Author: Anthony James Velez | Banner: Matthew Freese

Glacial winds passed through the frigid landscape, a nearly barren wasteland of ice and stone. The torrential winds scattered the dense snow, piling over the ancient rocks that predated all life on Earth. Harsh and brutal temperatures made it difficult to acclimate to the environment, but such a task was not impossible.

Especially for the creature that sought refuge in this cold, desolate place.

In the skies of the ever-cold lands of Antarctica, a pair of glowing viridescent eyes stood out from the darkness above. A giant crimson bat flew across the area, covered with scars and bruises from a brutal battle. With the damage done to its shredded wings, it was astonishing that the creature was even able to fly at all. Its ears were perked at all times in case its old foe decided to come back, readying plans for a retreat should it need to.

In the very-recent past, a disturbance had caught the attention of the extraterrestrial bat, piquing its attention as it made its way to the new planet. The disturbance turned out to be a golden, three headed dragon seemingly calling its underlings toward it. A thought crossed the bat’s mind; if it could beat the kaiju that was clearly at the top of the food chain, then it would be able to usurp its power over this world. With naive eagerness and a lack of hesitation, it had wasted no time descending to challenge the alpha. This sequence of events, however, would come back to haunt it, as the power of this kaiju, much like the universe, was incomprehensible.

The bat had entered battle and found its foe too strong, fast, and smart to overcome. In fact, the storm of its presence alone gave the bat pause as it contemplated the terrible decision it just made. Worse than that even, it didn’t matter how badly it seemed to have injured the golden dragon, in a matter of minutes, it would just heal itself and get right back to the fight. After ferociously fighting for his life, Bagorah knew it had to escape. And it barely did so by blasting the three-headed terror with a sonic scream.

Bagorah was humiliated, frustrated, and exhausted from its attempted power grab. As it flew across the sky in retreat, it used another sonic scream to search its surroundings. This blast destroyed the terrestrial wildlife in the process and those that weren’t killed went deaf. The bat, after his crushing defeat, took some solace in this fact. After assuring itself it was not being followed, its rigid body relaxed and its breathing slowed. For the time being, the crimson bat managed to escape the clutches of the dragon. But it wouldn’t be truly satisfied until it found a way to defeat it.

For the time being, however, it would have to rest. Its aching body wasn’t going to heal itself, after all. Flying toward the ground, it lay on the cold snow and folded its wings around its body as it settled for sleep. The place was obviously freezing, but nowhere near the frigid temperatures of the open vacuum of space that it so commonly traversed, so it would suffice for the moment. As the creature shut its eyes, for a brief moment, it thought it saw something, or a cluster of somethings, approaching from the pure white haze of the horizon…

The next day came. When Bagorah awoke, it found tiny cuts and marks across its chest and face. Opening an eye revealed the culprits, as it lay witness to tiny, ugly, winged creatures with tails and saber-like teeth, biting and… drinking? from its flesh. The bat narrowed its eyes in annoyance, and released a snort of hot breath, alarming the creatures.

It shook its head and swatted the pests all around it, sending them flying away while hissing at the creature. Apparently, they were more stubborn than it anticipated, as several of the things continued to circle around the giant and attempt to reattach themselves. Annoyed, Bagorah decided to finish things with a sonic blast, and the winged beasts saw the air distort in the moment before their bodies were shattered into pulp. The remaining few saw this and flew towards the hills.

Bagorah scratched at the places the little pests bit at, which was somewhat itchy from their bites. As it licked tenderly at the wounds, a strange feeling of familiarity came over it. For some reason, it recognized them from somewhere, but couldn’t quite remember exactly when it was that it last saw them. Before it could follow that train of thought, however, the ice below its feet exploded upwards without warning.

Bagorah suddenly slapped into the ground, it began flapping tattered wings rapidly in an attempt to right itself. Its beady, green eyes locked onto the creature now pulling itself from the crater in the ice, and struggling to make out exactly what it was. It had the wings of a bat, the tail of an ankylosaur, the raptor-like hind legs, a feline body and forelegs, and a face somewhere between a ceratopsian and feline with a hint of narwhal.

Right now, its feline-like front legs had their claws in the torso of Bagorah as it tried to drag the bat down into its icy labyrinth. Thrashing wasn’t doing the giant space bat any good, so it fired a sonic blast into the face of the creature. As the bat yanked itself off the creature’s body, it narrowed its eyes at the growling beast and started to try and put some distance between them. As he moved away it occurred to him why the small beasts were so familiar to him.

What seemed like eons ago, Bagorah remembered having encountered and fought off this chimeric monster, or at least another like it, back on some planet far from the one it was currently on. It recounted how the little beasts had stolen its blood and used it to copy its own traits in their alien beast master. Once its blood had been absorbed into the chimera, it manifested its wings on that abomination of a body, and saw a repeat of the same scene before its eyes now.

