Author: Christian Salabert | Banner: Landon Soto

Kumonga chittered in annoyance at the situation he currently found himself in.

The massive spider had been in the middle of a well-deserved meal when he was suddenly intruded upon by the giant mantis, Kamacuras. Usually the mere sight of the arachnid was enough to send the praying mantis fleeing, or at least give it pause, but food was scarce lately on Sollgel, and both predators knew it. Emboldened by hunger, the menacing mantid advanced! Raising her scythe-like arms into the air, the Gimantis screeched loudly, declaring that Kumonga’s feast was now hers!

Surprised by the mantis’ newfound aggression, the striped arachnid inched back. Suddenly, he realized what he was doing, and his trepidation was immediately replaced with outrage! Raising his front two legs into the air and hissing, the apex predator stepped forward, protecting his kill. The two invertebrates circled each other for a moment, daring the other to strike. Just as it seemed that the spider would be the one to make the first move, Kamacuras disappeared into the air with a blur. Before Kumonga realized what happened, the camouflaging creature had landed behind him and struck the backside of his abdomen with her lengthy claw. He shrieked and began to turn around, when the ravenous insect flew off again. Settling on the ground not too far away, the smaller predator watched as the giant spider turned to face him. Without another move, the tarantula began to spew strands of white silken spray at the dictyoptera. Just as the web began to make contact with her green exoskeleton, she was airborne once again, avoiding the strands.

Kamacuras landed and stared at her eight legged enemy, who returned the glare. The two beasts circled each other again for a moment, when suddenly the tension of their encounter was pierced by the roar of yet another new arrival. The two predators’ eyes widened in surprise as Godzilla approached!

Kumonga and his rival shared a quick glance. They quickly realized that if they worked together and killed Godzilla, they would both have more than enough food for the foreseeable future.

Of course, then they would kill their competition and claim the saurian’s entire corpse as their own, but that didn’t change what had to be done at the moment at hand!

The King of Monsters eyed his two old foes suspiciously. He didn’t like that they had yet to strike. Patience and strategy were usually not in their repertoire. He decided to clear them out of the way now, and his dorsal fins began to flash. Opening his jaws, a beam of atomic energy came lancing out of his mouth, exploding against the ground between the two predators. Kamacuras immediately took to the air as Kumonga backed away from the flames. Godzilla nodded his head, satisfied, when suddenly the nimble insect blind-sided him, slashing across his chest with her claws as she passed overhead. Not expecting the blow, the mutated Godzillasaurus shrieked as he was knocked off his feet and toppled onto his side. Kumonga took the opportunity to close in and begin spraying his charcoal black body with his webbing. The Monster King roared in anger as the silken strands began to cover his face and torso before responding with another atomic blast. The ray struck the spider in the fanged face, ending the web spray and causing him to immediately back away with a chitter of agony. Godzilla got back to his feet and growled at the spider, then immediately began scanning the area for Kamacuras.

The mantis slammed her claws into the back of the titan’s ridged head as she zoomed past him again, causing him to stagger forward. But when the emerald insect tried the tactic a third time, Godzilla bent down and swung his tail upward, slamming it into Kamacuras’ face and bringing her flight to an abrupt halt. As the predator crumpled to the ground, the monster of monsters bent down and grabbed the mantis’ arms, before with a mighty heave, he tossed tossed the mantis through the air, sending him smashing into the side of a mountain. The hook armed bug was stunned by the blow, her head twitching dizzily.

With one down, Godzilla turned to face Kumonga. The arachnid opened fire with his web, spraying across the thick torso, but the powerful reptile advanced anyway, cutting through the web with another atomic ray. Fangs chittered as the ray exploded behind the spider, trapping him between the flames and Godzilla. Realizing his foe’s dilemma, the Monster King spun around, swinging his tail around and slamming it into his eight legged enemy’s face. The great tarantula was sent through the air by the blow, flying over the fires and crashing onto his back.
Satisfied with the attack, Godzilla suddenly felt a stinging pain in his tail. He quickly realized what it was – Kumonga had lodged his stinger into his tail as he slammed it into the foe’s multi eyed face. The saurian supreme soon began to lose feeling in his tail and it dropped from the air, dragging limply behind him. Roaring angrily, he advanced on the downed spider, who was still trying to get up off of his back.

