Author: Joshua Strittmatter | Banner: Andrew Sudomerski
The age of monsters was about to take a whole new turn.
The collapse of an entire country began when Godzilla reappeared to lumber ashore in New York City, in the spring of 2031. The monumental metropolis, the largest city in the United States and the pride of its entire economy and trade, was also the first of many to fall to the living embodiment of nuclear abuse. Though the destruction was unintentional at first, merely a result of his colossal size and weight, it was when the U.S. military arrived on the scene to fight back when the monster king went berserk. Before a world paralyzed with horror, the atomic goliath turned the once proud city into an infernal graveyard not in hours, but mere minutes. His condensed beam and flame stream slashed and melted every inch of New York to the ground, taking the lives of over 7 million with it.
One moment the massive city stood untouched by a decade’s worth of monster attacks, and the next it was exactly that, ‘was.’
Rather than turning back to the ocean from whence he came, this time the King of the Monsters lumbered further inland to begin his countrywide trek. Eventually, Godzilla temporarily disappeared into the upper reaches of Chesapeake Bay, possibly to rest after his long travel.
And that’s when it happened.
On May 20th, the United States government proclaimed to the world that they had successfully killed Godzilla, after a giant bipedal reptile with dorsal spines ran loose in the city of Albany before being killed by F-18s. It didn’t take long, however, for such a boast to be proven the biggest lie of the century: the deceased creature was an entirely different animal, hardly bearing the slightest resemblance to the infamous God Incarnate.
And worse still, the animal hadn’t died without leaving behind a memento.
By the time it was discovered “Zilla” could reproduce asexually, it was already far too late. Before the month was over, multiple Zillas began to appear all over the already-devastated state of New York; the latest recorded instance of other monsters following in the wake of Godzilla’s attacks. The new creatures proved to be as troublesome as they were lethal in combat; using a deadly combination of speed, agility, intelligence, and coordination, causing catastrophic results. The military’s attempt to take back the state of New York from the beasts—dubbed “Operation: Lady Liberty”—ended just as well as their attempts to stop the real Godzilla had. Through their cunning and skills of working together as teams, the Zillas repelled the military offensive. Fatalities climbed even higher; whether from the massive animals stomping around, or collateral damage as the military failed to hit their targets.
In time, the U.S. made the decision to do the unthinkable: abandon the state of New York altogether, leaving however many remaining survivors to fend entirely for themselves.
The Zillas, subsequently, were left to their own devices. With an entire state to themselves, they wandered about at their leisure; some staying close together in the same area, venturing away only to go hunting for fish. Others patrolled to new regions, expanding farther out to stake territories of their own. Some on their own, some with offspring of their own in tow.
And some, entirely and utterly alone…
*****
Toronto, Canada; August 28th, 2031
It didn’t matter how common an occurrence it had become since the very first in 2016; a Kaiju attack was never not a national tragedy.
Not even a full month had passed since the United States had officially collapsed at the hands of Godzilla, and already Canada was looking to be next. The attack began with a great echo from the south, so powerful that it blew a noticeable wind through the depths of the city. It was as if a hurricane was on the arrival… but unfortunately, a far more terrible truth soon revealed itself. The source of the sound was quickly spotted shortly after, and it didn’t take very long for it to reach the capital city. Sirens began to blare even before the reptilian giant reached the outskirts, alarm devolving into full blown panic as screams started to join the terrifying chorus. They were all muted when the first building fell, smashed into dying rubble by a furious swing of the monster’s boxy skull.
Fiery red scales painted the huge saurian, turning a vibrant yellow only on the underbelly and chest. Twinges of gold gleamed upon its curved scutes, the biggest of which were easily larger than humpback whales. Despite this stark difference in color from others of its kind, the beast was easy to distinguish. It was another Zilla, highly likely an offspring from the population running riot in what was once New York.
But color was not the only difference in this particular creature.
As if its crimson complexion was a poetic indication, the rogue Zilla had arrived from the south completely drunk on malice, tearing through the reaches of Toronto with an unprovoked aggression. Only a few minutes had come and gone and already several buildings were nothing but demolished rubble; the animal’s massive tail swishing with violent intent packed behind, tearing anything in its warpath apart with a single strike. Smoke bloomed into the heavens from the fires that now raged in the beast’s wake, mounting by the minute as it rampaged.
The terrified howls of civilians screeched into the deathly soundscape as an entire drove of them ran down Lawrence Avenue; yet despite their desperate velocity, they were unable to outrun the fiery eyes that stared after them with a terrible bloodlust. Tri-taloned feet closed in rapidly on the poor crowd, shaking the earth as drums to foretell their imminent demise. It was a notion that didn’t waste any time proving true; a booming roar preceded a vicious wind blowing over the crowd… before a merciless firestorm rushed eagerly to meet them. In the blink of an eye, the wave of flame washed over the masses before they even had a chance to scream. Average store workers, park rangers, parents holding children or babies tightly to their chests, all were burnt straight down to the bone in but two seconds.