Bagorah knew its body was in no condition for a fight, but a good look into the eyes of the creature, a… Gryphon, it recalled, told the predator that it had little choice in the matter. There was at least one upside to having this thing intrude on its rest, it had something it could take its frustrations out on.

Without a second to spare, it took a few flaps to gain altitude before diving at this DNA thief. The Gryphon, excited to have a chance at stealing more genetics after a long DNA drought, slapped its paws into the large patch of ice before lunging for the aerial beast, managing to grab hold of a talon. Given its low vantage point and lack of solid ground, Bagorah was able to lift it off its feet as it grasped its talons. The Gryphon grunted, but used its weight to pull Bagorah back down with a solid bite to its left shin. With a small yelp, the bat couldn’t stop its foe from sending him spiraling down to the icy grounds below. But just as they crashed, they instead found themselves no longer on stable land, but instead a pocket of ice-cold water, submerging the terrible beasts.

The Gryphon started putting strain on the leg of Bagorah, pressing its jaws and teeth tightly down on the bone. Bagorah repeatedly kicked and scratched, easily drawing blood from the creature with the aid of its long talons, but the chimera’s hold on it persisted. Hunger clouded Bagorah’s mind as it watched the blood cloud rise in the water, striking with a mighty foot, finally managing to dislodge its attacker. Its body was made for flying in the skies, not swimming, but that didn’t stop the bat from trying, using its wings like giant paddles. Surprisingly, it worked and Bagorah swam with all its might toward the Gryphon before taking a big bite into the face of its enemy, skimming the top of the water like a stingray.

The Gryphon let out a pained grunt before quickly opening its mouth, showing the snake-headed tongues within. The tongues sprang out and went for the throat of its prey. Bagorah’s eyes widened at the bites into its neck, letting out a muffled squeal into the chilling water. Having dislodged its enemy,the Gryphon pulled its mouth towards the bat’s neck with the aid of its tongue and clamped down hard. Bagorah squeezed its eyes shut in pain; the little hydra tongues left a tingling it didn’t trust but wasn’t as threatening as those massive teeth currently were. Bagorah, however, fought fire with fire.

Growling into each other’s shoulders, they rolled and tumbled underneath the waves, trying to gain advantage over each other. Eventually they hit the ocean floor, with Bagorah emerging on top. This beast wanted to steal bits of its body? Well, now was the time to return the favor! With a quick swipe of its tongue against its lips, it went for a quick bite to its jugular. The Gryphon’s response was swift, and grabbed the bat’s wing hinge and pulled it to the right, smashing the space predator into the ground and leaving it with only the taste of cold dirt.

The blood-red chiropteran was a stubborn creature, however. Raising itself up amidst the watery depths and undersea dust clouds, the voracious devourer lunged for the chimeric beast, leaping towards the Gryphon in the fluid-filled space. Their bodies collided, vying for supremacy over the other. The force behind Bagorah’s body slam left the Gryphon no choice but to anchor his hooves into the rocky sediment. Such defiance was nothing short of irritating for the Gryphon. Firmly clasping his lion-like claws on the shoulders of the giant bat, the bioengineered destroyer gored his horn into the volant cretin, both creatures frothing with air bubbles as they screamed.

Tossing the bat-like creature aside, the Gryphon had one last surprise in store. Stored in his alien biomass were cocoons that stored more of pawns conjured by the alien probe that birthed him. While many of the Probe-Bats had been absorbed into the Gryphon’s biomass, others had been stored for any occasion that required it. They awakened within him at his beckoning as they crawled up his throat. Then, with a massive exhale, a swarm of the hideous, fanged ghouls jettisoned from the Gryphon’s mouth, speeding straight for their target.

While Bagorah snarled in annoyance and shouted the pests asunder, bursting in vile clouds of alien blood and organic matter, the Gryphon started to swim toward the surface. Bagorah made its way to give chase, but a powerful slam from its tail club sent the aerial carnivore spiraling back downwards. Blood painted the water red as the strike broke both skin and bone, leaving a long gash running down the side of Bagorah’s temple. The remaining Probe-Bats homed in like piranhas to the dazed titan and latched on, targeting the flesh wounds littering its body as they once more gorged on the chiropteran’s fluids.

Bagorah reoriented itself after a moment, shaking its head, scattering a few of the Probe-Bats, before letting out a sonic scream that burst apart the rest of the wretches. As gore rained down upon the terrain, Bagorah shifted its gaze up to the distant ice hole, still very much focused on killing his enemy. As it began to ascend, blasts of lightning suddenly rained down from above the water’s surface. Bagorah’s scream was cut short as it was assailed by the barrage of energy bolts from the now airborne Gryphon. When did he ascend? Bagorah thought swiftly before the next one; escape. It frantically began flapping its wings as makeshift paddles again and swam toward the surface, letting loose as many sound blasts as it could to counter the enemy fire.

