depths of the eternal inferno. If there was hope, it would drown it into despair. Its attacks should have killed that pathetic weakling of an insect by now!

In the beginning, Serizawa’s nightmare planned on destroying the egg and leaving. Realizing Mothra was rejecting its will, the devil decided to forge a new will…

Its will demanded that everything on Infant Island be annihilated!

A weak chirp softly echoed. The goddess knew that this time she couldn’t deny death. Her monstrous foe stood there puzzled, enraged, confused beyond all reason as to why the goddess continued to fight back against it. It knew that she had nothing left; it knew that she was going under.

So why? Why continue to fight, when the battle has already been lost?

Gazing upward at the dark thunderous clouds, the Queen of Monsters watched as her scales carried with the powerful winds of the typhoon. She had given everything she had to protect her egg… Not as Earth’s protector, but as a loving mother. In the end, she accepted that it sadly wasn’t enough. With her last moments of life, the divine moth peacefully looked into the heavens, knowing that it was going to end her suffering and protect her egg. Nature’s angelic whip flashed across the dark skies, diving straight down with the guidance of the deity’s scales and devoured both the Goddess and the Devil in a bright eruption of lightning. The grand explosion forcefully tore through the entire island, pressing the egg back into a low ditch, having it land on a soft mass of dirt, rubble and fallen trees. Spreading for nearly a mile in length, anything within the radius was engulfed and blasted.

In minutes, the explosion faded. The mixture of smoke and dust lightly died down, revealing a giant hole bathed in small flames and ashes within the middle of the island. The Cosmos, hiding within a lower chamber of the island for safety, went out and looked upon the results of the battle. 

Everything that once looked so beautiful now looked dead and ghastly, like a graveyard. Tears shed from their eyes, lamenting at the loss of their beloved Mothra. And with no sight of the egg, their tears had flown greatly with the assumption of the egg’s demise. Clearing away, the typhoon came to an end, releasing the beautiful night sky and its moon back into the world. The winds blew softly; the roar of the ocean became settled and calm. A loud crack quickly fell upon the ears of the weeping Cosmos. The flowing of tears stopped as they heard the sound continue and form into the noises of something hatching.

Their tear filled eyes opened widely with happiness as they both heard the loud lively chirps of a Mothra Larva. Their goddess’ legacy was safe and had become the new beacon of hope.

Elsewhere…

Beneath the island, lay a dark murky world. A shark suddenly dies, its body eroding away at a haunting pace, showing bone and dying flesh. Slowly, small swarms of microorganism crustaceans swim through the watery void, away from its corpse.

Despair may never die in this world…

But as long as there’s hope, despair’s defeat is most certain.

Draw: Destoroyah, Mothra (Heisei)

Author: Hayes A. Jones | Banner: Matthew Williams

“So… Monique. Wanna go to the Radicals concert tonight?”

Monique, currently practicing her martial art stances, didn’t even look at Randy as she answered in an emotionless voice. “No.”

“Please? I mean, after all the adventures we’ve had with the others and Godzilla, I can’t believe you still don’t want to–“

“The beast’s name is Zilla.”

Randy shrugged the comment off. “Zilla… Godzilla… What does it matter?”

Dr. Niko “Nick” Tatopoulos allowed himself a small smirk from where he stood watching his “son” frolic in New York Harbor, snapping at passing flocks of gulls. It had been a full six years since the Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team – or H.E.A.T. – had realized that the creature they had been calling “Godzilla” for years wasn’t the real deal and Randy still hadn’t absorbed it. Unsurprisingly, that did nothing to improve Monique’s opinion of him.

Randy threw his hands up in frustration. “Why do you care so much? I don’t think anyone is going to be offended if we call our lizard by the wrong name!”

Monique allowed herself a gentle sneer. “Then I don’t suppose you will mind if I call you by the wrong name, no?”

As Randy continued on his rather futile quest for a date, Nick’s thoughts were drawn back to 2004, when they had discovered Zilla’s true identity. After a worldwide alien invasion and the battle that had stopped it (something Randy had been sorely disappointed they hadn’t taken part in), it was reported that Godzilla was the leading force behind the destruction of the aliens and their army of monsters. So naturally, H.E.A.T. was stunned to see amateur footage of a much larger dinosaurian juggernaut easily slay a beast identical to their ally. During a brief period of depression for Nick, his adoptive son had appeared, and very much alive to boot. Of course, H.E.A.T. had gotten to the bottom of things. 

After some persistent investigation, they discovered that for the last fifty-six years, Japan had been plagued by giant monsters – including Godzilla, King of the Monsters. The government had somehow managed to keep the whole thing under wraps until recently. A whole section of the Defense Force was even solely dedicated to combatting these giants. By now, due to the event in 2004, the truth had come out and Japan was now unofficially known as “land of the Giant Monsters.” These ‘kaiju,’ as the Japanese called them, had actually turned out to be surprisingly good for tourism. Japanese scientists had dubbed the creature that attacked New York City in 1998 and its offspring ‘Zilla,’ in reference to the species’ constant misidentification as Godzilla. This knowledge now widespread, everyone now called the infamous mascot of H.E.A.T. by his true name.

Everyone but Randy, that was.

As Monique continued her deadpan rejection of Randy’s offer, a snarky female voice interrupted Nick’s thoughts.

“He’s still going after the French Fry, huh?”

Elsie and Craven walked from the lab, N.I.G.E.L. trailing close behind.

“As always.”

Elsie snorted. “I’m telling you, we should start videoing those two. It’s only a matter of time before she snaps and hurts him. I mean, really hurts him.”

Craven nodded in agreement. “It’d probably be for the better anyway.”

N.I.G.E.L. also agreed, apparently. “One of these days! Bam! Straight to the moon!” the robot blurted out in a warped voice.

Craven sighed, shoulders slumping. “And that’s exactly why he needs a good smack…”

Of course, Randy still hadn’t stopped hitting on Monique during this whole exchange and the French Secret Service agent was seriously considering hitting him back. But even his cheesiest pick-up line and her vilest of thoughts were drowned out by a familiar screech. Immediately, everyone stopped and turned their attention to the harbor. Zilla had gone feral. Reared to his full height, the mutant’s lip was pulled into a vicious snarl. The great lizard was regarding the harbor’s surface with narrowed eyes, his pupils mere pinpoints. Nick had never seen his “son” like this. The look that passed over the radioactive reptile’s  angular face was one of pure, primeval alarm. 

And going back to all the adventures they had had, Nick had a pretty good hunch about the cause. 

The water in front of Zilla began to boil, flashes of bright blue light illuminating the bay and revealing a massive shape rising from its depths. Breaking the churning surface of the water, the dark shape proved to be an enormous animal, dinosaurian in nature and fierce in looks. Seawater dripping from its emerald scales, the beast bellowed a challenge, its shrill roar almost identical to Zilla’s. H.E.A.T.’s largest member answered the cry with a low growl, dropping into a defensive position. The creature observed the irradiated iguana with a look of contempt, its brilliant orange eyes shining hard and proud.

Nick was stunned. The giant now sizing up their own monster was the mirror image of the one they – and most of the world – had once watched obliterate another of Zilla’s species in a shaky, grainy video

“It’s Godzilla!” Elsie exclaimed, stepping back in horror.

“The real Godzilla!” Craven added in a voice high, girlish from fear.

“No,” said Nick with his usual air of authority. “That’s not Godzilla. It’s too small. And the spines are underdeveloped… That’s Godzilla’s son, Godzilla Junior!”

Indeed, it was Godzilla Junior. Aside from a smaller stature, stubbier spines and more vibrant skin, the subadult Godzillasaur was the spitting image of his father. But perhaps the greatest similarity was the feeling of awe and intimidation both summoned. Junior was seeking new territory, a kingdom of his own. While he was still only the Prince of the Monsters, he would soon become a king, maturity just on the horizon. Although he cared for his father deeply, two kings, however close, simply can’t share the same home. So he had migrated to the Atlantic on a quest for a new residence. 

But there were too many people in this ocean. Back in the endless vastness of the Pacific, Junior could enjoy sweet solitude for days without end. Here, humans were everywhere, making horrible rackets and awful stenches from their cities, beaches and boats. Sometimes the heir to the throne cursed his incredible senses. Now, he had much more tolerance towards humans than his father, but his temper was just as explosive. So, when he had sensed another giant in the immediate area, he had decided to make a quick detour to vent his frustration. And the soon-to-be victim of his anger didn’t look too weak. It was a bit scrawny, but this only made it seem fast and lithe. And there was… something else, an aura of power about it that couldn’t quite be placed. Whatever it was, Junior could only hope this beast would at least put up a decent face.

Zilla didn’t share his challenger’s enthusiasm. He could tell he was about to tangle with one seriously tough customer. If he had a glow of power, then the teenage mutation shone with it, something else the irradiated dinosaur shared with his father. If New York’s savior was going to survive – let alone win – he needed to rely on his speed, agility and cunning.

As the two titans – both the offspring of infamous creatures – circled one another in a dangerous dance, exchanging roars and snarls, H.E.A.T. stood by in grim silence.

“Woo-hoo! Fight!”

Expect for Randy.

“Idiot, this is serious,” Monique said, the deadly softness of her voice vaguely directed towards the young computer whizz. “If their struggle leaves the bay, the damage would be unimaginable. Not to mention the loss of life.”

Nick nodded in agreement. “Plus, this may be a fight Zilla can’t win. There’s no doubt in my mind that Godzilla himself is more powerful. I’m not as sure about the son, but either way this is gonna be the fight of his life.”

Elsie sided with Nick. “Face it Randy; the Lizard King may have just met his match.”

“Hey,” snorted Randy, crossing his arms. “Never bet against the G–” Monique’s eyes began burning holes in his back. “…Uh, Z-man.”

Nick only stared ahead. “We’ll see about that.” He paused. “Is the Heatseeker’s motor working yet?”

“Nope,” replied Randy frankly. “It’s still shot from when we were chased by that humongo flying squirrel.”

“What about the mini-sub?”

“Still trashed from the fight with the sea snake mutation,” the computer expert shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “Sorry, jefe.”

Nick gritted his teeth.

Elsie, sensing his distress, reached for her cell phone. “I’ll call General Hicks.”

“No!” The sudden outburst from Nick made everyone – Monique excluded – jump. “If there’s one thing we know about Godzillas, it’s that they do not respond well to military fire. Provoking Junior would be the worst possible thing to do.”

Elsie frowned. “Then… what do we do?”

Nick remained silent for a moment. “Nothing. Zilla’s on his own this time.”

Back in the bay, the American monster was having similar thoughts. Sometimes he saved his human family. Sometimes they saved him. But it was different now. Now it was just him and Junior. This was his fight. His chance to prove himself as his own monster, not just H.E.A.T.’s slightly-larger-than-average pet. And he had no intentions of letting that chance go without a fight.

Elsie put a comforting hand on Nick’s tense shoulder, looking more somber than usual. “Don’t worry. He’ll be fine.”

Both combatants ready, the clash between the Prince of the Monsters and the world’s most accomplished guard dog began.

Zilla struck first. Powerful tail propelling him forward, the swift giant rushed at Godzilla Junior, water gathering at his waist in a great wave. The wave pulled ahead of its source and slapped into the emerald titan, sending water spraying up his body. The seawater struck his eyes with stinging force, blinding him for a split second. That was all the time the atomic animal needed to make his move. The mutant iguana slammed his square skull into Junior’s gut, pushing the young dinosaur underwater as he doubled over in pain. With an encouraged wail, the mutant monarch dove after his downed opponent…

…only to be blown back out of the water by a burst of atomic flames.

As the seared reptile splashed back down several hundred yards away, Godzilla’s heir erupted from the water with high bellow, barring his twin rows of teeth viciously. How dare his foe resort to such a cheap shot this early! Snarling, the Monster Prince fixed his glare at the water before him, burning eyes willing the lithe lizard to appear. The saurian’s grimace was soon replaced by a look of puzzled disappointment. 

Had the mutant beast already perished? Or had it fled after the first blow, like a coward? 

Both standing theories were proven false when the young Godzillasaur threw his head back in a scream of pain. As the dinosaur thrashed about, an invisible force yanked him underwater. Junior’s eyes opened – their orange glow easily cutting through the murky depths – and were immediately greeted by the sight of the spined squamate, bold eyes locked with his and teeth sunk into his thigh. Bony spines crackled with nuclear power. A neon blue glow was visible in the back of the irradiated dinosaur’s throat. Eyes widening in recognition, the nimble mutant released his bite and darted to the side, arms and legs held straight to reduce drag. As the hydrodynamic reptile jetted to the side, a stream of white-hot plasma roared from his foe’s maw. The beam barely missed the tip of the fleeing beast’s tail, blasting the brittle seabed to bits instead. Making a wide turn, Zilla charged at an exposed green back. 

Feral eyes narrowed knowingly.

 In the same moment HEAT’s ally outstretched his talons to shred scaled hide, the Monster Prince swung his hefty tail down, catching the iguana’s back. The “imposter” king was slammed into the harbor’s bottom with a silent yelp of shock. Pushing himself up to a kneel, the great lizard stretched his jaws open in a roar. Junior gazed down upon his foe in a new light, smiling inwardly. Although the water muffled any sound, the message was clear enough: Bring it.

Flexing his claws eagerly, Godzilla Junior happily complied.

Kicking off the rocky bottom, the last of the species bolted towards the ruin reborn at an explosive velocity. Lungs shifting forward to throw his great mass into motion, Junior lurched from the seafloor with a grand sweep of his tail. Effortlessly outmaneuvering his slower, clumsier adversary, Zilla twisted himself around to straddle his larger foe’s back. The mutant bit down on the Godzillasaurus’ neck, dug his claws into emerald scales, and wrapped his tail around one of the struggling saurian’s ankles. The saurian’s tail wove through the water violently in a fit of outrage, sending both irradiated giants into a wild tumble. As the dueling reptiles spun through the chilled water of New York Bay, the two smashed into the seabed, the thinner of the two taking the brunt of the blow. 

Crushed beneath Junior’s greater girth, the world-class guard dog involuntarily released the Prince of Monsters, a pained stream of bubbles bursting from his mouth. Twisting himself upright, Godzilla’s child slashed at his counterpart’s chest with his clawed mitts. The lithe giant was pushed downward, striking the bottom with a dull thud. Both a plume of sediment and a stream of blood billowed into the water. Eyes hard and unforgiving, the irradiated juvenile unleashed his nuclear breath. The atomic dragon vomited up a column of raw might, pushing the radioactive reptile even further into the seabed with its great force. The great lizard went limp, eyes falling shut and head lolling to the side. Letting loose a muted bellow of triumph, Godzilla Junior pushed off the bottom and began his ascent to the surface.

Back at their headquarters, H.E.A.T. waited, watching the harbor intently for movement. The suspense in the air was high enough to match any horror movie, so tight it could be strummed like a guitar string, the tension so thick it could be cut with a–

“Come on!”

Randy paced impatiently. “When is that fight gonna come back topside? I wanna see some action!”

Before anyone could open their mouth to tell the computer whizz to shut up again, something broke the surface of the bay, causing five pairs of eyes – and one red, electronic camera lens – to snap back to their positions as anxious sentries. The kaiju heir was rising from the harbor, water running down his body through the many channels created by his scales. Eyes flaring, the nuclear beast threw back his head in a tremendous roar, shaking the air and sea.

H.E.A.T. was stunned. Even Randy could only manage a stunned “No way…”

Nick almost staggered. His adopted son had lost. He might even be dead. Although he still stood strong, something inside him broke.

“Zilla… no…” Nick’s grip on the handrail he leaned upon tightened. Then, the biologist began screaming at the top of his lungs. “Zilla! Zilla you can’t give up! Come on!”

On the bottom of the harbor, a pair of glowing eyes snapped open.

Elsie grabbed onto Nick’s arm urgently. “Are you crazy?” she whispered fiercely. “We don’t wanna attract that thing’s attention!”

Unfortunately, it was too late to prevent that. More curiosity in his eyes than anything else, the son of a god incarnate turned to face the tiny humans that seemed to be the source of the desperate voice that had pierced the air just moments before. Humans were a very strange beast, but they never had been sufficiently unafraid to make such a noise in his presence. Maybe they were different, like the female he had known so long ago…

Junior would never get a chance to investigate this possibility.

Exploding from the water like a ship-launched torpedo in reverse, Zilla returned from the dead and became airborne, an arc of an impromptu rainfall marking his path. With a mighty screech, the agile mutant assumed the position of a hawk about to snatch up unsuspecting prey and landed right on his mark – on top of the ruin reborn. Feet sitting squarely on the Monster Prince’s shoulders, the atomic beast cemented himself to his perch by way of claw and tooth, ripping into the saurian’s neck with a newfound vigor.

H.E.A.T. erupted into happy yelling.

“Yee-ha! Get him, big guy!” screamed Randy, punching his fist into the air enthusiastically.

Nick cracked a huge grin, his broken spirit mending instantly. Even the usually stoic Monique allowed herself to be carried away, sternly commanding the reptile to fight harder with clenched fists. Elsie jumped up with an excited whoop. Craven and N.I.G.E.L. celebrated together, taking one another hand-in-clamp.

Given strength by his surrogate family’s cheering, the American defender threw his weight to the side, sending both himself and the saurian toppling into the water with an enormous splash! As the two behemoths grappled for dominance, the harbor churned, as if stirred by a great, unseen hand. The occasional burst of blue light briefly lit up the water, but besides that, nothing was seen of either combatants. As H.E.A.T. slowly fell silent, so did the water. A few tense moments passed.

Craven spoke up. “So… what happened? Who won?”

The robotics expert’s question was soon answered, when Junior and Zilla surfaced. The two reptilian giants were much worse for wear, both breathing heavily. Watery blood ran down the lizard’s sides and severe burns blotted his body. The heir’s regenerative abilities spared him from any serious, lasting injuries, but his outermost layer of skin was torn to ribbons and several gashes too deep to heal right away crisscrossed his hide. The outcome of the battle was now clear.

A deadlock.

“…So what now?”

 It was Elsie, crossing her arms with a clouded look on her face. Nick bit his lip. She was right. If the two were evenly matched, this fight could go on until either on or both giants became totally exhausted and dropped unconscious. Or dead. And by that point, New York could be completely demolished. We need a solution, Nick thought. And fast.

As if by divine intervention, a solution did present itself, even if Nick had preferred that it hadn’t been in the form of a second atomic leviathan.

H.E.A.T., Zilla and Junior alike were stunned when a third beast rose from the bay. Junior the most, because the newest arrival was his father.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters himself, eyed the scene before him with a strange intensity, towering above even his fellow giants. While Junior was a beast of great power and majesty, his father vastly surpassed him in both categories. Where Junior’s spines were small and immature, really just exaggerated scutes, the atomic dragon’s spines were fully-formed, lining his back like an ivory forest. The Monster King’s skin was also much darker and more uneven, a coat of charcoal grey warts compared to his son’s sleek, emerald scales. The Godzillasaurs did share the same burning orange eyes though.

HEAT’s protector growled defensively. Had his foe summoned assistance? A very similar thought was passing through Nick’s mind. If his “son” had experienced so much trouble against a younger, less developed Godzilla, what chance did he stand against an adult? The dreaded god moved forward. Nick flinched, expecting him to blow his counterpart to bits. But the irradiated saurian didn’t even glance at the iguana. Instead, the Monster King waded to face his son. The two irradiated saurians grumbled to each other, conversing, perhaps even arguing. After a deafening roar from his father, Junior gave in. Together, as father and son, king and prince, the two atomic dragons turned and headed back out to sea.

Randy scratched his head in confusion. “Huh? Uh… would anyone mind explaining what just happened to me?”

Monique gave him a rough shove with her elbow. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Nick nodded, having realized that very thing himself. “They’re going home. Godzilla just came to bring his son home.”

Randy still wasn’t convinced. “But our Godzilla just ripped up his son,” the young hacker said, ignoring Monique screaming “Zilla!” at him. “Why didn’t he blast him?”

Nick put his hand to his chin thoughtfully. “I’m not quite sure, but maybe out of respect.”

“Sure,” Elsie piped in. “If there is one thing the King of the Monsters appreciates, it’s a good fight. And that’s exactly what Zilla gave Junior.”

As if to prove that point, Godzilla’s child paused, turning back for just a moment. At that moment, he and his former foe locked eyes. The look that passed between them wasn’t one of dislike or scorn as one might expect. No… it was a look of companionship.

“So… the big guy wins by default then?”

Nick, Elsie, Monique and Craven all turned to glare at him.

Randy held out his hands defensively. “Just kidding…”

Craven smiled, realizing something with an incredible impact. “N.I.G.E.L. survived! Can you believe that?” The roboticist clapped his hand together in a child-like glee. “He wasn’t crushed or stomped or blown up or–“

Before the deliriously happy scientist could finish his thought, the mutated lizard dove into the bay, a massive wall of water roaring up from the harbor. The great wave crashed over the railing Craven was leaning against, sweeping him off his feet and smashing N.I.G.E.L. to bits against the wall.

Craven, sprawled and soaked, sighed in defeat. “Never mind…”

A choppy roar suddenly filled the air. Descending towards H.E.A.T. headquarters, a navy green military helicopter let down a rope ladder, a man with a grave face hanging from it.

Nick was quickly able to identify the man. “General Hicks.”

Jumping off, Hicks greeted Nick rather gruffly. “Hey, Worm Guy, I got several calls about Zilla and another mutation duking it out right here. What happened? Where are they now?”

Randy chuckled. “Missed the whole thing, dude.”

“What?”