The very moment the blast died down, nothing but charred skeletons of various sizes littered the flame-dotted road. Towering above the remains of the atrocity he had just committed, ‘Zilla II’ as some had designated him, drowned the soundscape with a wrathful bellow before stomping further into the dying city. His eyes scoured the landscape for human beings, his pupils seeming to widen when he spotted more not far away. Roaring once more, he stampeded straight towards them, hounding them with the malice of a serial killer.
A massive far cry from his relatives down south.
The small group of fleeing citizens didn’t stand a chance; the multistory reptile was upon them in seconds. Toothed jaws snapped down upon the pavement they ran, crushing them out of existence with one fell bite. Shaking his head with a snarl, Zilla tossed the shreds of concrete and human remains all about, raining it all down below like a hellish confetti. Barely a moment passed before the crimson saurian was right back on the attack; chomping vehicles to flaming pieces, smashing buildings of all sizes and bellowing his incendiary breath upon whatever lived and breathed in his sights. The death toll was already in the hundreds of thousands, and rising steadily as the seismic squamate continued his furious rampage.
A familiar sound began to wound its way into Zilla’s ears, fishing his attention. Hissing, the beast turned about face to lay his orange eyes upon the source; a huge squad of attack helicopters were quickly approaching, several dozens in number. The very moment his eyes caught sight of them, a powerful roar exploded from Zilla’s jaws before he charged straight into the fray. There was no thought of fleeing or hesitation in the Kaiju’s mind; one look at them was all it took, and it was on sight.
The military vehicles instantly opened fire. Machine gun turrets of different variants peppered the rampaging reptile with powerful bullets; just the same, volleys of missiles flew forth to strike his velvet hide with blooming explosions. But unlike the original Zilla, who had died to just a select few of the projectiles, this behemoth was only further enraged by the attacks. His lithe legs powering him forth at unbelievable speeds, Zilla howled vengefully as he reached his attackers in seconds. All of the apaches tried to evade, with only some succeeding. Springing into the air with the efficiency of a serval, Zilla swiped and snapped several of the vehicles out of the sky. An array of bullets and a few missiles struck the lizard’s neck, earning a roar of rage as he snapped around. Two lone choppers hovered in place, firing all weapons in a valiant attempt to injure the enraged colossus.
But it was not to be.
They hardly had a second’s worth of time to comprehend the monster torpedoing towards them before they were taken down. A swipe of a claw sent one crashing to a fiery doom, while the other erupted into an explosion from a single chomp of the squamate’s jaws. His bloodlust unsatisfied, Zilla turned on the rest of the squad with a snarl. With the rage of a cape buffalo and the efficiency of a wild dog, the beast hunted. One after another, the helicopter squad was slain with merciless wrath; their fiery remains plummeting to decorate the ground below with burning debris.
Pawing the ground beneath him, Zilla wailed a most terrifying cry into the heavens; out of context, one might easily assume it came from Godzilla himself. Never before had a member of the species demonstrated such rage, so hot and heavy with the desire to kill and destroy. Many a brave soldier or unlucky civilian had met their end by the Zilla species, but never under such heated aggression.
It was almost as if the creature was becoming a carbon copy of the King of the Monsters…
Lumbering into the yet-undamaged recesses of Toronto to resume tearing the city apart, Zilla did not notice the sizable splash that occurred offshore in the Main Harbour Channel—nor the lump of scaly skin that briefly surfaced from the water’s edge before submerging. High on rage, the scarlet iguana gave chase towards another crowd of civilians with vicious intentions; his claws flexing in preparation to tear into them like a starving bear. So caught up was he in indulging, that once again he didn’t notice the scaly mass protrude from the Toronto Harbour.
It wasn’t until a reptilian head suddenly broke the surf to echo a fearsome roar, that the irradiated iguana ceased his fury and looked towards the water. The oceanic beast bellowed again as it snaked its way towards the shore, pulling with it a serpentine body with four tiny limbs ending in clawed paws. Baring its snake-like fangs, the lengthy newcomer echoed another lordly roar at the crimson reptile, sounding akin to a colossal lion. A lengthy tongue flickered out of the ryu’s mouth, tasting the air while he stared off with the plated saurian.
The new arrival was quickly identifiable as a Manda, but this one was different from the more infamous individual that currently claimed the North Pacific. This one lacked the hair, horns, and whiskers of the original, giving it a somewhat more snake-like appearance. Whether it was a less mature individual of the same species, or an entirely different species or subspecies altogether, no one knew.
And no one was interested in finding out.
Pulling himself fully onto land, the new Manda reared his upper body off the ground and roared at the bipedal lizard far ahead. It was a warning loud and clear: this is my territory now! Back off, or else!
