Author: Michael Menei | Banner: Vincent Rodger

Iceland, 1783

It came without warning. The Laki Fissure erupted, spewing forth massive amounts of hot magma, while its gasses and smoke spread and began culling 25% of the human population living below. To date, it was one of the deadliest eruptions in history, but what history failed to note was that it also became the battleground of two lava-based goliaths.

Rising up from the hot magma, the devil from a lost era, Kumasogami surfaced to continue his reign of terror upon mankind. It was his conviction to never cease his onslaught until every last one was wiped from the earth. Kumasogami saw this budding lava waste land and decided to begin his murderous campaign here at Laki Fissure. Unbeknownst to him, he wasn’t the only behemoth here…

As lava bubbled behind him, Kumasogami turned to see a rock-like kaiju rise from the pool of magma, Obsidius. Kumasogami grinned, why start his destruction of his puny human appetizers when he could start his day off with dessert. After all he was a powerful goliath, why shouldn’t he get to enjoy a nice fight before total domination?

As Kumasogami was thinking this, Obsidius spotted the demonic golem. Unlike Kumasogami, Obsidius was less focused on world domination and more on finding a suitable environment on the surface. His power had been forged from a crystal from beyond the stars that embedded itself within the Earth, thus needed a place like this to harvest his power. It was hard enough to find a passable spot like this and was unwilling to share it with another monster. He bellowed out a roar, beating his chest like a gorilla.

It was a challenge Kumasogami gleefully accepted.

The devil of Kumaso started off by morphing his hands into a notched bow with arrows. He arched them and fired, managing to land two on Obsidius, detonating on impact. Chunks of rock blew off the molten golem’s hide as it shrieked and fell backward into the lava below. Kumasogami chuckled with a twisted grin. This was definitely going to be fun…

Obsidius burst forth from the lava and curled himself into a ball, racing towards his foe. Before Kumasogami had a chance to react, he felt the tremendous force of the rolling giant crash into him. The impact sent the volcanic golem flying, crashing onto his back against the wall of the fissure, with rocks and dirt collapsing around him.

Kumasogami was about to peel himself off until Obsidius crashed down upon him. Arms became interlocked and a war of strength began, pushing the molten muscles of the demonic beast to their limits. Kumasogami gained clarity on his enemy. His foe was physically strong, much more than even he. The primal lava golem roared in the face of the volcanic demon as it disengaged the grapple and began to punch the molten warrior with a flurry of fists. Kumasogami ceased Obsidius’ assault with a swift headbutt, forcing the primitive berserker to stagger back.

Walking towards his foe, Kumasogami threw another punch, but this time with more power behind it. The incoming blow to Obsidius knocked the wind out of him and sent pieces of his rocky flesh flying off. Kumasogami leaned back to avoid a retaliatory blow from his foe, one that would surely earn him some serious damage he was rather keen on not taking.

Obsidius shook his head in an attempt to clear his head, before initiating a charge at Kumasogami who quickly sidestepped out of the way. As Obsidius barreled past him, the magma monster collided with the same wall he had pinned his foe against earlier.

Not giving Obsidius the time to recover, Kumasogami quickly morphed his hands into his signature bow and arrows, launching them just above the lava creature. The arrows hit the rocky wall and erupted into explosions, sending tons of rocks pouring down above Obsidius. The molten goliath tried to cover himself but couldn’t react in time to block them all and those that escaped his defense left completely dazed.

With his foe handicapped for the moment, Kumasogami wasted no time and raised his bow. Kumasogami fired another round of arrows that turned Obsidius’ surroundings into chaos as the rain of arrows were accompanied by lava spewing up from the fissure.

The demonic titan was rather disappointed, was this the best his foe could do? Turning his back to the fissure in disappointment, Kumasogami was ready to move on to his main course, obliterating humanity.

That was when Obsidius quickly burst out from the slurry of lava and rocks, sending them skyrocketing into the air.

Spinning around, Kumasogami had no time to react as Obsidius picked up one of the large rocks and hurled it at him. The impact of the rock against his body made the hellbeast stagger backward. The impact struck him in the chest, chipping off pieces of his thick hide. He was about to make a move, but was still too slow as the molten goliath threw another rock. This time the hurling piece of geology struck Kumasogami in the middle of his face, sending him tumbling onto his back, sinking into the lava below.

Rushing to his foe, the molten goliath placed his hands into the lava, pulling the Kumaso devil out. As Obsidius lifted the flailing Kumasogami above his head, he reared his arms back and threw Kumasogami so hard, the titanic demon found himself at the other end of the fissure almost instantly, splashing into the lava at the back of the fissure.