Nick cut in, taking command of the situation. “He’s right. The other monster – it wasn’t a mutation, or at least not one of ours – just left.”

Hicks sighed, pinching the crease of his nose. This was gonna be a nightmare back at the office. “Mind filling me in then?”

Nick only smiled in response.

The American monster descended to his lair, in desperate need of rest and recovery. Even if it very nearly cost him his life, he was glad to have his clash today. Otherwise, he may have never met Junior. Were they friends? No. Were they allies? Not quite. They were one, not by genetics or appearance, but in spirit. After all, looking past their outward differences, they were really very similar, right down to the adopted families. Whatever had formed between them, neither of them would ever forget it, even if they never met again.

And for that, Zilla was grateful.

Draw: Godzilla Junior, Zilla

Author: Kristian Zatkoff | Banner: Stephanie Hughes

Ultraman yelled out as he delivered a powerful jump kick to Grand King Ghidorah’s chest. The vile space demon staggered back but did not fall. It let out a sound that sounded eerily like a laugh. The Ultra Brother  felt fear but quickly turned it into anger. It wouldn’t do him any good to fight while doubting his own abilities. But the Ultimate Hero couldn’t help it; after their unresolved battle back in Washington D.C. he learned just how mortal he was first hand. Shortly after that, he found out Zone Fighter had disappeared. The last anyone heard, he had killed Monster X and the Russian government had joined forces with him to fight off Hedorah before all communication had been lost with the city. New York City was infested with a forest of SpaceGodzilla’s crystals. Finally, one of G-Force’s underground docking bays for their mechs was attacked by an unlikely invader. The monster Baragon had accidentally dug its way into the Mechagodzilla hanger in search of food before being driven off. Now here the Land of Light’s emissary was, still no clue where the Peacelander was, if he was even alive, his allies at G-Force still trying to repair the heavy damages caused by the burrower, and now having a rematch in the Boxing Ring with one of the most dangerous predators to have been born in the far, cold reaches of space.

The “Boxing Ring” was just as the name implied: A giant boxing ring big enough to hold several giant monsters, though high tension wires were used as ropes and giant metal towers acted the giant turnbuckles. The ring was located just outside of New York City with a giant pit dug around it, reinforced with steel walls. The ring was made by G-Force to teach future pilots how to make mechs like Mechagodzilla and Moguera fight in a tooth and claw battle. Many monsters liked to get up close and personal, some had defenses that made many, if not all long range weapons useless, and it wouldn’t pay to have pilots not know how to use their mechs in melee combat. In fact, Ultraman and Zone Fighter often volunteered to be the “monsters” in the ring. After their battle in D.C., the King of Terror flew to the Boxing Ring almost as if drawn to it. The creature would would fly up into the sky and fire at the city in the distance, often causing more of New York’s buildings that weren’t already destroyed by SpaceGodzilla’s crystals to crumble and even sometimes destroy the crystals themselves but every time it landed it would not land anywhere except for in the ring. It was almost as if he was challenging the world.

The giant hero had to wonder where the Crystal Sultan wasn’t anywhere near his crystal fortress. What would cause him to leave? Was he making more around the world? He’d have to find out later, but for now he had to deal with the nightmare hellbeast in front of him. It was the dark of night and seeing this creature stand in front of him in the dark, its golden scales reflecting the light of the city’s fire in the distance, made it look like something out of a horror film.

The world ender unleashed a barrage of Gravity Beams but the red and silver hero backflipped out of the way. Ultraman ran forward as the golden dragon fired red lightning from its wings. The Earth’s defender saw this but took no action to defend himself. It was a mistake he would come to regret right away. The Ultra was shocked and fell to the ground. He may have been resistant to electricity, which is partly why he didn’t defend himself, but this electricity the devil fired was strange. Different. Alien. The silver champion managed to get up to his knee before a mighty force from above crushed him. He  couldn’t see it but he knew that the space monster was on his back. The weight went away only to come right back. The living cataclysm jumped up and down on his foe  again and again like a trampoline, trying to crush the alien hero.

The three-headed monster lifted the Giant of Light in his jaws before throwing him into one of the four corners of the arena. The righteous warrior jumped straight back up, forming his hands into a ‘plus’ and fired his Specium Ray, the bizarre blue energy blast coming out not as a single beam but as a stream of many particles that moved so fast that to the human eye it looked like many incomplete tiny lines flying forward. The golden horror just stood there with a bored expression on his many faces as the Specium Ray was blocked off by a flashing light barrier. Hayata cursed his bad luck. He knew about this power but was hoping he was close enough to hit the demon before its scales had enough time to capture the ray’s light and convert it into a shield.

The Specium master planned to try again at a closer range but he needed a distraction. He charged up energy into the form of a saw on his right arm and threw it. Horned heads snarled as they all focused on the incoming projectile. The Ultra Slash hit the light shield and, to the King of Terror’s shock, broke it. The dragonic destroyer’s reflex saved it, at the last second it jumped up before the blade could reach its lighter armored necks and cut them in half. Instead the saw blade of light hit its much more heavily armored chest, sparks flying before it exploded. The golden monster was about to take to the sky when it felt a powerful force knock it out of the air. Man-Ni San had flown to the dragon at Mach 5, slamming it into one of the pillars in the corner. The Ultra Brother smacked at the heinous hydra’s chest and heads with several chops, hitting him in a blind fury before leaping back.

The evil entity was disoriented, using the power of anti-gravity to float back to its feet as it regained its senses. There, right in front of it, less than fifty meters away, stood the being that mocked its power with its foolish efforts, its arms again crossed into a ‘plus’ shape. Ultraman let out a yell as another blast of the Specium Ray flew out of his hands. At this range, Grand King Ghidorah could not bring his light barrier up and the destructive stream hit him dead in the chest, its searing heat burning him. The hero from a distant star kept up the stream as long as he could but even through the smoke and screams of pain, it was clear to him that it was not enough. Sure enough, as soon as he had to stop to recharge his energy reserves, the King of Terror stopped screaming and stared at him. Other than a small black burn mark on its once golden chest scales, it seemed to have little effect. To any other monster the attack would have been a one hit kill attack and they would become a living time bomb, blowing up mere seconds later. But to the hydra it was merely a painful annoyance, like a bug bite.

A rumble was heard off in the distance. Dark clouds were moving in. It was going to storm.

The look the gleaming destroyer was giving the hero standing against it had now changed from boredom to one of minor annoyance. The Ultra Brother threw another Ultra Slash, but the energy saw exploded when a Gravity Beam crashed into it. He then ran up to the golden tyrant, grabbing one of its heads and kneeing its neck, then punching it in the stomach several times. Each blow was rewarded with a shriek before the alien hero delivered a powerful round house kick to its chest, causing it to once more stagger back. The interplanetary destroyer recovered quickly, advancing on the red and silver hero, headbutting his face, shoulder and stomach. The silver sentinel fell on his back but quickly got back to his feet before doing a flying kick. But King Ghidorah’s mouths grabbed him in midair, biting as hard as they could. Ultraman struggled to get free, hitting the heads and necks but the God of Death and Destruction would not relent. Finally, the monster monarch threw him to the ground. One foot stomped right onto his chest, holding him in place, as Gravity Beams rained down upon him.

The alien hero let out a cry of agony as the death rays danced over his body. The space monster took his foot off of his suffering victim, allowing the beams to push him away, the mighty warrior of light rolling around like a tumbleweed before the devil stopped to let loose with an insane cackle. Man-Ni San’s hands glowed as he formed a rectangle with his hands. The world ender fired more Gravity Beams but they were blocked by the invisible barrier that had formed. The three-headed monster ceased his attack and charged up, his entire body glowing before he fired Super Gravity Beams, shattering the barrier like it was nothing. The emissary tried to block the deadly blast with his Specium Ray but the death beams were too strong and easily overwhelmed his own, sending him flying back.

Ultraman crashed into the high tension wires acting as the Ring’s ropes and ended up bouncing off of them and staggering forward, only for Ghidorah to step to the side and stick its left neck out, cackling as The Land of Lighter fell from the clothesline. The golden tyrant blasted several of the buildings in the distance as he slowly walked towards the fallen guardian, then kicked him into one of the arena’s corners. The space demon laughed even more cackles of insanity.The mad monarch watched the alien defender climb up one of the turnbuckles, thinking he was trying to escape. The villain went to reach him with one of his mouths when he got his face kicked in. As the beast recoiled from such a blow, the Ultra  jumped off the turnbuckle and elbow dropped the gold monster, knocking him onto his stomach. The legendary warrior grabbed the Super Space Monster by the necks and threw him into the ropes before he could react, quickly dropkicking him in the stomach before he fell. The hero from a distant star was not going to give up and picked the beast up by its serpent-like necks again, throwing him out of the ring and into the pit. But before he even hit the ground, the space monster used its anti-gravity flight to float back into the air.

It finally started to rain. With the water, death fell.

Golden death rays rained down from the sky into the arena, the nearby city and its buildings and his challenger. Every time the defender  tried to get to his feet, the golden monster would send another volley down upon him as he circled around the ring. King Ghidorah landed in the Ring roaring at his foe, daring him to attack. The Color Timer was blinking red, the warning that Ultraman had to either end this fight soon or recharge soon. It seemed like he was going to lose this fight. Suddenly, the hero lunged at the three-headed freak of nature, knocking him on his back. Hayata’s alter ego hit as fast and as hard as he could with several chops and punches over the monster’s body. He lifted the writhing demon’s body up and then slammed it into the metal arena floor several times.

The devil’s red eyes stared into his foe’s gleaming white despite his heads being bashed into the ground. Before the warrior of light could question why, a quick bright flash emitted from the dragon’s crimson eyes. Suddenly, the Ultra Brother stopped attacking. Something was wrong, very wrong. He couldn’t control his body, he could feel his body but he had no say in what it was doing as it moved on its own. The possessed warrior climbed off of King Ghidorah and started to punch himself. The terror of the stars got up and cackled in delight as his mind control worked. The defender stopped punching himself and felt his legs move of their own accord as he ran head-first into one of the turnbuckles, then took off into a running start before he did it again. He finished the humiliating torture as he did a forward flip and fell on his back.

Ultraman was helpless as the maniac monster’s mind control forced him to walk to the planet killer and stand there defenseless. The golden monster rammed his left head into his gut, then stomped on his feet. The protector of the planet was in so much pain but the mind control was so great he wasn’t even allowed to hold his stomach or hop on his feet. He couldn’t even scream out in pain as the heinous hydra bashed him with all three heads, sending him flying back to the other end of the Boxing Ring. King Ghidorah forced him to walk up to him once more and blast him in the face at point blank range. Now his timer was going off like crazy. It wouldn’t be much longer until the hero ran out of power.

The alien defender  felt terror like he never knew before as he flew high up into the sky, higher and higher above the arena until it was too small to see. Then, he skydived as fast as he could, his stomach dropping when he saw the G-Force logo on the ring’s floor get bigger and bigger until he slammed into it head-first. The sadistic space beast let out what seemed like a sigh or the closest thing to a sigh that a vile being such as itself could muster. This stopped being fun and had become boring once more. The planet killer wanted to find someone more challenging to fight. Time to end this. The battered protector’s arm created another Ultra Slash. Slowly, his arm brought the energy saw to his neck, closer and closer. Suddenly, something amazing happened. By sheer free will, the legendary hero managed to break free of the control, and not a minute too soon as the blade had made a small cut on his neck, making it bleed.

Ultraman threw the deadly weapon right at his former tormenter and took to the sky. The devil of the star’s reflexes saved it once again as it fired a Gravity Beam blast to destroy the deadly projectile. When the smoke cleared, it saw that his foe was missing. He looked around, but all he saw was the empty ring, what few buildings were left of New York on fire, some flashes of lighting in the sky and the glowing of the crystals in the distance. He heard the crackle of fire in the distance, the patter of rain hitting the ground, the hum of energy being sapped into Spacegodzilla’s crystals and the rumble of thunder. But no sign of the defender. The living apocalypse looked up at the sky, seeing his target flying high into the clouds. Now he was angry. No one escaped his wrath! No one! All that encountered him die! Death! DEATH TO ALL WHO STAND IN HIS WAY!

Higher and higher, the Giant of Light flew. It seemed there would be no end to the rain that fell on him or the lighting that danced all around him in the sky when suddenly, he broke through the clouds and was in the vastness of space. The sun’s rays shined onto him, refilling him with much needed energy. For a second, he was at peace. Even if this mission failed, even if he died, there would always be others to challenge this tyrant and end its reign of terror. The planet below him looked beautiful, as the rays of hope shone on him. The future looked bright even in this dark hour. All this in a second and then, dread returned as he dove back down.

Whether he lived or died didn’t matter. He would kill this threat from beyond the stars even if it was the last thing he ever did. He didn’t have to wait long. As soon as he was back in the storm clouds, Grand King Ghidorah fired several rays at him, searing his flesh. The joined hope of man and Ultra yelled out but still managed to remain in control of his flight. He fired another Ultra Slash but the gold dragon dodged it with ease. The fuming tyrant fired red bolts of lighting from his bat-like wings but the much faster being was too quick, outmaneuvering him at every turn. To its confusion, the planet killer lost track of his darting form in the storm. Suddenly, it felt a powerful blow to its side as the Ultra slammed into him. The two titans continued to punch, kick, bite, headbutt and blast each other as they fell and tumbled through the sky.

Before they knew it, the two fell right into the Boxing Ring, creating a large crater in the floor. A loud metal clang was heard for miles. The Ultra Brother got up and kicked the living extinction  in the side so hard the super monster was sent flying several meters before falling to the other side of the arena. Ghidorah got back up only to have the determined defender dropkick him in the stomach. The wounded drake stumbled into a turnbuckle, as his foe lunged. The protector of Earth then kicked the dreadful beast so hard in the stomach, crushing him between his leg and the turnbuckle behind him that the horror of the stars retched, his bile coming out of all mouths and coating his leg in it. The golden monster fell to the ground but the silver warrior grabbed him by the tails and slammed the beast into the turnbuckles several times before throwing him down to the ground. The maniac monster was an animal but it still had problem solving skills. It didn’t know how, but his foe’s sudden renewal of power and the object on his chest turning back to blue were somehow connected to him flying up in the sky. Somehow, this knave was getting his power from up there.

So how was it going to stop him from doing it again when he was running low on power? He had a solution to that problem already. Ultraman was ready to deliver the next series of attacks when he heard a strange noise. All of a sudden, a strange dome formed around the Boxing Ring. There was enough room to take off and fly but not enough to reach into space where the hero needed to be if he needed the sun’s rays to recharge again. Rain was being allowed to come in but Hayata knew that the galactic horror was merely taunting him. If he tried leaving, he would be burned by the dome’s acidic walls. King Ghidorah took advantage of the  distraction and got back up, bodyslamming the baffled alien. The giant defender went to punch him, but the hydra grabbed his arms with its toothy maws. Then, they lifted him into the air and then slammed his back right into a raised knee. The planet’s protector had the air knocked out of him as he couldn’t breath for a few seconds.

Ghidorah jumped up and landed on him, stomping on him, smacking his face with his spiky tails. The wounded warrior feebly tried to get up, but King Ghidorah picked him up and threw him into the air. On the way down, all three heads smacked into him, sending him right into the ropes. The Ultra cried out. The golden demise moved in for the kill when his prey suddenly turned around lighting fast, grabbing his right leg and pulling. The terror beast stumbled forward as it tried to keep its balance. The beacon of hope delivered a powerful punch to the leg, causing it to bend the wrong way, broken. The sadistic dragon howled in agony as the silver defender threw him down to the ground.

Man-Ni San stomped on the necks, grabbing and twisting them. Bones creaked but it still wasn’t enough. The three-headed monster blasted him off again. It got back to its feet and bit down on the Ultra’s neck. The warrior of light’s neck was slowly but surely breaking, and unlike this demon, he could not survive such an injury. He had to do something quickly. The other two heads fired their Gravity Beams at point blank range on the helpless hero. Already, the timer on Ultraman’s chest had turned red again and was beeping at a frantic pace. The struggling Ultra Brother  elbowed Ghidorah several times in the chest but the planet killer refused to let go. In a desperate move, he fired a point blank Ultra Slash right into one of the swooped wings and in a splatter of ichor, the right wing was cut off! The King of Terror roared out in agony as it let go, but the determined hero  felt no sympathy for the demon.

Ultraman ran to Grand King Ghidorah and jumped up, slamming his elbow right into the left head’s jaw, breaking it. The Specium master then spun around quickly until energy rings shot off of him and formed around the monster monarch. The light barrier was of no use as they tightened to the point of shattering it and restraining the planet killer. The Ultra had a plan but it was a desperate one, and it would cost him so much energy that he had to fully charge to pull it off or else he would die. He grabbed the still­-restrained dragon and flew up into the sky. The titanic superhero braced himself as he flew through the dome walls, the acid burning him severely. When they reached space, the sun’s rays once again charged the Giant of Light to the max and he nose dived once more, this time with the screeching destroyer in front of him. The alien encased his body into the fireball he would normally use for space travel. The flames burned at the helpless space monster’s back as they entered the dome and crashed into the Boxing Ring floor at mach 5.

The intense crash of the two giants caused the floor to give way and they fell many meters down the elevator shaft that brought the mechs up to the ring. They crashed to the bottom, inside one of G-Force’s docking bays. The hero must have blacked out for a few seconds because when he came to, Ghidorah was missing. The move had almost killed him, his timer was already beeping and flashing at an insane rate when he had just recharged! He heard screams and got up. Several maintenance workers were running for their lives trying to get out. King Ghidorah was blasting everything in sight. The galactic warrior got up and fired his Specium Ray at point blank, hoping that the beast was weakened enough to finally be killed by the ray.

It still wasn’t enough. The beam caused a mighty explosion but the devil of the stars still stood. Despite its broken leg, the Super Space Monster ran at the Ultra Brother and headbutted him away. The heinous hydra then ripped Moguera out of its docking bay and with its awesome might, threw the mech right at the hero. The defender was crushed beneath the mighty machine. He struggled to push the robot off of him and stumbled back to his feet. The three headed monster’s body glowed a bright golden before unleashing his most deadly attack once more. The Super Gravity Beams slammed into Man Ni-San, breaking several of his ribs and burning him.

Hayata let out the loudest scream of his life, and then, he fell on his back. His timer was going off like crazy now, it informed him that he was almost out of power. It wouldn’t be long before he reverted back to his human form and was powerless. So this is how it would end. He would die at the hands of Grand King Ghidorah. He stared at the big hole in the ceiling, stared at the stormy night sky, letting the rain fall onto him.

Rain…

Water! That’s it!

Ultraman had a sudden idea that might be crazy enough to work. He had the power to rapidly lower his body temperature and make the water in the air condense onto his hands as a high pressure stream. He remembered learning that the Earthlings would sometimes use high pressure water streams to cut through metal. But he had only used this power to put out fires, never as a cutting weapon. He wasn’t sure if he could make the pressure high enough to even push a monster, let alone cut them, but at this point he had tried everything else. This had to work or else he would die. The damned beast had defenses built around defending it from energy based attacks but nothing like water.

The dreaded dragon slowly walked towards his sprawled foe, ready to crush him in his jaws and feast on his corpse. He was nearly on top of the motionless warrior when suddenly the alien hero jumped up to his feet. Before the planet killer could react, he pressed his hands together and fired off a huge stream of water, the force like a giant fire hose as it sent Grand King Ghidorah flying back into the wall. Ultraman spotted the nearby Mechagodzilla and with his ungodly strength, ripped the robotic double of Godzilla off of its docking arms and threw it at the sopping space beast. The machine slammed into the planet killer, crushing him between it and the walls. The stunned giant pushed the robot to the side and removed himself from the crater in the wall, stumbling in place, clearly knocked senseless.

The hero from the stars  ran up to the being that had caused so much death and destruction and shoved his hands down the middle head’s mouth, letting a powerful blast of water loose. The dreaded space monster’s chest and stomach expanded until there was a sudden explosion of gore as his stomach exploded. The space beast shrieked out in unbearable pain. For the first and last time, Hayata felt sorry for the creature and decided to make his next attack quick to put it out of its misery. How sad, that only in its final moments would it understand the pain it had brought to countless worlds for countless eons and die before it got a chance to redeem itself. The giant superhero held his hands together one more time, forming a powerful stream of water that got thinner and thinner as he increased the pressure to the highest he could make it. Then he made a swift cutting motion with it as if he was welding a giant sword.

The devil of the stars let out a quick yelp of pain, then was stiff. Behind him and the shut down Mechagodzilla, a large long line cut into the steel wall. The mecha’s head fell off, and all three of the dragon’s horned heads followed in a shower of golden blood before both the mech and monster fell over. Its master now dead, the acidic dome slowly vanished. As if by some sick prank by the universe, the Boxing Ring’s bell malfunctioned, ringing right at the same time the headless body fell to the ground.

The King of Terror was finally dead. Ultraman fell on his back, exhausted. His energy finally depleted as he turned back into his human host. Hayata smiled to himself. He’d been through hell and back. The multiverse could rest knowing there was one less planet killer around. Sure, he ruined the Boxing Ring, caused untold amounts of damage to one of G-Force’s bases and the mechanical saurian’s repairs would take even longer now then before because of him. But hey, now the eggheads at G-Force finally had a specimen worth studying, one that may allow development of weapons capable of killing the world’s most dangerous monsters.

Yeah, he did pretty good and that was more than worthy of a hero’s rest in his eyes.

And then he passed out.

Winner: Ultraman (Universal)

Author: Christian Salabert | Banner: Christian Salabert

Baragon didn’t quite know what to make of the strange object.

