Author: Matthew Williams | Banner: Matthew Williams

On one of the paradise beaches of Jamacia, a large group of Caribbean citizens were enjoying their time, swimming in the shallow waters and relaxing on the sands without a care in the world. One particular group were in the middle of a game of volleyball, caught up in the sport until one player struck the volleyball too hard, sending it flying all the way into the calm waters of the ocean.

As one of the players headed to the shallow waters to reclaim the ball, a long tentacle burst from the murky waters. The appendage wrapped its slimy frame around the unfortunate swimmer, coating him in the tar dripping from its suckers. The man yelled and thrashed in its constricting grip as he felt his skin sting on contact with the tar, as if it had some kind of corrosive effect.  The screams of terror gradually pulled all attention to the sea where the man struggling for life arose in tandem with a monstrous goliath, resembling a brown squid. The Mutant Giant Squid crawled onto the sands as five more of its kind followed from behind, driven up from the depths in search of new feeding grounds. The horrifying cephalopods latched onto the fear frozen humans with their tar-covered tentacles and dragged them close, cocooning their prey in the corrosive black ooze.

While the Mutant Giant Squids feasted, one of the oversized cephalopods was separated from its relatives as it pursued its fleeing prey. As it began to close in on the fast female, the sand swayed and then erupted with activity. Beneath the glistening flakes of earth, a crimson hand snatched the squid, pulling the terrified creature into a maw filled with razor sharp teeth. The six squids, hearing the wailing cries of the doomed sea creature, turned their attention to the giant monster as it pulled its reptilian form out of the earth. A roar followed the lumbering reptiles’ arrival. The giant, brown creature stood on its hind legs, towering over the palm trees. It resembled a dinosaur, covered in a line of ridged plates of armor from neck to tail. But it was unlike any dinosaur the world had ever seen, as it also had some features from mammalian species. Two large, elephantine ears pointed forward to listen with acute accuracy to his surroundings, and a long, yellow nasal horn pulsed with a faint glow as it sniffed the air. The theropod had large talons on its four feet, designed to burrow deep in the ground like a mole, and its snout was dog-like in appearance. The monster that dared himself to steal the cephalopods’ kill was none other than the subterranean dinosaur, Baragon.

Before the Giant Mutant Squids could react to the giant, they watched the creature chew their fallen member. Massive jaws ripped apart squid flesh with ease, allowing the cephalopod to be swallowed whole in a single gulp.

Baragon could not hide the delight of the meal, the meat proved delicious, but the creature’s eyes widened as he tasted the tar, forcing him to regurgitate the chewed up mutant. It was the worst thing that Baragon had ever tasted. Noticing the remaining petrified squids, the horned beast stood on his hind legs and unleashed his magma heat ray on the hideous marine animals. The squids let out squeals of agony as their tar-covered bodies and their captured prey combusted into flames, burning them alive.

Baragon watched the squids wither and crackle, letting the fire do its job of cooking them to death. Just as the flames died away and the Mutant Giant Squids were now nothing more than burnt corpses, Baragon’s nostrils snorted upon the charred carcasses. While they smelled like burning tar, the dinosaur still bit into one of the squids, just to taste it. The flavor seemed better now that the tar was burned away, but the black ooze still lingered, causing Baragon to snarl in disgust but upon feeling the gurgle of his near empty gullet, the dinosaur moved forward to sate his hunger.

It was far from the worst meal he’d ever consumed…

After consuming four of the mutants, Baragon noticed something breach the ocean surface and slowly drift toward the shore. It was Gezora! But as Baragon got a closer look, he realized that the titanic cuttlefish wasn’t moving, lying face down in the water, and as the crimson dinosaur crawled into the shallow water to get a closer look, he noticed that some of the cuttlefish’s tentacles had been ripped off. Blood oozed out of the stumps and the cuttlefish’s beak, contaminating the water with its sapphire fluids. Just as the subterranean dinosaur was about to drag the corpse out of the ocean, licking his lips in anticipation, a wave crested over the horizon.