With the speed difference thanks to the water, the Gryphon was able to evade any sound blasts Bagorah could muster. The alien’s only effective weapon was willpower as it pushed itself from being fried into annihilation. When its head broke the ice cold water’s surface, Bagorah turned his gaze skywards towards the airborne Gryphon with an enraged glare, how dare it use ITS wings to ascend to his domain. The Gryphon simply glowered at the space dweller, annoyed at the lost chance to kill it, but was given no time to stew in its thoughts as Bagorah burst out of the ocean with several hard flaps.

The two enemies met in the air, with the Gryphon shooting more bolts of electrical energy from between its stolen wings. Bagorah returned the electric barrage with blasts of concentrated sound, ripping apart the electrical beams almost as quickly as they were fired. Both maneuvered around their attacks, never taking their eyes off one another until the Gryphon attempted a barrel roll right into Bagorah. It didn’t end with the full intended effect, but it did wind up smacking the bat with its wings and, working with what it had, the Gryphon bit into the bat’s right hand while continuing its barrel roll.

It was excruciating to say the least; as the midair death roll took its small appendage with it. Due to Bagorah being so small and being assaulted with both the chimera’s mouth and the multiple smaller maws, Bagorah’s hand was ripped off entirely. Rather than scream in pain, however, Bagorah focused as much as it could correcting its flight path. But the Gryphon’s paws slammed into it and began losing altitude, as the Gryphon bit into its neck. Bagorah turned as best it could and bit into its upper jaw to try and dislodge the beast.

Bagorah stopped trying to fly, and instead latched its other hand and talons into the shoulder and gut of the creature respectively. Receiving this damage in the worst way possible, the Gryphon vomited another wave of Probe-Bats, the winged demons slipping past the gaps in the chimera’s bite. A disgusting sight to behold. Although Bagorah had handled them without difficulty in the past, its current position was much more compromised. The space bat tried to use the reliable method of sonic blasting them to oblivion, but the Gryphon bit down hard on the jaws of Bagorah, preventing its mandibles from detaching.

Bagorah’s already aching jaw was feeling even worse with its now lacerated tongue pierced and ripped to mincemeat by the nightmare’s fangs. Bagorah thrashed away from the mighty grip of its adversary, but the grasp of the Gryphon was ironclad and seemingly impossible to break. Bagorah, seeing it was getting nowhere with this move and feeling the Probe-Bats leeching away its blood, had an idea and let out a muffled sonic scream at point blank. The two creatures squeezed their eyes shut as the pain stabbed through their skulls, flesh rippling like water waves under the force of the sonic waves. Regardless, Bagorah clung on, screaming as loud as it could until, with the sound of tearing flesh, the Gryphon was blown off of the bat completely.

The Gryphon went hurdling down to the ground, Bagorah gliding back down to the Earth. The Gryphon landed with a pained hiss, missing too much of its winged structure to ever grant the red terror flight ever again. The Probe-Bats were as persistent as ever though, being the annoying little vampires they were, flew into the maw of their master with their stolen biomass. As Bagorah’s DNA was ingested by their master with every swallow, the memories and thoughts they contained swirled in the consciousness of the chimera. Every insatiable instinct, every rabid thought collected themselves within the intelligence of the alien probe beast. Its eyes widened at the rush of information, the Gryphon uttering a cackling bellow at the crimson foe.

Bagorah considered its options carefully, wary of the newfound arrogance of its foul enemy. It could only glide at best with its heavily damaged wing, which meant flying attacks were out of the question. Fighting head on would play into what it wanted. Unfortunately, there weren’t many options left.

With a wrathful screech, Bagorah made one last dash at the Gryphon. The aforementioned creature began its assault with its electrical energy, to which Bagorah returned fire. Unlike the previous times where it shot small, precise beams of sonic energy, instead it created a whole field from a supersonic scream. The electrical energy dissipated within the distortion generated by the sonic field and the Gryphon was bombarded by blasts of sonic noise. The concussive force was effective and temporarily paralyzed the amalgam.

Bagorah would have smiled in a sinister fashion if it could, but the Gryphon’ head was currently occupying that space. This time, the weakening flesh gave way and a chunk of meat was torn off. The Gryphon screamed in horrendous agony as Bagorah swallowed its prize with a greedy gusto. Its scream of pain turned into one of rage as the chimera fought back with authority, stabbing and ripping into the bat’s left wing before it could react. Within moments, the thin skin membrane was torn to ribbons with a single sweep of its narwhal horn. Bagorah was the one now screaming in both agony and indignation. It pulled back in response to the pain, its actions caused it to completely rip its mauled wing off its attacker’s horn, ripping open the membrane even further.