A few moments earlier, the subterranean reptile had emerged from the rich soil of Monster Island in search of sustenance. But he had barely gotten his floppy-eared head out of the ground when he spotted a large, green orb. Pulling himself all the way out of the dirt, the underground king moved in to investigate, cautiously approaching the ball-like object. As he looked it over, he noted that it wasn’t very large. In fact, he could easily pick it up in his hands if he wished. He leaned in and gave it a sniff. It didn’t smell like food, but nevertheless  it still intrigued the predator’s simple mind. He moved in again, lightly nudging the orb with his horn.

A high-pitched sound caught the magma monster’s attention, who lifted his head in time to see Varan drop from the air and land nearby. The spiked lizard roared at his neighbor, then noticed the sphere he was examining at. Joining the underground monster, the massive monitor began to look the orb over as well. Neither reptile could make heads or tails of the odd item. For a moment, they thought it might be an egg of some kind, but the texture was wrong. Just then, the pair heard footsteps behind them, and they turned to see Gorosaurus emerging from the jungle. The oversized allosaur roared at the two smaller creatures to get out of his way, when he too noticed the dark green ball. Tilting his head in curiosity, the saurian approached the orb and investigated it as well. Together the three monsters looked over the sphere, trying to figure out just what the thing was.

Snorting in frustration, the Mondo predator walked up and stomped down on the orb, tired of wasting his time with it.

Instantly, a large number of spines emerged from the ball with a “snikt!” They stabbed into his taloned’ foot, causing him to stumble backward and crash to the ground, shrieking in pain. Baragon and Varan watched as their ally fell, then turned their attention back to the orb, just in time to see a pair of devious yellow eyes open.

The reptilian trio had disturbed Gororin’s slumber. And the plant monster was none too pleased.

The Xillien alien immediately began spraying its needles in all directions, striking the two quadrupeds with them. The two beasts toppled to the ground, squealing in pain as they clawed at the spines, trying to dislodge them. The prehistoric survivor was quickly back on his feet, roaring furiously. He marched at the colossal cactus, ready to tear the plant apart, but it quickly rolled out of the way, avoiding the dinosaur’s attack. Gorosaurus quickly skidded to a stop and turned around, only to receive a series of needles fired into his neck. 

As the beast cried in pain, his compatriots had recovered and were ready to go on the attack again. Baragon charged on all fours, only for Gororin to roll out of the way once more. Roaring in annoyance, the underground predator turned around and advanced again, only to again be dodged by the rolling monster. Screaming in frustration, the horned monster reared up on his hind legs and spat out his heat ray. The orange beam scored a direct hit on the cactus creature, but if the malicious vegetation was harmed by the blast, it most certainly didn’t show it. It instead fired another stream of spines at the burrower, but the floppy-eared beast managed to dodge the projectiles, disappearing into the ground. Just then, a boulder shattered against the bioweapon’s circular body. The plant monster turned to see Varan kicking and throwing rock after rock at it. The cactus fired more needles, but these were avoided as well, as the triphibiain extended his arms and lifted himself up into the sky.

Hearing the angry cry of Gorosaurus, the rolling menace turned to see the reptile approaching fast. The spherical plant had no time to react before the theropod  lashed out with his clawed foot, kicking him like the ball he was and sending him hurtling through the air. Reacting quickly, the unbelievable beast swooped down and smacked down with his tail, forcibly knocking the cacti back to the ground. The plant beast crashed hard against the dirt, causing the teal dinosaur to rear his head back and roar a taunt.

Yellow eyes narrowed as the needly monster’s anger grew. It began to roll forward, towards the allosaur. The dinosaur prepared to kick the evil ball-beast again, only for the orb to suddenly rush forward and slam into his legs, gashing open scaled’ skin and bringing him to the ground with a shriek. Varan dove in to attack once again, but the vile vegetable responded by firing its needles at the Obaki, piercing his left flight membrane and causing him to plummet, crashing onto Baragon, who had just emerged from the ground. The two reptiles cried out as they collided, allowing the alien plant  to return his attention to the Mondo Island expat. Spotting the allosaur, the alien monster  rolled towards him and leapt into the air, ready to smash its spines into the creature’s torso. 

But Gorosaurus was quick to react, rearing up onto his tail and slamming his foot into the evil orb, sending him smashing into a nearby rock sticking out of the ground. Dazed by the blow, the cactus didn’t notice as the other two reptiles attacked next, having untangled each other from their unexpected collision. Getting onto his hind legs and spinning around, the beast worshipped as Baradagi whipped Gororin with his tail, sending him back through the air towards his larger ally. As the extraterrestrial plant soared through the air, Baragon unleashed his heat ray, keeping it on the plant until it reached the dinosaur, who also smacked the evil sphere with his tail. The magma monster blasted the singed plant  again as it sailed through the winds until it crashed to the ground.

For a moment, Gororin didn’t move. The reptilian trio watched it for a moment, waiting for it to make a move. Eventually, though, it became obvious that the beast was not going to move again. The three of them let loose cries of victory, declaring themselves the winner of the battle. Marching up to his slain foe on all fours, the horned burrower roared victoriously again.

But the plant monster was not dead yet.

While the horned hunter’s mouth was still open, the Xillien plant fired a series of needles down his throat. The ravenous monster’s scream came out a weak, gurgled cry as he toppled onto his back, clutching at his mouth and neck. Varan and Gorosaurus reared back in surprise as the villainous yellow eyes of their foe glared at them before the cactus began to roll forward. Before they could make a move, the rolling terror leapt into the air and smashed into them, gashing their flesh with its spines. The orb repeated the maneuver, this time slamming into the Jurassic survivor head-on, knocking him to the dirt. 

The varanopode moved in, but Gororin fired more needles, piercing his skin and eliciting a shriek of pain. A brief trembling of the ground grabbed the plant’s attention, only for it to see the wounded burrower disappearing into the earth, this time for good. Turning back to his other victims, the Xillien plant wasn’t quite sure it wanted to let them escape just yet. Their flesh cut and bleeding, the two reptiles were quite ready to leave this fight behind them. Quickly scanning the area, the Mondo Island saurian spotted a nearby boulder. Giving it a good kick, the apex predator distracted his tormentor long enough for him to disappear among the trees. As the rock broke against its tough hide, the cactus watched as the triphibian took off into the sky and disappeared to the other side of the island.

The villainous vegetable looked around and realized that all its opponents had fled. It was disappointed it hadn’t been able to finish the job, but still, it was certain that they had gotten the message.

Winner: Gororin

Author: Lucas Salabert | Banner: Christian Salabert

Gabara yawned as he awoke from a deep slumber, a slumber filled with bullying little kids and lizards. He looked around for a small morsel for a pre-breakfast snack, but all he saw were palm trees and little animals. No, he wanted some real meat. He stumbled down towards the bay of his small cove and found nothing but washed-up carcasses of several whales and sharks. The electric bully would have gladly eaten them if they weren’t already feasted on. The size of the bites told the mutant toad that he wasn’t the only daikaiju on the island. The ogre snarled. This new creature would have to learn the hard way that he gets his way first in his domain. He followed the trail of carcasses to a clearing in the center of the island leading to a huge lake, where he found what he was looking for: A giant, squid-like monster. This creature could be easily taken care of.

Gezora was finishing the pleasant meal from the fish he had found in the ocean, his large tentacles having repeatedly dove into the water and snatched up any undersea creature he could fit into his beak. The cuttlefish wriggled his arm ever so slightly as it kept its grip around a great white’s tail. The predatory fish didn’t even have a chance to be frozen to death by the icy touch when the beast gulped it down in a single bite. The sea monster and his stomach together growled with satisfaction as he finished the last of his meal. The cephalopod was done for now and was about to return to his peaceful grotto when… it showed up. Some hideous, ogre-like monster stood in the abyssal hunter’s way. Not being smart enough to recognize the threat standing in front of it, the amphibious kaiju simply walked past the monster.

That was his first mistake.

Gabara let out a war cry just before he struck, slamming his fist into the mottled head of the ocean beast, knocking him to the ground. He got in closer to the squid and started raining down a series of punches. The deep sea monster cried out in agony as the hideous ogre punched him again and again and again, until he reached up and wrapped some of his tentacles around his assaulter’s neck. Though it took a moment, the heinous toad eventually started to have a hard time breathing. He started squirming, trying to pull the cephalopod’s tentacles away. Monster Island’s menace was choking, feeling the strong tendrils crush his windpipe as the amount of air going in and out of his lungs grew smaller with each breath. Finally, he grabbed hold of one of the constricting tentacles and released his electric shocks into it. 

With a shriek, his captor released the shocking tormentor, badly burnt. The oni stood there a moment, trying to catch his breath as the freezing squid started to retreat. This angered the ogre even further – the coward wasn’t even standing his ground! The bully advanced quickly and hoisted the sea monster high into the air, tossing him onto the beach. The tentacled terror got up slowly, stunned by the crash. The warty monster rushed at the legend of Sergio Island, but Gezora lashed out, yanking his feet out from under him. Gabara tried to reach towards his tentacles to shock the giant cuttlefish, but he was just out of reach. The cephalopod yanked him into the water, holding his head down. The toxic beast struggled to reach the giant sea creature, but found an easier solution. Though it would injure him, it would also devastate the aquatic beast. He put his hands back in the water and let his own currents join the water’s. It started to singe him, then it hurt like hell… but the squid was catching fire.

The deep sea monster rushed out of the water as fast as he could, back onto land. If he wanted to win, he would have to do it in the ogre’s territory. Once the heinous bully was within striking distance, the freezing beast started bombarding him with his tentacles. Though not very powerful, the crack-of-the-whip speed the extremities had was enough to give the beast a fair amount of pain. The horned monster put up his left arm to try and defend his head, but as he swung it up, the squid swung his tentacles down, nearly dislocating his arm. The cowardly cephalopod started to feel lucky as this new method seemed to be working. Just then, he realized that one of his tentacles seemed to be stuck on the beast’s head, just as he started to feel a great amount of pain coming from his arm. With a start, the abyssal predator realized that the tip of his tentacle had become caught on the bright orange horn on Gabara’s head! Seeing the opening he was waiting for, the tormenting toad lashed out and grabbed the tentacle. With a tug, the ogre tore the limb completely away from his foe’s body.

Gezora let out a high-pitched screech of agony as he watched his extremity being yanked out of its socket. This ogre was too strong, he had to retreat. As the green beast tried to grab at the stump where his arm once was, the cuttlefish began to retreat. Amazingly, the awkward amphibian got a good head start, keeping a good distance from Gabara as he approached his grotto. The cruel creature wouldn’t let that stop him, however, picking up a nearby boulder and throwing it, hitting the squid in the back. It hurt the cephalopod to even breathe, which was a problem for him on land in better circumstances anyway. He looked up and saw a familiar sight. His grotto! He was only a skip-and-a-hop away from the water. If he could just crawl forward a little more, he would escape to safety. But his foe had a different agenda. Advancing quickly, the warted beast snatched the cephalopod in his claws and hoisted him into the air. The bully was taken by surprise by the squid’s heft and, tired and sore, sent the creature hurtling into the lake. Though stunned, the legend of Sergio Island began to move further into the waves. He thought perhaps the ogre was giving him a break, thinking the squid had learned his lesson.

Panting angrily, the Monster Island menace watched as the cephalopod swam away. Then the ogre realized something: that squid had shamed him. Such a weak creature, able to hold his own against the great Gabara?! This was unacceptable. The toad’s eyes filled with fire as his body let off static shocks of anger. The mutated bully was not done with the sea creature and dove into the water. Though injured and exhausted, the cold cephalopod was sure the ogre would not be a match for him. After all, the water was his domain. Just as the oni reached him and prepared to strike, the cuttlefish lashed out with what tentacles he had left, clobbering him across the face. Taken by surprise, the toxic monster allowed the squid to hit him again and again, knocking him back towards the shore. One more blow sent his emerald body toppling onto the sand. Gezora watched the fallen ogre and let out a victory cry before turning back and heading out into the water.

As he lay there on his back, the heinous mutant cried out into the air in frustration at his loss, slamming his fists onto the ground. But then he realized where the squid was. Rolling over onto his stomach, the tormenter sneered. 

He never was a good loser. 

Reaching out, Gabara placed his hand in the water and let the electricity leave his body.

The electric menace watched as the smoke and fire came from the now bronzed, crisped cephalopod. He stood there and watched in glory at the sight of his deep fried enemy… and breakfast.

Winner: Gabara (Showa)

Author: Christian Salabert | Banner: Christian Salabert

San Francisco was under attack.

The people of the City by the Bay fled in terror as buildings crumbled under the might of the alien monstrosities that were invading their hometown. The Earth’s military had done their best to repel the evil creatures, but Spyler and Wargilgar were not to be denied. The two Terror Beasts were cutting a path of destruction through the city, slowly making their way towards the city’s famous Golden Gate Bridge. The evil duo were intent on destroying the landmark and weren’t about to let anything get in their way.

Fortunately for the citizens of San Francisco, fate had other plans.

The clouds suddenly parted, allowing the sunlight to shine brightly through. The light grew more intense, forcing the Terror Beasts to shield their eyes. Just as the sun threatened to blind every living thing in the city, it just as suddenly faded. Left standing in its place was a mighty armored figure, its arms held down at its sides. Turning around, the space monsters took note of the new arrival and screeched eagerly; was this their accursed nemesis, Zone Fighter? Their eyes still a little sensitive from the blinding light, they started making their way towards the silver being.

Utsuno Ikusagami glared at them with disgust.

The mighty Sun God was not about to tolerate such evil deeds. He was about to show the alien empire attacking the Earth just what a mistake they had made by wiping out their two living weapons. If that was not enough, he would turn his wrath on the Garoga themselves. Either way, the countless innocents that had lost their lives due to the monsters’ attack would be avenged. Clenching his fists, Ikusagami charged.

Spyler and Wargilgar slammed into him at the same time, halting his advance. The two Terror Beasts pushed against the armored warrior, but he pushed back, and his strength was great. They continued to shove the holy warrior, trying to get him to fall, but the knight stood fast. Pulling his arms back, Yamato’s divine form suddenly threw them forward, slamming his fists into the alien creatures’ stomachs, knocking them flat onto their backs. They quickly got back to their feet and attacked again, swinging their clawed arms at the warrior’s face. But the mighty god thwarted this as well, blocking their hits with his arms. 

Acting quickly, the sun god  snatched their wrists in his hands, skillfully flipping them to the ground. The gold and silver warrior looked down at the two monsters as they scrambled to get back to their feet. Surely the champions of an invading alien race would prove a better challenge than this. As if reading his mind, the Laser Beast was back on his feet in an instant, throwing his arms open. The knobs on his chest erupted with flashes of light, forcing the legendary hero  to shield his face with his arms. With the ancient warrior distracted, his ant-like ally opened his mandibles and spewed forth a stream of searing fire, engulfing the armored guardian. Ikusagami stumbled back, trying to get away from the flames. The alien bioweapon suddenly cut off his inferno attack, only for the transformed Garoga to lunge forward, bodyslamming their foe and sending him crashing through the Transamerica Pyramid, bringing it and the surrounding buildings down around him. The devilish duo shrieked with evil glee as their opponent was buried under thousands of tons of concrete rubble.

But the Sun God wasn’t out yet.

The pile of debris exploded as Utsuno  emerged, his back now housing twin gold, bladed wings. Vibrating rapidly, they cut through the rubble, allowing the holy warrior to escape and continue the fight. Disappointed that their foe was still alive, the Terror Beasts were nevertheless glad the battle wasn’t over yet and charged. The golden guardian had other plans, however, and leapt high into the air, his wings carrying him high over his alien opponents. Landing behind the two and turning around, he unleashed a golden beam from his forehead and washed it across the ground in front of them, knocking them off their feet in a series of explosions. Wargilgar was back on his feet in an instant, unleashing another torrent of flame at the god. But the divine was ready this time, generating a shield of energy that stopped the fire cold. The crustacean continued spitting fire at Ikusagami, but despite the intense heat, it could not break through the warrior’s shield. Spyler screeched as he charged, ready to tackle the armored god once again. Just as he was within reach, the god lashed out, clutching the warty beast  by the neck and tossing him through the air, causing him to smash into the ground with a thunderous crash. Behind Utsuno, his shield exploded as it was finally overwhelmed by the Garogan creature’s fire. He turned to face the oncoming Terror Beast, stopping his pincers before they made contact with his face. Spyler attacked next, slamming his large claws against the silver wings. The knight was finding it harder to defend himself, and so he unleashed a shockwave of his holy power, knocking both monsters to the ground.

The two creatures quickly rose to their feet, their skin smoking from the blast. Ikusagami flexed his arms as he prepared for their next attack. But much to the guardian’s surprise, they didn’t attack again – they turned and fled! The ancient knight watched as they trampled several smaller structures underfoot as they ran, apparently trying to escape from the Sun God’s wrath. Utsuno was about to let them flee, when he suddenly realized where they were headed – directly to the Golden Gate Bridge! Ikusagami would not allow them to destroy the bridge and took to the air, quickly overtaking the two beasts and landing between them and the bridge. The two monsters screeched in frustration as they found themselves faced with the holy warrior once again. 

Wargilgar attacked first, swinging his clawed arms at Ikusagami, but the paladin skillfully deflected the blow. He then planted his fist into the alien’s  stomach, knocking him to the pavement. Spyler attacked, shrieking wildly, assaulting the holy armor with his claws. The silver-plated warrior knocked the chimera away with a backhand, then unleashed his medallion ray. The golden beam exploded against his chest, slamming the Terror Beast to the ground as it charred his blue and orange flesh. As his partner squealed in pain, his chest smoking, Wargilgar attacked again, firing a cannon blast from his mouth. The projectile threw sparks as it exploded against Ikusagami’s torso, causing him to stagger back. 

Utsuno put his foot down behind him to keep from skidding any further back, as his wings were threatening to slice into the bridge. Opening his pincers, the alien pounced towards the mythic warrior, but the god knight opened fire with his golden ray once again, blasting the Terro-Beast square in the chest and sending him sailing through the air, crashing down with a thud. Stepping forward, Ikusagami took hold of Spyler and hoisted him high into the air, then tossed him towards his ally. The two evil creatures cried out in pain as they crashed atop one another.

For a moment, they writhed about, obviously hurt. But their pain lasted for only a moment. Utsuno watched in frustration as the Terror Beasts pulled themselves back up, still willing to continue their battle. He decided it was time to finish this and held out his hand. In a burst of energy, his sword appeared. Striking a brief pose with it, he took a step forward before his wings carried him towards the two extraterrestrials. His pincers snapping open and shut, The Destruction Terror Beast paid no attention as the blade of the defender’s sword began to glow a bright blue.

This was a mistake.

Swinging the sword horizontally, the Sun God cleaved the energized blade cleanly through Wargilgar’s body. Immediately coming to a halt, the body of the beast toppled to the ground and exploded into a ball of fire. His feet skidding across the pavement, Utsuno turned and prepared to repeat the maneuver with Spyler, only for the bulbous creature to blind him with another series of flashing lights. Before the guardian’s vision could completely return to him, the Laser Terror Beast swiped at him with his claw, knocking the sword from his hand. But despite the loss of his main weapon, Yamato Takeru was nowhere near helpless. With a mighty shove, the armored warrior sent the pudgy creature stumbling backward. While his foe was distracted, the knight once again extended his arm, a shining spear of light appearing in his hand. Taking aim, he hurled the spear at Spyler, plunging it deep into the Terror Beast’s gut. Clutching at the spear, the transformed Garoga cried out as he too fell to the ground, erupting into a fireball.

Reclaiming his sword, the divine hero scanned the shattered remains of San Francisco. The damage was bad, but it could have been much, much worse. Still, he decided that the alien overlords who had sent the two monsters needed to be dealt with, lest they try something like this again. Bracing his legs, Utsuno Ikusagami leapt high into the stratosphere, making a beeline for the Garoga Fortress…

Winner: Utsuno Ikusagami

Author: Kenneth James | Banner: Stephanie Hughes

Hedorah was enjoying his new status as King of the Monsters. Ever since she’d melted Godzilla to a skeleton, life had been good for the Smog Monster. Humans were too terrified to deploy any of their mecha against her, knowing if they couldn’t beat Godzilla, they’d be no match for the one that slayed him. With little to no threat to him, they traveled freely, descending on cities and feeding on whatever he pleased. Today’s menu: car exhaust. The alien glutton sucked cars, drivers and all, into her body. Her simple mind knew that they had little challenge to their awesome might anymore, so he could occupy himself with more important things, like eating.

However, the kaiju’s thoughts were soon drawn from his meal to the sky by the roar of jet engines. He turned his blob-like frame around to see several massive jets lower mankind’s latest creation before him, Kiryu. The nebula invader was surprised, not by the similarity it had to the beast he’d slain in appearance, but in how he felt to his senses. He FELT like the former King of the Monsters.

Mankind had understood one simple fact: Godzilla was their protector and despite past attempts at killing him, without him, they’d realized how much they needed him. So they did the only thing they could – build a cybernetic body around his skeleton, making his DNA into the bio-computer driving it. In essence, their King of Monsters was reborn as a mechanical savior. And in this battle, they decided to do something they’d rarely do otherwise… cut the cybog loose. They didn’t need to direct his actions, the bio-computer knew its new powers, and the saurian’s memory knew he was facing his killer. Surely, he would seek his revenge.