Kumasogami slowly began regaining consciousness, and lifted himself from the pool, with lava pouring down his body like molten sweat. The burning titan caught sight of his foe charging towards him and again morphed his hands into bow and arrows. He arched them towards the goliath, but just as they were about to hit their mark, Obsidius curled into a ball and began bowling right at him as Kumasogami found himself again being sent hurtling backwards upon impact.

Uncurling himself, the molten goliath marched over to the downed Kumasogami. Reaching down, he grabbed him by the neck, and lifted him off of his feet and into the air, preparing to finish his foe off. However, Kumasogami had other plans. This time, rather than use his now trademark bow and arrows, his left hand morphed into a sharp blade.

As Obsidius was about to plunge his fist through Kumasogami’s weakened and shattered chest, The demon of the underworld swiped his hand blade, scraping it across Obsidius’ body. The molten goliath roared out in pain as he felt the steel-inforced nature of the blade gorge his thick rocky hide, leaving a large gash. The pain caused Obsidius to drop Kumasogami as he reared in agony.

Falling to his knees. Kumasogami clutched his throat, air finally returning to it. Noticing that Obsidius’ chest was vulnerable and exposed, the Kumaso demon got up to his feet and jabbed his blade inside the molten goliath’s chest and attempted to pierce through to the other side.

Just inches from victory, Obsidius launched a beam of magma from his maw, smothering Kumasogami’s face in molten lava. Although he was immune to the beam, it didn’t mean it was ineffective. Kumasogami’s face now covered in lava was unable to see what was happening now and could do nothing to stop the beam from continuing to blind him.

Obsidius continued to spew his deadly magma as he grabbed a hold of the now blinded Kumasogami’s blade buried in his chest and began pulling it out. Unable to continue the beam, Obsidius relented, giving Kumasogami the chance to wipe away the magma. This was all he had time to do when the primitive berserker threw him over his shoulder and slammed him down, forcing lava into the air, with some splashing Obsidius in the process.

Not giving Kumasogami the chance to get back up on his feet, the molten goliath spewed his magma beam a second time. This was all the time he needed to turn around and jump backward to land on top of Kumasogami.

Kumasogami found himself being pummeled with a volley of punches Obsidius was smashing against him. Every blow cracked Kumasogami’s hide more and more and he knew had to get out of this quickly if he didn’t want to be turned into pieces of lifeless rock. Kumasogami grabbed the next fist that was swung and yanked Obsidius off of him.

Struggling to get up at first, he managed to eventually get to his full height. Kumasogami reverted his hands back to a bow and arrows and shot them toward his foe as more eruptions and explosions of lava went soaring everywhere. Unsure as to the state of Obsidius after his first barrage, he started to fire another, only for Obsidius to suddenly appear behind him and wrap his arms around Kumasogami in a bear hug.

Surprised by the ambush, Kumasogami changed back to normal looking hands and tried to force Obsidius to let go; however, his attempt failed and the bear hug only became tighter. With Kumasogami at his mercy, Obsidius decided to dive below the lava with his captured foe.

The volcanic berserker began to squeeze with all his might in hopes of breaking his grappled foe in half and Kumasogami could feel his body cracking as Obsidius neared victory. Fortunately his arms were freer than his torso, giving him a chance to escape Obsidius’ grasp. His hand returned to a blade as he swung it down full force to chop off one of Obsidius’ arms off his body.

Obsidius shrieked as Kumasogami freed himself. Kumasogami began his ascent back to the surface, relieved about not being dead now. He heard Obsidius begin to follow him out and he turned around staring at him. The molten goliath was extremely enraged, so full of anger even the lava around him seemed to boil heavier with his rage. Obsidius made a full sprint toward Kumasogami, hellbent on destroying his foe. Despite the loss of his front arm, he was still capable of fighting as ever.

Taking notice of the large opening in Obsidius’ chest, Kumasogami went back to his bow and arrows and fired them all at Obsidius’ exposed chest. Before the molten goliath knew it, the arrows all landed on their target and the molten goliath erupted into that of lifeless rock.

Kumasogami watched as the large chunks of what was once Obsidius landed in the lava and slowly sank below. The devil of Kumaso roared in triumph. This was probably the greatest fight he had to date and would be one he would always remember.

Nevertheless, the fun was now over and Kumasogami left the Laki Fissure to begin his reign of destruction on Iceland, and soon the rest of the world.

Winner: Kumasogami