The Gryphon followed up with a powerful swipe of its left paw across Bagorah’s contorted face, leaving its victim stunned. Bagorah, as a result, couldn’t stop the nightmarish entity from pinning it down. For a moment, there were slashing claws and blood flying everywhere. While that awoke the bat from its stunned state, another paw pinned the cretin’s face down. Before it could use its legs, more Probe-Bats were vomited from the maw of the alien destroyer and spread around, biting at its knees and ankles.

The Gryphon had its prey exactly where it wanted it. There was no longer any advantage it possessed that hadn’t been assimilated or disabled, leaving the chimera as undoubtedly the supreme creature. The only remaining threat was the bat’s signature sonic scream, and within a moment, that sound would be silenced forever, as its jaws leaned down to Bagorah’s squirmed, exposed neck…

Bagorah was at a loss at what to do; it had thought of everything and had nothing more left… except one option. However, one of its wings was completely asunder after its vicious attack. One bite to the neck with the strength the beast had showcased would end its own life right here. Could it still win now? With the odds stacked against it, was its foe primed for the killing blow? Bagorah was a simple creature. Its instincts were hard wired for survival, impossible to be ignored, and as such, it would take any chance available to keep its heart beating and its lungs breathing. It would keep fighting.

With all its might, it shoved against the Gryphon. The sudden unexpected action scrambled the chimera’s balance and its legs slipped, dragging Bagorah along with it down the slope of the hill, rolling like a runaway barrel. In the midst of the tumble, Bagorah flexed and squirmed, unfolding its broken wings to push aside the limbs of its predator to detangle itself from its clutches. As the bat rolled away, it heard and felt the crunches of the tiny Probe-Bats attached to its lower half splattering against the cold, hard ground with every revolving impact, removing what it hoped would be the last of the insufferable parasites.

The impact at the slope’s base removed what remained of the Probe-Bats from Bagorah’s body. Standing up, shaking the gore and snow from his wrinkled body, his eyes locked with those of his recovered adversary. The Gryphon, despite its feast of DNA, was getting fed up with this creature. It kept slaughtering what gave it the advantage over all living beings and doing so before it could get enough of what it wanted most. Bagorah felt itself getting heavier and heavier as the battle dragged along. One wanted this to be done; the other needed this to be done. Without further delay, they both made one last charge at one another.

The Gryphon watched as the space bat lunged at it before standing up and started aiming to bite onto its jaws. Bagorah moved its neck to the side, avoiding the attack and sinking his own jaws into its foe’s neck as hard as it could. This time, it did what the Gryphon should’ve done when it had the chance and squeezed down upon its jugular, blood leaking into its mouth as the pressure became stronger by the second. Even when the Gryphon stabbed both sets of claws into its throat, the space bat would not relent. It might not have started this fight, but if it was going to get this bloody and intense, it was going to finish it and take its head as a trophy.

Something was wrong. The pain in its throat grew worse, far more intense than any injury dealt to it before. Its chest burned and its vision blurred, but the cause of these symptoms remained unknown to the panicking chimera. What was happening to it?

The answer lay in the biology of its new form. At the beginning of its existence, what would become of the Gryphon was nothing more than a shapeless form, programmable matter awaiting a template to follow, that required no other resources to continue its functions. But that was no longer the case with the biological body it now inhabited. This body needed energy to survive, and required food, water and air in order to generate said energy. The last of those three requirements was what Bagorah was denying the creature through its strangling grip upon the alien’s throat, slowly suffocating the Gryphon as it removed the trachea’s ability to absorb and transport oxygen to the lungs.

It wasn’t some devious scheme or latent ability of its nemesis that did the otherworldly terror in, but the flaws of obtaining mortality. Bagorah felt the struggles of the creature lessen, squirming slower and slower until its movements became only twitches. The Gryphon’s eyes glazed over, and it finally went still.

Bagorah had won, but at a grave cost. The claws of the cosmic shapeshifter, lodged deep into the tissues of its neck, had dealt catastrophic damage within its final death throes. The talons slid free as the Gryphon’s corpse fell back onto the ice, allowing blood to gush out from the punctures in great quantities. Gasping and wheezing, Bagorah fell down across the lifeless body as well, already feeling the warmth and energy leaving its muscles.

In this moment, there would normally be a sensation of peace, but all that washed over the dying predator was disappointment and anger. All that it had fought for was utterly worthless in the end. No final victory to go out on, no reputation to leave behind. All that would be left behind in the end would be two frozen corpses on the inhospitable tundra, with the world unaware of what transpired here for a longer period of time than the bat’s fading synapses could fathom.

With its last breaths, Bagorah understood the cruelty of life. How the greatest victory could come with the gravest cost. An unfair outcome that forced the predator into acceptance, and into the darkness beyond…

Draw: Bagorah, Gryphon