The mecha’s eyes lit up. They had been momentarily yellow before, but without the restraining program, they turned red, the tear line down the side glowing the same blood color. The multi-system fighting type reared his head back and let out a mechanical imitation of his old self’s roar, driving the ninja monster back in shock and surprise, dumbfounded that somehow her old enemy had come back to life.  The mecha, Godzilla’s soul begging for retribution and vengeance from within the cybernetic shell, quickly opened its maw, letting loose a swirling stream of thunder from his maser canons, striking the pollution beast in the shoulder and discharging a high voltage shock.

 Hedorah screeched in agony as his amorphous form met the one of the few things it had no defense against, electricity. When the beam finally ended, dehydrated and dead flesh fell from the alien’s body. Startled by his rival’s new power, the Smog Monster quickly regained their composure and let loose their red eye beams at the Mechagodzila, only for the cyborg to launch high into the air with his rockets and evade them. The triphibian looked up quickly, trying to catch sight of her now airborne opponent… only to receive a flying kick to the face, toppling her to the ground with a surprised gurgling screech. 

Kiryu flew back to a safe distance and his missile pods sprung to life, sending an onslaught of missiles into the sky. The living poison was pelted with explosives, blowing chunks of blazing flesh from their  body, but rage more than pain filled his mind as they rose to their feet, sludge trickling in to replace the missing flesh. The spore alien rose up and fired a ball of sludge at the superweapon, striking his shoulder, but to his surprise, the revenant merely marched forwards, swiping it off his metal skin, leaving a discolored spot, but nothing more than that. Godzilla’s mind found itself grateful for one fact: he no longer felt pain. It’d make claiming his vengeance all the easier.

As the machine marched forwards, more blobs of sludge were launched, only to, just as before, be wiped off the metallic defender’s skin. Finally getting in range, the bioorganic defender extended a blade from his wrist, electricity crackling across it before plunging it into his killer’s gut, discharging its energy into the Smog Monster. The inorganic menace screamed in agony, her body convulsing with electricity as it surged through them, drying out and killing several million of the microorganisms that comprised their body.

 In desperation, the gluttonous alien unleashed his eye beams into Kiryu’s chest, sending him crashing to the ground. He was quickly bombarded by more beams, sending shrapnel flying high into the air and exposing wires. The perfect form realized their position and fell on top of the super weapon, trying to dissolve the mechanical titan with his acidic body. The reborn kaiju struggled, trying to free himself. Alarms were going off throughout his body as systems were put in jeopardy of being dissolved, memories of his previous death flashing through him. The mechanical being  finally managed to maneuver his tail around and drive it forwards, its tip penetrating a beady red eye. The ninja monster screeched in agony and staggered off of the smoking body, his eye slowly closing as thousands of gallons of sludge poured out.

The JSDF’s last hope rose to his feet, parts of his armor melted down to exposed wire and machinery. His tail tip was corroded down to the skeleton used as its framework and his electrifying blade was now reduced to an unrecognizable hunk of slag. But still, he could function, and that was enough. The cyborg armed his shoulder missile pods and sent them sailing through the air, plowing into his foe’s chest and driving her backwards through several buildings with great force before they exploded, blowing a gaping hole in their chest. The toxic titan, being merely a pile of sentient sludge, rarely felt pain from such attacks and transformed into his flying form, his eye still sealed shot from the damage. 

The Smog Monster took to the sky and rained down energy rays at the mecha, blowing off large chunks of armor while trying to suffocate the armored titan with his sulfuric mist, but while it corroded his metal armor, the revenant did not choke, for he had no lungs. Using the speed gained from shedding his missile pods, the mechanical dragon launched into the air and roundhouse kicked the hovering creature  from the sky, sending him through a building. Screeching in surprise, the blob switched back to her adult form in time for Kiryu to land on top of him and rain blows down into his face. The cyborg took great pleasure in enacting his vengeance on his murderer, not caring that his hands sustained mild burns from contact with the corrosive kaiju. The walking pollutant finally managed a counterattack with a swipe of his arm, toppling the multipurpose fighting system  to the ground before standing up and swiping at his  head repeatedly, discoloring metal as he pummeled the cyborg’s cranium. The living machine roared out in rage before firing his Maser Cannon, catching the looming alien  in the shoulder and staggering him back, gurgling in agony. The steel beast’s leg rockets powered up, launching out of the toxic monster’s way.

The poisonous titan managed to recover from the Maser Cannon attack and blasted the superweapon out of the sky with his eye beams, refusing to let up. He followed up with another barrage of eye lasers, burning into reinforced armor and exposing more sparking circuitry. The monster usurper lumbered over and grabbed their  foe’s pronged head, trying to force it into their acidic body, only for the Mechagodzilla to counter by driving his fist clean through his sludgey body, but accomplishing nothing more than burning the armor off to the bone. But, as in life, he was still capable of moving it, allowing him to try and fight the  hands off his head, but leverage on the part of the larger monster  prevented this from being possible. Kiryu soon realized this, and tried firing his Maser Cannon, only for Hedorah to clutch his mouth and clamp it shut, still trying to force him inside his body.

Hedorah gurgled in victory as the mechanical monster’s cranium was forced into her chest, metal beginning to burn away in the acid at a rapid rate. But her victorious roar soon turned to one of shock as she felt a cold sensation below him. The super machine’s paneled chest had opened, blue energy gathering in the Absolute Zero Cannon. The corrosive beast realized he was in trouble, and struggled, trying quickly to get the mecha  out of his body and evade, only for the cyborg to use the opportunity to get his feet underneath him and get upright, holding the Smog Monster in place. With a blinding flash of blue light, the Absolute Zero Cannon was fired, plowing into the blob point blank. The living sludge  let out a loud screech of agony which was cut short as they were flash frozen by the cyborg’s ultimate weapon, leaving the mighty tyrant nothing more but a hunk of ice.

Kiryu tore his head out of the flash frozen body, scattering icy sludge in all directions. His head was badly burned, skull visible in some places. The left eye was burned away entirely, circuitry revealed almost everywhere around it. But within the skull, the bio-computer was still functioning completely, despite having sustained cracks in its form from the discharge of the Absolute Zero Cannon. The cyborg looked over to the frozen body before he swung his tail around, shattering the corrosive beast to millions of pieces. He quickly looked through the rubble, making certain the colonial creature was dead for good, knowing not to take them lightly. Sure enough, some wet sludge still lived inside, uniting into a much smaller flying form, which tore free from the rubble, trying with all her might to get away to fight another day… 

The Mechagodzilla wouldn’t let it be so easy. Unleashing his Maser Cannon, he struck Hedorah in the back, near the jets keeping them aloft, drying them out and sending him plummeting to the ground. Hedorah landed on the Space Needle, the point of the structure driving through the soft body of the toxic titan, impaling him.

Hedorah screeched in agony, trying to free himself, only to fall silent when the reborn Monster King stomped over. The trapped alien  looked up into the face of the cyborg to find a terrifying sight. Through the eye of the skull, she saw flesh had emerged from the bio-computer, a pulsating brain beginning to form. Like any part of his body, Godzilla’s brain was able to regenerate, and the cells grown to serve as the bio-computer’s biological component were no exception. Slowly, those cells had begun to regenerate once air got in from the cracks in the casing of the shell surrounding them. Despite all odds and biological possibilities, Godzilla was regrowing inside Kiryu! But the dreaded polluter wouldn’t live to see the King of the Monster’s return. Kiryu let loose a Maser Cannon blast into the Space Needle, using it like a conductor, sending thousands of volts coursing through her sludgy body. The terror from a distant nebula fell into a flurry of screams and convulsions until finally, the Smog Monster was nothing more than dust, finally dead for good.

The revenant reared back his head, letting out a fierce, Godzilla-like roar. Slowly looking off into the distance where Monster Island was, an organic eye regenerated in place of Kiryu’s lost one, his arm too beginning to show muscle and blood vessels, organs regrowing and forcing internal robotics out of their way. It’d take weeks for him to regenerate, but it was clear there was no stopping it now. Hedorah was dead, and Godzilla had reclaimed his throne, and soon, his body as well.

Winner: Kiryu

Author: Christian Salabert | Banner: Christian Salabert

Haneda Airport. The airfield had just acted as the battlefield for an epic struggle between Godzilla – his radioactive power finally gone critical – and Destoroyah – the living embodiment of the Oxygen Destroyer. Both titans had now been wiped from existence and Godzilla Junior, having been fully mutated into adult form by the radiation given off by his father’s meltdown, was currently being escorted back out to sea by the Super-X3. Despite the war between the monsters and the potential global disaster they had faced, it seemed that G-Force’s job was now over. The emergency had passed.

Or so they thought.

The battalion of freezing Masers had remained behind, just in case the colony creature was not as dead as they had thought. After all, the precambrian beast had seemed to be dead several times before. Unfortunately, they got exactly what they were preparing for. The ground shook and exploded upward, sending debris everywhere as the final form of the crustacean devil reared his head back and howled, spreading his wings into the night sky. The defense forces instantly opened fire, assaulting his twisted carapace with their freezing beams and missiles. This immediately got the demon’s attention as the bitter cold tore into his flesh. His yellow eyes narrowing, Serizawa’s bastard spat out his Micro-Oxygen Beam, sweeping it across the tanks and masers and destroying them in a series of explosions.

Miles away, the Super-X3 received news of the monster’s reappearance. The crew immediately turned the warship around, but even at the craft’s top speed, it would take some time before it reached Haneda Airport.

Destoroyah watched as what was left of the Self Defense Forces burned. He was about to take to the air when the ground began to rumble. The titanic creature turned around, trying to see what was causing the quake. He got his answer when the ground erupted once again, another large form pulling itself up out of the earth. The personification of extinction snarled angrily as the subterranean dinosaur Gomora rose to his full height, screeching a challenge!

Punching his fists together, the prehistoric monster charged the Perfect Lifeform, ready to pummel the living Oxygen Destroyer into submission. Just as he was within reach, however, the colossal creature lashed out with an almost lazy swing from his arm, decking the horned saurian and sending him crashing to the ground. Undeterred, the saurian  got back to his feet in an instant and charged again, only to be once again knocked off his feet. Woozy from the blows, the Monster Prince pulled back as crimson energy began crackling over his head horns. Bracing himself, Gomora unleashed his Super Oscillatory Wave, letting pulse after pulse smash into the ridged chest of his foes. The micro-oxygen monster cried out as the wave exploded against his torso again and again, driving him backwards. 

After a moment, the burrower cut off his attack, watching as the puckered chest smoked. Satisfied with the damage he inflicted, the brash monster charged a third time, but this time the bane of life returned in kind, spewing his Micro-Oxygen Beam at his dirty scales. The purple energy bolt slammed into the reptile’s chest, blasting him clean off his feet and into one of the few buildings that had survived the devil’s  fight with Godzilla. As the determined saurian struggled to pull himself up out of the rubble, The micro-oxygen menace swung  around, sending his tail towards the dinosaur. The clawed extremity wrapped around his thick neck and began zapping the ancient beast with micro-oxygen. Kicking and screaming, the monster of the Johnson Islands tried to loosen the tail’s grip around his throat, to no avail. Swinging his tail back and forth, the titan of death dragged the horned monster  across the airfield before lifting his tail into the air and sending his captive hurtling into the terminal, leveling Haneda Airport.

Destoroyah cackled evilly as he approached the destroyed terminal, the burrowing creature laying motionless within the rubble. He strafed the saurian’s body with his Micro-Oxygen Beam, sending sparks and debris into the air and eliciting a pained cry from the reptile. Now standing next to his prone form, the precambrian monster looked down at his fallen foe, ready to finish him off. The sadistic terror was taken completely off guard as the horned monster suddenly leapt up to his feet and lunged forward, thrusting the spike on his nose deep into his  armored chest. The Perfect Lifeform cried out as Gomora began pumping him full of oscillatory energies, coursing them through his entire body. Thrashing, Serizawa’s bastard tried to dislodge his opponent’s horn, but the steadfast fighter  poured even more energy into the demon, a bright glow emanating from his body. With a shriek, the mutated horror exploded into a ball of fire, completely destroyed.

The prehistoric survivor  groaned as he stepped back, feeling the blows the twisted terror had inflicted. He was glad the fight ended when it did. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could’ve taken getting hit by the armored beast. He turned around and started to make his way back towards the crater in the ground he had emerged from. Before he could reach it, though, the earth began to shake. The determined dinosaur quickly turned and scanned the area, but saw nothing. Suddenly, the Monster Price cried out as two aggregate Destoroyahs began to crawl onto his tail, spraying him with micro-oxygen. Before he could deal with them, three more approached from the front, attacking his legs. The saurian kicked at the trio in front as he tried to shake the first two off his back.

 Even more aggregates appeared and charged, surrounding the dinosaur. The ancient monster screeched as they continued spraying micro-oxygen into his legs and neck. Suddenly, the reptile dropped to the ground and rolled, dislodging the two on his back. Getting back to his feet, Gomora spun around, swiping his tail through the swarm of crustaceans and knocking them back. When that failed to deter them, he unleashed his Super Oscillatory Wave, striking one of the creeping horrors and obliterating it in a burst of flame. Instead of cutting off his ray, he swung his head around, washing the oscillatory wave over them and blasting them backwards in sparks and fire. Realizing that their foe was too strong for them, the aggregates quickly pulled back, disappearing into the night.

Weakly, the Johnson Island’s beast growled. This time, he was ready for another sneak attack. His eyes narrowed as he quickly turned his head from side to side, awaiting a move. After a few minutes of nothing, tensed claws relaxed. It seemed that the battle was finally over.

The saurian shrieked in pain as the Micro-Oxygen Beam blasted him in the base of his spine. Clutching at his back, Gomora turned around only to have the mutated devil fly by, smashing his massive legs into his foe’s beaked face, knocking him flat on the runway. Destoroyah landed not too far away and turned to watch as the downed dinosaur struggled to get back to his feet, cackling at the smaller monster’s obvious pain and taking a step forward. The precambrian monstrosity was taken by surprise when the brash beast suddenly leapt upward, firing off his Super Oscillatory Wave and blasting him in the face. The evil beast howled as the crimson energy exploded against his head, causing him to take a step back. Despite the pain wracking his body, the ancient fighter charged and attacked the distracted demon, slamming his fists into the monster’s chest again and again. The titan felt the blows land, cracking the armor covering his chest. Flicking his arm upward, the living extinction sent the horned dinosaur crashing to the ground. Rolling onto his back to face his foe, his lidded eyes widened as he saw the living extinction swinging his head down, his horn glowing a bright yellow. Gomora quickly rolled out of the way, allowing the energized blade to cleave into the pavement. Getting back to his feet, the experienced defender noticed the large gash left in the ground by the horn. He realized that he could not allow himself to be hit by this attack. The prehistoric reptile leapt into battle again, punching and kicking at his foe. Driving his opponent backwards, the nimble brute spun around, whipping his tail across his foe’s face. He quickly spun around in the opposite direction, ready to strike with his tail again, just as the merciless monster reactivated his Laser Horn and slashed downward.

His tail hit the ground with a thud.

Crashing to the ground and clutching at the stump where his tail once was, the ancient beast squealed in agony. Destoroyah cackled with evil glee as he watched his foe writhe in pain. He turned around, clamping his tail down around the squealing snout and sending his foe hurtling through the air again. The prehistoric beast tried to push himself up, only to be put back down by a blast of Micro-Oxygen. The dogged fighter crumpled against the ground, motionless. The twisted terror shrieked evilly as he approached his fallen foe, ready to finish him off. His horn flashed yellow as he prepared to slice him in half. The reptile tried to move, but barely had the strength to breathe. Suddenly, something smashed into the back of the evil’s horned head. The crustacean-like beast cried out in surprise and turned to see what had attacked him, only to be uppercut by something, knocking him back. The demon shook his head as he tried to get a good look at his assailant, only for his eyes to widen in surprise once he did so.

Moving about on the ground, Gomora’s tail was still alive!

Leaping up into the air, the animated tail smashed its stump end into the destroyer’s face, causing him to stagger. It followed up by spinning around, striking the malicious monster’s legs. Before it could make another move, the titan of death placed his foot down on top of it. Shrieking angrily, the precambrian horror pressed down, crushing the  tail underneath his massive foot. Turning his attention back to the downed dinosaur, Destoroyah flexed his claws as he approached his still prone form, ready to destroy the subterranean reptile once and for all. He raised his leg, ready to crush his head as he had his tail, when he suddenly felt a complete and utter cold blast into him from behind. Screeching in pain and surprise, the living Oxygen Destroyer turned back around and found himself under attack by the Super-X3!

“Let’s finish this freak off permanently,” Major Kuroki said to his crew. “Fire all weapons!”

The sadistic beast howled as he was pelted by the warship’s Freezer Beam and cadmium missiles, causing bone-chilling explosions to erupt against his armored hide. He tried to snatch the ship out of the air as it approached, only for it to swerve away and circle around, continuing its assault. The personification of extinction spat out his Micro-Oxygen Beam, but the purple blast merely bounced off the Super-X3’s nose, causing little damage. The craft’s weapons quickly began to take effect; ice began to form all over his armored body. The creature struggled as he tried to break the ice. It was obvious that if he didn’t escape now, he would succumb to the ship’s freezing arsenal. Shrieking angrily, the mutated devil spread his wings, lifting them into the air. 

Just as he started to make his first flap, he cried out as he felt something sharp plunge into his back before he felt his body being scorched inside and out by a familiar power. Gomora poured every ounce of energy he had into his Super Oscillatory Wave, pumping it throughout the colonial body. The evil beast screeched as his entire body felt like it was on fire, the glow emanating from within growing brighter and brighter. Once it was obvious that sufficient damage was done, the prehistoric dinosaur used what little strength he had left and hoisted Serizawa’s bastard into the sky, sending the massive demon hurtling through the air. The titanic demon hit hard as he collided with the earth, and in a brilliant ball of fire, Destoroyah was gone. 

This time, it was for good.

Beyond exhausted, the saurian collapsed face-first to the ground, panting heavily. Tired, hurt and missing his once mighty tail, this was indeed a great victory for the reptile. Extending his claws, the burrower managed to pull himself across the ground to the tunnel he had arrived in. Pulling himself in, the determined monster toppled into the cavern, the movement closing the hole in the process. Unable to move any further, Gomora lay in his tunnel and let his eyes close, falling into a well-deserved sleep.

Winner: Gomora

Author: Kenneth James | Banner: Jackson Morris

Gorosaurus lay sleeping in front of the Eiffel Tower. In truth, he had no anger in his mind and meant no harm, he’d just been looking for a new territory to stake claim to, seeing as he had no hope of toppling Kong’s reign over their home island or Godzilla’s over Monsterland, it was the most obvious thing to do. But Paris just wasn’t for him. Too many humans. The annoying little things were bad enough with mere spears like back home, let alone with modern weapons. He was merely taking a snooze.

Thanks to various authorities on kaiju, the people of Paris knew that fact as well. In fact, they were actually glad the huge dinosaur was present, as they had another problem that WAS harmful they needed dealt with, and the titanic theropod was just the one for the job. The allosaur was awakened when his predatory senses detected the odor of blood. Rising his head over the buildings, he discovered a large pile of meat had been laid out near him, but stranger still, was the fact humans were opening an entrance to the underground of Paris around it. Mondo Island’s top predator was confused, but humans did pretty much the same thing back on Monsterland to feed the residents and keep them happy, so he thought nothing else of it. Besides, why leave perfectly good food to go to waste?

The dinosaur rose to his feet and walked over to the buffet seemingly laid out for him, sniffing it with some degree of caution and finding it not tainted in any way he could detect. As he took some in his massive jaws to eat, his eyes found a strange sight awaiting him, the ground in front of him bursting open to reveal a smaller, red kaiju: Baragon. He could tell by scent this wasn’t the same one he’d known back on Monsterland, another of his species, and by scent, he could tell this one was more aggressive. The subterranean kaiju quickly stuck his face in the meat Gorosaurus had already claimed as his own, inciting the kaiju’s wraith and earning a tail whip to the side of the face. The subterranean terror bellowed in rage at this attack, refusing to give up a feast such as this to the larger beast, and a tenacious one in his own right. Burrowing claws scratched teal jaws, drawing a light trickle of blood and a fierce roar from the saurian monster.

The military watched approvingly, this was what they’d hoped would happen. The primeval dragon was no real threat, but the monster that had taken up residence under Paris had been making a meal of the locals, and his burrowing was a major source of property damage, not to mention threatening the Catacombs of Paris. But the military hadn’t been able to smoke him out or kill him when they got him into the open, that was until the ancient dinosaur decided to make a pit stop. Having already evacuated the area of the city and putting aside a little battle-based property damage, Gorosaurus’ arrival was just what the doctor ordered. And it didn’t escape them that it was rather ironic that they were using the same creature they’d once mistaken for the horned horror to fight him now.

Gorosaurus  struck first, swinging his tail around, only for the nimble creature  to duck under it and counterattack by leaping through the air and slamming horn first into his chest, driving him backwards and drawing blood. Baragon followed up with another leap, this time landing with his jaws clamped down on his scaled  shoulder, drawing a roar of pain from the dinosaur’s mouth. As the underground king shook his head like a dog, trying to tear out a chunk of flesh, his foe bit down on his ridged shoulder himself, picking the smaller monster off and throwing him through a row of houses. Now angry, the theropod charged and swung around as the burrower stood up, smacking the smaller kaiju in the side with his tail, knocking him to the ground flat on his back. The saurian quickly lunged down and sunk his teeth into shoulder flesh, drawing blood quickly.