Immediately standing to his own intimidating height, Zilla responded with an echoing battle cry of his own. He would not be backing down, and the snake wasn’t going to make him. The lucky, or unlucky, civilians that remained alive felt a cold chill go down their bones, realizing what was about to take place. Tragically, it wasn’t uncommon for two Kaiju to see one another and things subsequently got ugly; nonetheless, when they did, the results were often catastrophic.
And there was no reason to assume this was going to be any different.
Pulling himself along with his paws, Manda roared repeatedly as he drew closer to his crimson rival. Legs tensing to spring, Zilla snarled back loudly and crouched low in a stalking position. Seeing this, the sea serpent reared up once more and bellowed, attempting to look as threatening as possible. It was a final warning to get the lizard to back down…
His leg bones snapping, Zilla sprung towards the serpentine newcomer. Manda’s reflexes were just as fast, serving him well, as he timed his strike exactly when the squamate was in reach and lashed out. Maw agape with a ferocious roar, the lengthy leviathan buried his fangs into the lizard’s left heel before pulling forward. The dragon’s 300 meter body was yanked out of Zilla’s path, winding around beside him with a tremendous crash. Shaking his head in a wolfish fashion, the ryu tore his teeth up and down his enemy’s heel in an effort to cripple him there and then.
His efforts bore not the fruits he sought; quick on his feet even when caught off guard, Zilla was quick to fight back. Twisting around to face the serpent’s main body, the mutant iguana lashed out with a claw swipe. However, his prey was just as quick; pulling with his jaws a second time, Manda slung his entire body away from the offending forelimb before letting go, avoiding a painful fate. Knowing what was coming, the undersea monster reared back as Zilla twisted about to face him once more. Eyes agleam with predatory intent, the bipedal saurian lunged at exactly the same time as his opponent.
However, Manda had a different approach from the usual strike.
Head lowered, the sea dragon struck forth to bash his cranium against his enemy’s. Recoiling with an elephantine cry, Zilla was wide open for an attack as the ryu struck again. With the speed and prowess of an attacking snake, Manda plunged his fangs into the squamate’s neck and contracted immense force into his jaw muscles. The oceanic beast pulled himself along once more—but this time, he had a far more offensive approach in mind. With grace and fluidity so as to match a trained dancer, the hornless dragon wound his body around Zilla’s like a giant anaconda. Then, focusing all his might into his coils, he applied pressure and began squeezing.
Managing to get to his feet, Zilla loosed a bellow that made the planet tremble down to her mantle. The irradiated iguana began stumbling about with wild abandon, howling and snapping in an attempt to get his serpentine attacker off of him. It was a feat far easier desired than done; for the pythonic perpetrator of his pain clung with mounting tightness, refusing to let go. So when flailing about on two feet failed to yield results, Zilla dropped to the ground and began to rub and thrash about. The dragon’s scales were scraped and smashed against the concrete as his opponent’s flailing weight pinned several portions of it against the earth. At first it seemed tolerable, and Manda added pressure to his bite to hang on tighter. But when Zilla’s spines began to poke and wedge between his scales, the sea serpent found it too much of a hassle to continue any longer.
Wanting to ensure its quickness, Manda relinquished his coils and powered forth with desperate might, shooting as far off of his opponent as possible. While he was fast enough to avoid being bitten anywhere vital, he was not quick enough to evade being slashed along his tail by three sharp claws. A grunt of pain rumbled from the ryu as he repositioned himself, facing his scarlet adversary once more.
Zilla lunged in with jaws agape, snapping on empty air as Manda banked his upper half to the right. But one miss didn’t stop him; the massive iguana twisted around like a feline, lashing out with his claws. A bellow of pain rang through the devastated Toronto as the lizard scored a direct hit, his claws carving three bloody lacerations into the serpent’s face.
Recoiling in agony, it was Manda’s turn to be fully open for an attack.
Fury burning in his eyes, Zilla pounced upon the wounded dragon, landing atop him, feet first. In a ravenous frenzy, the mutated iguana began to slash away at Manda’s body with his claws, sending sprays of blood onto the streets about them. Howling in pain, the undersea monster thought fast and made an upward lunge; his jaws aimed for the one spot he knew would hurt his attacker. Whether he was lucky or just had good aim, the serpent’s jaws claimed Zilla’s snout—and one of his fangs plunged exactly into the soft flesh inside the lizard’s right nostril.
Wailing his elephantine sound, the ‘American Godzilla’ ceased his clawing assault and reeled back; shaking his snout and scratching in an attempt to dislodge the serpentiform. Though in his painful blunder, he took his feet off his elongated quarry—exactly what the latter needed to escape. Relinquishing his bite, Manda made a false strike; using the momentum to carry himself away from his wounded foe. Landing on his stomach, he felt a twinge of pain from the wounds Zilla had dealt him. Despite this hindrance, he turned about to face the iguana with a roar of warning.