Rippling waves parted upon reaching shallow waters, revealing the bizarre Crustaceous Rex as it rose from the depths, uttering a mighty roar. Strolling upon the sand with thick tri-toed legs, C-Rex cast its shadow upon the stunned dinosaur and slurped one of Gezora’s tentacles down into its gullet. Easily eclipsing the rival beast’s height, the yellow deep sea abomination doubted Baragon would battle him over his kill, but as a weak bellow birthed from the dinosaur’s maw, white eyes locked on the crimson creature. C-Rex peered down at the either brave or stupid monster and decided to a show of force necessary. Baragon barely noticed the movement before C-Rex swung out with a clenched foot, clobbering the crimson creature across the skull. The dinosaur cried out as he fell into the ocean while C-Rex crawled onto land, spying the last of the deceased giant squids. Further prey to consume….

Baragon crawled back ashore, shaking its body like a dog exiting a pool. Orange eyes snapped to the squids, his kills, and from the pilfering of his prey an overwhelming urge to destroy filled the creature’s body. The brown dinosaur leaped in the air, tackling Crustaceous Rex from behind and pinning it to the ground, earning a screech of surprise from the deep sea anomaly. Razor sharp teeth clamped upon C-Rex’s monstrous right leg and then the beast ruthlessly shook. He thrashed his head side-to-side, trying to break through the tough carapace, but the crustacean’s other leg suddenly shot out and struck the big-eared beastie square in the forehead. Baragon released his grip in anguish and backed off, rubbing his battered head, while C-Rex staggered to its feet. Both monsters glared at one anther, intentions clear to any being that happened upon their standoff.

A minor skirmish over food was now personal, a fight to the death.

C-Rex proved quicker on the draw and lashed out with its four tentacles, wrapping them around Baragon’s body. The underground monster growled and tried to pull away, but Crustaceous Rex’s strength easily outmatched him as he dragged the shrieking subterranean monster toward him to deliver a kick in his gut. Watching Baragon flinch for a moment, C-Rex hesitated, deciding instead to launch the dinosaur in the air. A nearby cliffside ended the dinosaur’s flight. Tons of rocks began to fall onto the screeching Baragon, prompting him to spew forth his heat ray, first at the falling boulders, reducing them to fine dust, and then at C-Rex’s distant form. The sea behemoth hollered in anguish, stepping back before he charged forward, swaying its body side to side causing the sand to bounce.

Reptilian eyes widened as Baragon felt the charging’s bi-pedal squid’s weight ripple through silica and dirt. If he didn’t move, he’d be crushed in seconds! Yelping in terror, the beast of the underground started clawing into the sand, vanishing into the earth’s surface just as C-Rex smashed its bulk into the cliff.

Furious bellows quaked the beach. C-Rex showed no hesitation in voicing its rage at the smaller carnivore. It demanded the dinosaur’s return which the crimson beast happily granted.

Bursting from atop the cliff, an almost gleeful Baragon tackled C-Rex, pinning the creature of the deep back on the hot sand. Baragon howled and slammed his sharp claws down on the mutant’s back, but the crustacean’s armored hide proved too thick. With its opponent distracted in his efforts to break through its armor, Crustaceous Rex pushed itself up and bucked the dinosaur off its back.

Keeping the combat to his favor, Baragon parted his maw, washing his foe in fiery energies. Crustaceous Rex stumbled backward, groaning with unportrayable pain as the beam blackened its armored hide. As the stream of fire resided, Baragon took the opportunity to launch an attack at close-quarters and rushed toward his quarry. The marine mutant quickly countered the attack, latching its tentacles around the underground dinosaur’s neck and arms and swinging him off his feet, causing the brown reptile to roll across the sands with a surprised, pathetic sound. With the slimy limbs still coiling around his own, Baragon pushed himself up and stood on his hind legs, spewing another magma heat ray at C-Rex’s chest. The beam crackled loudly on contact, but it barely harmed the armor of the crustacean. Noting the failure, Baragon went for a simpler tactic and sank his sharp teeth deep into one of the constricting tentacles, tearing it off cleanly.