Just as the taloned foot of the monster monarch was about to crush the beast’s abdomen underfoot, Kamacuras latched onto his back and began assaulting Godzilla’s head and neck with her claws. The irradiated colossus roared in rage as he tried to dislodge the mantis to no avail, randomly firing beams of atomic energy in frustration but destroying nothing but mountains. With their query distracted by the attack, Kumonga managed to flip himself over into an upright position, his purple compound eyes glaring at the terror of Tokyo in fury. With a shriek, the spider spat out another poison stinger, striking the bigger beast square in the chest. Godzilla could already feel his upper torso going numb. Suddenly, the striped arachnid rose up onto the very top of his legs and slammed into the King of Monsters, Kamacuras flying off the mighty reptile before her ally tackled him to the ground.

Climbing down off of the mountain of scarred flesh, the Solgell Spider fired another stinger, hitting one of Godzilla’s legs and numbing it, too. As the green predator landed next to him, Kumonga began to unleash sheets upon sheets of webbing, covering the radioactive tyrant in their strands. Kamacuras twitched her head and screeched happily, watching as the tyrant began to writhe about, trying to escape from the ensnaring web, the white silk soon began to cover him completely, threatening to wrap him in a blanket of death. Godzilla tried to fire his atomic ray at the two creatures, but found it hard to concentrate, woozy from Kumonga’s poison. Soon, he was completely engulfed in the web cocoon, unable to even move his arms. Satisfied that Godzilla was restrained well enough, the slinking apex moved in, ready to deliver the final poison sting. His ally followed close behind, eager to watch Godzilla’s demise up close.

Both of the giant bugs were so encroached in finishing off their prey that neither noticed the blue light emanating from within the webbing. Just as the fangs gaped, about to sink stinger into the flesh, a shockwave of nuclear energy exploded out of his prone form, incinerating his would-be cocoon tomb and blasting Kumonga and Kamacuras through the air!

As the spider and the mantis crashed into a tangled mess quite some distance away, Godzilla rose to his feet, his system purified by the pure nuclear power coursing through it. Fury burned in his eyes.

The partners in predation righted themselves, groaning as their burnt bodies ached with each move they made. Suddenly, they were assaulted by a blazing azure atomic ray. Distracted by the ensuing explosion, Kamacuras didn’t even know her foe was behind her until the Monster King grabbed her by her spiky shell and swung her into Kumonga, knocking the spider through the air and sending him crashing against the jungle floor. The mantid screamed in agony, one of her legs having been broken off from their mutual impact. The radioactive berserker attempted to toss the mantis at his arachnid ally, but once Kamacuras was in the air, she opened her wings and sped off, disappearing to the other side of the island. Godzilla roared, frustrated that he couldn’t finish the giant mantis, then quickly turned his attention back to his other tormenter.

Kumonga was shakily getting back onto his feet just as the saurian reached him. The spider began to spit some web, but Godzilla immediately halted the attempt by kicking him in the face, then grabbing his front two legs and hoisting him into the air. Bringing them back down, Godzilla slammed the arachnid into the ground, knocking the wind out of the eight-legged beast. Grabbing hold of his legs again, the raging reptile swung him around and sent him hurtling through the air, crashing against the same large mountain he had thrown Kamacuras into. Sore and stunned, the great spider didn’t even try to get back to his feet.

Godzilla narrowed his eyes at the spider and opened fire with his atomic ray, striking the side of the mountain above Kumonga. As the ray exploded, thousands of tons of dirt and rock tumbled down upon him. A moment later, the immense spider had been covered completely, with only the tip of one leg sticking out from the soil. No further movements came. Whether the terror of Solgell was dead or merely unconscious was unknown, but either way, the spider had been beaten.

Rearing his head back, the King of Monsters roared triumphantly. After a moment, he resumed his original trek and began moving inland, towards the red water pool.

Winner: Godzilla (Heisei)