The subterranean hunter roared out in pain as the razor-edged teeth of his adversary tore into his shoulder and lit up his horn right beside the baleful eye, causing the prehistoric predator to rear back in pain, releasing his prey. The fierce dragon struggled to see out of his temporarily blinded eye, allowing the burrowing menace to get back to his feet and let loose a torrent of flames from his maw into the dinosaur’s face; the conflagration sent him recoiling and roaring in pain, his face receiving second degree burns from the flames. Before the primeval predator could recover, the ravenous reptile did a running leap, jumping clear over the burnt beast and, upon landing, sunk his teeth into his spiked tail, inciting a roar of pain from the dinosaur kaiju. 

Gorosaurus flailed his tail wildly, trying to throw the fierce burrower  off but the tenacious kaiju hung tight, even as he was torn from the ground and swung through the air, slamming back down onto a small building. The saurian spun around, trying to snap at the persistent little kaiju, only to be evaded every time. Starting to get frustrated at this annoying pest for making a fool of him, the teal theropod reared back on his tail, using his ability to support his body weight by his tail to press the offending cretin’s bottom jaw hard against the ground. The smaller monster flailed in surprise and pain as his lower jaw was sandwiched between his target’s entire body weight and the ground. Desperate to free himself, the underground dragon let loose his flames, causing the allosaur to jump back to his feet, trying to make the burning pain in his tail stop while the subterranean kaiju received a burn to the face from the backwash of fire caused by blasting something in his mouth. 

However, Baragon managed to recover quickly enough to leap into the air, slamming down hard on his foe’s spiked back, driving the dinosaur to the ground hard before raining claw slashes into his back, drawing blood and causing quite a few lacerations. Gorosaurus let out a bellow of pain and fury at this attack, managing to get to his feet, but the ravenous predator, once more showing his tenacity, clung on tight, biting into the back of his shoulder. The primeval predator once more found himself struggling to get free from powerful jaws, though he was more annoyed by this than anything else. He finally decided to rear back on his tail again, this time letting the extra weight of the canine-esque terror send both crashing backwards through a small building, crushing his opponent under his weight. The underground beast yelped loudly on impact, allowing the Mondo apex to free himself and get to his feet. He spun around to find a ridged tail disappearing beneath the earth.

The prehistoric throwback scanned his surroundings carefully, trying to find out where his rival had gone. Finally deciding the smaller creature had fled, he turned back towards the meat to eat his hard earned meal… only for his foot to fall into a hole dug beneath, sending him toppling to his side with a roar of surprise. The allosaur groaned as he struggled to stand, only for the underground dragon to poke out of the ground next to him and breathe a torrent of fire into his chest, causing him to roar in pain and leaving a blackened patch of skin in its place. Triangular jaws quickly snapped in retaliation, only for the subterranean kaiju to pop back into his hole and dodge him. Growling, King Kong’s rival quickly made it to his feet and glared at the hole, knowing now the burrowing  kaiju hadn’t fled, he’d merely changed how he was fighting the battle. The theropod held his ground, looking around for any sign of the ravenous hunter, but ultimately, that sign came from behind in the form of a blast of fire, staggering him forwards and getting a cry of surprise and pain from the kaiju. The primeval creature spun around, only to once again find his attacker gone, and moments later, receiving a blast of fire to the back. This same exchange repeated twice more, causing ancient fury and frustration to grow, the harassed dinosaur feeling like a dog stuck at the end of his leash with a cat taunting him a few inches out of his grasp. It was then he had an idea…

The horned horror popped out of the ground once more to fire, only to find his foe gone. The subterranean kaiju looked around in confusion, wondering how his rival had disappeared so quickly. The answer came when the allosaur erupted from behind, the burrowing glutton’s tail clinched in his jaws. The underground king roared in surprise and pain as Gorosaurus’ jaws crushed down on his tail, drawing blood. The dinosaur shook his head, lacerating Baragon’s flesh, taking pleasure in the realization this Baragon didn’t know he could burrow as well, one of the reasons he’d been mistaken for the burrowing monster the last time he was here. The teal theropod flung the ravenous hunter through the air, sending him crashing into a clearing nearby. Enraged, the underground predator charged once again and leapt through the air at his foe. But that was a well he had gone to once too often, the primeval monster was ready and reared back on his tail. The burrower  barely had time to give a roar of shock before the apex of Mondo Island let loose a kangaroo kick, striking him right in the chest and sending him soaring through the air for several hundred yards and into the Arch De Triumph, crushing the structure under his now limp body.

The allosaur cautiously made his way over to Baragon, checking the subterranean creature over, finding him coughing up blood and in agony, his chest having practically been imploded by the kick. Taking pity on the little kaiju and deciding to put him out of his misery, the Jurassic survivor lunged forwards and clamped his jaws around the smaller monster’s throat, shaking it until he tore it out. Blood pouring from his neck, the once king of the underground quickly went limp in death. Swallowing the hunk of flesh, Gorosaurus licked his lips, now having two big meals to eat, unknowing that the French military had used him for pest control. He honestly didn’t care, so long as they left him be. The prehistoric predator quickly set to work, eating Baragon’s corpse, enjoying a well-earned meal.

Winner: Gorosaurus (Showa)

Author: Christian Salabert | Banner: Christian Salabert

The ground began to buckle as something underneath it began to unearth itself.  A long, spindly leg suddenly erupted from the soil. It was shortly followed by another. Soon, eight of the appendages had emerged from the ground, and together they hoisted something out from the subterranean depths. With a chittering cry, the mighty predator known as Kumonga exploded from the dirt. As the soil fell from his bumped back, the massive spider began making his way through Monster Island’s jungles. A large meal after his long nap would do quite nicely.

Sea water poured from Titanosaurus’ scales as he lifted himself out of the ocean and stepped onto Monster Island’s sandy shores. The aquatic beast had grown tired of swimming for the time being and decided it was time to roam about on land. Leaving his footprints across the beach, the towering saurian soon disappeared into the foliage, crushing trees beneath his feet as he went.

On and on, the arachnid forged as he continued to look for food. He came across Minya, but that plan was quickly laid to rest when Godzilla took notice and stepped in between his son and the giant spider. Undeterred, the top predator of Solgell continued to look for a meal that would sate his considerable hunger. He began to climb upwards as he entered the mountainous region of the island. He could sense another creature nearby, one that would hopefully prove not as much of a challenge as the King of the Monsters, but would provide just as much sustenance.

Red nostrils snorted in annoyance as the aquatic creature came across a mountain of considerable size, even for him. Unwilling to walk around it, the crimson reptile began to trek up the towering slope, his antennae twitching as he went. He could feel that another of the island’s residents was nearby, but hoped that it would keep its distance. He was in no mood for a fight today.

The two monsters continued to move forward, both only vaguely aware of the other’s presence. As they came closer and closer to the mountain’s peak, they started to hear each other in motion, the sounds of their thunderous footsteps and crushing trees underfoot echoing through the air. Titanosaurus growled in frustration as he trudged on, but Kumonga merely twitched his mandibles in silent anticipation. Their encounter was inevitable now.

Reaching the very top of the mountain, the sail-backed dinosaur quickly turned his head from side to side, trying to spot the other beast he knew was there before it saw him. But to his surprise and confusion, he found nothing. He didn’t like this. He knew he had heard something on the other side of the mountain. His ear-like fins twitched as he tried to hear even a hint of another monster’s presence. The titanic tarantula thanked the fates for his luck; in his attempt to locate the other creature, the amphibian had inadvertently turned his back to the spider. Taking advantage of his position, the arachnid immediately began to unleash a torrent of webbing, which soon began to rain down onto the reptile. Looking up, the primeval predator stared at the white strands covering his upper torso in momentary confusion, confusion which quickly ended as he spun around, instantly spotting his attacker. Trumpeting angrily, the normally gentle giant marched forward, ready to punt the eight-legged freak off the top of the mountain.

Seeing his intended prey quickly approaching, the hunter from Solgell ceased firing his web and began to back away. He could most certainly handle himself in combat, but he knew the dinosaur was not an opponent to take lightly, especially in close quarters. Just as he got within reach, the larger monster reared his foot back and went to kick the spider in the face, but the multilegged menace countered with a tactic of his own. Using his legs to lift himself high into the air, a fanged face headbutted the kyoru in the neck, causing the reptile to choke and stagger back, toppling off his feet. Lowering himself down into his usual stance, Kumonga watched as Titanosaurus rolled down the slope, cackling as he went. The warty saurian’s descent down the side was brought to a sudden end as he hit a rocky ledge sticking out of the side. Dazed, the underwater beast moved about drunkenly, unable to even get up to his feet. Seeing that his foe was vulnerable, the methodical hunter began to climb down after him.

The arachnid came closer and closer to his prey, tauntingly exposing the poison stinger within his mouth. Just as he was about to strike, the prehistoric relic suddenly pulled himself upright, taking the spider by surprise. Spinning around, the deep sea dinosaur flipped his tail open, revealing the membrane within. Bending over, he began to flap his tail from side to side, almost instantly generating a hurricane wind that stopped the arachnid dead in his tracks. Thanks to his body being so low to the ground, the giant spider was safe from being blown away by the gale, but he couldn’t get any closer to his opponent. The uprooted trees and rocks bouncing off his face didn’t help either. He tried spraying Titanosaurus with his web, but it was instantly dispersed in the winds. Unable to do much else, the titanic tarantula decided to put some distance between the two of them and took a careful step backward. For an instant, he lost his footing and stumbled back, pushed forcefully by the typhoon assault. Thankfully, he regained his footing before he was sent sprawling down the opposite side of the mountain.

Standing upright and folding his tail back up, the warty titan  turned around and spotted Kumonga at the peak once again. Trumpeting angrily, the dinosaur marched up, flexing his arms as he got ready to attack. By the time the venomous monster had recovered his wits, the prehistoric giant was already upon him. The sea monster outstretched his arms just as the spider raised his two front legs. With a crash, the monsters slammed into each other. Locked in combat, the two grappled with each other, trying to inflict as much damage as they could to their opponent. The eight legged beast moved to strike the saurian with his front legs, but the reptile easily grabbed them and kept them away from him. Each time a taloned foot tried to kick Kumonga in the face, the spider extended his poisonous stinger, threatening to stab into the foot with it. For the longest time, it seemed that the two beasts were stuck in a stalemate.

The two creatures stayed like that for some time before the larger kaiju decided to end their shoving match, releasing one of the striped legs. Just as the limb shot towards him, ready to strike, the primeval giant twisted his head around and caught it within his jaws, biting down on it. Kumonga cried out as he felt thick teeth pierce his skin, but the reptile wasn’t done yet. Utilizing his impressive strength, the amphibious saurian spun himself around, lifting the thrashing tarantula up into the air with only his jaws. Continuing to build momentum, Titanosaurus eventually opened his mouth, releasing the arachnid and sending the spider soaring through the sky, down the mountain, until his flight was abruptly and violently ended by the ground. The deep sea monster nodded satisfactorily as he saw his foe  lay there at the base of the mountain, twitching in agony, one of his legs broken by the crash.

Keeping his eye on the spider, the titanic dinosaur  finally made his way down the other side of the mountain, occasionally letting out trumpeting sounds to herald his victory. He eventually made it to the bottom, glowering at the mammoth arachnid as he went. Suddenly, Kumonga lifted his head and spat out his stinger, which instantly embedded itself into the base of his stretched neck. The reptile’s eyes widened as he could already feel the area going numb. Without any hesitation, the nimble aquatic leapt up from where he stood and into the air. Seconds later, he came down hard, crushing a multi eyed head underneath his feet. The spider’s body spasmed violently, then went limp.

The kyoryu could already feel the stinger’s poison getting stronger. Wiping the arachnid’s  brains off the bottoms of his feet and onto the jungle grass, he continued his trek across the island. Hopefully he would make it back to the ocean before the spider’s sting rendered him unconscious.

Winner: Titanosaurus

Author: Kenneth James | Banner: Jackson Morris

Monster X descended from the sky above the famous volcano, landing gently near its top. The demon of the stars had orders from his master; while having a kaiju destroy a city was fine, a volcanic eruption was very destructive in its own right, and more enjoyable to watch. He stood back and let loose an onslaught of powerful energy beams from his four eyes, blowing huge chunks of rock and debris from Mt. Saint Helens in all directions as he attempted to trigger the blast.

Deep below, the shockwaves from the blast shook and ravaged the area. Years ago, the volcanic eruption had failed to awaken it, but the gravity bombardment would do just that. A glowing red eye lit up, glimpsing out of the ancient cavern with an unearthly screech.

The Xillien vanguard continued his assault until finally, the earth began shaking. He stopped, awaiting the eruption… before realizing the shaking wasn’t the volcano itself. Suddenly, the earth exploded outwards, a massive form erupting from the depths of the volcano for the first time in several million years. Megaguirus hovered in the air in front of Monster X, ready to reclaim what belonged to her after so long in hibernation below the Earth’s crust, and finding her first victim. She didn’t care how long she’d been gone, the skeletal hybrid was in her territory, that was all that mattered, and the Meganula Queen would destroy any threat to her turf. On top of that, the proto-Ghidorah reeked of energy. The amount was tantalizing and the prehistoric predator hungered for it after her long slumber. She screeched and dove at the alien, jaws wide as she prepared to clamp her powerful maw down on his throat.

The Controller watched from the mothership as Monster X roared in surprise, leaping out of the fast kaiju’s path. 

“A monster was sleeping in the volcano?” he asked, surprised.  “Well well, Earth has no shortage of these giant pests it seems… It doesn’t have the M-Base like the others. So, Monster X…” 

He gave an evil smirk. 

“Kill it.”

The Keizer roared in response, more than happy to oblige his master’s command. He threw his arms out, letting loose his Gravity Beams at the insect. However, the flying predator evaded nimbly, weaving through the rays and dashing forwards through the air, slamming her sharp wings into the cosmic terror’s chest, toppling him to the ground hard. The space monster groaned, having no idea she was that fast. He quickly got to his feet and slowly circled the ancient killer, Megaguirus doing the same. The draconic flier was first to charge, flying straight at the demon, claws ready to strike and tear his flesh. However, Monster X managed to catch her pincers and swung her around, slamming her to the ground. He swung around, bringing his whip-like tail into the side of her fanged face, leaving a welt in her exoskeleton and earning a roar of pain. He then prepared to fire his Gravity Rays, only for the Carboniferous creature to swing her own tail around and trip an armored leg, knocking him to the ground and allowing her to take flight and return to her element.

The Xillien weapon groaned, slowly returning to his feet as his foe buzzed around him. The Dragon Queen watched her rival, waiting for the right moment to strike, a predator on the hunt. The Super Space Monster watched her closely, waiting… when suddenly he felt a scolding burn in his foot and jumped to the side, looking down to see molten lava begin pouring up from the depths of the volcano. This, however, allowed the hovering horror  to finally see her opening and shoot forward, swinging her tail up, aiming for the black sinewy stomach. However, the space monster managed to turn back in time and leapt into the air, spinning around and roundhouse kicking the prehistoric terror in the side of the head, sending her spiraling to the ground with a huge crash. Monster X took advantage and leapt on top of her spiked back, raining blows into her face, each earning a sharp roar of pain. 

Megaguirus felt hot lava seep under her body and panicked, swinging her stinger up and digging into his back, drawing a spurt of blood and a roar of agony. The cadaverous monster  jumped off before the parasite could siphon energy, but the Meganula Queen took flight once again, glad to be out of the lava. She flapped her wings at blinding speeds and took off so fast she was just a blur. The bioweapon zenith found himself bombarded from every direction, staggering as super sonic strikes landed, the blitzing beast zooming past him so quickly he barely caught sight of her. Finally, the arthropod clamped her pincers down on bony shoulders and flew up with her momentum, carrying him off into the air and dropping him several hundred feet to the base of Mt. Saint Helens.

Monster X groaned, looking up in pain, searching for the damned insect. He noticed the superspeed creature had stopped her high speed assault, probably to conserve energy. He also noticed the ground below him was starting to shake. This time, he knew it was a sign the volcano was going to erupt soon. Megaguirus, however, refused to cease her advantage and dove straight at the cosmic terror, intending to impale him on her stinger. However, the space-born kaiju waited for her to get close and let loose his Gravity Beams, blasting her and sending her crashing to the ground, screeching in pain. The gravity master groaned and stood back up, charging over and slashing away at her face and chest, earning streaks of blood in the ancient queen’s armor. He remembered last time and quickly leapt out of the way as she attempted to sting him in the back again. He swiftly grabbed her tail before it could be lowered and swung around, slamming her hard into the side of the volcano. He leapt up and followed up with a flying back hand, only to find his arm clenched in her crushing jaws. He roared and tried to free his arm, only for the infernal insect to fly up and continue to shake her head rapidly, trying to tear deeper into his interstellar arm. The celestial demon felt his bony armor give way to the strong jaws and responded in turn, driving his claws into her right eye and tearing it out. The monster monarch roared in agony as blood spurted from her now missing eye, as the space demon followed up by grabbing her by the shoulders and throwing her off.

The ancient terror quickly caught herself in midair and took flight once again, intending to exact revenge for her destroyed eye. She saw the Keizer of monsters prepare his Gravity Bolts and charged forwards, driving her stinger into his gut, earning a roar of agony. The energy devourer grabbed him by the arms with her pincers to hold them in place. The extraterrestrial roared out in pain as he felt his energy being drained into the giant insect queen’s body and struggled. He attempted his beams, but discovered, to his horror, that the’ energy drain robbed him of his weapon for the time being. The Meganula Queen finally had her fill and retreated, X quickly attempting his Gravity Rays to counterattack, only for the prehistoric killer to dodge and get in close. Much to the warrior of the cosmos’ shock, he saw a sphere of yellow energy form before her pincer before she unleashed a blast of his own energy, sending him flying back and crashing hard to the ground, sending bits of his armor flying into the air.

 The ravenous predator quickly descended on him and slashed his face repeatedly with her pincers, each earning a shower of sparks. Finally, Monster X regained his senses and let off a blast of Gravity Rays. The parasitic pest didn’t have time to dodge and raised her pincer up to defend her frail body from further damage, the limb taking the full fury of the attack and blowing the pincer off into burning bits of flesh. As she roared in pain, the Super Space Monster sprang up and did a leaping spin, smashing his tail into the side of her head, continuing as he came down, driving his fist into the side of her jaw, toppling her hard to the ground. The humanoid quickly pounced on her and grabbed her by the throat, trying to choke her. However, being an insect, the bug didn’t breath through her mouth, but instead external openings on their body, thus, the choking had little effect and she was able to counter attack, driving her pincer straight into his crimson eye, earning herself a roar of agony from her opponent as she tore it out of his face, forcing him back. The energy devourer then looked up at the volcano and saw something frightening, taking off at blinding speeds

The Kezier looked around in confusion. Why had she left so suddenly? He sensed something behind him and swung around… too late. 

A pyroclastic flow from the eruption he himself had triggered washed down the mountain, slamming into him with great force.

Megaguirus watched from safety as the alien was engulfed by the scolding hot current of rock, toxic gas and ash. If he somehow survived such a fate, she’d be on him in a moment to finish the job. And sure enough, when the flow ended, the Xillien champion still stood, badly burned to the point some of his bone armor plates flaked and fell off and wheezing on the toxic, burning hot gases that had nearly incinerated his lungs. Having adapted to the hot, poisonous gases of a volcano after living inside one for several million years, the monster monarch fearlessly dove down and put him out of his misery, stabbing the suffering bioweapon in the chest with her stinger, forcing it deeper until it erupted out his back in a shower of blood and gore. Not finished, the Meganula Queen, with Monster X impaled on her tail, lunged forwards and tore out his throat. The infernal insect allowed the dying humanoid to fall limp to the ground and die. She let out a victorious roar, before dragging her kill off to find a safe place to eat it.

The Controller jumped around in a fury, yelling at the top of his lungs, cursing out the bug.

Winner: Megaguirus

Author: Christian Salabert | Banner: Jackson Morris

A pair of slaves ran across the sandy shores of Letchi Island, trying desperately to escape their terrorist captors. As they reached the waves, they realized they were left with no other choice and leapt into the water, swimming as hard and as fast as their bodies could handle. Catching up too late to stop them, the soldiers chasing them fired their machine guns at the fleeing duo, but they were already out of range.

But despite the potential escape of the two slaves, the Red Bamboo Captain grinned evilly. 

“They may have escaped from us, but they won’t escape from Ebirah!” he cackled. 

He quickly redirected his men to the base’s dock to get a better view of the slaves’ fate.

Just as the group of soldiers reached the dock, the water began to churn and bubble. The Captain’s grin got wider as a huge, shelled form began to rise up out of the ocean. But his look of evil glee soon turned into a look of shock and confusion when, instead of their captive beast, out of the sea rose the tentacled beast Crustaceous Rex!

Opening his floweresque face, C-Rex let loose with a whale-like cry. Looking downward, he spotted the fleeing slaves, who noticed the mammoth creature too late. Before they could even begin to turn and try to swim back to shore, they were ensnared by thrashing tentacles, hoisted high into the air, and stuffed into the sea creature’s mouth. The mutation swallowed the two a moment later, but their meager size failed to sate his hunger. Looking for more food, the abyssal predator began making his way towards the island.

The interloper had barely taken two steps towards the island, however, when the ocean waves once again began to churn behind him. One dark red claw pierced the surface, then another. Pulling the rest of his mass up out from beneath the waves, Lecithi’s devil let out a high-pitched screech, quickly grabbing the attention of the split-jawed beast. The yellowish mutation turned to face the new arrival, letting out a battle cry and flexing his tentacles. The super shrimp began waving his arms around, snapping his pincers open and shut, ready to drive this strange beast out of his waters. Both sea monsters immediately went on the attack, lunging towards each other. 