Still feeling the pain of a pierced, bleeding nostril, the scute squamate screeched and bellowed as he shook his head about; trying in vain to shake the pain off. The lengthy water-dweller proved to be far more of a challenge than he thought, something Zilla needed to change…
The dragon took quick advantage of his quarry’s pain and made his next attack. Rather than head on, Manda snaked his way to the lizard’s side before lashing out with his head lowered. The sea serpent rammed his cranium into his opponent’s femur, sending the crimson saurian toppling to the ground. His enemy downed, the undersea monster lunged and sank his teeth into Zilla’s boxy head, just behind his left eye. The red reptile bellowed in pain, but he was soon to learn that Manda wasn’t done. Once more, the hornless ryu began to wind his coils around his foe—but this time he did not expand them to the lizard’s entire body. Instead, he wrapped them entirely around one portion of the biped and one portion only.
His neck.
By the time Zilla started to get to his feet, the sea dragon had already applied his strength. The horrible cracking sound reverberated through the savaged Toronto, the full strength of Manda’s coils already testing the lepidosaur’s neck to its limits. A raspy wail wheezed its way out of Zilla’s tightening windpipe, the lizard resorting to thrashing once more as his ability to breathe became rapidly more difficult. Worse still, his neck vertebrae could only handle so much force before the inevitable cracking point…
Keeping firm his toothy grasp, Manda shook his head from side to side, all while tightening his deadly squeeze. Knowing full and well what was coming, Zilla began to wildly scrabble at the dragon’s body with his claws. Dragon’s blood joined lizard’s on the ground, the flailing reptile waging a solo war against the forces to fight and breathe alike. Cringing in intensifying pain, the serpentine beast added more strength to his coils; the cracking of his quarry’s neck bones getting louder. A weaker, raspier horror of a cry trumpeted from the suffocating Zilla, yet the scarlet saurian scratched ever harder and faster into the serpent’s flesh.
The cuts were getting much deeper and more rapidly in their succession, shedding more of the ryu’s blood and making the pain skyrocket. Applying more strength both to his bite and coils, Manda growled and held his eyes tightly shut. Deeper and deeper the iguana was slashing, yet with every ounce of might and desperation he had the sea serpent refused to let go. The pain was incredible, but the dragon squeezed harder. He needed to keep holding on for just a few more moments, keep up the squeeze just long enough to break his opponent’s neck before it reached beneath his muscles.
The squamate’s vertebrae were cracking. Just a moment longer…!
The next few claw slashes from the iguana sent a whole new wave of pain over the dragon, whose eyes shot wide open with a horrifying realization: Zilla’s claws had just touched bone. The undersea monster could bear it no longer; releasing his bite to bellow painfully, Manda relinquished his coils as rapidly as he could and struck away. The leviathan’s body uncoiling from his own, Zilla inhaled loudly for precious oxygen again and again; stumbling away in a haze of agony just as great as the one that gripped his enemy. Blood still leaking from his jaws, the irradiated lepidosaur fell gasping onto his belly in his bid to regain the air he had lost.
A good distance away, Manda groaned torturously from the severity of his injuries. Blood was now flowing in the tons from his lacerations, staining his scales and the ground around him in a gruesome warpaint. The ryu tried licking one of his wounds, only for pain to stab it like a knife and elicit a hoarse snarl from the serpent. At best, these lacerations would leave the ugliest scars imaginable. And at worst…
The marine monster wanted to attack his adversary, but he couldn’t. Every movement was a lightning shock of pain, grounding him to the spot for the time being. And just as well, for across from him Zilla was doing better than he was. The dorsal plated saurian was still panting for breath, more exhausted than injured, but it was not bound to last for long. The lizard would be getting up soon, and Manda may yet be too wounded to book an escape back to the harbor in time.
The bipedal iguana hissed as he shook his head and neck, finding the strength to begin standing once more. His eyes seemed to burn like the fires of an atom bomb, glistening with rage—a rage that tripled when a familiar pair of projectiles detonated against his hide. Instantly, Zilla’s head snapped from Manda to the perpetrators who dared attack him. Machine gun fire and tank shells followed suit, exploding upon his scarlet skin all while he whipped to face their bearers. A second squad of military apaches, accompanied by a small battalion of tanks, capitalized on his seemingly vulnerable state and opened fire upon him.
They didn’t even need to attack to provoke the saurian Kaiju, just looking upon them was enough to heat his blood to the boiling point, to make his talons grit against the earth. A memory shot through his nervous system like a thunderbolt; fleeting as the blink of an eye, yet ever excruciatingly full of pain.
