Author: Joshua Strittmatter | Banner: Joshua Strittmatter

Salzburg, Austria

Godzilla growled at the hideous monstrosities before him with a level of hatred he hadn’t felt in at least twelve thousand years. He had faced many foes in the past two hundred and fifty million-plus years of his life, of a wide array of shapes and sizes. Most had originated from the planet he protected so ruthlessly, some emerged from the depths of space, a select few even crawled forth from occasional barriers between separate dimensions. Some were large, so large they dwarfed even the likes of him and put his mighty strength and fighting prowess to the ultimate test. Some were small but lithe and agile, with quick reflexes that made him work his absolute hardest to learn their patterns and land a meaningful blow.

But what the Monster King faced right now, the repugnant entities that stood in front of him, were unlike anything he had ever faced before.

Baring his tyrannosaur-like teeth, Godzilla hissed a growling sneer at the horrid creatures that stared back at him with bulbous eyes, red as transparent ruby. The demons were bipedal in stance, with arthropodic exoskeletons and clawed appendages shaped like the Grim Reaper’s scythe. Two chelicerae lined with teeth twitched and drooled like a spider’s fangs on each of their maws. They looked like what would happen if Anomalocaris eventually evolved into a humanoid race.

There were three of them… and then, there were three others that possessed major differences.

These three bore striking resemblances to creatures he had known in the past; one possessed a quadrupedal stance, gray elephantine hide and multi-limbed appendages of a female MUTO, a sight that made Godzilla’s skin crawl more than it should. A second bore striking orange-and-black wings, a crown of golden horns sitting atop its stocky head. A black, chitinous exoskeleton of spiky armor covered its body, betraying its relation to the guardian Battra. The third possessed an armored, dragon-like head and leathery wings tipped with clawed points. Four insectoid arms stuck out from its torso, while its claws ended in snapping pincers. The beast shrieked a warped version of Megaguirus’ screeching cry, pawing the ground in a clear display of aggression.

Six foes. No allies. It was six against one, and nothing else to it. He was waging a solo war against foes he was a complete stranger to, with nobody else to back him up. At this, Godzilla merely snorted.

Well, what else was new?

A low rumble echoed through the bowels of the atomic dinosaur as he gathered all the air he could in his massive lungs, straightening himself into a mighty combat posture, readying himself for battle. His razor-sharp spines glinted with radioactive light, an intimidation display to inform his foes of the resistance they were to face. Muscles flexed and bones cracked into place, the King of the Monsters rattled the air for miles with his kingly roar, screaming in the face of doom without even a hint of fear. Instead, it conveyed a meaning of the exact opposite; a challenge that would be overcome.

Rearing their scythe limbs to the heavens like bloodthirsty berserkers, the Trilopods screamed their horrendous alien war cries in response to the Monster King’s inevitable advance. He certainly had quite the spirit—but such a trait would mean nothing in the end.

All it meant was that he would die braver than most.

Taking a thunderous step forward, Godzilla began his fearless march. With a slow, lumbering gait rippling with ninety-nine thousand and six hundred tons of ancient muscle, the radioactive reptile looked his foes right in the eye as he treaded into battle. One of the Beta Trilopods charged first, screaming in hunger for his blood! Godzilla roared as he thrust his arms forward, catching the extraterrestrial by the shoulders. Power walking forward, Godzilla pushed the alien hunter with little effort—and noticed out of the corner of his eye a second Beta Trilopod sprint towards him with limbs raised. Eyes narrowing, Godzilla threw the first Trilopod aside as he turned quickly on his heels, slamming the demon over the neck with his gigantic tail. His ears were filled with a loud and rewarding CRACK! as green blood leaked from fractures on the alien’s crimson exoskeleton. The wounded Beta screeched horrifically as it reeled back, blood leaking from its circular mouth; but as it fell to the ground, the MUTO-Trilopod dashed past it to take its place.

Godzilla bellowed as he turned just quickly enough to counter the hybrid’s advance, but was caught off guard when the creature suddenly stopped mere meters from him and swiped one of its limbs. The scythe cut across Godzilla’s chest just below his neck, causing him to wince deeply and bend slightly. He was quick to recover—only to stumble forward when a crimson laser beam struck him from behind. Taking advantage of the Alpha Predator’s predicament, the MUTO-Trilopod pounced.

Jaws clamping down on his shoulder and toothed chelicerae piercing his armored flesh as if it were a chocolate bar, the hybrid tackled the saurian to the ground with a thunderous impact. The alien howled as it brought its limbs down upon the Monster King, piercing against it with blow after blow in a tactic that definitely mirrored a MUTO’s attack pattern. But as if that wasn’t bad enough, the first Beta Trilopod he had thrown aside joined in the carnage, beating and slashing at the downed dinosaur with its curved claws. Godzilla bellowed as he tried to right himself, but was kicked in the head for his efforts by the unmutated Beta before they resumed their beatdown.

As Godzilla snapped and bellowed defiantly, he felt a pair of razor-sharp objects pierce his tail. Roaring a high-pitched cry of pain, Godzilla’s yellow eyes spotted another Trilopod had joined the fray—but this one was different from its peers. It completely lacked a humanoid stance; instead crawling on multiple legs weaved in a centipede-like shape. Its fangs pierced his tail, their outer exoskeletal “muscles” rippling upwards towards its head as it apparently gorged on…

Godzilla roared and began to thrash harder. That awful thing was drinking his blood! This was unacceptable!

The King of the Monsters kept his eyes on his opponent’s limbs. Watching their every movement, waiting for the right moment to exploit his next plan as he endured their brutal punishment… and judged exactly when one of the hybrid’s limbs was just close enough to his face.

NOW!

Godzilla lunged forth and snapped his jaws down upon the hybrid’s pillar-like limb, crunching the bone underneath. As the MUTO-Trilopod wailed in agony, Godzilla yanked his head in just the right direction to send the hybrid stumbling right into its unmutated peer. Both Trilopods cried in surprise as they were floored in a heap, allowing Godzilla to roll over onto his stomach and climb back to his feet… and at the same time, he felt the putrid fangs of the crawling Trilopod retract from the flesh of his tail.

