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)