A memory of a charred heap of rubble and smoke, all that remained of what should’ve been a nest…
A bellow to shame the deepest thunder ripped from Zilla’s maw, taloned feet shattering houses and cars upon his wrathful stampede towards the offending constructs. Once more the iguana flew into a rage; the tanks were the first to die, smashed under his feet or swiped into the sky from a solitary swing of his hand. After this abrupt switch in targets, only two of the helicopters managed to survive; the rest were chomped and swatted into fiery ruin. Boxy jaws howled forth screams of outrage amidst the lizard’s venting, outrage fueled by a pain many could scarcely imagine.
Pain that could only be repaid through blood…
Vibrations started traveling through the ground, rippling through Zilla’s toes. The ‘American Godzilla’ twisted around reflexively, sheerly out of pure survival instinct— instincts that served him well. Manda had attempted to take him by surprise, seemingly having decided to put his luck to the test while the lizard’s back was turned. And he was just about right on top of him, already lunging for his neck—!
Memory and instinct joining forces to erupt into overdrive, the irradiated iguana twisted on his heels at full force. Before the ryu even knew what was happening, it was far too late; Zilla spun a full 360 degrees, smacking his tail straight into Manda’s face. Several teeth were broken or knocked out from the sheer power of the blow, stabbing into houses and roads alike as they fell all about the serpent’s former vicinity.
The reaches of Toronto echoed with a dreadful thunder when the dragon crashed to the ground, the ache of his jaws soon being accompanied by a bad concussion. A pantherine groan rippled from Manda’s lungs as he rolled over onto his belly, but he would have no time to recover; most unfortunate for him, for booming tremors shot through the ground in mounting fashion. Zilla was already back on the attack, charging the serpent where he lay with a bloodthirsty howl. The sea dragon only had a moment to move, just enough to put his head and upper neck out of reach of Zilla’s lunging jaws. He did not, however, have the speed nor time to escape completely when the lizard’s jaws chomped upon his body just above his tiny arms.
His head was at too bad of an angle to reach up and bite his foe effectively, but Manda was not entirely out of options yet. It would require more than a little pain tolerance to pull off, but it was still doable and may yet prevent the iguana from crushing his bones. Clamoring a leonine roar, the dragon coiled the length of his tail around Zilla’s neck and contracted pressure. The pain that shot through his wounds as a result was of the most vicious sort, but the serpent bellowed and fought it. Despite seeming frail and worthless compared to his entire body, the coils of his tail were far stronger than appearances deceived; before long, the scarlet iguana was having trouble keeping hold of his quarry from the pressures on his neck. To try and tilt the odds in his favor, Zilla bit harder and shook his head to savage the wound, but this only enticed Manda to roar defiantly and add more strength to his squeeze. It wouldn’t be long before the mutant would be forced to let go, leaving him vulnerable should the ryu decide to constrict him once more.
Something he could not allow.
His eyes spotting the flaming rubble all around him, an idea abruptly popped into the squamate’s head. Rearing up as high as he could stand, Zilla then released his bite and threw himself back down, slamming Manda’s head against the ground. Dazed from the impact, the serpent had no time to react to what his enemy did next; lowering himself flat, the mutant lizard bellowed a hurricane blast of gas upon the ground.
Exactly where plenty of burning rubble resided.
Ignited by the flames, the tornado-blast roar instantly erupted into a blast of fire. Manda was caught point-blank in the ensuing inferno, and howled in agony when the flames scorched his wounds. His grip relinquishing fast, the dragon recoiled and tried to make a break for it; but as Zilla moved his head sideways, the blast became too large and he was completely engulfed in its wrath. The agony of his wounds charring in the flames was immeasurable, so much so that for a moment the serpent lost his sense of pain.
The moment he ran out of breath, Zilla went back on the offensive. Jaws wide agape, the squamate chomped down upon the burning dragon—only to relinquish and recoil when he felt his mouth burn. Screeching in pain, the mutant backed off while Manda started to regain his bearings. It took little time for the serpent’s pain receptors to regain functionality, and a leonine bellow forced its way out of his jaws. But even amidst his grueling agony, he could still discern a notable change that was not present before.
His injured body was glowing with heat.
His weary eyes looking ahead, the undersea monster spied Zilla scraping his snout against the ground, trying to rid himself of the pain in his gums. Putting two and two together, Manda’s eyes broadened as a new plan entered his mind…
The ruby-hued reptile groaned a guttural rumble as he took the brunt of the agony, despite his best efforts to rub it off. The serpent just seemed to always have something up its sleeve whenever he was close to felling it then and there, and whenever it didn’t, luck seemed to favor it one way or another, even extending to outside intervention. This battle should’ve been over a while ago, and himself free to enact his revenge against the tiny destroyers that called this constructed jungle home. The usurpers and killers that had taken what mattered most to him, when they had done nothing wrong…
A pain unmatched by any gnashed into Zilla’s heel, bringing forth a trumpeting wail. Looking down, the lizard saw that Manda had bitten down just above his foot, his teeth grazing bone. The lepidosaur swatted his enemy’s face with a clawed hand, but recoiled when its glowing skin burned his own. Even worse, the bite on his heel was burning just the same; the crimson skin actually charred black the longer the serpent held his grip. However, such painful burns would pale in comparison to what the sea dragon had planned, as Zilla would soon realize.