The Alpha began to crawl away, just as the radioactive reptile stood back to his full height. Godzilla didn’t know the full purpose of why that creature had drank his blood, but he wasn’t intent on finding out. Grabbing the creature by the tail, the ancient guardian yanked over his shoulder and smashed the miniature creature against the ground with a bone-shattering impact. The mere force alone was enough to crack its exoskeleton and rupture internal organs. Then, with an angry roar, Godzilla threw the dying creature against its downed peers. The Alpha’s red eyes flickered once, then dimmed as it welcomed death’s embrace.

Godzilla turned on the foes who hadn’t yet entered the fray, roaring a challenge to them. The Battra-Trilopod opened fire with identical copies of the Black Mothra’s almighty Prism Beams, bombarding its foe with violet blasts of energy. As sparks and explosions danced across the saurian’s body, Godzilla howled with defiance as he slowly waded through the assault, ignoring the pain as he marched towards the hybrids that he knew needed to be taken down more than anything. As he drew closer, the beam barrage stopped—and Godzilla’s eyes widened when he saw the gem-like organs on the hybrid’s bellies glowing with power. Despite his massive size and weight, the Monster King’s reflexes were nothing to scoff at, as he proved when he ducked low just as the crimson lasers roared through where his torso had just been a second ago.

The old saurian capitalized on the opportunity immediately; bellowing fiercely, Godzilla swiped his body from side to side as he charged forward. The hybrids cried out in shock as he slammed into both of them, knocking them flat with a single mighty blow. Godzilla took a step forward, but quickly stopped when he felt a couple tremors vibrating behind him.

The Monster King narrowed his eyes.

The MUTO-Trilopod charged as lightly on its feet as it could, leaping to pounce on its prey—only for Godzilla to turn his back on its landing position, exposing his jagged spines. The Trilopod reacted too late as it landed right upon those rocky spikes, impaled like a victim of Vlad Tepes. Green blood spurted from all orifices natural and newly-opened alike as the hybrid’s scream turned to a sickening gurgle, all the while Godzilla turned quickly around to face the other Beta who had been charging as well. The Beta slammed against its target, but its weight was not enough to topple the reptilian giant, who retaliated hard.

Grabbing the alien predator by one side of the neck, the Monster King lunged and crunched down on the other with a bite force that would make a Tyrannosaurus Rex fume with raging jealousy. The exoskeleton cracked like an eggshell, muscles tore, and blood flew in amounts that revealed the wound’s fatal nature; meanwhile Godzilla continued to march forward with little effort. After tightening his jaws to the extreme, the saurian yanked his neck muscles back and ripped a gigantic chunk of flesh and chitin out, nearly decapitating the Trilopod. With his enemy beyond recovery, the ancient reptile tossed his foe away and spat the chunk of putrid flesh out—then thrust himself forward with all his strength. The impaled MUTO-hybrid was dragged forcefully forward, bisected in half by the Monster King’s sharp spines in a fountain of olive gore. Godzilla shook himself off as he turned back to face the remaining hybrids. As he did so, he caught a brief glimpse of the Beta he had whacked across the neck with his tail, and saw that it continued to lay motionless with green blood continuing to run from the cracks all over its neck. It would not be getting back up.

Four down, three to go.

The last Beta took a step backwards as its hybrid peers stood at its sides. Eying all three of them, Godzilla roared a challenge, daring them to come get a piece of him. His response was another bombardment of Prism Beams that scorched his scaly flesh and elicited groans of pain, followed by two more crimson lasers that struck him right in the stomach. The air knocked out of him from the force of the hit, Godzilla dry heaved as he collapsed to one knee, but still he managed to hold himself together. Through his panting, he managed to smirk.

Wanted to play dirty, did they? Okay. He could beat them at their own game.

Rearing his head up, the Monster King roared once more, continuing to taunt the hideous predators—and did his best to hide his smirk when he noticed their chest ‘gems’ glowing red once more, realizing his tactic had worked. Now, all he had to do was endure this next hit and play the waiting game…

The Trilopods fired. All three crimson lasers struck Godzilla in the torso. The ancient behemoth reared his head back and roared to the sky… and then collapsed forward, unmoving on the ground.

The Trilopods advanced towards the downed saurian, who presented no further movement. The parasitic hunters at last had their biggest target down for the count and ripe for the taking, a genetic source that served as the perfect template to make new warriors the likes of which their armies had never possessed thus far. The King of the Monsters was all theirs, and once his genes were assimilated into the pack, they would be unstoppable! No force on earth would be able to resist an army possessing the genetic design and power of a creature the likes of this!

The Battra-Trilopod kicked the fallen Monster King in the head, a scornful mockery of the old creature and his pathetic failure to stop their-

With a powerful roar that made the tallest mountains quake, Godzilla burst off the ground like a crocodile and collided with the Battra-hybrid. As the Monster King grabbed the DNA thief in his claws and chomped down on its shoulder, he whipped himself around and slammed his tail against the Megaguirus-Trilopod, knocking the alien away with a shriek as he bulldozed his current quarry to the ground. The Battra-hybrid howled and blasted Godzilla with its Prism Rays, but this time the King of the Monsters elected to ignore them. Thundering a mighty roar, Godzilla stomped his foot down upon the parasitic hunter, ignoring its claws batting and slashing against his leg.

The Trilopod was not out of options just yet, however, as its chest ‘gem’ flashed aglow with crimson light yet again. However, Godzilla reacted accordingly this time, moving his foot off and swerving his upper body to the right just as a blood-red laser screeched past him. The moment the crimson beam came to a halt, he heard the charging of another—but yet again, he had planned ahead. As the Megaguirus-Trilopod behind him fired its own beam, Godzilla moved out of its way, and the beam struck the Battra-mimic instead. The alien imitation of the Black Mothra screamed in pain, causing its ally to cut off its attack, but by the time it did Godzilla was already charging the foul beast. Before it could evade or counter, the hybrid was slammed off its feet by the sheer might of the King of the Monsters.

The Megaguirus-hybrid was not willing to go down without a fight, however, and slashed Godzilla across the neck with a scythed forelimb. As the nuclear reptile bellowed in pain, the alien lashed out with its other arm and slammed it into the saurian’s head, knocking him flat on his stomach. But no sooner than he hit the ground, was Godzilla trying to get back to his feet. The hybrid slammed a foot down on his neck, attempting to stay him—but this only served to anger the Alpha Predator. Pushing hard off the ground with his arms, Godzilla’s surge to his feet sent the hybrid tripping off-balance.