Thick claws clamped down on the Jamaican monster’s powerful legs, but the mutant’s tentacles lashed out, wrapping around armored arms. As the Red Bamboo’s guard dog tried snapping his foe’s legs in half, the deep sea monster began pulling on the lobster’s arms, trying to wrench the limbs out of their sockets. The overgrown shrimp’s claws began cutting into abyssal flesh, leaking green blood into the water. Groaning in pain, the tentacled terror opened his face once again and unleashed a thick torrent of tar from his mouth, covering his foe’s face. The mighty crustacean released his opponent’s legs and shrieked as the boiling, black gunk covered his face. As the unnatural predator righted himself and readied to attack, the Horror of the Deep plunged under the waves, trying to wipe the tar off his face. Flipping around, he swatted the biped’s legs with his tail, sweeping them out from under him and sending him crashing beneath the surface.

Sinking to the ocean floor, Crustaceous Rex managed to get back to his feet and spotted Ebirah, who had succeeded in getting the tar away from his eyes, allowing him to zero in on the tentacled monster. Moving his tail up and down, the gigantic arthropod made a beeline for C-Rex, his arms outstretched and his pincers open. But the deep sea monster was ready for him, raising one of his legs up and smashing one of his large feet into his pointed face, stopping the lobster’s charge cold. The decapod was quick to respond, however, backhanding the larger creature with his left pincer, staggering the mutation. With the yellow beast reeling from that blow, Ebirah raised both his arms and brought them down hard onto the sloped back, sending a thunderous crack reverberating through the water as their bony armor collided against each other. The bipedal beast reacted quickly, snatching the crustacean’s right arm and legs with his tentacles. With a mighty heave, the arthropod monarch brought his heinous foe down and smashed him into the rocky ground, stunning the oversized shrimp.

As the sea monster tried to regain his wits, the mutation raised his leg and stomped down on his foe, trying to crush him underfoot. The ridged shell started to crack before the lobster even realized what was happening, and he began writhing about, trying to get a hold on his foe, but he was too far out of reach. It was then that he realized that the giant’s leg, the one he was standing on, was not too far away from him. Pulling his arm back, the Red Bamboo’s watchdog stabbed his smaller pincer directly into the three taloned foot, just as a large crack broke across the main section of his shell. The oil eater staggered back, wailing in pain as his foot leaked blood, while the shrimp monster climbed onto a nearby rock and came up with his next move.

The pain in his foot subsiding, the flower faced fiend turned to face Ebirah, moaning angrily. The mammoth lobster shook his pincers at his foe and screeched, taunting the mutation. Furious, Crustaceous Rex charged, extending his tentacles. The Horror of The Deep leapt off the rock, opening his pincers. They met violently, their impact sending a shockwave through the sea. Their clash was brief but fierce, each creature trying to end the other as fast as possible. Screams of agony suddenly echoed throughout the waves, and both monsters quickly backed away from the other.

Three of the C-Rex’s tentacles fell to the ocean floor.

The Letchi devil’s large pincer similarly hit the rocky bottom.

The two underwater behemoths glared daggers at each other as they momentarily licked their wounds, formulating their next move. Their main weapons had been weakened severely, and they both knew they had to be careful with their next attack. The decapod soon climbed back onto the rock he had leapt from before, eyeing the tentacled terror, whose own eyes hadn’t left the crimson crustacean. He quickly glanced at the ocean floor, spotting a weapon he could use, then returned his vision to his foe. He stepped forward, ready to attack.

Once his foe was close enough, Ebirah leapt towards the mutant predator again, aiming his one remaining pincer at the mutation’s face, planning on spearing his head with it. The larger beast was quick to react, however, and his last tentacle reached down to the ground, ensnaring the dismembered claw. As soon as the enormous shrimp was close enough, C-Rex thrust his tentacle upward.

The lobster’s pained screech was cut short as his own pincer sliced into his soft underbelly and burst out the broken shell covering his back. The tar eater released his grip on the claw and stepped back, allowing the sea monster to sink to the bottom floor, twitching and bleeding. Writhing about in the mud and rocks, the crimson creature tried to strike back at Crustaceous Rex, but his life was ebbing away too rapidly. Within moments, the Horror of The Deep lay still.

C-Rex stepped up to his kill and, using his sole tentacle, started to peel away the shattered shell. Ripping out a chunk of meat and stuffing it into his mouth, the mutation wailed contently. This was far more satisfying than squid.

Winner: C-Rex

Author: Kenneth James | Banner: Dao Zang Moua

The Amazon was a dense, vibrant thicket of life. Home to a huge range of wildlife, covering over five million and a half kilometers of land, it was little wonder this place would be a target for the demonic Desghidorah’s hunger for life energy. The planet-killing space dragon descended on the land and quickly began to siphon energy out of his surroundings, causing plants and trees to wither and die in seconds. The hellfire hydra relished the meal, but even consuming this entire rainforest, even the entire planet’s life energy, wouldn’t be enough for him. His hunger was endless. The quadruped kaiju flew low over the rainforest, allowing more and more life force to be drained into his body. However, before his meal could finish, the space monster was sent spiraling from the sky and crashing hard into the ground with tremendous force, shaking the ground for miles. The death bringer roared in pain, shaking his three heads to clear them from the impact, then looking up as he got back to his feet, expecting to see his ancient nemesis Mothra but instead finding a very different sight.

Ultraman descended from the sky, landing before the cosmic terror. 

“SHIAH!” he bellowed, taking his battle stance. 

For centuries, the Ultras had sought to put an end to the cosmic horror and his equally destructive fellow Ghidorahs that had so long ravaged the universe. He wouldn’t allow this ancient evil to drain life on Earth if he had a choice in the matter. He slowly circled the demonic hydra, which kept all six of his sinister eyes on the Ultra Hero, each waiting for the other to make the first move. The hellfire beast wasn’t known for patience and he was the one to shoot first, letting loose a hailstorm of burning energy blasts from his mouth. The Giant of Light was quick to roll forwards, dodging the assault and closing the distance, quickly grabbing hold of one of the plant killer’s necks and delivering a barrage of chops to it. He saw one of the other heads attempt to snake around and bite him, but he managed to catch it under the jaw and force its head up as it tried to let loose an energy bolt, sending the deadly attack flying into the sky. However, the third head, exploiting the heroic envoy’s vulnerable state, bit down on his shoulder, discharging energy into him and causing the Ultra Brother to roar in pain. The attack forced the cosmic hero into releasing the other two heads, allowing each of them to take hold of one of each silver arm, discharging energy of their own before all three lifted him off the ground and slammed him back down into it with great force. They lifted once again and threw the humanoid, sending him crashing into the ground a good distance away.

As the sizeshifting superhero struggled to get back up, the devil dragon stampeded towards him, rearing up on his hind legs and crashing down with his full weight on his foe’s chest, driving him deeper into the wet ground. The dark Ghidorah was quickly on the assault again, trying to bite down on the Land of Lighter as he was pinned beneath him. Man-Ni-San barely managed to move his head out of the way enough to dodge the nearest vicious fangs, causing the earth around his head to be uprooted by the space dragon’s powerful jaws. 

Ultraman took the first opportunity he got and crossed his arms in a ‘plus’ shape, letting loose the Specium Beam from his upright hand. The burning beam of energy tore into the space demon’s chest and sent him backpedaling. He finally stopped the beam, but to his shock, the monster still stood! The alien dragon had received a rather nasty burn to his chest that was clearly extremely painful, but it hadn’t been nearly enough to finish him. The seasoned fighter looked down as he heard a distinctive high pitched noise, his Color Timer flashing red. The fight had only just begun and already his energy ran short! He had to change strategy quickly.

The cosmic defender saw Desghidorah’s central head let loose a powerful stream of flames and leapt into the air, taking flight and landing on his finned back. He quickly sent blow after blow into the hydra’s necks, trying to make a dent. However, before he could make much headway, the extraterrestrial  let loose a powerful pulse of energy, blasting the silver hero off and to the ground with a cry of pain. The world destroyer quickly turned as the shining protector got back to his feet and bombarded the Ultra with bolts of energy, sending blasts of earth and blazing trees flying high into the sky. When the dust cleared, the wounded hero fell to his knees in pain, his Color Timer flashing rapidly. The hellfire dragon bellowed and let loose another volley of energy blasts, intending to finish it.

Ultraman awaited his demise, regretting his failure… but the hit never came. Orb-like eyes looked up to see another giant hero standing between him and his foe. Zone Fighter formed the outline of a shield with his hands as they glowed, forming the Hyper Barrier. The powerful energy field not only intercepted the fiery onslaught, but reflected it back at it’s originator, sending the space monster staggering backwards, roaring in agony. The Peacelander turned and helped his ally to his feet, the two alien heroes exchanging a nod. The blue hero looked at the blinking timer, knowing the Ultra was in dire straits. He pointed up and gave his friend a nod, then pointed to himself, telling the Ultra to go recharge and he’d keep their enemy busy in the meantime.

Man-Ni-San was hesitant, but fairly certain the Meteor Man was capable of keeping the destroyer occupied until he could return. He gave a nod and spread his arms. 

“SHUWATCH!”

The battle cry barked from the Ultra as he took off to leave Earth’s atmosphere and recharge to continue the fight. The Hurricane of Justice nodded as he saw this and turned back to the dark super beast as the space monster recovered from the last attack, the hero of justice taking a battle stance of his own.

Desghidorah roared in surprise at this second similar being, not sure what to make of him. Nonetheless, the hellish hydra roared and charged the antennaed being, who was quick to meet his charge, delivering a barrage of punches to his chest. The demon from the stars was quick to attempt a bite, but the eldest Sakimori sidestepped it and gave a powerful kick to the back of his spiked knee, taking the titan off balance and nearly toppling him. Before the drake could regain his footing, the Champion of The Universe sent a rapid barrage of punches into his chest, quickly causing his fists to move at blinding speed. The Uzi Punch managed to force back the evil creature a few meters before he lunged over the physical assault and bit the Peacelander by the throat, discharging energy into the space man. Zone Fighter struggled in pain, trying to free himself. He saw the other heads lunge towards him to clamp down as well, and managed to pull open the jaws head he was presently locked in, allowing him to duck and causing the two heads to crash into one another. Taking advantage of the momentary daze the collision left the two heads in, the Meteor Man leapt back and did a series of hand poses.

“Meteor Missile Might!” shouted the young hero, summoning missile-filled gauntlets to his wrists.

 He quickly let loose a punishing barrage of missiles from one of the bracelets into the thick hide of the space hydra, tearing into his flesh and earning roars of pain. The Earth defender continued this onslaught until his first bracelet ran out and quickly brought the other one forwards, giving another barrage. By the time the bracelets were empty, the cosmic demon was surrounded by a pillar of thick smoke from the explosions and impacts. Zone slowly rose up, waiting in suspense to see if that’d done the job. When the smoke cleared, the star hero saw that the super monster was still quite alive, though badly hurt and looking worse for wear as a result. The Champion prepared to follow up with another attack to finish the space demon, only to see plants surrounding him wilting and dying as energy drained out of them. Hikaru then looked up at the charcoal devil, seeing him regain his strength as he sucked it out of the surroundings.

Shocked, Zone took a step back, leaving him open to a blast of the central head’s fire stream, staggering him back before a pair of energy bolts from the other two heads blasted him clear off his feet and sent him crashing hard to the ground, his head falling with a splash into the Amazon River. The young Sakimori groaned as he tried to rise again, only to see the quadruped rear up and slam his entire weight down onto his chest, earning a bellow of pain. The horned outer heads lunged down and clamped their teeth into the Meteor Man’s shoulders, discharging energy into his body and burning into his flesh. The center head lunged back and launched forwards, aiming to sink into a silver throat. However, before the malicious monster could land the finishing blow, a circular blade of blue energy flew in. The titan reared up, causing the blade to only leave a gash in his chest instead of beheading him as it was intended.

Desghidorah looked up and saw Ultraman flying back down, fully recharged and ready to assist Zone Fighter in the battle. Having a short attention span, the space demon took flight to resume his battle with the hero from the Land of Light, quickly opening fire with a barrage of energy bolts. The envoy from the stars dodged and retaliated with a Specium Beam, with the demonic hydra barely flying above it. Flaming plasma continued to fire, the onslaught forcing the Ultra to dodge and put him on the defensive. Finally, the death beast managed to get in close and clamp his mouths down on his foe’s shoulders, burning into his flesh. The evil creature took the opportunity and flew straight down, slamming the Giant of Light into the ground with great force and maintaining his grip.

Zone Fighter, his own meter turning yellow, stood back up and saw the danger his partner was in. He threw his hand forwards, letting loose a stream of arrow-like energy blasts. The cutting beam flew through the blood red right wing, cutting it off at the base. The Ghidorah roared in fury and pain as his severed wing fell to the ground before he quickly turned his attention towards the blue protector. With a snarl, he began preparing another gout of flames. However, Man-Ni-San had different thoughts and quickly got back to his feet, throwing an Ultra Cutter and severing the other wing. The dragon’s attack was cut off by his own roar of pain and he swung his tail around, trying to hit the Specium master, only for him to jump over it and grab his right neck, pounding away at the head. 

Zone quickly closed the distance and did the same with the left, trying to doubleteam the tyrant. The space demon screeched in fury and let loose his energy shockwave, blasting both heroes off him and to the ground. The two managed to get back to their feet and stood side by side. They rushed the multi headed devil, dodging energy bolts shot their way by the demonic hydra, huge explosions going off around them, until they reached him and both sent fists and chops into his front, managing to drive him back. They quickly saw the demon beginning to charge another energy pulse and jumped back to dodge it. However, as surprising as it was, the lava spewer had tricked them! The space monster reared up, driving his weight into the ground, causing it to split open and towers of burning flame to swell up from the molten depths of the earth, burning and wounding the twin heroes.

The two protectors crashed, wounded to the ground, Sakimori’s meter turning red and Hayata’s own timer flashing. The two heroes managed to get to their feet in time to evade another onslaught of energy, the Peacelander going left, the Land of Lighter right. When they landed, they expected to be under attack, but saw their target seemed confused as to which one to attack first. Both heroes noticed that the belligerent monster kept focusing on the one who attacked him last. The two gave each other a nod of agreement and decided to use that to their advantage. 

The Ultra Brother charged the life devourer, getting his attention and forming a barrier of energy to block an onslaught of energy bolts, allowing the Meteor Man to close in and grab the horns on the  right head in one hand and the jaws in the other. He pulled them in separate directions, earning a resounding crack and roar of agony. He leapt back, watching as the head’s separated jaw hung limply, the towering hydra quickly turning and firing a stream of flames from his center head. Hikaru quickly formed a weaker energy barrier, the Zone-Barrier, to block it. The cosmic defender took advantage and formed an Ultra Cutter, throwing it and sending the severed tail of the dragon flying into the air. The hellfire monster roared in agony and turned left and right frustrated, not knowing who to attack. His fury overriding his mind, the cosmic demon fired his energy weapons in all directions.

The two heroes managed to avoid the berserk rage their tactics had sent the hellfire beast into and got close, Zone Fighter wrapping his hands around the left neck of the monster and Ultraman around the right. The two lifted with all their strength, managing to tear the towering alien off his feet and send him hurling overhead to the ground a distance away. The twin alien heroes nodded to one another, the Ultra crossing his hands in Specium Beam preparation.

“Meteor Proton Beam!” announced Zone with a series of poses, firing a beam of dark blue energy from his crest, which collided with Ultraman’s newly fired Specium Beam. 

The two finishing beams collided and combined into a single beam that tore into the cosmic monster’s scaled body, tearing into and  burning his hide, sending bits of blazing flesh and explosions into the air. Desghidorah tried to remain standing, but the force and pain inflicted by the combined assault forced him backwards, even trying to drain energy from his surroundings failed him and he knew his time was done. He let out one last agony filled roar before finally, he went up in a fireball, the infamous dragon vaporized in a humongous explosion.

The two heroes panted, watching the shockwave of the blast as trees’ limbs blew in its wake, allowing them to follow it visually. They looked over at the massive crater that used to be the devourer of forests as chunks of rock and trees rained down from the explosion, the terrible space monster finally dead, though at the cost of a large section of the Amazon Rainforest. Man-Ni-San looked around at the still-burning flames and put his hands together, letting loose a spray of water and putting out the flames. While he did that, Hikaru looked at the Ghidorah’s severed tail. Realizing a relative of Grand King Ghidorah may share his kin’s regenerative abilities, he piled it and the severed wings together and stepped back.

“Meteor Proton Beam!” The Champion of The Universe called, doing the set up and firing the finishing beam once again, wisely vaporizing the last remaining pieces of the hellfire evil to ensure he wouldn’t regenerate and plague the world again.

The two alien heroes walked slowly over to each other, both physically exhausted. The two looked at each other for a few seconds before taking each other’s hands and shaking them, both glad to have this opportunity to fight by each other’s side.

“SHUWATCH!” shouted the Giant of Light, taking flight and disappearing into the sky, the Hurricane of Justice following suit. 

As long as they stood to defend it, Earth would never fall to evil.

Winner: Ultraman (Universal), Zone Fighter

Author: Christian Salabert | Banner: Christian Salabert

“You primitive insects are no threat to us,” droned the cold, emotionless voice of the being once known as Dr. Ted Hoffman. His once-human body hovered above the floor, now segmented and insect-like. His cold, dead eyes stared at the viewscreen before him. “And neither is your bladed beast. Our cyborg will make short work of yours, and then you will have only one option: Surrender to us or die.” (more…)

Author: Kenneth James | Banner: Jackson Morris

Kong snarled, tearing against his chains, displayed under a massive tent in the center of the city for all to see. The once mighty king of Faro Island now on public display for all to ridicule. The flashing of cameras angered him, as did the shouts of the crowd. He had to get free! He put all his force into tearing at the chains but could not so much as move. The primal monarch let out a mighty roar of fury at his situation before relaxing, having exhausted himself. As the Eighth Wonder of the World let himself recover, the cries of protestors broke the silence, the crowd being broken by chanting protestors, holding up signs ordering the return of the great ape to his natural habitat.

In a laboratory outside of town, a scientist watched the events transpiring and laughed. This was Glidor, a radical scientist in the field of biology, smirking deviously as he watched the protests on the news.

“This is perfect! Public sentiment being against bringing Kong here only helps my plan. It was a stroke of genius funding that mission to Farou to retrieve Kong, now I’ll be able to show everyone my genius!” he said, turning to a huge frozen humanoid nearby, cables hooked into it. “When I resurrect you to stop Kong, I‘ll be famous!” 

He yelled, turning back to the terminal and pressing a button on the computer.  “Time to start the show!”

At Glidor’s touch, small explosives planted under the anchors of the chains went off, weakening them enough that when the primeval king went into another fit of rage, they were torn from the ground, setting the massive ape loose. Realizing he was free, the South Seas Devil let out a fierce roar of fury, beating his chest as the crowd was thrown into a panic. Now completely infuriated, the giant gorilla tore the tent surrounding him to the ground. Once free of his entrapment, he smashed a nearby building with his fists, intent on taking out his pent up frustrations on those who had stolen him from his island home.

Glidor smirked as Kong tore through the city in a berserk rampage. 

“Perfect! Now, to quote the one who made you…” he said, turning towards the frozen body and flipping a switch, sending a massive surge of electricity into the creature. Within seconds, the creature began to stir, a human-like hand erupting out of the ice block. Gildor cackled, watching the colossal Frankenstein’s monster rise from his icy tomb.

“It’s alive! It’s alive!

Man, I’ve always wanted to say that.”

Frankenstein groaned, looking around him in confusion. Where was he? Last he remembered he’d battled with Baragon and had fallen into the earth, unknowing that the mad scientist had spent over a year quietly excavating and transporting him to San Francisco where he‘d spent months repairing his body to resurrect him. “Frankenstein!” called Glidor, gaining the huge human-like kaiju’s attention. 

“I am Glidor, the one who restored you to life, you understand me?” he asked, getting a slow nod, making him smirk. “I assumed you would. Now, there isn’t much time. You like humans, am I right?” 

The revenant human slowly nodded, still confused at his situation.

 “Well a monster named King Kong is attacking the city, you must stop him,” he explained, showing the image on the screen, enraging the kind hearted monster. Glidor smirked at this reaction, pressing a button and opening a large door in the side of the building to allow the lightning borne to leave the lab. 

“Good luck,” he said, watching the giant exit and head off to battle the giant ape. Glidor then laughed, turning back to the monitor. “It doesn’t matter if Frankenstein beats that hairy ape or not, so long as he tries to protect the city, it’s to my advantage.”

Faro’s demon god let out a bellow of rage, ripping a building apart with his massive arms, the chains still hanging from them. He continued his fierce rampage through the city until another shout of rage attracted his attention. He spun around to see the kaijin staring him down, challenging him with intent to stop the ape kaiju’s rampage. The great gorilla roared and beat his chest, responding with a warning. The artificial being refused to back down and snarled back, getting in a fighting posture. The giant ape howled in fury and charged his new rival at full speed, throwing a punch at his stitched head only for the mutant human to duck under and tackle him in the gut, throwing him to the ground and driving fists into his face.

The Devil of The South Seas roared in shock and replied by swiping at the immortal  with a clubbing blow, knocking him off. The Eighth Wonder of the World was quickly on the offensive and smashed his huge fists down on his foe’s back, driving him straight into the ground. The god howled and brought his arms up to slam down once more, only to have his target roll out of the way and evade the attack as the giant ape’s fists slammed into the pavement. The humanoid took a chunk of rubble left behind from the earlier rampage and slammed it full force into his foe’s face, driving the ape backwards. Before the storm king  could respond, the undying creature charged forwards and put his entire weight behind a punch to his rival’s face, slamming him back first into a building.