Releasing his grasp, Manda roared and struck again. The agony of his own wounds, still fresh and deep and burning to the bone, was now in the extremes; but in this moment, he fought it with every ounce of his very being. Using the scorching agony to boost his fury and desire to kill the lizard, the dragon plunged his fangs into Zilla’s throat before twisting his glowing body. Unlike before, this time the iguana was quick to realize what his adversary was doing, and quickly touched his arms in to try and push away. But not only did Manda’s coils prove too strong, the sweltering temperatures of his body speedily began to scorch the squamate’s red and yellow flesh with terrifying ease. Acrid smoke pouring from the superheated constriction, Zilla thought fast as his attacker put on the squeeze. His limbs restrained and his body both convulsing and burning, he did the only thing he had left.
Lunging his head forward, he snagged the lower portion of Manda’s neck and crunched down as hard as he could.
The shining heat instantly set to burning his gums, but like the dragon, he too was used to the agony fueling his relentless drive to triumph. Despite the horrible pain in his mouth and body, he persistently continued hanging on, biting down even harder.
Focusing all his power and will to emerge victorious, Manda contracted his muscles and squeezed. That same sickening cracking of muscle against bone was mixed with a loud hiss as Manda’s body temperature became even more vicious; the smoke pouring from their conjoined bodies thickened exponentially. The urge to howl in torture, to relinquish his agonizing grasp was immeasurable, yet still Zilla persisted against it. Survival instincts soaring high, the mutant iguana added more strength to his savage bite. Once more, it was a war of pure relentlessness; an instinctual shoving match of who could outlast who the longest. A battle of who would be the first to fatally breach the other.
Adding more strength to his own bite, Manda growled furiously as he felt the pain in his wounds worsen. Yet still he refused to give in, squeezing harder through the haze of agony that felt like it was tearing his body apart. So far had his pain columned, that he almost couldn’t distinguish Zilla’s jaws continuing to bite further into his lower neck; focused and unyielding with the intention of going all the way.
The irradiated iguana didn’t waste the air to growl, for as if the pressure on his bones and the burning of his body wasn’t enough, his lungs were starting to give in to the dragon’s constriction. Every ounce of what effort and strength he had left, he focused solely into his jaws. The lepidosaur felt like he was roasting in a giant furnace, while simultaneously being crushed by a cliff. His entire world was pain, from the tip of his snout to the end of his tail. Head to toe, he felt nothing but agony that would make just about anyone want to give up on life.
Alas, Zilla would accept no such release.
The pain that ravaged his body was, in some ways, but an illusion. For there was no greater pain to be given, than the pain he already bore. And it was that pain that super-fueled his resolve to keep on living, to keep fighting until this battle was over and done. For if he relinquished and died now, the source of his pain would triumph over him just the same. He would die, and the bringers of his pain would get off scot-free and devoid of any consequences. The consequences they deserved.
Something Zilla refused to allow.
Thus with no other path to victory than what he had, he bit back the urge to scream through his grasp and chomped down harder! Blood boiled before it could fully shed, popping into a fiery sludge that frothed in Manda’s wounds. Waging a one-monster war against a world of agony all his very own, Manda only strained stubbornly and squeezed harder still. It was an utter deathlock to the very end, with neither yielding or attempting to back out. The demise of one or the other was all they gravitated towards, and both would focus every last ounce of might left into that very goal. Bones in both bodies were starting to crack as they bit and squeezed harder, with the outcome based around who’s would break first.
Manda didn’t know if he was reaching his breaking point, or if he was the breaking point. As far as he knew, pain and wrath were all he recognized; with nothing but those to accompany him, he did nothing but keep his unrelenting grasp. His enemy’s skeleton was caving, he swore he could perceive it. The pressure in his bite mounting, Zilla felt likewise and pressed onward just the same; the iguana running on the same victory-or-death mindset as his draconic foe. Both wondered if painlessness would be a stranger to them should either emerge alive after this. And if either died, well… at least the pain would be over regardless.
Either way, the end was near and neither was holding back a single ounce of strength…
Zilla shut his eyes as they had begun to water, a sure precursor to reaching their boiling point…
Manda’s irises broadened with a heated bloodlust, fueled by levels of adrenaline that reached for the sky; encompassing his eyes with a terrifying blackness…
CRACK!