An opportunity Godzilla capitalized on the moment it presented itself.

The ancient reptile tackled the heinous hybrid, chomping down on its right arm socket and yanking forth. With little effort, the arm was ripped right off the alien’s body in a spray of gore, rewarding Godzilla with a howl of agony before he then turned and threw the mauled hybrid towards its ally. The Battra-Trilopod, which had just returned to its feet, had just launched a barrage of Prism Beams when its ally was tossed right at it; as a result, the Megaguirus-Trilopod was caught in the fray and blasted with the violet beams of destruction. But this was not enough to halt its advance, and the Battra hybrid shrieked as its ally’s larger body collided with it, knocking them both flat.

With a great roar, Godzilla charged.

Despite his massive weight and stocky girth, the atomic reptile didn’t take long to reach his prey. Howling mightily, the King of the Monsters stomped down his left foot against the Battra-Trilopod’s head, pinning it into the ground like a coconut. As the grounded hybrid struggled, Godzilla lunged down and crunched his jaws upon the Megaguirus-Trilopod’s head. Blood and flesh spurted, bone shattered as the mimic’s skull caved in and its brain torn asunder from the incredible jaw strength, before Godzilla then ripped sideways, tearing the gory mess apart and sending the all but headless body into a quivering seizure.

As Godzilla discarded the deceased predator like the garbage it was, a duo of Prism Beams tore through the soil next to his foot. The Battra-Trilopod was struggling to break free, and was doing whatever it could to achieve that goal. But Godzilla would not give it that chance, and stomped his right foot down upon its left wing before pawing back, tearing his claws through the thin membrane and shredding it like fabric. However, he had very little time left to repeat this maneuver, as the predator’s stomach ‘gem’ had flashed to life once more. Godzilla quickly made way to get off as the hybrid used what energy it had left to fire a crimson beam that surged harmlessly past the Monster King—but as he would learn, that didn’t mean he was out of harm’s way just yet.

Another scarlet laser slammed into his side, tripping him off balance and sending him falling to the ground with a groan of pain. Not too far away, the last remaining Beta Trilopod shrieked a laughing cackle, pleased at the pain he had committed. Godzilla roared at the taunt, promising he would tear the demon apart—and shrieked in pain when three new forms suddenly pounced upon his body, piercing his flesh with sharp appendages. Three new Alpha Trilopods had entered the fray, and had buried their chelicerae into his ancient flesh just like their predecessor from before. And like it, they too were now gorging on his radioactive hemoglobin.

Nature’s fearsome guardian bellowed with rage as he summoned his legendary strength and, against all odds, rolled over and began to push himself back to his full height. He grabbed one Alpha by the tail, and with a painful shriek that shattered any glass in the vicinity, ripped it off with a hard yank. The larvae-like creature roared and struggled, but Godzilla yanked it forward and crunched down upon its head, pulverizing its skull. But as he discarded the corpse, the other two Alphas suddenly retracted their fangs and began to crawl away. Seeing this, Godzilla put as much energy as he could into lashing out and grabbing both predators with both hands. With an enraged roar, the colossus yanked up and slung the Trilopods over his shoulders, slamming them hard against the ground. But as he tried to repeat the maneuver, a sturdy body tackled him off his feet with a cackling roar.

As Godzilla landed on his side, a pair of scythed limbs began to beat painfully against his head and neck. The furious cackle of the Battra-Trilopod rang in his ears as the hybrid assailed him with a vengeance, informing him that he still had one more opponent left to deal with.

Godzilla didn’t stay down for long; as a scythed limb came at him, the King of the Monsters caught it in his jaws and bit down, snapping it like a twig. It was just the distraction he needed; as the Trilopod reeled with pain, the saurian swiped with a clawed hand and smacked the imitation of Battra in the face, knocking it off of him with a screech. Muscles rippling and bones straining, Godzilla growled a thunderous rumble as he pushed himself back up, standing once again. Picking up the severed tip of the hybrid’s own claw, Godzilla stomped forward and drove it right through the gap between the Trilopod’s neck and boxy skull.

The predator’s body shivered once as a choked cry escaped its mouth… then fell limp.

Godzilla immediately ignored the impaled alien as he turned his attention back to the foes he knew still lived. Normally he would proclaim his success, but now was no such time; these were dangerous foes he was dealing with. His living foes in sight, Godzilla noticed that the two Alpha Trilopods were on the verge of death—yet, they still slowly crawled across the ground, whimpering like dogs as they gradually advanced in the direction of the Beta who stood stagnant. Growling a toothy sneer, Godzilla stomped towards the dying larvae-like creatures.

As the quaking footfalls of the advancing saurian heightened, one of the parasitic hounds made a decision. An altruistic, but suicidal decision that it knew would benefit its peer in the end. Ceasing its attempt to flee, the Alpha Trilopod screeched a battle cry as she turned on Godzilla and leaped at him, fangs bared. Godzilla caught the heinous predator in his grasp in quick succession, and crunched his mighty jaws through her vulnerable neck. With a burst of chitin and gore, the Trilopod died, as Godzilla ripped her head right off with a yank of his neck and tossed her corpse aside. But as he advanced on the remaining Alpha, which grew closer to death’s door with every passing second, a crimson laser lunged forth from the Beta Trilopod to strike him in the stomach, knocking him reeling.

Before Godzilla even had time to recover from the strike, a new sound reached his ears.

As the King of Kaiju panted for breath, he was suddenly knocked sprawling by a powerful form that pounced upon him like a leopard, plunging its chelicerae into his shoulder. A new combatant had entered the fight. Stricken with pain and caught entirely by surprise, Godzilla didn’t have time to glimpse his new attacker as he instantly resorted to getting the thing off of him as quickly as possible. Grabbing the assailant with both hands, Godzilla loosened a painful shrill as he shoved the monster off of him, ripping away its fangs from his flesh in the process. The wound, however painful, was still minor nonetheless and did nothing to prevent Godzilla from climbing back on his feet.

But when he did, the sight of the attacker made him stop cold.