Frankenstein kept up his offense by attempting to slam a car into a sloped cranium, only for his arm to be caught and the great ape’s strength to force him back. Once on his feet, Kong punched the kaijin of justice in the stomach, doubling him over. Before the undying beast could recover, the savage ruler grabbed his ragged furcoat and lifted him overhead, throwing him and sending the giant man flying though a building. The legendary monster snarled, as he was quickly upon his enemy and grabbing him by the ankle. With a pale foot in his grasp, the giant ape swung him around with his great strength and before launching him a good distance away, leaving him laying at the base of the Pyramid Building. Faro’s monarch  snarled, charging the immortal demon at full speed, but before he could reach him, the creature got to his feet and hurled a gasoline tanker into his face, the resulting explosion blinding the ape. The man-made mutant wisely got out of his natural foe’s path as he plowed through the structure and it collapsed on top of him. Sallow eyes surveyed the rubble, knowing King Kong was buried in there and likely still alive. The intelligent primitive wisely tore the spire off of a building and used it as a spear, stabbing the rubble to try and finish it.

After three stabs, Frankenstein’s weapon suddenly refused to be pulled from its place and a furred form erupted from the rubble, spear clasped in hand. The mighty monarch pulled hard, throwing the revenant  right into a powerful punch from his other arm, driving the creation straight onto his back. The Eighth Wonder leapt on his smaller humanoid foe and drove pummeling blows into his misshapen face. Realizing he was in trouble, the synthetic human brought his legs up and kicked the Faro god in the stomach, throwing him off and back first into another building. As the giant ape attempted to stand, the mutant  leapt on his back and wrapped his arms around his neck, strangling him with his own great strength. The great gorilla bellowed in panic, his oxygen cut off as he tried hard to pull the kaijin off but the humanoid had the leverage advantage and he couldn’t manage to force himself free. 

Realizing he wouldn’t last long without air, the South Seas Devil grabbed his tormentor’s legs. throwing himself and the humanoid backwards into a building to try and dislodge him. When that failed, he tried it again to no avail. However, a third time made the living dead’s grip to slip enough that the simian could get his fingers under his arm, forcing it out enough to free himself and flip the revenant over him to the ground. The immortal being, though, managed to roll through and get back to his feet, quickly on the attack again by picking up and slamming a nearby truck into the leering ape’s head, forcing him backwards. 

Before the creation could capitalize, The Eight Wonder grabbed hold of his arm and threw him face first to the ground. The great ape followed up by grabbing his foe’s stitched head and brutally driving the humanoid’s face into the ground multiple times, breaking his nose. Before more damage could be done, the kaijin of justice snatched some rubble from the remains of the Pyramid Building and threw it into the primate’s eyes in desperation, blinding him and allowing the lightning borne to escape his grasp. Realizing the storm god was too strong for him to fight head on, the gentle giant turned and ran towards the ocean, looking for a way to even the odds. Once the mighty king cleared his eyes, he saw the unnatural human fleeing and refused to allow an – in his mind – unprovoked attack to go unpunished, quickly giving chase

Looking around, Frankenstein saw the San Francisco Bay Bridge and came up with an idea, remembering the chains hanging from the primate’s arms before wading into the bay. The primal predator chased after him and soon caught up, grabbing him by the shoulder. But the artificial human swung around and pushed against the massive primate with all his might, driving the great ape backwards underwater. Before the storm god could surface, Frankenstein rapidly turned and continued towards the bridge, beginning to climb on the 227 meter tall supports. The great ape followed close behind and began climbing as well. With the bridge’s structure groaning under the weight of the two monsters who together made up half its height, the revenant knew he had to do something quickly.

As the simian grabbed his ankle, the synthetic being kicked him in the face with his other leg, hanging on tight. Another kick freed his ankle, allowing the stitched human to climb up to the top of the structure, where he waited for his quarry, now having the high ground. However, the island ruler was no stranger to combat at a high altitude and climbed up after him. The dueling giants quickly began exchanging blows, each trying to gain the upper hand. Realizing the support both of them hung onto could break at any moment from their combined weight, the enhanced human took note of his location and grabbed Kong by the throat, throwing them both off, managing to get the larger monster under him as they plowed through the center of the bridge into the water below. Quickly regaining his wits, Victor’s Creature grabbed onto the support cables of the bridge that had broken from the impact of both plummeting through the bridge and entangled the arms of the stunned great ape with as many as he could get his hands on, in addition to those he‘d tangled in on the way down.

The king of Faro roared in fury, straining against the cables with all his might, threatening to bring the entire bridge down. Realizing he had to end it before the god broke free, Frankenstein grabbed hold of one of the chains hanging from his arms and wrapped it around his throat, strangling the primate with it. The Eighth Wonder flailed and struggled, trying desperately to get free but to no avail, soon beginning to lose strength. Frankenstein began to tire long before his foe did, but kept going, choking the life from the Eighth Wonder of the World. However, as the mighty primate lost consciousness, Frankenstein noticed something in his eyes. They were thinking eyes, not like Baragon’s feral monstrous eyes. He realized this savage king wasn’t just an animal, he was a thinking creature like he was…

The unnatural human released the chain before he could kill the primate, leaving the ape unconscious but still very much alive. That’s also when he realized something else: this monster monarch had been chained up. That meant he had been a prisoner, not just a monster that was there of his own accord. Curious, the immortal demon picked up the ends of the chains, seeing they hadn’t been torn out but instead were blasted off, still carrying scorch marks from the explosives. Despite not fully grasping the concept, he realized that the ape must’ve been willingly freed by someone. He then heard a car pulling up and looked up, seeing Glidor stepping out of his car on the most intact part of the bridge, applauding.

“Well done, you’ve defeated Kong, you’ll be a hero! And more importantly, I’ll be the hero who revived you and sent you to save the city, I’ll be famous!” he said, ecstatic. “Now, please kill Kong and take his body back to my lab. I’d very much like to take a look at him. He’s my property, I funded the expedition that found him, so it’s only right that I get the first opportunity to perform an autopsy and find out what makes him tick.”

The artificial human glared at Glidor, realizing he was the one who’d brought Faro’s king here in the first place. And judging by how happy he was, he’d let the beast loose to fight him just to prove a point. Enraged, Frankenstein roared and clinched his fists. 

“Oh, you’ve realized the truth, have you?” replied Glidor, not intimidated. “Yes, I did bring him here just to fight you, but you won’t kill me. You love humans far too much for that, don’t you?”

The kaijin growled, Glidor had a point. The idea of killing any human, even an evil one, sickened him. Still, he knew someone who’d gladly do it instead. The stitched human turned and shook Kong awake, roaring to him and pointing to Glidor. The Eighth Wonder glared at the small human before curling his lips and letting out a fierce roar.

 “Now Frankenstein… don’t do anything rash…” said Glidor, no longer so smug.

 To his horror, the mutant  tore the cables holding the savage king, allowing the massive ape to free himself. Glidor screamed in terror and jumped in his car, taking off down the bridge, trying to escape the enraged primate. The South Sea Devil tore through the bridge in front of the evil man, grabbing his car in his massive hand and roaring fiercely. Before the mad man could even scream, the great gorilla  threw the car with all his might, sending it flying through the air and crashing into a hillside on shore, exploding in a large fireball. Having taken his revenge on he who deserved it, the Faro monarch let out a fierce roar of victory, beating his chest.

With Glidor dead, the lightning borne helped break off his new friend’s shackles once he calmed down, getting a thankful nod. The storm god roared and grunted, thanking the giant for his help. Later, Frankenstein stood on the shore, watching as King Kong swam through the surf towards his island home. The mutant then looked out over the ruined city, realizing that while the monster hadn’t come of his own accord, there were other monsters who would threaten mankind. He decided the best course of action was simple, stay and defend mankind. The son of Victor Frankenstein marched towards the mountains, intending to find himself a place to live in the world.

Draw: Frankenstein (Universal), King Kong (Showa)

Author: Kristian Zatkoff | Banner: Jackson Morris

A satellite was hovering many miles above the Earth. Its telescopic lens was watching as a battle unlike any before was about to be fought many miles below in the heart of North America’s capital that was already under siege.

Utsuno Ikusagami slowly descended from the sky, observing the creature that was staring back up at him. So this was the King of the Monsters, the cause of so much destruction? He recalled how the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasure Center sought his help to destroy the beast. Their weapons had failed them so many times in the past that they had become desperate enough to turn to a god and ask him to fight the radioactive terror for them. The divine hero landed in the middle of what was Washington D.C. 

The towering titan let out a low growl at this strange being, trying to figure out what it was. It wasn’t a machine or cyborg like he was used to fighting. The golden god made the first move and fired an orange-colored beam from the sun medallion on his forehead. The monster monarch slid across the ground and didn’t stop until the knight of the sun ceased fire. The scorched saurian lay there motionless, his eyes rolled up in his head. A full minute passed. The fused defender was about to declare the living a-bomb dead when he saw some fingers twitch.

Did he really see that? 

Several more moments passed before he got his answer. Godzilla rose back up, his bones creaking, his eyes moving back in place. The radioactive reptile  snarled at the giant warrior, as his lips parted and the spines on his back flashed a bright neon blue before a stream of blue-white death was vomited out, the searing energy about to lance into the legendary hero who merely held his hands out in front of him. A barrier suddenly stood between the god and the death ray, the deadly atomic energy sliding harmlessly off.

 Utsuno Ikusagami decided to hold it up, wanting to see how long this devil could discharge energy into an attack before having to replenish his reserves. It felt like an eternity went by when it was only a minute. The raging  beam seemed like it would go on forever but it soon grew weaker, the force lessening until it ceased. The holy knight made his barrier vanish and observed the monster with mild interest. The King of The Monsters was panting, out of breath from using his beam for so long. 

This was the creature that has plagued the world for so long? Takeru was unimpressed. 

Surely the mortals exaggerated the creature’s power. The only reason this primeval threat was still standing before him today was because of sheer dumb luck. Machines like Mechagodzilla malfunctioned, kaiju made mistakes just like any other animal and even the brightest mortal would overestimate the power of things they do not fully understand. The other gods who fought him were cocky. They were so full of themselves that they toyed with this walking disaster instead of killing him off outright.  Today, Utsuno would prove that, despite common misconception, death did seek Godzilla out. Today, he would end the legacy  so-called “Monster King” that the mortals claimed not even the gods themselves could kill. He quickly planned in his head the fastest way of ending this fight. The shining sentinel raised his left hand, a lance of silver energy forming in his hands. With a roar, the Strongest Monster on Earth charged the silver warrior who threw the lance with great force.

The lance tore through the Godzillasaur’s chest like a hot knife through butter, the other tip punching out his back, into the ground behind. The beast of Lagos was engulfed in a sea of flames. Utsuno Ikusagami ran forward before the flames could die down. Godzilla looked up only to have a fist slam into his face. He stumbled back before being backhanded, then kicked in the stomach. The pressed assault of the god was caught off guard when the reptile head butted him back. The divine raised his fist again and punched out, only to have his foe grab his fist. 

What? 

He tried to punch with his other only for it to be blocked too. The Monster King looked at him, his eyes narrowed. Kaiju and god struggled in a contest of strength, trying to push the other away. And to Utsuno’s horror, he was losing. He was being pushed so far back, the ground sliding beneath his feet, that soon he found himself crashing through the White House and out the other side. He managed to stop by digging his feet deeper into the ground when suddenly the atomic dragon  pushed forward and let go. The holy knight  almost fell backwards when the monster monarch grabbed him and lifted him high above his head before turning around and throwing him.

The divine warrior slammed into the earth, remains of crushed buildings and dead bodies flying high into the sky. He got back up just in time to dodge the tail that had slammed into the spot where he was not more than a second ago. Godzilla roared in frustration, striking at heavenly armor with his claws. The protector of the sun stumbled back but regained his balance and grabbed a slashing claw, sending lightning-like energy through his touch which burned and seared scaled flesh. The invincible king tried backing away, struggling to free himself from the death grip but the god refused to let up, sending still more juice into his charge. The smell of overcooked meat filled the air, making Ikusagami sick but he still held on. The monster king was foaming at the mouth while shrieks of unbearable pain were heard for miles. He was almost there. Just a little longer and the champion of the pantheon would kill the radioactive menace. Clawed arms were falling limp by his side and it seemed victory was near when a bright flash of light blinded the silver warrior. The next thing he knew he was on his back, his entire front aching and burning from a quickly released nuclear pulse.

Godzilla roared as he rushed forward, stomping his feet onto the god repeatedly before turning to slam his tail into him. The Strongest Monster on Earth lifted his tail and was about to slam it down for a second time. The champion had to move fast. His back wings spun at high speeds and he took off before the tail could hit the ground. The blades cut several oak shaped spines, even cutting two or three big ones off as he flew past. The blades also cut into Godzilla’s chest and neck, sparks, blood, bone, and flesh flying everywhere. The blessed being turned around, intending to cut up this terror more on a second passing when a stream of blue death hit him full on the face, knocking him clean out of the sky. The sentinel landed right on his feet and fired his medallion beam. The radioactive reptile blocked the beam with his own. The beam clash was a stalemate.

The irradiated dragon poured more energy into his ray, the blue beam slowly pushing the orange beam, inching slowly toward the knight born of Takeru and Ota. The Yamato god couldn’t believe his eyes. The beast could change the power level of his own beam! Utsuno poured more energy into his beam, making it inch closer to Godzilla, before finally it slammed right into his mouth. The King of the Monsters stumbled back before falling into the Washington Monument, the obelisk crushed under several thousand tons of flesh and bone. The sun god held out his right hand and a giant sword appeared, the blade covered in divine energy to be the bane of evil’s existence. The nuclear menace charged forward when a second spear of light pierced his flesh. The hero from the moon ran forward, slashing the blade across the modern god’s chest.

Blood rained down on the streets as Godzilla felt bone being cut as if it were nothing. His howls could not describe the pain he felt but it was the best he could do. He slashed his claws across his attacker’s chest, sparks flying as the divine warrior staggered back before regaining his balance and stabbing back at the kaiju monarch’s chest. The King of the Monsters coughed blood, as he struggled to push his attacker away. 

Utsuno Ikusagami was angry. He only got one of the lungs, but he was aiming for the heart. The hydrogen bomb’s bastard rammed both of his fists into the ridged helmet, causing the warrior to stagger again. Bellowing a war cry, the saurian charged once more. Ikusagami knew exactly what he was trying to do and he would have no part of it. The charging titan slid before turning and swinging his tail, but a silver fist caught it. Using the monster’s own momentum against him, he swung the beast by his tail and threw him.

Miles above, something was about to happen. Something that would forever change the world’s view of Godzilla. Someone overrode the satellite’s program and started a countdown that was never meant to happen, a countdown that would change the tide of the battle many miles below.

The determined dinosaur held his head up high. Utsuno knew what Godzilla was planning and got ready to fire his beam. But something troubled him. The spines were glowing red instead of blue like they had been. The chosen one fired his beam. It happened in less than a fraction of a second. Just when the sun beam was mere inches away from the foe’s fanged face, it stopped when he opened his mouth and let loose with his spiral ray. The holy knight was shocked. Unlike the blue atomic rays of before, this one was strong enough to stop his beam. No, worse, as it was actually pushing his beam slowly back at him. This new ray was slightly stronger than his ray and that made the legendary warrior feel something that the gods rarely, if ever, felt.

 Fear.

The glittering beam was shoved back into the medallion. The titan of the sun staggered back, his feet sliding along the ground as he was pushed back by the great force of the spiral ray before falling on his back. The pain was nothing like any he had felt before. When the atomic dragon ended his attack, the Yamato god got back to his feet and was shocked to see the outer layer of his holy armor was melting, big drops rolling down and dripping down the front like melted candle wax. How? How could this… thing, this mistake, be able to harm his divine armor? How had the humans so easily made something that was so hard to kill? Orochi didn’t give him this much trouble, and he was said to be the most evil thing in this world. So why was this one proving to be so strong?

The pantheon’s champion put up a barrier as the living hydrogen bomb fired his spiral ray again. Utsuno Ikusagami was thankful that the beam was blocked by his barrier, while the irradiated saurian stopped and tilted his head as if trying to think of what to do next. He didn’t get a chance to plan his next move before the silver warrior ceased using his energy barrier and ran forward, his sword held high up with his right hand. The radiation eater was too low on energy to use anymore spiral rays so he fired his normal atomic ray. Utsuno ignored it as he ran through it and with unfathomable might swung the sword sideways, ready to cut off this beast’s head.

There was a loud clang, but nothing happened. No spray of blood filled the air, no loud thud of a large body hitting the ground. The baffled god saw why. 

Godzilla had the sword locked in a death grip with his teeth. Ikusagami generated another spear and thrust it right into the monster’s chest. The invincible terror  howled out, the sword freed from his jaws, as his foe backed up. The wounded Godzillasaur  swung his tail but the hero jumped over it. The monster monarch looked up just in time to see him falling with his sword pointed at a downward angle. 

The atomic heart of the dreaded god was pierced by the sword. His arms went limp, his eyes became dull and his body slouched forward. Utsuno Ikusagami pulled the sword out and kicked Godzilla’s body to the ground. He had done what was said to be impossible. He had killed the so-called “Monster King.”

He was getting ready to fire his medallion beam and destroy the remains when he heard a loud whoosh. Before he could even react, a large missile shot down between them and slammed into the ground. Suddenly there was a bright flash of intense light, heat and noise. It was like standing in the sun. Despite the blinding light, Ikusagami could still see Godzilla’s body, and could see wounds closing up before he blacked out. When he came to, everything was leveled, nothing was left standing. What happened? How long had he been knocked out? Hours? A minute? A few seconds? Utsuno Ikusagami could only guess that a nuclear weapon was fired off in the city. He knew that mankind would have to be very desperate to use it anywhere, let alone in one of their own cities. It would have to be a massive emergency, such as for one to be used in such a location. He guessed the slain creature was one of those emergencies.

But was it meant to be fired, or had a mistake been made? Either way, when he got back to the U.N.G.C.C. in his human form, he was going to have some strong words with whoever ordered that launch. He was no expert on nuclear weapons and Godzilla even less so but even he knew that the monster fed off of radiation. Some had theories, or perhaps hope, that if the beast was in the heart of the blast, then perhaps he might be vaporized before getting a chance to feed off the energy and grow stronger, but no one had done it for fear of the risk of him not being killed, not to mention the countless lives lost if used in a city. It seemed someone was willing to take that risk. Ikusagami knew he wouldn’t find him even as he turned to stare at the spot where he had been. At least he thought it was the right spot. He wasn’t sure, the blast had changed the landscape as well as destroyed anything that would make knowing where he was standing easier to know. Had the monster that terrorized man for centuries been vaporized? He doubted it since he was still standing, though with some admittedly intense burn marks that stained his once pure white armor ash black. Granted, he was a god, after all, but then again, the beast was putting up a pretty good fight against a god. Considering he was nothing more than just a mutant mistake, of course. He was far stronger than what Utsuno Ikusagami had originally thought.

No, he knew his quarry had somehow survived that blast, or rather, been brought back from his recent death by all that nuclear energy. As if to confirm his thoughts, the Monster King roared an angry challenge for their rematch. Utsuno turned around just as another red spiral ray slammed into him. The silver warrior stood up and stared at Godzilla. His heart dropped into his stomach at what he just saw. The monster had changed. His eyes, spines and large patches of his skin gave off smoke and glowed a reddish-orange. The nuclear destroyer was in meltdown mode again. The foolish mortals! They sought to destroy him but instead, they guaranteed that the monster had a chance win this fight, and after he had already beaten him, too! 

Takeru’s godly form stared at the burning titan more closely and saw there were new wounds there that had not been caused by him. It seemed that while his wounds had healed fast enough to not let him be vaporized, they didn’t heal fast enough to keep up with all the burns. The dragon may have been recharged, but now he had new injuries because of the blast. Maybe the champion of the gods could still win this fight after all.

Ikusagami fired another beam at his foe’s face, distracting him long enough for the Yamato god to run up and grab the beast’s neck, zapping him with his holy energy and stabbing him in the chest with his sword. He missed his mark by mere inches. The atomic heart was still beating with life. The monster monarch slashed at his attacker, trying to fend him off. The protector from the moon held on, ignoring the heat until it became too much and let go. He kicked the radioactive reptile  away as he drew the sword back, steam rising from the blood on the blade. The holy knight  needed to kill him, again, even faster because the longer the fight went on, the hotter the reptile’s body would become. He was already badly damaged just from being too close to the monster, let alone touching him. Utsuno Ikusagami was backing away when the mutated Godzillasaur’s tail swiped under his feet, causing the mighty being to fall face forward. The supercharged saurian fired his heat ray, sending the warrior flying in the opposite direction.

Utsuno tried to get up, but the burning beast was already upon him. The fused hero acted fast, punching the monster champion  in the groin, causing him to shriek and stagger backward as the god returned to his feet. Takeru was planning his next move when the creature recovered and bit down on the pauldron on his shoulder. Now the roles were reversed as the divine tried to dislodge the mutant dinosaur, but the raging monster would not be denied. His teeth bit harder. The heat was so great that it helped the teeth get deeper in, past the armor and into angelic flesh. 

The sun god was about to zap his captor when his spines flashed and before he knew it, Godzilla was firing his ray while still chomping down on the god. Utsuno Ikusagami zapped back with his energy but the molten monster refused to let go, still biting down, still firing his death ray. Ikusagami fired his medallion beam at point blank, finally forcing the flaming beast off his feet and letting go.