That deafening sound, of the sort that chills bones and twists stomachs into knotted spheres, echoed, fell, and repulsed across the devastated battlefield Toronto had become. There was no mistake in what it conveyed, all still alive knew it: one of two titanic monsters had just been breached. The prolonged, relentless death dance had finally yielded a decisive result, and the world held its breath to look upon it…
The agony that wracked Zilla’s body was so high and unforgiving, that initially the lizard didn’t notice Manda’s coils loosening from his burned physique.
The ryu’s jaws released as his upper neck fell back, hanging limply from the iguana’s jaws like a soaked rag; its position revealing a crushed vertebrae. The blackness of his eyes, once driven by an unrelenting thirst for victory, now remained etched upon them forever with the eerie blankness of death. Everything the dragon had ever been—fighter, swimmer, predator—was gone from his serpentine body, no longer a part of his brain. If his consciousness truly was still around and not erased entirely, it was never to be a part of this body again; it was going to places unknown, leaving behind this empty shell that had already started to lose its glow.
The sensation of being released finally catching up to him, Zilla wasted not a second in tossing Manda’s corpse aside. Once a terrifying killer in his own right, the dragon careened sluggishly through the air before crashing upon a selection of surviving houses. Tongue hanging limply from closed jaws, the great wyrm never moved again.
There was no victorious roar, only another sharp inhalation as the ryu’s killer collapsed onto his belly, panting for precious breath. His burns, black and horrific enough to empty the strongest stomachs, still wailed on him with incredible pain. Smoke trailed from him with a thick and organic stench, smelling like a hybrid of roasted fish and pluming sulfur. The inner recesses of his gums and even his tongues were seared hideously, some of his teeth long broken apart or fallen out from the ordeal.
Yet the iguana still breathed, his soul refusing to evacuate his body.
Even within, his bones ached madly. His muscles were more than just sore; ranging from contracted to their limits, to burned just as badly as his skin. The lizard wanted to keep rampaging, to finish what remained of the city and resume tearing the populace around him apart. But his body was just too exhausted to continue. He had shoved himself beyond his limits just to vanquish his draconic opponent, and now he would have to endure the cost.
But unlike what he had been enduring for some time now, this cost would eventually end.
His lungs having regained the air he lost, it was then that his fatigue truly kicked in. His muscles could take no more, and the pain was now getting to him. Slumping as if his bones had become jelly, Zilla finally collapsed.
A deep rumble boomed from the pit of his gut, as his closing eyes escorted him to the world of slumber.
*****
The first boom rippled through the ground like a tsunami, startling Zilla stiff.
Jaws full of fish, the peaceful piscivore jerked his head up with pupils narrowed into tiny dots. The fight or flight response at its full height, the iguana felt frozen to the spot for a moment. Fear, amongst the most powerful instincts in the animal kingdom, held him in its icy claws from the sheer force of that distant sound. At first it was fear for his very own safety, for the utter power of that sound instinctually told him there was danger nearby. As such, Zilla held still as a rock; not daring to so much as twitch a muscle. It was the standard response in all animals when danger audibly presented itself, to hold perfectly still and wait to see if anything else took place.
However, in time the iguana found it necessary to at last look behind him, where it seemed the sound had originated—and when he did, his blood ran arctic-cold. From places far behind one of the mountainous hills that surrounded the crimson lizard bloomed a colossal fireball, seemingly taller than a skyscraper; towering hauntingly far into the overcast sky. As if such a sight was not fear-inducing in of itself, a realization slammed into the mutant lepidosaur with terrible force.
The blast came from the same direction from whence he had traveled…
Tantamount to the lash of a thunderbolt, fear evolved into full-blown terror which sent the saurian running at the top of his speed. The fish plummeting from his jaws forgotten as the scarlet squamate stampeded straight towards the distant blast, his fear was no longer for his own safety, rather… He clambered over the tree-covered hill like it was nothing, on the other side and running onward in less than a second. With the hill no longer present to block his view, so free to look upon were closer details of the explosion’s origin… and Zilla found himself wailing as he ran faster. A most heart-wrenching sound, trumpeting and filled to the brim with a begging terror on the verge of breaking. As if it were the cry of a banshee beside herself with her worst fear, on the verge of coming true.
Miles and miles of forest and meadow passed Zilla by as he ran onward, the point of origin of the blast becoming more and more clear with every crater his talons embedded into the earth. Five-hundred miles an hour he sprinted, filling the air with his begging cry a second time. Beseeching, pleading for a response from what was most precious to him while he drew rapidly closer…
One moment he was the fastest land animal on the planet, and the next the stillest.
A mass flock of metal objects were flying speedily away from the blast, powered by rotating blades on their tops—and they were all led by a gigantic black metal bird, triangular in shape and faster than its fellow peers. But it was not the departing vessels of humankind that held Zilla’s attention. What instead held his horrified gaze was none other than the flaming, smoking remnants of his very own home.