No…

The Trilopod that stood before him took on an all-too-recognizable figure. A monstrous quadruped mixed with both reptilian and arthropodic traits. A spike-covered carapace adorned its back, twin chelicerae twitched on a snout attached to reptilian jaws lined with rows of pointed teeth, with twin tusk-like teeth protruding outward. A familiar crown of inward-curving spikes branched from the back of its saurian head, its legs ending in clawed feet while a spike-lined tail swung behind it. So taken aback by the sight of the creature was Godzilla, that for a moment he forgot that it was an extraterrestrial abomination and not the tenacious comrade he once knew. Rather than attacking, he grunted towards the creature. An attempt to reach out, to connect…

…which failed miserably.

Howling an alien shrill, the Anguirus-Trilopod stood up to reveal its glowing chest ‘gem’, firing its laser beam which took Godzilla by surprise. As the Monster King recoiled, the hybrid pounced upon him once again, biting down on his shoulder while plunging its chelicerae into the flesh further past it. Howling with equal parts agony and surprise, Godzilla stumbled back as the predator went on the attack. But despite the pain, he was still not one to submit defeat so easily; his eyes opening and narrowing into vicious slits, a savage growl rumbled from the pit of his gut as he turned his gaze upon the alien hybrid.

They would pay for this atrocity in blood.

The Anguirus-Trilopod growled like a demonic hound as it shook its head from side to side, sinking and tearing its tooth-lined chelicerae through the Monster King’s flesh like chitinous saws. But this tactic came to an end when Godzilla lunged down and crunched his jaws upon its neck, just behind the crown of horns on its head; a tactic that hit just the right spot to make it gag. As the Trilopod gaped its mouth, the nuclear reptile grabbed hold of its head with both hands and ripped its fangs free of his flesh. Then, with a bellowing shrill, he slammed it down head-first into the ground.

As the hybrid tried to return to its feet, Godzilla was upon it like a hungry bear. Crunching his jaws upon its neck a second time, this time the nuclear dinosaur shook his head from side to side like an angry dog, ripping his teeth through the alien’s flesh with ease. As green blood flooded his teeth and the extraterrestrial predator howled its pained cries to the world, Godzilla exerted more pressure in his jaws, resulting in more flesh being torn as he shook harder. The Anguirus-Trilopod struggled, even clawed at Godzilla’s shins, but it was no use; the Monster King held it in too tight of a grasp, and its wounds were beyond surviving at this point.

Tearing his jaws from its ravaged neck, Godzilla let the predator fall to the ground before rearing his right foot above its skull and drove it down with all the force he could muster. The auditory field was rattled with a sickening CRACK! as the saurian’s sauropod-like foot night-effortlessly caved the Trilopod’s skull in like an overripe melon, sending a burst of olive gore all across the ground. Ignoring the twitching body of the mimic, Godzilla bellowed in rage one last time before turning back to the last Beta—and noticed something dreadfully amiss.

The Alpha Trilopod, despite its mortal wounds, had crawled onto the body of the Beta and plunged its fangs into its neck—and both had been enveloped in an emerald glow. As Godzilla held up his arms to cover his eyes, he watched as the Alpha allowed itself to merge with the Beta, actually fusing and becoming one with the bipedal monstrosity. The Beta uttered a thunderous growl… and began to change. Its exoskeleton began to turn a rocky gray, while scaly skin of the same color formed from the flesh of its limbs. Its once cloven feet changed to a more blocky, sauropod-like shape. Familiar, jagged spines shaped like broken shards of glass burst from its back, while a lower jaw filled with pointed teeth opened up as its head took on a more dinosaurian appearance.

As the glow faded and the transformation came to an end, the Beta Trilopod had ceased to be. Before the Monster King’s very eyes stood a new, hideous warrior bearing all-too obvious characteristics. A new and deadly opponent with a forbidden power destined to put Nature’s Fearsome Guardian to his biggest test yet.

The Godzilla-Trilopod reared its scythed limbs to the air and bellowed a warped, atrocious mockery of Godzilla’s signature roar, challenging the nuclear reptile.

Godzilla narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow into a deadly glare, snarling in fury. This otherworldly demon thought it could steal fire from the gods and use it against him? This interstellar fool thought it was a king to him?! Godzilla roared loud enough to cause ripples in the distant lakes and blow the trees with winds like a gust. This alien may possess his very genetics, maybe even his own powers; but what it held in power and appearances, it lacked in character. Lacked in essence. This creature, this foul predator, was no Godzilla.

It had his looks, but it didn’t have his spirit.

Ignoring his current wounds like they didn’t exist, Godzilla bellowed as he power-walked towards his newborn “clone” with a vengeance. The Trilopod screeched and raised its limbs, taunting the Monster King. With a booming grunt, Godzilla lashed out with both hands just as his alien “clone” did the same, their respective limbs meeting in a loud BOOM! that echoed across the mountains. Both monsters howled into each other’s faces as they pushed and shoved, grappling like giant wrestlers. Houses were crushed, buildings crumpled, dust and dirt kicked up in literal hundreds of tons as they stomped and shoved about in a titanic struggle for dominance.

The struggle didn’t last long, however, as the Trilopod suddenly wrenched its right claw free of Godzilla’s hand and smacked its blunt end against his head. As Godzilla recoiled, the alien lashed out and slashed the saurian across the face, eliciting a bellowing roar of pain that rattled even the hardiest buildings. The Trilopod chuckled and lashed out again, cutting another red swatch across its foe’s sturdy neck—dangerously close to his gills. Eyes flashing open in recognition, Godzilla stepped back just as a third swipe of the offending limb cut through thin air.

Seeing an opening, Godzilla took the opportunity and lashed out with a balled fist, clocking the hybrid across the side of the head with a blow that echoed like a bomb shockwave. The Trilopod bellowed in wrath and began to reel back to throw a hit of its own, but when it lashed out Godzilla caught it by the “wrist” with one hand. The hybrid tried to bat him with its free arm—and the Monster King caught it with his other hand, now restraining both limbs. Fighting hard not to smirk, Godzilla growled and lunged for a bite—only for his mighty jaws to snap on nothing but thin air as the alien reared its head back, then lunged forward and smashed it into Godzilla’s face. He howled from the force of the headbutt and backpedaled, letting the Trilopod go.