But the vengeful creature still fired his beam, which connected with the sun knight’s and caused a massive explosion. The silver sentinel almost fell as he staggered back, but the Yamato god quickly recovered and ran forward before the smoke could clear, wanting to attack before the Strongest Monster on Earth could get up. He learned the hard way that he already was. As he ran into the smoke, he was slapped across the face by a powerful tail. Stunned, Ikusagami just stood there as the King of the Monsters punched and then kicked him down. The living hydrogen bomb  bent down and lifted Utsuno high above him, spinning him around before throwing him high into the air. The divine was falling through the air when suddenly the steaming saurian  lunged forward and swiped his claws into an uppercut, sending the Yamato god flying far away.

The deity collided with the Earth, sending dust and debris from the nuclear explosion flying into the air. Despite the pain, the stalwart hero quickly got up and threw another spear of energy, only for it to be blocked with his foe’s heat ray. The legendary warrior summoned another energy spear, this time planning on throwing both his sword and the spear while blocking the beam with his own. He fired his energy attack and threw both holy weapons. To his utter horror, however, the spiraled death beam expanded to such a size that it engulfed the holy beam, energy spear, and divine sword. It didn’t stop there. As the beam grew bigger, it engulfed Utsuno as well. A massive blast was seen, heard and felt for miles around, one that rivaled the earlier nuclear warhead.

Takeru could not believe the pain he was in. He stood up and saw that his armor was melting. His sword had been damaged almost beyond recognition. The blade was gone, melted down to a dull hilt. Was he really going to stay and continue the fight? Ikusagami decided that for now, retreat would be the better option. He had enough trouble trying to kill the monster  in his normal form, but this burning mode was proving to be something else all together. If this mutant wasn’t a super monster before, he was now. In this state, there was no way the divine could win. He would have to finish this fight another day, after recovering from his injuries. But first thing’s first. He needed to recover his sword and distract the raging reptile long enough for his escape.

Utsuno Ikusagami flew forward and grappled with the burning beast. The two slid across the ground, neither one gaining the advantage. The radioactive destroyer would change that. He rammed his head forward, causing the god to lose his balance and fall down. The supercharged saurian held him down with one hand while pummeling him with the other. Finally the beast opened his mouth, ready to fire another blast, ready to kill this thing, whatever it was, once and for all. He didn’t know who or what it was and he didn’t care. All he knew was that he would never find peace in this hostile world as long as it lived, he could sense it already planning to escape and kill him when they met again. His instincts told him to kill it now, while it was still hurt.

Ikusagami panicked, his hands roaming around in his crazed state, trying to dislodge the beast, when his hand felt something. Out of the corner of his eye he saw what he needed: The hilt of his once mighty sword. The blade was mostly gone except for a jagged little piece of metal sticking out of where the hilt ended. He brought his arm up and slashed the broken sword across his foe’s scaled face. 

The Monster King shrieked as he was blinded, blood pouring out like crimson tears. Utsuno fired his beam again, knocking the giant off of him. He stopped for only a moment, thinking if he should run or stay and fight. He quickly deduced that the monster was still too powerful, even without his eyes. His other senses were still strong enough to know where he was. Ikusagami took to the sky, barely dodging another death ray from the thrashing creature who either smelt him or heard him escaping. By the time his eyes healed, the monarch of kaiju saw that his foe was too far away to chase, already a dot in the distant sky.

Utsuno Ikusagami had flown for nearly thirty minutes before he felt he was too far away for the living atomic bomb to shoot him down. He looked down at the broken sword in his hand. 

Before today, he would have never thought it could be damaged, let alone destroyed. He hoped it could be fixed. Before today, he used to scoff at the rumors that the King of the Monsters could not be killed, by man, machine, monster, alien or god. That he was a monster to monsters. Now he believed them. He also felt guilty, guilty at the anger he felt for the mortals whose foolishness brought this demon into this world and had caused suffering and death for countless, both the innocent and the wicked. Felt guilty for how he felt sorrow for the monster and his mutant brethren, knowing that they were just as much victims of the atomic age as the mortals were victims of their attacks. He now fully understood why this saurian was so powerful, why this mistake existed in the first place, and what he stood for. He heard the word symbolism and he now saw that if life was such then the radioactive mutant would represent war. The beast was made by a nuclear weapon, a device of war and that is why man will never be free. Fighting him was fighting war, and as long as there are people, there will be war, there would be more mistakes such as nuclear weapons, and as long as these things existed, so would Godzilla.

Man had opened Pandora’s Box and it could not be closed. Ikusagami was about to leave when twin purple streams of deadly energy hit him in the back. He looked over and saw an armored caterpillar. It was Earth’s own little fallen guardian. The Black Mothra. Battra roared, her mission to destroy any threat to the world or any unnatural being that might upset the balance. As far as she was concerned, gods only belonged in the sky or the underworld. They had no place on the Earth’s surface, and since he was a god on the surface, Utsuno was an unnatural being. The holy knight glared at the fallen angel as it charged forward. 

Ignorant insect! Did it not know who he was? What he was? If not for the gods, there would be no planet Earth for it to protect in the first place. The larva was a fallen guardian now. She still fulfilled her mission, yet had been blinded by the end goal beyond reason. The bug should have been destroyed the moment she became corrupted. The divine champion charged forward. This was one mistake he would not feel guilty putting down.

Many miles away, computer engineers were trying to find out who had fired the nuclear warhead at Washington D.C. when someone hacked their computers and every screen began displaying the same image. One that hadn’t been seen since the 1960’s, when Godzilla destroyed their base of operations, or so it had seemed. Everyone was shocked. Many miles above in space, the satellite that had fired the nuke featured the same logo that was now appearing on the computers.

 A red bamboo.

Winner: Godzilla (Heisei)

Author: Kenneth James | Banner: Jackson Morris

The people of Osaka fled for their lives as the shape of the Smog Monster, Hedorah, flew over the city, searching for food. The mineral alien  didn’t care about the tiny annoyances running below her, or the fact a great number succumbed to her choking sulfuric mist, all she cared for was sustenance. It was quite ironic, the very creatures she cared so little for were the ones that provided the very thing she loved to eat, and should her constant growth bring about the end of mankind, she herself would die from starvation… but of course, being such a simple creature, this fact escaped her mind. As her bulbous red eyes caught sight of a smoke stack in the industrial district, the oozing terror  prepared to descend and begin feeding, only for an unearthly screech to tear into her thoughts. Before the acidic extraterrestrial could spin around to find the emitter of this challenge, something slammed into her from above, sending the spewing disc  plummeting to the ground below.

Destoroyah’s yellow eyes gazed upon the toxic titan’s prone form as he himself descended from the sky. His motivation for this attack was as simple as what drew the pollution devourer to the city; he enjoyed it. Serizawa’s bastard was at his core, a sadistic demon. Unlike most kaiju, he liked killing things. It was literally his entire purpose for existing. He saw the invading monster not as a bane to life on Earth, but as another victim to his bloodlust. As the living Oxygen Destroyer approached, the living sludge’s form glowed and to the precambrian devil’s surprise, reconfigured itself into a towering adult form. The colonial evil took a step back, not from fear, but surprise that this creature could perform a similar feat to his own powers. Curious, the malevolent crustacean took a look around, seeing the death and destruction this other entity left in its wake, and how it had done it, by robbing them of their ability to breathe and reducing them to skeletons.

The destroyer quickly realized how similar he and her were… and it made him all the more enraged. The prideful demon  took pride in his status as the bane of life, the deadliest creature on the face of the Earth… and he didn’t want to share that sadistic title. His multifanged jaws let out a roar of fury and challenge to the Smog Monster, receiving a gurgling cry of acceptance to his challenge. The fight was on.

The living extinction  was the first to strike, energy crackling about his frill before a beam of Micro-oxygen erupted from his maw. The space ninja held her ground, but soon roared in agony as the beam struck her shoulder, destroying the oxygen making up the water in her body, leaving a dried and cracked area in its wake. The microbial demon seemed to laugh with sadistic glee at his opponent’s pain, only for the evolving evil to take advantage, firing a jagged red ray of energy from her eye. The larger of the titans didn’t react at first, believing his armor would protect him, only to let out a bellow of pain when the beam smashed into his shoulder. The beam’s corrosive secondary effect actually left a painful burn on the Precambrian terror. The horned horror let out a roar of fury, charging at this being that had actually caused him harm, as the malformed monster held her ground. The two collided and pushed their weight against one another, until the suffocating villain forced his claw into a grey chest. Destoroyah seemed to smile as his clawed hand tore through his opponent’s flesh, only for a roar of agony to replace it.

The cruel crustacean quickly tore his hand free from Hedorah’s torso, finding the armor on his hand melted and deformed. While his thicker hide had withstood it better than the Monster King himself, the sadist had learned his lesson. Piercing this blob’s hide wasn’t a good idea. Before the micro-oxygen killer could recover, the triphibian smacked him hard across the head with one of her amorphous hands, leaving a slight burning sensation in its wake. As the multipiece terror turned his attention back to the shadow walker, ignoring the pain, he received a blob of acid to his shoulder, causing another roar of agony to emit from his fanged maw as he tried desperately to wipe off the burning, unpleasant sludge, managing to do so before too much of his armor was melted away.

This, however, gave the Smog Monster the opportunity to tackle her foe to the ground, trying to smother him with her acidic body. As the acidic alien attempted to force the bladed head into her toxic form, she suddenly shrieked in agony as a glowing orange, energy blade erupted out of her back. The poisonous terror pulled herself off the blazing Laser Horn, the wound cauterized momentarily before her acidic insides ate away at the useless flesh and restored the hole. Destoroyah rose to his feet and, Laser Horn extended, sliced it down across the flanged body, cutting a deep slash in his hide, sending sludge flying and inflicting another cauterized wound. As the chemical eater shrieked in pain, the armored giant swung his katana around a second time. For a moment, the walking biohazard appeared unaffected… until her head toppled from her shoulders to the ground, her body following suit. The prehistoric devil shrieked in victory, taking delight in watching his seemingly dead foe collapse to the ground. Considering himself victorious, yellow eyes turned to redirect his bloodlust to the city itself… only to hear another gurgling howl from the “corpse”.

Shocked, the living extinction spun around to see two smaller, flying form Hedorahs where the head and body of the original had once been. The two flew up into the air, recombining into one and dropping their sulfuric acid on the crustacean, hoping to kill the creature as she had the humans. But to her surprise, the demonic titan merely took flight, shrugging it off! The mutated monstrosity came from an oxygen-free time period, where highly volatile gases were much more common. Compared to that extremely hostile environment, a little sulfuric acid was nothing. The hovering alien  managed to dodge her foe’s charge and countered with her eye rays, only for the winged demon to dodge as well, firing his Micro-Oxygen Beam in retaliation. The ray tore into a sludgey back, causing her to roar in agony as her body was dried out, but managing to keep flying and turned tail, trying to keep the looming reaper  off long enough to counterattack, her  primitive brain trying to find an effective way of killing the living Oxygen Destroyer when her normal methods were useless.

Destoroyah didn’t give him time to think as he sent a Micro-Oxygen Beam after her, the ninja monster narrowly dodging the beam and causing it to destroy a section of the city below. The noxious villain counterattacked with her eye beams, catching the pursuing devil in the wing and burning it, slowing the demon down. With the giant’s speed reduced, the poisonous kaiju spun around, firing a barrage of sludge at the Precambrian monster, the acidic slime impacting crimson flesh and burning away the thick hide. Though wounded, the microbial monster refused to give up, as frustrated as he was at his inability to make lasting damage to this enemy. He extended his Laser Horn and dove at the strafing disc, intent on impaling the Smog Monster on it, only for the nimble triphibian to narrowly evade and latch onto his back, using her body to dissolve the destroyer’s armor. Roaring in agony, the prehistoric  killer tried hard to dislodge the toxic titan, but found his attempts useless. Realizing it was only a matter of time until she dissolved away his wing joints, Serizawa’s “son”  made the choice to launch his tail up, driving the pincer-like edge deep into a bulbous red eye. Roaring in agony, the mineral alien immediately released her grip, flying away from the demon.

The winged beast  hovered, observing the damage to his body, armored plates flaking off his now severely burned back and falling away, his tail tip burned to the bone and severely deformed. Rage now burned in his  black soul at this kaiju that so badly wounded him, and making his rage grow even hotter was the fact that none of his attacks seemed able to kill the whelp off for good. He needed to finish it. He looked to the harbor, realizing that a beast of sludge was in no way immune to his Oxygen Destroyer-like power underwater. The massive demon suddenly spun around, flying out towards the sea.

Hedorah, her  eye now shut and for the moment, unable to heal, saw her foe make for the ocean. Assuming a retreat, the gluttonous kaiju also came to the realization of how the advantage being underwater would grant her as well, and pursued her enemy. As the two flew away from Osaka and out into the bay, the crimson horror suddenly spun around, grabbing hold of the pollution beast, sending both plummeting towards the water below. Reverting back to her  final form, the glittering giant  grappled with her foe, both trying to get the advantage and slam their foe into the water, who won out unclear as the two titans slammed into the ocean, sending a cascade of water high into the sky.

Below the surface, the Smog Monster watched her opponent, prepared to strike, only for Destoroyah’s body to vanish into a cloud of Micro-oxygen. The incarnation of pollution looked around for her opponent, only to suddenly feel agony over every inch of his body as the hidden devil assaulted her as a colony of microorganisms, dissolving her form. Realizing what her opponent had done, the mineral monster  broke herself apart into a massive swarm of tadpole-like creatures, breaking down further till she matched Destoroyah’s size. The two swarms continued to battle it out at a microscopic stage.

At the surface, humans watched the water flash and boil as the unseen battle between two armies of microbes still caused a great upheaval in the ocean’s surface, simply due to the sheer power each swarm processed. But gradually… the disturbance became smaller and smaller until it stopped altogether. All that remained were fish skeletons floating to the surface in huge numbers, either the result of acidic sludge burning them to the bone or oxygen-destroying powers having dissolved them.

Below the surface, only one of each monster survived, all others having been completely wiped out. The two microscopic creatures charged one another full speed. The two collided, Destoroyah trying to dissolve Hedorah while the Smog Monster tried to smother the living Oxygen Destroyer with its acidic body. The two continued to struggle until finally, both dissolved away to nothing. In their desire to destroy one another, both had succeeded and wiped each other off the face of the Earth…

Draw: Hedorah (Universal), Destoroyah

Author: Christian Salabert | Banner: Jackson Morris

The crystalline terror known as Krystalak marched through the forests of Japan, searching for a source of energy to feed on. He had sensed a large power crystal and had been making his way towards it for the past few days. But it seemed that his long trek was finally at an end. The mineral monster had reached the Kitami River, and jutting out of the river’s shores was an enormous glowing crystal, just brimming with energy. The unnatural evil grinned. He could almost taste the power radiating from within. As he approached the crystal, the berserker kaiju trampled over a nearby village, destroying it and crushing its screaming denizens underneath.

The crystal was within reach now. His claws outstretched, Spacegodzilla’s spawn was about to grasp the glass-like tower, when suddenly, a reptilian form exploded out of the river! Taken by surprise, the feline esque monster leapt away from the crystal and turned to face the sudden arrival, finding himself face to face with Varan the Unbelievable!

The massive monitor reared his head back and let loose with a fierce roar, commanding Krystalak to not only get out of his territory, but to leave the crystal alone. The primal god had long since claimed the crystal as his own, having come quite accustomed to feeding off its power, and he had no intention of letting someone else have it without a fight.

Leaping into the air and soaring directly at the more powerful beast, the triphibian  slammed into the crystal monster’s gut, tackling him to the ground. Surprised and stunned by the sudden attack, the crystal cretin was slow to react as the finned reptile  smashed his fists into the sides of his head over and over. Sparks flew as thick claws collided with the crystal-like plating on the rabid beast’s face, withdrawing a cry of pain with each blow. As the spiked lizard prepared to strike him for the sixth time, the mutant opened his jaws and unleashed a powerful Prism Beam, blasting the crested creature in the face and sending him careening off his chest.

 Shaking his head to regain his wits, the tyrannical lifeform climbed to his feet, his eyes zeroing in on the prehistoric creature, who by now was back on all fours. The crystal spikes on his back glowing, the gemstone beast unleashed another white beam. But just as the dirt at the varanid’s feet exploded, the mighty Obaki was already in the sky, circling his crystalline foe. The feral gemstone organism watched his foe circle him, waiting for the reptile to land. When it seemed like that wasn’t going to happen, he fired another Prism Beam at his foe, but Varan skillfully avoided the blast. Nearing a large mountain, the glider kicked off with his feet, speeding directly towards the pinkish-white beast. But the gemstone beast was ready for him, snatching him in his claws and tossing him through the air, sending the giant reptile crashing onto his back.

As the Siberian superpredator struggled to get back to his feet, the living prism charged up another beam and let it fly, blasting the downed reptile. Rolling across the dirt, Baradagi roared in fury, getting back to his feet and rearing up onto his hind legs. Swinging his arms at the unnatural creature, the triphibian struck the creature in the chest with his claws, but the spawn of the crystals barely felt the blows. Twirling himself around, the bearded beast raked the divine defender across the face with the cluster of crystals on the end of his tail. 

Howling in pain, Varan staggered back, but he refused to give in. He leapt towards his foe, once again tackling him to the ground, but this time the crystal creature planted his feet into his scaly gut and kicked him away. The spiked saurian was quickly back on his feet this time, and as Krystalak got back to his, the Obaki leapt high into the air. Before the feral beast could react, the forest king dropped down, slamming his feet into the beast’s head and flooring him once again. The speeding glider quickly lunged and bit down on the forked tail, only to shrink back and shriek in pain, breaking several of his teeth on the rock-hard armor. 

As the Unbelievable clutched at his mouth, the sadistic golem rose to his feet and approached the reptile. The wounded varanid looked up in time to see a crystalline fist smash into his  chest, sending Baradagi crashing onto his back. The crystal monster reached down and snatched a thrashing tail, lifting the triphibian reptile into the air and spinning him around with it. The legendary lizard cried out as the berserker twirled him through the air again and again, finally releasing him and letting him smash face-first into a mountain.

The squamate  stumbled, dazed by the blow, as Krystalak let loose with a hiss-like laugh at his opponent. Flexing his claws, the bloodlusted combatant closed in on his prey, ready to tear him to pieces. But the forest god was ready for him by the time he reached him, once again lunging at the crystal maniac and taking him by surprise, knocking him to the ground. This time, however, Varan spread his membranes once more, taking to the air. Getting back to his feet, the prismatic predator  watched as the glider settled on a tall cliffside not too far away. Roaring in annoyance, the crystalline organism  called his foe back to the fight, but the stubborn lizard simply growled in response, almost as if he were taunting the crystal demon. Baring his teeth, Spacegodzilla’s “son” marched towards the cliffside, ready to scale it and continue the fight. The monster monitor watched closely as the mutant terror sank his claws into the side of the cliff and began to climb. The ancient reptile waited until his foe was half-way up, then leapt off the edge, his membranes unfolded. Swerving around, the triphibian struck with his tail, dislodging the pink beast and sending him plummeting back to the ground. With a thunderous boom and a pained grunt, the rabid fighter crashed onto his back, his crystal spikes jammed into the ground. It was then he quickly realized he had a problem – his spikes were stuck so deep in the earth, he couldn’t pull them out and get back to his feet.

The flying squirrel of the reptiles  landed not too far away, watching as his manic foe struggled to dislodge himself from the soil to no avail. Roaring loudly, the varnaid charged, tearing into the crystal monster with his teeth and claws. The gem devil cried out as he tried his best to defend himself from the  onslaught, but due to the awkward position he was stuck in, he didn’t do all that well. He tried to nail the quick beast with another prism blast, but the spiky reptile easily avoided the beam and went on with his vicious attack. The chromatic creature  swung his arms around, trying to hit his opponent, but his strikes missed more times than they hit. The being worshipped as Baradagi simply struck again and again, unimpeded in his assault. Wrenching a small boulder out of the ground, the protector  hurled it at the trapped tyrant, breaking it on the beast’s face. The malformed demon shrieked in pain and anger as the rock shattered across his armor-plated face.

Krystalak knew he had to do something, or else this damned lizard would be able to finish him off at his leisure. He focused his power, channeling a large amount of it into his crystalline heart, causing it to glow intensely. A moment later, a blinding white shockwave of energy erupted from a white torso, slamming into Varan and sending the triphibian flying through the air, shrieking in pain. The spined beast groaned as he hit the ground and crashed into a hillside. The ground trapping his crystal spikes having been atomized in the blast, the lithe being  jumped to his feet, snarling at his wounded foe. The reptile, badly burnt, stumbled as he weakly tried to get upright once again. The living inorganic  marched up to the injured varanid and kicked him hard in the side, sending him flipping over, back towards the river. Another kick sent it even further back.

Weakly, the Unbelievable  turned to face his foe, still refusing to admit defeat. The diamond devil eyed his foe carefully, his tail flexing behind him. The territorial predator roared in defiance, taking a step closer, causing the berserker  to spin around and whip his tail forward, unleashing a large crystal shard from its tip. The shard shot through the air like a dagger, lodging itself deep into a scaled throat. The mighty reptile cried out in agony as it pierced his flesh, causing irreparable damage. The cries became gurgled as the Obaki staggered back towards the river. Finally, Varan The Unbelievable collapsed into the water, sinking to the bottom of the Kitami River.

Krystalak reared his head back, letting loose with a roar of victory. His foe defeated, he turned back and faced the giant power crystal, ready to claim his prize.

Winner: Krystalak

A very special shout out to Alex Merdich for the assets used in this banner. Be sure to follow him on his YouTube and other social media for his wonderful sculpts.