C-Rex screamed as the tentacle was torn away, though the severed appendage still clung to the dinosaur’s arm. Before the horned monster could tear off another tentacle, C-Rex instantly regurgitated a stream of hot tar all over Baragon’s face. The subterranean beast roared in a panic as ooze covered his eyes, blinding him, and he ceased his efforts to focus on removing the sticky, burning substance. C-Rex took the moment to lift a leg and swing it at Baragon, sending him crashing onto the sand. Its competitor was down, but its last attack had required all of its tar reserves, and it was now running on empty. Instead of continuing the fight, Crustaceous Rex turned and headed toward a town close by to search for any substitutes for its natural prey’s tar.

As the waves washed over Baragon’s face, the tar that coated the giant carnivore’s head lost its adhesion and slid off his scales. His vision cleared, allowing Baragon to crawl out of the water and shake his head. His vision was not perfect, making it hard for the reptile to determine his surroundings without concentrating. His ears waved frantically, detecting the cries of C-Rex in the distance. His rage returned tenfold as the creature’s actions replayed in his mind. With a ferocious roar, he began to dig, slipping under the sands without a trace.

C-Rex continued its search for more tar, crushing dozens of houses and buildings underfoot without notice. The citizens of the village ran as far away as they could from the chaos, but the undersea anomaly, even at the slow pace it took, was far quicker than they could ever run. Countless people couldn’t escape their fate as dozens of them were snatched up by the beast’s tentacles and tossed into Crustaceous Rex’s massive maw like popcorn. C-Rex’s destructive wrath came to a halt when he spotted several tanker trucks filled with tar parked in a construction site. The crustacean kaiju wasted no time, grasping one of the vehicles and brought it to its bizarre, flower-shaped mouth. As the tanker crumpled and split under the crustacean’s squeezing hold and the contents spurted into its mouth, C-Rex shrieked in glee and slammed its mouth down on the vehicle, sucking up all of the tar into its maw before swallowing it.

As Crustaceous Rex’s tentacles reached for another tanker truck, an orange beam impacted the vehicle and ignited its volatile load, causing the container to erupt in a small, but still violent explosion. C-Rex stepped back and shrieked in surprise, turning its head to spot the approaching Baragon rising from his tunnel. But just as the deep sea dweller was ready to engage his opponent for another fight, Baragon’s massive ears moved and covered most of his face. He couldn’t see anything with the ears blindfolding his eyes, but this would hopefully protect his face from any further damage. But even if he couldn’t see anything, he could still smell the pungent odor of the mutation.

Baragon reared up on his hind legs as C-Rex lunged, biting down on one of the fiend’s tentacles as it snapped toward his covered face. The crustacean slammed his foot down into his attacker’s chest in response with enough force to make him fall onto his armored back, though the tentacle in the dinosaur’s maw was torn away in turn. C-Rex let out a violent screech and began to pummel Baragon’s belly with his remaining tentacles, using the appendages like torturous whips to lacerate the softer scales on the burrower’s underside, earning shrieks of pure agony from the tormented creature. His horn flashed brightly as Baragon let loose his magma heat ray, blindly swinging his head from side-to-side in the hopes of striking his attacker. After several wild sweeps, the beam made contact with C-Rex’s chest, generating a burst of flames from the spot of contact and setting one of the beast’s tentacles ablaze. Screeching in agonized panic as the limb burned, C-Rex struck out with it, using the tentacle as a flaming whip to strike at Baragon’s ears. The thin skin had no resistance to the scorching flames, blackening and blistering on contact and driving a loud cry from the prehistoric monster.

C-Rex enjoyed its opponent’s screams as it continued to assault the dinosaur’s delicate ears. Its ignited tentacle switched targets, wrapping around Baragon’s neck and squeezing tight, slowly burning away the scaly skin. The flames against the soft flesh of his tentacles was agonizing to C-Rex, but using them to make its enemy share the same pain made it worth it. Foam began to pour out of the strangled Baragon’s jaws as the searing hot tentacle burned his tightened neck. He had no other choice but to unfold his burnt ears to spare them from further damage and spewed out his heat ray at the burning tentacle, cutting the limb in two. Crustaceous Rex snapped back and shrieked its pain, allowing Baragon to push up from the earth and breathe deeply, spitting foam from his teeth and dislodging the crustacean’s severed appendages with a few shakes of his head.