Wounded and fighting a ringing headache, Godzilla shook his head with a shrill screech—and failed to notice a crackling glow lighting up within the Trilopod’s dorsal spines.

By the time the nuclear giant recovered, he had noticed the change far too late; a focused azure blast of atomic fire thundered from the Trilopod’s gaping jaws, striking Godzilla right in the chest and pushing him an impressive eighty meters back with a bellow of surprise. The Monster King’s own weapon had been absorbed and turned against him! This treacherous extraterrestrial had stolen the Fire of the Gods! This was but another example of all the unacceptable offenses these foul demons had committed—and Godzilla would see to it that by the end of this day, they would suffer for it.

He didn’t get time to dwell on those thoughts, though, as the Trilopod breathed back in before firing a second atomic ray that struck him in the stomach with a force great enough to shatter the face of a mountain. The prehistoric monarch dry-heaved in agony as the blow knocked the wind out of his two hundred and fifty million-year-old lungs, pushing him back an even more impressive one-hundred and twenty meters before finally coming to a stop. With a heavy gasp, Godzilla collapsed to one knee as he began to pant desperately for breath—but despite his fatigue, he would not fall. No signs of such weakness were allowed to show from him; the planet still needed him, and he would heed its call until the deed was done.

Legs shaking and jaws sighing with recollecting breath, Godzilla slowly stood back to his feet—just as he noticed a red glow beginning to permeate from the Trilopod’s still-present chest ‘gem.’

Godzilla reacted accordingly, and with a great strain in his muscles managed to quickly step out of the path of fire just as the hybrid let loose. As the crimson beam screeched past him, Godzilla bent low and charged like a giant sumo wrestler. The Trilopod, cutting off its attack, tried to halt his advance with a claw swipe, but failed as the Monster King barreled right into it at full furious force. Slamming his palms against its torso so hard miniature shockwaves rippled off the blow for half a mile, Godzilla bludgeoned the extraterrestrial predator right off its feet and pushed it back a full two-hundred meters before finally shoving forward, sending the beast falling on its back with a painful THUD!

Bellowing an anguished shrill, the Trilopod fired its atomic ray against the Monster King’s chest, but Godzilla dug his feet into the ground as he strained heavily against the concussive attack. Nine seconds passed as the heat ray burned a blackened splotch into his chest, the dinosaur’s feet digging trenches into the ground, but eventually it faded and Godzilla marched towards his recovering enemy. Seeing his failure, the Trilopod aimed himself just well enough to fire his laser beam, but Godzilla bent to the side to present his better-armored shoulder to take the hit. The atomic giant winced in pain, but knew it would be worth it.

Just like its predecessor, the beam came to an end, buying the Trilopod just enough time to return to his feet. But Godzilla too was back on the attack, and he capitalized on it the moment the beam was gone. The Permian apex predator snarled a savage death threat at the alien menace and charged—which turned into a gag when the creature whipped around and clamped its pincer tail around his neck. Instinctively, Godzilla clamped both hands around the curved protrusions of bone as they began to dig into his flesh, doing his absolute best to keep them from impaling his neck entirely. Growling and straining, both combatants put all their effort into trying to outdo the other… but as time passed, it became obvious one was beginning to keep one step ahead.

No matter how hard the Trilopod tried to press its dreadful pincers into Godzilla’s neck, the King of the Monsters flat-out refused to let it be so, and over time began to gradually but steadily pry the sharp appendages of bone apart. The predator’s ruby eyes widened, and with equal parts desperation and fury it tried to apply more pressure. Small rivers of red began to trickle down the saurian’s neck, but Godzilla refused to be denied his goal, and only served to apply more of his legendary strength. Slowly, the pincers began to retract from the tiny wounds in the Monster King’s flesh as he gradually pried them apart. The Trilopod shrieked in alarm and tried to put more strength into the appendage, but it was pushing past its limits.

Godzilla bellowed defiantly as he summoned every inch of his strength in his arms, and with one rough shove sideways, pried the pincers so far apart, they snapped off in shrapnel sprays of bone!

As the Trilopod shrieked in pain, Godzilla grabbed the alien by the tail, and with a great heft, lifted it clear over his shoulders before slamming it back-first against the ground. Yanking it back off and turning about face, Godzilla repeated the maneuver; though much harder this time, the Trilopod landing so hard the ground cracked and vomited a huge mound of dirt and rock into the air. Godzilla roared and lifted the Trilopod up a third time, but rather than sling it back down, this time he tossed it up into the air like a soccer ball. The hybrid shrieked angrily as it fell—and that’s when Godzilla made his move. Bending low and whipping his body a full three-hundred and sixty degrees, the Monster King’s aim was spot-on as he slammed his tail against his foe’s chest like a baseball bat, with a force so great it shattered the sound barrier.

The Trilopod flew like a soft ball before landing hard on its back. When the dust eventually cleared, the results of Godzilla’s handiwork revealed themselves; the alien was bleeding profusely through its teeth, its chest ‘gem’ having been cracked by the force of the blow. The predator’s right arm was broken in six places and was now all but useless. And by the way the slowly recovering Trilopod was coughing, Godzilla guessed that at least a few of its ribs were broken.

This battle was nearing its end.

Thundering a roaring denouncement of the alien hybrid, Godzilla marched towards his wounded foe with a predatory stare. Much as he wanted to burn his foe alive right here and now, he knew he wouldn’t dare. Not yet. No, he had his foe on the verge of death right now and he had every advantage to finish it off with physical means alone—but at the same time, he didn’t know if this was the last foe he would face. It was entirely possible that there were more to contend with after this round was over, entirely possible that this wasn’t even the final round. Whether from past experience from earlier in the battle, or just a simple gut feeling, Godzilla had a hunch that something awaited him after this. Something bigger.

Better not waste his most powerful weapon on a dying obstacle.

The Trilopod roared as it powered up its dorsal spines, charging its own atomic ray and preparing to let it loose. Godzilla sped up his stride, power walking towards the crippled predator with the intention of ending the conflict before things got harder. The Trilopod fired, whereupon Godzilla ducked below the searing blast of atomic heat. Aiming its head down, the Trilopod blasted the atomic dinosaur just as he turned to present his better armored shoulder to take the brunt of the assault. It took nine seconds, but eventually the alien ran out of firepower.