His nest was utterly destroyed. Once a perfect mound of trees, shreds of buildings and rock, now was a blackened ruin pluming with unending clouds of smoke. Back on the run, Zilla ignored the departing vehicles and closed the distance between him and his destroyed nursery in but a few seconds; another trumpeting siren wailing from his maw. Alas, even this close still his call went unanswered.
It didn’t take long for the iguana to find out why.
At the edges of the desecrated nest, his fiery eyes caught sight of a body. Tiny in comparison even to his head alone, its theropod-like body broken and twisted by forces it could not withstand. Its big eyes wide open and staring blankly into space, its square-shaped jaws gaped open in a silent scream. Not too far away from it lay two others, their bodies just as broken and unmoving as their sibling. A woeful groan reverberated through Zilla’s throat upon him kneeling down, nudging the nearest body with his snout. The Baby Zilla remained motionless, no matter how many times its father nuzzled its lifeless form. Within the recesses of the ruined nursery, Zilla made out the charred remains of other bodies. Some were intact, others in barely recognizable pieces. All of them had one thing in common.
Not a single one had survived.
The velvet iguana gradually looked up, his gaze locking back on the airborne killers now nothing but dots on the horizon. But they wouldn’t be mere dots for very long, for they fatally underestimated the severity of what they had just unleashed. A roar to quake the mountains erupted from Zilla’s jaws as he gave chase, hounding after his children’s murderers more efficiently than any projectile in their arsenal.
More than ready to rend metal, shred concrete, and taste blood…
*****
His eyes fluttered open upon the feeling of rain pattering upon his skin.
His sense of reality returning by the second, Zilla roused awake from the dream. The saurian didn’t know how long he had been asleep. It could’ve been for hours, days, perhaps even weeks. He didn’t even know how long it had been since the last time he slept at all. However, the agony that once scourged his flesh was no longer present, feeling as if his battle with that sea dragon had never happened to begin with. His skin seemed all but fully healed, with some wounds remaining behind as scars. The smell of smoke and fire no longer tainted the air, indicating that they had long since gone out. Perhaps he had been asleep for far longer than he thought.
His nostrils inhaling a breath of air, the lizard tried to lift his head—only to feel the sensation of something cold and lengthy trying to stay it.
It was then that Zilla’s sense of clarity returned in full force, his irises narrowing upon realizing that from snout to tail, his prone body was tied down to the ground. A battalion of tanks and soldiers surrounded him on all sides, their weapons aimed at him from the moment he realized they were there.
In the literal blink of an eye, his clarity was not the only thing that came rocketing right back to reality.
In an instant, the irradiated iguana was shoving against the earth with his limbs. The ropes and wire holding him barely lasted a few seconds before they began to snap, breaking one after another until he violently sprang back to his feet. At once, the military forces all about him opened fire; bullets, shells and missiles exploding against his colossal form. A powerful roar boomed from the reptile’s boxy muzzle, filled to the brim with venom of the most hateful kind. Even the strongest shots from his oppressors did no more than enrage the lizard further. From the moment it became apparent he was still alive, the situation had been revealed to be utterly hopeless from the very beginning.
Lightning flashed silently in the dark gray heavens as Zilla lunged down, grabbing a tank in his jaws and crunching it like a tin can. The thunder that inevitably followed was drowned out when Zilla howled his incendiary breath upon the battalion around him; but amidst his roaring fury, something broke within the scarlet squamate. Something changed that had never occurred before. Perhaps it had been obtained by the lizard’s battle with Manda; maybe it had only just been unlocked out of nothing but the sheer paternal rage he felt at this moment.
Whatever the case, it would prove to be a devastating occurrence regardless.
A flash of light traveled up Zilla’s spines; his eyes sparking briefly before the ignition happened. In a flash, the tornado-like roar was replaced by something much more destructive: a concentrated blast of atomic fire, jade green and hotter than the most sweltering wildfire. The atomic blast engulfed the battalion, melting into glowing slag who or whatever wasn’t outright atomized from the blast. Taking a moment to dwell on the surprise of this newfound ability, Zilla quickly shook it off and fired again. Sweeping the blast over his enemies, the mutant lepidosaur didn’t stop until every last one was drowned from sight in a sea of emerald flame.
The images of his murdered offspring still filling his head, Zilla whipped about and tromped right back into the undamaged reaches of Toronto, resuming his rampage. He didn’t even notice the maimed corpse of his draconic adversary, Manda, as he stomped right past him as if he were no more than a distant memory. Roaring blasts of atomic fury leaping from his jaws, the victorious Kaiju spent the next hour razing the hapless city to the ground. But he wouldn’t stop here. Once this habitat was turned to ash, he would seek out the next and deliver upon it the same fate. Vengeance, pain and a dark sadness reigning supreme his embittered mind, Zilla roared an ominous warning to humankind.
They had wanted a monster.
So they got one.
Winner: Zilla