The carnivorous monster’s ears once again covered his face, far more gently this time as he let out a loud roar and leaped into the air. C-Rex ducked down as Baragon’s body went over him, squashing a row of houses. The reptile roared and thrashed in the wreckage as he slowly recovered, but C-Rex’s two remaining tentacles whipped the titan’s face before he reached his feet. The rust-colored monster ignored the assault and leaped into the air once more, aiming his face toward C-Rex’s own as its visage morphed into a shocked expression.

Baragon’s nasal horn pierced the creature’s right eye, and the yellow behemoth let loose an ear-piercing screech , trying to tear the dinosaur’s horn from its skull as fluids dripped from the mutilated socket. Baragon held onto the mutant’s head as he pulled his horn out of the punctured eye socket with a gut-wrenching sound that made even his indomitable stomach heave. Blood sprayed out of Crustaceous Rex’s empty eye socket as the creature screeched in agonizing pain. Grabbing Baragon with his tentacles, it pulled the assaulting monster away from its face and violently threw the dinosaur away.

C-Rex grunted heavily, suffering from the trauma of its combined injuries and struggling to keep standing. What had become a battle for dominance had turned into a fight for its life. It had to remove its adversary posthaste. The creature’s throat began to generate a sickening sound, ready to bathe Baragon in a stream of its regurgitated tar. The sound generated was far from subtle, and Baragon’s large ears, even in their damaged state and current function, could recognize what the noise was linked to. His head snapped in the direction of the volume, spitting out his heat ray before C-Rex’s tar could leave its maw.

A sickening wail followed.

Black ooze alit en masse, transforming into a raging fire inside the confines of the crustacean’s body. C-Rex attempts to scream possessed no oxygen to carry its monstrous voice, allowing only horrid gurgles to signal the creature’s agony. Quickly, the bi-pedal squid sprinted toward the beach, hoping to extinguish the raging inferno within.

Baragon’s ears unfolded as he sensed the mutation’s retreat, following after its quarry as it headed for the sea. The thought of letting C-Rex escape after its thievery and attack on him made the ancient predator’s blood boil. He would not stand for such a humiliating conclusion!

Just as the burning crustacean dipped into the shallow waters, Baragon let loose one final heat ray on the mutant’s smoldering armored back, breaking through the weakened material. Flammable tar ignited in a bright burst of light, ripping exoskeleton apart with ease. C-Rex’s upper body vanished inside the growing bloom of energy, its internal organs ripped apart in an instant as chunks of its burning flesh were blown across the landscape. What remained of C-Rex fell forward into the ocean, smoke billowing from the deep-sea carnivore’s ruptured carapace. Its landing churned up the waves, mixing it with its bizarre blood and the blazing tar that spilled from the creature’s mouth. It lay there, slowly cooking from the inside-out.

Baragon stepped over to C-Rex’s corpse and sniffed the beast. The smell of the thing had been repulsive, but as the flesh roasted, the disgust Baragon felt started to lose its potency. With a familiar gurgle of his stomach, Baragon fell victim to impulse and sunk his jaws into the mutant’s hide. Licking his blood coated lips, Baragon nearly smiled. It was the best thing he had ever tasted; he should do this more often! Perhaps when he finished off C-Rex’s body, he would try out his new method on the corpse of Gezora.

Not now, of course. He was tired and hungry, and had all the time in the world to rest and recover. It wasn’t like he was going to run out of food anytime soon…

*****

Somewhere in a facility far from Jamacia, Cameron Winter watched the monitor as it displayed the live footage of Baragon roaring in triumph over the deceased Crustaceous Rex.

“How unfortunate,” Cameron Winters sighed, tilting his glasses. “C-Rex was able to kill Gezora, but to lose to Baragon of all monsters… what terrible luck.”

A voice chimed in from behind the mogul. “Sir, what will we do, now that our test of C-Rex’s capabilities is ruined?”

“Isn’t it obvious?,” Cameron stated with a flare of his hands and a haunting smile. “We will take control over Baragon. After all, if our monster was defeated, why not replace it with the one that killed it?”

Winner: Baragon (Universal)