Now was the time.

Suddenly putting on a burst of speed, Godzilla charged the alien. The Trilopod screeched as it turned and whipped its tail, but Godzilla grabbed the appendage nigh-effortlessly before slinging the alien over his shoulder, smashing it to the ground. Before the hybrid had time to recover, Godzilla was on it; grabbing the alien by the neck with his arms, the Kaiju King held the parasitic hunter in a chokehold as he pressed his foot down against its chest, pulling with all his strength. The Trilopod snapped and gagged, struggling in a desperate attempt to escape the Monster King’s grasp, but it was futile. Chitinous exoskeleton began to pop and crack loudly, rigid armor splitting due to constantly being pulled and bent too far; green blood leaking from the newly forming tears while bubbling and pooling in the back of the creature’s gurgling jaws as Godzilla pulled harder and harder until…

SNAP!

With a hard yank that made him stagger, Godzilla ripped the hybrid’s head right off with a sickening spurt of chitin and olive gore. As the decapitated body writhed and thrashed like a beheaded chicken, moving about on an ailing heart that didn’t know it was dead yet, the disembodied jaws of the Trilopod twitched and snapped feebly as its bloody throat made hideous gurgles that made Godzilla cringe. For a moment, the headless body continued to writhe in its death throes, the head still gurgling and moving its useless jaws… and then, all movements from head and body alike came to a gradual end. All motion ceased entirely, and the red light of the alien’s eyes faded away forever as death’s embrace finally overtook it.

Discarding the severed head, Godzilla reared his head skyward and bellowed a cry of victory and challenge, wanting any other foe in the area to know of his power before deciding to face him.

The call was answered by a monstrous sound that shook the mountains of Austria to their core, the likes of which Godzilla had never heard before.

The Richter scale began to climb considerably, the Earth’s crust rattling with a force Godzilla had never felt. An abominable roar rattled the heavens themselves as, from behind the peak of the great mountains that loomed beautifully over the countryside, a towering thing emerged into eye view. A colossal atrocity that gazed down upon the King of the Monsters with giant, bulging red eyes. Several giant vines reared up as the horrible colossus pulled itself over the mountains and lumbered into the battlefield; some vines were tipped with eyeless, razor-toothed jaws, while others ended in familiar curved scythes of green chitin. Godzilla stared in horror as the Biollante-Trilopod reared its ugly head and screamed its terrible war cry to the world. It was a downright insult of existence; a walking, living mountain of vegetation and vines, green chitinous exoskeleton and a half-mosasaur, half-Anomalocarid head with fanged chelicerae and jaws filled with rows upon rows of thousands and thousands of teeth.

A living weapon of mass destruction clad in the violated physique of Mother Nature herself.

The very sight of the loathsome abomination made Godzilla bare his teeth and utter a savage snarl, making him wish looks alone could kill, for the glare he gave the beast would have burned it to ash. If his previous opponent was an affront, then this one was a downright outrage. The King of the Monsters looked tiny in comparison to the hideous goliath, but even in the face of such a massive beast he refused to back down. He had to see this through to the end, no matter the cost. Pawing the earth, lighting up his dorsal plates and smashing the ground behind him with his tail, Godzilla flexed his claws and bellowed not a challenge, not a threat, but a promise to the invading space monster. A furious promise; the pledge of a quick death.

Flailing its massive array of vines, the Biollante-Trilopod wailed its mind-torturing roar followed by what Godzilla swore was chuckling laughter, before dragging itself forward into battle, the earth itself quaking with its very movement.

The alien lashed out with three vines; two tipped with jaws that lunged forth to clamp down upon Godzilla’s arms like angry snakes. The moment their teeth gnashed against his flesh, they then excreted a horrifically painful acidic sap onto his skin, corroding it in puffs of acrid smoke. Eyes widening, Godzilla roared in pain—which only worsened when the third vine, tipped with a chitinous scythe, came down and bashed against his head like a hammer. Godzilla raised his head, only to screech in pain when the scythe smacked it a second time. Again and again the scythed vine repeated the maneuver, eliciting groaning bellows of pain from Nature’s Fearsome Guardian while the gigantic hybrid reared back its head and chirped a warped chuckle of enjoyment.

Godzilla’s eyes snapped open.

The scythed limb came down again, slashing Godzilla in the neck—and paid dearly for it when the King of Kaiju lunged up and snagged the vine in his powerful jaws. Biting down as hard as he could, it did not take long for him to crush through the offending appendage before shaking his head, tearing through the plant matter until the scythe was severed entirely, falling to the ground with a quake. Green sap pouring from the ravaged stump, the vine retracted as Godzilla spat the disgusting fluid out. But he wasn’t finished; summoning all the strength he could in his arms, Godzilla bent forward—then, with one good, hard and fast YANK backwards, he ripped the toothed vines off their perches in sprays of bloody sap. The Trilopod wailed as it recoiled, while Godzilla discarded the vines with a disgusted grunt. Seeing his foe wounded, Godzilla seized the opportunity to charge.

The Trilopod smirked.

Red energy coursed across the hybrid’s monstrous body, traveling to the crimson gem blossoming on its chest. Godzilla, however, did well to hide his own smirk as he kept charging, waiting until just the right moment to evade. The light in the hybrid’s chest grew brighter, lighting up to a certain intensity until…

NOW!

Putting in all the speed he could muster into yanking himself to the right, Godzilla banked just as the crimson laser screeched past him much to its user’s surprise. Now not even bothering to hide his grin, the King of the Monsters continued charging his opponent, but came unprepared for the Trilopod’s improvising tactic. An entire barrage of vines came at Godzilla, taking him entirely by surprise. Some wrapped around his heels while others restrained his wrists. A few even wrapped around his neck and torso like flora-forged boa constrictors. The nuclear leviathan roared in anguish as the vines confined him on the spot, making way for the imitator of Biollante to pull out its next attack.

Green energy began to course through the predator’s neck like sizzling electricity, traveling right to the notch of its throat as it bellowed loudly, preparing to discharge what Godzilla knew to be a horrifying attack. Such a presumption proved indeed correct when a huge spray of glowing acidic sap erupted forth from the Trilopod’s massive jaws, raining down upon the Kaiju King like a downpour from Tartarus. The moment the radioactive acid met Godzilla’s armored scales, it began to corrode the natural armor at an agonizingly painful and astonishingly fast rate. The King of the Monsters howled in agony as the Trilopod continued to vomit forth its loathsomely lethal cargo upon its ancient quarry, smoke rising from the spot to permeate the area in a thick stench. Godzilla struggled, but the Biollante-Trilopod held him fast as it continued to give him an acidic bath.

But still, the Monster King continued to struggle.

The acid pelted him with horrendous effect, but still Godzilla did not yet use his primary weapon. Not yet. No, there were still other ways out of this particular trap—and he knew just where to start. Yanking hard enough to actually move his right arm upwards and drag the vines constricting it with it, Godzilla lunged and chomped down upon the vines, ignoring the putrid sap as he bit and crunched upon the vile appendages. Ceasing its acidic rain, the Trilopod lashed out with two scythe-tipped vines.

Godzilla narrowed his eyes. Perfect.

Ducking down faster than one might think him capable, Godzilla exposed his most unexpected weapon: his dorsal plates. The jagged protrusions sliced the floral limbs apart in bursts of green before the alien even had time to realize its mistake, causing it to reel back with a howl while Godzilla turned his attention to the vines still constricting his neck. Chomping down upon them, Nature’s Fearsome Guardian ravaged them until they were nothing but splotches of torn rubbish that found themselves spat out onto the ground below.

But by the time he was finished, he noticed the glowing gem on the hybrid’s torso too late.

Another crimson laser lunged forth into existence, and this time it met its target. Godzilla boomed a prehistoric shrill as he flew back, landing hard on his stomach in an impact that left him dry heaving in agony. The Trilopod roared its triumph as it watched Godzilla begin recovering the breath knocked out of him, the monolithic beast beginning to stampede towards the downed Monster King with terrible quakes as it sought to put an end to his breathing. Green energy began to gather in the creature’s neck.

Now was the time.

The dinosaur’s long, segmented tail impacted the ground as he began to push himself up… and then, a sound was heard. It started as a loud, thunderous crackling, which then turned to a low electric groan that quickly began to build in volume and pitch. One by one, Godzilla’s dorsal plates began to light up with sapphire luminescence until they reached all the way up to his neck. By the time the Biollante-Trilopod noticed his mouth beginning to glow, it had run out of time to react; with a lunge forward, Godzilla let loose his infamous atomic ray. The lance of azure flames surged right into the hybrid’s gaping jaws a mere second before it could fire Biollante’s sap ray, resulting in an explosion of blue fire that blew out the entirety of the back of its neck.

A shrieking gag had barely left the alien’s jaws before Godzilla let loose his heat ray a second time, this time burning into the creature’s glowing stomach. Yellow lights flashed like dying lamps as the Monster King’s heat ray had an abnormal—and destructive—effect on the Trilopod’s body, green blood leaking about through the seams while plant and chitin detonated in chunks. The predator gagged a spurt of green blood and reeled back, flailing its massive upper half while Godzilla blasted it until the glow in his spines faded.

The radioactive dinosaur took a moment to take a breather, replenishing a much-needed boost of physical energy as his hybridized opponent continued to mourn its losses from across. The ache in his lungs was painful, but as seconds passed it slowly began to dampen as he regained more and more doses of much-needed air. Despite his temporary relaxation session, Godzilla kept his eyes peeled on the wounded Trilopod at all times, knowing that the beast could potentially surprise him with a horrible new trick at any time.

The alien puked up another mass of gore, its grisly wounds seeming to be even more severe than they looked, but it didn’t take too long before it took its gaze back to Godzilla. The crippled alien gurgled hideously as it reared up its remaining vines, a sight which caused the King of the Monsters to regain his composure as he prepared for the final round.

The Biollante-Trilopod lashed out with its vines, this time aiming below so as to avoid the saurian’s spines. Two of them nearly struck Godzilla’s feet, but he was ready this time. Lifting one foot after moving the other, he stomped down as hard as said leg could allow, crushing one vine tipped with toothed jaws. As the other vine came to try and loop around his other leg, Godzilla snapped down and grabbed hold of it, yanking it up as he crunched down upon it with his jaws. But to his surprise, more vines lashed out at him, two of them whacking and slashing his body with scythed claws while three others bit and clamped down on other parts of his body before spraying acid onto the wounds. They were horrendously painful, but Godzilla wouldn’t let it get to him.

No, he was about to give as good as he had gotten.

His dorsal spines lighting up one by one once more, Godzilla tried to smirk as he readied his signature weapon. The Trilopod realized its error far too late as another atomic ray catapulted from the saurian’s jaws, blowing the vine in his mouth apart—but he didn’t stop there. Moving his head about to aim the blast, Godzilla detonated the vines constraining him one by one like an atomic blowtorch weedwhacker, blowing off the remaining limbs of the hideous hybrid in explosions of fire and burnt plant matter.

With the limbs disposed of, Godzilla charged.

The Trilopod was too injured to react as the Monster King slammed into it with his full weight, knocking it backwards and dragging a massive trench of dirt across the ground. Regaining its strength, the Trilopod snarled and reared its head forward, jaws agape as it swung its massive skull with bared chelicerae. Thinking fast, Godzilla ducked low, just missing those gaping jaws.

He was unprepared for what followed.

Another crimson laser burst forth from the Trilopod’s chest ‘gem,’ and it fired in such a perfect line that it completely decimated a most unexpected target: Godzilla’s dorsal spines. Most of the rocky appendages of jagged bone were blown out of existence by the scarlet blast in a massive explosion of cerulean fire and radioactive dust, eliciting a terrible howl of torture from the King of the Monsters. Godzilla reeled back as precious glowing blue smoke and particles poured from his ruined back, his majestic spines all but destroyed. The ground shuddering horrifically from the force of his footfalls, Godzilla staggered away with roar after earsplitting roar of nigh-unbearable pain, all the while the Trilopod managed a sickening gurgle for a laugh at the sight of how the tables had turned. Its eyes glowing with hunger, the living mountain of chitinous vegetation began to shamble forward, stalking its injured quarry as it prepared to deliver the finishing blow.

Through the molten haze of pain, Godzilla just barely managed to open his eyes and look upon the predatory hybrid that loomed over him voraciously. The alien had lowered its head close to the ground, its tooth-filled jaws slowly gaping, fanged mandibles rising like a hunting spider, bloody drool falling from its jaws in lustful hunger. His columnar legs quivering but still managing to hold together, Godzilla slowly rose to a hunched-over, dinosaur-like pose, baring his teeth with a growling sneer and fixing the Trilopod with his eagle-like gaze. The King of the Monsters let loose a powerful roar, a defiant cry to inform the parasitic hunter that he would not fall this day—nor ever in its lifetime. With that, he began to charge up the energy within him.

Packing all the strength he could into his legs, he rushed forward.

Howling fearlessly, Nature’s Fearsome Guardian dashed head-first into the Biollante-Trilopod’s gaping, tooth-filled mouth. Its enormous jaws clamping down halfway across his length, the alien wanted to smile as it felt its teeth pierce his back and its chelicerae plunge into his flesh. For a moment, the creature reared its head off the ground to its full height, clutching the King of the Monsters in its foul maw, while Godzilla’s head and shoulders stuck out from what was once the back of its neck.

Godzilla smirked, his eyes lighting up.

A sapphire glow began to emanate from within the Trilopod’s jaws. The abomination could not widen its eyes, but a small jerk of its huge skull sufficed perfectly enough. Rays of azure light began to shine from the gaps in the predator’s maw, the light growing brighter and brighter with every passing second. Heat began to build up from Godzilla’s body—and that was when initial surprise turned to rising alarm for the abominable giant. The Trilopod reared its head back, unsure of what exactly was going on but unable to comprehend it. The heat built and built, the glow from the inside building in luminosity in an uncontrollable fashion until…

KA-BOOM!

In a flash of cerulean light, the entire top of the Trilopod’s head was blown apart by massive shockwaves of atomic power. A massive explosion of charred flesh, blue fire and cauterized plant matter bloomed across Godzilla’s now-exposed back, the waves of superheated radiation cascading towards the heavens as the nuclear pulse bathed the area in a beautiful light, before then fading almost as quickly as it was born. Godzilla, the glow in his back dampening as the atomic shockwaves ceased surging from his body, fell forward and slumped to the ground as the flames and smoke died around him, revealing the state of his opponent.

Of what was once a terrifying hybrid of a crocodilian and anomalocarid skull, only the toothed lower jaw remained.

Summoning his legendary strength, Godzilla delayed exhaustion once more as he began to climb to his feet, atomic smoke still pouring from his back. With a rumbling growl of fatigue, he turned around to look upon the headless body of his alien adversary.

The colossal body teetered and swayed like a dying tree… then fell forward, collapsing to the ground with an all-resounding THUD!

Pawing the ground with his left foot, the King of the Monsters all but forgot the pain of his wounds as he reared his head towards the sky and bellowed in unquestionable and ever-so-sweet triumph as loud as his great lungs would allow. He roared until there was no air in his system left, letting the majestic cry of victory fade to an all-encompassing hum that rippled through the ground and air alike. As he let the sound fade into the distance, Godzilla sniffed the air, detecting no more scents aside from the ruined corpses of his foes, a confirmation of the unmistakable outcome.

He had done it.

Snorting in equal parts exhaustion and scornful superiority, Godzilla turned his back to the colossal corpse of the Biollante-Trilopod, not even batting an eye when the body of the menace began to gray and crackle, in the process of falling apart to dust. Wounded, tired beyond measure but alive, Godzilla marched back out towards the closest body of water his eyes could see. He needed to return to the ocean soon and seek out a source of radiation to recover; one squad of the invaders had been eliminated, but his gut told him the actual invasion itself was not over yet.

And Godzilla always trusted his gut.

With a heavy gait, the King of Kaiju lumbered towards the water, grateful for his victory. While battles that needed fighting still remained ahead, it was not unhealthy to appreciate his success today and the benefits that would come from it. This was merely a reminder to his foes of his power and formidability, a message that he was not to be taken lightly—nor to be opposed without a death wish. He was Mother Earth’s iron hammer of judgment to all those who wronged her.

And he would always be there to answer her call.

Godzilla sighed contently as his right foot stepped into the cool, refreshing water—and stopped short when an alien shriek caught his attention in the distance. Lifting his head like a startled bird, the Monster King growled in irritation as he turned about face.

His eyes caught sight of another Trilopod in the distance, one of very familiar characteristics—and yet, very different as well. Golden, chitinous hide mixed with bumpy, reddish-brown keloid scars with exposed lesions of glowing scarlet musculature. A lengthy tail swung behind the beast, while maple leaf-shaped plates of cancellous bone grew from its back. Its lower jaw splitting like a snake, the new Godzilla-Trilopod reared its scythes and screeched a hideous cry at Nature’s Fearsome Guardian. Grunting, Godzilla pulled himself together as he prepared for one last battle…

…and stopped short when another roar echoed across the land.

Turning in the direction of the cry, the Monster King widened his eyes when he caught sight of the perpetrator: a second Godzilla. But, while similar, this creature was in many ways fundamentally different. Burnt, keloid-scarred skin adorned its body, tiny arms barely reaching out past its thin, axe-shaped sternum. Red scars glowed with thermonuclear blood, beady eyes fixing the Monster King with a feral, reptilian stare. The new Godzilla opened its mouth, filled with rows of uneven, needle-like teeth, and bellowed. Just like that, the meaning was clear to the Alpha Predator. It was not a challenge, nor a greeting—but an affirmation. A friendly dismissal. The King of the Monsters could go and rest; after all he had accomplished today, he deserved it.

The God Incarnate would take care of this one.

Nodding in gratitude, the victorious saurian roared a friendly farewell to his unexpected helper before turning his back on him, continuing to lumber into the cool water. He would fight another day—but for now, the water yearned for his presence. The world of sleep called him, and in order to replenish his strength, he must answer its call.

As the ancient behemoth wandered away, the mutant Godzilla turned to his alien ‘doppelganger’ and bellowed a challenge, catching the creature’s attention as he prepared himself for battle.

Winner: Godzilla (Legendary)

A very special thanks to dopepope for some of the assets used in this banner for the K.W.C. Be sure to follow him on DeviantART, ArtStation, and Instagram.